The Man In Half Moon Street — The Man In Half Moon Street( Blu Ray)
From the early 1940s, The Man In Half Moon Street is a Paramount-made noir flavoured with elements of romantic drama, horror and sci-fi. Here from Imprint is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new 2k scan of the picture & a commentary track from respected film historian Tim Lucas.
The Man In Half Moon Street was filmed in 1943- then seemingly put on the shelve until 1945 when it was finally released. It was directed by Rockville, Connecticut Ralph Murphy. He has forty-five feature-length credits which begin in the 1930s with would-be swindlers comedy The Big Shot, sports mystery 70,000 Witnesses, and Pre-Code comedy/ crime mystery Private Scandal. In the 1940’s he went on to make the comedy-drama Glamour Boy, the Pacific Island set romantic comedy musical Rainbow Island, & western adventure Red Stallion in the Rockies. His film career rather came to an end in the mid-50s going on to direct US TV shows- though he did do a few features like the historic adventure Lady in the Iron Mask, and the action-adventure Mystery of the Black Jungle.
After a moody fog-bound London prologue the film opens with a party at a large house- it’s been held to reveal the portrait of well-to-do twenty-something Eve Brandon (Helen Walker). The painting has been completed by tall, dark-haired & seemingly very charming Julian Karell (Nils Asther). The party goes well, and all seem impressed by the painting- though one of the guests thinks it rather looks like the work of an artist from many years back- and here we get our first hint at what’s going on here.
As the celebrations wind down, we find out Eve has very much fallen for Julain, and he’s not just an artist but is also a doctor- who is not as he seems thirty-something, but instead he’s one hundred & twenty years old- maintain his youth by drink a potion. But things aren’t working as they were meant to anymore & he’s starting to age- with it showing in his hands at first.
One night out he seemingly rescues a man from drowning in the misty bound Thames - but he’s seemingly been picked deliberately & with the help of his now elderly surgeon friend Kurt van Bruecken (Reinhold Schünzel) he hopes to harvest the glands from the man to stop his ageing.
Acting wise Asther is excellent as the charming, but very shifty painter/ doctor. Walker is well placed as the besotted Eve. Other worthy mentions are Edmund Breon as Eve’s walking with a cane but lively ageing father, and Schünzel as the elderly surgeon.
The film runs at just over the hour & thirty minutes mark, and while there may be a few more romantic drama moments than needed- the blending of noir, with light sci-fi, and horror touches is well realized. And you do really wonder if the sneaky Julian will manage to resolve his sudden ageing issue- before Eve & the rest of the world find out how old he really is.
The region-free Blu-ray is presented in a see-through case- featuring the film's original poster art on one side and on the other a still from the film. With the whole thing finished off glossy card slip. The film gets a new 2k scan- this is well balanced in its black & white stock, with good definition throughout.
The only extra here is a new commentary track from film historian Tim Lucas- and as usual with his tracks, it’s a wonderful researched & observed affair, which I can definitely see myself revisiting it again. He begins by talking about how the film first got shown in Sydney Australia- some weeks before its US release. He touches on the fog-bound shots of London streets that open the film, before confirming, in reality, it was all shot of Paramount’s backlot Hollywood. He touches on the films score, pointing out notable cues- before discussing the other work of its composer Miklós Rózsa. He gives brief bios of actors as they appear- mentioning notable other roles they played. We find out the film was based on a play that was shown in London in the year 1939, going on to have one hundred and seventy-two performances. He touches on the film's 1959 Hammer remake The Man Who Could Cheat Death. He discusses the career of male lead Nils Asther, some of his notable roles, as well as suggesting he may well have been bi-sexual. He talks about the film's screenwriters and their other notable screenplays. Later on, he discusses the lead characters' motivation, and how a man might/ might not change over an extended lifetime. He talks about the film's title/ meaning, as well as the real street in London which is located near the Piccadilly area of the city. The use of portraits in the film's plot, and of course much more.
The Man In Half Moon Street does add effective horror & sci-fi elements to its noir template- making it stand out from the genre's rather large output in the 1940s. So it’s great to see this new Blu-Ray release from Imprint, with its well-defined 2k print, and of course the excellent commentary track from Mr Lucas.