All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Blu-ray?

Gil1957 · Post by **Gil1957** » Thu May 26, 2011 6:54 am

I would love to see a restored version of this on blu-ray. Has there been any discussion as to the possibility of this happening?

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu May 26, 2011 11:38 am

Me too, but Universal has not shown much interest in releasing their old films on BluRay. Besides the original restoration that was released on laserdisc, the Library of Congress performed another restoration in the late 1990s that is supposed to be even longer and better. And, a silent version also survives of the film.

The 1979 remake was released on BluRay last year.

ClayKing · Post by **ClayKing** » Thu May 26, 2011 7:03 pm

silentfilm wrote:[img]Besides the original restoration that was released on laserdisc, the Library of Congress performed another restoration in the late 1990s that is supposed to be even longer and better. And, a silent version also survives of the film.

There's also the synched-silent version with music and effects track that was prepared for foreign release. I've seen it and it's amazing to compare with the talkie (a number of scenes, such as the boys' montage at the beginning are much more powerful with music). It would make an amazing bonus companion piece on the blu-ray that will probably never be released.

Post by **Christopher Jacobs** » Fri May 27, 2011 2:31 pm

One would think this would be among the first of its classic library to get a full Blu-ray treatment (but one would be wrong). PSYCHO is finally out, but not counting MPI's set of restored Sherlock Holmes titles, overall Universal has almost none of its classics on Blu-ray, although a couple of 1940s and 50s titles are available in region-free Blu-rays from England (ALI BABA AND THE 40 THIEVES and THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, of all things!). Oddly enough, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN is reported to be coming on Blu-ray on August 30, before such iconographic horror classics as DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN or even CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (which one would certainly hope should follow shortly, but we can only wait and see).

Warners, of course, have been very active in classic releases. Paramount finally jumped tentatively into classics this year with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and after a promising start and sudden hiatus Fox has returned to at least a bit more frequent classic releases with THE HUSTLER and some of the MGM-owned UA titles. Hopefully, Universal Home Video will step up their presence in HD classics and either license them to Criterion, Kino, et al., and/or put the latest Library of Congress restoration of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT onto Blu-ray themselves along with the (dramatically superior) complete silent version with music/effects track, also in HD, and at least a few bonus features. PSYCHO looks great but with their so-so transfer of SPARTACUS, however, if they can't consistently understand how to do it right, I'd prefer they let Criterion handle their more prestigious classics.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/Old ... BluRay.htm

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Sat May 28, 2011 12:08 pm

Oddly enough, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN is reported to be coming on Blu-ray on August 30, before such iconographic horror classics as DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN or even CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (which one would certainly hope should follow shortly, but we can only wait and see).

I'm pretty sure this is a mis-report, since none of Universal's publicity materials regarding a *DVD* release of the film mention nothing about BD.

Gagman 66 · Post by **Gagman 66** » Sun May 29, 2011 2:15 pm

Christopher Jacobs,

Lo! I knew that there was Silent version of this movie. I certainly didn't know that their were to different Silent versions. And you say that it is much better than the Talkie, which is all we ever get to see. Interesting. Thanks for the information? How was Criterion able to license LONESOME do you know?

ClayKing · Post by **ClayKing** » Sun May 29, 2011 7:09 pm

Gagman 66 wrote:Christopher Jacobs,

Lo! I knew that there was Silent version of this movie. I certainly didn't know that their were to different Silent versions. And you say that it is much better than the Talkie, which is all we ever get to see. Interesting. Thanks for the information? How was Criterion able to license LONESOME do you know?

I wouldn't say the synched-silent version was better than the talkie, but certain scenes played better or were more powerful with music. I've always found the typically American sounding speech of the actors somewhat disconcerting and incongruent with the German setting, but that wasn't an issue with inter-titles.

-Rich