450 Obsession (1949)

[MichaelB]

OBSESSION
(Edward Dmytryk, 1949)
Release date: 17 June 2024
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World premiere)

Pre-order here (UK) or here (US)

Starring Robert Newton (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands), Phil Brown (The Camp on Blood Island), Sally Gray (They Made Me a Fugitive), and Naunton Wayne (The Lady Vanishes), Obsession takes a dark and unsettling journey into the mind of a murderer.

When psychiatrist Clive (Newton) learns that his wife, Storm (Gray), is having an affair, he resolves to take revenge by kidnapping and murdering her lover, Bill (Brown), and dissolving his corpse in acid. As Bill languishes in Clive’s cellar, Detective Finsbury (Naunton) doggedly pursues the case...

Written by Alec Coppel (Vertigo), scored by Nino Rota (8½, The Godfather), and directed by Edward Dmytryk (The Sniper) during his blacklist-induced exile in Britain, Obsession’s original release was delayed due to the ongoing court case of real-life ‘Acid Bath Murderer’ John Haigh.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
• New 4K restoration by Powerhouse Films;
• Original mono audio;
• Audio commentary with film historians Thirza Wakefield and Melanie Williams (2024);
• The John Player Lecture with Edward Dmytryk (1972): archival audio recording of the prolific director in conversation with author and critic John Baxter, recorded at London’s National Film Theatre;
• Richard Dyer on ‘Obsession’ (2024): the academic and author explores the themes and the making of the film;
• The BEHP Interview with Gordon McCallum (1988): archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring sound recordist McCallum in conversation with Alan Lawson;
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials;
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing;
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Fintan McDonagh, archival articles on Edward Dmytryk’s period in Britain and the making of Obsession, an archival interview with actor Naunton Wayne, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and full film credits;
• World premiere on Blu-ray;
• Limited edition of 4,000 copies for the UK and the US;
• All extras subject to change.

#PHILE450B
BBFC cert: PG
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697923964

[domino harvey]

When psychiatrist Clive (Newton) learns that his wife, Storm (Gray), is having an affair, he resolves to take revenge by kidnapping and murdering her lover, Bill (Brown), and dissolving his corpse in acid.

As you do

[knives]

I really like this one. It’s easily Dmytryk‘s best with tons of style and just a stretch of cruelty that gets pushed further and further.

[What A Disgrace]

I've been curious to see this film for some time, but never even considered that Indicator would release it, so this is a nice surprise and the sole item of the June slate I'll be getting.

[Finch]

Newton is excellent and for me, the best part of the film, along with Brown

Spoiler

I enjoyed the little twist of how his character ends up using Monty the dog to buy himself some more time)

. Sally Gray has a thankless role as the one-note unlikable wife and my attention wandered a little when Naunton's detective enters the film: I've never cared for Naunton, even in Lady Vanishes, and found his character a bit too Columbo-ish. I also found the deafness of the Riordans' butler a tad too convenient as an explanation for why there was no reaction to the noise in the study. Fun film but not one I think I'll be buying.

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

[MichaelB]

Obeavsion.

[MichaelB]

An exhaustively detailed rave from CineOutsider.

[domino harvey]

I did a quick double check through the roster to confirm, but unexpectedly I think there’s a credible case to be made that this is the best film Indicator has ever released. A deliciously mean-spirited and frequently laugh out loud funny film that nevertheless takes what outwardly sounds like an absurd b-picture plot and turns it into a credible and fascinating noir, one with impeccable plotting for a genre that gets away with cutting corners. What I admired most is that every character is smart in their own fashion (some arrogantly so), and anything that succeeds or fails is not because anyone did one of those typical movie blunders but because sometimes being smart and thinking of everything isn’t enough. This isn’t as showy as some Hitchcocks, but the control Dmytryk exhibits here is occasionally in the master’s register. I can absolutely picture Hitchcock laughing his ass off in the back of the theatre if he ever saw this, as it shares his most pessimistic world views and gallows humor— this is essentially what every episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents aspires to be!

The limited edition has sold out but Orbit has at least one more copy— hope whoever’s reading this dips their toes into the bath on it!

[therewillbeblus]

It looks like Amazon US has copies of the LE for cheaper

[domino harvey]

Looks like you may have grabbed the last one on Amazon, showing as only available via third party for me

[therewillbeblus]

That's strange, it still shows up as in stock via Amazon for me

[domino harvey]

As a side note, I learned yet another new British spelling from the captions: “miaowing,” which I think is going too far

[MichaelB]

Conversely, when Criterion edited my booklet essay for Fantastic Planet, I learned that you guys spell "mollusc" with a K.

Anyway, what do Americans write instead of the splendidly onomatopoeic "miaowing"?

(A totally gratuitous aside: one of my favourite onomatopoeic words is the Czech for "it's raining", which is "prší", pronounced "prshee".)

[MichaelB]

Changing the subject, I'm assuming that people based in the UK can't see the graphic that I posted on June 5th, but is it still visible elsewhere?

Image-hosting site Imgur has just booted all British users off it, in reaction to the new Online Safety Act, but I can't tell whether that means that the images have been deleted as well or whether my account is still there but inaccessible by me.

Oh, and can anyone recommend a free image server similar to Imgur? No particular reason.

[domino harvey]

Anyway, what do Americans write instead of the splendidly onomatopoeic "miaowing"?

We use “meow”/“meowing”

[MichaelB]

..as confirmed by the Oxford Dictionary of English.

miaow (Brit.) (US also meow)

> noun
the characteristic crying sound of a cat.

> verb
[no obj.] (of a cat) make a miaow.

ORIGIN: early 17th cent.: imitative.

[domino harvey]

Oh, and can anyone recommend a free image server similar to Imgur? No particular reason.

I usually use ImgBB when Imgur is down/being obnoxious

[DeprongMori]

Changing the subject, I'm assuming that people based in the UK can't see the graphic that I posted on June 5th, but is it still visible elsewhere?

I can confirm that your June 5 graphic is still visible from the US.

[Mr Sausage]

Changing the subject, I'm assuming that people based in the UK can't see the graphic that I posted on June 5th, but is it still visible elsewhere?

Image-hosting site Imgur has just booted all British users off it, in reaction to the new Online Safety Act, but I can't tell whether that means that the images have been deleted as well or whether my account is still there but inaccessible by me.

Oh, and can anyone recommend a free image server similar to Imgur? No particular reason.

I think a VPN should be able to solve this and similar problems (I use mine to access the U.S. versions of streaming sites). Handy thing to have all around, including added online protection and anonymity.

[MichaelB]

I think a VPN should be able to solve this and similar problems (I use mine to access the U.S. versions of streaming sites). Handy thing to have all around, including added online protection and anonymity.

That won't work for my purposes, as everyone viewing the graphic from within the UK will have to have a VPN as well, which isn't much use if you want said graphics to be universally visible. And I'm not sure it would work anyway, as quite a few people have flagged up that Imgur's wise to VPN usage and cracks down on it at an early stage.

[Mr Sausage]

I think a VPN should be able to solve this and similar problems (I use mine to access the U.S. versions of streaming sites). Handy thing to have all around, including added online protection and anonymity.

That won't work for my purposes, as everyone viewing the graphic from within the UK will have to have a VPN as well, which isn't much use if you want said graphics to be universally visible. And I'm not sure it would work anyway, as quite a few people have flagged up that Imgur's wise to VPN usage and cracks down on it at an early stage.

Ah, makes sense.

But I can confirm that I can use Imgur on my VPN using both Canadian and American IPs. Some IP locations are blocked, but many others still allow me access. Tried a British one out of curiosity and, yeah, nothing doing. But the proffered help site says no British user data has been deleted.

[MichaelB]

Well, Domino's recommendation of ImgBB seems to have done the trick. I can't promise I'll reupload any of this stuff (although I will if it's an important legacy thread), but at least I seem to have something usable going forward - the full specs of Death Carries a Cane and The Perfume of the Lady in Black should be visible to everyone.

[reaky]

..as confirmed by the Oxford Dictionary of English.

miaow (Brit.) (US also meow)

> noun
the characteristic crying sound of a cat.

> verb
[no obj.] (of a cat) make a miaow.

ORIGIN: early 17th cent.: imitative.

In Ulysses, Joyce transcribes Leopold Bloom’s cat’s utterance as “Mrkgnao!”

[MichaelB]

He does, but that's so specific to a particular author that it would have been distractingly jarring.