Calcutta (1947) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1947
Running Time	82:48
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5	Directed By	John Farrow
Studio Distributor	ViaVision	Starring	Alan Ladd Gail Russell William Bendix June Duprey Lowell Gilmore Edith King Paul Singh John Whitney
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Victor Young

     Neale Gordon (Alan Ladd), Pedro Blake (William Bendix) and Bill Cunningham (John Whitney) are close friends, pilots flying freight and passengers over “The Hump” in DC-3s between Calcutta in India and Chungking in China. Bill, to the surprise of his friends, tells them that he is getting married, but when he is murdered the next night Neale and Pedro are determined to find his killer. Neale looks up Bill’s beautiful fiancée Virginia Moore (Gail Russell), and starts to become attracted to her although he suspects that she has something to hide. Their investigation leads Neale and Pedro to a racket smuggling jewels between India and China, hidden on the DC-3s; but who could be involved: nightclub and gambling den owner Eric Lasser (Lowell Gilmore), where Neale’s girlfriend Maria (June Duprez) sings, jewellery shop owner Mrs Smith (Edith King) or Indian importer / exporter Malik (Paul Singh)? For Neale, getting close to the truth could easily get him killed.

     Calcutta was directed by John Farrow soon after directing Ladd in Two Years Before the Mast (1946) although Calcutta was not released until 1947. Calcutta is a crime noir thriller in the ilk of The Maltese Falcon (1941), with some wry dialogue, red herrings, murder, nefarious larger than life shady characters, hidden jewels and dangerous women. Alan Ladd, whose career spanned three decades and 100 credits, is charismatic as the tough guy, a role he can do easily, although Ladd’s close friend William Bendix, who appeared with Ladd in a number of films including Two Years Before the Mast and The Blue Dahlia (both 1946) and, over a decade later, in The Deep Six (1958), does not have a lot to do.

     Instead, this is a film in which women shine. The most prominently credited is the beautiful Gail Russell the year before she was cast with John Wayne in Angel and the Badman (1947). Her later career tragically blighted by a struggle with alcohol leading to her early death in 1961, some critics think she is miscast in Calcutta but I disagree as her dark ethereal beauty and constantly jittery gestures are very effective; a tortured soul, but can she be trusted? The other female love interest is English actress June Duprez who shot to fame after appearing in Zoltan Korda’s The Four Feathers (1939) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940) in England before moving to America where her career, unfortunately, did not flourish. Finally, Edith King, in her first screen role, effortlessly steals every scene as the larger than life cigar smoking Mrs Smith.

     Calcutta is a fun and entertaining crime noir thriller. The sets look exotic, although constructed in Hollywood of course, or what Hollywood thought India looked like, as well as in Arizona, while the aircraft model work and scenes of DC-3s above the Himalayas add to the fun of watching

Video

     Calcutta is presented in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, in NTSC and is not16x9 enhanced.

     This is a decent black and white print for a film this age. The cinematographer was John F. Seitz who in his career received seven Oscar nominations, including for The Lost Weekend (1945) and the magnificent Sunset Blvd. (1951) without winning. For Calcutta wide establishing shots of the DC-3s over the mountains are, not surprisingly, softish but close-ups and sets, including the “Indian” streets and hotel interiors, show good detail. Blacks are mostly solid, grey scales good and shadow detail acceptable in the scene when Neale investigates in a dark hanger. There were small speckles on the print plus reel change markings, but nothing serious. Pleasing grain is evident.

     No subtitles are provide

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 384 Kbps.

     Dialogue is clean. The effects are good for a mono audio; the sound of the DC-3 engines, car engines, crowd voices in the bazaar. The score by twelve times Oscar nominated Victor Young, winner for Around the World in 80 Days (1956) is good, avoiding the shrillness of scores that often happened in the 1940s.

     There was no hiss or crackle discernible.

     The lip synchronisation was fine except in one scene when Duprez is singing in the nightclub.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Overall

     Nothing. The menu is silent and offers only “Play Feature”.

     I can only find an Italian released standalone DVD of Calcutta. In Australia Calcutta is released as part of the 5 disc / 5 film The Alan Ladd Collection Volume One, a collection which does not seem to have been released elsewhere. See the summary section below for details.

     Calcutta was another of the over 700 Paramount productions filmed between 1929 and 1949 which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution so most people, if they have seen the film at all, saw it on black and white television for, as far as I can tell, it has never been released here on home video. Calcutta is a heap of fun; an entertaining crime noir thriller with a good cast, exotic settings, mystery and femme fatales. Fans of Ladd or of films like The Maltese Falcon should enjoy Calcutta and it is great to see it get a release as part of this Alan Ladd collection.

     The video and audio are fine, no extras.

     Calcutta is included in the 5 disc / 5 film set The Alan Ladd Collection Volume One of films made by Ladd between 1946 and 1961. There is nothing included here that would be up there with his most memorable roles, but it is an interesting collection for fans nonetheless. Four of these films date from between 1946 and 1951, a period when Ladd was at the height of his popularity as a leading man: Two Years Before the Mast (1946), Calcutta, Red Mountain (1951) and Thunder in the East (1951); the other, 13 West Street, from 1961, is the second last film Ladd made before his death.

     The Alan Ladd Collection Volume One was supplied for review by Via Vision Entertainment. Check out their Facebook page for the latest releases, giveaways, deals and more.

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