NOTE: Columbia Noir #2 Blu-ray with Framed (1947), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), The Mob (1951), Affair in Trinidad (1952), Tight Spot (1955) and Murder By Contract (1958) is reviewed HERE

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

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (October 2020): Indicator have transferred six Columbia Film Noirs - directed by the likes of Budd Boetticher, Joseph H. Lewis, Phil Karlson, Vincent Sherman, Robert Aldrich, and Don Siegel... specifically the titles in this package are Escape in the Fog (1945) The Undercover Man (1949) Drive a Crooked Road (1954), 5 Against the House (1955) The Garment Jungle (1957) and The Lineup (1958) to 6 individual Blu-rays. They Noir films feature stars; Glenn Ford, Nina Foch (2), Guy Madison, Kim Novak, Brian Keith, Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Kelly, Otto Kruger, Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Mathews (2), Gia Scala, Richard Boone, Robert Loggia, Eli Wallach, Richard Jaeckel and others. Dark cinema fans delight at the selections for Volume #1 and have high anticipation for future packages.

All six films are presented for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, with The Undercover Man and Drive a Crooked Road making their world Blu-ray premieres.

We have compared where we could both Sony DVDs (even one from Spain for The Undercover Man - thanks Gregory!) and Kit Parker Blu-rays below. Despite being on single-layered discs the films look excellent in 1080P with supportive grain textures and impressive contrast. Only on The Undercover Man is there a slight drop in quality around the hour and 10-minute mark. This is brief and, we presume, a function of the available source. Predictably the image quality towers above the older SD transfer and is on par, or slightly in advance, of the Kit Parker Blu-rays (released by Millcreek in 3 X 9 film packages - with 3 films per bare-bones Blu-ray.) These Indicators have each film with their own Blu-rays that include extensive extras. Technically these are 2K restorations of Escape in the Fog, The Undercover Man and The Garment Jungle and High Definition presentations of Drive a Crooked Road, 5 Against the House and The Lineup.

NOTE: We have added 120 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Indicator use linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The effects reflect the era and budget that they were made and gunfire can export some depth but the film's audio is authentically flat with scores by composers such as George Duning (My Sister Eileen, Two Rode Together, The Eddy Duchin Story, 3:10 to Yuma, Jeanne Eagels, The Shadow on the Window, Tight Spot, etc.) and Leith Stevens (I Married a Monster From Outer Space, Great Day in the Morning, The Gun Runners, Syncopation, World Without End, The Night of the Grizzly, 20 Million Miles to Earth, When Worlds Collide) and Mischa Bakaleinikoff (New Orleans Uncensored, The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, Comanche Station, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Giant Claw, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day.) sounding a bit deeper with more consistent dialogue. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) white subtitles (not gaudy yellow like on the Sony DVDs) on their Region 'B' Blu-rays.

The Indicator Blu-ray offers plenty of extras, many new. There are audio commentaries - at least one for each film - including film historian Pamela Hutchinson on Escape in the Fog, film programmer Tony Rayns on The Undercover Man, Nick Pinkerton on Drive a Crooked Road, critic David Jenkins on 5 Against the House, film historian Kevin Lyons on The Garment Jungle and, from 2009, with author James Ellroy and the Film Noir Foundation’s Eddie Muller on The Lineup plus a new second one with film historian David Del Valle and author and screenwriter C Courtney Joyner also on The Lineup. What I have sampled is excellent and I look forward to the opportunity to indulge in them fully when time permits. There are also both new an older extras - such as an introduction to Drive a Crooked Road by Martin Scorsese from 2014 and an archival 20-minute interview with actor Robert Loggia conducted by Alan K. Rode after a screening of The Garment Jungle from 2007. I enjoyed the the new 1/4 hour appreciation of The Garment Jungle by Tony Rayns and the rehash (from the older DVD set) of The Influence of Noir appreciation of The Lineup by filmmaker Christopher Nolan from 2009 running 5.5 minutes. Other highlights are the radio episodes of 'The Candy Store Murder’ from 1950, written by Blake Edwards; ‘The Case of Frankie and Joyce’ from 1951; and ‘The Harrowing Haggada Handball Case’ also from 51' written by Edwards and Richard Quine. They each run about 1/2 hour. There is also Screen Snapshots: Mickey Rooney, Then and Now from 1953. It's a Columbia Pictures promotional short featuring the likeable performer looking back at his series of Mickey Maguire comedies. Man on a Bus from 1955 is a 28-minute short film directed by Joseph H Lewis for the United Jewish Appeal, featuring a star-studded cast, including Walter Brennan, Broderick Crawford, Lassie, and Ruth Roman, and presented in High Definition on the The Undercover Man Blu-ray. There are original theatrical trailers for Drive a Crooked Road, 5 Against the House, The Garment Jungle and The Lineup, image galleries for each film with promotional and publicity materials and 6 Three Stooges shorts (Joe, Shemp and, importantly, Curlys) - one per film. These run shy of 20-minutes each. The package has a limited edition (6,000 numbered units) exclusive 120-page book with new essays by Iris Veysey, Paul Duane, Jill Blake, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Nathalie Morris, and Sergio Angelini; archival interview extracts with Budd Boetticher, Joseph H Lewis, Phil Karlson, and Robert Aldrich; extracts from the autobiographies of Don Siegel and Vincent Sherman; and film credits.

DVDBeaver loves Film Noir. I am delighted to now have The Undercover Man and Drive a Crooked Road on Blu-ray. I love them both, but especially the latter. The Lineup is one of the more coveted Noirs in this boxset. But the huge bonus are the extras and new commentaries. One day these may get released on individual  Blu-ray by Indicator but with the valued supplements - this limited edition is a must own for those who are addicted to the 'Dark Cinema'. Our highest recommendation!

Gary Tooze