Dr. Crippen (1962/Region Four/4/PAL Import/Madman DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C Extras: D Film: C+
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on
machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Four/4 PAL format
software and can be ordered from our friends at Madman Entertainment at the
website address provided at the end of the review. Cover image © 1963 Torchlight Productions.
In one of
the less-discussed shocking crimes of all time, one Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen
was driven or cold-bloodedly killed and dismembered his wife. He was seeing a younger woman and she was
manipulating him in other ways. Mental
torture is not an excuse to kill, but the case was never that simple and for
its time, Robert Lynn’s Dr. Crippen
(1962) made a serious attempt to examine the case.
Written
by Leigh Vance (a crime/detective writer who became a huge success on TV
working on The Saint, The Avengers, Cannon, Mission: Impossible,
Baretta, Mannix, Switch) comes up
with a script that is very good considering censorship restrictions of the
time. Donald Pleasence is well-cast as
the title character and Samantha Eggar is his mistress. It is a good film, intelligent, adult and worth
seeing, especially if you do not know the case well. Out of circulation for a while, it is nice to
see it available again.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image looks pretty
good with a new black and white print.
There are some softness and detail issues, but Video Black is not
bad. This was shot by Nicolas Roeg
before he became a major director. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age
more so with compression and a slightly lower volume than expected. The combination is very watchable just the
same and Ken Jones’ score is not bad. There
are no extras.
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import exclusively from Madman at:
https://www.madman.com.au/actions/channel.do?method=view
-
Nicholas Sheffo
