A Man Alone Blu Ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Timothy Bodzioney]

Timothy Bodzioney submitted a new blog post

A Man Alone Blu Ray Review

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

You sold me on this one!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for your review as its been many years since I last saw "A Man Alone". I'm looking forward to revisiting this film again once Kino has their December sale. I'm please that it has an audio commentary. That type of bonus material is usually my favorite kind if the commentary is good and informative which appears to be the case with this one.

 

[stinky fitzwizzle]

So what is a movie comment thread without a projection ratio controversy? Why is this shown 1.66:1? Should not it be 1.85:1? Or does Stinky quibble?

Stinky's Uncle Dave is convinced he came up with "Cranky Ray", but the reality may be obscured through the mists of time. No doubt, however, that Cranky Ray is a joy to behold.

Stinky once had a friend who was addicted to gyros. He was constantly on the lamb.

 

[Robert Crawford]

AFI list this Republic Picture as having 1.66:1 OAR.

 

[stinky fitzwizzle]

Curious, since American theaters did not show movies in this ratio.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I finally got my Blu-ray today and immediately watched it. It's been many years since I last watched this film and I couldn't remember much from it except the sequence when he's hiding out after shooting the deputy. The Blu-ray looks good with varying degrees of being excellent to just alright. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this Blu-ray. I'm sure the reason why he cast himself was a financial one due to small budget as it was a Republic picture and him doing double-duty to fit that budget. Let's remember that Republic ceased making films only a few years after this film's release. I believe their last year of film production was 1958.

 

[Eastmancolor]

The commentary track on the disc of A MAN ALONE, done by Toby Roan, has a factual error that has carried over to the review here.

This and other Trucolor films from around 1954 (including the other Ray Milland epic released recently by Kino, LISBON) were NOT shot in Trucolor but on Eastmancolor negative. YCM color separation master positives were made for back up protection, but the negative was single strip Eastman. Roan made a comment how this film was shot in Trucolor's 3-strip process, though no such animal ever existed. Republic could not use Technicolor's 3-strip cameras and label it "Trucolor" and dye transfer printing couldn't be done at CFI, so producer Herbert Yates turned to Eastmancolor in order to get full color for his mid to late 1950's pictures.

Prints were made at CFI and they were advertised as Trucolor, but by this point they were Eastman prints. Just like Metrocolor prints were nothing more than Eastman prints that were printed and processed at Metro's lab, Trucolor was Eastman printed at Republic's lab in the 50's. Trucolor prints of this period also faded pink over time.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The commentary track on the disc of A MAN ALONE, done by Toby Roan, has a factual error that has carried over to the review here.

This and other Trucolor films from around 1954 (including the other Ray Milland epic released recently by Kino, LISBON) were NOT shot in Trucolor but on Eastmancolor negative. YCM color separation master positives were made for back up protection, but the negative was single strip Eastman. Roan made a comment how this film was shot in Trucolor's 3-strip process, though no such animal ever existed. Republic could not use Technicolor's 3-strip cameras and label it "Trucolor" and dye transfer printing couldn't be done at CFI, so producer Herbert Yates turned to Eastmancolor in order to get full color for his mid to late 1950's pictures.

Prints were made at CFI and they were advertised as Trucolor, but by this point they were Eastman prints. Just like Metrocolor prints were nothing more than Eastman prints that were printed and processed at Metro's lab, Trucolor was Eastman printed at Republic's lab in the 50's. Trucolor prints of this period also faded pink over time.

Right, RAH made note of that misnomer in his The Last Command review another Republic film released a year later than A Man Alone.

While the liner notes seem to make something special about the fact that The Last Command was derived from a new 4k scan of the original Trucolor negative, we'll not spend a great of time on that one.

While Trucolor in the late 1940s was a two-color process, by 1953 it was boring old 5248 Eastman Color tri-pak.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

What's nice, however, is that we do have a new scan, presumably courtesy of Paramount, as part of their overall preservation program.

And since the film is early (as opposed to late) Eastman, the color is quite nice. Film grain, shadow detail, overall resolution, and stability are all up to very pleasing levels.

 

[jim_falconer]

I just stumbled upon this film on Hulu, and now I ABSOLUTELY must get the blu ray! It almost seemed like a companion piece to Johnny Guitar. Not so much the story, but the TruColor processing, the same secondary actors used in both, and even some of the black western suits were ported over to A Man Alone. I was hooked from the opening 10-15 minutes without dialogue, quite engaging.

The review for the transfer sounds great! The Hulu presentation was average at best. Can’t wait to get this newly discovered western classic!

 

[Stefano B]

It seems like the bluray for this particular title recently went OOP, unfortunately...

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just stumbled upon this film on Hulu, and now I ABSOLUTELY must get the blu ray! It almost seemed like a companion piece to Johnny Guitar. Not so much the story, but the TruColor processing, the same secondary actors used in both, and even some of the black western suits were ported over to A Man Alone. I was hooked from the opening 10-15 minutes without dialogue, quite engaging.

The review for the transfer sounds great! The Hulu presentation was average at best. Can’t wait to get this newly discovered western classic!

As Stefano has stated this BD title has gone OOP except for a few retailers like Target. Be careful, as the DVD is still available at different retailers so don't buy that by mistake.

 

[jim_falconer]

As Stefano has stated this BD title has gone OOP except for a few retailers like Target. Be careful, as the DVD is still available at different retailers so don't buy that by mistake.

Thanks for the heads up...didn’t realize it went OOP