James Coburn stars as Eli Kotch in Bernard Girard’s Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round, a newly-released criminal who avoids his parole officer and begins a cross-country journey to make enough money for the blueprints to the Los Angeles airport bank. Along the way, he seduces a number of women to infiltrate their apartments and steal high-priced goods for fencing, but the more egregious actions of Eli Kotch come from his adoption of several bad accents. How’s a viewer supposed to root for this kind of anti-hero!
Coburn is likable enough in the lead role, though his art of seduction isn’t entirely believable. With that said, it is a broad role for him and he does do a pretty good job keeping the viewer entertained; this is integral, because Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round meanders for a good chunk of its runtime as Kotch runs odd jobs to make enough money to buy the bank blueprints. Girard’s direction moves fast from one conceit to the next, but ultimately the film runs long just leading up to the heist itself.
Once we get to the heist, the elements of the planning do come together, but it’s not exactly an exciting affair. The leader of the Soviet Union is at the airport at the same time as the heist, ensuring there’s a furor around it; there are rioters all over the place, the police are scrambling, and everything is a bit discombobulated, making it a perfect time for Kotch’s team to pose as police officers and get into the bank for maximum mayhem. Kotch himself even dons a Holmesian houndstooth jacket and hat pretending he’s an Australian detective. But much of the heist is wasted on waiting, a sin when it comes to crime capers – we don’t want to see more leadup than action, and that’s exactly what happens here.
Eventually, there is a moral explicitly delivered at the end of the film as a sort of deterrence to Kotch’s unethical enterprises, but it doesn’t do much to dispel the fact that as an audience, we’ve watched a pretty terrible person successfully perform a big con. It’s not exactly clear what we’re supposed to take from Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round except for a perfunctory lesson in criminalism.
With the relative lull in action and the ambiguous morality, it makes Girard’s Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round somewhat difficult to recommend. It’s not exactly a comedy, a heist film, or a noir, but somewhere in between – and that reticence to pick a topic isn’t necessarily a good thing here.
Blu-ray
Imprint has released Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round on Blu-ray and looks to use the same transfer that Kino Lorber did for their Studio Classics release. The result is a dated-looking image but still healthy enough to recommend as a viewing experience. The HD source suffers from some grain scale issues at times, with outdoor images looking quite swarmy with grain and potentially a bit of poor encoding. However, overall detail is pretty good, with background elements appearing appropriately focused and skin textures looking accurate without being waxy or oversmoothed. The source used does feature some occasional damage, but it’s not particularly noticeable most of the time. Colors push somewhat yellow, with even flat whites taking on more of a creamy beige color. Overall, viewers will find that there is certainly room for a more restorative transfer for the film that also maintains the film’s 1.85:1 OAR (here, it’s 1.78:1), but what Imprint delivers is probably all that is needed for the lesser-known Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round.
Audio is presented with an LPCM 2.0 mono offering and it sounds hearty; no dialogue drops or audio judder are detected, and the film score is vibrant. Overall, no issues with the mono, and English subtitles are also included.
Other than that, we don’t get any additional extras on this release – not even the theatrical trailer that was included on Kino’s Blu-ray. Fans of supplemental features will be left wanting; however, there is a nice slipcase with different artwork, as well as an interior photograph on the reverse side of the cover.
Extra Features
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
- NEW Limited Edition slipcase with unique artwork
Verdict
For fans of heist capers, Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round may be something interesting provided you find James Coburn charming. Other than that, it’s can be something of a dull film. Imprint’s Blu-ray release has no additional features, but the same aged transfer as Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray, which makes it a fine offering for Australians who don’t want to import.
