Fans of this unjustly neglected Spaghetti classic bored of waiting for Koch Media's belated German DVD release may wish to opt instead for the new French disc from cult DVD outfit Wild Side. In addition to a sparkling 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer (which will likely be identical to Koch's disc, if RETURN OF RINGO is any indicator) the disc offers a choice of three language options, Italian, French and most importantly for us, ENGLISH. Woo-hoo! Looks like French subs are included, but unlike many French releases are not forced when selecting the English track. (At least, the single online review makes no mention of the subs being compulsory, which is promising.)

Now the tricky part: actually finding someone to sell you the bloody thing... After much cyberspace searching and real-world cursing, it seems Wild Side have some sort of exclusivity contract with fnac.com, which is where I ordered mine yesterday evening, so fingers crossed all will go smoothly. (The disc, which you can find on fnac under the title EL MERCENARIO, retails for 14.99 euro.)

Click the link to see a review of the disc with screen grabs.

Review of Wild Side DVD (en francais) with screen captures

Well the disc is here, and you can forget the "sparkling anamorphic transfer" bit: while Wild Side's DVD is a huge step up from the soft, washed-out and colourless Italian disc (it does at least boast solid colour and contrast), the image lacks sharpness and definition, with even closeups tending to the fuzzy side. It's all a bit, well, bleary-looking. Oh, and French subs ARE forced; not a problem with DVD Shrink, of course, but an additional pain to have to burn a second disc to be able to watch the damn film properly...

A word on the opening titles: while the Italian disc butchered these, removing the "United Artists presents" opening caption with a horrid electronic video zoom-in effect, and carried the odd title card "IL MERCENARIO (A Professional Gun)", with the remainder of the credits in English, the French disc at least presents the titles correctly*: all in English, with the title THE MERCENARY, and the UA credit intact. And more importantly, the livid red colouring of the title sequence is restored, unlike the insipid orange of the Italian release.

So, pluses: it's anamorphic, correct aspect ratio, and carries the English dub track. Minuses: lacklustre picture quality, forced French subs.

Let's hope the forthcoming Koch Media disc DOESN'T utilise the same transfer, or we're in trouble. Looks like the OOP non-anamorphic Japanese disc is still the best option out there; if only I owned it.

* Perhaps I should say, consistently.

Thanks for biting the bullet Steve. I also hope the Koch disc goes the extra mile with an improved transfer. The hoops we have to jump through to get decent copies of the movies we love...

I watched the French disc all the way through the other night and it's a real mixed bag: most of it looks okay, never razor-sharp but reasonably well-defined, then other scenes (Palance's introduction in the saloon, for example) everything switches to blear-o-vision: Palance's face seems to meld in with the brown background, and is additionally afflicted with visible horizontal scan-lines. I detected an excess of video grain in the image, too, which adds to the overall feeling of fuzziness.

It'll do in the short term, but let's hope the continuing delays on Koch Media's offering means they're attempting to source the best-quality elements. Fingers crossed, amigos.

The Koch disc is now scheduled for January 2010.

Hmm. Pretty much identical cover to the French Wild Side edition. Hope this doesn't mean what I think it means...

Still, good to have a date at last for this title. I'll probably pick it up anyway, since it'll be nice to have a copy minus the forced French subs.