Midnight Lace (Blu-ray) (1960) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Thriller |
Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1960 | ||
Running Time | 108:01 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | David Miller |
Studio
Distributor |
Shock Entertainment |
Starring |
Doris Day Rex Harrison Roddy McDowell Herbert Marshall Myrna Loy John Gavin |
Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
RPI | $19.95 | Music | Frank Skinner |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English DTS HD Master Audio 2.0 mono | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.93:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 1080p | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so Hitchcock must have felt quite flattered when this film, Midnight Lace, came out in 1961 with its blonde leading lady, use of light and shadows and mystery thriller approach. This film was directed by journeyman Hollywood director, David Miller and stars Doris Day and Rex Harrison. It was a successful film at the box office and was nominated for an Academy Award for costumes. Doris Day was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
The story involves American heiress, Kit (Doris Day), who has recently married London businessman Tony Preston (Rex Harrison) and moved to London. Heading home one night in a 'pea-souper', a voice threatens her in the fog as she crosses a park. The voice says that he knows who she is and will kill her as she sleeps. She runs home screaming and tells her supportive husband. He snaps into immediate action, getting Scotland Yard involved who find it hard to believe her. As the days pass the voice comes to her repeatedly in phone calls and other places. She begins to panic, becoming more and more hysterical. The plot introduces three 'suspects', the suave young builder working on the house next door, Brian Younger (John Gavin) who may be hiding a secret, the feckless son of the Preston's housekeeper, Malcolm Stanley (Roddy McDowell) and the possibly crooked employee of Tony's company, Charles Manning (Herbert Marshall). Also in the mix is Kit's Aunt Bea (Myrna Loy) who comes to visit. Who is setting out to scare Mrs Preston and what do they hope to gain from it? Or do they really want to kill her?
This is an effective thriller which does a good job with its somewhat limited premise. It is certainly entertaining and quite well shot, without being up to the class of Hitchcock. As I mentioned above Day's performance at the time was award nominated, however, with the passing of the time it seems overly histrionic and melodramatic. This adds to the slightly unbelievable nature of the plot.
Well worth a look for fans of 1960s thrillers.
The feature is presented in an approximately 1.90:1 aspect ratio which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 1080p HD encoded using the AVC codec. Despite this technical specification the video quality is not even up to good DVD standard. I compared the picture quality on this disc to some screenshots on DVD Beaver of the DVD version and that looks significantly better.
The detail and clarity is very variable on this disc with lots of colour variation to add to the mix. At best the level of detail is reasonable but often there is too much grain and blotchy faces to contend with. Some scenes show a distinct lack of detail and seem darker than they should be. Shadow detail is also less than you expect on Blu-ray.
The colour is also very variable with faces ranging (sometimes in the same scene) from red to white.
In artefact terms, there was quite a bit of grain to be seen, sometimes quite obvious. I expect film grain on older films but there is too much here. There was also some obvious edge enhancement at times plus white spots.
There are no subtitles available.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
The audio quality is quite good.
This disc contains an English soundtrack in DTS HD-MA 2.0 as the only audio option. The audio is quite good for a film of this age without hitting the heights possible for older films on the Blu-ray format.
Dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand throughout.
The score by Frank Skinner is nice and tense although adds to the melodrama at times.
The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
The menu includes music.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The only other edition which seems to exist of this Blu-ray currently is a German release which has little to distinguish it from this one. I cannot find a review to see if the transfer is different.
The video quality is disappinting for Blu-ray.
The audio quality is quite good.
The extra is minor.Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | SONY BDP-S760 Blu-ray, using HDMI output |
Display | Sharp LC52LE820X Quattron 52" Full HD LED-LCD TV . Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
Audio Decoder | Built into amplifier. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
Amplification | Marantz SR5005 |
Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer |