Firstly, this could easily be considered the DVD release of the Year  for many cinephiles - and Criterion have done it up to their usual professional standards - right down to the menus. It is untouchable...

NOTE: The three main features of this boxset are housed in individual un-clickable cases - like the AK 100 box (see image above and below) they are not sold separately, by Criterion, at this time. These particular NTSC editions can only be obtained in Criterion's 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg package at present.

All three DVDs are dual-layered , progressive  and in about their original 1.33 aspect ratios.

There is an option for 2 different scores for each. One by Robert Israel for all three films, Alloy Orchestra for Underworld and The Last Command and Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton for The Docks of New York. There are no, unnecessary, subtitles - the three silent films have English intertitles that appear original.

Bitrates are very strong ranging consistently from 8.11 - 8.13 Mbps.

Underworld and The Last Command are of about the same quality - and damage on these 80+ year-old films is noticeable at times as is contrast flickering. Neither film's deficiencies effected by viewing in a negative sense and the transfer has had some digital restoration in terms of density correction and instances with dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, and jitter manually removed. The Last Command seemed a bit lighter an cloudy. The Docks of New York stands out as superior image-wise with a more stable appearance and stronger black levels with better detail but it does have an instance, later in the film, of having a full-frame - top to bottom - scratch (see last capture below). prevalent I would, however, think these transfers may very well be the absolute best we are ever going to get for these highly sought silent classics. I have no demonstrative complaints and hope the screen captures below give you a good idea of the visual quality.

Extras are just excellent. We get two fabulous visual essays - one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom on Underworld (36:16) - where she tells the story of how Jonas Sternberg, a high school dropout, became the director of Underworld. The other is by film scholar Tag Gallagher (and DVDBeaver ListServ member!) on The Last Command. It runs 35-minutes - Tag analyzes the style of von Sternberg's silent films. He argues that these works reveal a director already fully in command of the language of film before the arrival of sound - or his future muse - Marlene Dietrich. These might be regarded, by many, as the best DVD supplements of the entire year. There is also a 40-minute interview with director Josef von Sternberg from 1968 Swedish television. Here the director looks back on his career paying special attention to the Silent Era. There are optional English subtitles throughout although it has English speaking parts. I can't say enough about the included booklet - professionally bound and filled with photos and valuable information, essays etc. - it's a wonderful, and heavy, keepsake.

There is attention to detail in every nook and cranny of this marvelous set. I know so many Sternberg and silent era fans will be appreciative of the effort that Criterion has put into this package. I will definitely be revisiting the films (especially Underworld and Docks of NY) - as well as the extras - like Tag's visual essay - multiple times. This should get an absolute mass of votes in DVD of the Year 2010 polling. It's, predictably, highly recommended!