Tweet New edition of ALL QUIET in February

I have not heard that rumor, but Greta Nissen was the actress. I would like to see the Silent version as well. I'm not aware that it exists.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Well, the Blu-ray.com review of the new ALL QUIET release is now up at
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/All-Quiet ... 53/#Review" target="_blank
and while the reviewer liked it, the disc has only the talkie version in HD, and two "100 Years of Universal" featurettes in HD. There's also a brief Robert Osborne introduction, plus a trailer and the complete silent with music/effects edition of ALL QUIET, but they unfortunately are all standard definition only. The reviewer claims that the picture quality is outstanding and far better on the talkie version than the silent version. Having seen the silent version in 35mm, I found it to be in much better condition than any sound version I'd seen, so it may be all the digital cleanup that improved the talkie version so much. It's really disappointing that the silent version is only in SD, but this is still the earliest talkie so far to make it to Blu-ray so I'll probably order it sometime in the next month or two if it's not carried by any local stores. Had the silent version been in HD, I would have pre-ordered it today.

I certainly hope they put substantially more classics onto Blu-ray than the already announced DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (due out by Halloween).

Greta Niesen was the original actress for the role, but after Howard Hughs decide to reshot and adapt the movie to be a talkie picture, Greta was replaced by Harlow as her voice was not very pleasant.

But the silent version never got distribution. In the film The Aviator, we see Hughes in a part premiere for the silent version, but he fastly decdes to remake as a talkie.

Here a still of Greta in the silent version of Hells Angels:

There was rumor couple years ago I hear that somebody found print of Hell's angels with orgiinal female star what her name it wasn't Jean Harlow it was on TCM forum couple year ago now I wouldn't mind seeing that

Compare the two actresses

[silentfilm]

I've got several stills of the foxhole scene with Raymond Griffith.

There's also a brief Robert Osborne introduction, plus a trailer and the complete silent with music/effects edition of ALL QUIET, but they unfortunately are all standard definition only.

Another, sadly ironic aspect of this is that although the silent version is in SD it's not on the DVD included in this package (according to the DVD Beaver review), so this "Dual Format" release will be of no use to DVD-only collectors who want the silent version. (I know at least one such person who was intending to buy it.) Is this then the first silent feature to become available in blu-ray only?

I suppose the problem is that a four and-a-half hour combined running time would have been too much to fit on the DVD. That may be also why the silent version is only in SD even on the blu-ray; the bitrate for the sound version would presumably have had to be significantly reduced to accommodate the silent in HD.

[Christopher Jacobs]

There's also a brief Robert Osborne introduction, plus a trailer and the complete silent with music/effects edition of ALL QUIET, but they unfortunately are all standard definition only.

Another, sadly ironic aspect of this is that although the silent version is in SD it's not on the DVD included in this package (according to the DVD Beaver review), so this "Dual Format" release will be of no use to DVD-only collectors who want the silent version. (I know at least one such person who was intending to buy it.) Is this then the first silent feature to become available in blu-ray only?

I suppose the problem is that a four and-a-half hour combined running time would have been too much to fit on the DVD. That may be also why the silent version is only in SD even on the blu-ray; the bitrate for the sound version would presumably have had to be significantly reduced to accommodate the silent in HD.

Yes, Paramount handled the bitrate problem with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS by having the 1956 version split onto two Blu-ray discs with most bonuses on the second disc, and a third Blu-ray disc just for the silent version in full HD plus some more HD bonuses. Warner Brothers put the 1959 BEN-HUR onto two Blu-rays but never bothered to do a Blu-ray of the silent version, keeping it as a separate DVD bonus (as they did with the CITIZEN KANE bonus features). They included five silent "Oz" features as standard-definition bonuses with the deluxe WIZARD OF OZ Blu-ray set, but in that case put all five onto one Blu-ray disc in SD, instead of using three or four DVDs or giving them HD presentations on separate Blu-rays.

Some distributors are using the Blu-ray format merely as another storage medium for anything (a consumer-compatible Blu-ray disc can currently hold about five times the data as a DVD), rather than living up to the hype they've been feeding consumers to the point that the average person assumes the word "Blu-ray" must automatically mean "high-definition" or "better" (similar to the way they quickly started to assume DVD meant "Digital VIDEO Disc" instead of its original meaning of "Digital Versatile Disc." Very few distributors make it a point to have the feature and all bonuses in HD, and it is refreshing when they do (although on a Blu-ray it's possible to get higher bitrates and quite impressive quality from SD material than using a DVD, this is not usually done).

Anyway, I'll look forward to revisiting the talking edition of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT in HD, but remain disappointed that the silent edition is only in SD (though it may turn out to be slightly better than the copy I recorded off of TCM). WIth any luck, maybe Kino or Criterion may be able to license it and do it properly.

The screen grabs on the DVD Beaver site are magnificent. The Blu-Ray is a massive improvement on the old DVD. It's a shame though about the interlaced silent version, but at least it's there.

Yes, but they look faded even for a screen captures from PC. And a bit too grain-reducted...
It's like all tones that should be bright was pushed closer to mediun gray. Like in the entire film there was no value close to pure white.

The faded look like this is typical when, for example, Criterion makes tranfers from what film restorers call "low contrast protection master".
The term "low contrast protection master" it's not about be a non contrasting print, but about be a master made to have contrast reduced to compensate the contrast push when a projection print (theater print) is made.
This kind of low contrast master is made when the source that survived was a original print or source with contrast of a print, and it's need to avoid a extra contrast push when a print of the preservation master is made. Also used to create masters when the surving elements are generations away from camera negative.

BUT ALL QUIET ... Survived in good master, ( am I right ?), and so I don't know why this typical faded look.

When Criterion do telecine transfer from "Low Contrast protection masters", I think the faded look may be a bit of limitation of tlecine for such kind od master.

EVEN SOME MODERN FILMS OR FILMS FROM 90'S SOMETIMES GOT HD TRANFER LOOKING VERY FADED AND MURK...

The screen grabs on the DVD Beaver site are magnificent. The Blu-Ray is a massive improvement on the old DVD. It's a shame though about the interlaced silent version, but at least it's there.

The talkie is darker but detail is astoundingly better than in the 2007 classics release. And the picture at last is not cropped on all four sides - much more information in the frame. This is good news folks!

>although on a Blu-ray it's possible to get higher bitrates and quite impressive quality from SD material than using a DVD

Not just higher bitrates, but potentially also better greyscale, color gamut, etc. For material that doesn't pencil out for a new HD telecine, or where the source is at or near SD, it would be nice to see legacy transfers in full Blu quality but at 480p. You might be able to fit four or five films on one Blu that way.

I'm unsure if anyone has done this kind of "super SD." Maybe it isn't practical. You'd have to remaster to get the hybred format. It might not improve quality enough versus straight SD, or it might not lower cost enough versus a new scan. I'd love to see a four or five low-demand noirs or silents or whatever sold in an economical, space-efficient, higher-quality "super SD on Blu" format. When burn on demand goes Blu, you could roll your own anthologies.

To genuflect to the actual topic: gotta have AQOTWF! Uni is clearly the most improved studio of 2012. Hat's off!

/ SRP /

Nice point...

But you would need to create a new standart of video, one that use more bits, creating more than 256 levels of gray per channell, and also one color channel that is not just 50%$ reolution of the B&W channel.
The SD standarts, which I presume include all SD transfer made, use the color and B&W standarts I said.

If they create a new standart, would need to transfer all materials again, and if they tranfer will be in higher resolution.
Today mpeg-2 it's already dated, and even with the same bitrate, but using modern encoding algorithm, you could get better.


Sometimes you can create something almost like a super DVD yourself. Check thse image from CITY Lights, which I took from Blu Ray captures, enhanced a bit sharpness, and resize to SD:













Now compare to the captures from original Warner DVD of the same digital restoration:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/citylights.htm" target="_blank"



I did it only for the screen captures, but if we take the Blu Ray, and increase the sharpness, using a player with sharpness adjust, we can convert the sharpned image to SD in a maximum bitrate DVD file format. When you increase sharpness from a HD file, the details get better, and after convert to SD the SD will have many more details than if wasn't sharped in HD.
It's different than sharpen only after convert to SD, since after convert to lower resolution many fuzzy little details desapears and can't be enhanced anymore, while if you sharpen before convert to SD many detail get strong enough to survive after reduce resolution.

Now you may ask: Why Warner didn't did that if their DVD was from a high resolution digital restoration?

A good question, and I also don't know why they didn't.

>although on a Blu-ray it's possible to get higher bitrates and quite impressive quality from SD material than using a DVD

Not just higher bitrates, but potentially also better greyscale, color gamut, etc. For material that doesn't pencil out for a new HD telecine, or where the source is at or near SD, it would be nice to see legacy transfers in full Blu quality but at 480p. You might be able to fit four or five films on one Blu that way.

I'm unsure if anyone has done this kind of "super SD." Maybe it isn't practical. You'd have to remaster to get the hybred format. It might not improve quality enough versus straight SD, or it might not lower cost enough versus a new scan. I'd love to see a four or five low-demand noirs or silents or whatever sold in an economical, space-efficient, higher-quality "super SD on Blu" format. When burn on demand goes Blu, you could roll your own anthologies.

To genuflect to the actual topic: gotta have AQOTWF! Uni is clearly the most improved studio of 2012. Hat's off!

/ SRP /

With Hell angels I think was just rumor OH WELL

Review of ALL QUIET up at DVD Savant.

Like the silent version of "Blackmail" which was finished before the film was substantially remade as in sound, the silent version of "All Quiet" is radically different from the talkie. It's not one of those "mute" versions of a sound picture with interminable shots interrupted by lengthy title cards. Rather than a "silent" film, one might better call it a "hybrid" because the sound track includes all the elaborate sound effects which added such realism to the talkie -- what it lacks is speech, some of which, of course, appears as intertitles. To my mind, the highly emotional nature of the dialogue and the awkward delivery of many of the young actors are among the weak components of the sound version. In the silent version, the emotional dialogue works better as titles. We see expressive faces and replace actual voices with those of our imagination. In exchange for the absence of talk, we get a fluid, brilliantly made high silent which would stand tall against any of the great silent dramas of the late 1920s, plus the high-impact sound effects track and outstanding although restrained use of music. I think the theme, characters and performances come across much, much better in the non-talking hybrid version than in the dialogue version, and in this not-so-silent version of "All Quiet" we see easily why Lewis Milestone won one of the only two silent cinema Academy Awards for directing (for "comedy direction" in first year of the Oscars, when Frank Borzage won for dramatic direction). Holy smoke, an exciting discovery -- and the film is in beautiful condition!

David Shepard

David, I've never seen ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT in any form, but your sterling review of the silent version has just convinced me to pick this up. I'm always up for a brilliantly-made late '20s silent with vintage music-and-effects track. Can't wait to see it!

So which is the better version of this film, the silent or sound version?

[Danny Burk]

So which is the better version of this film, the silent or sound version?

Looks like a number of us prefer the silent.....many who saw the latter at Cinesation a few years ago did (including myself), and now it's got David's stamp of approval too.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Yes, the talkie version of ALL QUIET is certainly very good, but the silent version is the masterpiece of the two, for all the reasons David has mentioned. There are a few sections where they include quite a few long title cards to cover dialogue, but even those usually come across with more drama in the silent version than the talking version. The music score is very good, and there is far more music than in the talkie version, yet many of the battle scenes fade the music out and leave only the stark, impressive sound effects. That is why it is so perturbing that the silent version is included as only a standard-definition extra rather than in full HD like the talkie version. The 35mm print shown at the Massillon Cinesation looked spectacular.

Looks like I'll have to put this one on the program for an upcoming Silents In Seattle get-together. WINGS went over like gangbusters, and I'll bet this one will too.