Request studio-owned silent films here! (Aiming for 100 posts) (1 Viewer)

[Patrick McCart]

You can find that version of Snow White, aptly titled, "Snow White," on the Treasures of American Film Archives box set.

Very much worth the price of the set...I saw excerpts on Turner Classic Movies and much of the featured stuff is facinating. I also think part of the silent version is on the Snow White DVD in the making-of doc.

Birth of a Nation actually is very much worth a buy... Image has released (produced by Blackhawk) a great DVD produced by David Shepard...who is responsible for nearly every Image silent DVD out there (as well as many Kino DVD's.) He also produced all of the Charlie Chaplin DVD's released by Image.

It probably won't get an airing until next month since TCM is doing an Oscar month...and AMC pretty much despises silents now.

 

[Jim Moore]

Absolutely, I would love to see "Sunrise" on DVD. It is one of my favorite films of all time.

 

[Dave Barth]

(1) Sunrise, Wings, The Big Parade, The Crowd, Metropolis.

(2) I own Nosferatu, Haxan, the Passion of Joan of Arc, and the 2 discs of Landmarks of Early film.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Birth of a Nation is in fact public domain. Its copyright expired long ago.

Metropolis is a special case because it was a foreign-made film. Under the Uruguay Round of GATT, foreign-made works that are still under copyright in their home country now have their copyrights revived in the US (It's more complex than this, but that's the short version). Thus, since Germany still protects Metropolis under its copyright laws, the Madacy is presently a bootleg, even though the film was actually PD in the US for many years.

The Gold Rush (silent version) is probably PD as well, though the situation is far less clear than with the above examples. The Chaplin Estate, however, is asserting that since Charlie was a British citizen when he made it that the GATT rules apply to it as well. However, since it was made in America, it was registered for copyright here and thus (I believe) falls into one of the exceptions under the GATT provisions. They're also asserting that a two-page story that Chaplin wrote for it is what provides the copyright, which strikes me as dubious but since that's what tied up Vertigo and other pictures forever, it might prevail. The sound version with Chaplin's narration (found on the Image disc and the Fox LD), however, is definitely under copyright.

Of course, none of the foregoing is legal advice and anyone thinking of distributing the above films is strongly advised to contact competent copyright counsel.

 

[Brook K]

Sunrise is supposedly coming out this year.

Paramount does not control most, and may not control any of their silents. Paramount sold off most of it's pre-50's catalog to Universal.

In addition to new SE's of Nosferatu and Caligari, Kino is also putting out new SE's of Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

Great news on the Harold Lloyd!! I've only seen clips, never a complete film.

 

[Jay E]

I just wanted everyone to know that there is a excellent website on silent films http://www.silentera.com/index.html that is a must for silent film lovers. Excellent reviews of silent DVDs as well.

 

[Todd_Brown]

I am planning to pick-up Intolerance , Nosferatu , & Birth of a Nation. I would love to see a correct version of Metropolis, and anything with Mary Pickford or Valentino.
Todd

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The unfortunate thing is that Paramount DOES control the deposit material at the Library of Congress---in many cases, the only surviving prints of this material, such as Victory (1919, as Lasky Famous Players, I think) and A Kiss For Cinderella (1925). Even though both are public domain now, LOC refuses to allow anyone to do anything with them for a video release because Paramount won't give the OK to do so.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Check out amazon.com for Wings, The Ten Commandments, The Covered Wagon, and Old Ironsides.

They all have the Paramount logo on the front cover.

 

[Ryan L B]

I never knew AMC ever played sielnt movies. As for Birth of the Nation, I just wanted to see what the fuss is about and don't want to buy the dvd, just want to see it on TCM.

 

[streeter]

I've got dozens of silents, including the Buster Keaton box set and most of Chaplin's films. I'd really like to see Sunrise and the Cameraman released, as well as, of course, a better quality edition of Metropolis.

 

[Scott Leopold]

Several years back, when AMC was still respectable and before I had TCM, they started playing silents early in the morning on weekdays. The only one I remember getting a chance to see is Wings, but I had been up all night and only saw about 20 minutes of it. I forget how long they did this, but I think it was at least a couple months.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

1.

Quite a few, many of which are readily available. So I'm not complaining much about availability right now...

2.

Nosferatu

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (on LD)

The Gold Rush

Art Of Buster Keaton vol 2 (on LD, same as vol 4-7 on DVD)

Strike

The Man With The Movie Camera (BTW, watching and listening to this one for the first time was some great experience!)

 

[Chuck L]

I too long for more silent film releases. But as what has been said, there are many out there that I have to pick up.

What I feel is sorely lacking on DVD is films between when talkies first came into picture all the way up to the 1960's. It amazes me the choice of films that are out there, and the silents that have been released are great. But the studios are lacking on the things in between.

 

[Brook K]

I know Chuck, thanks to DVD, I think I've seen more silents than I have films from the 30's.
Another upcoming silent package to watch for is Criterion's Eisenstein: The Silent Years, but I think it's been delayed into 2003.
Thanks for the info about Paramount and rights issues.

 

[Claes Ljunghorn]

Here is a page that lists all the silent films that are out on DVD internationally...
www.silent-dvd.net/

 

[Mark_vdH]

I have the following titles:
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc)
Häxan
The Birth Of A Nation
Intolerance
Nosferatu
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (Das Kabinett Des Dr Caligari)
The General
Metropolis
I would certainly buy Napoléon and a restored version of Metropolis, if they ever appear on DVD.

 

[Dave Hahn]

Laurel and Hardy, Laurel and Hardy, I want Laurel and Hardy!
The Babe and Stan have been ignored long enough.

 

[Evan Case]

Dave,
All of the Laurel & Hardy silent shorts (save the lost Hats Off!) are available on the 10-volume Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy DVD set. They don't appear to be restored, but they sure look good enough by any reasonable standard for 70+ year old films.
The set also includes several other wonderful examples of Hal Roach Studio films, including Charlie Chase and solo films of Stan & Babe.
I definitely recommend picking them up.
Evan
As for their sound films on DVD.....

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Count me in to buy a bunch of the studio-held silent films, especially the MGM Ben-Hur. I saw it recently in 35mm and it's an amazing production.