The Indicator Blu-ray set  Universal Noir #2 with An Act of Murder is compared HERE

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (July 2020): Kino have transferred Michael Gordon's An Act of Murder to Blu-ray as part of Kino's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema IV with Calcutta, An Act of Murder and Six Bridges to Cross.

The single-layered transfer has a supportive bitrate but the source has weaknesses - frequently looking impaired by damage (see vertical scratch captures below) in the Frederic March in jail scenes. It can look heavy and clunky with modest contrast, but is entirely watchable.

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. The film's audio, like the video, is imperfect with some infrequent weaknesses usually corresponding to the damage marks.  There are almost no aggressive effects (a car crash and amusement park) and an excellent score by Daniele Amfitheatrof (The Last Hunt, I'll Be Seeing You, Edge of Eternity, The Lost Moment, The Desperate Hours, Human Desire, Letter From An Unknown Woman), sounding a bit deeper with more consistent dialogue. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray has a new audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan. She does a fine job discussing director Michael Gordon and his other films, blacklisting in Hollywood, McCarthyism, social justice films, crime drama and hard boiled efforts of the 40s. I agree with Samm and that Noir is a cycle or movement as opposed to a genre mostly because of the classification's broad range. I thought she made a decent case for An Act of Murder being a part of the movement although I would disagree. There are trailers. 

The Noir classification is, again, debatable with its inclusion partly based on the, fairly misrepresenting, title "An Act of Murder". There is comfort seeing Fredric March and Edmond O'Brien with excellent casting in Florence Eldridge and Geraldine Brooks. . It's a good film especially for those who love vintage work from this period and the performers... a refreshing and rarely addressed topic too. A good film that is part of the Kino's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema IV Blu-ray boxset despite this reviewer's reservation on its labeling as part of the 'dark cinema' cycle.

Gary Tooze

I really enjoyed An Act of Murder - A recommendation from a subscriber to our Twitter account. It takes an early look at "mercy killing" or "euthanasia" - and it does a fine job of it.

The disc is predictably single-layered and has no menus, or extras, and the transfer is interlaced (see combing in bottom capture.) It has a prominent vertical scratch (also see below) that runs for a few minutes hear the end of the film. Overall, aside from that, it didn't look bad at all on my system. In fact - it was quite watchable with pleasing contrast for SD.

The audio is indicative of the period - - but consistent enough that dialogue is always audible. The score by Daniele Amfitheatrof (The Desperate Hours, Human Desire, Letter From An Unknown Woman) and does a decent job supporting the film's emotional moments. There are no subtitles and the media is region free in the NTSC standard.

The bare-bones DVD inferiorities didn't deter my viewing pleasure and I got something positive out of An Act of Murder. The difficulty in endorsing this DVD is the exorbitant price and lack of supplemental value  It's buyable at a sawbuck ($10) - not much more.

Gary Tooze