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

The Mystic (1925)

This mystical crime drama, directed by Tod Browning, stars Aileen Pringle and Conway Tearle, with Mitchell Lewis, Robert Ober, Stanton Heck, David Torrence and Gladys Hulette.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a 2K high-resolution digital reconstruction from an archival 35mm print of The Mystic (1925). Image stabilization and exposure equilization have been digitally performed as has dust and speckle removal, and other digital repairs.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Dean Hurley, along with a number of synchronized sound effects. Surprisingly, the accompaniment is presented in low-fidelity monaural sound and has been recorded and mixed to emulate a vintage film soundtrack combined with Lynchian audio otherness.

Beyond our interest in silent films, the big question from collectors inevitably will be, “Is this presentation of Freaks better than the Warner Home Video DVD edition from 2006?” The answer is YES. We compared both editions on DVD and found a satisfying improvement in picture quality with nearly none of the noticable film grain that made the older Warner edition look a little rough. This BD edition looks even better. The greyscale ranges of both editions were close to being the same, that is well-balanced from highlights to shadows, with the occasional hot highlights that appear to be present in the source print material. (An example would be the face highlights of the carnival barker as he introduces the unseen Cleopatra to the gawkers around him.) Also, this Criterion edition does not windowbox the film’s opening credits (as was the common practice twenty years ago when CRT televisions with picture overscan cropping were still the main viewing device utilized in most households). For most collectors, the improvements in this Criterion edition will make the cost of upgrading Freaks well worth the set’s list price cost.

Supplementary material includes a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum with music by Philip Carli; a 2K digital restoration of Freaks with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; audio commentary by film historian David J. Skal for The Unknown and Freaks; a wonderful introduction to The Mystic by David J. Skal (9 minutes); an interview with author Megan Abbott on director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror; an archival documentary on Freaks; a reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks was based; the 1947 prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film; a featurette on the alternate endings to Freaks; a gallery of portraits from Freaks; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; and an essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme.

The release of this set represents the home video premiere of The Mystic. We highly recommend this edition of this film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 2K high-resolution digital reconstruction from an archival 35mm print of The Mystic (1925). Image stabilization and exposure equilization have been digitally performed as has dust and speckle removal, and other digital repairs.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Dean Hurley. Interestingly, the music is presented in monaural sound (with synchronized sound effects) and in sonic textures that are somewhat like a muffled and occasionally warbling vintage optical soundtrack (hiss, pops and all). Given the care that taken in cleaning and restoring the picture, it seems a bit odd to deliberately take a step backward in the sound. However, odd and Tod Browning do go together, so . . . there you go.

Beyond our interest in silent films, the big question from collectors inevitably will be, “Is this presentation of Freaks better than the Warner Home Video DVD edition from 2006?” The answer is YES. We compared both editions on DVD and found a satisfying improvement in picture quality with nearly none of the noticable film grain that made the older Warner edition look a little rough. The greyscale ranges of both editions were close to being the same, that is well-balanced from highlights to shadows, with the occasional hot highlights that appear to be present in the source print material. (An example would be the face highlights of the carnival barker as he introduces the unseen Cleopatra to the gawkers around him.) Also, this Criterion edition does not windowbox the film’s opening credits (as was the common practice twenty years ago when CRT televisions with picture overscan cropping were still the main viewing device utilized in most households). For most collectors, the improvements in this Criterion edition will make the cost of upgrading Freaks well worth the set’s list price cost.

Supplementary material includes a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum with music by Philip Carli; a 2K digital restoration of Freaks; audio commentary by film historian David J. Skal for The Unknown and Freaks; a wonderful introduction to The Mystic by David J. Skal (9 minutes); an interview with author Megan Abbott on director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror; an archival documentary on Freaks; a reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks was based; the 1947 prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film; a featurette on the alternate endings to Freaks; a gallery of portraits from Freaks; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; and an essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme.

The release of this set represents the home video premiere of The Mystic. We highly recommend this DVD edition of this film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .