Release Date: October 8, 2019
Links and Prices:
Criterion: $79.96
Amazon: $68.49
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Writers: Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jules Furthman, Josef von Sternberg
Starring: George Bancroft, Emil Jannings, William Powell, Betty Compson, Evelyn Brent
Vienna-born, New York–raised Josef von Sternberg directed some of the most influential and stylish dramas ever to come out of Hollywood. Though best known for his later star-making collaborations with actor Marlene Dietrich, von Sternberg began his career during the final years of the silent era, dazzling audiences and critics with his films’ dark visions and innovative cinematography. The titles in this collection, made on the cusp of the sound age, are three of von Sternberg’s greatest works, gritty evocations of gangster life (Underworld), the Russian Revolution (The Last Command), and working-class desperation (The Docks of New York) rendered as shadowy movie spectacle.
SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET
High-definition digital restorations of all three films
Links and Prices:
Criterion: $79.96
Amazon: $68.49
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Writers: Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jules Furthman, Josef von Sternberg
Starring: George Bancroft, Emil Jannings, William Powell, Betty Compson, Evelyn Brent
Vienna-born, New York–raised Josef von Sternberg directed some of the most influential and stylish dramas ever to come out of Hollywood. Though best known for his later star-making collaborations with actor Marlene Dietrich, von Sternberg began his career during the final years of the silent era, dazzling audiences and critics with his films’ dark visions and innovative cinematography. The titles in this collection, made on the cusp of the sound age, are three of von Sternberg’s greatest works, gritty evocations of gangster life (Underworld), the Russian Revolution (The Last Command), and working-class desperation (The Docks of New York) rendered as shadowy movie spectacle.
SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET
High-definition digital restorations of all three films
- Six scores: by Robert Israel for all three films, Alloy Orchestra for Underworld and The Last Command, and Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton for The Docks of New York
- Two video essays from 2010, one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom and the other by film scholar Tag Gallagher
- Swedish television interview from 1968 with director Josef von Sternberg
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien, scholar Anton Kaes, and author and critic Luc Sante; notes on the scores by the composers; Ben Hecht’s original treatment for Underworld; and an excerpt from von Sternberg’s 1965 autobiography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, on actor Emil Jannings
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