Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
Edgar Allen Poe, The Bells (1849)
Time for a seasonal treat as we career towards 2026 and
this one is a film that has come to my attention because those crazy guys at
Redwood Creek are launching another well-funded Kickstarter to, checks notes, produce
a Blu-ray-R of a 4k scan and a 4k “restoration” from a “version with blue and
lavender tints.. from an original tinted nitrate 35mm reduction print…" It is - apparently - "...truly miraculous to find a 35mm copy of The Bells in a private collection, a
complete copy which has stood the test of time with flying colours.”
More on this breaking news later but, based on previous output
from this outfit, I thought I’d see what is already out there and landed upon a
1998 version produced for video by the esteemed David Shepard’s Film Preservation
Associates along with accompanying music compiled and performed by Eric Beheim
and the William Pratt Players. This was released by Image Entertainment in 2000
and also includes Rene Clair’s Paris, qui dort (1925). This version of The
Bells was produced direct from a 35mm nitrate print which features a range
of tints as well. This sounds to me like at least an equivalent quality source
and a transfer that, based on past form, might well be more interesting to view*?
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| Lionel Barrymore |
Anyway… the film, directed by James Young who also
adapted the screen play from the Le Juif Polonais/The Polish Jew (1867) play
by Alexandre Chatrian and Émile Erckmann as well as the 1871 English version by
Leopold Lewis which, as the opening titles reveal, was performed in the U.S. in
the 19th century by the great Sir Henry Irving. These works, plus an opera, and numerous compositions,
were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Bells published after
his death in 1849 and which relentless rhythms contain the hints of bitter
compromise you would expect form such a darkly humoured soul. Poe also invented detective fiction and it’s ironic that
his untimely death at just 40 has never been satisfactorily explained.
“… the tintinnabulation that so musically wells ...
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells…”
The Bells is not a long poem but it covers a lot
of ground, with the titular objects denoting differing stages of life from younger
possibilities to the joys of Christmas, weddings and the final chimes for the
dead. So it is that this film – and those plays - also feature a Christmas
murder and the ringing condemnation of sleigh bells that rattle in the mind of
the guilty party’s hallucinations as he cannot escape the consequences of his
selfish slaughter.
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| Foreshadowing? |
We begin in the 1860s, in a hamlet set at the foot of
Mount Snow-top in a fictional European country of Alsatia where we find an inn
run by Mathias (Lionel Barrymore) a landlord more intent on winning friends in
order to become Burgermeister - a chief magistrate - than turning a profit. His
wife, Catherine (Caroline Frances Cooke) looks on in frustration at his
generosity/weakness/lust for power as the clientele make merry on the never-never.
Meanwhile his chief creditor, Jerome Frantz (Gustav von Seyffertitz) is playing
a waiting game his eyes set not only on the business but also on trading off
marriage to the couple’s beautiful daughter Annette (Lola Todd).
Annette meanwhile rides in the back of a haywain, playfully
hiding herself from Christian (Edward Phillips), the handsome young trooper who
has just been appointed as the town’s “gendarme” – Alsatia mixes so many
languages. He picks her up as she falls with the straw and it’s clear the two
are already an item. Jerome will just have to wait until Mathais’ inevitable bankruptcy.
I can make criminals confess their crimes and good men
tell of their good deeds.
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| No fun at the Fair... Boris Karloff |
The fair comes to town and director James Young goes to
town on the celebration perhaps borrowing some leftover props from The Hunchback
of Notre Dame or some other period piece with giant papier-mâché heads and
gaudy wonders abounding. This is where the story takes an uncanny turn as first
we need a stern-faced Mesmerist (Boris Karloff – yay!!) who can not only
persuade young women to levitate but can also see deep into a man’s soul and persuade
him to reveal their deepest innermost secrets.
Also operating on the edges of accepted science is a fortune teller (Laura La Varnie) who is so shocked after reading Mathais’ palm that she kicks him out of her tent and gives him back his money. So, to summarise, clearly something horrible is going to happen and our main character is going to have reason to feel very guilty!
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| Gustav von Seyffertitz |
Cue Christmas – even though there was no Noddy Holder to confirm it… there are plenty of decorations and abundant free booze from the landlord who would be magistrate! A huge feast is held at the inn and Annette accepts Christian’s engagement ring as Frantz looks on in disgust. Young creates a grand party as the revels dance on a swirl and it’s all building up as a counter point to the arrival of Baruch Koweski (E. Alyn Warren), the Polish Jew, a travelling merchant from Warsaw, seeking solace from the unyielding snowstorm outside.
Christmas brings to Mathias no “Peace on Earth” nor any “Good will” from his neighbour Franz…
He sits down to drink with Mathias who is keen on
forgetting his money worries and celebrating but when he reveals that he has a
small fortune in his money belt, we can see that the landlord quickly works out
how he can solve his money troubles on one foul swoop… As the tint shifts from
the sepia brown of most of the film to stark green and the deed is done with
black drops of blood tellingly falling on the pristine snow.
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| Lola Todd and Edward Phillips |
Telling everyone that he has inherited money from his rich uncle Mathias has seemingly got away with it but soon the murder is uncovered even though the body cannot be found and, as Christian begins to investigate, presenting his case to the newly installed magistrate, Mathais feels the weight of guilt. He starts to have visions and to not only see his victim but also hear the sleigh bells tolling for him. He refuses the investigations of Koweski’s nephew and the intervention of the Mesmerist who needs to no special powers to see how guilty this man is…
Much of the rest of the story takes place across the face of the masterful Barrymore who fills the screen with anguish, his eyes filled with fear as he battles his conscience and attempts to escape his own regrets. This is classic Poe even though the plays were only drawing from his influence and for this film, Young would have had ample examples of Poe-esque angst from other filmmakers not least Griffith and his adaptation of the author’s Tell-Tale Heart, The Avenging Conscience (1914). Barrymore is relatively restrained and keeps the possibilities in play even as his Mathias is subsumed in dreams both day and night. Young presents some ghostly double exposures and a superb court of the mind as Mathais dreams himself on trial.
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| Mind trial |
The accompaniment on this disc is well played using an
electric organ with sounds that don’t quite replicate a full ensemble of actual
instruments but the choice of melodies by Eric Beheim is strong and the
accompaniment is very successful overall – top marks for the faultless use of
sleigh bells too! Timing is all.
The DVD is long out of print but you can still find it on eBay and around for half the price of the upcoming Redwood Creek Blu-ray-R. This new disc can still be supported and does come with blue and lavender tints as opposed to the sepia and green of the Image DVD. The stills on the Kickstarter page look clear and sharp plus there’ll be a new score from the impressive Belgian composer Laurent Pigeolet. Their blurb does say that James Wong Howe was the cinematographer but it was L. William O'Connell who does such a good job.
As ever, your choice but it’s certainly an interesting film either way!
*This, of course, depends on how Redwood Creek deploy the modern digital assets at their disposal although there have been doubts expressed about
how they work on “restorations” with a very interesting analysis to be found at DVDFreak which, amongst other things, found that the “new tinted print” and “a
new 4K scan…" “shared the exact same crop values, film damage and
stability issues (on identical frames) as a previous version aired on German /
French TV station Arte back in 2003...” suggesting much about quality control and raising questions about how “new” anything actually was.
You pays your money and takes your chance... see my next post for balance on their Fall of the House of Usher Blu-ray-R.
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| Season's Greetings! |
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