Anthony Asquith's Underground Officially Announced
Posted May 17, 2013 03:14 PM by Webmaster
The British Firm Institute has officially announced its upcoming Dual Format edition of Anthony Asquith's Underground (1928). Restored by the BFI National Archive and following an acclaimed theatrical release in January, Underground will be available for purchase online and in shops across the United Kingdom on June 17th.
In the late 1920s Asquith, along with Hitchcock, was one of the most audacious young talents in British film and Underground was his own original screenplay. With its scenes of the bustling tube (passenger behaviour is strikingly familiar) and the capital's parks, double-decker buses, pubs and shabby bedsits, Asquith masterfully balances the light and dark sides of city life, aided by a superb cast of Brian Aherne and Elissa Landi as the nice young lovers and Norah Baring and Cyril McLaglen as their unhappy counterparts.
At just 26, Asquith's direction is assured, efficient and spare with some remarkably cinematic flourishes, clearly inspired by contemporary German and Russian filmmaking. It climaxes with a thrilling chase scene across the rooftops of the Lots Road Power Station.
For many years the restoration of Underground presented insurmountable difficulties, but developments in digital technology have enabled the BFI to make a significant improvement to the surviving film elements.
Special Features:
Feature presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
Newly commissioned score by Neil Brand presented in 5.1 and 2.0
Alternative score by Chris Watson
The Premier and His Little Son (1909-12, 1 min): previously unseen footage of Anthony Asquith as a child
A Trip on the Metropolitan Railway (1910, 13 mins, DVD only)
Scenes at Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner (1930-32, 6 mins, DVD only)
Seven More Stations (1948, 12 mins, DVD only): a film about the expansion of the Central Line beyond Stratford
Under Night Streets (1958, 20 mins): a documentary about the tube's nightshift workers
Illustrated booklet featuring film notes and new essays by Christian Wolmar and Neil Brand