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

Outside the Law (1920)

Tod Browning’s tale of San Francisco underworld crime features Lon Chaney’s dual role as murderous thug Black Mike Sylva, and Ah Wing, a small-time Chinese pacifist.

Crime boss ‘Silent’ Madden (Ralph Lewis) and his daughter ‘Silky Moll’ Madden (Priscilla Dean) are friends with legitimate and respected Chinese-American community leader Chang Low (E.A. Warren), whose influence is slowly shifting the Maddens’ thinking toward reform. Ruthless ‘Black Mike’ Sylva (Chaney) and ‘Dapper Bill’ Ballard (Wheeler Oakman) are conspiring to frame ‘Silent’ Madden and turn Molly against recent positive influences. When Madden is wounded, shot by Sylva’s gang in Chinatown, he is helped away to safety by Low’s dedicated servant Ah Wing (Chaney). Meanwhile, Sylva has a gang member plant a gun that has been used to shoot a beat cop and tell the police its location and where the shootist is — framing Madden, who receives a eight-month prison sentence. Sylva then begins to exert his manipulation of Molly, pulling her back into criminal activities, with the plan of double-crossing her.

This hard-edged film, costarring Priscilla Dean as the tough moll who can talk a blue streak of razorblades, is a pinnacle among the Browning-Chaney crime dramas.

There appears to be some confusion over which versions of the film have survived and we have no answers to present here. A surviving 35mm print may be of the original 1920 release version, with advanced nitrate decomposition marring the final reels. A 16mm reduction print (composed primarily of alternate takes and some footage apparently taken from a second camera position) appears to follow the sequencing of the 35mm print and may have been prepared for foreign release as most of the footage is clearly inferior to that in the 35mm print. Also posited is the assumption that the 16mm print is one prepared from the 1926 reissue negative and released to the home market as a Universal Show-at-Home reduction print circa 1927-1928.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from Universal’s recent 4K restoration of the film which utilized a 35mm acetate safety negative prepared by the Library of Congress from an original 1920 nitrate release print recovered from a Minnesota barn in the 1970s. The source material is very-good to excellent, with some fine vertical print scratches that are rarely distracting. Dust and speckling is virtually nonexistent and may have been digitally cleaned-up by the restoration team. Portions of the source print have been lost to print breakage and were also beginning to shrink as some print cupping is apparent in the picture, which occasionally goes out of focus in the central areas of the image. Active nitrate print decomposition begins to appear 53 minutes into the film.

The film is accompanied by an orchestral music score by Anton Sanko, which may have been performed on digital keyboards (or may be an actual orchestra — we just don’t know these days).

The supplementary material includes audio commentary by Anthony Slide which is, of course, entertaining and informative. But we must take up the opposite side of the issue with Anthony’s umbrage over use of the term “intertitles” instead of “subtitles” today. Today’s audiences understand that subtitles are presented over the lower portion of the picture to translate dialogue that is foreign to the audience, and that intertitles are interspersed among lengths of footage to present the content of dialogue in silent films. We maintain that today it is appropriate to use the term cinematography over the historically used term photography to refer to the taking of motion pictures. But, hey, this isn’t Facebook so let’s leave it at that. In addition is a side-by-side presentation of the differences of the 35mm source material and of the 16mm print (assembled almost entirely of alternate takes rather than from a second camera position) that contains footage toward the end of the film that isn’t lost to decomposition (9 minutes), and a presentation of an alternate ending to the film from the 16mm reduction print.

We recommend this Blu-ray Disc edition as the best home video edition currently available.

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Other silent era TOD BROWNING films available on home video.