Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 4, 2023

If you look closely at some of the "fine print" in the opening credits of Zander the Great, after Leo the Lion lets you know via his impressive roar that the film is being released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, you'll see a much smaller listing that the actual copyright is held by one William Randolph Hearst, and for anyone wondering why, I give a few passing comments about his relationship with star Marion Davies in my recent Beverly of Graustark Blu-ray review, another Marion Davies silent released on Blu-ray by Undercrank Productions. If Beverly of Graustark showcased Davies' rather formidable comedy chops, Zander the Great is much more in the tradition of old fashioned melodrama, with Davies portraying a Dickensian orphan named Mamie who manages to escape the clutches of the horrifying institution where she's been housed for a couple of years of relative paradise working for an invalid woman named Mrs. Caldwell (Hedda Hopper, and, yes, that one). When Mrs. Caldwell expires, her darling little boy Zander (Jack Huff) is of course deemed a likely candidate for the same hell house Mamie spent her childhood in, and so Mamie decides to hightail it to Arizona with the kid, where she believes she may be able to find his father.

In the semi-wild, wild west Mamie and Zander soon meet up with a bevy of cowboys, including Dan (Harrison Ford, and, no, not that one) and his cohort. For a time Mamie believes that Dan is Zander's long lost father, though that appears to be a bit of subterfuge, and there are some interstitial dramatics involving arch villain Black Bart (George Siegmann) before Dan, Mamie and Zander realize they have a pre-built family unit just waiting to be formalized. While there are certainly some passing moments of comedy, including some physical comedy both at the orphanage and later in the "wilds" of Arizona, this film has a more consistent (melo?)dramatic tone which allows Davies to show off both her comedic and dramatic abilities as Mamie attempts to not just set her own house in order, but Zander's as well.

Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Zander the Great is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Undercrank Productions and the Library of Congress with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Some closing credits text cards provide the following information:

This presentation was scanned in 2K resolution from a 35mm safety duplicate negative made from an original tinted nitrate print in the Marion Davies Collection at the Library of Congress. Because the nitrate print is actively decomposing, the duplicate negative was deemed best for consistent image quality. The tinting has been faithfully reintroduced based on the colors in the nitrate print.

The Zander the Great project was produced for video by Edward Lorusso and was funded by 266 classic film fans via Kickstarter. Produced for home video release by Ben Model, associate producer Crystal Kui. 2K digital scans of 35mm preservation materials made by the film lab of the Library of Congress. Video grading: Christopher Crouse.

This is another silent that shows some undeniable age related wear and tear, including a lot of scratches, nicks, warped frames and instability that can lead to wobble during credits and intertitles, but on the whole this is reasonably well preserved. You can see some pretty major emulsion damage that really starts to creep into the frame toward the end, though the purple tinting helps to mask that anomaly (look at the left side of the frame in screenshot 3 and you can see some of what I'm talking about). If you parse through the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, you can see some other examples of damage as well. The purple tinting tends to slightly diminish fine detail at times, but taken as a whole, detail levels are secure and the entire presentation, while hobbled by damage, has an appealingly organic quality. Per Undercrank Productions' business model, this is released on a BD-R.

Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Undercrank's Ben Model provides another fun organ score for Zander the Great, though it's only offered in Dolby Digital 2.0. Fidelity is fine, but as longtime readers of my reviews know, I'm an audiophile as well as a videophile and prefer lossless audio.

Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the disc.

Zander the Great Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Another great showcase for Marion Davies is provided by Zander the Great, and this film is full of names that are either known for other reasons (Hedda Hopper) or for other performers (Harrison Ford), which adds to the fun. (Even the film's director George W. Hill may remind some of George Roy Hill.) The element used for this transfer has some undeniable age related wear and tear, but is in relatively decent shape overall. Silent fans in general and Davies fans in particular should enjoy this feature, and at least for them, Zander the Great comes Recommended.