News

The experts were right when they said that silent filmmaking was developing something unique and beautiful, before talkies came along and spoiled the party with all that noise. This ‘handy three-pack’ of once-obscure Josef von Sternberg classics proves the theory 100% — his intense dramas excite audiences with something that’s gone missing from the movies, or the cinema or whatever you want to call it: the magic of visual stylization in the service of basic human emotions. Before Marlene there was Evelyn Brent and Betty Compson: Sternberg presents them as shimmering visions.

3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 529, 530, 531

1927-28 / B&w / 1:33 Silent Ap / 81, 88, 75 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 8, 2019 / 79.96

Starring: George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook; Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell; George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova.

Cinematography: Bert Glennon; Bert Glennon; Harold Rosson

Original Music: multiple scores by Robert Israel,...

Do rediscovered ‘lost’ movies always disappoint? This Depression-era pre-Code science fiction disaster thriller was unique in its day, and its outrageously ambitious special effects –New York City is tossed into a blender — were considered the state of the art. Sidney Blackmer and a fetching Peggy Shannon fight off rapacious gangs in what may be the first post-apocalyptic survival thriller.

Deluge

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1933 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 67 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Peggy Shannon, Lois Wilson, Sidney Blackmer, Lane Chandler, Samuel S. Hinds, Fred Kohler, Matt Moore, Edward Van Sloan .

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Film Editor: Martin G. Cohn, Rose Loewinger

Special Effects: Ned Mann, Williams Wiliams, Russell Lawson, Ernie Crockett, Victor Scheurich, Carl Wester

Original Music: Val Burton

Written by Warren Duff, John F. Goodrich from the novel by Sydney Fowler Wright

Produced by Samuel Bischoff, Burt Kelly, William Saal

Directed by Felix E. Feist...

The anthology, Cthulhu Unbound, contains 15 chilling tales of monstrosity dedicated to the H.P. Lovecraft mythology. According to Lovecraft’s cosmic universe, Cthulhu is the Great Old One, an indescribable giant creature who will bring about doomsday. The collection, edited by Thomas Brannon and John Sunseri, asks the writers to create a diabolical world where horrifying demons have taken control of earth and dwindling humanity is left fighting.

A few of the shorts deal with military escapades and the aftermath of war. The battle commences with an air force fighter firing missiles at a massive hell born beast in, “The Invasion Out of Time,” by Trent Roman. Author D. L. Snell continues the trend in “Blood Bags and Tentacles,” with his tragic narrative about an obsessed soldier disobeying orders to seek his lost brother down dark tunnels covered with hideous blood-sucking creatures. The most effective anti-war message comes from John Goodrich’s “The Patriot.