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

Flicker Alley bring the restored 1929 Silent Der Hund Von Baskerville to their essential line of Blu-rays. It's on a dual-layered Blu-ray in 1080P with a high bitrate. You can choose the option of English or German, new, intertitles (see samples below) and these are separate but technically duplicate transfers. There are weaknesses, contrast flickering / long vertical scratches but some stellar visuals as well - is to be expected considering the only remaining sources. There was an extensive amount of work put into the restoration as stated by the opening text screen:

DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE was produced by Erda-Film GmbH and released on 28 August 1929. The original length of the film was eight reels (2,382 meters). This restoration is based on the only known surviving materials, an incomplete 35mm nitrate print (1,422 meters) with Czech language intertitles preserved at Filmoteka Narodowa - Instytut Audiowizualny in Warsaw, Poland, and two reels of a French-titled incomplete and abridged Pathe Baby 9.5mm print in the collection of Seeber FILM Verlag.

New titles and intertitles were created for this restoration and are based on title text recorded on the original German censor record of August 17th, 1929. Portions of Reels 2 and 3 remain lost. This missing material is bridged with a combination of still images from the collection of Deutsches Filminstitut and plot and narrative information gleaned from a draft shooting script and the title text described in the censor certificate.

This restoration was completed in May 2018 as a partnership between Filmoteka Narodowa - Instytut Audiowizualny and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

The score is via a 2.0 stereo 24-bit DTS-HD Master track that exports the Guenther Buchwald music tightly. The audio quality of the music is clear and without flaws. There are optional English or Polish subtitles, for both English or German intertitles versions and this is a Region FREE Blu-ray.

As a supplement, Flicker Alley include the 1914 version of Der Hund von Baskerville. Richard Oswald had directed an earlier adaptation of Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is described as "This remarkable and complicated film restoration has been made available for the first time, courtesy of the Filmmuseum Muenchen (Munich Filmmuseum), accompanied with a score by Joachim Bärenz." It runs 1:05:36 and has tints and optional English subtitles with original German intertitles. We also get the 11-minute featurette Arthur Conan Doyle and The Hound of the Baskervilles that explores the link of Conan Doyle's story has across cultures. Restoring Richard Oswald's Der Hund Von Baskerville runs 13-minutes and is presented by film historian Rob Byrne. This featurette gives a complete picture of how this film made its return for new audiences to enjoy. Included in the package is an illustrated booklet essay by film historian Russell Merritt.

This is very impressive.  Der Hund von Baskerville compliments the original Conan Doyle story and the restored image carries so much atmosphere. It's highly remarkable. Flicker Alley have done it again bringing this to the higher quality of 1080P and exposing the film to any Silent Era fan with their Region FREE Blu-ray package. How about a Double Feature night with Terence Fischer's 1959 The Hound of the Baskervilles with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee? This is an amazing time to be a film fan - thank you Flicker Alley for producing this!

Gary Tooze