Ye Olde Laser Lisc

Remember laser discs? They were LP-sized discs, much like DVDs, which contained a movie. Along with video tapes, they were the dominant form of commercially released movies in the early 1990's. A laser disc of The Show-Off is currently for sale oneBay. I know that Diary of a Lost Girl was also released on laser disc. Seeing this disc gets me to wondering. Does anyone have any commercially released Louise Brooks' films on Beta?

Prix de Beaute on DVD

Kino will be releasing Prix de Beaute (1930) on DVD on March 7, 2006. Run time is 88 minutes. (Black & White, Subtitled, NTSC, Region 1.)

Prix de Beauté on DVD

Bruce Calvert reports that he received the new Kino on Video catalog yesterday, and noticed that Kino has announced that Prix de Beauté (1930) will be released on DVD in Spring 2006. It looks like next year - the Brooks centennial - is shaping up to be a big year for all things Brooksie!

New Garbo DVD set on the way

September will see the release of a new box set of Greta Garbo DVD's. Garbo - The Signature Collection includes many of the actresses best known films including Anna Christie (English and German versions), Camille, Anna Karenina, Ninotchka,Queen Christina, Grand Hotel, Mata Hari and three silent films, Flesh and the Devil, The Temptress, and The Mysterious Lady. There are also a number of worthwhile extras including the TCM documentary Garbo, the surviving 9-minute fragment from The Divine Woman (the only lost Garbo film), an alternate ending and a theatrical trailer, a photo gallery and more. In addition, there will be audio commentary on Flesh and the Devil by Garbo and Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris; audio commentary on The Temptress by photo historian and author Mark A. Vieira; and audio commentary on Mysterious Lady by film historians Tony Maietta and Jeffrey Vance.

Mark A. Vieira's new book, Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy, will also hit stores in September. I have a copy, and can tell you it is  fabulous - a worthwhile addition to any Garbo or silent film bookshelf. Vieira is the author of a number of other books, including Sin in Soft Focus, a smashing pictorial survey of  pre-code films.

New DVD of It's the Old Army Game

I have watched the new Sunrise Silents DVD release of It's the Old Army Game (1926), and think it is splendid. This color-tinted, 90 minute print is crisp and clean and contains a jaunty, syncopated score. I have seen the movie before on video, and never really cared for it all that much. This time round, however, I found that I really liked the film. Louise Brooks and W.C. Fields are both enjoyable to watch. And the story holds up better than I remember. It's the Old Army Game is no masterpiece, but is well worth watching.



IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME (1926)
Cast: W.C. Fields, Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring, William Gaxton, Mary Foy, Mickey Bennett
Directed by Edward Sutherland.
In this epic of the American druggist, Elmer Prettywillie (Fields) is an apothecary and humanitarian, ever ready to administer to those in distress. He also likes "the old army game" and believes in never giving a sucker an even break. Contains a number of classic Fields routines as he encounters his usual adversaries. It is fun to watch Louise Brooks laughing as she observes Fields doing some of his comedy routines in this film.

Recent three disc Louise Brooks DVD set

This French language page has some text (synopsis, content details, reviews) and images concerning the recent three disc Louise Brooks DVD set released in France. The Mozilla Firefox browser translation module creates a readable text. Check it out.

German silent films with a gay theme on sale at Kino

"Kino proudly presents a truly eye-opening collection of gay-themed German silent films, available for the first time on DVD.  Richard Oswald's Different from the Others (1919), Carl Theodor Dreyer's Michael (1924), and William Dieterle's Sex in Chains (1928) are all landmarks in the cinematic depiction of homosexuality.  And -- no surprise -- all three pictures were variously banned, censored, or purposely removed from the public eye.  But now they're out of the closet and on DVD in restored versions." Also included in this special offering is G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), which is available available on DVD and VHS.

These "Gay-themed Silents" are available at a hefty discount from Kino. For further info and to order, see http://www.kino.com/video/results.php?featured_id=33

New DVD release in France

Various news sources, including Le Monde, have recently mentioned the upcoming release in France of a 3-DVD box set featuring Loulou (aka Pandora's Box),Diary of a Lost Girl, and Prix de beauté. This set from Carlotta Films will also offer the documentary Looking for Lulu and considerable bonus material (commentary by film critics, etc....), along with musical accompaniment. This looks like a must have. Two sources for purchase include fnac.com and amazon.fr

                             

Now on DVD

Two Louise Brooks films are now available on DVD-R through Sunrise Silents. They are Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926) and The Canary Murder Case (1929). If you haven't seen Love 'Em and Leave 'Em - in which Brooks plays the 'bad' younger sister - you should! Brooks was only 20 years old when she made this delightful dramatic comedy. And she is terrific!

More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894-1931

Have heard that the recently released DVD, More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894-1931, contains a trailer from the now lost 1926 Louise Brooks film,The American Venus. I have not yet seen this for myself. Here is the description of the DVD.

"Like the first Treasures from the American Film Archives produced by the National Film Preservation Foundation, More Treasures takes as its starting point the preservation work of our nation's film archives. More Treasures covers the years from 1894 through 1931, when the motion pictures from a peepshow curio to the nation's fourth largest industry. This is the period from which fewest American Films survive. Five film archives have made it their mission to save what remains of these first decades of American film: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, The Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. More Treasures (made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities) reproduces their superb preservation work-fifty films follwed by six previews for lost features and serials."