M Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Fantastic

This is truly a fantastic film.

The plot meanders along giving you the sense of a spectre haunting sets as the story slowly unravels itself.

The acting is very strong making particular note to the opposing parts of the police chief and mob boss who through there own ways are both after similar goals.

the only complaints i have are with the production of the DVD its self:

1. the print is in clear need of restoration with it even braking up in parts and the contrast has be hugely lost. It amazes me that a film of such significance has been left to reach such a condition.

2. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put white subtitles over the screen on a black and white film, it renders about half the script unreadable making the viewer more or less having to guess the ends of sentences.

3. What is with the menu screen being full of female vampires and bare breasts??? not right for a PG DVD or anything to do with the plot.

Good film - Rubbish DVD

Although this film was quite slow to start it eventually got really engrossing. It was particularly interesting to see directorial techniques and plot elements that we still see today.

I'd like to echo some of the comments that other reviewers have said about the DVD. White subtitles on a black and white screen render pretty much 20% of the script unreadable. I found myself straining to read the white on white text rather than actually watching the film. The quality at times is appalling, at one point, the film skips and you can actually see the borders of the cells as though it was jumping on a 1930s projector.

The title screen of the DVD was the most bizarre thing of all. Gun toting, bare-breasted vampire women? What's that all about? The missus thought I'd rented some kind of fetish porn film by accident.

All in all, it's a good, interesting film but it sometimes borders on unwatchable because of the terrible quality of the DVD. I'd recommend waiting / hoping for a better quality remaster before renting this.