267 An American Tragedy

[MichaelB]

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
(Josef von Sternberg, 1931)
Release date: 11 December 2023
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World premiere)

Pre-order here

In the middle of his classic series of collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, Josef von Sternberg substituted the iconic German star with Phillips Holmes (The Criminal Code) and Sylvia Sidney (You and Me) to make An American Tragedy, a shocking tale of crime and punishment.

Clyde (Holmes), a poor garment worker with a past he wishes to forget, has a shot at the good life when he meets heiress Sondra (Frances Dee). But when his clandestine girlfriend Roberta (Sidney) announces she is pregnant, Clyde considers drastic actions in order to preserve his dream of affluence.

Based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser (which would later be adapted as A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor), and inspired by a notorious real-life murder case, An American Tragedy is a searing indictment of the American dream.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• 2019 restoration from a 4K scan
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film historian Josh Nelson (2023)
• Tony Rayns on ‘An American Tragedy’ (2023): extensive discussion of Josef von Sternberg’s little-seen gem by the writer and film programmer
• Video essay by film historian Tag Gallagher
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive with a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith, archival interviews and articles, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK

All extras subject to change

#PHILE267B
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697923728

[patreig]

Any hope for A Shanghai Gesture?

[domino harvey]

Interesting that we get this as a solo release given the speculation that Indicator is working on a Sylvia Sidney box

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

[domino harvey]

Enjoyed this film more than I expected considering its reputation. Like I imagine anyone else watching, I greatly prefer the first hour to the rest of it and loved all the gliding tracking shots versus the amusing but ordinary trial scenes. Obviously the shadow of a better film looms large while watching, but there’s a lot to like here. Informative extras by Rayns and our own sometime member Tag Gallagher here as well— I appreciate that both men don’t seem to think much of Dreiser and their comments remind me of my own professor’s warning to not bother reading him because he’s hopelessly didactic

[Matthew Fisher]

I appreciate that both men don’t seem to think much of Dreiser and their comments remind me of my own professor’s warning to not bother reading him because he’s hopelessly didactic

Mark Van Doren: Dreiser was a novelist "lacking everything but genius." Rayns and Gallagher are both all-timers, and so perhaps was your professor. Speaking only for myself, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy are books I find myself thinking about all the time.

Looking at Sternberg's great decade (more or less): there are the silent films, Thunderbolt, the Dietrich films... and then there are adaptations of two acclaimed, influential, lengthy, and deadly serious novels. In each, the actor cast in the lead role is unusual, you might say, The 500 page novel becomes a 96 minute film, the 900 page novel an 88 minute film. They're interesting as adaptations, interesting as Sternberg films. But they're odd ducks.