Silent Era Information*Progressive Silent Film List*Lost Films*People*Theaters
Taylorology*Articles*Home Video*Books*Search
 
Foolish Wives BD
 
Silent Era Home Page  >  Home Video  >  By the Law
 
Silent Era Films on Home Video
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

By the Law
[Po zakonu]
(1926)

 

This intense drama was directed by Lev Kuleshov from the short story “The Unexpected” by Jack London.

In a remote part of the Yukon, a frustrated group of miners suddenly discover that their gold mine is paying off. But Michael Dennin (Vladimir Fogel) is not a stakeholder in the mining operation and soon becomes envious of the others. He suddenly murders two of the miners and the remaining two, Swede Hans Nelson (Sergei Komarov) and Edith Nelson (Aleksandra Khokhlova) his English wife, must stop Dennin by beating him into unconsciousness. At the climax of the struggle, Edith must stop her husband from murdering the murderer. She insists that they must let the law handle him.

Dennin is bound by rope and held at gunpoint. Time and again the woman must stand between the two men, who would kill each other if they could. The melting winter ice and rising waters of the river must retreat before they can leave for civilization and the law.

Edith develops a fearful empathy for Dennin, while her husband remains vengeful. The stress of the isolation on the ongoing situation takes its toll on Edith and Hans, and he argues the merits of an instant justice upon the murderer. She reluctantly agrees, but insists that they carry out a judgment hearing following the rules of British law as Dennin is an Irishman and a subject of Queen Victoria.

The would-be judges are also the would-be jury who become, in turn, the would-be executioners, sentencing Dennin to death by hanging. Edith’s empathy has been swept away by a lapse of resolve and the madness of religion and self-justification. The horrifying execution is, for the couple, followed by the horrific appearance of Dennin’s ghost.

The Soviet message of Western values gone awry will not be lost upon the viewer, with the significant repeated intercutting of the queen’s portrait and the surreal denouement of Edith’s upraised bible and robot-like leading of Dennin to his final reckoning. Eventually, all Westerners are corrupted by gold, by religion and by their selfish sense of rightiousness.

Kuleshov’s direction of the spare production is notable. Reputedly filmed for a miniscule cost, the film nonetheless poses a number of striking images that are carefully composed for audiences to learn something of the character’s nature or the status of the situation, all of which are visually bold and worth savoring. The tableaux at the gallows tree is memorable for its starkness and impressionistic significance. Kuleshov’s prolonged burial sequence builds to a palpable suspense as Dennin attempts to free himself while the couple are struggling with dead bodies amid a raging storm.

The elements of nature play a significant part in the stylistic telling of the tale. The wind and the rain beat angrily upon the burial effort. Dennin starts a defiant fire within the cabin, and the candles of the birthday cake foretell the fires of the Nelson’s perdition. Water from the melting river surrounds and invades the isolated cabin like a deadening shroud, and the return of the earth signals the moment for Dennin’s death.

Fogel’s fascinating face punctuates this intense film, but Khokhlova’s distressing creepiness (with backlit flyaway hair and Olive Oyl thinness) and her acting performance (seemingly restricted to bug-eyed mugging) may evoke some cynical laughter from modern viewers.

Carl Bennett

coverEdition Filmmuseum
2010 DVD edition

Po zakonu [By the Law] (1926), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated,
with Vasa znakomaja (1927) [fragment], black & white, 18 minutes, not rated.

Österreichsches Filmmuseum, distributed by Edition Filmmuseum, 63, UPC/EAN 4-260100-33063-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, Russian language intertitles, optional German, English and French language subtitles, no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; €29,95.
Release date: December 2010.
Country of origin: Germany

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 6 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This PAL DVD edition of Po zakonu [By the Law] has been produced by the Austrian Filmmuseum from a very-good 35mm preservation print. The windowboxed standard-definition video transfer accurately reproduces the source print which is, at times, full of deep shadows and choking blacks in the middle-to-dark tones. Portions of the surviving footage are marked with momentary print damage and flaws, but the bulk of the film is relatively clear of defect other than its moderate to pronounced speckling.

The film is presented with a music score composed and performed on synthesizers by Franz Reisecker. The music may be, for conservative viewers, too futuristic in arrangement and execution given that it accompanies an arctic drama. Outside the context of the film presentation, we like the music for its experimental aural texturalism as a standalone electronic music recording. That crackling isn’t your speaker malfunctioning, it’s just a sign of artistic license.

The disc’s supplemental material presents the battered and decomposing 35mm footage from Vasa znakomaja (1927), Kuleshov’s feature-length drama (which is presented without musical accompaniment). While there is little sense of the overall plot of the film, the surviving footage is historically valuable for its brief scenes of everyday life in an unidentified Soviet city of the 1920s.

This is our recommended home video edition of By the Law, but . . . North American collectors will need a PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

 
This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .
coverFlicker Alley
2011 DVD edition

Landmarks of Early Soviet Film (1924-1930), black & white, 595 minutes total, not rated,
including By the Law (1926), black & white, 80 minutes, not rated.

Flicker Alley, FA0022, UPC 6-17311-67639-0.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (four DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; Russian language intertitles, permanent English language subtitles; 16 chapter stops; 28-page insert booklet; four slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $69.99.
Release date: 20 September 2011.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 7 / additional content: 6 / overall: 6.

This DVD edition of By the Law looks OK, with good 35mm print materials utilized for the older analog video transfer. However, the 1997 windowboxed transfer shows its age with its high contrast of deep shadows and highlights that are blasted out to a featureless white. The presentation could have benefitted from an updated video transfer.

The film is accompanied by the 1997 music score arranged by Robert Israel, which is performed on piano and violin.

Supplemental material includes a 28-page insert booklet with short essays and notes on the films by Maxim Pozdorovkin and Ana Olenina.

To be honest, we might only recommend this edition for North American collectors with NTSC DVD players that are not capable of playing the European PAL edition noted above. The boxset is now out-of-print.

 
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
coverGrapevine Video
2007 DVD edition

By the Law (1926), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10252-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 7 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2007.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a dark 16mm reduction print that is not unlike the source print of the Edition Filmmuseum disc noted above, that is, shadowy in its middle-to-darker tones, rendering a dark plugged-up picture. The reduction print does not hold some of the darker middle greytones nor the picture details of the 35mm print above, but is not significantly worse than the quality of the surviving material.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

We recommend the PAL edition noted above, if your system is capable of viewing foreign home video discs.

 
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era. AmazonUS
 
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
Other RUSSIAN and SOVIET FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other silent film music scores by ROBERT ISRAEL available on home video.

 
Silent Era Home Page  >  Home Video  >  By the Law
 
Lodger BD
Become a Patron of Silent Era

SUPPORT SILENT ERA
USING THESE LINKS
WHEN SHOPPING AT
AMAZON

AmazonUS
AmazonCA
AmazonUK

When Knighthood Was in Flower BD/DVD

Landmarks of Early Soviet Film

Fragment of an Empire BD

Strike BD

Strike DVD

Cigarette Girl DVD

Battleship Potemkin BD

Bolshevik Trilogy BD

Miss Mend DVD

Madame DuBarry BD

Stella Maris BD

Three Ages / Hospitality BD

Pandora's Box BD

Browning's Shockers BD

Johnstown Flood BD

3 Musketeers / Iron Mask BD

Piccadilly BD

Spanish Dancer BD

Laurel & Hardy Year 1 BD

The Doll BD

Robin Hood / Black Pirate BD

Sky High BD

Michael BD

Johannna Enlists BD

Foolish Wives BD

Wolves / North BD

Paths to Paradise BD

Oyster Princess BD

The Trap BD

Oh Doctor BD

Der Hund von Baskerville BD

*