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The Mob (Canadian International Pictures) Blu-ray Review

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    Ian Jane
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  • The Mob (Canadian International Pictures) Blu-ray Review

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    Released by: Canadian International Pictures
    Released on: May 31st, 2022.
    Director: Jacques Godbout
    Cast: Marc Legault, Dorothée Berryman, Gilbert Chénier, André Guy, Pierre Gobeil
    Year: 1975
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Mob – Movie Review:

    Better known in la belle province as La Gammick, 1975's The Mob, directed by Quebecois filmmaker Jacques Godbout introduces us to François “Chico” Tremblay (Marc Legault), a curly haired mid-level mobster who, when we first meet him, holds up a campaign office at gunpoint. What most of his associates don't know about Chico is that he's recently returned from New York City where he was paid fifty thousand dollars to knock off a high ranking Mafioso. This happened despite being told by his higher ups that he was absolutely not to do this.

    Chico meets up with his friend and fellow mobster, Gaby (Pierre Gobeil), who runs a honey farm, to stash most of the cash but does decide to take his girlfriend, Rita (Dorothée Berryman), to the jewelry store for a ring and to the horse track for some gambling and a nice dinner. It's here that he's spotted by a lower level mobster in the employ of Chico's boss, Raoul (Gilbert Chénier) and when he comes over to talk to Chico, Rita accidently mentions the trip. Word gets back to Raoul who decides pretty much instantly that Chico is going to have to be taken care of, permanently.

    Knowing exactly what's going to happen to him, Chico decides to call into a late night talk show hosted by Yvan Bédard (André Guy) and spill is guts - after all, if he's going to die, he might as well do as much damage to those who would kill him on his way out. But who is going to get to him first... Raoul's men, the cops or the two hitmen who have travelled north from New York City?

    As much a character study as a gangster movie, The Mob does a good job of fleshing out Chico’s character and Marc Legault an even better job of bringing him to life. We don’t like the guy – he’s abusive to poor Rita and he is, obviously someone who kills people for money. At the same time, we’re fascinated by him and for this reason, we want to see how things are going to play out for him. This strong character development keeps things fairly tense, even during scenes where nothing more is happening than two men talking on a telephone. Legault plays his character as twitchy but also very cocky and self-assured. He uses body language really well, especially as the movie heads towards its finish and he realizes his inevitable fate, and he proves to be the perfect casting choice for the lead.

    The rest of the cast is strong as well. Dorothée Berryman plays her role, really the only sympathetic character in the movie, very well and we feel for her. Pierre Gobeil is very good as Chico’s only trustworthy friend, he’s very good as the strong, silent type. Gilbert Chénier plays the sleazy top mobster in town with plenty of relish and not only is his acting strong but he looks completely right for the part as well. André Guy is perfectly believable as the talk radio host who does his best to keep Chico on the line, knowing full well that he’s got a nice scoop on his hands.

    Production values are good. This doesn’t look like it was made with a massive budget but it probably didn’t need one. The Montreal locations are used very well and the film, while a bit of a slow burn, uses its deliberate pacing to build to a strong conclusion. The score, which features a piece that is repeated a few times and that uses some odd male moaning vocals that are just… weird, sounds like it could have been lifted from any manner of Euro-cult films made around the same period, which is definitely good thing.

    The Mob – Blu-ray Review:

    The Mob arrives on Region Free Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation framed at 1.85.1 widescreen with the feature taking up 21.5GBs of space on the 50GB disc. Picture quality is really good, taken from a new 2k scan of the 35mm interpositive. The elements used were obviously in very nice shape, outside of a few white specks here and there the image is pristine. Colors look really good, the pop in quite a few scenes but never look artificially boosted or oversaturated. Skin tones look lifelike and natural throughout and black levels are pretty solid. There’s impressive depth and detail throughout the presentation and no noticeable issues with compression or edge enhancement though there is definitely some light noise reduction applied here making things look just a bit smoother and skin just a little bit waxier than maybe they should.

    A French language audio option is provided in 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono with optional subtitles provided in English only in both regular subtitle options that translate on the French language and SDH options that also cover the few lines spoken in English. While there are a few bits that sound just a tad on the flat side, likely stemming back to the original recording, overall the audio here is quite good. Dialogue is clean, the track is balanced and the music sounds nice, with a bit more depth in that area than you might expect for an older, mono mix.

    Extras start off with Criminels Québécois, which is a collection of Quebec crime film trailers from the sixties and seventies. Available to watch by way of a ‘play all’ button or individually, here you’ll find vintage trailers for Rope Around The Neck, The Big Rock, Red, The Smart Ones, Dirty Money, Réjeanne Padovani, The Death Of A Lumberjack, O.K.... Laliberté, Bingo, Gina, The Mob, Ti-mine, Bernie And The Gang and Jig-Saw (the only English language picture in the bunch, featuring Donald Pleasence, Angie Dickinson and Lino Ventura!). It’s a pretty fun mix of material and it definitely leaves you wanting to see some of these harder to find films make their way out proper Blu-ray like The Mob has.

    The disc also includes Jacques Godbout’s directorial debut, the twenty-one minute Les « troubbes » de Johnny from 1974. It’s an interesting contrasting piece to The Mob, as this is played entirely for laughs and follows a young man who plays hockey as a goalie as he decides, much to his girlfriend’s dismay, that he isn’t going to take his uniform, padding and mask. It’s quirky and quite amusing and nothing like the feature presentation at all!

    A second short, the eleven minute Hunger, also from 1974 is also provided. This is a trippy animated bit that shows what happens when a man working at his 9-5 office job goes for lunch and has what is a fairly hallucinatory experience. You can watch this on its own or as a precursor to the main feature.

    Menus and chapter selection options round out the extras on the disc but this release also comes with some nice reversible cover sleeve artwork as well as a full color insert booklet that contains an essay by The Fantasia Film Festival’s programmer, Marc Lamothe, on the film and its merits as well as new interview with director Jacques Godbout. Both of these are well worth reading and definitely add to the disc’s positives.

    The Mob - The Final Word:

    The Mob isn’t the slam-bang shoot’em up the cover art or trailer might make it out to be but it is a very well-made slow burn picture that easily holds our attention thanks to some really strong acting, interesting characters and solid directing. Canadian International Pictures’ Blu-ray release offers this rarely seen gem in very nice shape and with a few decent extra features as well. Easily recommended to those with an affinity for seventies crime pictures.


    Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized The Mob Blu-ray screen caps!

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