Brute Force (Directors Suite) (1947)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer-Original theatrical trailer Trailer-Four Directors Suite trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1947
Running Time	94:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jules Dassin
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Burt Lancaster Hume Cronyn Charles Bickford Yvonne De Carlo Ann Blyth Ella Raines Anita Colby Sam Levene Jeff Corey
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Miklós Rózsa

    Jules Dassin's first foray into the crime film noir genre starts with all it's classical elements: opening scenes in teeming rain, credits introducing the men inside prison and their femme fatales outside prison and a dark, foreboding and sinister musical score by Miklos Rozsa. Brute Force would be the beginning of a string of highly successful film noir projects that Dassin would undertake after 1947. Including 1947's Brute Force, in between 1948 and 1955, The Naked City, Thieves' Highway, Night and the City and Rififi would become Dassin's most memorable films and staples of the film noir genre.

    Burt Lancaster plays Joe Collins, a natural leader of a gang of criminals who share cell R17, eager to plan an escape from Westgate Penitentiary. Hume Cronyn plays Captain Munsey, a scheming sadistic and authoritarian prison guard who's universally hated in the prison. Collins and Munsey are introduced to the audience in the opening scene when it is inferred that Joe's fellow inmate from cell R17, leaving the prison in a hearse, is framed by Munsey for his death. It's therefore logical that such an opening premise to a film can only lead to a confrontation at the end, and what a doozy it is, you'll have to watch the film for yourself to appreciate how it pans out.

    There are some great acting performances in this film to take note of. Firstly, Burt Lancaster was starring in only his second film after his debut in 1946's The Killers. Brute Force would go on to make Lancaster a star. Cronyn, who is possibly better known for his role as Joe in Ron Howard's Cocoon, plays an against-type sadistic figure, willing to apply 'brute force' to maintain control in the prison. The character of Captain Munsey in the screenplay obviously is an allusion to the authoritarian figures of the Nazi era during World War II. Certainly the wardrobe for the role, with Cronyn wearing long black coats throughout the film, is evidence of this. Charles Bickford as Gallagher, Sam Levene as Louie, Jeff Corey as Freshman, John Hoyt as Spencer, Whit Bissell as Lister and Art Smith as Dr. Walters all provide great supporting performances in the film.

    Jules Dassin had been directing in the Hollywood system for six years prior to getting a break by working with producer Mark Hellinger on Brute Force. Hellinger had been successful with The Killers in 1946, and was instrumental in guaranteeing Lancaster his lead role in Brute Force. Hellinger would go on to produce The Naked City for Dassin in 1948 before he passed away from a coronary thrombosis. Dassin continued to make great film noir movies in the Hollywood system until 20th Century Fox's studio head Darryl Zanuck told him to go and film 1950's Night and the City with Richard Widmark in England. Not long after Dassin was named as a communist by the House Committee for Un-American activities and fled with his family to France where he ironically had massive success with his 1955 film Rififi. Even though his name was blacklisted by this time in Hollywood, the success of Rififi meant that the film was still distributed in the United States. Dassin would eventually settle in Greece, marrying his star from his 1960 film Never on Sunday, Melina Mercouri. He retired from filmmaking in 1980 and only passed away recently in 2008 at the age of 96.

    Brute Force is one of three of Dassin's film noir titles that Madman Entertainment have released in September, 2009. The other titles include 1948's The Naked City and 1950's Night and the City. The 1955 French film noir classic Rififi has already been released through Madman Entertainment's Directors Suite label previously in 2006. Hopefully a release of Thieves' Highway isn't too far away.

Video

    Brute Force is a black and white film, made in 1947, it was shot in the standard cinematic ratio of the time, 1:33:1.

    The film is presented on a dual layered DVD, taking up 5.5 gb of space with an average bitrate of 8.0 m/b sec. There are no compression issues or grain whatsoever.

    The greyscale tones of William Daniels' cinematography is varied, bright and sharp. At times, the colour tones are dark as is standard for a film noir movie, but the film does not lose it's sharpness and detail.

    Despite the sharpness of the video transfer, there are film artefacts evident, however these are usually brief and small. The theatrical trailer on the DVD shows the comparison in how much the image has been cleaned up from it's original elements. Positive (black) film artefacts can be seen at 3:32, 19:22, 27:59, 42:58, 44:00, 46:31, 58:12, 73:07, 79:53 and 93:06. Negative (white) film artefacts can be seen at 7:25, 9:00, 16:54, 29:52, 37:30, 54:50, 55:52, 71:13, 86:04 and 89:06. Lines appear briefly at 1:45, 22:48, 40:53 and 93:06.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles included with this release, which is unusual for a Madman Entertainment DVD release on their Directors Suite label.

    The RSDL change occurs at 64:36, in a fade transition between scenes, so it is not hidden, yet it is not too noticeable either.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack has a very slight background hiss throughout the film, although this can be considered normal for the way that sound was recorded in films during the 1940s when the film was made.

    There is one audio soundtrack in English. It is a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track encoded at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is clear and audio is synchronised, however the soundtrack does crackle and pop, usually very briefly, at 3:14, 9:18, 11:54, 22:14, 30:45, 37:13, 40:53, 53:12, 54:06, 54:28, 59:40, 60:13, 61;15, 65:35, 82:19 and 85:32.

    The music by Miklos Rozsa is typical of the film noir genre, using a small string orchestra to maintain suspense and a dark mood throughout the film.

    There is no surround channel usage as the main soundtrack is in mono.

    The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer (2:16)

    The original theatrical trailer is the only extra provided on this DVD. It is soft and contains significant film damage. One should view it to compare how good the film looks in it's restored state.

Trailers

    Four Directors Suite trailers are also included on this DVD: Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows and Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel.

    A Region-free version of Brute Force was released in the United States by Image Entertainment. This release included filmographies and a stills and pressbook gallery as extras but it is now out of print.

    Another Region-free effort by Film Prestige came out in Russia with similar extras and a similar poor transfer to the Image Entertainment release.

    Wild Side Video released a restored version of the film is Region 2 in France in 2006. This version has the exact same extras as the Image Entertainment release but the video and audio transfers are significantly better, although the film is present on a single-sided DVD.

    In 2007, The Criterion Collection released their version of the film on DVD in Region 1 in the United States. The video and audio transfers are pristine and extras include a commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini, an interview with Paul Mason, the theatrical trailer and stills gallery and a liner notes booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.

    The Region 1 Criterion Collection release of Brute Force therefore is the definitive version of the film on DVD.

    Brute Force represents Jules Dassin's first foray into film noir and was the beginning of a very successful period of his career. Fans of film noir will be delighted with this gripping prison film.

    Unfortunately, Brute Force has been released on DVD by Madman Entertainment's Directors Suite label without any extras, which is unusual. However, the film is still worth picking up for fans of classic film noir.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall