Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Laila (1929)

George Schnéevoigt directed this epic drama of a young woman’s coming of age. The film features Mona Mårtenson (Laila), Tryggve Larssen, Peter Malberg, Henry Gleditsch and Harald Schwenzen.

This DVD edition has been mastered from the 2006 digital restoration of the film conducted by the National Library of Norway from the 35mm photochemical restoration print prepared in 1974. The resulting picture features a broad and controlled greyscale range, with a moderate amount of dust, significant speckling and emulsion scuffing and scrapes, fine vertical scratches, occasional frame jitters, and other print flaws that were likely hard-copied into the 1974 restoration print from the original source materials. This digital restoration scan retains much of the image details present in highlights, which is important given the amount of snow in sections of the film. The flaws having been noted, the film is, nonetheless, a pleasure to watch.

The film is presented with a music score arranged from compositions by Edvard Greig and performed on piano by Robert Israel.

Supplemental material includes a 20-page insert booklet with an illustrated essay by Casper Tyberg, and a diary manuscript by film actor Tryggve Larssen; a collection of production photos (102 images); a publicity materials gallery (18 images); and biographical information of actors and production personnel.

This is our highly-recommended home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Other silent film music scores by ROBERT ISRAEL available on home video.