Five desperate men…and a girl who didn’t care…trapped on a mountain of gale-lashed rock! Rory Calhoun (Marco Polo), Julie Adams (Horizons West) and Ray Danton (The Night Runner) star in this rollicking, noir-tinged adventure from director Abner Biberman (The Price of Fear, Behind the High Wall). When a plane crashes in the snow-capped Rocky Mountains of Colorado, two mountain-climbing mercenaries, Pete and Jesse (Danton and Calhoun), set out on their trail with the intention of rescuing the survivors. But Pete is lured by the $250,000 in cash they find among the plane’s debris—and plans a real robbery against the survivors…with final elimination of all witnesses. Co-starring character actor greats Thomas Gomez (Force of Evil) and Frank Faylen (The Lost Weekend).

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Video Quality

The Looters makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics with a brand new 1080p transfer from a 2K scan of the 35mm Fine Grain which shows its age despite generally looking good. The black-and-white photography retains its natural grain that resolves evenly with no notable clumping or swarming. The contrast is capably defined with only intermittent instances of flicker and density fluctuation in the print. Highlights never seem to bloom, and black levels are in fine shape with no major occurrence of crush or compression artifacts.

That being said, this film is nearly 70 years old, and the film does not look as fetching as many of its contemporaries even after the remastering process. Many moments in the new transfer exhibit formidable depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. Yet, it seems more of the picture has a somewhat soft and fuzzy quality that limits the amount of fine detail you can observe in the frame. You may spot some texture on the clothing and within the environment, but it is not a consistent hallmark of the presentation. There are also some traces of stray lines and subtle marks of damage, but most will admit this transfer offers more positives than negatives. Kino Classics has treated this as well as the source will allow.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a passable DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that gets the job done considering the age and source of the material. Like the video side of things, there is a general weakness to the track that clues you into the fact that the source is not in pristine condition. Audiences might observe a subtle amount of age-related wear and tear and some faint hissing, but the track is still more than listenable.

The track can sound a bit lacking when it comes to the music, which likely can be attributed to the quality of the source elements. This element at least never drowns out the dialogue or other important information. Everything is balanced with all competing elements that make this journey feel alive. Dialogue is largely clear with only a few moments that nearly drop out completely. The audio track works as well as it can under the circumstances. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Film Historian Toby Roan delivers a good commentary track in which he discusses the production of the film, the background of the performers, the thrilling stunts, the film’s legacy, and more.

Trailers: This disc provides trailers for Behind The High Wall, The Night Runner, The Turning Point, Touch Of Evil, The Killing, and Odds Against Tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

The Looters is a pretty solid addition to the adventure genre that explores the always captivating concept of moral decay in the face of insatiable greed. You have seen many tales like it before, but that does not make this one any less entertaining. The ensemble does a nice job of bringing gravitas to the situation. We especially like the arc of Julie Adams and how she survives within this context. This delivers what you want from the premise. Kino Classics has delivered a Blu-Ray release that sports an acceptable A/V presentation and a welcome commentary track. This one might lack buzzy names attached to it, but it is well worth a watch. Recommended

The Looters is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.