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Originally Posted by The Silent Era re: 2001 Kino DVD
A previously-released DVD edition, prepared for home video by David Shepard’s Film Preservation Associates, was released in 1999 through Image Entertainment. Our first agenda item was to compare this Kino edition to the Image edition.
First, there is greater image detail in the Kino edition, the result of a new video transfer from a 35mm release print. We have been told that Shepard’s edition was transferred from a 16mm reduction print. We cannot confirm this and think that the Shepard source material was either an older 35mm dupe positive or a Blackhawk Films 16mm reduction print. The Shepard edition is slightly windowboxed where the Kino edition is full-frame video transfer, making the images slightly larger on-screen. The Kino edition shows slightly more of the top of the image frame, while it reveals slightly less information on the sides and bottom of the picture than the Shepard edition on some televisions.
We think that both the Kino and Shepard editions initially derived from the same original 35mm source material as some print flaws appear to be the same in both editions. The 35mm source print of the Kino edition is flecked with moderate speckling, a fine patina of scuffing, scratches, other damage, and the beginnings of light filmstock decomposition. Overall, the print is in very-good condition and is quite watchable.
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However, there is greater apparent image detail, than that of the Shepard edition, when the Kino edition picture is in full motion due to the greater detail of the 35mm source material. Shadow details are clearer in the Kino edition, particularly in later shots of Jekyll’s dark laboratory where more background information can be seen. If you don't look too closely the Kino edition features a far more detailed and pleasing image than that of the Shepard edition.
The Kino edition is missing footage that is in the Shepard edition; that being directly after the intertitle introducing Brandon Hurst as Sir George Carew. In the Shepard edition, the footage begins with a shot of Carew reading a gossip newspaper followed by an inset shot of the newspaper item beginning, “What has hapened to the eyesight of the elderly Duke of X —?,” which then returns to the shot of Carew. A medium-long shot follows showing Martha Mansfield coming down the stairs in the background and into the foyer. An intertitle introduces Mansfield as Millicent, followed by an establishing close-up of her. Carew turns his attention back to his paper, while Millicent talks to a butler. She then enters the parlor where Carew has risen from his paper. She asks him about her dress and he points to her bouquet she holds. An intertitle reads, “These are from Dr. Jekyll,” followed by a reaction shot and they turn, obviously hearing the arrival of guests. An intertitle introduces J. Malcolm Dunn as John Utterson, and is followed by a shot of the standing butler and Utterson entering the parlor. Utterson greets Millicent and Carew. He excuses himself and Millicent and Utterson sit. A close-up shows Carew’s hand placing the gossip newspaper in a desk drawer, followed by a return to the two-shot. An intertitle reads, “Have you seen anything of Dr. Jekyll lately?” Utterson shakes his head and an intertitle reads, “Between his laboratory and his poor, Jekyll hasn’t much time for his friends.” Millicent begins speaking and an intertitle reads, “But isn’t it wonderful of him to devote so much of his life to other people?” Millicent looks at her flowers and they continue talking until a jump cut to a shot of Jekyll caring for a boy with bandages on his arm and foot, whom he carries into his treatment room. Jekyll sits and begins writing notes at his desk. A close-up of the boy patient looking around the room is followed by a close-up of the nurse tending to instruments. The boy looks around again and back to the busy nurse and back around the room. A close-up of Jekyll at his desk shows him wrapping a note to be delivered by a waiting boy. An intertitle reads, “Take this at once to Sir George Carew.” The delivery boy leaves and Jekyll turns. The little patient is seen again in close-up. Jekyll offers the boy a treat, which he takes and puts in his mouth. Jekyll begins removing bandages from the boy’s arm and the shot fades to black. The entire sequence lasts from 6:21 through 10:21. Later, the Shepard edition leaves in a second (redundant) intertitle introducing Mansfield (again).
More missing footage begins as Gina the dancer tells Hyde the story of the poison ring. In the Shepard edition we see: Fade up on a medium shot of four people seated at a table in a large room in mediaeval Italy. Cut to a two-shot of a young couple obviously in love. He touches her arm. Cut to a two-shot of the other two men at the table, watching the young lovers. An irised close-up shows the poison ring on the older man’s hand, which he pulls off his finger. Back to the two-shot as he hands the ring to the other stern-looking man. Cut to the two-shot of the couple and back again to the two men. The stern-looking man takes the ring, opens its compartment, and pours poison into a glass of wine. A brief shot of the couple shows a hand taking a wine glass out of frame. Cut back to the conspirators. The stern-looking man offers the poisoned wine to the young suitor, who accepts it and raises it in toast to his love. Cut to a reaction shot of the conspirators who raise their glasses as well. Cut back to the two-shot of the lovers and the suitor drinks the wine. Cut to a medium shot of the whole table as all the men drink their toast. The young suitor reacts almost immediately to the poison and turns his head toward the conspirators. Here is where the footage is taken up by the Kino edition. The Shepard sequence lasts from 36:08 through 37:24. The upshot is that the story of the ring in the Kino edition is reduced to the dying young suitor looking at his poisoners and collapsing; end of story.
The footage missing from the Kino edition accounts for more than five minutes of the six-minute difference in the two editions’ running times.
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