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In Reply to: "Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925 Silent) posted by rico on October 22, 2006 at 08:45:59:

I'm not a big fan of films with overt religious themes, but this is one lavishly filmed biblical epic which succeeds in being rousing entertainment irrespective of it's preachier aspects. The two-color technicolor segments look good in spite of the early process's limitations. Historical note: Both the chariot race and sea battle were costly and not without incident (the sea battle apparently cost the lives of some Italian extras who drowned and/or burned, and as you noted the chariot race was just a precurser to the glue factory for some of those horses).
Other recently acquired silent films worth noting:
The upcoming Criterion release of Pandora's Box (German restoration approved by the Murnau Foundation)
Sadie Thompson (Gloria Swanson; KINO release; print quality varies, but film is excellent even with the filled-n missing scenes at the end)
The restored complete version of Dr Mabuse, The Gambler (recently released by KINO, although I have the PAL, Region 2 version from Eureka issued a couple of year's ago, this is apparently the same restored transfer. Note: Avoid the earlier truncated versions)
The restored Faust (Eureka Masters of Cinema; PAL; Region 2; if you don't own a region-free player yet, but have been thinking about it, the restored & remastered transfer of this silent masterpiece, which is only available domestically in the earlier soft KINO transfer, could pursuade you to fork over the extra bucks for a region free Oppo upscaling DVD player). Note: Check out the DVD Beaver frame grabs of Faust below for comparison
Think I'll stop there for now, but I've picked up quite a few more silent era DVDs over the last six months or so (Murnau's Phantom, Feuillade's Fantomas series, Von Sternberg's Underworld, etc., etc.) and will gladly list/evaluate them later for those interested.

Murnau's Faust... (Open in New Window)

Films/DVD Asylum

Good review, rico.