Detective Story is a 1951 classic crime drama directed by William Wyler and starring screen icon Kirk Douglas and host of screen legends in William Bendix, Craig Hill, Cathy O’Donnell, George Macready, and Gerald Mohr. It’s the story of a day in the life of a few criminals, officers, and detectives, but on this day, several lives are forever altered!
Kirk Douglas (Ace in the Hole, Lonely are the Brave, The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers) stars as vindictive Detective Jim McCloud who hates all criminals and wishes them dead, even the ones who do deserve a second chance after realizing the mistakes they’ve made. Jim has no mercy toward anyone and says his instinct tells him who are criminals. On this day, Jim is dealing with a man Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill, The Bloodstained Shadow, Cheaper by the Dozen) who was caught robbing his boss to impress his girl Susan Carmichael (Cathy O’Donnell, They Live by Night, The Best Years of their Lives), a maniacal criminal in Charley Gennini (Joseph Wiseman, Dr. No, The Valachi Papers) and Dr. Karl Schneider (screen legend George Macready, The Alligator People, My Name is Julia Ross, Gilda) who has some dirt on Jim’s wife Mary (Evelyn Parker, The Naked Jungle, Home from the Hill) that will affect their marriage.
Detective Story is a great film with a cast that also includes screen legend William Bendix (The Glass Key, Who Done It?) as Detective Lou Brody, a friend and confidant to Jim and Gerald Mohr (The Angry Red Planet, The Monster and the Girl) playing Tami Giacoppetti, a person from Mary McCloud’s past. The characters are all compelling and tells a great story within itself. The pacing is perfect to go with the lack of music which to me adds more to the drama in the story. The actors all hand in fantastic performances. William Wyler has directed another classic!
Detective Story gets a Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, who advertised that the film was “Remastered in HD by Paramount Pictures – From a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative”. The 4K scan has done wonders for the image quality as there are strong details and textures to the characters and scenery in the movie, 90% of it takes place inside a police station. The video quality looks stable all the way through. The greyscale certainly looks balanced. There are a few speckles here and there, but that’s about it. No print damage was detected. The lone issue I discovered was a minor jump cut at the 78-minute mark.
The big issue I had was with the audio, which the usual English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 track. The dialogue for Detective Story is much too subdued, and difficult to follow at my normal audio levels. I had to use the remote to get the volume to levels where I could hear some of the dialogue from the film, especially during its key moments. The few action sounds such as gunfire, and the music, where there is very little of, sounded the strongest. English subtitles are offered for this release.
The extras for this release include a commentary track by film historian Alan K. Rode, who takes a closer look at the film.
There are also several trailers for this release that includes Detective Story, Paths to Glory, Lonely are the Brave, A Lovely Way to Die, Cry of the City, The Web, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, The Turning Point, Deadline USA, and 99 River Street!
Even though the audio wasn’t strong enough as it usually is with Kino Lorber Blu-ray releases, all that needs to be done is just adjust the volume and you’ll be fine. The 4K scan has made the video quality for this release outstanding and it does also include a commentary track make Detective Story a recommended release from Kino Lorber!
Detective Story
Director- William Wyler
Cast- Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix
Country of Origin- USA
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/26/2022