UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Torn Curtain -- in 4k UHD (2 Viewers)

[Robert Harris]

Hitchcock's 1966 Torn Curtain was one of his more troubled productions, but is very much worth your attention, especially as it rounds out his career, which was followed by only three additional films. It's also the final film with true star power - Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.

Another film that has never looked particularly good on home video, it's finally received Universal's 4k treatment with a new scan. I've never seen it look this highly resolved, even in it's original dye transfer release - and because of the dye transfer release which is soft.

It has been discussed before that a 4k scan of an OCN has both positive and negative attributes, and Torn Curtain, while almost all positive, has the negative in Hitchcock's constant desire to shoot in the studio. This means - and you've seen it in Notorious and Family Plot - that certain shots use process photography.

In this case, it's a restaurant sequence with the leads placed in front of rear screen projection, which doesn't match the foreground, and jitters, looking precisely like what it is.

In original prints, this blended more delicately. Here, it's right out front for all to see.

Production photography makes full use of the 4k technology, for an astoundingly highly resolved image for 1966.

Slip matches the other four in this release series.

Production Designer is Hein Heckroth. If the name is meaningless, best to look him up. He's a big deal.

Image – 5 (HDR10)

Audio – 5 (DTS-HD MA 2.0)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 7.5

Upgrade from Blu-ray - Absolutely!

Worth your attention - 7.5

Slipcover rating - 2

Recommended

RAH


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[Matt Hough]

Good to hear! I've always been a fan of the film; when I reviewed the Blu-ray box set, I made an effort to explain why I find the film so effective. Glad we have a disc now worthy of it.

 

[Robin9]

Good to hear! I've always been a fan of the film; when I reviewed the Blu-ray box set, I made an effort to explain why I find the film so effective. Glad we have a disc now worthy of it.

I'll have to re-read your review! I've always liked this film and I saw it when it first came out to a pretty unenthusiastic reception. I'll be very interested to watch this 4K disc.

 

[Dick]

The best "it's hard to kill a man without a gun" sequence in memory. And with no music! (Anyone not familiar with the debacle of the music score for this film is encouraged to do some digging - it's a fascinating story).

 

[PMBen]

Didn't this film, as well as Marnie, use quite a bit of difussion? The images that come to my mind when I think of it always seem slightly hazy...

 

[Matt Hough]

I'll have to re-read your review! I've always liked this film and I saw it when it first came out to a pretty unenthusiastic reception. I'll be very interested to watch this 4K disc.

I'll save you some time. Here's the paragraph I added about Torn Curtain:

[An addendum from Matt Hough: I am one of the few fans of Torn Curtain, a film I feel contains scenes as powerful and as evocative as in some of Hitchcock’s masterpieces. The pursuit through the art gallery, the silent murder, the frantic escape on the bus, the gathering danger at the ballet and the subsequent escape: all remain powerful suspense sequences in the Master’s repertoire. True, the old-school Hollywood techniques of rear projection and studio sets attempting to substitute for real locations are phonier than they needed to be, but if one can overlook those lapses and perhaps a slower than necessary pace, the film works well, at least for me. My film rating: 3.5/5]

 

[Robert Harris]

I neglected to make a historical note.

The opera sequence was shot on Universal’s Stage 28, which was still dressed for the 1925 Phantom of the Opera. Now demolished to expand the tour and rides.

 

[lark144]

I neglected to make a historical note.

The opera sequence was shot on Universal’s Stage 28, which was still dressed for the 1925 Phantom of the Opera. Now demolished to expand the tour and rides.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie, referencing the beginning of The 39 Steps, and also Tales of Hoffman, realized in Hein Heckroft's paintings for the stage set.

 

[stevenHa]

Also, amazing work from Albert Whitlock.

 

[Dr. Lejos]

Agree with Mr. Hough’s assessment that TORN CURTAIN still has much to admire, tho the one major drawback for me has always been the music score. Lots has been written about the unfortunate breakup with Herrmann … and we’ve all been spoiled by their near perfect work together in previous films .. but the score here is practically counter-Hitchcock in terms of augmenting mood and scenes of tension. The most successful sequence, the killing of the agent, tellingly has no score. And the Hitchcock cameo, underscored by the “Hitch theme song” was enough to make me cringe.

The composer here, John Addison, has many fine credits on his resumé, but this seems to be just an unfortunate mating of material and talents.

 

[John Maher_289910]

I love the film's Main Title theme.

 

[Robert Harris]

Also, amazing work from Albert Whitlock.

Always!

 

[Patrick McCart]

I think this is an underrated Hitchcock. The chemistry between Newman and Andrews adds a lot of fun, plus more than a few memorable setpieces. Not a masterpiece, but I think we can forgive a guy who made over 50 feature films in his life for only making two great films that decade as opposed to four the previous one.

 

[Garysb]

I am going to have to revisit the Volume 3 Hitchcock films based on the reviews I am reading. I have the iTune streaming versions which have all now upgraded to 4K.

 

[TravisR]

...I think we can forgive a guy who made over 50 feature films in his life for only making two great films that decade as opposed to four the previous one.

Absolutely agree. While I think he started to run out of creative gas in the mid to late 60's (the 70's were a rebound though), those two movies have outstanding moments so they aren't that bad and who really cares about a couple of "mistakes" when he made masterpiece after masterpiece for the majority of his career.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: for as great as Hitchcock is, his clunker list is distressingly larger than it should be.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: for as great as Hitchcock is, his clunker list is distressingly larger than it should be.

Name the titles you consider clunkers.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Absolutely agree. While I think he started to run out of creative gas in the mid to late 60's (the 70's were a rebound though), those two movies have outstanding moments so they aren't that bad and who really cares about a couple of "mistakes" when he made masterpiece after masterpiece for the majority of his career.

I think he, like Charlie Chaplin, sort of ran out of gas at a certain point, and had been used to doing what he was doing the way he was doing it for so long that he just wasn’t equipped to change with the times. He had been so far ahead of the curve for so long that it took decades for the mainstream to catch up with him, and when it did, he didn’t seem to have the drive to stake out a new place. And to be fair, most people in that position at that age in any industry would simply retire. Instead he basically became the filmmaking equivalent of late career Rolling Stones, putting out material that wasn’t dreadful but was no longer revolutionary, that the mainstream wasn’t going to flock to and that his longtime fans were indifferent to.

It’s sort of too bad because I would have been curious to see, for instance, Hitchcock shooting in scope, or doing a 70mm extravaganza. I would have liked to have seen him try his hand at location shooting. But that wasn’t who he was. And I suppose we can’t fault him for remaining true to himself because that served him well for 95% of his career.

 

[Dr. Lejos]

There was a Hitchcock documentary … it may have been part of the Biography series … which gave some insight into the mid-60s period at Universal. Hitchcock apparently tried to launch a project which was referred to as KALEIDOSCOPE FRENZY (unrelated to the subsequent FRENZY) which was a “new wave” style, cold-as-ice thriller for which they showed some surviving early shooting or test footage … looking quite unlike anything else in Hitchcock, who again seemed to be reaching ahead of the curve.

They went on to explain that Universal execs were somewhat shocked and adverse to it, complaining it would tarnish the very lucrative Hitchcock franchise, probably anchored by his television work which took him into American homes every week, by being too outré for the mainstream. I recall thinking, after seeing the footage, that he might have been trying to integrate some of the trends being espoused by his new friend Truffaut.

Anyway, the project was terminated, and TORN CURTAIN was selected as a replacement, conforming to Universal’s whims, but curtailing what could have been far more cutting edge than CURTAIN, which I recall got a lot of “old fashioned” comments from critics, tho was commercially successful, as it couldn’t help to be, considering all the 60s marquee value it had.

 

[TravisR]

I think he, like Charlie Chaplin, sort of ran out of gas at a certain point, and had been used to doing what he was doing the way he was doing it for so long that he just wasn’t equipped to change with the times.

I think that's largely true but then there's the outlier of Frenzy where he embraced the freedom of the R rating and made a movie with some really disturbing scenes.