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Sirk in Germany 1934-1935 [2 X Blu-ray]
 

Two Greyhounds aka Zwei Windhunde (1934)      April, April! (1935)

Three Times Before aka 3 x Ehe (1935)    The Imaginary Invalid aka Der eingebildete Kranke (1935)

 

The Girl from the Marsh Croft (1935)      Pillars of Society (1935)

 

 

An undisputed master of melodrama, director Douglas Sirk is best known for the lavish, sweeping romances he made during the last decade of his career, including Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life. But by the time Sirk – born Hans Detlef Sierck – arrived in Hollywood, he had already made several films in his native Germany. The Masters of Cinema series is honoured to present this collection of Sirk’s earliest films, all of which established a blueprint for his later work: April, April!, The Girl from Marsh Croft (Das Mädchen vom Moorhof) and Pillars of Society (Stützen der Gesellschaft).

In Sirk’s directorial debut – the comedy April, April! – a businessman and shameless social climber, Julius Lampe (Erhard Siedel), is subjected to a cruel April Fools’ Day prank when he is led to believe a noble prince (Albrecht Schoenhals) intends to personally inspect his pasta factory. Then, in Sirk’s first melodrama The Girl from Marsh Croft, farmer Karsten Dittmar (Kurt Fischer-Fehling) falls in love with the disreputable young maid Helga Christmann (Hansi Knoteck) – much to the dismay of his fiancée Gertrud Gerhart (Ellen Frank). Finally, in Pillars of Society, wealthy Norwegian shipbuilder Consul Karsten Bernick (Heinrich George) must face up to a lifetime of corruption and deceit when farmer Johann Tonnessen (Albrecht Schoenhals) returns to Norway after a twenty-year absence and discovers that Bernick has smeared his good name.

Presented alongside Sirk’s shorts Two Greyhounds (Zwei Windhunde), Three Times Before (3 x Ehe) and The Imaginary Invalid (Der eingebildete Kranke), these three features – all released in 1935 – showcase the burgeoning talents of a filmmaker who would go on to become one of the most important figures in the history of Hollywood cinema. Sirk’s early works are presented here on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK from brand-new restorations by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation.

Posters

Theatrical Release: November 1934 - December 21st, 1935

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Review: Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

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Bonus Captures:

Distribution Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
Runtime

Two Greyhounds: 0:29:58.965

April, April!: 1:21:01.027
Three Times Before (3 x Ehe): 0:19:08.231
The Imaginary Invalid: 0:37:51.813
The Girl from Marsh Croft: 1:21:37.105
Pillars of Society: 1:23:016        

Video

1.33-1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,658,611,859 bytes

Two Greyhounds: 7,016,359,488 bytes
April, April!: 23,926,890,048 bytes
Three Times Before (3 x Ehe): 4,188,866,112 bytes
The Imaginary Invalid: 8,857,667,136 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

1.33-1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,540,527,951 bytes

The Girl from Marsh Croft: 22,162,978,176 bytes
Pillars of Society
: 22,643,070,528 bytes

Video Bitrate: 31.87 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Two Greyhounds Blu-ray:

Bitrate April, April! Blu-ray:

Bitrate Three Times Before Blu-ray:

Bitrate The Imaginary Invalid Blu-ray:

Bitrate  Girl from Marsh Croft Blu-ray:

Bitrate Pillars of Society Blu-ray:

Audio

LPCM Audio German 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Commentaries:

Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB

Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Masters of Cinema

 

Edition Details:

• New audio commentaries on all three features (April, April!, Pillars of Society + The Girl from Marsh Croft) by Sirk expert David Melville Wingrove
• Magnificent Obsessions – new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on Sirk’s career from Germany to Hollywood (20:25)
PLUS: Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring a new extended essay on Sirk’s early works by German cinema expert Tim Bergfelder


Blu-ray Release Date: February 24th, 2025

Transparent Blu-ray Case with O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow

Chapters 3 / 8 / 2 / 2 / 8 / 8 

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Masters of Cinema Blu-ray (February 2025): Masters of Cinema have transferred their Sirk in Germany 1934-1935 package to two dual-layered Blu-rays. It has three features (April, April!, The Girl from Marsh Croft and Pillars of Society) and three shorts (Two Greyhounds aka Zwei Windhunde, Three Times Before aka 3 x Ehe and The Imaginary Invalid aka Der eingebildete Kranke.) There are two versions of 3 x Ehe (Three Times Before); a silent version and an alternate “sound” presentation of although unfortunately the original sound reel no longer exists – and this version is presented with subtitles. We've provided a couple of comparative examples below. There are text screens before the presentations:

  "DREIMAL EHE (Three Times Before) was made in 1935 as a 35mm sound short film directed by Detlef Sierck for Universum-Film AG.
The only known copies of the film are silent materials and separate intertitles in the holdings of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. These are on contemporary 16mm film and suggest the intention to produce a silent version on narrow film in the 1930s.
The 2K editing of DREIMAL EHE
(Three Times Before) was carried out in 2021 by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in two versions. The present version contains the separately transmitted intertitles, the placement of which was reconstructed by the plot and the written documented dialogue of a censorship card from 1935 from the text archive of the DFF - German Film Institute and Film Museum.
The version not present here contains the previously spoken dialogue in the form of subtitles according to the censorship card.
Since the silent 16mm version was the reconstruction target for the image processing, the aspect ratio of 1:1.33 present in the material was retained.
For the digital image restoration, primarily damage that could be traced directly back to the source material was processed. Image damage resulting from the contemporary production of the 16mm material was retained as long as it did not affect the image impression too much.

The 2K editing of DREIMAL EHE
(Three Times Before) was carried out in 2021 by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in two versions. The present version contains the previously spoken dialogue as superimposed subtitles. The subtitling follows a censorship card of the film from 1935, which is preserved in the text archive of the DFF - German Film Institute & Film Museum.

THE IMAGINED ILLNESS (The Imaginary Invalid) was made in 1934/35 under the direction of Detlef Sierck for Universum-Film AG.
Neither the original negative nor contemporary copies have survived. The only source is a duplicate negative from the former holdings of the State Film Archive of the GDR, which is now kept in the Federal Archives Film Archive. However, this has a strong image cropping due to a copy in the wrong image format.
For the 2K digitization of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in 2021, the surviving image was adjusted so that black lies over the gaps caused by the copy.
"

The overall quality is pleasing. Varying degrees of marks/speckles - more on The Girl from Marsh Croft but all are quite watchable. There are weaker segments and a few cue-blips (sample HERE.) Grain is appreciated and the general lack of consistency is anticipated remembering these are 90-year old films. I would say the features look better than I thought they were going to - I enjoyed my viewings. Capture samples are below. 

NOTE: We have added 100 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Masters of Cinema use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original German language. There are no aggressive effects and the audio belies the film's ages but devoid of egregious hiss, crackle or pops. The three features had scores by the likes of Austrian violist Franz R. Friedl who was eventual conductor for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Werner Bochmann and Hans-Otto Borgmann who was a German film music composer during the Third Reich. Clear with only a minor few imperfections. Masters of Cinema offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'B' Blu-rays.

The Masters of Cinema Blu-rays offer new commentaries on the three features by Sirk expert David Melville Wingrove. He describes how these films are different from the 50's melodramas that Sirk is known for, shares back stories on the productions and the director, and how Sirk fell into 'show business', as a stage director, totally by accident. He talks about why many German directors left Europe in the 30s and 40s. The commentaries are well-spoken and informatively researched. Great work David. Magnificent Obsessions is a new 20-minute interview with film historian Sheldon Hall (Armchair Cinema: A History of Feature Films on British Television, 1929-1981) on Sirk’s career from Germany to Hollywood. He discusses Sirk's reputation and how he was often disregarded by critics of his Hollywood era and how he was re-discovered in the 1970s, and by Jon Halliday's book Sirk on Sirk. Eventually Sirk was recognized as one of the great stylists of Hollywood cinema and his important socially critical perspective. The package has a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring a new extended essay on Sirk’s early works by German cinema expert Tim Bergfelder (International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s: 2 (Film Europa, 2).) 

Douglas Sirk's films like Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life are celebrated and multi-layered with "the style transcending the melodrama and transforming the material into works of art" to quote Jon Halliday's book Sirk on Sirk. These early efforts in Masters of Cinema double Blu-ray package are wonderful to explore. My favorites were The Girl from Marsh Croft (adapted from Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf's 1908 novel that won the Nobel Prize) and Pillars of Society (based on the eponymous play by Henrik Ibsen.) The Girl from the Marsh Croft starred Ellen Frank, the daughter of a Prussian government councilor, who embodied self-confident young women. It's a rural drama involving farmers and an unwed mother, shunned by her community, who goes to court to try to salvage her reputation. This evokes Frank Borzage, Victor Sjostrom (The Phantom Carriage) and *Carl Dreyer. *NOTE: Both of Sirk's parents were Danish. The Girl from the Marsh Croft is delightful. Pillars of Society involves the exposure of a successful businessman in a small Norwegian coastal town who's wealth has been grounded in long-buried deceit and familial lies. Scathingly delicious. Sirk's influence stretches beyond the oft-cited Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) but also to Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven,) Lars von Trier (Dogville,) Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,) Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love,) David Lynch (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,) and John Waters (Polyester.) I was not expecting these early Sirk films to be so good. They are and the Masters of Cinema double Blu-ray package with commentaries, booklet and more is warmly recommended! 

Gary Tooze

 


Menus / Extras

 


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

April, April!

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


The Girl from Marsh Croft
 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


Pillars of Society
 

 


 

 


 

 


 

  


 

Three Times Before (3 x Ehe)

1) Masters of Cinema (3 x Ehe) [silent version] - Region 'B' - Blu-ray TOP

2) Masters of Cinema (3 x Ehe) alternate “sound” presentation - Region 'B' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

(CLICK to ENLARGE)

 


 

More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE

 

April, April!

 

The Girl from Marsh Croft

Pillars of Society

 

 
Box Cover

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Bonus Captures:

Distribution Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray


 


 

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