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