Man who laughs. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Cat and the canary. Penalty. Kingdom of shadows.
Notes:
The man who laughs: Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: John Barrymore. The cat and the canary: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, George Siegmann. The penalty: Lon Chaney, Ethel Grey Terry, Charles Clary. Kingdom of shadows: narrator: Rod Steiger. Title from container. Fullscreen. Special features: Man who laughs: original 20-minute making-of featurette; candid home movie footage of Conrad Veidt and fellow European emigreĢs Greta Garbo, Emil Jannings and Camilla Horn; photographs and art gallery; excerpt of the Italian release version, with hand-painted title cards; excerpt from Victor Hugo's original novel. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: "The transformation scene" a rare 1909 audio recording; "Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pride" a 1925 one-reel parody starring Stan Laurel; excerpt of the rival 1920 version starring Sheldon Lewis; "The many faces of Jekyll/Hyde" an illustrated essay on the story's irigins and incarnations; about the score. The penalty: video tour of Lon Chaney's make-up case; essay by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake; original theatrical trailers from Chaney's The big city and While the city sleeps; surviving footage of Chaney's The miracle man; Chaney's 1914 one-reel western By the sun's rays; essay "The penalty: novel, script to screen"; scene comparison; production budget sheet; gallery of photographs and artwork.
Contents:
[v.5] Kingdom of shadows : the rise of the horror film / written & directed by Bret Wood. [v.2] Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde / a Paramount/Artcraft picture ; directed by John S. Overton ; screenplay by Clara S. Beranger -- [v.3] Cat and the canary / directed by Paul Leni ; produced by Paul Kohner -- [v.4] Penalty / Goldwyn Pictures ; directed by Wallace Horsley ; scenario by Charles Kenyon & Philip Lonergan -- [v.5] Kingdom of shadows : the rise of the horror film / written & directed by Bret Wood.
Summary:
Man who laughs (1928, 110 min.) : Gwynplaine is doomed to live life wearing a perpetual grin. Carved on his face because his father, Lord Clancharlie, had offended England's king. Gwynplaine grows up alongside the beautiful but blind Dea and they fall in love. Queen Anne, meanwhile, has ascended the throne and when she learns that the femme fatale, Duchess Josiana is in possession of the Lord's estates, she decrees that the Duchess must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir. Gwynplaine realizes that the duchess' attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title and follows his heart to the new World. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920, 73 min.) : Dr. Jekyll, an idealistic London doctor, has a weakness for experiments which take him to the boundaries of human consciousness and experience. When Sir George Carew, father of the girl Jekyll loves, accuses him of being afraid of temptation, he finds a drug which allows him to separate the evil side of his personality from the good; as Edward Hyde, he embarks upon a career of crime. Cat and the canary (1927, 80 min.) : the potential heirs to a large fortune gather at their benefactor's mansion twenty years after his death, but the reading of his will is interrupted by a series of disturbing events. Penalty (1920, 93 min.) : an incompetent doctor amputates the legs of a young boy who grows up to be the embittered Blizzard, a criminal mastermind who orchestrates a bizarre and heinous plot to avenge himself. Kingdom of shadows (1998, 70 min.) : a documentary that explores the evolution of the horror film in world cinema. More than fifty films are surveyed, including many early silent films.
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