New from Criterion: THE GOLD RUSH (1925), SHALLOW GRAVE (1995)

THE GOLD RUSH
(US, 1925)

Charles Chaplin's 1925 masterpiece THE GOLD RUSH is treated to an expectedly exhaustive, extras-packed Criterion package, complete with two HD restorations:  the original (or as close to it as possible) 1925 silent version, and Chaplin's 1942 re-edit, with added descriptive narration and Chaplin reciting the characters' dialogue.  Chaplin wanted to revamp the film for the sound era and considered the 1942 cut the definitive edition.  At 72 minutes, the 1942 cut runs 17 minutes shorter than the 1925 version, due to some cuts, subplot alterations, the removal of the intertitles, alternate camera angles or different takes, and the fact that it's running at the standard sound speed instead of silent.  The 1925 version fell into the public domain in 1953 after Chaplin, then preoccupied with immigration battles with J. Edgar Hoover, resulting in a permanent move back to his native England, neglected to renew the copyright.  The 1925 version of THE GOLD RUSH has been available in various forms over the decades, in prints, VHS, and DVD editions ranging from OK to completely unwatchable, but the complete, original version, as it was released in 1925, became an essentially lost film.  That is, until enough surviving elements were found--largely from a private collector who had a print of it in his collection--and restoration gurus Kevin Brownlow and David Gill painstakingly restored it in 1993 to something very close to its original version.  That restoration is given an HD upgrade here.  It utilizes different sources and has numerous instances of skipped or missing frames and jumpy editing, but for a 88-year-old film long ago abandoned, it looks very good. 

As good as the 1925 cut looks, the 1942 version looks even better, with darker blacks and greater textural detail.  Call me a purist, but despite the 1942 cut being Chaplin's preferred version and it being the better of the two transfers here, I think it's the 1925 cut that holds up better.  I don't recall ever seeing the 1942 cut before now, though it has appeared on TCM.  When I saw THE GOLD RUSH in college, it was on VHS and I'm almost certain it was a pretty beat-up and incomplete print of the 1925 version.  While the 1942 cut was a concession to sound audiences at the time (the first sound films appeared in 1927 and had become the standard by early 1930, when only a few stray silents wandered into theaters before vanishing completely; Chaplin was the last silent holdout and didn't make an all-sound feature until 1940's THE GREAT DICTATOR, by which time he'd finally embraced the talkies), today it seems superfluous and pandering.  Silent comedy spoke for itself, and the comedy of THE GOLD RUSH is timeless:  the Thanksgiving dinner of boiled shoe with spaghetti laces; the dance of the dinner rolls; the cabin dangling off the mountain; the complicated timing and choreography of the Lone Prospector (Chaplin), Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain), and escaped fugitive Black Larson (Tom Murray) trying to close the doors of the cabin during a blizzard.  THE GOLD RUSH doesn't need Chaplin narrating and reciting dialogue synched to the characters' lip movements.  Just playing devil's advocate here, but is it possible that as the years went on, Chaplin preferred the 1942 cut simply because, due to the copyright lapse, it was the only version from which he and his family could profit?   Yes, he was an artist, but who doesn't like money?  Watching them back-to-back, the 1925 cut is clearly the superior version. Both were included on Warner's 2005 DVD, but this new Criterion set, on DVD and Blu-ray, must be considered the definitive home video edition, with numerous documentary featurettes, four trailers, a booklet with an essay by critic Luc Sante and a reprint of Andrew Sarris' Time review of the 1942 release, plus a commentary on the 1925 version by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance. (Unrated, 1925 version: 89 mins/1942 version: 72 mins)


SHALLOW GRAVE
(UK, 1995)

I remember working at Blockbuster in the mid '90s and SHALLOW GRAVE being one of those offbeat gems that everyone on the staff loved.  Danny Boyle's debut feature also marked his first collaboration with producer Andrew Macdonald and writer John Hodge.  This team would go on to worldwide fame with 1996's TRAINSPOTTING, would work in together in various combinations on other projects, though the three haven't teamed since 2000's ill-fated THE BEACH.  It's probably been at least a decade since I last watched SHALLOW GRAVE, and it's held up quite well.  Memorable images and bits of quotable dialogue hit me like I just saw the film last week.  Boyle, already nearly 40 at the time, had done a lot of TV directing and shows a remarkable sense of style throughout.  The way the camera fluidly snakes through the large, spacious Edinburgh flat is almost hypnotic. Equal parts Hitchcock and BLOOD SIMPLE, with dashes of giallo and Dario Argento thrown in, the unrepentantly mean-spirited SHALLOW GRAVE is the twisted, dark-humored story of three thoroughly unlikable flatmates--doctor Juliet (Kerry Fox), accountant David (Christopher Eccleston), and tabloid hack Alex (Ewan McGregor, in his second film)--looking for a fourth roommate.  Cruelly dismissing everyone not up to their standards (most memorably Colin McCredie's much-abused Cameron), they finally settle on mysterious Hugo (Keith Allen), who claims to be a novelist and flashes huge wad of cash.  The next day, they find Hugo naked and dead from a drug overdose.  Under his bed is a suitcase full of cash.  Deciding to leave the cops out of it, they dismember Hugo's body and bury it in the titular spot in the woods.  Almost immediately, paranoia sets in among the three friends.  With the money in the equation, they no longer trust one another.  David stops going to work and moves to the attic, drilling holes in its floor so he can keep constant watch on his roommates, and two thugs (Peter Mullan, Leonard O'Malley) come looking for Hugo and the money, followed closely by the cops.  Terrific performances not just from the three leads, but even down to the smallest supporting roles, with the standouts being McCredie as the hapless Cameron, and Ken Stott's dry and subtly hilarious performance as the utterly incredulous Inspector McCall, who doesn't for one moment buy what these three smug roomies are trying to sell him.

SHALLOW GRAVE, made for the US equivalent of $2.5 million, looks absolutely brilliant on this Criterion Blu-ray edition.  Beautiful colors, crystal clarity, perfectly-defined imagery--this film has never looked as good as it does here.  As usual, it's filled with extensive supplementals:  two commentaries (one with Boyle, taken from a 2009 UK DVD release, and a new 2012 track with Macdonald and Hodge); new interviews with Fox, Eccleston, and McGregor (on his character: "He's a wanker, really");  a 1993 behind-the-scenes doc directed by Macdonald's brother Kevin, who went on to make THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND;  a 1992 video diary of the team trying to sell the script at the Edinburgh Film Festival; and an essay by film historian Philip Kemp.  In short, as is customary with the Criterion Collection, this is pretty much the last word on SHALLOW GRAVE, and the ultimate edition for fans of this smart, dazzlingly-shot thriller from the heyday of the 1990s indie explosion that's held on to become one of the top cult films of its era. (R, 93 mins)

WWI on Blu-ray: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) and WINGS (1927)

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
(US - 1930)

Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 anti-war novel was quickly made into a landmark Best Picture Oscar winner by director Lewis Milestone that's been restored for a new Blu-ray/DVD release.  This version is a major step up from past DVD editions, with a pristine HD transfer that makes the sweeping, muddy, bloody battle scenes even more powerful. 

The film follows a group of young German men, essentially boys in their late teens, cajoled into joining the Army for the "glory" of the Fatherland.  Of course, the message of Remarque's novel and Milestone's film is that there is no glory in war.  The men witness horrors beyond their imagination in some truly nightmarish trench battles that still manage to pack a wallop.  Everything is seen through the eyes of young Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres), who sees his friends killed and is himself forced to kill.  It's a role that had a profound effect on Ayres, who became a pacifist in real life (in addition to being the screen's DR. KILDARE a decade later and the focus of one of the most unforgettable horror movie death scenes ever nearly 50 years later when his character drowned under ice in DAMIEN: OMEN II).  The young Ayres, just 21 years old here, looks like a young Edward Norton at times and believably conveys earnest innocence.  Looking at the film in 2012, Ayres is less convincing when he's required to play bitter and traumatized, but I think that's due more to the acting style of the early sound era than any weaknesses in Ayres' performance.  Well into the 1930s, early talkies went through some growing pains that are on full display in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, as actors accustomed to silents tried to make adjustments to their styles for sound (which explains a lot of the playing-to-the-back-row emoting), and filmmakers seemed afraid to use music during any dialogue-free stretches, resulting in a lot of static and dead air (if you haven't seen it lately, the Bela Lugosi DRACULA is one of the most egregious examples of this).  The film's best performance comes from reliable silent film character actor Louis Wolheim as Kat, Paul's fatherly soldier mentor (Wolheim, one of the unsung greats of early cinema, died of stomach cancer less than a year after this was released).  While the message remains powerful, and the battle sequences as harrowing as ever, a lot of the film is quite dry and even plodding, but must be put in its proper historical perspective.  This is a great and important film...it's just that, through no fault of its own, parts of it haven't aged gracefully.

One of the bonus features on the Blu-ray is the simultaneously-shot, mostly-silent version that was released in parts of Europe and also intended for American theaters that had not yet been outfitted for talkies (this was a common practice for a brief period).  Unseen for decades, it was unearthed by the Library of Congress for a Turner Classic Movies airing last year. It's a bit battered and isn't in HD, and utilizes some different takes and camera angles (it runs about 30 seconds shorter than the sound version), features more use of music, and has incidental sound (bombing, gunfire, the sound of marching, etc), just no spoken dialogue. In an essay inside the Blu-ray packaging, Leonard Maltin writes that some have found the silent version a better-paced film.  I didn't watch the silent version in its entirety, but what I saw seemed to play a bit better, considering these were actors and behind-the-scenes technicians not yet fully acclimated to working in talkies.  With the inclusion of both versions, and the classic sound version in stunning high-def, there is no doubt that this is the definitive package for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. (Unrated, both versions 133 mins).



WINGS
(US - 1927)

This silent classic and the first Best Picture Oscar winner is a grandiose epic in every sense of the word and remains a monumental achievement today.  I'm convinced that if a WWI story were made today, using the latest in CGI technology, that the aerial dogfight and battle sequences in this 85-year-old film would still look better.  There's a number of shots that you simply won't believe director William A. Wellman managed to pull off--not just in the air, but even in then-difficult tracking shots.  Though the story and some of the acting are a bit hokey at times (actors of the silent era had a tendency to overdo it), WINGS is a thrilling and emotional story of war, friendship, and loyalty that remains timeless.  The film follows two young men from the same town--David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) and Jack Powell (Charles "Buddy" Rogers)--as they enlist and go off to become fighter pilots in The Great War.  They bond despite a rivalry over Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), who loves David but doesn't want to hurt Jack.  Also in the mix is Mary (Clara Bow), the girl who lives next door to Jack's family and who's loved him since they were kids...but he doesn't even notice her.  Also appearing, and prominently billed in subsequent years, is a young Gary Cooper, who gets about three minutes of screen time as a doomed cadet.  By the time he says "When your time comes, then that's it," it's obvious he'll be dead within the next two minutes.  There's also some brief bits of pre-Code graphic violence and even some brief male nudity in a recruitment exam room, plus the infamous flash of a topless Bow (it's quick, and you'll need the pause button).  This is 1927, folks!  Damn Flappers and their loose morals...

Paramount's Blu-ray restoration is breathtaking, especially considering the original negative has been long lost.  Simply put, WINGS has never looked this good.  The Blu-ray offers two score options, but it should be noted that these are two different prints with different running times.  The option with a newly-recorded version of J.S. Zamecnik's original orchestral score runs 144 mins with a new, extended opening with the Paramount logos through the decades, sound effects throughout, an intermission card, and restoration credits.  The option with Gaylord Carter's pipe organ score runs 139 mins, opens with the 1927 Paramount logo, and has no intermission card or restoration credits.  The re-recording of the Zamecnik score with the sound effects is the default option.

In the relative infancy of movies, WINGS must've been quite an experience in 1927, and it still is today.  It's a bit overlong and top-billed (and utterly adorable) Bow, the legendary 1920s "It" Girl, isn't in it nearly enough, but this is a major piece of cinema history here, lovingly restored to its full splendor and a must-have for any serious cinephile. (Unrated, 144/139 mins).