locations, and her experience of directing some sequences. Kino’s source materials derive from two archival prints, hence some footage is decidedly infe- rior, but generally the 1.33:1 image is remarkably free from damage and is clear, with good contrasts. The silent film is ac- companied by a rousing score by Aljoscha Zimmerman.
HORROR CLASSICS: BELA LUGOSI
A remarkably layered trick photographic image from THE HOLY MOUNTAIN.
standard edition. The reformatting is not overly damaging to the com- positions and the image looks vivid and colorful throughout. The au- dio is fine and subtitles are in- cluded in English, French, and Spanish. A trailer (narrated with characteristic verve by Adolph Caesar) is the sole extra.
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN Der heilige Berg
1926, Kino on Video, DD-1.0/ST/+, $29.95, 104m 38s, DVD-1 By Rebecca & Sam Umland
Written and directed by Arnold
Fanck, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN is historically significant because it features the late Leni Riefenstahl in a starring role. Riefenstahl plays the alluring dancer Diotima—part pagan nature-worshiper, part femme fatale. Subtitled “A drama poem, with scenes from nature,” the film represents the romantic sublime depicted through a series of recurring images, or leitmotifs, frequently (and revealingly) associated with the main characters. THE HOLY MOUNTAIN features the love between Diotima, an artist- dancer who worships nature
6
(particularly the sea), and her be- trothed, a reclusive climber (Louis Trenker) who is associated with the German Alps. That im- pending doom hangs over the couple is made clear when the betrothed’s mother (Frida Rich- ard) prophecies: “The sea and the stone can never be wed,” the images identified with Diotima and her betrothed respectively. (A structurally similar opposition is used in F.W. Murnau’s 1927 film SUNRISE, except rather than sea/stone, the oppositions are city/country.) Diotima also at- tracts her fiancé’s close acquain- tance, the younger Vigo (Ernst Petersen), a skier, creating an unwitting love triangle that leads to disaster. Steeped in German Romantic metaphysics, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN employs the liebestöd, passion that can only end in death.
The disc’s supplementary feature is a 4m 37s excerpt from Ray Müller’s 1993 documentary, THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL, in which the elderly Riefenstahl and Trenker recount how she be- came involved with Fanck’s film, the perils of shooting on actual
1939-43, Platinum Disc Corporation, DD-5.1, $5.99 (price may vary), DVD-0 By Tim Lucas
“5 Movies Over 5 Hours” says the box, and it’s only five bucks and change... but is it worth it? Actually, yes: with the exception of THE DEVIL BAT (72m 4s)— which looks dupey throughout and turns unwatchably dark at 70:16—a Bela Lugosi fan can’t go wrong with this set, which throws a couple of titles into the mix that aren’t commonly found on comparable Lugosi cheap-o sets. Allan Dwan’s THE GORILLA (1939, 65:48) is a Ritz Brothers comedy retread of THE BAT, glossily produced by Daryl Zanuck for 20th Century Fox, in which Lionel Atwill is threatened with murder by arch-criminal The Gorilla, with Lugosi monkey- suited in a butler’s tux; this is a TCM quality presentation hin- dered only by the 3.0 average bit rate it shares with the other titles. The Edgar Wallace thriller THE HUMAN MONSTER aka DEAD EYES OF LONDON (1939, 75:44), with Bela as “Dr. Orloff,” is evidently derived from the Roan DVD as it is windowboxed with vertical bor- ders thicker on the right than on the left; it looks as good or bet- ter than we’ve ever seen it, with a crisp-enough audio track that keeps the British accents easy to
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