Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Eyes of the Mummy (1918)

This early drama from director Ernst Lubitsch features Emil Jannings and Pola Negri in early roles.

This DVD-R edition from public-domain home video company Grapevine Video has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print, and features new English language intertitles. The good to very-good 16mm print is, as usual, soft of image detail, contrasty with blasted-out highlights, some speckling and dust. The video transfer is adequate, with an annoying hair in the gate.

The film is accompanied by a canned and abruptly-edited music score, which is reproduced with a very brassy, digitally over-compressed ringing.

The disc has been supplemented with a Keystone one-reeler comedy transferred from a 16mm reduction print.

As is the case with most Grapevine product, the disc is not mastered from the best materials or accompanied by the best in music, but it is slightly better viewing than the Alpha Video edition noted below.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print. In fact, it has been mastered from same print material as the Grapevine Video and the Alpha Video editions noted above. The persistent hair in the upper right corner of the gate is indicative of the source material.

The edition can be pretty rough going for viewers (as are the others noted above) on HD systems with its average 16mm reduction print source material and substandard video transfer.

The film is presented with a music score performed on digital piano.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been mastered from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print. In fact, it has been mastered from same print material as the Grapevine Video edition noted above. The only differences are that this picture has been converted to black & white and the film is presented with a passible original music score performed on digital piano by Rachel Gutches.

The picture is slightly softer in image detail, which is apparent most in the English language intertitles. The difference in running times between the two editions is accounted for by Alpha’s removal of the longer opening video-based credits and some introductory footage present in the Grapevine edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

Other silent era EMIL JANNINGS films available on home video.

Other silent era POLA NEGRI films available on home video.

Other GERMAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.