Product Details

• Actors: John Barrymore, Camilla Horn
• Directors: Sam Taylor
• Format: Black & White, NTSC, Silent
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: KINO VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: July 7, 2009
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0024EWPGC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,375 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Kino International Release Date: 07/07/2009 Run time: 111 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TEMPEST Will Make You a Silent Film Fan, July 17, 2003

By 

Robert M. Fells "Mr. Arliss's Official Biogra... (Centreville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tempest (DVD)

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!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable, November 15, 2003

By 

"acmse" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tempest (DVD)

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!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tempest, September 16, 2005

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tempest (DVD)

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.