Aces
High (1976/Umbrella
Region Free PAL Import DVD)/Famous
Ferguson Case (1932/First
National)/Hotel Berlin
(1945/both Warner Archive DVDs)/The
One That Got Away
(1957/Rank/VCI DVD)/The
Valley (2016/Wavefront
Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C/C/C+/B- Sound: C+/C+/C/C+/C+ Extras: D/C-/D/C-/C+
Films: C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Aces
High
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD, Blu-ray & 4K
Blu-ray players that can handle the PAL DVD format, while The
Famous Ferguson Case
and Hotel
Berlin
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
a new group of dramas, with the older films set in the past and the
new one dealing with issues openly older films rarely did...
Jack
Gold's Aces
High
(1976) is a somewhat underrated WWI drama with Malcolm Mcdowell as an
ace British airplane fighter who is always taking on new flyers and
is paired with a man (Peter Firth) who was only a few years behind
him in school. It makes for mixed moments as the younger man finds
his new boss drinks more than he should and does a few other things
he finds questionable. However, the real politik of the German
flyers killing as many of them as possible interrupts such issues
with some big fights ahead.
Christopher
Plummer, Sir John Gielgud, Simon Ward, Trevor Howard and Ray Milland
make up a really all-star cast, so how this got list in the shuffle
is a shame. It may not be a perfect film, but it is serious enough,
takes its audience seriously enough, is smartly done and is worthy of
rediscovery. That is why it is a very welcome thing that Umbrella
has issued it on DVD, albeit an Region Free PAL Import. Definitely
worth a look.
There
are no extras.
Lloyd
Bacon's The
Famous Ferguson Case
(1932) is a film that looks like it might be a semi-comic film about
a murder, even a courtroom drama, maybe even a mystery. Though it
has some of those features, it is actually a drama that asks about
integrity of the press, reporting, what it takes to make it, how one
can go too far and how it affects the news.... long before 'fake
news' was tolerated.
The
presence of Joan Blondell signals comedy to some extent, but her
gritty street side kicks in when this becomes more challenging and
dramatic, trying to help a young, up and coming reporter (Tom Brown)
get a leg up and exclusive when the death happens. Too bad a bunch
of veteran reporters (read men) descend on the scene. Of course,
tabloid/society writers are in the mix too, making this a a tight,
interesting 74 minutes.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
Peter
Godfrey's Hotel
Berlin
(1945) is a WWII anti-Nazi propaganda film about the title locale
where the Nazis are in practice to destroy the world, entertain
friends, hunt down enemies (including spies) and are even being
watched in this somewhat melodramatic entry from the Vicki Baum book.
Sometimes less sensational than it sounds, Franz Waxman did the
music score and some of the more familiar actors include Peter Lorre,
Raymond Massey, George Coulouris and Alan Hale, but the other main
characters are actually cast by actors who seem their ethnicity
enough versus things being 'Hollywoodized' as it were.
They
include Faye Emerson, Helmut Dantine, Andrea King and others how are
good here and sadly were not seen much after. Warner was ahead of
the other studios going after the Nazis, et al, with this film yet
more evidence of how hard they hit 'em.
There
are no extras.
Roy
Ward Baker's The
One That Got Away
(1957) is a fine small production produced by Julian Wintle (later of
TV's The
Avengers),
edited by Sidney Hayers, shot on solid black & white film and
starring the under appreciated Hardy Kruger as the title character:
Frank Von Werra, the only German soldier ever to escape the Brits.
Some
may say it makes Kruger's Nazi (thus all Nazis) look good or be too
sympathetic, but the late, great Baker is too busy telling the story
and events to best effect, so whatever liberties may have been taken
with the real story (if any) as it happened, this is realistic, can
be suspenseful and the performances all around are honest and work.
Among the other familiar names in the cast include Michael Goodliffe,
Alec McCowen and Frederick Jaeger, making this a solid piece of
British cinema all around.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
We
conclude with Saila Kariat's The
Valley
(2016), another drama that goes out of its way to be realistic, about
a family doing well in Silicon Valley when a personal tragedy strikes
the family unexpectedly. Neal heads the family and this shakes up
his successful life to the core as much as it does anyone around him.
It is not that they were not supportive of each other, but possibly
that they missed signs of bad things ahead.
The
deep secrets that lead to the drama here have to do with unrecognized
depression, though the script is more interested in characters than
to dwell on or wallow in theories on clinical depression, but it
still runs into unevenness and some mixed results despite the
ambition of the piece. I give the makers points for setting a mood
that works and the cast including Alvy Khan, Suchitra Pillai, Jake T.
Austin, Christa B. Allen and Barry Corbin (among some formidable
unknowns) meld well. I just wonder if it could have all gone further
and got more results in what it is all trying to deal with.
Interesting no matter what you land up thinking, anyone in the mood
for a serious drama about something might want to try it out.
The
alternate version of the film is the only extra.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Valley
is an HD shoot that has consistent composition, but also motion blur
and some detail issues, yet it is the best performer here and is the
only Blu-ray on the list. Both versions of the film look the same in
quality and nothing stands out, but there is a sense of mood at times
that helps the narrative.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Aces
and anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 black & white transfer on
Away
come from fresh video masters ands easily tie for second place in
playback quality. Both films manage to look good for war films and
impress despite the limits of the old format.
The
1.33 X 1 black & white transfers on Ferguson
and Berlin
are well-shot films that get transfers here whose source materials
are uneven, aged and need some work. Hope they get the restorations
they need.
As
for sound, Valley
is listed as 'DTS 5.1' of some sort on the back of the Blu-ray case,
but what we really get is lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the long version
of the film and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the alternate cut
that is not as clear. That makes it easy for Away
to compete with it in its own lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 upgrade, though
the film was theatrical mono like thew other DVDs, all here in lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. The only one that has sonic issues is
Berlin,
down a few generations and needing more work.
To
order the
Aces
High
Umbrella import DVD, go to this link for it and other
hard-to-get-and-find releases:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
...and
to order either of the Warner Archive DVDs, The
Famous Ferguson Case
and Hotel
Berlin,
go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases
at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
