Black Tuesday

Eureka's Masters Of Cinema Series brings a little seen classic piece of film noir to Blu-ray. The restoration of Black Tuesday, Hugo Fregonese's violent prison break movie, is well done. Almost architecturally, the black and white film makes use of heightened light and shade, relying on a crisp, geometric delineation of shadow. Counterpoint in the sound design, the interplay of dialogue and gunshot, is a prominent element. The film is all about hard contrasts. Without noise or fuzz, the restoration reproduces them starkly.

The Blu-ray has an audio commentary, three features and an original trailer. The commentary and the features put the film, and prominent members of cast and crew, in historical, social and political context. The commentators are personable and what they have to say is interesting. There is some repetition between them, such as discussion of the film stock used in the film, but it doesn't feels like your're wading through the same stuff over and over again. The original trailer is a fun little watch. It sells the film but misses the point, ignoring Manning (Peter Graves) who is arguably the most important character in the film. Edward G Robinson has top billing but Peter Graves is the lead actor.

The menu system on the disk is clean, easy to navigate and glitch free.

Artwork on Black Tuesday's box is in keeping with the aesthetics of the film. The original posters are a bit twee by today's standards, and have the look of a horror B movie. Overall Black Tuesday is a fine example from the latter part of American film noir, a dark gem that deserves to be rediscovered. This package does it justice.