Bach Films: Salome (Bryant, 1923)

[Michael Kerpan]

Bach Films claims its DVD is the first ever: http://www.bachfilms.com/dvd.php5?dvd=1282" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Murdoch]

Not the first ever.

Anybody own the R1 release that can comment on it?

[Michael Kerpan]

Not the first ever.

Anybody own the R1 release that can comment on it?

Oh well, maybe Bach meant the first _French_ release.

In any event, the Bach releases are certainly inexpensive. ;~}

[HerrSchreck]

The film isn't all that anyhoo.

[Tommaso]

Exactly. It feels like a very stiff and uninventive filming of a staged adaptation. Nazimova is great, but all in all, "Salome" rather drags. "Lot in Sodom" is the far more interesting film, but as it's also on the Kino Avantgarde set, you might well skip this Image disc. Transfers are fine, if I remember correctly.

[HarryLong]

Does the version of LOT on the Kino set use the Alec Wilder score? The version I have (godnose where I got it - a graymarket tape since transferred to DVDR) does not. But then I collected about 4 copies of Watson & Weber's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER before aquiring one with the Wilder score.

[Tommaso]

It's funny, the blurp on the Image disc credits the score of "Lot" to Alec Wilder; however, the title sequence indicates Louis Siegel as the composer. That alone wouldn't mean anything, of course, but the Kino version doesn't give a specific composer, and it has exactly the same music as the Image version. And the music seems to be of the time when the film was made, and is pretty excellent in any case. So both editions have either the Wilder score or a Siegel score. I suppose the latter, at least imdb lists Wilder only as a producer for the film.
BTW: I have the vague feeling that the sound is somewhat better on the Kino.

[HarryLong]

BTW: I have the vague feeling that the sound is somewhat better on the Kino.

With all due respect to Image, I suspect you're right.
I can't recall whether Wilder was a producer on USHER or not. Odd that he produced but probably did not score LOT.
And what a pity Watson & Weber were hobbyists who (so far as I know) made mno further films. I first saw these in college* & they've fascinated me ever since.

*The professor who taught the film class apologized profusely for having gotten in the wrong film - he'd wanted the other USHER made that year - the Epstein version.
Ironically while I loved the W&W version from the first time I saw it, I've never taken to the Epstein version.