Hell and High Water isn’t a great 1950s war adventure but it does serve well as a look back at the Cold War, anti-Communist era of that time and at the very least the production values are impressive enough to go along with solid performances by Richard Widmark and Bella Darvi.
Hell and High Water
— The Limited Edition Series —
(1954)
Genre(s): War, Adventure, Drama
Twilight Time | NR – 103 min. – $29.95 | June 13, 2017
Date Published: 06/27/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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PLOT SYNOPSIS
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| Mercenary sub commander, Captain Adam Jones (RICHARD WIDMARK), sells his services to noted atomic scientist Professor Montel (VICTOR FRANCEN) and his daughter, Denise (BELLA DARVI). Professor Montel is convinced the Communists are about to launch a nuclear attack on Korea from an island in the Arctic and blame it on the United States. Captain Jones does not care about politics, but the earnest Professor and his supporters win him over to their cause and they try to thwart the Communist’s plans. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5 |
| Along with the usual 8-page booklet, there’s also a Richard Widmark: Strength of Characters (44:23; SD) featurette and the Original Theatrical Trailers (2:27, 2:03; SD). |
VIDEO – 4.0/5, AUDIO – 3.5/5
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| Hell and High Water arrives on Blu-ray presented in its original 2.55 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Even though this likely did not get a major clean-up by Fox, the original licensee, this still looks pretty good showing off fine detail throughout and colors for the most part natural looking.
The disc has both a 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks; either option is adequate though switching between them, not a huge difference, though the former does have minimal extra depth especially with ambient noises through the rear channels. This isn’t going to give your sound system a workout but still adequate lossless tracks. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, Hell and High Water isn’t a great 1950s war adventure but it does serve well as a look back at the Cold War, anti-Communist era of that time and at the very least the production values are impressive enough to go along with solid performances by Richard Widmark and Bella Darvi with a special nod to Cameron Mitchell, a name familiar to any fan of Red Letter Media… The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time includes respectable video and audio transfers though the features do fall short. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.