Review of Pandora`s Box Special Edition

Introduction

Louise Brooks is regarded as one of the best actresses from the silent movie era, and she made 26 movies until she retired from movies at the age of 32 in 1938. He life story is told in the "Looking for Lulu" documentary on this disc.

This movie "Pandora`s Box" is regarded as the pinnacle of Brooks` career, and was controversial when originally released, as it features Brooks as a high-class prostitute, and was cut for release in America. This disc features the uncut version of the movie, and comes with a choice of either English or German index cards, both remastered.

Video

The video is presented in full-frame, and as you might expect for material over seventy years old, isn`t particularly wonderful despite restoration.

The corners are noticeably darker than the centre of the image, which is very grainy and suffers from vertical lines the full height of the screen.

The documentary is a lot more modern, but doesn`t fare much better, with the interview footage pretty grainy, and the archival footage ranging in quality from atrocious to below average.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital Mono, and as this is a silent movie, the sound consists of an orchestra score, which is reproduced adequately.

Features

The only extra on the disc is the excellent hour long documentary "Looking for Lulu", narrated by Shirley MacLaine which features archival footage, photographs and interviews with relatives, friends and colleagues of Louise Brooks, as well as an interview with Louise herself, recorded in 1976.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, and my review copy did not contain any inserts.

Conclusion

Overall, the main feature "Pandora`s Box", isn`t particularly satisfying in terms of entertainment, but is quite interesting as a historic piece and is considered to be a classic silent movie by many - I`m not a fan of silent movies however, especially ones that run for 131 minutes. The real gem of this disc is the documentary, which is excellent, and in reality the documentary should be the main billing and the film should be the extra.

The presentation isn`t great despite restoration, and I`d recommended checking your local library for a rental copy rather than buying this, unless you`re a fan of the film.