Journey Into Fear – Warner Archive (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1943
Director: Norman Foster
Writers: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Río, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Durant, Everett Sloane, Eustace Wyatt, Orson Welles

Release Date: September 24th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 68 Minutes 35 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $21.99

"Orson Welles' touches of cinematic brilliance make Journey Into Fear a stunning success. From Welles' Mercury Theater comes this imaginative and exciting tale of terror (NY TIMES). Under the direction of Norman Foster, Joseph Cotten (who also wrote the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Eric Ambler) stars as an American gunnery engineer pursued by Gestapo agents. His adventures make him cross paths with an impressive array of characters portrayed by Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, Hans Conried, and Welles himself, who plays Colonel Haki, head of the Turkish Secret Police." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "New 4K restoration from safety preservation master positives from the Library of Congress."

Journey Into Fear comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 39 GB

Feature: 18.4 GB

The source looks excellent; image clarity and compression are solid, contrast and black levels are strong throughout, and there are no issues with digital noise reduction.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English with removable English SDH subtitles. The audio is in great shape. The dialog comes through clearly and everything sounds balanced. Range wise, the audio sounds very good for a film of this vintage.

Extras:

Extras for this release include three audio-only Orson Welles Mercury Theater radio broadcasts: Dracula, originally broadcast on July 11th, 1938 (59 minutes 29 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), Treasure Island, originally broadcast on July 18th, 1938 (64 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles) and A Tale of Two Cities, originally broadcast on July 25th, 1938 (59 minutes 26 second, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles).

Summary:

The Turkish secret police help an American ballistic expert escape German assassins by putting him on a ship.

Orson Welles may have had involvement in directing Journey Into Fear, beyond his credited roles as actor, producer, and co-screenwriter. When asked about the authorship of Journey Into Fear, Orson Welles gives all of the credit to director Norman Foster. That said, despite Norman Foster being a well-versed filmmaker with 16 films directed before Journey Into Fear, the result is a film that stylistically does not resemble his other films.

And yet while watching Journey Into Fear, you don’t have to look further than the opening sequence to find a moment that is undeniably Orson Welles. This sequence opens with a sensational crane shot from outside into an open window. An unknown assassin gets ready while a record player in the background continually skips. This moment is pure Welles, calling into question his role behind the camera.

After the release of Citizen Kane, studios significantly altered Orson Welles' original visions for all his films. Orson Welles re-edited the last reel of RKO's film after negative press previews. Also, new scenes were shot, and a voice of narration was added. At a film festival, a six-minute longer alternate cut of Journey Into Fear was shown in 2005. This alternate cut omits the voiceover narration and ending that are present in the U.S. version.

Journey Into Fear has an impressive cast, many of whom worked with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane and/or The Magnificent Ambersons. Performance-wise, the cast are all great in their roles, especially Orson Welles, who portrays a Turkish colonel. Despite his character having limited screen time, his performance looms large throughout. Joseph Cotten (The Third Man) in the role of the protagonist delivers a solid performance, and Dolores Del Río’s (Wild Flower) portrayal of a dancer who befriends the protagonist is another memorable performance.

Even in its current form, Journey Into Fear is a riveting film that always holds your attention. And at 68 minutes in length, its narrative does a phenomenal job building tension. That said, though the narrative has a lot of moving parts, it is never difficult to follow what's unfolding. Another strength of Journey Into Fear is its Film noir visuals, which do a superb job reinforcing the mood. Ultimately, Journey Into Fear is a well-made espionage film that fans of Film noir should thoroughly enjoy.

Journey Into Fear gets an excellent release from Warner Archive that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a trio of entertaining extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer