Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:34 pm

Duly noted in the Criterion thread in Silent News, but worthy of its own notice:

http://www.criterion.com/films/27861-is ... lost-souls

They cite 1932 as the film's date, but did it actually play any engagements that year? The L.A. Times indicates that it was previewed there in 12/32, but as far as I can tell from Google News, the official openings in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere didn't happen until 1/33. (Sorry, I'm interested in this kind of stuff.)

-Harold

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:39 pm

I never thought the old laserdisc of this looked so bad, but if they have great material on this one (enough that they feel like making a blu-ray), that's really good news. Great cinematography by Karl Struss.

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:42 pm

I've wondered the same thing also. For a long time, I thought the same thing about THE MUMMY, since both playdates in LA in NY were in 1933, although it later turned out that it had its premiere in Chicago in 12/32 (if I'm recalling correctly).

I'm curious what Criterion has dug up, since the elements on this title are pretty rough (my source at Universal has told me several generations away).

Doug Sulpy · Post by **Doug Sulpy** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:35 pm

Great news! Is this the first "classic" horror film to be made available on blu-ray?

Kevin2 · Post by **Kevin2** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:45 pm

Classic Horror/Sci-Fi on blu would include King Kong and the Harryhausen films: 20 Million Miles to Earth/Earth vs. the Flying Saucers/It Came From Beneath the Sea/7th Voyage of Sinbad.
Not sure where the definition of "classic" ends, but Hammer's Vampire Circus is on blu, too.

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:53 pm

Ironic that this film (that was reportedly one of Universal's worst sellers on VHS) gets a blu treatment before such icons as FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA!

augustinius · Post by **augustinius** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:00 am

Has Universal released any film prior to Psycho at all on blu ray yet? They have a lot of things in their library that SHOULD be out on blu but they are really holding back.

Lamar · Post by **Lamar** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:05 am

"Island of Lost Souls" opened in Chicago, at the Roosevelt, on December 23, 1932 with "Chicago's own Panther Woman Kathleen Burke" on hand. The State-Lake Theater (one block north) reopened (with New Low Prices 25c to 1, 35c to 6, Nites 55c) the next day with "The Mummy."

Kevin2 · Post by **Kevin2** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:13 am

I wonder if Universal thinks that it has been to the well too often. Dracula and Frankenstein have seen at least three different DVD releases. Of course that's chicken feed when compared to how often Paramount releases Breakfast at Tiffany's, which will soon be out on blu-ray, so who knows? I'd be in for Universal's Legacy series on blu.

mndean · Post by **mndean** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:26 am

Kevin2 wrote:I Of course that's chicken feed when compared to how often Paramount releases Breakfast at Tiffany's, which will soon be out on blu-ray

Well, doesn't everyone want to see Mr. Yunioshi? It's like coining money to release it again and again.

Mitch Farish · Post by **Mitch Farish** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:50 am

augustinius wrote:Has Universal released any film prior to Psycho at all on blu ray yet? They have a lot of things in their library that SHOULD be out on blu but they are really holding back.

They have a lot of great pre-code and horror material from Paramount as well as Universal that they should have put out on DVD years ago, including Island of Lost Souls. Criterion will have to do it if anyone is going to do it right.

A few years ago Universal did put out a Library of Congress restoration of All Quiet on the Western Front, with an intro by Robert Osborne, but with no chapter selection, and without the correct 1:19 aspect ratio, cropping the top and bottom of the frame. They released the Legacy edition of Dracula also in the wrong aspect ratio, proving they don't know how to handle their own material.

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:33 pm

The closest Universal came to using the Movietone aspect ratio was during the 1929 season, and then, only for films that used their Mitchell cameras (1.16-1) whereas their films shot with B&H cameras were closer to the standard silent ratio (filming at 1.35-1). After November, 1929, all of their productions were shot with the SMPE 1930 Standard (.8" x .6", 1.33-1).

The confusion with DRACULA lies in that, like flat widescreen films, the aperture in the camera was not converted to this standard from the silent film spec, and the negative was exposed where the soundtrack would go (this would be blocked off in the printer, of course).

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:22 am

If they did a Blu Ray of All Quiet(should be Criterion) is should include the silent version as well which I have never seen. It has been said reels and reels of footage from this film went up in smoke at the LOC/AFI vaults in Virginia along with March of Time outtakes etc. What gets me that they had it in the first place when Universal had silent footage, screen tests and trailers melted down about 1947. I would have thought that material would have gone then and not got to LOC/AFI????

rudyfan · Post by **rudyfan** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:17 am

Thank You! I just pre-ordered. I love this film!

What is the law?

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:50 pm

According to some folks over at the Classic Horror Film Board, the film had its premiere on December 23, 1932 in Chicago.

silentmovies742 · Post by **silentmovies742** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:45 pm

This is great news. Other than a short-lived DVD release in the UK about 11 years ago (paired with Mystery of the Wax Museum), this will be the film's DVD premiere I think. The quality on the earlier DVD release really wasn't all that bad, but it will be interesting to see if better versions have been found.

As for All Quiet, I think the silent version is lost, isn't it? But it's a film which is worthy of Blu-ray release - and it's nice to see it has been popping up on ITV4 over in the UK a few times this year. It's very rare that anything as early as 1930 is shown on UK TV .

David Pierce · Post by **David Pierce** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:11 pm

moviepas wrote:

If they did a Blu Ray of All Quiet(should be Criterion) is should include the silent version as well which I have never seen. It has been said reels and reels of footage from this film went up in smoke at the LOC/AFI vaults in Virginia along with March of Time outtakes etc. What gets me that they had it in the first place when Universal had silent footage, screen tests and trailers melted down about 1947. I would have thought that material would have gone then and not got to LOC/AFI????

There are so many errors in this post I don't know where to begin.

The fire that you're referring to occurred at the National Archives film vaults in Maryland. It affected the Universal newsreels, and no footage from ALL QUIET or MARCH OF TIME outtakes were lost.

What is your source for the reference to the loss of material in 1947? I have a copy of the destruction memo and it doesn't mention screen tests or trailers ...

David Pierce
Media History Digital Library
http://www.archive.org/details/mediahistory

Post by **Danny Burk** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:10 pm

silentmovies742 wrote:This is great news. Other than a short-lived DVD release in the UK about 11 years ago (paired with Mystery of the Wax Museum), this will be the film's DVD premiere I think. The quality on the earlier DVD release really wasn't all that bad, but it will be interesting to see if better versions have been found.

As for All Quiet, I think the silent version is lost, isn't it? But it's a film which is worthy of Blu-ray release - and it's nice to see it has been popping up on ITV4 over in the UK a few times this year. It's very rare that anything as early as 1930 is shown on UK TV .

Library of Congress has the silent ALL QUIET. It was shown at Cinesation a few years ago, and in many ways, I prefer it to the talkie version.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:05 am

David Pierce. The information about Universal 1947 came from recent posts probably on Nitrateville.

The fire was listed as Virginia in vaults that AFI used. My information came from the AFI of which I was a member for many years from the 1970s and got all their publications. That information stated that they lost, "quote", 20million feet of All Quiet footage given to them from Universal. My argument would be that they didn't even film that much footage at the time(1929-30) let alone that it survived until the AFI was on stream. But it also said March of Time outtakes were there & lost. It was in print but it does not have to be true because I have blown the whistle more than once in my own country when certain material were stated as lost in a fire and not there in the first place. In those cases it was an attempt for insurance fraud and a dodge to avoid a liability to the Tax Office for wages taxes not forwarded to them for a number of years and the guy did not win that one.

But no mention was ever made about Universal newsreels. I do have a large number of Universal newsreels on disc in various conditions. I also state that stories about when & what change continuously on archive pages about these archive fires and floods. If you have authentic documents, why don't you post it to these pages???

A good example of change of stories is Leonard Maltin's early effort with a magazine(many of which I have and I knew him before he was famous via mail, or rather more his late business partner of whom Maltin merged his mag with the other man's mag). He mentioned in his mag around 1970 that around that time Warner Bros Teddington UK had their vaults cleared out of their British-made films. This studio took a direct V2 rocket hit in early 1945 and was rebuilt and Thames TV/Euston Films used this for TV shows and films in recent years. Someone recently said the films were lost in the 1945 bombing. Who is right?

Maltin also said around this time that two prints of The King of Jazz were found, one with a Movietone soundtrack and one for sound-on-disc. The existing prints are supposed to be incomplete but I am not sure of that fact. Discs were found in Australia for this film that were kept by a projectionist who died and the discs were given by the wife to our government broadcaster's library which they played on air(1980s) and are said to have different material than the BBC print we screened here about 1978. The different material is said to be in the comedy relief linking material with Slim Summerville et al. I was supposed to get a reel to reel tape of the discs but it never happened. It was presented commercially in a revival in Melbourne in 1945 at a small, now defunct, moviehouse.

Post by **Christopher Jacobs** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:11 am

augustinius wrote:Has Universal released any film prior to Psycho at all on blu ray yet? They have a lot of things in their library that SHOULD be out on blu but they are really holding back.

Universal has put a respectable selection of its catalog titles onto DVD, but so far PSYCHO (which like ISLAND OF THE LOST SOULS was actually a Paramount production originally) is the oldest film they've put onto Blu-ray themselves other than SPARTACUS, which isn't quite up to the image quality they put into PSYCHO. From what I've read, their Blu-rays of AMERICAN GRAFFITI and ANIMAL HOUSE are not up to Blu-ray expectations, either. THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH is on Blu-ray in Britain (with a beautiful CinemaScope picture transfer but with only mono sound) and the 1940s Universal Sherlock Holmes titles are in the very nice Blu-ray set from MPI, plus a lovely-looking CHARADE and THE MIKADO from Criterion (though the latter was not produced by Universal, only released by them in the US), but that's about it until David Shepard's silent PHANTOM OF THE OPERA this fall. Most of Universal's classic DVDs look so good they must be from HD masters, so one would think Blu-ray would be a fairly easy step once authoring and replication costs are more in line with DVDs. Apparently THE BIRDS and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD are in the works, but they're not even as old as PSYCHO. It would certainly be wonderful if they did a Blu-ray of the latest restoration of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, including the complete silent version in HD on a second disc. Maybe they'll decide to do something next year for what might be considered the studio's centennial.

Kevin2 · Post by **Kevin2** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 2:04 pm

Barnes and Noble has the pre-order of the blu-ray of Island of Lost Souls at 50% off in case you don't want to wait for their next Criterion sale.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Isl ... st%2Bsouls" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Scoundrel · Post by **Scoundrel** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:21 am

Must have been an error as the price is now back to $35.27.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Isl ... st%2Bsouls" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Guess we missed that one.

CoffeeDan · Post by **CoffeeDan** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:35 am

Wow! Looks like I placed my order just in time.

You really have to watch the prices at Barnes & Noble -- they can drop like that without warning, which is why I keep a separate Criterion wish list there and check it regularly. I've gotten some great bargains that way.

ColemanShedman · Post by **ColemanShedman** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:44 am

Got mine in on time too....thanks for the heads up!

Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

All Quiet on the Western Front 1930

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Re:

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Re:

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion

Re: Island of Lost Souls from Criterion