3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

Vienna-born, New York–raised Josef von Sternberg directed some of the most influential, stylish dramas ever to come out of Hollywood. Though best known for his star-making collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, von Sternberg began his career during the final years of the silent era, dazzling audiences and critics with his films’ dark visions and innovative cinematography. The titles in this collection, made on the cusp of the sound age, are three of von Sternberg’s greatest works, gritty evocations of gangster life (Underworld), the Russian Revolution (The Last Command), and working-class desperation (The Docks of New York) rendered as shadowy movie spectacle.

Film Info

  • Spine #528

Films In This Set

THREE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital restorations of all three films
  • Six scores: by Robert Israel for all three films, Alloy Orchestra for Underworld and The Last Command, and Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton for The Docks of New York
  • Two video essays from 2010, one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom and the other by film scholar Tag Gallagher
  • Swedish television interview from 1968 with director Josef von Sternberg
  • PLUS: Essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien, scholar Anton Kaes, and author and critic Lucy Sante; notes on the scores by the composers; Ben Hecht’s original treatment for Underworld; and an excerpt from von Sternberg’s 1965 auto­biography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, on actor Emil Jannings

    Covers by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

Films In This Set

3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

THREE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital restorations of all three films
  • Six scores: by Robert Israel for all three films, Alloy Orchestra for Underworld and The Last Command, and Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton for The Docks of New York
  • Two video essays from 2010, one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom and the other by film scholar Tag Gallagher
  • Swedish television interview from 1968 with director Josef von Sternberg
  • PLUS: Essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien, scholar Anton Kaes, and author and critic Lucy Sante; notes on the scores by the composers; Ben Hecht’s original treatment for Underworld; and an excerpt from von Sternberg’s 1965 auto­biography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, on actor Emil Jannings

    Covers by F. Ron Miller