'Gold' now available on DVD
International Historic Films (IHFfilm.com) recently released Gold on DVD. The disc is Region 0 and retails for $24.99. It's in German with optional English subtitles. The few extras consist of two slide shows with details and original materials about the movie.
Although a few IHF films have been available from other outlets (such as Movies Unlimited), at present Gold appears to be sold exclusively at IHF.
A couple of notes about the film and the DVD:
The film's plot centers on a scientist whose mentor is killed just before proving the scientific possibility of changing lead into gold. The scientist is soon contacted by agents of a wealthy man who has stolen the design of the giant machine invented by the dead man and wants to use it to manufacture gold for his own economic gain, but who needs the scientist's help to complete the experiment. Naturally, the scientist is on to the man's scheme and has his own plans to stop him.
Gold was an expensive production called "Nazi Germany's first science-fiction film", but in truth it's much more drama than sci-fi. For much of the film there's more talk than action, and the pace is at times slow and deliberate -- which does make it a bit tedious on occasion. Yet even so, the film does generate and sustain a good deal of tension throughout, and the climax is both suspenseful and exciting.
It's widely known that much of the footage of both the fabulously-conceived machine, as well as most of the climax, was copped by producer Ivan Tors in 1953 for his excellent sci-fi film The Magnetic Monster. It's been said that this footage is better used in TMM than in Gold, and depending on your point of view, that may well be the case. Although the film is not overt Nazi propaganda, the heroes are Germans and the villain a wealthy Englishman (most of the film takes place at either his mansion or his undersea laboratory in Scotland). There are unsubtle overtones of the German being such a man of integrity that not only do the British workers side with him against their employer, so does the man's own daughter. Of course almost all the German characters are depicted as people of honor concerned with the welfare of all mankind, not greed and profit. None of his detracts from the film, and in fact, at a remove of almost eighty years, it makes it all the more interesting.
The film features two legendary performers of German cinema. Hans Albers (1892-1960), a major star in the country, is best known for playing the title character in UFA's stunning (for a film made in Nazi Germany in the middle of World War II) 1943 color extravaganza, Munchhausen. Brigitte Helm (1906-1996) will forever be known as the robot-girl in Fritz Lang's 1927 landmark Metropolis. Gold was one of her final films before her retirement a year later. The rest of the cast perfoms well, in a surprisingly understated manner throughout, under Karl Hartl's steady direction.
The DVD is generally of good quality. The original UFA studio logo, and the original end card, are missing, but since this is not normal for IHF DVDs, it may be that these were missing from the print they used. Picture and sound are good, and the film has been digitally restored. The subtitles are in yellow, so are easy to read against the black & white background. There is a transparent IHF logo stamped onto the film at the upper right -- the kind of thing we all hate -- but, surprisingly, it's fairly unobtrusive and is virtually invisible in lighter scenes. Considering how seldom this film has been seen in eight decades, the fact that it's presented in a very decent print is remarkable.
However, one important point that needs to be mentioned is the run time of this DVD. IMDb lists the film's length as 120 minutes, but the DVD runs just 103. Although there were two places where it appeared that something may have been cut, from a continuity viewpoint these seem more likely to be brief jump-cuts in the print used, rather than whole sequences cut out. But unlesss you've seen the film before there's no way to be certain. The film clearly isn't "time-compressed", nor is there any indication that is has as its source a Region 2 video that, at 25 frames per second insted of the standard 24, would shorten the film's running time by several minutes -- though probably not 17. Whether IMDb is incorrect (as has often happened), or this is an edited print, we can't know. Ultimately, this DVD is the only game in town.
Given its rarity, Gold would be a must-have DVD for that reason alone, as well as for anyone interested in 1930s German cinema. Yet even absent these aspects, the film can stand on its own as a generally absorbing drama with fascinating overtones of science fiction, class warfare, personal honor and revenge, and hints of political propaganda from a perspective we don't see much of. A strongly recommended curio.