130-135 Marlene Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg at Paramount 1930-1935

[Finch]

My direct pre-order from Indicator arrived in the US today, about a week after I got the dispatch email, and the set was in pristine condition. I'll be ordering directly again.

Out of interest, what caused the 12 certificate on The Scarlet Empress? All the other films are a Universal or PG rating. Was it the film itself or one of the extras?

[swo17]

Doesn't the film have brief female nudity at the beginning?

[HJackson]

The old DVD was a 12 so it’s the feature.

[domino harvey]

Doesn't the film have brief female nudity at the beginning?

It took more than one mam’ to change this rating to 12

[reaky]

Also tits at the beginning of Morocco, and much rudery (“What are you doing with those fingers?”), but it gets a U.

[MichaelB]

There are tits galore And rape, and heads chopped off. It's a doozy of an opening.

The really bizarre thing is that it’s technically not pre-Code - it even opens with the Production Code seal! - and yet it’s comfortably the most extreme in a set of films that are 66% authentically pre-Code.

Also tits at the beginning of Morocco, and much rudery (“What are you doing with those fingers?”), but it gets a U.

Tits - and non-sexualised nudity in general - have never been much of an issue with the BBFC. And it’s also been longstanding BBFC policy to turn a blind eye (or deaf ear) to innuendo if it’s unlikely that a child would plausibly be able to work it out.

[Finch]

Thank you for all the responses, gents. Scarlet Empress and Morocco are the two Dietrich-Sternberg collaborations I've not seen yet.

[Finch]

Question for perpee/MichaelB: do Universal have the rights to von Sternberg's Paramount silents? Purely based on the beautiful packaging and the more substantial extras on this current set, I'd rather buy an Indicator set of the silents instead of upgrading my DVD Criterion set, provided of course that the existing set sells well enough for Indicator and the UK rights haven't already been sub-licenced to Eureka or Arrow.

[Landjorden]

Question for perpee/MichaelB: do Universal have the rights to von Sternberg's Paramount silents? Purely based on the beautiful packaging and the more substantial extras on this current set, I'd rather buy an Indicator set of the silents instead of upgrading my DVD Criterion set, provided of course that the existing set sells well enough for Indicator and the UK rights haven't already been sub-licenced to Eureka or Arrow.

Eureka have already released The Last Command on blu, no ides about the other two though

[HJackson]

The MoC Last Command is via Paramount, not Universal.

[Finch]

I was only referring to the silents Criterion released.

[MichaelB]

If one is with Paramount, the chances are that they all are. Presumably the late 1940s Universal deal only covered (most of) their sound films?

[FlickeringWindow]

MCA only purchased the 1929-1948/49ish sound features. Paramount kept the silents. Kino has released a dozen or so licensed from then. (There’s some crossover in 1948-1949 as Universal owns films like The Heiress and A Foreign Affair, yet Paramount held on to Sorry, Wrong Number, Rope of Sand, and Samson & Delilah)

[Glowingwabbit]

I was only referring to the silents Criterion released.

Last Command is one of the silents Criterion released (it's a part of the 3 Silent Classics by Sternberg set)

Edit: Only 4 of his silents have survived anyway (not including fragments). What would be awesome is if they dropped the "Silent" part and replaced Last Command with Thunderbolt (also the inclusion of The Salvation Hunters would be great since it's not in the Criterion set)

[Finch]

Last Command is one of the silents Criterion released (it's a part of the 3 Silent Classics by Sternberg set)

Oops so it is! I had remembered that MoC did release Last Command on its own, but had forgotten that it was indeed included in the Criterion DVD set back then.

[DeprongMori]

Salvation Hunters is on the cards as a Blu Ray from FilmMuseum, including Janet Bergstrom's excellent video essay. the remsining silents are all Paramount as noted.

Would that be the first Blu-ray from Filmmuseum? Any idea when it is being released? I just ordered The Salvation Hunters and four others on DVD. I would much rather have had them on Blu.

[Glowingwabbit]

Salvation Hunters is on the cards as a Blu Ray from FilmMuseum, including Janet Bergstrom's excellent video essay. the remsining silents are all Paramount as noted.

Would that be the first Blu-ray from Filmmuseum? Any idea when it is being released? I just ordered The Salvation Hunters and four others on DVD. I would much rather have had them on Blu.

Woah I didnt think they'd ever go blu. Was there an announcement somewhere? Those are gonna be expensive

[KJones77]

Received this set today and WOW. Blew past my every expectation. Phenomenal packaging and, since I ordered direct, not a scratch or dent on it.

The book feels and looks quite hefty too, can't wait to dive into reading and rewatching the films.

On my first watch through of the films a year ago, I was a bit more lukewarm on Shanghai Express and The Scarlet Empress so I'm hopeful that they will click for me on a second watch.

[ethel]

A really impressive package, with superb renderings of the films (only MOROCCO remains the decidedly second- or third-tier soft but acceptable master seen in Region A).

The special features are a treasure trove, with Tag Gallagher’s magnificent video essay and Nathalie Morris’ extremely engaging talk on Travis Banton’s costumes particular standouts.

More than one fevered collector of my acquaintance claims the unfamiliar production still of the San Bernardino railyard dressed as the Beijing terminus is alone worth the price of the box set.

Only 6000 copies of this for Region B. Sternberg devotees - do not procrastinate!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Is anyone else getting a disc error for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is A Woman?

[AidanKing]

Both discs are fine in my set so I think it must be an isolated error. The set is excellent by the way, with an extremely good range of extras. Despite David's criticism, I rather enjoyed the So Mayer piece (I've previously found her work on Sally Potter and feminist cinema to be very worthwhile too) and it was good to have some acknowledgement of the LGBTQ+ elements and appeal of the films, as opposed to the Criterion set apparently. The piece on Travis Banton by Nathalie Morris was welcome too: the recent obituary for Piero Tosi in 'The Guardian' commented that Banton was his favourite designer which, based on his costume designs for Visconti, comes as absolutely no surprise.

[Paul Moran]

Is anyone else getting a disc error for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is A Woman?

My set arrived yesterday, and I have not yet watched any of the films in full. However, I did a few disc checks this morning.

My Oppo 103D – which I have noticed is the “fussiest” of my BD players – reported “Unknown Disc” for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is a Woman, and “Wrong Disc” for Shanghai Express. It loaded the other three discs without any problems.

I then tried Blonde Venus, The Devil Is a Woman and Shanghai Express in my other BD players. My Oppo 203, Oppo 103 and Sony BDP-S360 had no problems. My Oppo 93 had no problems with Blonde Venus and Shanghai Express; it would not load The Devil Is a Woman, ejecting the disc without any on-screen explanation. I was too lazy to test the discs in my PC BD-ROM drive.

I am not returning my set (which I got from Hive for a short-lived bargain price of £26.65).

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Is anyone else getting a disc error for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is A Woman?

My set arrived yesterday, and I have not yet watched any of the films in full. However, I did a few disc checks this morning.

My Oppo 103D – which I have noticed is the “fussiest” of my BD players – reported “Unknown Disc” for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is a Woman, and “Wrong Disc” for Shanghai Express. It loaded the other three discs without any problems.

I then tried Blonde Venus, The Devil Is a Woman and Shanghai Express in my other BD players. My Oppo 203, Oppo 103 and Sony BDP-S360 had no problems. My Oppo 93 had no problems with Blonde Venus and Shanghai Express; it would not load The Devil Is a Woman, ejecting the disc without any on-screen explanation. I was too lazy to test the discs in my PC BD-ROM drive.

I am not returning my set (which I got from Hive for a short-lived bargain price of £26.65).

You may want to contact Indicator nonetheless. My order email and number as I ordered direct was passed on to Anthony Nield who's been helping me out. Sadly, my two replacement discs were showing the same problems as yours but not for lack of effort from Indicator! But if it's a more widespread technical problem they might want to know.

Also regarding that So Mayer interview - which I watched when somehow my disc decided to work the one time! - I think what sadly might be the case is that Mayer despite that "either you get it or you don't" attitude is indeed imparting new information - to Millennials. Part of why I loved Indicator's book is the critical notices like Haskell's which show that this sort of visual analysis has been ongoing for decades. So to anyone to whom this is news they need not take Mayer's word for it and consult Haskell as well. (Or Mulvey - or Dyer whose work I've found useful or the Adrian Martin commentary on the same disc.) Or I could be wrong about Millennials as Sasha Velour (who's about the same age as me and I take it Mayer) did that Dietrich birthday Google doodle two years back. With all the other critical voices that Indicator included, I didn't find Mayer at all unwelcome.

[tag gallagher]

I'm disappointed to see no commentary on von Sternberg's paintings, so beautifully displayed on the Morocco disc in this set. Von Sternberg himself identified more as a painter than a filmmaker.

The most demeaning reaction to these paintings would not be to hate them, but to ignore them totally -- which is what is happening.

[Paul Moran]

Is anyone else getting a disc error for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is A Woman?

My set arrived yesterday, and I have not yet watched any of the films in full. However, I did a few disc checks this morning.

My Oppo 103D – which I have noticed is the “fussiest” of my BD players – reported “Unknown Disc” for Blonde Venus and The Devil Is a Woman, and “Wrong Disc” for Shanghai Express. It loaded the other three discs without any problems.

I then tried Blonde Venus, The Devil Is a Woman and Shanghai Express in my other BD players. My Oppo 203, Oppo 103 and Sony BDP-S360 had no problems. My Oppo 93 had no problems with Blonde Venus and Shanghai Express; it would not load The Devil Is a Woman, ejecting the disc without any on-screen explanation. I was too lazy to test the discs in my PC BD-ROM drive.

I am not returning my set (which I got from Hive for a short-lived bargain price of £26.65).

You may want to contact Indicator nonetheless. My order email and number as I ordered direct was passed on to Anthony Nield who's been helping me out. Sadly, my two replacement discs were showing the same problems as yours but not for lack of effort from Indicator! But if it's a more widespread technical problem they might want to know.

I emailed the details to Indicator, and I've had a "thank you" from Anthony Nield. I watched the first 3 films on my Sony BDP-S360 last night: no problems. I'll watch the other three later today.