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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Callan (1974)

Callan (1974)

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Released 14-Feb-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller Main Menu Audio
Interviews-Cast-Edward Woodward
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1974
Running Time 100:55
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Don Sharp
Studio
Distributor
Barney Bernhard
Umbrella Entertainment
Starring Edward Woodward
Russell Hunter
Eric Porter
Carl Mohner
Catherine Schell
Peter Egan
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $29.95 Music Wilfred Joseph


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures Yes
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Callan was a TV series that started in the late 60s and ran into the early 70s (they made 40-something episodes, on an irregular basis). It was an example of something the British TV industry seems to be able to make much better than the US — a truly dark storyline with an assortment of characters, none of them especially likeable, but interesting nonetheless.

    Callan (Edward Woodward) is an ex-convict, ex-soldier, and now ex-assassin. After fighting in Malaya, he came back to Britain and trained as a locksmith. Driven by circumstances, he tried burglary, breaking into a safe in a supermarket. He got caught and sent to jail, where he met an unpopular character called Lonely (Russell Hunter). Callan was recruited by an unnamed section of British Intelligence (OK, it's called "The Section" — I'd called that unnamed). The Section is nothing like James Bond's clean and shiny group. The Section keeps track of people. If someone joins the wrong political group, they are put in a file (green or blue, I can't remember). If they need watching, they go into a yellow file. If they appear dangerous, they go into a red file, and sometimes action is taken. They might get framed, or deported, or possibly killed. Callan was one of The Section's assassins. He was very very good at the job, but he had a flaw: he wanted to know why someone was marked for death — he had a conscience, and it bothered him.

    Callan was a marvellously dark TV series, filled with interesting and devious people, and no sure ground — sometimes an enemy was more of a friend than a colleague. One of the few semi-constants in the show was Lonely — he was Callan's contact with the criminal underworld, perpetually afraid, and forever smelly (he had a nervous condition that gave him horrible BO when scared, and that was most of the time). Toby Meres (Anthony Valentine) was one of Callan's colleagues, and he never liked Callan — he despised Callan's conscience, and envied his skill. Later, when Meres was "posted to Washington", a similar role was played by Cross (Patrick Mower).

    Unfortunately, the first series of Callan is gone forever — all copies have been destroyed. The second series is available on DVD in Region 2, and there are promises of more to come — I'm looking forward to that.

    This is not the TV series, though. This is a movie made a couple of years after the TV series was over. I'll get through the bad things first:

    Edward Woodward says, in the interview, that only he and Russell Hunter return from the TV series. That's not true: the creepy Dr Snell (Clifford Rose) is back (even though Hunter introduces him as though Callan doesn't know him).

    This film opens with Callan working as a bookkeeper for the pompous and officious Mr Waterman (Kenneth Griffith). He's not enjoying it. Callan is summoned to see Hunter (still in the scrap metal yard), and offered a chance to re-join The Section. Even though he hates The Section, he wants it, because it is all he's ever been good at. There's a catch: he must do an assassination, and he must do it without help from The Section. The target is Schneider (Carl Mohner), who "happens" to work in the office opposite Waterman's, and happens to be interested in war gaming (just as Callan is).

    The stage is set. Will Callan do the job? Might he get caught? Will his conscience get in the way? Why is Schneider a target of The Section?

    All in all, this is not a bad movie, but it would probably have been better as a double episode (or even condensed into a single) of the series. And that's not surprising — this storyline is a somewhat expanded version of the Armchair Theatre episode that was effectively the pilot for the TV series.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. I have not been able to discover if this movie was made for theatrical release, or if it was for television. If the latter, then 1.33:1 is probably the intended ratio. I didn't notice any framing issues, so that might well be the case.

    The image is sharp enough, but nothing like the sharpness of a modern film. Shadow detail is a bit limited. There is quite a bit of film grain, contributing to some background shimmer. There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is muted by production design — Callan lives in a drab, grimy world. The dull colours are rendered well, and there are no colour-related artefacts.

    Film artefacts are present in abundance — I can't list them all, or I'd be listing pretty much every frame. Some of the more obvious film artefacts are a brown stain at 5:24, black marks (Texta?) at 40:20, 42:21, 42:36, and what looks like a large crease at 59:37 and at 82:05, a white scrape at 63:57, and a rainstorm of splatters for several frames at 97:45. There's also a bit of telecine wobble (quite minor, though), and an apparent oscillation in background brightness (due to background shimmer). In addition, there are reel change markings. Actually, there are two sets of reel change markings — it looks as though the film has been chopped up into two different lengths of reel on separate occasions: black reel change markings can be seen about every 20 minutes, and white ones about every 24 minutes — clearly this print has not been very well looked after.

    There are a few moments of aliasing, but it's nothing compared with the film artefacts. There is only one instant of moire, and it's very mild. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English, in Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at 224kbps. It's perfectly adequate, but there is a bit of hiss on occasion, and perhaps a tiny bit of distortion on louder moments.

    The dialogue is fairly clear and easy enough to understand, although there are occasional words that are not too easy to make out. Dialogue sync is not a problem, except for a moment of imperfect ADR at around 66:31.

    Wilfred Josephs' score feels a bit wrong to me — a bit too upbeat for this sorry tale. At least a great deal of the movie passes without music.

    This soundtrack, not being surround-encoded, provides no signal for the surrounds and sub.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is static, with music (another repetition of the movie theme).

Interview — Edward Woodward (21:51)

    This is rather an interesting interview with a much older Edward Woodward, filmed in June 2000. He reminisces about the times spent on Callan and some of the events around it.

Advertising — Umbrella Propaganda

    When Madman lists propaganda there is a trailer behind every cover shot — that's interesting. This is not that interesting — it is just six cover shots on two pages.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This film is not available in Region 1, but it has been available in Region 2 for a while (I got my copy in September 2001) — however, the latest information I had to hand was that the R2 disc has been discontinued. The two discs have different artwork and menus, but are otherwise identical. The two transfers are the same (same film artefacts), and both discs have the interview with Edward Woodward. The only difference is that the R4 has Umbrella Propaganda; unlike Madman's discs, though, this propaganda is just two pages of cover shots, with no trailers behind them. The Region 4 artwork shows a figure with a rifle, possibly drawn by an artist who was told that Callan was an assassin — there are no rifles in this movie (I don't recall Callan ever using a rifle — he always used a revolver, preferably a .357 Magnum.

    Given that the two discs use the same transfer, and have the same extra, there's nothing to tell them apart, so if you got the R2 when it was available, then you have no need for the R4. If you didn't, then the R4 is the only one available.

Summary

    Callan is a decent movie, but not a patch on the TV series, presently barely adequately on DVD.

    The video quality is reasonable, save for all the film artefacts.

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    The extra is quite good.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Monday, February 24, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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