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Thrilling news! This is the earliest main feature film Criterion has released, only Bucking Broadway (an "extra" feature). It seems silly to complain now that Criterion at last seems in the business of silents, but wouldn't I love to see their treatment of pre-1920s cinema.

Also, unless any serious confusion has ever arisen from referring to a film as "tinted" instead of "hued", which I doubt it has, it seems like a total non-issue.

Can I safely assume that english subtitles are optional?

Clevinger wrote:Can I safely assume that english subtitles are optional?

I think they typically are.

I can't think of a Criterion title that has them burned in.

MichaelB wrote:I can't think of a Criterion title that has them burned in.

Traffic does, but that's a special case (director request). There's no real precedent for Criterion to release something with burned-in subtitles.

This feature has been added and it looks like that's all the "more" we're getting:

- Archival footage from 1919 of the construction of Räsunda Studios, where The Phantom Carriage was filmed

- Archival footage from 1919 of the construction of Räsunda Studios, where The Phantom Carriage was filmed

Slight spelling error that hopefully will be rectified before release: Råsunda.

I'm surprised how few people have mentioned the inclusion of KTL's score. That alone is a huge selling point for me.

The Masked Marvel wrote:I'm surprised how few people have mentioned the inclusion of KTL's score. That alone is a huge selling point for me.

I prefer Mattie Bye's score myself, but the KTL one has been available for ages on the Tartan disc.

They were both available on one Tartan disc or the other but it's nice to have them both on one release.

I posted this elsewhere, but a reminder that this will be on TCM this weekend for those who want to see the film now.

^^^ Thanks. Nothing beats a free try before I buy. :-)

swo17 wrote:They were both available on one Tartan disc or the other but it's nice to have them both on one release.

That's right. The Matti Bye score was on the Tartan disc that featured Bergman's The Image Makers as an extra. The KTL score was released on Tartan's other edition (seemingly similar to the way that the BFI released the Michael Nyman rescored version of Man With A Movie Camera on a different DVD, though the BFI disc was a while after the previous one, while the two Tartan editions had been released close together).

I only picked up the Tartan disc that featured the Bergman film, so I'm looking forward to getting the Criterion for the KTL score in addition to the Blu upgrade!

Explain? I'm sure you mean the situation and not the line and I don't remember when such a situation occurred and I might very well be wrong as to your intent.

Yes, the situation, not the line:

Spoiler

Axe scene

I had forgotten about that, but it is one of the best sequences of the film for chutzpah. The final act is where most of my memory resides.

Broken Blossoms by Griffith beats the Sjostrom by a year or two, and for my money is cut with greater sophistication, and terrifying effect. The axe starts hitting the door at about 1:50 into the clip.

I don't know if any one of these were inspiration for Kubrick, but Grif had Sjo beat by a year. . . and turns Crisp into a genuine Human Monster.

Glad that this is making it into the collection on principle, though I'm not sure if I'll be buying yet another copy of this film.

Both films do have very recognizable traces in the scene (eg, the emphasis on Gish's reaction), so I'd venture to guess that both were taken as inspiration, though how it's shot in The Shining seem to lend itself more to the Phantom Carriage scene, imo. I think there's a good amount of The Phantom Carriage in The Shining anyway, though mostly in Jack's interaction with the various ghosts than anything else.

Is the axe scene in the book?

(Though it's possible, I kind of doubt the The Phantom Carriage - The Shining connection. I read about it quite often, but sounds like nothing more than someone who saw a similarity later)

I don't remember it being there, but then again I read the book several years ago. The plot of the film deviates far enough from the book in such a way that I'd be surprised if it was there. I do know that the line "Here's Johnny!" definitely isn't in the book, though.

In the book he used a croquet mallet instead of an axe and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a moment where he was taking down the door with it.

As much as I like the book the axe is waaaaay better (at least on screen.)

cdnchris wrote:In the book he used a croquet mallet instead of an axe and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a moment where he was taking down the door with it.

As much as I like the book the axe is waaaaay better (at least on screen.)

Kubrick's instincts on what would work on film were pretty good. If you've ever seen King's own TV version of THE SHINING, you'll know that the croquet mallet just looks ridiculous.

I love it when silents appear on Blu-ray. This looks magical!