The Steel Helmet (1951) - Region Free PAL, plays in English without subtitles

This is a technical review and my comments relate to the copy I have received. If it is representative of all copies of this Spanish version then buy with caution!Although there are menu options to select "Ingles" with or without subtitles, this disc when played readily falls back into the Spanish "Castellano" soundtrack. Even when it does play in English sound without subtitles, on several occasions Spanish subtitles pop up unexpectedly. This is, clearly, a transcription which has been very poorly mastered and is not really intended to be played in English.There is a solution for those who might have software to remaster discs. The Spanish sound and subtitle options could be disabled allowing the disc to default back to English only. This probably would infringe copyright though!The seller's description is correct in that it does play in English and subtitles can be disabled even if, as I experienced, they still pop up randomly.

perfect

A film I saw as a young lad, thought it was great way back then and not disappointed when I watched it again.

Cult auteur Samuel Fuller’s first three films come together in this package released by the Criterion Collection in its’ low priced, no frills Eclipse series - and all three, written and directed by Fuller, were released under the auspices of Robert L. Lippert who allowed the filmmaker the freedom that he desired.“I Shot Jesse James” is a brooding, nourish western focusing upon “that dirty little coward” Robert Ford after doing the deed in anticipation of a big cash reward. Pre-empting the psychological westerns of the 1950s, and setting the pace for other anti-hero tales that Fuller would unfold in subsequent years, John Ireland faces the future with guilt and disgust for his actions.More straight forward is “The Baron Of Arizona”, in which Vincent Price (in his one of his favourite roles) is the con man who, with cleverly forged papers, claims the ownership of the state of Arizona. The story is based upon an article Fuller wrote during his pre WW2 newspaper days.“The Steel Helmet” was Fuller’s third film and the one that brought him critical acclaim. Very low budgeted and, and with no star names to provide Hollywood glamorized “gung ho” heroics, it’s the director working in the genre that’s his personal best. Grim, gritty and realistic, it’s men in war with the enemy and, at times, with themselves, in a tale that lingers on long past the final gunshots in the Buddhist temple. Gene Evans gives a superb performance as the war-weary, sardonic Sgt. Zack and the film, which is no patriotic flagwaver, got Fuller investigated by the FBI as being “anti-American”.Although there’s no Special Features, each film is sub-titled and comes in its own individual slim case.

This is nearly a masterpiece. A kind of much tougher, less sentimental, more cynical 'Long and the Short and the Tall' with a frenetic climax which in its fury seems even a bit like Kurosawa's Throne of Blood but with guns and bazookas. Superbly acted by a cast of largely little known actors and clearly made on something of a shoestring. The early scenes in fog bound studio sets again hint at the Throne of Blood's moody atmospherics. The platoon is a usual collection of types but much more convincingly so than is often the case with shreds of back-stories and lots of grown-up references to the racism suffered back home by Black and Japanese Americans. The hero is an anti-hero who is a cigar-chewing Sgt Rock but with a sensitive streak which skirts traumatic stress syndrome, but all the temptations of sentimentality, as I have said, avoided except in the ways that hardened brutalised men in the middle of it all might suffer it. I don't know really, but it seems convincing. The Buddhist temple is an ironic setting and the camera does some very interesting movements; it even has a sort of 'haunted house' episode. I'm sure it's worthy of study and I think the purest Fuller film I've seen. Certainly better than The Big Red One. Very brutal for its time.

This DVD only plays in Spanish even after following instructions,so clearly a waste of money