Another welcome improvement in the world of silent cinema is Grapevine Video’s release of the original version of Charles J. Brabin’s The Raven, which runs some 15 minutes longer than previously available prints.

While the film has not been restored, and still exhibits considerable dirt and damage, it is of a better visual quality than the shorter cut, and allows a fairer assessment of Brabin’s experimentation with visual effects.

Consequently, I have somewhat revised my review of The Raven, and given the screenshots a thorough overhaul. (I should mention that this print looks better in motion than is evident via the screenshots, which tend to over-emphasise the print’s flaws.)

THE RAVEN (1915)

…in which some drunk writes a poem about a bird…

I have also added a belated update to Et Al., featuring thrillers and melodramas across the decades, a couple of pepla, some sex and violence, a bunch of Lifetime movies and more decade-old horror.

 
To mark the film’s 100th birthday, the Munich Film Museum undertook a restoration of the 1913 version of The Student Of Prague. For those of us who only knew the film in its poor quality, cut-to-pieces, black-and-white incarnation, the results were a revelation.

Consequently, I have somewhat revised my original review, and given the screenshots a complete makeover.

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1913)

…in which an unfortunate young man really is his own worst enemy…

I have also transferred over:

Trilby (1915)
Rapsodia Satanica (1917)