Maurice Tourneur

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Michael Kerpan · #26 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:17 pm

AH -- Congratulations on the book!

As to Last of the Mohicans -- it does not appear that the new version (music by Mont Alto) has ever been released... (A great movie, btw).

Ann Harding · #27 Post by **Ann Harding** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 12:14 pm

My article about Alias Jimmy Valentine is on page 53 of the latest issue of Sight & Sound (Sept 2015). It's also available here.

RodneySauer · #28 Post by **RodneySauer** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 2:34 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:AH -- Congratulations on the book!

As to Last of the Mohicans -- it does not appear that the new version (music by Mont Alto) has ever been released... (A great movie, btw).

Yes. I know there are plans for a release, but things are slow. The new version with the Mont Alto score did run at least once on TCM, so some people have seen it; and we've played it live a few times. The restoration is lovely, with the art title card backgrounds painted by Maurice Tourneur himself, as I understand.

Ann Harding · #29 Post by **Ann Harding** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 10:20 am

The Filmoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona is doing a Maurice Tourneur retrospective from April 4th. If you are around, I'll be presenting LA MAIN DU DIABLE on April 4th and THE BLUE BIRD on April 6th.

Ann Harding · #30 Post by **Ann Harding** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 8:54 am

If you want to know more about Tourneur's silent career, you can watch my conference recorded for the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (Bo'ness, Scotland):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMTooo70KUg

Michael Kerpan · #31 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:07 pm

Ann -- Thank you so much for the link! I promise to watch this.

Ann Harding · #32 Post by **Ann Harding** » Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:56 pm

Great news! A long lost silent Tourneur has been rediscovered and is about to be restored. It's THE WHITE HEATHER (1919).
https://www.filmpreservation.org/blog/2 ... 023-grants

The San Francisco Silent Festival will preserve a fiction film long thought lost: The White Heather (1919), directed by Maurice Tourneur, one of the most highly regarded silent era filmmakers. The silent melodrama, which follows the suffering family of a dastardly aristocrat, has a supporting cast including John Gilbert, Gibson Gowland (Greed), and Ben Hamilton (Dragnet). It climaxes with an underwater fight shot in Los Angeles Harbor using the Williamson Submarine tube. Variety called the film “an absolute masterpiece” that stood out “on the strength of the thrills that the camera made possible and which could not be secured on the stage.”

Tuco · #33 Post by **Tuco** » Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:12 pm

RodneySauer wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:52 pm Hi, this is Rodney Sauer of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra -- there is a plan to release The Last of the Mohicans along with two other films on Native American topics: The Vanishing American and The Silent Enemy (the last of which will also have our score, which we have played live in Arkansas, Colorado, and at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival). I can't yet say the label, but the rough schedule is some time in the next year or so.

A belated Happy 10th Anniversary to this post! I for one, am still waiting. I loved the DVD, even with the annoying synthesizer score. Lobster has released it, but only with French subtitles, I believe. Jus' wonderin'...

Ann Harding · #34 Post by **Ann Harding** » Sat Nov 29, 2025 10:17 am

I am happy to announce my Tourneur biography is going to be released in English by University of Wisconsin Press on April 7, 2026:
https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/M/Maurice-Tourneur

Another piece of good news, the Cinémathèque française is organizing a Maurice Tourneur retrospective in February-March 2026:
https://www.cinematheque.fr/cycle/mauri ... -1503.html

#35 Post by **Matt** » Sat Nov 29, 2025 7:36 pm

Congratulations! We need to get you on Turner Classic Movies or on a Criterion interview talking about Tourneur.

knives · #36 Post by **knives** » Sat Nov 29, 2025 11:14 pm

Amazing. It’s always so good to hear about board members living the dream that way.

FrauBlucher · #37 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Sat Nov 29, 2025 11:22 pm

Ann, that's awesome! Congrats! If you don't mind what was your inspiration for Mr Tourneur?

Ann Harding · #38 Post by **Ann Harding** » Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:35 am

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Nov 29, 2025 11:22 pm Ann, that's awesome! Congrats! If you don't mind what was your inspiration for Mr Tourneur?

FrauBlucher, Kevin Brownlow introduced me to Tourneur's silents. And from that point, I was hooked. Later, I discovered an amazing file in the French national archives that gave masses of informations on Tourneur. Well, you have to read the book to know more!

Altair · #39 Post by **Altair** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 5:14 am

For a filmmaker with such a huge filmography, where would you recommend someone start?

Peacock · #40 Post by **Peacock** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 7:30 am

Christine, thank you for writing this book, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Tourneur is painfully underrated in 2025, I like to imagine that his son got some of his indescribable magic from his old man. Hopefully the book and retrospective go some way to bring more attention to him. He hasn’t mentioned it but I can 100% see references to Tourneur’s island silent films in the work of Bertrand Mandico.

Some of his silents got a few Image DVDs but I don’t think any of Tourneur’s sound films received English friendly releases. In fact Tourneur is one of the few auteurs who I don’t believe has a single English friendly Blu-ray to this day.

Where are Flicker Alley, Eureka and Kino when you need them?

Ann Harding · #41 Post by **Ann Harding** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 9:03 am

First of all, some good news, a lost Tourneur silent has been discovered and restored by the San Francisco Film Preserve. THE WHITE HEATHER (1919) is available to watch online with a great score by Stephen Horne here: https://filmpreserve.org/restoration/the-white-heather/

You can also watch a presentation I gave online last April about Tourneur's silent career:
https://filmpreserve.org/event/maurice- ... m-pioneer/

Regarding Tourneur's talkies with English subs. A few are available in France and in the US. Let me check and I will come back with a list.
Edit:
Cécile est morte (Cécile is dead, 1944) is available from Kino Lorber
Justin de Marseille (1935) Blu-ray Pathé with English Subs
Avec le sourire (1936) Blu-Ray Gaumont with English Subs

Peacock · #42 Post by **Peacock** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 9:41 am

Oh wow thank you for the correction! I’ll check all of them out.

And look forward to watching your presentation as well as The White Heather!

Altair · #43 Post by **Altair** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 6:26 pm

That's great, thank you. I'm going to look these up - Cécile est morte is based on a Maigret thriller, so I might start there.

therewillbeblus · Mon Dec 01, 2025 11:31 pm

I watched his late-period Carnival of Sinners and was underwhelmed. The first act's setup is well-executed, better than other films of its ilk at fleshing out characterization in sync with the narrative progression, but once the protagonist gets the hand it just falls into rote, familiar territory. Though the surreal last act definitely earns points for effort, it felt like the movie just jumped the shark into bizarre fluff. I might need to watch that part again to connect the dots better.

#45 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Dec 01, 2025 11:54 pm

If you want to see the making of it, that’s what Tavernier’s Laissez-passer is about

Jonathan S · #46 Post by **Jonathan S** » Tue Dec 02, 2025 6:31 am

Ann Harding wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 9:03 am
Regarding Tourneur's talkies with English subs. A few are available in France and in the US. Let me check and I will come back with a list.
Edit:
Justin de Marseille (1935) Blu-ray Gaumont with English Subs

If this refers to the restored 2016 French Pathé release (blue/orange cover), two negative customer reviews (2017/21) on Amazon.fr state it does not have English subs despite being advertised as such on that and other listings. A photo of the rear case of the parallel DVD (which I've always found to be identical to the Blu-ray in that initially dual format series) mentions only French subs for deaf and HoH. I planned to buy it years ago but decided not to risk it, so would be grateful of confirmation either way from an actual copy.

Ann Harding · #47 Post by **Ann Harding** » Tue Dec 02, 2025 3:39 pm

Hi Jonathan. You're right it's a Pathé release. I can garantee you the Blu-ray has English subs, unlike the DVD.

Jonathan S · #48 Post by **Jonathan S** » Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:41 pm

Thanks, that's extraordinary - I have most of that Pathé dual format series and with those I own the DVD (in the dual package and/or the separate DVD releases) always has English subs too (if the Blu-ray does).

#49 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:45 pm

DaaVeeDee carries it and he doesn’t generally carry non-English friendly Blus (and he lists the English subs as well), if you want double confirmation

Ann Harding · #50 Post by **Ann Harding** » Wed Dec 03, 2025 8:49 am

Jonathan S wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:41 pm Thanks, that's extraordinary - I have most of that Pathé dual format series and with those I own the DVD (in the dual package and/or the separate DVD releases) always has English subs too (if the Blu-ray does).

It's probably because Justin was first published in DVD as part of a Maurice Tourneur box in 2012 - without English subs. When they released it later on Blu-ray, they added the English subs.

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