It seems that this movie's original title was Stranger in the House, based on a novel of the same name, but was later issued under the less sensical title Cop-Out with a tagline saying it's "a love-in turned kill-in". From 1967 and set in England, it's a legal drama that captures a bit of the "mod" culture of the time. James Mason plays John Sawyer, a once-successful lawyer who now spends most of his time drinking. While he at least tries to look busy by checking out library books on a regular basis, it turns out he never actually reads them. His wife left him a few years ago, leaving him in his large house with daughter Angela (Geraldine Chaplin, Charlie's daughter) who hangs out with a group of young people (including her cousin Desmond, played by Ian Ogilvy) who enjoy getting into bits of trouble while attempting to grow up. One day they find a ship docked near town and go aboard, fooling around after it seems to be vacant, but one sailor catches them- fast-talking Barney, played by singer Bobby Darin. He wants to join their gang and make an escape from society. For a while he shacks up in an abandoned movie theater that's about to be torn down (called the Alhambra, a name significant to those in Sacramento, CA) but then moves to the attic in Angela's father's house. The real trouble starts when Barney is found dead there, shot by a mystery intruder. Blame falls on gang member Jo (Paul Bertoya) who also happens to be Angela's boyfriend. When he goes to jail and can't find anyone to defend him in court, Angela persuades her father to step up and return to his profession, maybe also finding meaning in his life again in the process.

Now, it seems right away that wouldn't fly too well legally, as he's defending someone who knows his daughter and another relative is also involved, but that doesn't seem to be an issue here. As John tries to gather the facts of the case, the movie goes into many flash-backs showing us what happened. This works reasonably well for the most part and gives Darin plenty of time to further play his dead character who we see is a bit of a slimeball. It's still difficult to tell exactly what his deal was however, such as how he became a sailor and decided to abandon that role for one of delinquency. While he's accepted into the group, he gets into fights with them a few times and apparently upsets at least one of them enough to kill him, but who and why? (A bit of a spoiler: this isn't directly answered onscreen.)

Those hoping for a purely psychedelic film which much of the promotional material for it seems to convey will be a bit disappointed, as there isn't a whole lot of music and many scenes are of the "talky" sort common in legal dramas. Still, it's an interesting and not often seen artifact of the time period.

The film transfer in the European 1.66 aspect ratio is decent but not extraordinary. Film elements do not appear to have been in top shape, with color a bit faded and slight dirt and scratches at some points. Color seems a bit faded but is likely part of the intended look, although the level of color also varies throughout.

The optical mono audio track is encoded in 2-channel DTS Master Audio, staying properly centered with Pro-Logic decoding applied. It's adequate, with a small amount of noise present.

The Blu-Ray includes a subtitle track which even defaults to On, but it displays absolutely no text or graphics whatsoever.

Hi-def trailers are included for Cop-Out (transferred in 4x3 open-matte), The High Commissioner (from a print with burned-in Spanish subtitles) and The Grissom Gang.

Cop-Out is another one of those movies that is probably more entertaining after decades have passed. Although it's a bit slow at times, there's still enough late-60s visuals and Bobby Darin is certainly worth checking out in a performance you wouldn't expect from the guy who sang "Beyond the Sea."

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.