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SILENT ERA FILMS ON HOME VIDEO
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2009 by Carl Bennett.
All Rights Reserved.

Eyes of the Mummy
(1918)

This early drama from director Ernst Lubitsch features Emil Jannings and Pola Negri in early roles.

2002 Grapevine Video edition

Eyes of the Mummy (1918), color-toned black & white, 58 minutes, not rated,
with His Luckless Love (1915), sepia-toned black & white, 12 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, no UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD-R disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $19.95 (reduced to $14.95).
DVD release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 3 / additional content: 5 / overall: 6.

This edition from public-domain home video company Grapevine Video has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print, and features new English language intertitles. The very-good 16mm print is, as usual, soft of image detail, contrasty with blasted-out highlights, some speckling and dust. The video transfer is adequate, with an annoying hair in the gate.

The film is accompanied by a canned and abruptly-edited music score, which is reproduced with a very brassy, digitally over-compressed ringing.

The disc has been supplemented with a Keystone one-reeler comedy transferred from a 16mm reduction print.

As is the case with most Grapevine product, the disc is not mastered from the best materials or accompanied by the best in music, but it is slightly better viewing than the Alpha Video edition noted below.

 

This Region 0 NTSC disc is available directly from Grapevine Video.

2006 Alpha Video edition

Eyes of the Mummy (1918), black & white, 57 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Video, ALP 5004D, UPC 0-89218-50049-6.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 7 chapter stops, keep case, $6.98.
DVD release date: 28 March 2006.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.

This budget edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print. In fact, it has been mastered from the Grapevine Video edition noted above. The only differences are that this picture has been converted to black & white and the film is presented with a passible original music score performed on digital piano by Rachel Gutches.

The picture is slightly softer in image detail, which is apparent most in the English language intertitles. The difference in running times between the two editions is accounted for by Alpha’s removal of the longer opening video-based credits and some introductory footage present in the Grapevine edition.

 
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
 
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
 
United Kingdom: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.co.uk.

Other silent era Ernst Lubitsch films available on home video:
Anna Boleyn (1920)
The Doll (1919)
Eternal Love (1929)
Das fidele Gefängnis (1917) with Trouble in Paradise (1932)
I Don’t Want to Be a Man (1919)
Madame Du Barry (1919)
The Marriage Circle (1924)
The Oyster Princess (1919)
Sumurun [One Arabian Night] (1920)
The Wildcat (1921)

About Ernst Lubitsch:
Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin (2006)

Collections and boxsets that include silent era Ernst Lubitsch films:
Lubitsch in Berlin (1919-1921)

Other silent era EMIL JANNINGS films available on home video.

Other silent era POLA NEGRI films available on home video.

Other GERMAN silent era films available on home video.

Other silent era horror films available on home video:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) [Epstein]
Faust (1926)
The Golem (1920)
The Hands of Orlac (1924)
Häxan (1922)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
L’Inferno (1911)
Leaves from Satan’s Book (1921)
Maciste in Hell (1926)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Penalty (1920)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Student of Prague (1913)
The Student of Prague (1926)
The Unknown (1927)
Warning Shadows (1923)
Waxworks (1924)

Collections and boxsets that include silent era horror films:
American Silent Horror Collection (1920-1998)
The F.W. Murnau Collection (1922-1931)
German Horror Classics (1920-1924)
The Masterworks of the German Horror Cinema (1920-1922)

 
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