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Beyond The Rocks
R0 - America - Milestone Films / New Yorker Video Review written by and copyright: Shahir Daud & Noor Razzak (11th October 2006). |
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The Film
 Lost films seem to be the proverbial treasure of the Sierra Madre for avid film collectors. Prints which disappear and degrade over time are all but a thing of the past since the digital revolution. For those remaining films which still only exist as an actual film print (and these are very few since studios began scanning the prints for digital archiving), the pressure of time and poor handling have often eventually lead to their demise. More often than not, rare prints of films have found their way into basements and attics around the world. It was a collection from one of these basements in the Netherlands that contained a severely decayed print of "Beyond the Rocks". That said, being high on the list of lost films (as "Beyond the Rocks" was) doesn't necessarily equate to being a great film. "Beyond the Rocks" pairs up the most glamorous of Hollywood screen couples, Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson, both revered in their time not only for their exquisite beauty, but also for their fearlessness in the studio system. Valentino was often criticised as being too feminine as a leading man (perhaps compounding his innate foreignness for American audiences), but had such a magnetic screen presence, that his predominantly female fans often swooned breathlessly as he gallantly embodied all their exotic fantasies (Valentino will probably be best remembered for his electric performance of the titular Sheik, in "The Sheik" (1921), and "The Son of the Sheik" (1926)). Swanson on the other hand was a feisty performer who was at once petite and beautiful, but also strong and determined. Swanson would eventually prove herself a versatile enough to make the transition into talkies (ironically playing a woman abandoned by Hollywood after the coming of sound in film), garnering her third Oscar nomination for her stunning performance in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). Yet despite the star power, "Beyond the Rocks" is a fairly uninteresting melodrama, based on the novel by Elinor Glyn, Theodara (Swanson) is a young winsome beauty who is married off to the wealthiest suitor (Robert Bolder), but falls in love with a much younger, handsome man who rescues our young damsel in distress twice (once in the water, the second time in the Swiss alps). Nonetheless the sheer scale and opulence of the production is evident. While Swanson and Valentino may see obscure to modern audiences, their presence in this sweeping love story would have electrified audiences at the time, hungry to see their idols so glamorously lit.
Video
Presented in the original theatrical ratio of 1.33:1, this transfer has been tinted in yellow. The image is of course as good as we're ever going to get as it still has a lot of flaws primarily damage and scratches but the clean up effort has yielded great results in the sense that we can actually see what is happening on-screen rather than be distracted by millions of instances of dirt, grime, dust and damage.
Audio
Two audio tracks are present here, a Music Dolby Digital 5.1 and a Music Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Since this is a silent film these tracks are all music score. I chose to view the film with the 5.1 track, this score is an entirely new score recorded for this release and the music feels accurate to the era and is clean and distortion free. As far as depth goes it's not immersive at all as the main audio is focused on the front speakers. However keep in mind that this is a silent film so depth is not something that is important when it comes to these music scores. The sound is clean and that's adequate enough. The film also features newly crested English Inter titles.
Extras
This disc is packed with extras that includes an introduction, another silent film starring Valentino, two featurettes, a TV special, a wire recording, some trailers, [g]galleries[/b] and an extensive DVD-ROM section. Below is a closer look at these extras. The film can be viewed with a new video introduction by filmmaker Martin Scorsese which runs for 1 minute 25 seconds. He talks about how the discovery of this film a true treasure and provides some brief background on the film and its stars. The disc also includes "The Delicious Little Devil" a 1919 silent film that also starred Valentino and Mae Murray and runs for 54 minutes 35 seconds. The film itself isn't in great shape, there are all kinds of dirt, scratches and print flaws that plague this print but for a film from 1919 it's surprisingly well kept despite all these flaws. The film also includes a new score and inter titles. This is a drama about an out of work girl, Mary (Mae Murray) who takes a job at the Peach Tree Inn, a local road house posing as a famous dancer. She finds instant success and meets Jimmie Calhoun (Rudolph Valentino) the son of a millionaire. However her scheme gets complicated when a local butcher's boy who knows Mary starts working at the club as a bouncer, she gets involved with a Duke (Bertram Grassby) who knows the famous dancer which she is impersonating as Mary tries to keep her charade up that eventually has Jimmy and Duke fighting over her. Murray is delightful in this simple tale of a girl going after her dreams but ultimately living a lie. The film itself has it's short comings but more than anything provides a unique snapshot into the era. Following that is "Henny Vrienten Composes Beyond The Rocks" a featurette that runs for 3 minutes 32 seconds. This is a fly on the wall behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the score as we see the various musicians working with the composer on this entirely new score. "Giovanna Fossati On The Restoration Of Beyond The Rocks" is the featurette that follows and runs for 5 minutes 52 seconds. This includes a series of still and footage from the film's discovery as well as some damaged scenes. Giovanna comments over the images about the restoration method. The damaged frames are shown as she details the discovery of this rare nitrate print and goes into detail about the digital restoration that was used to eliminate shake, allowing for a more stable image that doesn't jump around. We get some comparisons of scenes after the dust and dirt was cleaned, which is a delicate and lengthy process which has to be monitored because it can at times remove elements from the frame that the program should not have removed like a fast moving background character for example. She also lets us in on the tinting of the film and why it was necessary as well as two scenes that were so heavily damaged they could not be restored. This is an excellent extra although entirely short, a documentary going into fine detail regarding the restoration would have been a welcome addition. Following that is the "VPRO Dutch TV On The Finding Of Beyond The Rocks" TV Special which runs for 20 minutes. This report is from April 2004 when the print was discovered and takes a look at the rarity of the film and the private collector that owned this print as part of a vast film collection that was turned over to the film museum after his death. Some of the most fascinating parts of the special include the opening of the actual rusty film cans as they catalogue the various film elements. This extra is an absolute gem, totally fascinating and is an engrossing look at the discovery of this lost cinematic piece of history. A Gloria Swanson Wire Recording from 1955 is also included and runs for 120 minutes 26 seconds, this plays over the film almost like a commentary track as Swanson talks about her career and the making of the film. She shares her memories and is openly candid about her film work, working with director Sam Wood as well as co-star Valentino. This is interesting in its own right and is yet another excellent piece of cinematic history added to this already impressive list of extra features. Rudolph Valentino trailers are also included for: - "The Sheik" which runs for 42 seconds and is totally silent without any music. - "Il Giovane Rajah" an Italian trailer that runs for 2 minutes 43 seconds. 4 stills galleries follow and include: - "Missing Scene" reel of footage from a missing scene that runs for 1 minute 10 seconds. - "Photos" includes 161 images of the cast in various scenes taken during production. - "Publicity Material" includes 37 images of posters, magazine ads, lobby cards among other things. - "The Delicious Little Devil" includes 12 images taken during the production of that film. Rounding out the extras is some DVD-ROM content that includes the following: - Giovanna Fossati On The Restoration Of "Beyond The Rocks" (documents) - "Beyond The Rocks" Original Continuity Script - "Beyond The Rocks" Original Press Clippings - Elinor Glyn On Gloria Swanson Article - "Beyond The Rocks" Original Novel By Elinor Glyn - Milestone's Press Kit For "Beyond The Rocks" - "The Delicious Little Devil" Original Press Kit - "The Delicious Little Devil" Censor Cuts - "The Delicious Little Devil" French Novella - "The Delicious Little Devil" Original Score And Theme Song
Overall
Despite the film being lacklustre, the DVD is handsomely packaged with a host of extras, which are much more interesting than the film itself. In many ways, the restoration and discovery of "Beyond the Rocks" 80 years after its initial release outweighs any significance the film may have once had. After the shimmering glow of its star power has faded, all that remains is an interesting document of a time long since passed.
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