Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
The Hands of
Orlac
(1924)
|
This infamous Austrian horror production stars Conrad Veidt as a concert pianist who loses his hands in a train accident, only to have them replaced by the transplanted hands of a criminal.
|
 Kino International
2008 DVD edition
The Hands of Orlac (1924), black & white, 110 minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K570, UPC 7-38329-05702-2.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 16 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 19 February 2008.
Country of origin: USA
|
This DVD edition, which is the first quality DVD produced of The Hands of Orlac (1924), has been transferred in high-definition and mastered in standard definition from the 1996 35mm restoration print of Transit Films / F.W. Murnau Stiftung, with additional footage from the Raymond Rohauer collection, now held by the Cohen Media Group.
The presentation is accompanied by a music score by Paul Mercer.
The supplemental material includes comparisons of the domestic German and international versions of the film, exerpts from Maurice Renard’s source novel, a stills gallery, an essay by Veidt author John Soister, and a trailer for Mad Love (1935) the remake starring Peter Lorre.
|
|
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
 Grapevine Video
2003 DVD edition
The Hands of Orlac (1924), black & white, 99 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; German language intertitles, permanent Spanish language subtitles; 9 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 2003.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 5 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.
|
This DVD-R edition from public-domain home video company Grapevine Video has been transferred from a contrasty 16mm reduction print of good-to-very-good quality, but has been mastered from a videotape dub (videotape glitches and all!) of the original edition, which features German language intertitles and permanent Spanish subtitles. As is to be expected, some highlight details are blasted out and shadows are closed up.
The source video accompanies the film with a custom music score performed on piano, wind and reed instruments, and eerie (read: annoying) female vocals.
Production of this edition was discontinued in July 2006.
|
|
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .
|
|
|
|
Other silent era ROBERT WIENE films available on home video.
Other silent era CONRAD VEIDT films available on home video.
Other GERMAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other HORROR FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
|
