Roan DVD is 95 min version, not 85 minutes.
videophile | Gainesville, FL United States | 03/02/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Roan Group DVD, "Film Noir #1: The Stranger/Cause for Alarm" has the 95 minute version of the Stranger. Great transfer and a great film. You also get Loretta Young in "Cause for Alarm" on the other side. Watta deal!"
The missing two minutes is no cause for alarm
Rudolf Schmid | Kensington, CA | 04/02/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This two-sided DVD by Roan Group is region 0 and contains two classic noir films: the excellent and widely available The stranger (1946), and the melodramatic and rarely seen Cause for Alarm (1951). This DVD is by far the best region 0/1 version available of The stranger and the only DVD version currently available of Cause for Alarm. Both versions are excellent: sharp images, with excellent contrast and very good blacks and whites. Both films have some scratches and dropouts, but these are not especially objectionable. This DVD version of The stranger is the best I've seen and reputedly only slightly inferior to the region 2 (UK) MGM version.
Neither film on the Roan DVD has menus or any extras. The stranger is divided into 20 chapters, Cause for Alarm into 16.
The stranger runs a full 95 minutes. Cause for alarm is supposed to run 74 minutes. The version on the Roan Group DVD actually runs 71 minutes and 44 seconds. Apparently the missing footage is at the beginning of chapter 4 (TT18.10), which begins abruptly. This DVD originally listed for $29.95 but lately has had a list price of $9.95. I recently obtained the latter version, which has been remaindered (closed out). Reportedly a new version of this DVD will be available to restore the two minutes of footage missing from Cause for Alarm. However, the present version of The stranger is fine and at $9.95 list, or less, this DVD is a great buy considering its overall image quality."