- Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
- Video Codec: VC-1
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English HOH
- Region: B (Region-Locked)
- Classification: PG
- Discs: 1
- Studio: Optimum Home Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: July 25, 2011
- RRP: £19.99
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B00525QG5G[/amazon-product]
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
A classic piece of British wartime propaganda and paranoia, Went the Day Well? is the 1942 film from director Alberto Cavalcanti (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby; Dead of Night) based on a short story by Graham Greene. A rural English village during the War welcome into their town a small group of soldiers who are to lodge their temporarily, only to find that they are actually German soldiers in disguise looking to setup a Nazi outpost. With their efforts to reach out to the neighboring town for help all initially thwarted both by misfortune and a German spy among their own ranks working against them, the townsfolk eventually take arms against the enemy in a concerted effort to overtake their captors.
Went the Day Well? has all the nationalism and spirit one would expect from a 1942 anti-German film from the UK, and it is also beautifully shot, with dynamic lighting and nuanced mise-en-scène.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Went the Day Well? comes in quite a fine restoration from Optimum retaining its film-like appearance and a layer of grain along with some of the unavoidable blemishes such as specks of dirt, scratches, and tramlines. Blacks never go deeper than charcoal grey, but shadow detail is rather good. Foreground detail is strong, but backgrounds and distance shots tend to look a bit blurry and flat. Overall, however, this 1.66:1 framed VC-1 encodement is still quite pleasing and organic.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The original English monaural soundtrack is offered in LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit). It has good depth and fullness of sounds, Dialogue is clean and sound effects like rain rather believable.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
There isn’t much here, but it is high quality, nevertheless. Particularly of interest is an early Cavalcanti short, Yellow Caesar, about the rise of Mussolini.
The supplements provided on this release are:
- Cavalcanti Short Film: Yellow Caesar (1.37:1; PAL; MPEG-2; 00:22:31)
- BBC Radio 3 The Essay British Cinema of the 1940s: Went the Day Well? Audio Featurette (Dolby Digital Stereo; 00:14:08) – Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3 13th September 2010, presented by Simon Heffer.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Marvelous classic wartime thrills and propaganda arrive in this competent Blu-ray release from Optimum Home Entertainment’s Vintage Classics imprint. This is a definite must-have for war film buffs.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B00525QG5G[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
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