tryavna wrote:(Apart from this and Hunchback, I'm totally unfamiliar with director Wallace Worsley's work. But if he managed to repeat what he does in Penalty in some other movie, I'd like to track that movie down.)
Well, Worsley did make a handful of movies with Chaney. Unfortunately, two of them, VOICES OF THE CITY ('21) and A BLIND BARGAIN ('22) are considered lost.
You can see his ACE OF HEARTS ('21) on the TCM Lon Chaney DVD set. It's Chaney in a pretty straight role, as one of a group of anarchists. It's not my favorite Chaney, but it has its moments.
It's A BLIND BARGAIN that seems the great loss. As one IMDb reviewer put it:
ABB, judging from Riley's synopsis is about a scientist, Dr Lamb(Chaney Sr), who experiments in his lab blending human & simian aspects into his nimble assistant(also Chaney Sr in dual roles). From what one can decipher of where the story goes, the simian experiments using the assistant go awry and out-of-control. From here the story starts to look familiar to the Dr Jekyll story and it also curiously has a bit in common with Lon Chaney Jr's THE WOLFMAN made 20 years later.
It's not Worsley, but a rare silent based on a short story by the author of THE PENALTY is Irvin Willat'sBEHIND THE DOOR. This is probably every bit the equal of THE PENALTY. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to see. I spoke to Kevin Brownlow once about it, and he thought it would likely never see the light of DVD, mostly due to the condition of the existing materials.
Extensive DVD Talk review of the first volume in the British Transport Films collection, just released in the US by Kino (previously by the BFI in Britain).
DVD Talk has posted a review of The Cat and the Canary that compares the new Kino edition with the second Image release. Apparently, it is an entirely different restoration, but not necessarily better. Based on running time, it also appears to be a PAL->NTSC port, though (as I said before) the TCM broadcast suggests that ghosting isn't a huge problem.
davidhare wrote:I haven't yet seen the Penalty but how does it rate against a Chaney/Browning vehicle like the fabbo West of Zanzibar?
Even the sole extant, cut 16mm print (used on the Laserdisc) of this packs a punch and genuinely positions MGM as king of total sleaze. (If only they'd stayed that way.) The Vitaphone score also adds the final frisson of coked up razz.
The PENALTY was a Goldwyn release, so you see the roaring lion & "art for art's sake" logo, so you could say PENALTY was part of this string of releases.
I think THE PENALTY transcends everything that Chaney did with Browing. ZANZIBAR is in the same bag with THE WICKED DARLING (the only extant Browing/Chaney I've seen that precedes THE PENALTY chronologically), THE UNKNOWN and FREAKS, where Browning cooks up a sleazy story filled with sleazy characters and brings them alive with the most venerable technique he can muster. I love those Browning/Chaney's, I own a ton of them and even other slop like SHOCK, NOMADS, LIGHT OF FAITH, plus SHADOWS, etc, and am slavering over this fucking WB/TCM second box of his, but the PENALTY is, for me, far more human and therefore far more frightening and believable. Whereas the viciousness in Browning is either delicious, funny, or just boring schtick (depending on the flick, or the moment within a particular flick), the viciousness in THE PENALTY makes you flinch and go Whoah, Jesus! And there is a depth of metaphor, an evenness in both scenario and mise en scene, and great use of real urban location, matched with excellent art direction/sets (the great quality of the 35mm print heightens this) that allows "place" to be a character along with the characters. To my mind it's the one absolute masterpiece that Chaney made.
Just grab it Dave-- it's one of the greatest silents ever made and imo Chaney's best. The other Worseley/Chaney I own is indeed the one in Chaney box One-- ACE, which is good, but features some very heavy handed stuff by Chaney. Gouverner Morris, author of THE PENALTY book, was apparently a wildly successful writer of his day. TThe disc goes into quite a bit of background behind the film, studying the book, the script, and the final scenario that went onto the screen. Extras-wise, it's one of Kino's richest releases viz a single title.. testament to the extreme importance of the film.
malcolm1980 wrote:I only own ONE Kino DVD so far (Metropolis). Does anyone have any recommendation as to which are their best titles? Thanks.
Kino puts out some great titles, although their releases rarely compare to Criterion from a technical standpoint. Kino occasionally gets the rights to new transfers (Battleship Potemkin, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler), which are nice, but the majority of their titles have mediocre image quality. They're nowhere near as bad as Facets, but nowhere near as good as Criterion, so if you look through Kino's catalog and find a title you like, check out Dvdbeaver.com and see if there's a comparison up; usually there's a better transfer, even if it's PAL and from a different region.
Here are some titles to start wtih: Edison: the Invention of the Movies (this is really an essential title).
They have a couple of nice Tavernier titles, Let Joy Reign Supreme and Life and Nothing But.
They've got some good versions of D.W. Griffith's masterpieces (and Birth of a Nation is as artistically stellar as it is morally reprehensible).
All of their Fritz Lang titles are good.
And on a personal note, I really like Yvan Attal's Happily Ever After, but I don't think it's a must-buy.
malcolm1980 wrote:I only own ONE Kino DVD so far (Metropolis). Does anyone have any recommendation as to which are their best titles? Thanks.
If you're looking for more silents, go for the three films by Mauritz Stiller. Essential viewing, and absolutely no complaints about the disc/transfer quality in this case.
Also recommended: Avant Garde Vol. 1 & 2, two great collections of mostly major experimental works from the 20s to the 50s. Vol.1 is more essential, though. Often not so good prints, but well transferred.
malcolm1980 wrote:I only own ONE Kino DVD so far (Metropolis). Does anyone have any recommendation as to which are their best titles? Thanks.
Malcolm, this thread was something I initiated sometime in the spring of 2006, because I had the same question that you just asked. The thread covers a lot of the titles released up until that point.
The different silent and avant-garde sets are truly excellent (as mentioned above), and the label is a goldmine in general for a lot of silent, esoteric and otherwise forgotten films. You will discover more gems by walking through Kino's catalogue than just about any other label.
Yes, Malc-- there is only one label I can think which has been experimenting with encoding fully progressive transfers on their silents, and that's MoC, but remember that this is easier for them as they keeping to sources in their native PAL standard and are not producing silent titles that have brand new preexisting transfers which come from an NTSC source (ie American silent masterpieces) which puts them on the spot to either 1) keep with the profit thing and go with a nonpreconverted master, or 2) put in the large cost of pulling an all-new exclusive transfer to fend off the criticism. Comparing Kino to CC when it comes to silents is silly since CC rarely puts out a silent title. Theres really no label in the US that turns down those preexisting hi-quality PAL digibetas from across the pond, and asks for the actual fine grains to run their own expensive transfer: Lionsgate, Kino, Milestone, New Yorker, Image, they're all in the same boat essentially when it comes to dealing with offers to use preexisting PAL digibetas for European restos of silents-- they use them, rather than turn them down and invest in a new transfer. On the other hand they do the bulk of the balance of their transfers, from all the great American silents, their sublime joint projects w the MoMA & Lib Congress, the Eastman House etc, and the Material from Rohauer (ie AVANT 1 & 2). AND of course prior to the wheels beginning to turn at FWMS these guys did their own native transfers for all the great Murnaus like NOS & LAST LAUGH, FAUST, etc.
Incidentally I just picked up A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR with the SILENT BRITAIN doc from the BFI:
Holy fuckanoli! DARTMOOR was sublime as expected, but the scholarly revelations about the state of the UK film industry in the late 1800's thru the 1910's was mind blowing. In many ways these guys seemed to be very far ahead of the Americans & French, in their use of editing, dissolves, wipes, narrative structure. While Edison was still producing proscenium style pieces-- i e turn the camera on, let it capture the whole cast, and let the story play out, without panning, editing, or moving the camera at all, and end the piece-- the Brits were getting into using multiple locations, mixing location and studio shooting, changing standpoints, using wipes, focus dissolves... very sophisticated versus the rest of the world.
This single documentary has rewritten the story of early silent film, and attributed the bulk of the primary narrative (and certain technical) "firsts" to the British film industry... seemingly without question.
Despite all their strenuous efforts to the contrary, however, the doc makes a weak case in combating the standard view that the UK was a limp competitor in the 1920's versus the slug that Hollywood effected versus global markets. Certainly the US used unseemly methods of volume/ saturation/dollars dollars dollars to beat global markets into submission, but the UK simply did not respond in the smart fashion that the Germans, Swedes & the French did, which is: the creation of the Art Film. Blow the American competition out of the water and set a new standard of creativity by absolute masterworks so striking that they HAD to be not only noticed but imitated. The Swedes and the Germans were fantastic at this, and the Russians & French quickly followed, so that by the mid 1920's the market was full of striking experiments, and a cinematic conversation was being had. Somehow the Brits lacked a certain wildness of concept, and the rah-rahing in the documentary SILENT BRITAIN about HINDLE WAKES, A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR (itself a very striking catalog of French Impressionist skies and landscapes, with very Germanic interiors, with two germans playing the male leads... considered by the film to be the surpreme masterwork of the UK silent zone) as well as PICCADILLY (made by a German director), and Hitchcock's LODGER.. their rah-rahing of these films cannot erase the lack of a distinct aesthetic coming from the country as the medium grew in it's sophistication, and reached what many--like me-- consider to be it's artistic peak. The USSR, the French, the Germans, the pre-1924 Swedes... these countries all had a very distinctive and utterly native style associated with them, they all had their established masters who shaped film grammar by producing brilliant masterpieces that made Hollywood sit with its ears back and bow... and imitate... and attempt to steal the very directors who created them.
But between 1895 and, say, 1913, the UK was, it seems, far ahead in many ways, and the doc is a revelation. If the BFI doesn't follow this doc up with an EDISON-type box, every producer associated with them deserves to have their head examined!
HerrSchreck wrote:Despite all their strenuous efforts to the contrary, however, the doc makes a weak case in combating the standard view that the UK was a limp competitor in the 1920's versus the slug that Hollwyood effected versus global markets. Certainly the US used unseemly methods of volume/ saturation/dollars dollars dollars to beat global markets into submission, but the UK simply did not respond in the smart fashion that the Germans, Swedes & the French did, which is: the creation of the Art Film. Blow the American competition out of the water and set a new standard of creativity by absolute masterworks so striking that they HAD to be not only noticed but imitated. [...] Somehow the Brits lacked a certain wildness of concept, and the rah-rahing in the documentary SILENT BRITAIN about HINDLE WAKES, A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR (itself a very striking catalog of French Impressionist skies and landscapes, with very Germanic interiors, with two germans playing the male leads... considered by the film to be the surpreme masterwork of the UK silent zone) as well as PICCADILLY (made by a German director), and Hitchcock's LODGER.. their rah-rahing of these films cannot erase the lack of a distinct aesthetic coming from the country as the medium grew in it's sophistication, and reached what many--like me-- consider to be it's artistic peak.
Schreck, thanks for the reminder about this title. It had entirely slipped my mind that it was being released today.
The docu sounds fascinating, and I'm sure I'll be seeing it shortly myself. But did it shine much light on why the British film industry never really picked up after WWI? You make it sound like they're almost denying that it didn't, but I think it's pretty common knowledge that the government-imposed industry shut-down during the war was a major blow, coupled of course with the misguided quota laws about a decade later. Had any particular directors and/or producers died during the war? etc., etc.
The history of the British film industry is obviously a fascinating study, since more than just about any other national film industry, it's a history of several short-lived glorious highs nestled in between decade-long crises. But my knowledge of the pre-Hitchcock/Korda/Balcon era is pretty spotty -- although those two discs dedicated to British pioneers in Kino's Movies Begin set are marvelous. (The great British documentary tradition already seems to be in working order by 1910!)
HerrSchreck wrote:If the BFI doesn't follow this doc up with an EDISON-type box, every producer associated with them deserves to have their head examined!
And my understanding is that other early British pioneers will also be getting similar individual surveys at some unspecified point in the future - G.A. Smith, James Williamson and the like - but I don't know of any definite plans.
Thanks for the review, Schreck, this sounds very good. I wanted to see that "Silent Britain" docu for a long time, but somehow could never bring myself to buy the stand-alone BFI disc. How's the transfer/materials on "Dartmoor"?
As to more British silents: the bfi site had an announcement for August (in their 'dates for your diary' section) for Friese-Greene's "The open road", but somehow it didn't materialize yet. Meanwhile, I got one half of the new Mitchell&Kenyon installments (i.e. "M&K in Ireland"), and am almost as enamoured with it as with "Electric Edwardians". Wonderful stuff, and as carefully presented as the first edition.
Tommaso wrote:As to more British silents: the bfi site had an announcement for August (in their 'dates for your diary' section) for Friese-Greene's "The open road", but somehow it didn't materialize yet.
Au contraire, it was released last week. Haven't seen any reviews yet, though.
And it's the BFI, not the bfi - that toe-curlingly pretentious lower-case affectation was officially banished into the outer darkness well over a year ago.
Thanks for the info, Michael. I seem to visit their site somewhat less often since they re-did their web design. I somehow find it less convenient than formerly, with all the books now showing up in the 'Latest Products' section as well as the new discs.
Sorry for misspelling the BFI. But I again prefer the old logo here. But as they are a major quality label now, they probably deserve the Capitals.
As to the quality of the transfer of DARTMOOR, it's magnificent, easily as nice as SIR ARNE, MAN WHO LAUGHS, etc, at tucking away that extra frame lurking in every fourth or fifth frame due to the PAL master tape used. The preservation materials, as most probably already know, are in astoundingly pristine condition, and so the nice transfer really brings out the wonderful richness of the contrast and the different textures & lenses used. It's a wonderful film-- some of his exteriors, with their grim use of heavy clouds and gloomy weather remind me immediately of the French Impressionist movement and their obsession with autumn, i.e., Kirsanoff, Epstein's USHER, Grem in MALDONE, etc. Then as we get to the interiors, we get the fabulous look of the later German masterpieces like ASPHALT, JEANNE NEY, the later silents w Brooks & Pabst. Lots of references to SUNRISE, as well as F A Wagner. There are some tour de force moments in the editing which are as amped up as MAN W A MOVIE CAMERA or OCTOBER. A great film, and a great transfer by the BFI. I'd also single out the piano score for the film, too, as this is an area that Kino seems determined to fuck up, with a few exceptions, almost all the time: they used the score commissioned by the Brits, and it's entirely appropriate and works VERY well. Nice to have a great silent that got away from the hideous mitts of Kino & CC's darling Donald "Noodles Well-Done" Sosin.
Mike that set looks very intriguing-- but what I was looking for was a cross between a documentary and a retrospective, i.e., film school in a box, along the lines of the UNSEEN CINEMA by Image, BFI's FREE CINEMA, or of course those great Kino boxes like EDISON (which is the perfect template... intersperse the films with comments by MoMA & Library of Congress Print Collection curators, to point out innovations & points of interest film by film, backstories of studios, social issues, etc. etc., and give the viewer the option to watch the collection with or without the curation). Based on the quantity of materials involved, I'd imagine a box set, if not six discs like UNSEEN, at least four like EDISON or TREASURES/MORE TREASURES FROM... and it should focus on all those directors mentioned in the SILENT BRITAIN documentary. Basically enlarge and fully illustrate the thesis of that doc as is usually done.
Tryavna: no the doc wont expound upon that point because the thesis of the documentary is that the UK film industry DID NOT dip versus other markets, that this idea is an old red herring promulgated by critics outside the country who were not privy to a thriving and very competitive industry every bit as venerable as its' European counterparts. In other words the doc's thrust is to go about upending that idea-- that they were limp versus the Swedes, Ruissians, Germans etc-- in the post 1918 era. And I just don't buy it. They just don't have the films to prove their case, beyond the few beautifully handled melodramas like HINDLE WAKES & DARTMOOR (which, again, is a gorgeous catalog of French & German shooting styles, with some Russian editing thrown in) along with PICCADILLY & Hitch (the former directed by a German, the second a director deeply infused by the UFA style). So they wont expound on your point specifically because they have set out to debunk it.
In the pre-1913 period, they blew my skull open and more than proved their point; in the postwar period, they just didn't succeed with their argument, at least to this viewer. This is not to say they weren't producing fully functional, well shot and entertaining melodramas... it's just that this was ALL they were doing, and lacked the national genius, if you will, of the markets on the European continent.
HerrSchreck wrote:Mike that set looks very intriguing-- but what I was looking for was a cross between a documentary and a retrospective, i.e., film school in a box, along the lines of the UNSEEN CINEMA by Image, BFI's FREE CINEMA, or of course those great Kino boxes like EDISON (which is the perfect template... intersperse the films with comments by MoMA & Library of Congress Print Collection curators, to point out innovations & points of interest film by film, backstories of studios, social issues, etc. etc., and give the viewer the option to watch the collection with or without the curation).
That's broadly what's been done with the R.W.Paul disc - it comes with a hefty booklet providing notes on all 62 surviving films produced by Paul's studio, each of which can be viewed with either a music score or a commentary by Ian Christie (the commentary also has subtitles, so it's perfectly possible to play the music and watch the films with "footnotes").
And I very much hope that this disc will be the first of many, adding up to exactly the kind of curated overview that you're calling for.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is up for pre-order at Amazon.
Product Description
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a boldly conceived and astonishingly photographed blend of enchanting mythology, hypnotic religious iconography, and pagan magic. And although its unsentimental depiction of the harsh realities of Russian regional history forced visionary director Sergei Pararadjanov (The Color of Pomegranates) into direct conflict with bureaucrats then controlling the Soviet film industry, the film became an international sensation when it was released in 1964. There is no devil in church, only among men. Deep in the Carpathian Mountains of 19th-century Ukraine, love, hate, life, and death among the Hutsul people are as they ve been since time began. While young Ivan s mother mourns her husband s brutal murder, Ivan is drawn to Marichka, the beautiful young daughter of the man who killed his father. But fate tragically decrees that the two lovers will remain apart. Unhappily married to another woman and cursed by a sorcerer in this life, Ivan s obsession with his lost love lures him ever closer to a reunion with Marichka in death. In this DVD edition, Kino is proud to present one of the landmarks of 1960 s world cinema in a new widescreen transfer that restores Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in all the extravagant color, vivid tragedy, and lucid
anthropological detail that stunned audiences when it first premiered. SPECIAL FEATURES: Documentary: Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Paradjanov (2003, 40 min.) - Featurette: Songs of the Ukraine (1985, 8 min.) - Paradjanov Photo Album - Stills Gallery - Cast & Crew Filmographies - Trailers IN UKRAINIAN with optional ENGLISH, FRENCH or SPANISH subtitles - Dolby Digital 5.1
Cold Bishop wrote:Wait a sec... I thought this film was full-frame. Is that not what the Film sans Frontiere is listed as?
It's 100% definitely full-frame. Absolutely no doubt about this at all.
Either that or every single time I saw it in the cinema (revival in Paris, rep in London) the projectionist got it wrong - though this is unlikely as the compositions are clearly intended for 1.33:1. And with this particular director I would have thought it would be obvious if anything had gone wrong with the aspect ratio.
It maybe a typo but for some reason imdb has is as a 1 to 2.35 release (not that its' necessarily authoritative.. since its' fuckin imdb). Be interesting to see what pops here.
HerrSchreck wrote:It maybe a typo but for some reason imdb has is as a 1 to 2.35 release (not that its' necessarily authoritative.. since its' fuckin imdb). Be interesting to see what pops here.
Indeed. Especially since both the French restorations (the cinema one I caught in the late 80s/early 90s) and the FsF DVD, not to mention the British Contemporary Films 35mm print, the Channel 4 screening and the Connoisseur Video VHS release were all 1.33:1.
I suppose they could all have made exactly the same mistake, but my money's on the IMDB being wrong. And, hopefully, Kino's press release.
(Let's face it, press releases are hardly authoritative either...)
POTEMKIN in hand. More later, but up there w EDISON etc as one of Kino's finest releases. Very similar presentation as SPIRIT OF BEEHIVE... i e 2 disc fold out w booklet.
Image is a revelation.
One thing I do appreciate about Kino's box sets (particularly viz their sound collection, which, generally--post 1950's material-- I totally agree are towards the eh "lower end of the midline.. i e not quite Facets" with occasional miracles like the all native NTSC Keislowski and perhaps 40% of others for non-US films) is that they generally tend to make all the films available seperately for those who already have earlier releases, etc. So potentially superior editions of certain films can be purchased without duping dvd's already in one's collection.. which is more than can be said of a certain company whose name this forum bears and shall be heretofore be nameless...
The Teshigihara box is a bitch man. Same w stuff like the Varda, etc.
