The Glory Boys / The Contract

Acorn Media releases The Glory Boys (1984) and The Contract (1988) in a two disc Cold War Spy Collection starring Rod Steiger (On The Waterfront), Anthony Perkins (Psycho) Joan Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy), Bernard Hepton (Emma), and James Faulkner (Halo Legends). Based on the novels by author Gerald Seymour.

I’ve come to expect nothing less then the best from Acorn Media as of late but these two films simply do not make the cut. No doubt they were fantastic in their time and possibly if they had been sold separately their obvious parallels wouldn’t have been so transparent. For starters both of the films are about scientists who need protection; one from an IRA and Arab terrorist team and the other from Russia as they try to smuggle him across the border in order to help him defect. Sadly both films have the same ending in a general manner of speaking.

In as far as quality goes The Glory Boys is the better looking of the two which is odd since it is the older of the two films. Its picture is smooth without to many blemishes but The Contract is horrible looking. Both are aged looking no doubt but The Contract has so many imperfections on the film that you can’t help but notice and wonder if it would have been possible for this release to even get a slight touch up. This film is also hard subbed as it does jump around in languages and subtitles were not pretty back in 1988 apparently.

The actors and actresses in the two films will no doubt entice their fans to at least give these films a rental chance and possibly even a purchase as this is the first time The Contract has been available on DVD, though The Glory Boys has been released once in 2003, so it all depends on how strongly The Contract is a draw. Bonus features include biographies of the cast and of author and espionage expert Gerald Seymour.