Please release this classic with a proper anamorphic widescreen DVD!!!!!
It deserves more than the crappy 4x3 PAN&SCAN (to answer another post here, that's what it is, not open matte) version which also has a very poor picture quality (grain, dirt, focus problems)
Interesting to read these comments. I've been a fan of this movie for years ever since seeing it in the theater as a young teen in the 70's. I have a VHS version of it from its Embassy release in the 80's, which has much of the issues described by other fans. I have no memory of the film ever showing up on TCM, or having seen it on pay cable either. Pity.
Yes- this deserves to be put out, maybe in a box set with other great Mitchum movies, or maybe a Phillip Marlowe boxed set.
I taped it off of Cinemax years and years ago. Hard to find to be sure, but it has to be if not the best made private eye movie ever the one of the ten best.
The casting was perfect all the way, and Thank You God for Robert Mitchum.
He even parodied this when he hosted Saturday Night Live. Great sketch where he is a private eye and can't help but narrate all the action ala private eye movie style.
Miss him very much. Please, someone, put this gem out on DVD in widescreen and with lost of extras (Have Jack, Harry Dean, Charlotte, etc. do some narration).
Thank you for your kind words.This my favorite film in my career.I miss Robert alot,he was beyond words. We became very good friends.This was my first film and what I learned from Robert about the industry was incrediable.
Not ideal, but I just bought an official Greek copy of the film on ebay and the picture is in non-anamorphic widescreen, ie a 4:3 Full Frame image with the widescreen feature, and the picture quality is good. Can then of course play around with the screen ratio's on the TV. It came in a printed cardboard sleeve for about $8 AUD.
This movie has now been released on DVD in the U. K. in anamorphic widescreen by Park Circus. There was previously a pan and scan DVD also in the U. K. so anyone buying this Park Circus DVD had better be careful they don't buy the wrong DVD! The Park Circus DVD has good picture and sound quality.