After success on the stage and radio, Orson Welles took his Mercury Theatre to Hollywood. Though viewed as classics now, 1941’s Citizen Kane and 1942’s Magnificent Ambersons flopped at the box office.

Welles’ third film went for something less ambitious – and cheaper. 1943’s Journey Into Fear offers a thriller that reflects the World War II era.

American naval engineer and ballistics expert Howard Graham (Joseph Cotten) does business in Turkey. Along the way, he and his wife Stephanie (Ruth Warrick) visit Istanbul, where his employee Kopeikin (Everett Sloane) takes him to see a live show.

During this event, an assassin named Peter Banat (Jack Moss) attempts to kill Howard but fails. He learns the Nazis hired Banat and they continue to pursue him as he attempts to get back to the US.

If you look at the credits, Welles limited his involvement in Fear to acting and producing. However, Welles unofficially cowrote the screenplay with Cotten and he also apparently did a lot of direction instead of credited filmmaker Norman Foster.

Whoever really made Fear, I figured it would provide an engaging effort. With a tight 69-minute running time, a solid plot concept and a lot of talent behind it, the film showed every sign that it would become a winner.

Unfortunately, Fear never quite connects. While perfectly watchable, it simply doesn’t click in a consistent manner.

Fear launches well. Our introduction to Banat seems creepy and intriguing, and the assassination attempt in the nightclub becomes clever and engaging.

After that, however, Fear tends to meander. We find a seemingly never-ending run of colorful characters in search of a dynamic narrative.

Some aspects still do fine, and I like the reintroduction of Banat. The film uses a creative throwback to our first glimpse of him to hint at his renewed threat.

A few decent twists pop up along the way as well. Add some moody photography and Fear ensures we stick with it across its brief running time.

However, Fear rarely becomes anything especially dynamic or involving. Sporadic scenes live up to its potential, but the end product seems oddly flat.

Basically we get a thriller without a lot of thrills. Despite the aforementioned positives, Fear winds up as a generally mediocre tale of suspense.

Journey Into Fear appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a mostly pleasing presentation.

Sharpness usually appeared good. The film suffered from a few moderately ill-defined shots but the majority of the flick demonstrated nice delineation.

I saw no problems with jagged edges or shimmering, and the movie lacked edge haloes. In terms of print flaws, Fear looked clean, and grain appeared natural.

Blacks appeared deep and rich, while low-light shots demonstrated fine definition and clarity. This ended up as a solid image that lost a few points only due to the occasional soft shot.

Although the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Fear didn’t demonstrate anything special, it worked fine for its era and genre. Speech seemed slightly thin and could lean edgy, but these lines remained intelligible and clear.

Music demonstrated reasonable range. The score didn’t impress, but it appeared acceptably bright.

Effects came across as acceptably accurate. Though they had little heft, they were clean and didn’t suffer from substantial distortion or other concerns. The audio appeared fine for its era.

In terms of extras, we find three Mercury Theatre Radio Broadcasts. The disc presents July 11, 1938’s Dracula (59:29), July 18, 1938’s Treasure Island (1:04:05) and July 25, 1938’s A Tale of Two Cities (59:26).

All of these work pretty well. Island probably fares best of the bunch, but each one still delivers an enjoyable time capsule.

Note that although this disc’s presentation of Dracula runs six minutes, 16 seconds longer than the one on Criterion’s Citizen Kane Blu-ray, both sets provide the same production. This one simply includes a few minor bumpers dropped from the Criterion edition.

With ample talent involved, I hoped Journey Into Fear would deliver a minor classic. Instead, I found a watchable thriller but not one that became particularly memorable. The Blu-ray comes with largely positive picture as well as adequate audio and a fun collection of radio shows as a bonus. Fear works moderately well but never really clicks.