IMPACT (1949)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 110 Minutes 50 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker, Helen Walker, Anna May Wong, Robert Warwick, Clarence Kolb, Art Baker
In noir-thriller Impact (1949), directed by Arthur Lubin (The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Phantom of the Opera), Walter Willams (Brian Donlevy, The Quatermass Xperiment), a San Francisco-based millionaire industrialist has it all, he's well-respected, has money and power, and a gorgeous young wife, Irene (Helen Walker, Nightmare Alley) that he is head over heels about. At the start of the film they're about to go on a mini-vacation to Lake Tahoe, but Irene says she's suffering a painful toothache and cannot go, but asks that her husband to give her down and out "cousin" Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome) who's been thumbing it home to Illinois. What Walter is oblivious to it his loving wife is actually a duplicitous, greedy, femme fatale, and that her "cousin" Jim is actually her lover, and together they illicit lovers have hatched a murder plan to kill the industrialist.
When repairing a flat tire high-up in the Sierra Mountains Jim enacts their murder plan, while Walter is distracted with the tire he hits him over the head with a tire iron and rolls him down the steep embankment. After getting spooked by a moving van that pulls over for assistance Torrence speeds off in Walters cream-colored Roadster and plows head-on into a fuel-tanker, careening off a cliff and going-up in flames, dying in a fireball.
In the aftermath the bloodied and shaken Walter wakes up from his knock on the noggin, and starts putting together the pieces of what has happened, realizing that his beloved Irene was part of this murder-plot, seeing newspapers announcing that he is dead, that the charred remains of his would-be killer have been mistaken for his own. Instead of returning home to accuse he claims amnesia and goes into hiding, ending up in the village of Larkspur, Idaho, where he ends up taking on job as a mechanic at a gas station run by war-widow beauty Marsha Peters (Ella Raines, Suspect).
All the while secretly clipping new articles about his death, and dreaming of eventually bringing the treacherous Irene to justice, meanwhile back in San Francisco investigating officer Lt. Tom Quincy (Charles Coburn, How To Murder a Rich Uncle) discovers evidence against Irene that implicates her in her husband's death, and even without Walter making an accusation, finds herself on trial!
When Walter starts to develop feelings for Marsha he is made to realize that he must return to San Francisco to set the record straight, but when he does re-appear the duplicitous Irene spins a new tale and she ends up free while Walter himself ends up in jail for the murder of his wife's lover! More of a noir-ish melodrama than an actual hard-boiled thriller, that ends up evolving into a bity of a courtroom drama there at the end, I thought this was quite entertaining, if highly improbable and convoluted.
Brian Donlevy usually played heavies, but I thought he was solid here as the nice-guy industrialist who finds the wool pulled over his eyes by the duplicitous femme fatale, who as played by Helen Walker is also quite terrific, the way she had Walter wrapped around her finger early on, cold-bloodedly she lies and turns on a dime without losing a beat. The scene where Walter anonymously phones her and discovers that she was without a doubt involved with his attempted murder and that look of stunned realization washes over his face, it's terrific stuff.
The film is notable for also featuring Anna May Wong (Island of Lost Men) as housekeeper Su Lin Chung, it's a small part, by the character is a bit of a lynch-pin the story, she holding clues to Irene's guilt, with a determined Marsha chasing her through the streets of San Francisco by car and by foot to help free her love-interest from jail and to beat the false murder charge against him.
It's a bit of a mash-up, we get noir-ish elements, melodrama, a courtroom drama, and a budding romance story, the only real issue I had was that it's almost two damn hours long, and it didn't need to be, there's lot of passing here, like a goofy volunteer fire department scene that occurs while Walter is taking his three-month long residency in Larkspur. This could have been a real-banger at 90-minutes, but even still, I had a good time watching it, but I felt the minutes ticking by at a certain point.
Audio/Video: Impact (1949) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.33:1 fullscreen aspect ratio. The image looks quite nice, not perfection by any means, but solid. The source shows imperfections like speckles, small tears and scratched, and a bit of frame judder, and some inherent softness. The black levels are solid though, and contrast levels and grayscale are pleasing. Grain is intact but not cumbersome, and I did not detect any egregious compression issues during my viewing, Audio comes by way of lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track has a bit of background noise, but is largely clean and well-balanced, a bit thin in it's range, but solid.
The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD set arrives in a clear, dual-hub keepcase with a 2-sided non-reversible sleeve of artwork.
Extras include an Audio Commentary by Bernard M. Prokop, Associate Professor Colorado Christian University, plus a
Poster & Photo Gallery. The same extras are mirrored on the accompanying DVD disc which also features an SD version of the film.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Bernard M. Prokop, Associate Professor Colorado Christian University
- Poster & Photo Gallery (6:28)
Screenshots from the VCI Blu-ray:
Buy it!
#ad
