As I recall, Nick accompanied that lovely spec cover with a sad "definitely not coming" announcement.

According to another ..ahem.. site Universal were asking a small fortune for the rights...
MoC deserved to get it of course, although one has no idea about sales these days.

Good on Criterion for not charging more than standard for this set-- they could and rightfully so, y'know

At any rate, this film is going to struggle to get noticed even with this blindingly impressive cornucopia of extras (Good point, domino about not packaging this as a box set - they've released several with less content than this title). Market-splitting from MoC probably wouldn't have done either company any favours.

Anybody decrying Criterion's (perceived) absence of 'risky' titles needs to put their money where their mouth is and pick this up on release.

But it's not from South America

Sosin....

Between The Eastman House, Universal, and Criterion, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't spend north of 100K just on the restoration of Lonesome.

so instead of keeping this in one thread (and not replying to the fact a couple shot down your "plenty has been released" comment) you poked/took a shot at it in here? Weird.

I am very happy about Lonesome getting a release.

And as for the "Anybody decrying Criterion's (perceived) absence of 'risky' titles needs to put their money where their mouth is and pick this up on release.", it's all I spend my money on.

I'll return later to this thread, because right now I'm completely out of my mind. We knew that "Lonesome" was coming, but together with "The Last Performance" and "Broadway"??!! Heavens, this is perhaps even more important than the Sternberg set.

Sometimes he does okay, like on A Man There Was. I fear that this film might bring out his worst jaunty tendencies, though... I've only seen a back-channel version, the one with the 'Duna' logo in the corner, and it credits the Hungarian intertitles at the end but not the score. It's a very effective piano accompaniment - does anyone know who it is? Sosin, hopefully? Regardless, this is an amazingly exciting, and surprisingly extras-loaded, package.

It is, at least regarding the improvement of quality. The Sternbergs always were around, but Fejös is so painfully spread across the world with copies from TV transmissions, bootlegs, fansubs, multi language versions, silent and souns versions of a film ... it's like the Borzage set, finally an important chunk of the films in good quality.
I hope sincerely that they have a restoration that uses both prints of THE LAST PERFORMANCE, the US and the Danish one. And as far as I know just the silent version of BROADWAY has the Technicolor finale. So let's see what we'll get there.

Does anyone have any idea of the running time for the versions of Last Performance and Broadway in the set?

The PAL Broadcast versions are Broadway 1:47 and Last Performance 1:01. THe latter is a reconstruction from two different partial prints.

Lolwut?

Seriously, this is a very nice release-- I actually have been so tuned out of CC lately I forgot about the 15th which came and went without it dawning on me. . so I just saw this release today. Quite nice-- this is CC getting back to their roots: premiering on disc those lost classics screaming in need of recovery. The dream label they used to be to me.

As a side note, however, I'll be buying this most enthusiastically for the extras. This movie never sent me into the stratosphere of ecstacy that it does for other veiwers. I find the narrative kind of predictable and textbook, and the camerawork doesn't dazzle me the way it does for some. That's not to say I don't really like the film. . . I do; I just don't swoon madly for it like others do. I don't put this in the league of SUNRISE or CROWD, not at all. I'd put it a notch below in that realm of pictorially beautiful melodramas that crammed the late silent era, bearing the imprint of the work of the Germans and the French, yet with scripts of a very Hollywood pedigree.

This set should be a thing of beauty, to sparkle and catch the light on one's mantle. So, to short circuit zedz' nerdier white knight impulses-- Yes, I'll Be Supporting This Release!

Typo. The second people should be time or period. I think that for such a specific story to be repeated so much so successfully suggests something (I don't claim to know what) of the way people felt, thought, and lived at the time.

I haven't seen The Last Performance, but have always been curious -since it was grouped with other films as a "Classic Universal horror film." The description does sound a lot more like a remake of Dupont's Varieté. So what might be more accurate to expect?

I dont know that they share the same story, being told over and over again... Though they are tales of life and love in the 20's, with a Luna Park episode tying them together for you, the individual narratives between the three are actually very different. It says more about what a go-to place.Coney Island was back then, new and popular and easily accessible to the working classes by the then newly constructed subway.

Too bad they couldnt have gotten this out before Barbara Kent passed, recently. She was a doll, I even like her in the silly but fun CHINATOWN AFTER DARK. It would have been nice for her to see this out.

I noticed Broadway is playing at Film Forum in July. The Criterion release reads "Reconstructed sound version of Broadway, Fejos’s 1929 musical." Is there an official version of the film? Are some scenes lost forever? Could the two be different?

Three Reasons gives the year of Lonesome as 1929, but the specs on the Criterion page have the year of release as 1928. Is this an error?

I'm pretty sure it's 1928.

This is the only review I can find so far, but it sounds like a seriously impressive package: Mondo Digital

Drools and blubbers.

Here's some samples to give an idea of the range:

Silent black a white
"Colour" sequence
Sound sequence

The first "talkie" clip on the beach blew my mind today when compared to the silent footage. I haven't read the booklet, yet, so maybe it sheds some light on the subject, but how did the sound clips remain so pristine compared to the other footage?