André De Toth's Dark Waters (1944) was previously available in a laserdisc edition mastered from the same source as this DVD. The newer format, however, has fewer anomalies to impair the viewer's enjoyment, and the result is a somewhat better viewing experience for a lot less money. Although derived from a print taken from the U.C.L.A. film archive, the DVD image is somewhat soft at times and reveals a fair number of scratches in the opening segment. On the other hand, the image is clear enough to show the shadows resulting from the odd camera angles and the careful, sometimes disquieting lighting used by cinematographers Archie Stout and John Mescall. The audio is mastered at a slightly low volume level, which was also a problem with the laserdisc. The audio mastering, apart from a very rough final fade out, does justice to Miklos Rozsa's score; though not in a league with his work on such films as Spellbound or The Lost Weekend, it was still a step in establishing himself as Hollywood's resident master of the psychological, suspense-oriented music score. The 13 chapters cover the 90-minute plot more than adequately.