A Lovely Way to Die seemed like a movie right up my alley, however I found it to be pretty darn dull not to mention characters I couldn’t care less about, though I will say Eli Wallach had a few fun scenes at least.
A Lovely Way to Die
(1968)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Mystery, Crime
Kino Lorber| NR – 104 min. – $24.95 | April 27, 2021
Date Published: 04/25/2021 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: Hard-bitten police detective Jim Schuyler (KIRK DOUGLAS) turns in his badge out of frustration with the system’s increasingly lenient treatment of career criminals. Becoming a private eye, Schuyler takes his first case from slick defense attorney Tennessee Fredericks (ELI WALLACH), who wants him to protect his beautiful client, Rena Westabrook (SYLVA KOSCINA), who is about to stand trial for her husband’s murder. Soon Schuyler finds himself drawn deeper than he expected into Rena’s life.
Quick Hit Review: A Lovely Way to Die is an easy movie for me to review: dull, boring and ultimately forgettable. I normally am drawn to these crime-thrillers but this one never quite grabbed my attention despite the expected great screen presence from the legendary Kirk Douglas, however his character isn’t very likable (a quintessential womanizer, but it was the 1960s…) nor was Sylva Koscina’s Rena who was a klutz and just plain dumb during the lame finale. Beyond that, the comedic tone doesn’t work and the score by Kenyon Hopkins was at times way overbearing, albeit in keeping with the comedy the writer (A.J. Russell) and director (David Lowell Rich) were going for. In any case, it’s not a big surprise why A Lovely Way to Die has been lost to the annals of cinema.
|
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2/5 |
|
Not a whole lot of features but included is a new Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Burger and Steve Mitchell, recorded over the internet due to Covid-19 restrictions. There is also the U.S. Theatrical Trailer and the International Theatrical Trailer. |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Kino Lorber releases A Lovely Way to Die onto Blu-ray and is presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Given there is nothing on the back cover stating this was restored in any way, presumably Kino received the transfer from Universal and even so, the picture here looks good, detail is relatively sharp and the original film grain and noise has been retained while colors are well balanced and have a natural appearance. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The movie comes with a basic but effective DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Dialogue comes across with good clarity as does the aforementioned overbearing score and cheesy mid-60s era songs, namely the movie’s title theme that opens the film. There is some okay depth for any of the action-centric scenes. |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
|
A Lovely Way to Die seemed like a movie right up my alley, however I found it to be pretty darn dull not to mention characters I couldn’t care less about, though I will say Eli Wallach had a few fun scenes at least. The Blu-ray released by Kino Lorber offers up respectable video and audio transfers but limited in the features department. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.