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This arrived this morning. Discs are in digipaks, not Scanavos.

And they’re absolutely gorgeous. I much prefer each film having its own case, rather than two in a case - one inevitably drawing the short straw of being on the back.

The book is a wonder, too - crammed with great artwork and articles (the one on Dietrich’s weight is a jawdropper).

My set arrived this morning (#0016, and now I'm wondering if pH have 15 people of staff I got the first public set )

The box design and art is also stunning. I feel as though I came of a bit harsh on it on announcement, it would still makes no sense as a poster for any one single film of theirs (as I understand most Wrigley designed box-set covers to be key art from one film) but knowing of the creation as a representation of all the films it's absolutely gorgeous.

It would be nice to have pictures of the packaging on here.

I think it's hilarious that we all have phones with cameras yet we're still describing it like a close encounter of the third kind

Packaging

Book spreads

Now you’ve shamed me into it.

This is a lovely set, so glad I pre-ordered it! Hope they do another like it...

Beaver on Blonde Venus.

I can't see any particular problem with this review.

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?

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

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

swo17 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2019 5:34 pm

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

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

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

david hare wrote: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.

reaky wrote: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.

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

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.

Finch wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:50 pm

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

The MoC Last Command is via Paramount, not Universal.

I was only referring to the silents Criterion released.

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?

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)

Finch wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:13 pm

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)