I always thought classic universal horror wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but Eureka/MOC’s three-film faux E. A. Poe / Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff box set convinced me otherwise. Before i delve into the classic 1930s-50s monster era though, i decided to start things off with this silent feature which is more or less considered an essential ur-text to the universal gothic style.

Unfortunately, what remains of this movie now is a hot mess. The original 1925 release version only survives in the form of horribly beat-up 16mm prints, while the original 35mm negatives (as well as several b-negatives) were then butchered for a 1929 re-release, both as a silent and a retroactively dubbed sound version. The sound version’s vitaphone discs have survived, but no complete print is known to exist that syncs up with the audio. Thus, all restorations so far are of the 1929 re-release silent version because these are the best-looking copies that survived - despite the 1925 cut (included as an extra in the BFI blu-ray and, as i already mentioned, pretty rough looking) being the way superior version, having more rhythm to its editing, feeling a lot faster although it’s something like 10-20 minutes longer.

So which version to watch, actually? I’d say both. First the restored 1929 version to appreciate the film’s visual aspects. Then the rough-looking 1925 version to appreciate its superior editing and pacing.