Josef von Sternberg's Silent Trilogy on DVD

[moira finnie]

Has anyone received their 3-disc copy of Josef von Sternberg's films from Criterion yet?

I hope that anyone who has seen this will post about it. I would love to see Underworld, which I've never seen, and the other films seem to have been beautifully transferred to DVD. After seeing the pre-code, Blood Money (1933) a few years ago, I long to see more of George Bancroft's films, and Evelyn Brent interested me ever since first seeing her in The Last Command. While he may be one of the more phlegmatic actors who ever came to Hollywood, the intriguingly restrained (yes, some of us might even call him, affectionately, "a stiff") Clive Brook also has some odd appeal for his worldweary, fatalistic characters in von Sternberg's movies.

Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928) and The Docks of New York (1928) were set to be issued on Aug. 24th and detailed info can be seen here at Criterion. The boxed set, entitled “Three Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg,” features a selection of scores, both contemporary (by the Alloy Orchestra) and in a period style (by Robert Israel, Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton), documentary supplements, (including a 1968 interview with Sternberg from Swedish television) and a 96-page booklet. At $63.96 it is tempting but a bit pricey for many of us. Here is the Criterion preview:
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[pvitari]

Glenn Kenny has a nice blog post about the Von Sternberg set today.

Glenn Kenny's von Sternberg review at Some Came Running website

[moira finnie]

Thanks, Paula.

I'm not certain why but your original link didn't work correctly, so I tried to edit it a bit to make it a bit easier to go to. Kenny's usually a perceptive reviewer and I was also interested to see his comments on Ivan Mosjoukine and Nabokov on film. You can also see Dave Kehr's take on this set here

Now if I could just win that Publisher's Clearinghouse contest,perhaps I could afford such goodies.

[MichiganJ]

While all three films look great, The Docks of New York looks absolutely stunning. Robert israel has a terrific score (with some sfx) for each film and the Alloy Orchestra scores for both Underworld and The Last Command are very different than Israel's and equally enjoyable. I'm not a fan of vocal music with silents, so Donald Sosin's piano score with vocals by Joanna Seaton for Docks was not my cup o' tea, although the music did seem to fit the film well. Definitely worth watching each film with the different scores because each score brings something new to the films.

As for the films themselves, I recently wrote about Underworld and Last Command back when reading an Evelyn Brent bio (link below), and these impressions still hold, only more so. Seeing Sternberg's framing and lighting in restored home video format is pretty breathtaking. Too bad Criterion didn't get the Bu-ray rights, because Brent's gown in The Last Command would have been incredible. (Okay, it's still incredible.)

In my opinion, a little over 20-bucks a film is a small price to pay for these.

Brent link (then scroll to the bottom)
http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/vie ... ent#p63094

[moira finnie]

Thanks, MichJ, and I did enjoy reading your earlier posting about Evelyn Brent and have read the large portions of Lynn Kear and James King's bio, Evelyn Brent: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Lady Crook, which is available via Google Books for free here (may require registration).

I am glad that they gave you a choice on the scores accompanying the films in this set. The vocalizing doesn't sound very apt. Did you find the von Sternberg interview interesting? Thanks again.

I would love to see how Brent's dramatic ride on the train in The Last Command appears in this new version of the film.

[MichiganJ]

I am glad that they gave you a choice on the scores accompanying the films in this set.

I hope everyone tries all of the scores. Sosin always does very impressive work, and in this case, it just didn't work well for me. I regret the comment about vocal music, especially considering how great the music is on the Criterion Passion of Joan of Arc DVD, which is gorgeous and has a lot of vocals.

Did you find the von Sternberg interview interesting?

The interview is okay, and Sternberg does talk about the silents. While it's already on their edition of The Scarlet Empress, I would have liked to have seen Criterion also include the BBC doc The World of Josef von Sternberg, where Sternberg actually demonstrates his lighting.

Also, Tag Gallager's video essay on the Last Command disc is really great.

Evelyn Brent: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Lady Crook, which is available via Google Books for free

Didn't even know about Google Books. I'm never gonna get off this blaster computer.

[srowley75]

So many great DVDs have been either released or announced in the last few months that, once I am finally receiving paychecks, I'll still have no money because I'll be compulsively buying. Criterion's been especially on the ball this past year: this set, the (Eclipse) Guitry set, Modern Times, several Blu-rays, the Kurosawa anthology (which I know there's no way in hell I'll ever be able to afford, unless it's an Amazon Gold Box special this Christmas)...jeez.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've seen all three of these films and quit simply they are three of the best silents ever made. Definetly worth the purchase price.

[MichiganJ]

So many great DVDs have been either released or announced in the last few months that, once I am finally receiving paychecks, I'll still have no money because I'll be compulsively buying. Criterion's been especially on the ball this past year: this set, the (Eclipse) Guitry set, Modern Times, several Blu-rays, the Kurosawa anthology (which I know there's no way in hell I'll ever be able to afford, unless it's an Amazon Gold Box special this Christmas)...jeez.

I don't know if it helps or not, but DD is currently having a 45% off sale on Criterion titles., including Blu-rays. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to the Sternberg set, but it does to the 25-Films by Akira Kurosawa set: http://www.deepdiscount.com/criterion-d ... -kurosawa/

and the terrific Sacha Guitry set.
http://www.deepdiscount.com/index.cfm/f ... A75FFB843/

[Gagman 66]

Latest From Robert Israel concerning his scoring of THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK:


Generally speaking, there is little written material (or discussion) about the method which contemporary composers use to score pre-1929 classic films. And, as there may be a small group of people who have some interest in this, I would like to share a few of my thoughts concerning Josef von Sternberg’s masterpiece THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK (1928).

Based upon the necessity of viewing this film countless times, there are many details that I have come to observe while composing music for this feature. (May I note here that I do not wish to provide a complete description of the entire score, but portions from this work so as to discuss a few ideas I had during this project).

When I am given the assignment of creating a musical score for a film, invariably there are many questions which I may ask myself about the project: its location, ethnic overtones, the time in which the story is set, and so forth. In the case of THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK, it caught my interest to note that von Sternberg did not directly state the exact year and time of the story, but rather hinted at it: “These were the days before oil fuel made stoking a lady’s job--.”

This decision by von Sternberg seems to require a viewer to become more involved and observe the details within each sequence; and they do reveal themselves throughout the story. Considering the minute correctness of the set design in this production (actual gaslights are functional and not just decorative), it is rather apparent that the film makers were clear on the era of their piece. The setting is assuredly before the First World War.

From this premise was it possible to decide upon the style of scoring I would use for the dive bar sequence. Music from the 1920s would have been inappropriate to my way of thinking because it would have been out of context with the era, as determined by von Sternberg, and certainly the music of the so called “Gay Nineties” would provide an excellent platform upon which to build the necessary musical accompaniment. Many of the songs I used were about fallen women, broken hearts and even about falling in love. But, the common thread was that these were all love songs.

John Ford felt an affinity with American folk songs and used this music to great effect in his film productions. This is a great model upon which a composer may employ some techniques in scoring a film. Even in his silent features, there are inter titles which announce the precise music he had in mind to accompany a scene. For example, in Ford’s film HELL BENT (1918), one of the main characters stands outside a window, towards the end of the film, and sings the song “Sweet Genevieve.” Apart from evoking a clear sense of the era, it also reinforces this tender moment on screen. Thus, knowing the lyrics from the songs which I arranged for the von Sternberg film were not arbitrary choices.

After Bill Roberts (George Bancroft) has an altercation with his boss in the dive bar, Mae (Betty Compson) takes him back to their table. The moments of dialogue between Bill and Mae are so beautifully staged and acted that musical comment on their conversation would be redundant. It was better to concentrate on what music was playing in the bar. Bill shows off his tattoos to Mae and explains that he is not bragging about his love affairs. She replies “I’m not braggin’, either.” This sequence musically starts with a song by Gus Edwards entitled “I’ll be with You When the Roses Bloom Again.” It is a sad piece about two lovers which will most likely be separated by war and death. When Mae asks Bill if he had even been married, the music segues to the old 19th century traditional song “I Don’t Know Why I Love You But I Do.” When Bill demands hot coffee, the tune “Mandy Lee” begins: another love song. He then asks her if she had ever been married. When she is surprised by the question, she rejects the notion by answering, “Say, who’d marry a girl like me?” The song following this title is “She May Have Seen Better Days.” Finally, as this sequence reaches its high point, with Bill telling Mae that she is the most beautiful girl in the world and that he would marry her in an instant, the melodies which support the growing love story are “And the Band Played On,” and “After the Ball.”

The music may sound bright and chipper to modern day ears, but their content can be anything but happy. In fact, I was rather surprised at myself at how emotional I began to feel when I understood more about these songs. No, they are not deep in the sense of a Beethoven symphony or a Wagnerian tragedy, nevertheless, they are documents of a society from long ago and the attitudes which prevailed during that social epoch. I realize that most viewers today may not have any familiarity with these songs or their significant meaning, but this is no reason to sabotage the opportunity to provide the music of that time, which historically is accurate in its depiction in this musical context. For those people who do know the meanings of these songs, they possess the passkey to a subtext that has already been implied by von Sternberg, which the music merely highlights.

From the bawdy drunken rabble, to the smell the smoke filled room, to the background chatter of the patrons as they laugh and dance and talk, von Sternberg’s virtuoso technique pulls us into each scene so that we can almost feel a part of the chaotic energy; and, it is the music from the mechanical player piano that completes this illusion. From the moment we enter this bar until the wedding ceremony, there are dancers on screen most of the time as well as visual references to the player piano. Despite the fact that the pianola is the source of music throughout this sequence, I felt it would have been too much to use exclusively a player piano sound; thus, I worked a more colorful orchestration into the score as the story progressed to the wedding. “Gay Nineties” era music may not be to everyone’s taste (and it certainly was not to mine for many years), but it is the style of music that would have been played at a bar of this kind during the era in which the story of this film is set. I was also considering how master composers Max Steiner or Alfred Newman might have approached this task.

The main title music I composed is really a theme for the Mae Roberts character: a fallen woman who has hit bottom and wants to die; it is love that saves her. I composed this theme with the idea of imbuing it with something lyrical and poignant. The secondary motif, which is stated during the cast of characters, represents both Bill and Mae. It is as if one melody line calls out (lower register instruments, cellos, basses, bassoon) and is answered by instruments higher up (violins, flutes and clarinets). As we track along the New York waterfront, there is a distant quote of the song “The Sidewalks of New York.” This is merely a way of announcing the era of this story. A crash cymbal captures the anchor being weighed and then a tubular bell reinforces the full stop of the ship’s engines.

The main theme is stated again, later in the film as Bill ships off to sea after leaving his wife. Von Sternberg created a beautiful montage of the engine room, of the massive metallic beast which powers the ship. For this moment (one could almost feel the visual texture of Lang’s opening to METROPOLIS, or to the editing style of Eisenstein) I wanted to capture something of this machinery and its sounds. Strings whirl over a rapid four note pattern, brass instruments play slightly discordant harmonies, high pitch dissonant winds answer back, percussion and low dark clusters from the piano fill the foundation with a pounding and heavy rhythm. The reason for highlighting these details musically is that it reinforces something that Bill Roberts must be thinking about as he toils himself to death: “I left the most beautiful girl in the world for this?!”

When I consider what THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK is about, I feel that it is not a story about gloom and despair, of hopelessness and futility, set at the lowest echelon of society or in the pit of degradation, but rather a story about two lost souls who find each other in the dark, and through love are saved and are able to build a better life together. It is a beautiful and uplifting story about redemption through love.