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According to Kevin John Charbeneau on the Silents Please Facebook group Lubitsch tHE STUDENT PRINCE, or OLD HEIDELBERG (1927) as I refer to it, that's what the credits say, has undergone a recent full restoration by Photoplay Productions. If so, why is it that this is the first tiem that I have heard about this? Anyway, it was certainly long overdue.

Kevin : "This film was recently restored by Kevin Brownlow and Photoplay Productions, I saw it last year (October 2013) at the Academy Theatre in Beverly Hills, it should be on TCM, and making the rounds soon on movie programs in cinemas, and eventually to DVD, and or Blu-ray.

Me: "So there is a restored version beyond the Mid 80's Thames Silents Presentation?"

Kevin : "It is the same, but it has been corrected some, polished up, and is a brilliant print.

OK, so does anyone else have additional details? Thanks.

I don't know, but as no great fan of Novarro, Shearer or MGM, nevertheless I think this movie is pretty much magic and deserves (and would reward) bigger play. It's like that Lubitsch guy had a touch or something...

How did Photoplay pry it from Warners' grasp?

Several of the Photoplay titles were licensed from Turner back in the day-- The Wind, The Crowd, Ben Hur, etc.

Long licenses....

I never expected to like The Student Prince, but I did. Shearer and Novarro were excellent.

Gagman 66 wrote: According to Kevin John Charbeneau on the Silents Please Facebook group Lubitsch tHE STUDENT PRINCE, or OLD HEIDELBERG (1927) as I refer to it, that's what the credits say, has undergone a recent full restoration by Photoplay Productions. If so, why is it that this is the first tiem that I have heard about this? Anyway, it was certainly long overdue.

Kevin : "This film was recently restored by Kevin Brownlow and Photoplay Productions, I saw it last year (October 2013) at the Academy Theatre in Beverly Hills, it should be on TCM, and making the rounds soon on movie programs in cinemas, and eventually to DVD, and or Blu-ray.

Me: "So there is a restored version beyond the Mid 80's Thames Silents Presentation?"

Kevin : "It is the same, but it has been corrected some, polished up, and is a brilliant print.

OK, so does anyone else have additional details? Thanks.

Patience, grasshopper. Mike can only give one foot massage at a time.

Interesting still here as the caption reads, Norma Talmadge, not Norma Shearer. And this appears to be from an old magazine or a book on the Silents. So how did they make that mistake? Anyone know where this originated?

Gagman 66 wrote: Interesting still here as the caption reads, Norma Talmadge, not Norma Shearer. And this appears to be from an old magazine or a book on the Silents. So how did they make that mistake? Anyone know where this originated?

This well could have been Daniel Blum's Pictorial History of the Silent Screen.

I don't believe at all that this film was restored.

However, if somebody had written "New Telecine of THE STUDENT PRINCE by Photoplay?" I would have not dismissed this information.

In approx. 1996 new prints were made of the film from Turner's neg, which gave Photoplay the chance to give two brief sections their original tints. One of these prints were screened at the Academy last year. That is all that has been done. There are no plans to release this on dvd.

Frederica wrote: There are no plans to release this on dvd.

That is tragic.

I saw this film over thirty years ago by semi-accident (it was in the days when one was spoilt for choice at London's NFT and my first choice was either awkward or impossible). I recall the print being of very good quality - I think it was on loan from MGM - and found it excellent entertainment and still memorable despite not having seen it since.

Unfortunately there was the odd irritating titter from sections of the audience (interestingly enough during the sequence reportedly directed by Edmund Goulding, and which has come in for some criticism). Of course it would be nice if this enhanced print came out on dvd, but there are commercial considerations to be taken into account, and we DO have an awful lot to be thankful for. In the last years I have caught up with and own innumerable films which I have long wanted to see, and if forty years ago someone would have told me I'd have many 'on tap' I would have thought him / her mad!

Admittedly this is not as nice as having them on 16mm or 35mm, but we cannot all be William K Eversons. How Mrs Everson put up with his collecting is quite astonishing.

earlytalkiebuffRob wrote: Admittedly this is not as nice as having them on 16mm or 35mm, but we cannot all be William K Eversons. How Mrs Everson put up with his collecting is quite astonishing.

I think Mrs. Everson #1 discovered that she couldn't put up with it. Mrs. Everson #2, who many of us know, very much knew what she was getting into, and was a true partner in that sense.

I am trying to remember, but I am pretty sure that George F. has mentioned THE STUDENT PRINCE as on Warner Archive's radar for future DVD release. He certainly has mentioned THE CROWD and GREED many times, both of which were also Photoplay "restorations". In fact, the last I heard, these Photoplay titles were being considered for Blu-Ray, depending on how THE BIG PARADE did sales-wise.

It certainly is true that the fact that Photoplay was involved with these titles in the past would not be any sort of impediment to their being released digitally in the future.

Frederica wrote:There are no plans to release this on dvd.

I'm glad I held on to my laserdisc and made a DVD-R copy