StephenALT
Agent
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2003
- Messages
- 27
Has anyone ever heard of this 1930 film coming out on DVD? I believe it’s the second filming of the Peter Kyne story “The Three Godfathers” and arguably the best. Visually stunning and unsentimental as you can get (just the title change alone hints to it’s rough edges).
The ideal DVD would be to include both the sound and silent versions. This was made in that murky middle period from 1927 to 1931 or so when the industry had perhaps frequently made sound AND silent versions of their films (their first HD/Blu-Ray war?). (The silent versions were made one of two ways: 1. the talkie was stripped of sound and title cards added; 2. an alternate version was cut from alternate takes.) As you can imagine, the sound versions are the ones that typically still exist. Sadly, from the handful of examples I’ve seen, the silent versions tend to be more proficient and polished. The editors and filmmakers were more accustomed to telling the story without the crutch of the spoken word.
To see this film in both of its incarnations is to get a lesson in filmmaking. The silent version is approx. 10 minutes shorter and just as stunning.
Anyway, it would be great to see it on DVD at all, tho I believe this would be a great presentation. The American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY, ran a series of films like this, where you would see both versions of a film in the same day. They only had six films where they were able to locate acceptable prints of both versions but it was a fascinating series. They showed Capra’s “Ladies of Leisure”, with Barbara Stanwyck, and the silent version was much sexier than the sound version.
The ideal DVD would be to include both the sound and silent versions. This was made in that murky middle period from 1927 to 1931 or so when the industry had perhaps frequently made sound AND silent versions of their films (their first HD/Blu-Ray war?). (The silent versions were made one of two ways: 1. the talkie was stripped of sound and title cards added; 2. an alternate version was cut from alternate takes.) As you can imagine, the sound versions are the ones that typically still exist. Sadly, from the handful of examples I’ve seen, the silent versions tend to be more proficient and polished. The editors and filmmakers were more accustomed to telling the story without the crutch of the spoken word.
To see this film in both of its incarnations is to get a lesson in filmmaking. The silent version is approx. 10 minutes shorter and just as stunning.
Anyway, it would be great to see it on DVD at all, tho I believe this would be a great presentation. The American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY, ran a series of films like this, where you would see both versions of a film in the same day. They only had six films where they were able to locate acceptable prints of both versions but it was a fascinating series. They showed Capra’s “Ladies of Leisure”, with Barbara Stanwyck, and the silent version was much sexier than the sound version.