Tonight's Movie: The Tattered Dress (1957) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

THE TATTERED DRESS (1957) is a gem of a movie which is part of the Kino Lorber Dark Side of Cinema XV collection.

I first saw this film in 2012, thanks to a friend's copy. What a pleasure to return to it now, over a decade later, thanks to Kino Lorber's Blu-ray! I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it.

To my knowledge, this is the first time THE TATTERED DRESS been made available for home viewing in the U.S., and the same is true of the other movies in the set, MAN AFRAID (1957) and THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957).

Courtroom drama meets small-town corruption in this film, which I noted one reviewer described as a lower-key TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). It struck me as an apt comparison.

Jeff Chandler plays defense attorney James Gordon Blane, a serially unfaithful husband to Diane (Jeanne Crain) who thinks nothing of blowing thousands gambling. Despite his rocky personal life, he's highly successful in the courtroom, which allows him to fund his vices...and nearly leads to his complete undoing.

Blane has been summoned to a small town in Nevada to defend wealthy Michael Reston (Phillip Reed) for gunning down the young man (Floyd Simmons) who'd supposedly assaulted Reston's voluptuous young wife Charleen (Elaine Stewart).

Blane's defense of Reston angers the murder victim's friend Sheriff Hoak (Jack Carson), who conspires with a vulnerable juror (Gail Russell) to frame Blane for a crime he didn't commit.

The story might be improbable at times -- for instance, would a judge (Edwin Jerome) really allow Blane to yell at a witness for a prolonged period? -- but it's a highly engrossing 93 minutes. The film is well written (by George Zuckerman) and compellingly acted by a fine cast.

I'll refer readers to my previous review for more extensive analysis, but suffice it to say this is a very engrossing film about a group of imperfect yet highly interesting characters. It defines "high-class melodrama."

Chandler is particularly noteworthy for his fearlessness in playing a character who is quite far from a hero. The lead actors are well supported by a deep cast, with Edward Platt and Edward Andrews particularly effective as a reporter and a defense attorney, respectively.

The movie was directed by Jack Arnold, who made a great many sci-fi films and Westerns I've enjoyed. It was shot in black and white CinemaScope by Carl E. Guthrie. The Nevada exteriors were filmed in Palm Springs.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print is a new HD master from a 2K scan of the 35mm fine grain. It looks very good most of the time, although there are some patches which are notably softer, particularly an exterior Chandler-Crain scene late in the movie; that said, those moments didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

Extras consist of a commentary track by Jason A. Ney; the trailer, newly mastered in 2K; and a gallery of half a dozen additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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