The Bells (1926)
The Bells (1926)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 4:3 | Cover | 01:08:27 | 4,09 Gb
Musical Score AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps with English intertitles
Genre: Crime, Horror | USA
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 4:3 | Cover | 01:08:27 | 4,09 Gb
Musical Score AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps with English intertitles
Genre: Crime, Horror | USA
The play The Bells (based on the French Le Juif Polonais) was brought to the screen in 1926. Lionel Barrymore plays a merchant who murders a Jewish entrepreneur and appropriates the dead man's fortune. Though no evidence exists to convict him, Barrymore cannot escape his own conscience due to the intervention of a mentalist. Whenever he hears the pealing of church bells, Barrymore is haunted by images of his crime and his victim. Of interest is the appearance of Boris Karloff, in Caligariesque makeup as the mesmerist.
IMDB
Silent Era
Image has released another gorgeous silent film restoration in The Bells. Based on a play by Alexandre Chatrian and Emile Erckmann, The Bells is supposedly inspired by the Poe poem of the same title, but bears about as much resemblance to Poe as the 1935 The Raven.
The Bells (1926)
![The Bells (1926)]()
This seldom-seen film features Boris Karloff in an early pre-Frankenstein horror-type role, opposite the legendary Lionel Barrymore (best known today for It's a Wonderful Life). Barrymore plays Mathias, a debt-ridden innkeeper with aspirations to being burgomaster of his unnamed town below Mt. Snowtop. When his grasping neighbor seeks to collect the debt, Mathias turns to crime, murdering and robbing a wealthy Polish Jew that happens to stop by his inn.
The Bells (1926)
![The Bells (1926)]()
Mathias pays off his debt and earns his position of esteem, but is slowly driven mad by the apparition of his victim, who menacingly shakes his sleigh bells at Mathis. The victim's brother, Jethro (E. Alyn Warren in a double role as both the victim and the brother) seeks to have Karloff, as the unnamed mesmerist, attempt to cause the guilty party to confess.
The Bells (1926)
![The Bells (1926)]()
Karloff is appropriately menacing, giving Mathias an unforgettable death's head grin as he departs upon being sent away by the burgomaster. Barrymore gives a solid performance throughout, though he seems to take to homicide rather readily; it would have been better to see him more desperate before he takes an axe to the merchant.
The Bells (1926)
![The Bells (1926)]()
Technically, the film is a tour de force. The photography has a wonderful depth of focus throughout (except in the concluding dream sequence, which is intentionally very soft). The special effects are convincing, most notably in the sequence where the thoroughly mad Mathias plays a game of cards with the spectre of the Jew. Barrymore expertly plays against the empty space before him, believably conveying his ability to see the spirit across the table.
The Bells (1926)
![The Bells (1926)]()
Karloff's costume is very heavily patterned on that of the mesmerist in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; he appears nearly identical down to the cloak, top hat, frizzy gray hair and tortoise-shell glasses. The only aspect he's missing is the three-striped Mickey Mouse gloves. During the concluding dream, the German Expressionist qualities of the earlier film are allowed free rein, with mysterious shafts of light piercing the darkness at crazy angles.
The Bells (1926)
Special Features:
- Rene Clair's 1922 short 'The Crazy Ray' (18:22, IMDB)
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