Blacks are suitably inky, plus the image provides a healthy dose of shadow detail and fairly impressive depth. Contrast is quite good, as are various gradient of gray and the clean, stable whites. For an older monaural film, this is an effective reworking of the material that doesn' t try to exceed the limitations of the original recordings. Gunshots and other sound effects have some directionality, plus the film's music garners some benefits by being spread into the periphery. The fidelity of the music is limited by age, but still manages to sound pretty good.
Dialogue is fully intelligible and the actors' voices are clean and distinct sounding.
The original English monaural soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English subtitles. The basic interactive menus provide access to the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a theatrical trailer. Film buffs, as well as fans of John Wayne and James Stewart will want to pick up their own copy of Paramount's terrific looking DVD release.