Double Indemnity, 1776, and The Untouchables have all been newly released on 4K Ultra High-Definition discs.

For those unfamiliar with the format, 4K UHD discs contain digital optical data storage that is an enhanced variant of the Blu-ray format. They are incompatible with non 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players but 4K HD Blu-ray players will play traditional Blu-rays and DVDs. Some versions of Xbox and PlayStation will also support 4K UHD discs. The advantage that these discs have over traditional Blu-ray discs is that they support both high dynamic range by increasing the color depth to 10-bit-per-color and a greater color gamut than is supported by conventional Blu-ray video.

To differentiate Ultra HD Blu-ray releases from standard releases, the format usually uses a black opaque or slightly transparent keep case packaging format instead of a blue one. The case size, however, is the same as that of a traditional Blu-ray disc.

The first 4K Ultra HD releases were made on February 14, 2016. The initial releases were primarily action-adventure films, but other genres have slowly been given their own chance to shine in the format. That said, Double Indemnity, 1776, and The Untouchables represent still-under-represented genres.

1944’s Double Indemnity is not the first film noir to be released on 4K UHD, that distinction belongs to Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil. Neither is it the first Billy Wilder film to be released in the format, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment having been previously released. It is, however, the first 1940s film noir and a rare 1940s black-and-white film to be released in the format, joining only Welles’ Citizen Kane and Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt in that respect.

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Paramount’s Double Indemnity lost Best Picture to another Paramount film, the year’s box-office champ Going My Way. Wilder lost his first Best Director nomination to Going My Way’s Leo McCarey and his fourth Best Screenplay nomination to Frank Butler and Frank Cavett, also for Going My Way. His previous screenplay nominations were for Ninotchka, Hold Back the Dawn, and Ball of Fire. He would eventually win six competitive Oscars plus the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice) based his novel on a notorious real-life 1920s crime but the film has a different ending than its real-life counterpart in which the female protagonist’s execution in the electric chair at Sing-Sing was splashed across the front page of tabloid newspapers everywhere.

Barbara Stanwyck, in what is generally considered her greatest screen role as the film’s femme fatale seductress, was nominated for Best Actress for the third time, having previously been nominated for Stella Dallas and Ball of Fire. She would be nominated again for Sorry, Wrong Number and eventually win an honorary award for career achievement at the 1981 Academy Awards.

Neither Fred MacMurray as the insurance agent patsy who commits murder for Stanwyck, nor Edward G. Robinson as MacMurray’s boss who figures out MacMurray’s duplicity, were nominated for their equally fine performances. Neither actor was ever nominated for a competitive Oscar, although Robinson did receive a career achievement award, announced before his death, but awarded posthumously to his widow at the 1972 Academy Awards.

For Stanwyck and MacMurray in a crime drama with a happier ending, catch Mitchell Leisen’s 1940 Christmas classic, Remember the Night. In the meantime, enjoy Double Indemnity looking and sounding better than ever on 4K UHD.

1972’s 1776 is the fourth oldest screen musical to be released in 4K UHD. It joins only the previously released The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and My Fair Lady in that regard. There are, however, several subsequent film musicals, already available on 4K UHD including two versions of both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, and the 2021 remake of West Side Story.

The musical, about the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, has long been a TV staple, showing up regularly on the 4th of July. Only Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney, has gotten more airings on the day.

Peter H. Hunt’s film of Sherman Edwards’ Tony Award-winning musical stars William Daniels, Ken Howard, and Howard Da Silva, reprising their Broadway roles as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin respectively, with most of the supporting cast new to the film version. It remains relevant and frequently moving today. Like Double Indemnity, the film looks and sounds better than ever in 4K UHD.

1987’s The Untouchables is a rare gangster film to be released in 4K UHD. None of the 1930s gangster films that defined the genre have been released in the format, and very view of the modern gangster films have been either. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Trilogy is, in fact, the only true representation of the genre to have done so. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy probably came the closest until now.

Based on the hit 1959 TV series of the same name starring Robert Stack, the hero of The Untouchables is Eliot Ness, the Treasury Agent who put Al Capone behind bars for tax evasion in 1930. Brian De Palma’s film from a David Mamet screenplay, takes liberties with both the TV series and the real-life situations it represents, but it all plays out seamlessly with Kevin Costner as Ness, Robert De Niro as Capone, and Sean Connery in his Oscar-winning portrayal of an honest cop who helps Ness bring down the Chicago gangster.

In real life, Ness never shot anyone. He never even carried a gun, but the filmmakers didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. The train station scene remains one of the most skillfully shot action sequences in film history. And, yes, like Double Indemnity and 1776, The Untouchables looks better than ever on 4K UHD.

This week’s new releases include the Morbius and Father Stu.