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 Kino Blu-ray of Detective Story is reviewed HERE

NOTE: Alias Nick Beal is compared to the Kino Blu-ray HERE

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

ADDITION: Imprint Blu-ray (November 2020): Imprint have transferred four vintage Film Noirs, Framed (1947), Alias Nick Beal (1949), Detective Story (1951) and The Garment Jungle (1957), as part of their Essential Film Noir: Collection 1 to Blu-ray. I was very pleased to see Framed, Alias Nick Beal and Detective Story reach 1080P. The Garment Jungle has already been released in Indicator's (UK) Columbia Noir #1 reviewed HERE, and their upcoming #2 set has Framed.

They all have high bitrates and seem very pleasing aside from Alias Nick Beal which looks to be from a compromised source looking a bit rough. It is very textured but fully watchable. Framed has video quality that is less consistent but exhibits some impressive detail in close-ups. It also shows depth. We've compared Detective Story to Paramount's 15-year old DVD and it improves demonstratively in all the expected areas looking strong if not a new scan. The Garment Jungle is also compared and looks almost exactly like the Indicator transfer of earlier this year. Overall there were really no flaws - like digitization or excess damage. I did see a cue-blip (reel-change marker) but otherwise these look solid. 

NOTE: I should mention that Io see a phenomenon that hasn't surfaced for years. In the reduction of the Framed screen captures, to suit this webpage, a strange vertical and uniform combing appears, but it is not present in the expanded full resolution captures. To this day I have no idea why it occurs but it is only in our reduced captures and seems to play fine on my system.

NOTE: We have added 110 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Imprint use a linear PCM mono dual-tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. It is another advancement in the film's audio and respective scores by Marlin Skiles (My Gun is Quick, Queen of Outer Space, Flat Top, The Maze, Dead Reckoning) and Franz Waxman (Sorry Wrong Number, Untamed, Rebecca, Dark Passage, Bride of Frankenstein, Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard) and Victor Young (Ghostbreakers Strategic Air Command, The Sun Shines Bright, The Accused, Johnny Guitar, China Gate 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). Detective Story also has Frédéric Chopin's Marche Funebre In C Minor Op. 72, No. 2. They all sound authentically flat. Imprint offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Imprint Blu-ray offers new commentaries for each of the four films. They are all top-shelf material with Alan K. Rode on Framed talking a lot of Glenn Ford's career including so many intimate details I was unaware of especially from his son, Peter's 2011 book; Glenn Ford: A Life. A great commentary. The 'Czar of Noir', Eddie Muller, takes the reins for Alias Nick Beal. He covers many aspects of the film from the fog, Audrey Totter, Ray Milland, the murals in the Totter's bequeathed apartment, the production code and more. His voice seems a bit clouded - a function, I presume of the lockdown. Also on the Alias Nick Beal disc is also an hour long 1950 Radio adaptation. On the Detective Story we get Alan K. Rode again providing a commentary for this dark, almost procedural cop drama. He discusses everyone involved including Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, my favorite Cathy O'Donnell, differences from the play etc.. The quality is equal to his excellent Framed commentary. This disc offers Alan K. Rode and Constantine Nasr who provide a 3/4 hour visual essay about the film noir work of Kirk Douglas. Dark Cinema fans will be very pleased with it. Lastly is a trailer. Alan K. Rode's voice gets a further workout doing the commentary on The Garment Jungle, which I look forward to indulging soon.  There is also a 2007 interview with actor Robert Loggia, conducted by Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation following a screening of The Garment Jungle that was also on the Indicator Columbia Noir #1 set but this one runs longer. There is also a trailer and no liner notes.   

Imprint's Essential Film Noir: Collection 1 is a very appealing Blu-ray boxset.  I was so happy to finally have Framed, Alias Nick Beal and Detective Story on Blu-ray. All three are excellent films! And here we get a commentary feast with the great Alan K. Rode and Eddie Muller plus the visual essay. The package itself is totally functional fitting the four individual transparent cases with easy, simple access. Hard to resist for Film Noir devotees. It has our highest recommendation to that niche.

Gary Tooze