Unspeakable Horror
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Features
• Color
• Original recording remastered
• NTSC |
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Unspeakable Horror Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Three excellent four-star silent classics,but a dismal two-star DVD !
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In my previous review of Vintage Entertainment's TRIO OF TERROR triple feature DVD release,Vintage used some of the worst conditioned prints and now they definitely did it again with the UNSPEAKABLE HORROR triple feature collection,but this time not as bad as the above mentioned disc.Featuring three of the most famous,excellent,four to three-star silent horror classics from Hollywood and Germany's Golden Age.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) ***1/2 Transfer ***
The original 1923 classic starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and the transfer used for this release apparently is taken from the same 16mm Blackhawk Films preservation print that's often been used for other DVD releases right down to the optical mono soundtrack and effects from the source print.The sound is not very good as you could almost barely hear the score throughout the film so be wary of this particular version on various DVD releases and the print sometimes has its own flaws such as scratches,dirt,and excessive grain.It also has a dismal one page biography on Lon Chaney Sr. which barely unreadable.
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) **** Transfer: *1/2
One of the all-time great silent classics of expressionistic German cinema,this transfer unfortunately is not something to write home about.Easily the worst-looking and presented presentation on the disc,the film opens with a plain,cheaply-made chyron white on black title card of the original german main title "DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI" and eventually goes straight to the film itself which has a so-so presentation,but with a great deal of contrast boosting as well as some cropping issues that comes later throughout the film.Eventually throughout several points much later in the film,there are instances of new 'chyron' title cards spliced in,possibly due to the source material or for other strange reasons.For example,about 51 minutes into the film,throughout the scene in which the film's lead character Francis and a team of doctors read Caligari's medical diary,a new set of a poorly typed chyron title card appears against a dark blue background,referring to the diary page intertitle that the men are reading off-screen.Shortly thereafter,as the next scene appears as Caligari is asleep,a whole new set of the same pisspoor chyron title card appear,this time against a plain black background and the fonts have been changed as well.They both look as if they were created by high school students taking TV production class ! The other big downfall with this particular version is the very unnacceptable orchestral musical score taken from the classical piece of music which repeats itself throughout the latter parts of the film and therefore definitely does not match the setting nor the tone of the movie.Other than the horrid scores used for the restored Kino release,this score is annoying and painfully distracting to hear.My recommendation is to definitely stick to the excellent Image/David Shepard release with outstanding image quality,Timothy Brock's excellent score,Film historian Mike Budd's informative and outstanding commentary track,and also the appropriate english recreation of the films' landmark expressionistic intertitles.This Vintage version ranks with the Madacy version of another German silent classic METROPOLIS as one of the worst presentations of any great silent film on DVD ! It too also has a lame,unreadable biography on the star of the title role,Werner Krauss.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920) *** Transfer: **1/2
John Barrymore's legendary and starmaking role as both Jekyll and Hyde in the original 1920 silent classic.The transfer used here has definitely been taken from the 2001 Alpha Video release which itself combined both Paramount and Blackhawk Film prints of varying quality and features a measly edited and weakly presented music score ranging from a pipe organ to orchestral sources.An acceptable,but slow presentation of this underrated favorite so I would recommend getting the Kino,Killiam Shows (only available on out-of-print Laserdisc and VHS),and Image releases for the better deal.It has a three and a half page unreadable biography of John Barrymore as well.
What should've been three good transfers of these all-time silent film favorites ended up being a dismally dissappointing and distracting DVD experience in terms of both presentation and quality.Definitely go for the higher priced,restored editions of these above-mentioned classic films and strongly suggest avoiding it to anyone,but the very,very cheap collector. |
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Unspeakable Horror dvd movie.