ADDITION: Kino Deluxe - November 08': A kind friend has sent me this Kino Deluxe edition to add to this comparison. There is a reason I don't buy Kino anymore.

This is similar to the Metropolis comparison, with both Masters of Cinema (UK) and Kino (US) getting the same German Transit-Universum restored master.... but this time Kino have transferred it to SD-DVD 'interlaced' and every capture from their edition below shows 'combing' and all the associated artifacts of that inferior practice of film-to-DVD methodology. I'm unsure of the frame-rate issue but the Kino runs the same time as PAL most probably indicating that it will have 'ghosting' mixed in with the combing as well. It's hard to tell the combing is so heavy. The Kino contrast and greyscale are poorer with some brown/sepia/green infiltration. Like with Metropolis, Kino have pre-translated the German intertitles and credits and there are burned-in English subtitles for the text portions (like newspaper reading etc. - see below). This makes it all inferior to the UK edition.

Kino have included the same 40 minute German documentary (with subs), image gallery and have added a separate portion of the original German title sequence. The second Kino disc is a single-layered, interlaced, 'un-restored Export version of the film.

This ends up being just another reason to be region-free, as far as I am concerned.  Masters of Cinema and their 36-page booklet with writings by film scholars R. Dixon Smith, Tony Rayns, and Lotte H. Eisner, is the package to own.

Kino continue their slipshod transfer practices and I am pleased to expose them without, this time, bothering to have purchased their DVDs myself.       

 Gary Tooze

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ADDITION: Masters of Cinema - January 08': Well, the original comparisons were done a very long time ago and I can no longer vouch for the total accuracy of the screen captures. I used the same methodology that we always have but we had not standardized it back then. So, what that means is that I cannot state with our usual accuracy about the editions. But I can still make a reasonable guess.

The MoC is the original German domestic version (with original German intertitles) and looks to be the exact same transfer from the 2004 DVD edition (utilizing the Murnau Stiftung/Transit Films restoration from 2001-2003) although the old was interlaced and had playback issues on some region-free machines. Perhaps the new is a shade darker. It has November 2007 VOB files so there may have be some slight differentiation (as Robert Harris said once - about another film/DVD - 'they just moved the pixels around'). It is more than that I believe - especially now that it is progressive. Anyway, it is still the best looking - it is dual-layered, progressive and represents probably the most complete and beautiful representation of THE LAST LAUGH since its first release 80 years ago. The old Eureka had subtitle options in French and Spanish where the new MoC has only optional English. By the way, the Kino is riddled with chroma and is poorer in just about every comparable facet (also it is interlaced).

It has the same 40 minute Der letzte Mann – The Making Of documentary by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa and is advertised as having 'New and improved optional English subtitles' and I'm in no position to argue. Plus Masters of Cinema have added a lavishly illustrated 36-page booklet with writing by film scholars R. Dixon Smith, Tony Rayns, and Lotte H. Eisner. So better cover, better menu - same excellent transfer, but now progressive, and those wonderful liner notes - YES! - buy the Masters of Cinema DVD today!  

 Gary Tooze

ON THE FIRST THREE COMPARED: Well, it is obvious that the "beautifully restored version..." that Markus discusses below has been brought to DVD. It is without question the definitive version of this masterpiece. It is sharper, brighter and more detailed. I think the last capture with them smoking is the most obvious. Thank you Eureka !  

Not unlike the Eureka, Kino, Divisa 'Faust' this is actually two different films (Films Sans Frontieres is over 15 minutes longer than the Kino). Why? I don't know. Trouble is it makes it impossible to find exact frames, because often, there are none that are duplicates. The most obvious difference in picture quality is brown tint of the Films Sans Frontieres PAL version. The Kino version is cleaner and sharper in most sequences with honest-looking contrast. The film is not only "silent" but done without dialogue as the actors are mostly pantomiming. Subtitles are not necessary, and there need only be very few intertitles. True fans of this film should get both versions.               

- Gary W. Tooze

NOTE: A beautiful newly restored version of this film was shown at the last Berlin Film Festival and also on German TV, and it surely will be available on DVD some day.

NOTE:  From Markus of Chiaroscuro