Flame Over India (aka North West
Frontier/1959/Rank/VCI Blu-ray)/Odd
Man Out (1947/Network U.K.
Region B Blu-ray)/The Wayward Bus
(1957/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/This Happy Breed (1944/Network U.K. Region B Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/B/B/B Sound: B-/B/B-/B- Extras: D/B/B-/B Films: B-/B/B-/B
PLEASE NOTE: These Blu-ray versions of Odd Man Out and This Happy Breed are only available from our friends at Network U.K.,
only work on Blu-ray players that can handle the Region B regional format and
can be ordered at the link below. The Wayward Bus is limited to only
3,000 copies and can be ordered at the other link below. Flame
Over India is Region Free and available at finer retailers and e-tailers
like Amazon.com on our sidebar.
Four dramas
have arrived at about the same time on Blu-ray that were so interesting and
unusual that I have grouped them together.
Three are British and two are lesser-known and lesser-seen CinemaScope
productions.
J. Lee
Thompson’s Flame Over India (aka North West Frontier/1959) is a big
CinemaScope drama that is not from Fox, but the British company Rank, through
they are definitely going for a grand star drama by landing Lauren Bacall
(still looking good) with Kenneth More, Herbert Lom and Wilfrid Hyde White in a
political tale of British Colonialism and how a five-year-old Hindu Prince is
an assassination target for rival Muslims who are fighting for future control
of the country.
With
territories split, Bacall is the child’s governess and the only way to save the
child is to take a trainload of people on the British side and literally ram it
through opposition territory while protecting the child and each other. Not that the train tracks will always be in
good condition to go over, but that will be among the many obstacles in this
amusing film that definitely has its moments.
Though
some effects show their age, the screenplay is smart and cast top rate. VCI has issued this as a basic Blu-ray with
no extras, but this is shot for the big screen complete with a few battle
scenes and Thompson established himself as a very formidable journeyman
director with good reason here. A fine
film worth revisiting, its pluses outweigh its age and limits.
Though
best known for The Third Man (1941,
on Blu-ray for a second time, but get the Criterion Collection version if you
can find it and afford it when people are not mistaking it for an Orson Welles
film, Sir Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out
(1947) is an underrated drama with the great James Mason as the leader of an
Irish terror organization battling what it sees as British occupation, but his
politics take a backseat when he is shot and he is more alone than he expected.
Trying to
protect himself, his dark idealism crumbles as the cracks start to show in all
of the double-crossing and back-stabbing that is really going on. That some people would rather the terror
continue, that some do not want the conflict to end and that some are gaining
too much immorally at the cost of many human lives.
This was
a bold film for its time and it is only now that the real life British
Government vs. IRA (Irish Republican Army) conflicts are starting to find
possibilities of resolution, so this was a big deal 71 years ago and Mason is
one of the only actors in that time who constantly took such risky roles.
Everyone
should see this film, but this is a Network U.K. Region B Blu-ray and will only
play on such machines, which I repeat as I expect maybe a Region A,
U.S.-friendly edition will turn up. In
the meantime, get this disc if your player can handle it. Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack and Dan O’Herlihy
also star.
Extras
include a commemorative booklet, original script in the PDF format, extensive
image gallery, 1972 James Mason interview and Home James – a 1972
documentary on Mason.
Victor
Vicas’ The Wayward Bus (1957) was
actually made by Fox and is also a “people on a journey with a big vehicle”:
drama, but this time, it is from a John Steinbeck novel and has its own
interesting cast that includes Dan Dailey, Jayne Mansfield and Joan Collins
(who is not on said bus for the most part) as Dailey is a driver who has to
take his bus off-road to get its paying passengers to their destination.
He is
married to an alcoholic (Collins) who runs a diner where he launches his rides,
but the bus is getting old, yet he keeps it running. We learn about each person (give or take our
suspicions of if they are lying and what they may be hiding) before they get on
the bus, then they do and it all gets more interesting.
Like Flame Over India, the supporting actors
are all top notch and this is neither as political nor is it a cookie-cutter of
the other film despite being in CinemaScope as well, but it is in black and
white and that gives it its own look and feel.
Like India,
it may be dated in parts including some of the visual effects, but it is also
very well written and definitely worth revisiting. Just a reminder that it is a limited edition,
so get it while you can.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film with an essay by Julie Kirgo,
while the disc adds a feature length audio commentary track by film historians
Alain Silver & James Ursinin, an isolated music score track by Leigh
Harline (They Live By Night) and an
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Finally
we have David Lean’s This Happy Breed
(1944), his first full color film, solo directing effort and one based on a
work by Noel Coward (he would do several as the recent U.S. Criterion Blu-ray
set that included this film demonstrates) about a British family overcoming
adjustments after the tough British victory of World War One and how this runs
up to WWII.
Lean
immediately found his way as a filmmaker, an editor in his own right, the
talent was there and this was a big critical and commercial hit. Being a dye-transfer, three-strip British
Technicolor film, it also shows his command of color early on and how in his
home country, he was one of the innovators of how to use color on film along
with his Director of Photography Ronald Neame, who moved on to his won strong
journeyman filmmaking career.
What
ultimately works here to is the screenplay adaptation (which Lean co-wrote) and
the actors, including Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Stanley Holloway, John
Mills and Kay Walsh among them, made a seamless film that has aged well. It is a fine film that is also a time capsule
of England
looking at itself just after WWII, yet is not a relic or dated work in the
tired sense by any means. This helped
reestablish British cinema after their facilities had been well-bombed by the
Axis opposition and told the world that like the country and people who made
it, British Cinema was as alive as ever and that is why it is worth revisiting
like all Lean films.
Extras
include a commemorative booklet by noted British film historian Neil Sinyard
inside the disc case, the Blu-ray adds two trailers, a restoration featurette and
extensive stills galleries, plus the DVD adds two South Bank Shows
featuring David Lean and original material in PDF format for DVD-ROMs.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on India is EastmanColor processed by Rank and the result is that it
is a bit darker than if it were made by a U.S. lab, but I think it adds
character to the film’s look and though we can see some wear and the age of the
materials used, this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the
film with the best color and definition reproduction you will see outside of a
very expensive restoration. VCI has done
their best to clean it up without degrading it or making it something it is
not. It is even a color demo in scenes.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image transfer on Man looks even better with a restored
print, crisp, clean, monochrome detail and though some parts of the film can
still show their age, this is sold classic black and white translated very well
and accurately for the Blu-ray format which can also be said of the 1080p 2.35
X 1 digital black and white High Definition image transfer on Bus.
Like India,
Bus uses CinemaScope, so that means
older lenses and distortions inherent with that format and its lenses that
later scope formats (Panavision, Todd AO 35, J-D-C Scope, HawkScope, Franscope,
etc.) would not have. Fortunately, this
print is in even better shape (no color to fade here) and the print is on the
clean side with some fine detail and depth.
Of course, it still lacks some of the sharpness of Man with its more direct use of lenses, but I cannot imagine this
film looking better on Blu-ray.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Breed is very nice and faithful to the British version of a
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor print which again would be slightly
darker than a U.S.
print. Overall, this set of Blu-rays are
impressive for classic films of their age and anyone with serious HD playback
should try them all. Just remember the
import playback limits.
India is offered here in both a PCM 2.0
Mono mix and a rare PCM 4.0 mix that seems to have been recreated as if the
film was a four-track magnetic stereo release.
It is not listed anywhere as such and we could not confirm at posting
time whether it was originally issued this way, but some audio moments in the
4.0 track ring odd so we will chalk it up to an aggressive upgrade by VCI. Network has given Man and Breed PCM 2.0
Mono tracks that are also nice and clean for their age, with Man surprisingly having the best sound
of the four releases here by an edge of just sounding better than I would have
expected.
That
leaves the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Bus which also sounds good and is as
clean as it is going to get, so Twilight Time and Fox should get credit for
such a nice presentation and that also includes the isolated music score
track. However, it turns out that this
really was once a 4-track magnetic stereo film, but we guess those tracks have
at least been temporarily lost, so traveling dialogue and traveling sound
effects are as absent here as they tend to be on either India mix. Still, any sonic limits do not ruin my
enjoyment of any of the films on this list.
If
anything, it just makes me want top watch more classics on Blu-ray.
As noted
above, The Wayward Bus can be
ordered while supplies last at:
www.screenarchives.com
PLUS both
This Happy Breed and Odd Man Out can be ordered exclusively
from Network U.K.
at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
