Customer Reviews

Tempest

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I concur with Peter George's remarks about this wonderful film but let me add a few additional points. The rather abrupt ending is indeed due to some missing footage. Contemporary reviews of TEMPEST mention a sleigh ride chase to the nearby Austrian border whereby Markov and Tamara make their escape from Soviet Russia. Some years back, the late, great film historian William K. Everson, told me that when the negative and prints of this film were discovered in the early 1950s, presumably including the one used for this dvd, all material had the chase sequence cut out. Everson surmised that it was used as stock footage for some other film. A brief intertitle bridging the action would smooth things out but this is such a minor point that it does not impact one's overall impression of this fine film.

It's difficult to resist comparing TEMPEST to a more celebrated silent of that same time, the classic SUNRISE, especially since Charles Rosher worked as a cinematographer on both films. Yet in my opinion, and I'm probably a majority of one here, I think that while SUNRISE is an easy film to respect, TEMPEST is more entertaining and will probably do more to whet the appetite of a viewer today to explore films from the silent era. Back in the 1970s I ran TEMPEST several times with live piano accompaniment and audience reaction was always the same: they didn't know a silent film could be so enjoyable. TEMPEST is so eloquent visually, it's easy to understand why dialogue would be superfluous. And John Barrymore gives a wonderfully underplayed performance that puts the lie to the stereotype of silent screen acting characterized by exaggerated gestures. With all the legends of great silent film stars who flopped in the talkies, it's sometimes forgotten that Barrymore effortlessly made the transition and was a greater star than ever in sound films until alcoholism undermined his health in the mid-1930s.

I wish the producers of this dvd cleaned up some of the flecks and specs in the picture but I realize that's an expensive process so I can't really complain.

With the release of TEMPEST, we can now view on dvd John Barrymore's three United Artists films (the other two are The Beloved Rogue, 1927; and Eternal Love, 1929, directed by Ernst Lubitsch) made when both Barrymore and the silent screen were at their peak. If you weren't interested in silent films you wouldn't be reading this review, so don't miss this film!

I consider this film to be a prime example of how truly powerful an impact silent film can have on the viewer. This was the first noncomedic silent I can recall seeing--about 30 years ago on local TV--and I only caught the end of it, including the tremendous prison confrontation scene. In the intervening years, I never forgot that scene, and noticed when it was imitated in other romantic melodramas (e.g., 'The English Patient' and the saffron thimble bit).

When the upcoming DVD release was described, I realized that this probably was the movie that had haunted me all these years. And it was! I was thrilled to finally be able to see the whole thing--and it didn't disappoint, even though it had to compete with powerful old impressions.

I'm very grateful to David Shepard for this release--and to the great Philip Carli, whose piano score is magisterial. The cobbled-together orchestral soundtrack is OK--mostly snatches of stuff like the waltz from "Eugene Onegin"--but the sound quality is not up to modern standards; oddly enough, I found that more distracting than the occasional visually scratchy portions of the print. Carli's performance and score are, as usual, as elegant as the images (and that's saying something with this film), but never distract from them.

Barrymore's inescapably "aristocratic" looks do sometimes interfere with the suspension of disbelief, but he overcomes this handicap--and not with a resort to grotesque makeup, but with a truly committed and engaged performance, overcoming even the more serious handicap of his age.

Cinematographer Rosher's interview in Kevin Brownlow's great book "The Parade's Gone By" mentions that "Barrymore was especially pleased with [the cameraman's Rosher Kino Portrait Lens] because its softness smoothed away his dewlaps. For the first time he could be photographed properly full-face; before they had to favor the famous profile." Barrymore's mad scene is another example of great acting working in tandem with great cinematography.

The ending is quite abrupt, but all that comes before is completely satisfying. If you are in the mood for a good, old fashioned romantic epic, you can't do better than this movie!

John Barrymore may not have been the greatest actor ever, but if you want to argue that he was you could do worse that enter as evidence the late-silent era film TEMPEST (1928). This is a film that has it all - romance across class lines (a peasant loves a princess,) set against a romantic yet contemporary (circa 1928) backdrop of the Russian Revolution.

Barrymore plays Ivan Markov, to the peasantry born, who we meet while still a sergeant in the Russian Army, studying diligently to become an officer and a gentleman by promotion to first lieutenant. It certainly helps that to the company commander he is a surrogate son. Unfortunately, he's attentively shunned by his fellow officers (upstart peasant!) while the commander's daughter, Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn), doesn't bother to disguise the fact that Ivan should go back to whatever stable he was born in. The Princess's beneath-contempt attitude is complicated by the fact that Ivan has fallen madly in love with Tamara at first sight. For her part, Princess Tamara's attitude of disgust and loathing is at violent odds with some tender emotions of her own she does her best to conceal.

Although a silent movie, this one reads as though it had spoken dialogue. Barrymore's performance is intensely subtle. One of the biggest differences between silent and sound movies is the acting styles. Most silent acting seems broad and phony. You can adjust and enjoy - hey, they had to sell the scenes somehow, didn't they? They couldn't talk their way out of them. But rather than the expressionistic silent style of acting, Barrymore's is more a modern, sound, naturalistic style. Not only does it work, but Barrymore is so strong (yeah, probably the greatest ever) that TEMPEST doesn't really need the inter-title dialogue cards to convey the rather familiar rich snob girl meets humble boy story. Horn, who has her own range of emotions to broadcast, doesn't embarrass herself, either.

Silent or sound. TEMPEST is a great movie. Good thing, too, because the Image transfer print was in pretty rough shape. The frames are consistently scratchy. The original tasteful pipe organ score is included, here rendered on piano. Also on the dvd is the 13-minute short `Vagabonding On the Pacific,' a travelogue silent short from 1926. `Vagabonding' takes us along with Barrymore as he yachts down to Mexico. The high point of this kind of boring film is Barrymore playing tag with some 1,100 pound sea lions. A somewhat strange look at Barrymore at play.

Tempest is a good, entertaining late silent picture. It is well made with high production values and is often stunning to look at with beautiful costumes and sets. That it does not quite reach greatness may in part be owing to its somewhat troubled production, which involved the use of three directors. The only really obvious sign of this disruption however is a rather abrupt ending, which works perfectly well but seems hurried.

The story begins in 1914 just prior to the First World War. It concerns Ivan Markov (John Barrymore) a sergeant in the Russian army who despite coming from the peasantry is about to join the officer class. This promotion is almost unprecedented and the other officers resent a peasant encroaching on their territory. Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn) is equally contemptuous of Markov's origins, but he falls in love with her anyway and gradually despite her prejudices she begins to feel something for him. With the arrival of the Russian Revolution the social structures are turned upside down and in these dangerous times peasant and aristocrat face each other again.

John Barrymore is very good in Tempest. I find that I generally prefer his acting in silent pictures to talkies and in his role as Markov he is both subtle and eloquent, using his face expressively to convey what he is thinking and feeling. The only problem with Barrymore is that he does not really convince as a peasant. With his famous profile he looks more aristocratic than the aristocrats. Camilla Horn was one of the great German silent actresses. She is convincing as a beautiful Russian Princess and is able to suggest haughty contempt with just a look. Fans of All Quiet on the Western Front will enjoy recognising Louis Wolheim playing a similar role to that of Katczinsky. In both films he is the loyal friend, good humoured and tough.

Tempest is fairly even handed in its treatment of the Revolution. It recognises that there was fault on both sides. It has as a villain a cruel Bolshevik commissar, but he has appeared earlier in the film as a poor beggar being treated badly by the aristocrats. While most of the officers are monocle-wearing snobs, one in particular is a kindly and sympathetic character. Although it is fair to say that the film in the end is against the Bolsheviks, it never descends into crude propaganda. It is content to show the evils in Russian society before and after the Revolution and leave it at that.

The print on the Image DVD varies in quality from very good to fairly poor. There are no obvious breaks in continuity apart from at the very end where there may be a brief piece of film missing. At times the print is marred by a lot of wear and tear with numerous scratches, at other times the picture is pristine. The picture is occasionally rather soft and blurred, but for the most part is sharp and detailed. The black and white photography is generally quite beautiful. The DVD includes a choice of two soundtracks. One option is to listen to the original mono Vitaphone discs. Not all of these survive so the soundtrack fills in the gaps by editing and re-using those that do. Naturally these original discs sound a bit scratchy, but it is good to have the choice of hearing the score which was played when the film first was released. The other soundtrack option is to listen to a stereo score performed by Philip Carli. This score sounds great and fits in well with the mood and action of the film. The DVD includes as an extra Vagabonding on the Pacific. This film is a record of a trip Barrymore made on his yacht from Los Angeles to an island off the Mexican coast. It is very sophisticated for a home movie and is quite interesting and entertaining. This DVD is as good a presentation of Tempest as is now possible. The film may be no masterpiece but it remains well worth seeing and is a must for silent film fans.

Last night, after watching this wonderful Silent Picture, my fondness for Silents was once again confirmed; they have definitely become an "acquired taste" in my adulthood (as a child & teenager, when I thought of Silents, slapstick and the Keystone Cops immediately came to my mind).

What can I say in praise of this picture? Excellent cinematography, camera work, art direction, settings and a top performance by John Barrymore, who at 46 still looked dashing and much younger than his age. His interpretation is mesmerizing, touching, intense, flawless, conveying truthfully and with passion, the love, hatred and ultimately, the bitterness of his character, Sergeant Ivan Markov, a humble peasant who achieves the impossible: rising from Sergeant of the Czarist Russian Army to First Lieutenant, only because of merit. But then tragedy ensues...

Camilla Horn plays Barrymore's aristocratic love interest and I must say that liked her performance, in spite of some criticism I have read regarding her acting style; George Fawcett is absolutely touching as the paternalistic General, who treats Barrymore as a son; Louis Wolheim is amusing as Barrymore's sidekick; Ulrich Haupt is aptly villainous as Horn's fiancé and Barrymore's superior; and Boris de Fast, absolutely frightening as the evil Bolshevik Leader.

There are some portions of the transfer that are terribly damaged, but I guess that IMAGE did the best restoration it could with what they had; also, at the end it's noticeable that some portions of the footage are missing. Notwithstanding the transfer's shortcomings, it is a must see for Silent Fans.

The DVD features as a bonus a home movie titled "Vagabonding on the Pacific", which shows a 1926 trip on John Barrymore's yacht to Guadalupe Island in Mexico. There is some incredible footage featuring Barrymore teasing sea elephants!

TEMPEST was the penultimate silent movie made by John Barrymore (ETERNAL LOVE directed by Ernst Lubitsch would be the last). The setting is not Shakespeare but takes place around the time of the Russian Revolution. The direction is credited to Sam Taylor who was best known for his comedies but a lot of it was shot by Lewis Milestone and visually it shows in many of the scene compositions and camera angles. The film is primarily remembered today for Charles Rosher's cinematography, the sets by William Cameron Menzies, and as the Hollywood debut of German actress Camilla Horn (Murnau's FAUST). While not a great movie, it does have a lot to offer especially for silent movie and/or John Barrymore fans.

This new version from Kino International is part of a new 4 DVD set of silent films by John Barrymore although it can be purchased separately (BELOVED ROGUE, DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE, SHERLOCK HOLMES make up the rest of the set). The picture quality is good and although it says it's from 35mm, a lot of it looks like 16mm to me. This print is courtesy of the Killiam Collection and contains some pro-Soviet bits that were later removed. The piano score is by William Perry. Back in 2003, Film Preservation Associates released their DVD version through Image Entertainment. It is clearly from 35mm although a little scratchier and offers two separate soundtracks (the original Vitaphone discs and a piano score by Philip Carli) as well as a one reel home movie of Barrymore on his yacht. That's the one to own although this release comes in a close second.

1928 silent Tempest may not be a great picture but it is a great star vehicle for a star in his prime before drink and self-parody took their toll on his reputation. In fact, it's richly ironic that in one of those art-predicting-life moments it's drink and a scandal involving a woman's honor that causes John Barrymore's peasant-made-officer's downfall in this lavish romance set in the period before and during the Russian Revolution. If you're only familiar with the Barrymore of later years, this is a revelation, the Great Profile seen at his best, with a gravitas and intensity that he wears lightly, devilishly good looking and confident but not arrogant with it. The perfect movie hero, it's easy to see why he was such a major influence on the young Errol Flynn. Indeed, in one sequence on a horse in a river you could almost be looking at Flynn in his prime.

The film itself is romantic hokum, but executed with real conviction and produced on a lavish scale. Barrymore's a peasant cavalryman from the wrong side of the Urals, no socialist or red but no fan of the aristocracy either, who manages to become the first commissioned officer to rise from the ranks in a decade thanks to George Fawcett's paternalistic general only to lose his rank and his honor thanks to an unfortunate but innocent indiscretion with the general's daughter (Camilla Horn) who publicly loathes him so much you know it must be love. Throughout he's shadowed by Boris de Fast's strikingly spectral Bolshevik peddler who acts like a nagging devil on his shoulder as his disillusionment is fuelled and he ultimately finds his niche deciding who's going to be lined up against the wall after the Revolution. Naturally redemption and true love will enter into it, but not before the filmmakers have expressed their dismay with both sides - the aristocrats, exemplified by Ulrich Haupt's von Stroheim-lite villain (Erich von Stroheim was an uncredited writer on the picture) who stubs his cigarettes out on lowly NCO Louis Wolheim's neck and then berates him for ruining a perfectly good cigarette, and the Bolsheviks who respond with even greater cruelty in the vivid conveyer-belt-like execution scenes. The only chance the hero and heroine have for a happy ending in this kind of world is to escape their own country and leave it forever, a situation that would have struck home with the many White Russian exiles in Hollywood at the time.

The film's ably directed by Sam Taylor (with uncredited scenes by Lewis Milestone and Viktor Tourjansky) with a strong and imaginative eye for composition - there's a particularly striking execution scene played in the time it takes to open and close a door, and Charles Rosher's superb camerawork and William Cameron Menzies' production work together to good effect even in the occasionally worn surviving prints, the film opening with a lavish tracking shot around a model of a garrison town before melding it almost flawlessly to a real set in a single camera movement. The ballroom sequence is particularly outstanding, with the socially ostracised Barrymore entering the brightly lit ball silhouetted in the foreground and later drunkenly watching his `betters' while their dancing reflections can be seen in the silverware in front of him. And when he finds himself facing years in solitary confinement, the walls of his cell become a giant movie screen on which he can see images of his comrades fighting at the front and the woman he loves laughing at him as he goes mad. They may not make them like this any more, but thankfully while prints still survive we can at least still see those they did.

Kino's DVD has no extras but boasts a fine transfer.

Thanks to Chip Kaufmann's comment especially for comparing the 2003 DVD to the 2009 one! All the comments show up on either DVD's page, so it's hard to tell which version is being discussed.

If I can summarize what I think I've learned? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

2003 Image DVD - 102 min. -- Film Preservation Associates/David Shepard, via Image Entertainment DVD, from 35 mm, includes John Barrymore home movie short Vagabonding on the Pacific. Accompanied by two separate music scores; the original 1928 Vitaphone orchestral score, and a new piano score performed by Philip Carli.

2009 Kino DVD - 111 min. -- Killiam Collection, piano score by William Perry. Per Kaufmann, it looks like it's from 16 mm though it says 35 mm. May be bought in 4-DVD set with Beloved Rogue, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes. (Per Robert Fells' comment, a different natural set would be with Barrymore's two other UA silents: Beloved Rogue - 1927, and Eternal Love - 1929.)

I can add one more version that I know of -- The Blackhawk Films video from the 1980s. I saw a clip of this movie in a film class circa 1980 (along with Sunrise), loved it, bought the Blackhawk Beta video, and still have it. I just got my old Betamax fixed and watched the video again after all these years. Sad to say, the tracking is difficult; hard to say where fault lies, old tape (rarely played, always kept in clamshell case) or old machine. Why I'm here. But the movie is still exquisite. Props to Camilla Horn, who is luminous beyond the part written. This version does not have the missing sleigh ride to the border scene, and it has an original piano soundtrack by William Perry. A Paul Killiam Film Classic Presentation -- so I guess it's the same as the 2009 Kino DVD? Though the run time is 102 minutes like Image's, not Kino's 111. (A frame rate transfer issue? Though wikipedia says David Shepard owns the Blackhawk Films library which was the start of FPA-Image, so this gets confusing, Kino vs Image versions, though again wikipedia gives list of films restored by Shepard and Tempest isn't on it. I give up.) Also, the date is given as 1927 on the video case, but 1928 on screen.

Maybe all roads lead to one print? In which case, it would be nice if someone put out a DVD with all three scores, the Barrymore short, and a film historian comment track/bonus feature. There's a lot of intense love for this film, and a lot of pieces scattered about.

Optimistically described as an "epic" romance, there's very little epic about Sam Taylor's silent film set in the final days of Czarist Russia. A peasant (John Barrymore) advances himself through the ranks of the Army until he becomes an officer but he still disdained by the aristocratic officers who got their ranks through privilege. He falls in love with a noblewoman (Camilla Horn, Murnau's FAUST) who is torn between her attraction to him and her contempt for his peasantry. More intimate than epic, it's still an enjoyable piece of romantic hokum and Barrymore is marvelous here. Strong and subtle without the hamminess that often taints his performances in sound films. With Boris De Fast as an aristocrat hating revolutionary and Louis Wolheim (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT) as Barrymore's best pal. I disliked the tinkly piano score accompanying it on the KINO DVD, so I put on the CD to Bronislau Kaper's BROTHERS KARAMAZOV and Ennio Morricone's DESERT OF THE TARTARS and they both worked amazingly well as "replacement" scores.

This film was a real treat to watch, since my field of special interest and expertise is Russian history, and this period in particular is one of my favorites. It starts in 1914 and introduces us to Ivan Markov (John Barrymore), a peasant who is studying to become a commissioned officer in the dragoons. The other fellows in the regiment laugh at him for thinking that he could ever even be considered for a promotion from sergeant to a more esteemed rank, and the aristocrats in charge of deciding whether he will be granted a commission similarly think it's ridiculous, but Ivan's dreams come true with the help of his commanding officer. His general considers him like a son, and holds him in extremely high esteem even though aristocrats and peasants didn't exactly mix or see eye-to-eye in those days.

Trouble starts when Ivan falls in love (or at least lust) with his general's beautiful daughter Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn, a recent import from Germany), who is engaged to another man. In addition to being engaged, she finds Ivan beneath her, and is horrified that a peasant of such low birth would dare to make advances on this noble princess of blue blood. Things come to a head at her birthday party, where, after dancing with her at the insistence of her father, Ivan gets really drunk and stumbles into Tamara's bedroom, where he passes out drunk on her bed after writing her a little love note on the back of his necklace and placing it on a small bouquet of flowers. Tamara brings her father and her fiancé to the scene, and Ivan is stripped of his commission and thrown into jail for 5 years. Though WWI begins very soon after, Ivan is not among the prisoners being sent to the front, because Tamara's snobby vindictive fiancé wants to torture him by keeping him in solitary confinement. By 1917, the tables have turned, and Ivan and his peasant friends are now the ones in charge and deciding people's destinies, while the ruling classes are now at the mercy of the people they exploited, oppressed, and mocked for hundreds of years. With Ivan in a position of power along with his Army buddy Bulba and a deranged-looking Commissar (a character who seemingly doesn't have a name), it is now up to him to decide how to deal with Tamara, her father, and her fiancé, if he will show them no mercy or if he will show any leniency because of his former affections for them (at least for Tamara and her father).

Although the plot doesn't really hold up (such as how the creepy Commissar somehow keeps turning up at all of the pivotal moments in the plot and how Ivan is essentially obsessed with Tamara and pretty much is throwing his weight around to try to get her to love him back instead of their love developing more naturally and less one-sidedly), how the plot itself unfolds is incredible. It does take awhile for the story to be launched into (as is often the case with these costume dramas), but the characters are well-developed by that time, and there's more and more dramatic tension and compelling action as the film moves along. The acting is also wonderful; Barrymore's subtle yet powerful acting shatters any stereotypes about how "everyone" in the silent era "overacted." I was also very pleased at the even-handed treatment it gave to the Russian Revolution and the society that existed just prior to WWI. Unlike most films of the era, with some one-dimensional simplistic portrayal of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks as evil horrible monsters and the aristocrats as flawless saintly unjustly overthrown people, it shows the flaws and positives of both sides. We see jerks like Tamara's fiancé lording his power over Ivan and the other lower-class soldiers, yet we also see people like her father, who has always treated Ivan with great kindness and like a human being instead of some peon he has the divine right to abuse and order around. These people who were being exploited and abused for hundreds of years had finally had enough and took power when the moment in history was opportune, yet we also see people like the Commissar, who quickly began abusing their power and acting as bad as the former absolute dictators. The Russian Revolution did not happen overnight or in a vacuum, contrary to what some want to believe, and we see very clearly here just why so many of the peasants felt so frustrated and angry at how they were treated and how the upper-classes thought they could get away with it just because of who they were.

Also included is a 1926 travelogue short featuring John on vacation to Guadalupe Island off of the coast of Mexico, together with a cute "female companion," Clementine, who turns out to be a little monkey instead of some glamourous leading lady from one of his pictures. Probably the most interesting part of this short is the footage of John and some of the other men in his party teasing and playing with a colony of elephant seals.

Overall, it's a very good film, even if it does take a little while to really get into the action. With each new film I see of his, the closer John Barrymore gets to becoming one of my favorite male actors. He really was a wonderful actor, in both the silent and sound eras, not to mention how handsome he still looked in this film at the age of forty-six. The only real flaw I could find to this film is that the ending does seem kind of abrupt, due to some missing footage.