Kino International's AMERICAN SILENT HORROR COLLECTION contains four silent horror classics and a 2001 documentary. The very good documentary, KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, is narrated by Rod Steiger in a quietly soothing voice and charts the rise of the horror film from 1900-1928. It is rich in film clips.
The four silent features never looked nor sounded so good as they do here, many mastered from nitrate negatives. Lon Chaney's THE PENALTY (1920) has an eerie music score and rich color tinting. It a ghoulish number, with Chaney as a double amputee crime lord in 1920 San Francisco who seeks revenge on the surgeon who cut off his legs after an auto accident as a child! This gripping melodrama's bonus material includes a tour of Chaney's makeup kit, two original theatrical trailers for other movies, the 1914 Chaney one-reeler BY THE SUN'S RAYS, surviving footage from THE MIRACLE MAN (1919), and an essay by Chaney author and scholar Michael F. Blake, among other items.
John Barrymore's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920) is the masterpiece of this elegant horror set. His magnificent performance really holds up, especially his scary Hyde. Memorable bonuses include a 1909 audio recording of a stage performance for "The Transformation Scene", the hilarious Stan Laurel parody DR. PYCKLE AND MR. PRIDE (1925), an excerpt from the rival 1920 Sheldon Lewis version, and more. Mastered from a 35mm sepia negative, Barrymore's film has a wonderful score by Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Orchestra. Watch this one on Halloween night with a loved one.
I adore Paul Leni's THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927), which is the grandfather of all old dark house thrillers with a reading of a will on a rainy night. It is still one of the most enjoyable of the genre, especially in a sepia-tinted nitrate negative. Starring are Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, and Flora Finch. The Neil Brand music score has been orchestrated by Timothy Brock.
Lastly, we have another Leni film, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928), which is almost more of a romance than a horror film. Blind girl Mary Philbin loves the deformed Conrad Veidt, who had a permanent smile carved on his face as a child. So everyone in medieval France thinks he is mocking them. This is a very elaborate Universal production, filmed on the back lot with sets left over from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923). Bonuses include a 20 minute behind-the-scenes documentary, Conrad Veidt and Greta Garbo home movies, a gallery of rare photos, and more. This has the original Movietone soundtrack, restored by Universal for this studio print DVD.
Kino's AMERICAN SILENT HORROR COLLECTION will brighten your home video collection if you are an adult who treats horror films seriously as something frightening and not gross or bloody. I highly recommend it to discriminating film scholars.
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American Silent Horror Collection (The Man Who Laughs/The Penalty/The Cat and the Canary/Dr. Jekyll dvd movie.