Since I receive more review discs than I could ever actually watch, I need to find some way to sift through the various titles. This means that a cover can help a disc stand out from the crowd.

When I received 1958’s Underworld Beauty on DVD years ago, I knew nothing of it. However, because it sported a cover photo that depicted a babe with a machine gun, I thought this just might merit a look!

Recently released gangster Miyamoto (Michitarô Mizushima) enters a sewer to retrieve a small pouch of diamonds and then meet with crime boss Ôyane (Shinsuke Ashida). Ôyane clearly wants the gems, but Miyamoto plans to give them to Mihara (Tôru Abe), a former partner who lost a leg in the caper that sent Miyamoto to jail.

We also meet Arita (Hiroshi Kondo), an artist who creates mannequins and uses Mihara’s wild younger sister Akiko (Mari Shiraki) as his nude model. Arita works as Ôyane’s subordinate and gets put on Miyamoto as part of a deal to sell the diamonds to an American.

When this rooftop meeting starts to go awry, Mihara takes matters into his own hands – and stomach. He swallows the diamonds to keep them from Ôyane’s men and then jumps from the roof. He survives this fall, but just barely, and soon expires.

The gangsters plot to get the gems out of his innards while Miyamoto works against them. Eventually Ôyane’s men do retrieve the stones, but they quickly change hands, and this leads to an ongoing battle between Miyamoto and Ôyane’s side. In addition, he tries to look after wild child Akiko.

Based on that synopsis, Underworld Beauty sounds like a pretty intriguing and exciting little flick. Unfortunately, the reality proves much less interesting.

Beauty contains all the right elements to become a lively potboiler. However, it treats them in such a somnambulant manner that it goes nowhere.

Mizushima’s flat performance as Miyamoto provides a key reason for this blandness. The character possesses some inherently cool elements, and he really should come across as a true badass.

Unfortunately, Miyamoto comes to life in such a low-key and bland manner that we never see him in this light. The film fails to explore the character’s mythic potential and leaves him as a fairly forgettable element.

The movie also suffers just because there doesn’t seem to be much to it. It feels padded, as it presents about 20 minutes of actual plot spread out to more than four times that length.

If Beauty generated greater depth for its characters, this wouldn’t become a problem. Unfortunately, all the participants remain one-dimensional.

Akiko never comes across as much more than an irresponsible wild child. Even when the plot thickens toward the end, she still seems like a nuisance more than a personality to interest us.

It doesn’t help that so many of the individual elements remain bland. Some potential for intrigue exists but the film fails to exploit those possibilities.

It’s mildly interesting to follow the path of the diamonds and see where they’ll go next. However, that’s still not enough to sustain our attention for nearly an hour and a half.

Occasional moments of excitement appear, and the flick climaxes with a pretty decent gun battle. Unfortunately, by that point it’s too little, too late.

The action can’t spark Underworld Beauty to any higher level. From its slow pacing to dull characters, the film lacks much to involve the viewers.

Underworld Beauty appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though it came with some issues, this usually turned into a pretty good presentation.

Sharpness largely worked fine. Occasional soft shots materialized, but the majority of the movie offered appealing delineation.

I saw no signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Grain felt natural and print flaws seemed modest. Occasional minor specks or lines showed up, but these didn’t interfere on a persistent basis.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while shadows offered positive delineation. Even with the occasional softness and source defects, this wound up as a quality presentation.

On the other hand, the LPCM monaural soundtrack of Underworld Beauty definitely showed issues, and speech demonstrated some of the weakest elements. The lines consistently sounded harsh and reedy, and they displayed quite a lot of edginess.

Music was somewhat rough but featured decent range and power. Effects suffered from some of the same distortion and shrillness that affected the rest of the track.

A little light background hiss accompanied much of the mix. Even when I adjusted for the age of the film, this felt like an iffy soundtrack.

How did this Blu-ray compare to the DVD from 2004? Despite the shift to lossless audio, the two sounded pretty similar, as the roughness of the track remained.

Visuals demonstrated a clear upgrade, however, as the Blu-ray looked better defined, richer and cleaner than its DVD predecessor. This turned into a solid step up in picture quality.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we find an Interview with Film Critic Mizuki Kodama. This reel lasts 14 minutes, 44 seconds.

Kodama discusses aspects of Beauty as well as cast/performances and unconventional elements created by director Seijun Suzuki. She delivers a brief but informative summary.

We also get a bonus film entitled Love Letter. Directed by Seijun Suzuki right after Beauty, it runs 39 minutes, 28 seconds.

Letter depicts a romance between Kozue (Hisako Tsukuba) and Masao (Kyôsuke Machida). She works as a pianist in a club while he serves as a stationed as a ranger in the wilderness.

This leaves their main communication via mail. Kozue becomes concerned when his letters trickle down to nothing and takes matters into her own hands, a choice that comes with surprises.

At under 40 minutes, Letter doesn’t wear out its welcome. That said, it also doesn’t offer enough plot to fill even that brief running time in a fully satisfying manner.

Still, the film comes with good atmosphere and enough romance to suit fans of that genre. While it never excels, it largely accomplishes its tear-jerking goals.

As for the film’s reproduction, it suffered from a lot of source damage. I saw plenty of marks and specks along with wobbly tendencies.

Otherwise, I felt the image worked pretty well, as it came with good definition, rich blacks and nice contrast. If the movie lost the print flaws, it’d look solid.

The film’s LPCM monaural audio came with the same issues that dogged the track for Beauty, though this one offered less dynamic range. Expect a rough ride via this movie’s sound.

Letter can be viewed with or without commentary from film critic William Carroll. He brings a running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, story and characters, genre and historical elements and overall thoughts.

Carroll packages a lot of info into this short chat. He manages to relate useful material about the flick and those involved.

The disc completes with a trailer for Letter. Don’t watch it before you screen the film, as it reveals big spoilers.

Somewhere buried beneath the blandness, Underworld Beauty enjoys a decent enough little story of robbery, greed and revenge. Unfortunately, the movie depicts all these elements in such a flat and dull manner that they never manage to prosper. Instead, the film just meanders and fails to involve the viewer. The Blu-ray presents generally good picture with fairly weak audio and a mix of supplements highlighted by a bonus film. I can’t recommend this slow-paced and boring action flick.

To rate this film visit the DVD review of UNDERWORLD BEAUTY