Synopsis
Humphrey Bogart is Rip Murdock (that a manly enough moniker for ya?). His best frienddisappears, and then shows up dead. Bogart investigates and finds himself in a web of deceit andmurder, at the centre of which is Lizabeth Scott, his buddy’s former flame, and the woman forwhom he might have committed murder. There are a couple of embarrassing moments (theending scene, and a hilariously bad lip-synching exercise by Scott), but there are also more twistsand turns than you ca… shake a stick at, some truly prime dialogue, and a great noir atmosphere.Great stuff.
Audio
The original mono, with no messing about with stereo remixes. This is a film that is verydialogue-heavy, and said dialogue comes through with perfect clarity.
Video
I have to admit being somewhat startled by the claim on the case that this picture isreformatted to fullscreen. After all, 1947 was hardly the era of widescreen. As it turns out, theoriginal format is 1.37:1. The cropping, therefore, is barely noticeable. There is a bit of grain nowand then, but more noticeable is the speckling and some vertical lines that mar the print about 20minutes in (they don’t hang around for too long, though).
Special Features
The same as for the other recent Bogart releases: a montage of vintage posters and stills, athree-still gallery for Dead Reckoning, and trailers for The Bridge on the River Kwai, The CaineMutiny and Lawrence of Arabia. The menu is basic.
Closing Thoughts
The print isn’t quite pristine, the film isn’t quite The Big Sleep, and Lizabeth Scott isn’t quiteLauren Bacall (though she does her best). But this is still high-grade entertainment. Check itout.
Special Features List
- Trailers
- Advertising Montage
- Still Gallery
