This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered at 2K high-resolution from the 2003 restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, supervised by Luciano Berriatúa, as compiled from the incomplete German domestic 35mm nitrate camera negative, a 35mm nitrate positive held by the Museum of Modern Art (struck in Germany in 1936), from a fragmentary 35mm German print held by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung, and a print held by the Swiss Cinémathèque. Also featured is the 1925 American release version, with alternate takes and camera angles.

The film is presented with optional soundtracks, including a new musical score by the Berklee College of Music’s Berklee Silent Film Orchestra (2017), as well as the original score by Giuseppe Becca, orchestrated by Detlev Glanert and performed by the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (2003) [both for the restoration version], and a music score composed by Timothy Brock and performed by the Olympia [Washington] Chamber Orchestra (2001) [for the American release version].

The supplemental material includes audio commentary by film historian Noah Isenberg; and a 40-minute documentary, “The Making of The Last Laugh” by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This DVD edition has been mastered at 2K high-resolution from the 2003 restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, supervised by Luciano Berriatúa, as compiled from the incomplete German domestic 35mm nitrate camera negative, a 35mm nitrate positive held by the Museum of Modern Art (struck in Germany in 1936), from a fragmentary 35mm German print held by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung, and a print held by the Swiss Cinémathèque. Also featured is the 1925 American release version, with alternate takes and camera angles.

The film is presented with optional soundtracks, including a new musical score by the Berklee College of Music’s Berklee Silent Film Orchestra (2017), as well as the original score by Giuseppe Becca, orchestrated by Detlev Glanert and performed by the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (2003) [both for the restoration version], and a music score composed by Timothy Brock and performed by the Olympia [Washington] Chamber Orchestra (2001) [for the American release version].

The supplemental material includes audio commentary by film historian Noah Isenberg; and a 40-minute documentary, “The Making of The Last Laugh” by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This two-disc NTSC DVD edition features the 2003 restoration from the F.W. Murnau Stiftung, as supervised by Luciano Berriatúa.

Also, included in the set is the USA release version as previously released by Kino on DVD in 2001. This presentation may visually benefit a bit from its reencoding to this new standard-resolution DVD.

The restoration version of the film is accompanied by a new orchestral performance of the 1924 Giuseppe Becce score presented in both 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo sound, as adapted by Detlev Glanert and performed by the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. The USA version is accompanied by music composed by Timothy Brock and performed by the Olympia [Washington] Chamber Orchestra.

The supplemental section includes a 40-minute documentary, “The Making of The Last Laugh,” original German title sequences, and a stills gallery.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The supplementary material includes a 41-minute documentary by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa, and a lavishly-illustrated 36-page booklet with writings by film scholars R. Dixon Smith, Tony Rayns, and Lotte H. Eisner.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

This DVD edition is virtually identical to the 1993 Criterion laserdisc, as produced for home video by David Shepard.

The video transfer for this DVD has many of the same qualities as previous editions on home video from Criterion and Kino. The source print is a little blasted out in the highlights, and the overall image detail is a little soft. And since I have never seen another print of this film I cannot say whether or not this is how the film has survived. The video transfer here may well be the same as that produced for the 1993 editions. In reevaluating the disc on high-definition equipment with hardware upscaling to a 1080p high-definition signal, the DVD renders a fairly filmlike picture and we stand by our original evaluation of the video quality, but the older video transfer shows its age with a softness of image detail that is only partly due to the standard-definition NTSC transfer and also to the disc’s average bit-rate encoding. Even in 2001, the film could have benefitted from a new video transfer.

We’re guessing here, but, the source print appears to be a combination of a German 35mm negative and an English language export print. The main titles are German, yet there are insert shots of a decorated cake, a newspaper clipping, and of the letter of demotion in English. The DVD’s supplementary material contains a excerpt from a German print with the original German directorial-intrusion intertitle explaining the film’s epilogue. Also included are several still and production photographs.

A beautiful and appropriately moody score was composed and conducted in 1993 by Timothy Brock. The stereo score, noted as a 2.0 soundtrack, is not discreet and decodes through our review system in pseudo 5.0 surround sound. Honestly, there are a few moments when the members of the Olympia Chamber Orchestra do not quite hit their notes, being a little flat, but not often enough to distract from the film.

Any advance buzz about this disc having DVD mastering problems that you may have heard was correct, but those problems were cleared up before the final release of the DVD. You can purchase this disc with confidence. And we highly recommend this masterpiece of world cinema to anyone. The Last Laugh is a film well worth discovering for yourself, in a reasonably priced DVD edition that is well worth owning.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a modern music score.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

We cannot recommend this edition at this time.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

We do not recommend this edition at this time.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Other silent era EMIL JANNINGS films available on home video.