Shadow of the Thin Man appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer worked well, especially given the movie’s age.
Sharpness satisfied overall. Some process shots led to a bit of inevitable softness, but the majority of the flick came with appealing definition.
Jagged edges and moiré effects caused no problems. Edge haloes remained absent, and with a layer of fine grain, I suspected no issues with digital noise reduction.
Black levels seemed nicely deep and dark, and contrast was appropriately displayed. The movie showed a good silvery look, and shadow detail was also concise and developed.
Source flaws failed to become an issue. The transfer eliminated those defects and left this as a clean presentation. I felt very happy with this transfer.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack, it replicated the original material with positive quality. Dialogue seemed fine for its era, and was relatively crisp and well-defined with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility.
The movie featured a fairly spare score, but when we heard music, it was acceptably broad and clear. The material presented little low end but the dynamics were fine for a track of this vintage.
Though effects were similarly dated, they seemed adequately clean and realistic, and no aspects of the mix displayed signs of distortion. Background noise failed to become an issue. All in all, the audio worked fine for its age.
In addition to the film’s trailer, we find two short films from 1941: The Tell-Tale Heart (19:45) and The Goose Goes South (6:12). Adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe story, Heart comes directed by Jules Dassin of Rififi fame.
Indeed, Heart marked Dassin’s directorial debut. While it doesn’t offer a great take on Poe, it works fairly well and becomes a decent piece of suspense.
With South, we get an effort from Hanna-Barbera, one that leans more toward cute than funny. Still, it comes with some modest charm.
While Shadow of the Thin Man never excels, it offers reasonable entertainment. Despite a clunky murder story, the film comes with enough light charm to make it moderately enjoyable. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture, more than adequate audio and minor bonus materials. This becomes a likable tale.