Dark City

Released by: Olive Films
Released on: December 23rd, 2014.
Director: William Dieterle
Cast: Charlton Heston, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb
Year: 1950
Purchase From Amazon

The Movie:

Directed by William Dieterle (who also helmed Rope Of Sand) on 1950, Dark City is known as a pretty important stepping stone for actor Charlton Heston. Before he'd go on to star in huge Biblical epics and sci-fi blockbusters throughout the sixties and seventies he'd play his first leading role in this low budget crime film.

Heston plays a man named Danny who, along with Augie (Jack Webb), and Barney (Ed Begley, Sr.), is flat broke since their bookmaking operation was shut down by the cops. It seems that pay out they were offering the fuzz didn't do them much good. When Danny heads to the nightclub to watch his girlfriend, Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott), perform, he comes into contact with a WWII vet named Arthur Winant (Don DeFore). This man just so happens to be carrying a five thousand dollar cashier's check on his person and Danny sees some easy money. He's able to three coerce Arthur into joining he and the guys in a little game of poker.

The first night, Arthur makes it out of there ahead a few hundred bucks but the next night, his last in Chicago, the guys get him back. With the game rigged from the start, Winant loses it all - mission accomplished, these guys made their mark and he signs over the check.

The next morning Danny, Barney and Soldier (Harry Morgan), Barney's right hand man, read in the papers that Winant committed suicide. They didn't see this coming and this turn of events is going to make cashing that cashier's check more than a little difficult. If that weren't bad enough, Arthur's brother, Sidney (Mike Mazurki), isn't going to deal with the cops but is instead going to avenge his brother's death on his own terms while the Chicago Police Department's Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger) starts to snoop around.

Heavy on atmosphere and character development Dark City spends as much time exploring the complications that arise within the group of crooks once they realize they're responsible for Arthur's death as it does dealing in shadowy, noirish requirements. It's got some seriously solid character development that's handled well by the talented cast and it's interesting to see how these actors each take this aspect of the story in a different direction. As Sidney starts to close in and the group's strengths as a unit quickly fray, tension mounts and the different characters try to reconcile their guilt and justify their actions in interesting and entirely believable ways.

The acting is strong across the board. Heston shows star power here, even this early in his career, and he's got a magnetic personality that makes his Danny an interesting character. The script drops hints about his military background leaving elements of that open to interpretation but it fleshes him out well, showing us the lengths he will go to in order to try to make things right. Of course, none of this matters to Sidney, well played by Mike Mazurki - the film focuses often on his hands and only his hands, making you wonder if this maybe influenced some of the 'black glove killers' so often seen in the Italian Giallo boom that would come years down the road. It's a stretch, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Jack Webb is fun to watch here and Lizabeth Scott a real stunner and wonderfully cast as the torch style chanteuse. Supporting efforts from Dean Jagger, Ed Begley, Sr. and Harry Morgan round out the cast nicely.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Dark City arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Detail here is very good and while some minor print damage does show up, the source used for the transfer was obviously pretty clean (though it does warp once or twice during playback) as it's very minor. The transfer is grainy enough to look film sourced but never to the point where it distracts. The film definitely benefits from the strong detail and texture that the HD transfer offers, providing a noticeable improvement over the DVD release from a couple of years ago. Black levels are nice and strong, and contrast really good. For the most part this is a satisfyingly crisp image offering nice texture and impressive shadow detail.

The English language DTS-HD Mono Audio track on the disc is pretty good. The score sounds quite strong here and the dialogue stays crisp and clear, it's never a problem understanding any of the characters. Levels are well balanced and there's as much depth as you could reasonably expect from an older. The limitations of the source material do come through, as they should, but this is a clean track with decent depth and clarity. There are no alternate language options or subtitles of any kind offered on this disc.

Aside from a static menu offering chapter selection, there are no extra features on this disc at all.

The Final Word:

Dark City is not only interesting to see because it's Heston's leading man debut, but it's also a damn fine film noir. It's suspenseful, nicely shot and plenty intriguing and it makes great use of a solid cast of performers. Olive's Blu-ray release is barebones, as most of their releases are, but it looks and sounds quite nice. Definitely recommended on the strength of the film and the presentation.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!