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

Wild Orchids (1929)

This tragic MGM drama stars Greta Garbo, Nils Asther and Lewis Stone, set in exotic Java (Indonesia) and directed by Sidney Franklin.

This Warner Archive Collection DVD-R edition appears to be a remastered edition for broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, but the soft picture details and other flaws make us wonder whether the master for the 1985 VHS videotape edition hasn’t been dusted off for this home video release. This picture is a bit flat in its greyscale range with light grey highlights, and there is dust, speckles and minor print flaws to be seen. We have to wonder whether this film has only survived in a 16mm reduction print or in dupey 35mm. The framing appears to be quite open which is uncharacteristic of vintage 16mm prints.

The film is presented with its original 1929 Movietone music score soundtrack, hiss and crackles intact.

Note that some collectors have experienced difficulties playing some DVD-R discs from the Warner Archive Collection. We experienced a problem with this disc on our main Blu-ray Disc reviewing player, as the disc wouldn’t play beyond the reviled FBI warning, but we experienced no problems playing the disc on another DVD player and the DVD drive in our Macintosh computer.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.