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

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (May 2021): Indicator have transferred six more Columbia Film Noirs - as part of their Volume 3 boxset. The six films, on individual Blu-ray discs are; Robert Rossen's Johnny O'Clock (1947) with bon vivant gentleman-criminal Dick Powell navigating his way around the underworld, Rudolph Maté's The Dark Past (1948) shining a beacon on mental health, Henry Levin's Convicted (1950) with hard-luck Glenn Ford surviving in the 'Big House', Gordon Douglas's quasi-police-procedural Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), Edward Dmytryk's unsettling The Sniper (1952), and Irving Lerner's City of Fear (1959) - a radiation-exposing thriller with Vince Edwards. Indicator's Columbia Noir #1 Blu-ray set was voted the third best Boxset of the Year in our 2020 Poll. Volume 2 came out on February 15th, 2021. Volume 3 is more than up to that elevated Blu-ray boxset standard.

Indicator's usual top-shelf image quality is on display in excellent HD presentations. To fan's pleasure, all six of these films are having their world premiere on Blu-ray. We have compared each one to previous DVD editions; Johnny O'Clock and Between Midnight and Dawn to the Sony / TCM 2013 Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics IV SD transfers reviewed in full HERE, The Dark Past to 2011's very weak Clásicos años 40 Spanish PAL DVD reviewed HERE, Convicted from the Glenn Ford: Undercover Crimes DVD boxset reviewed HERE, The Sniper to 2009's Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics 1 DVD set reviewed in full HERE, and City of Fear to 2010's Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II reviewed in full HERE.

Indicator present these all in 1080P, The Sniper from a 2K restoration - the rest are cited as "High Definition remasters" and they look consistent with plenty of grain texture and infrequent small damage marks (light surface scratches that are mostly frame-specific), very few speckles and a generally impressive, film-like image with a notable advance in detail. Yes! The compared captures below support the vast improvement - many of the DVDs had a green hue, weak contrast and compression artifacts. Most show less information in the frame. These Blu-rays are a real treat to revisit in such vastly superior transfers - especially Convicted, The Dark Past, City of Fear and Between Midnight and Dawn looking demonstratively better than the past DVDs.

NOTE: We have added 98 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-rays, Indicator use linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. There are effects and gunfire supported with minor depth but the film's audio transfers are authentically flat with scores for four of the films (Johnny O'Clock, The Dark Past, Convicted, and Between Midnight and Dawn) by George Duning (Two Rode Together, The Eddy Duchin Story, 3:10 to Yuma, Jeanne Eagels, The Shadow on the Window, My Sister Eileen, The Mob, Affair in Trinidad and Tight Spot etc.) The Sniper score is by avant garde classical composer and pianist George Antheil - who has written music for In a Lonely Place, Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), Sirocco (1951), House by the River (1950) Tokyo Joe (1949) and other Ray films, including, Knock on Any Door (1949.) For City of Fear it is notable as being scored by Jerry Goldsmith (Alien, Link, Breakout, The Salamander, The Mephisto Waltz, Seconds, Hoosiers, The Blue Max, Breakheart Pass, The Omen) as his first theatrical feature film composition having done some TV movies and TV series before this.  Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on each of their six Region 'B' Blu-rays.

The Indicator Blu-rays offer commentaries for every film in the set - 5 of them new (2021) - starting with film historian Jim Hemphill on Johnny O'Clock. He discusses how this was the first directorial effort of Robert Rossen who had written many screenplays but is notable for The Hustler. He covers a lot of detail with enthusiasm talking about stars Lee J. Cobb, Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Ellen Drew and Nina Foch quoting various comments on the production by cast and crew. It's well-researched and worth the indulgence. The Dark Past also has a new commentary - this one by academic and curator Eloise Ross. I've enjoyed her previous commentaries on The Great Man's Lady, Berserk!, Internes Can't Take Money and Madame X. She discusses the tonal shifts of the film, it being a tight  with the opening cited as a "Malvin Wald"'ed sense to it. Malvin Daniel Wald was an American screenwriter most famous for writing the 1948 police drama, Jules Dassin's, The Naked City and, this film, The Dark Past among others. He wrote over 150 scripts for motion pictures and TV shows including Peter Gunn, Daktari, and Perry Mason. She is excellent. For Convicted we get film historians buddies Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson providing another insightful and fun commentary. They discuss the validity of the film as a 'Noir', the many stars in the film from Glenn Ford. Broderick Crawford, Dorothy Malone to, often forgotten director, Henry Levin. It's at their usual high standard of rewarding commentary. For Between Midnight and Dawn we get journalist Bryan Reesman giving a solid audio commentary. He continues at his usual fast pace impressing with his breadth of detail regarding the production. He imparts a lot. The Sniper is the only non-new commentary - it's the 2009 one from Eddie Muller. So it's hard to top the "Czar of Noir" and his commentary is worth the revisit. He talks about the "Square Up" opening to accentuate the filmmakers importance of the film topic and counteract any objections to its content in that it is 'real' or based on real statistic. Golden. City of Fear has another of my favorites; Adrian Martin. He immediately speaks to our current fear of a Pandemic but speaks more to its 'B' status, 'ecliptic' narrative and transmutation of Noir. He talks al lot about the director Irving Lerner, the film's realism , how TV changed the dark cinema cycle, Godard's Breathless , Chris Marker. Lerner's Murder By Contract, and German director Harun Farocki (he made over 90 films, the vast majority of them short experimental documentaries) making connections with Lerner and much much more. It's brilliant.

Included is Christopher Nolan 's 6-minute 2010 Pulp Paranoia, 1957's 1/2 hour Not One Shall Die - short film by the United Jewish Appeal, directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Guy Madison, Felicia Farr and Agnes Moorehead, made by the core crew of many Columbia noirs, including cinematographer Burnett Guffey, art director Cary Odell, editor Al Clark, set decorator Frank Tuttle, and composer Morris Stoloff, The Poised Performance a new 14-minute video piece with critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson assessing the career of actor Nina Foch, The Gulf Screen Guild Theater: ‘Blind Alley’ - a 1940 radio adaptation of the James Warwick play upon which The Dark Past is based, starring Edward G Robinson, Joseph Calleia and Isabel Jewell, a new video essay by Jonathan Bygraves which examines Convicted in relation to Columbia Pictures’ other screen adaptations of Martin Flavin’s play The Criminal Code entitled Codes and Convictions. I loved writer and critic Kim Newman assesses the long, eclectic career of director Gordon Douglas - a new 1/4 hour piece entitled Categorically Dependable. There is more; The Autobiography of a “Jeep” audio commentary with film historian Jeremy Arnold, Hymn of the Nations - a 1944 documentary produced and edited by Lerner, and directed by Alexander Hammid, featuring famed conductor Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra performing the music of Giuseppe Verdi, presented in its complete, uncut version and The Cummington Story - a 20 minute documentary short, written and directed by Helen Grayson and Larry Madison, produced by Lerner, and featuring the music of Aaron Copland, re-enacting the stories of a group of refugees who relocated to a small American town during World War II.         

Each film / Blu-ray is supplemented by a Three Stooges short, Image gallery and all but The Dark Past and Convicted have trailers. Also included in the package is another of Indicator's impressive books; an exclusive 120-page book with new essays by Peter Stanfield, David Cairns, Michal Oleszczyk, Adam Scovell, Fintan McDonagh, Andrew Nette, Jeff Billington, and Ramsey Campbell, archival articles and interviews, and film credits - limited to 6,000 numbered units. 

I am so pleased to have these in stellar, world-premiere, Blu-ray editions - each with first-class commentaries and other valuable supplements. I consider these six films all part of the cycle also with an outlier. Where in the previous two editions I found The Garment Jungle from Columbia Noir #1 Blu-ray set and Affair in Trinidad from Columbia Noir #2 Blu-ray set  less 'dark cinema', although not disputing the film's values. A case could be made that The Sniper is in that same skirting the edges of Noir - but it's a highly impacting film in its own right. This may be better than both their other Columbia Noir Blu-ray sets . The package itself is irresistible for Film Noir devotees. It has our highest recommendation. This is another must-own keeper! I can't praise it highly enough.

Gary Tooze