Good news and bad news for fans of Orson Welles and director Norman Foster: Journey Into Fear is finally getting a Blu-ray release – but the offering is a tad disappointing.
There had been hopes voiced to Wellesnet a decade ago that Journey Into Fear would be released by the Criterion Collection, alongside Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, but that never happened. Apparently, no other label had lobbied Warner Brothers for a release.
Instead, the Warner Archive Collection will release the 68-minute edit from February 1943 this fall. The Blu-ray is not a deluxe package and will not include the 71-minute European version with alternate scenes, which was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in 2005. An assembly created by the Munich Film Museum using all available footage and shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 2015 is also not included.
“What ifs” aside, it is great that Journey Into Fear will be getting a physical medial release courtesy of Warner Archive on September 30.
Here is the official press release from Warner Brothers:
Coming from the Warner Archive Collection on September 30th!
New 2024 1080p HD master from 4K scan of safety preservation master positives from the Library of Congress.
JOURNEY INTO FEAR (1943)
68 Minutes
B&W
DTS-HD MA 2.0
Aspect ratio: 16×9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Subtitles: English SDH
NOT RATED
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick
SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio-only Orson Welles Mercury Theater Radio Broadcasts: DRACULA (7/11/1938), TREASURE ISLAND (7/18/1938), and A TALE OF TWO CITIES (7/25/1938)
SYNOPSIS: Orson Welles’ touches of cinematic brilliance make Journey Into Fear a stunning success. Joseph Cotton portrays am 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. The cinematography by Karl Struss in low—key and stylized, with a reviewer of the era pointing to its “Brilliant atmosphere, the nightmare of pursuit, and when the shock comes it leaps at the eye and ear”. Journey Into Fear is a thriller worthy of the cinematic master Orson Welles.