Cast
/
John Larch

John Larch

7 films on Best Blurays2 in 4K4 in HD1 in SD

John Larch photo

John Larch (October 4, 1914 - October 16, 2005) was an American film and television actor. After his lead role in the radio serial Captain Starr of Space (1953–54), John Larch entered films in 1954. He usually appeared in westerns (How The West Was Won) and action films, including Miracle of the White Stallions as General George S. Patton Jr. (1963), Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur as General Omar Bradley (1976), replacing James Gregory as Mac in the Matt Helm movie The Wrecking Crew (1969) starring Dean Martin, Sharon Tate and Elke Sommer. Larch, an old friend of Clint Eastwood, appeared in Eastwood films, including Dirty Harry (1971) and Play Misty for Me (1971). He also appeared on a number of television programs, including Naked City (three episodes), Route 66 (three episodes), The Fugitive (two episodes), The Invaders, The Restless Gun (four episodes), Gunsmoke (seven episodes), The Virginian (four episodes), Bonanza, Hawaii Five-0, Mission Impossible (two episodes), The Troubleshooters, Bus Stop, Laramie, The Law and Mr. Jones, and possibly most famously as Bill Mumy's father in The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" in 1961. He also appeared in two other The Twilight Zone episodes, playing a psychiatrist in "Perchance to Dream" and the sheriff in "Dust". Description above from the Wikipedia article John Larch, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Biography from Wikipedia via TMDB

Leading role · Director: Buzz Kulik

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Budd Boetticher

Video format: DVD

Best English-Friendly:

Paramount DVD from UCLA restoration

Best Video & Audio:

Paramount DVD

Additional Info:

Paramount's DVD is from the UCLA photochemical restoration. It remains the highest quality video release of the film which is long overdue for a new transfer and could vastly improve in a new restoration as Sony proved with their 4K restorations of the Ranown Cycle. The DVD does have extensive well done supplements and is still essential. A French BD was released in late 2024 and an earlier Japanese BD exists but their transfer sources are unknown. Reviews on Amazon France seem to indicate the BD is a poor version of the DVD's HD master source.

Supporting role · Director: Don Siegel

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite extreme frozen grain in moments, overzealous HDR brightness in outdoor sequences, color timing shifts in some shots

Best Audio:

Original Mono Mix: 1990's LaserDisc stereo remix folded back to mono, original VHS and Beta Hifi, WB 4K Blu-ray mono

Supporting role · Director: Stuart Rosenberg

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Douglas Sirk

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion is new 2K restoration, but wrong aspect ratio (1.85:1 instead of AR 2.00:1)

Supporting role · Director: Phil Karlson

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video:

HD Streaming

Small role · Directors: Henry Hathaway & John Ford & George Marshall

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray 2-Disc version (Digibook) for the Smilebox presentation

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:
  • See what smilebox looks like for its smilebox trailer

  • See Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader's review especially why a smilebox version is preferred, for example how a letterboxd version is actually distorted

  • Even if you do not prefer the smilebox version, the letterboxd version is still present on disc 1

Missing a John Larch film? Suggest it