Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Eagle (1925)

When a Russian lieutenant deserts the czarina’s army, choosing not to be a sexual dalliance of hers, he becomes a Robin Hood-like defender of the downtrodden named The Black Eagle. The Eagle soon finds that he is smitten with the refined daughter of the man who has robbed his own family of their estate. Much of the film pivots on the growing relationship between Rudolph Valentino as Lieutenant Dubrovski and Vilma Banky as Mascha, as The Black Eagle seeks to collect his revenge on her father.

The Eagle (1925) was Rudolph Valentino’s return to feature motion pictures after his protracted contract dispute with Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. Valentino had kept himself busy with vaudeville tours and appearances in independently-produced short documentary films, until his Paramount contract expired, and in 1925 negotiated a new contract for films to be distributed by United Artists. The Eagle was directed by one of Hollywood’s top directors, Clarence Brown, and designed by the great William Cameron Menzies, but is ultimately little more than a romantic vehicle for screen idol Rudolph. And the Valentino charm is here in full effect, with plenty of gauzed close-ups of the somber and now-smiling Rudolph for fans to swoon over.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered at 2K resolution from two 35mm sound-era reissue prints (possibly provided by Worldview Entertainment from the Paul Killiam collection). Synchronized sound reissues cut-off a portion of the left side of the original picture to allow for an optical soundtrack on the print (see still frame above). The duplicate source materials are soft in their image details, rendering an image that is of quality comparable to a very-good 16mm reduction print.

The film is accompanied by a new music score composed and performed by The Allow Orchestra. Love ’em or hate ’em, these guys always deliver an unusual take on silent film accompaniment.

The supplementary material is limited to audio commentary by historian Gaylyn Studlar.

This is currently our recommnded home video edition of The Eagle, but we admit that this disc doesn’t look as good as other recent Blu-ray Disc editions of silent films.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This DVD edition has been transferred from a beaten and dusty 35mm duplicate print from the Paul Killiam collection that, nonetheless, features a very good range of greytones and good image detail. The print is further compromised by light to moderate speckling, long vertical scratches, and several moments of drastic print scuffing. The transfer has been too tightly framed, and some intertitles will be cropped on some televisions. A moving frameline, annoyingly adjusted throughout the progress of the film, further reveals the amount of over-cropping.

Compared to the best edition of The Eagle on home video, the 1989 laserdisc from Image Entertainment (transferred from Kevin Brownlow and David Gill’s presentation for British television), this Killiam DVD edition suffers by comparison. The Brownlow and Gill edition not only features open framing of the picture image, it was also transferred from a 35mm print in the Raymond Rohauer collection and thus features greater image detail.

One of the main reasons a collector may want to obtain this Killiam edition of The Eagle is the music score performed on theater pipe organ by the late Lee Erwin, the first of his performances released on DVD. The music has been transferred from the optical soundtrack of one of the Killiam prints of the film. The resulting audio quality is OK, with some crackling and pops, but fares better here than on other Killiam DVD releases.

Ultimately, the edition is watchable, with its above-average 16mm source print, but it is frustrating that (what appears to be) a new transfer should be so tightly cropped and utilize a reduction print when quality 35mm materials have survived. We advice collectors that, in the absence of a better home video edition in their collections, this Killiam edition may be serviceable until a better-quality edition is produced for DVD.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

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.

For the Navarre video transfer, the first on DVD, a 16mm reduction print has been used that is slightly contrasty, with soft image detail, moderate dust and speckling, some print scuffing, splices, and fine vertical scratches. The framing is tight but the intertitles will remain readable, and the film has been transferred at a proper speed, unlike the Worldview Entertainment DVD edition that followed this one. Overall, the print is watchable but some of the burnt-out image highlights are annoying.

The presentation is accompanied by a canned orchestral soundtrack.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Other silent era CLARENCE BROWN films available on home video.