The Garden of Eden Special Edition Blu-ray

Flicker Alley will release a Special Edition Blu-ray of Lewis Milestone's The Garden of Eden (1928), starring Corinne Griffith, Louise Dresser, Lowell Sherman, Maude George, and Charles Ray. The release is scheduled to arrive on the market on May 5.

Label description: Flicker Alley and San Francisco Film Preserve proudly announce the return of The Garden of Eden, director Lewis Milestone's 1928 romantic comedy, joining the Flicker Fusion series in a new deluxe Blu-ray edition that showcases the new restoration alongside substantial newly produced bonus features.

Nearly a century after its big screen debut, director Lewis Milestone's romantic comedy has been fully restored by the San Francisco Film Preserve, in collaboration with the George Eastman Museum, and the Library of Congress, and arrives with a brilliant new score composed and performed by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius.

Corinne Griffith, with her husband, Walter Morosco, producing, headlines as aspiring opera singer Toni LeBrun, who leaves her family's humble bakery to follow fame and fortune in Budapest. Instead, however, she finds herself a cabaret chorus girl working for the delightfully menacing Madame Bauer (Maude George) and dodging advances from the likes of Baron Henri D'Avril (Lowell Sherman). Soon, Toni is off to Monte Carlo with the cabaret's seamstress, Rosa (Louise Dresser), and soon winds up in a complicated love triangle between charming suitor Richard Dupont (Charles Ray) and his determined uncle, Colonel Dupont (Edward Martindel).

Boasting gorgeous production design by William Cameron Menzies, The Garden of Eden was originally released with an early Technicolor dream sequence that, unfortunately, no longer exists in any form. This new release includes a reconstruction of that three-minute sequence utilizing rare still photographs. Viewers have two bonus feature options of watching the color reconstruction, with explanatory notes, on its own, or in a version with it re-inserted back into where it originally appeared in the film.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• NEW RESTORATION OF THE FILM
• Audio Commentary - Harlow Robinson, author of Lewis Milestone: Life and Films, offers an in-depth behind the scenes look at the production of The Garden of Eden and the incredible life of Milestone.
• 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio Options - On the new score composed and performed by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius
• Restored Color Sequence - Comprised of rare still images, this dream sequence can be viewed on its own or placed within the larger feature via seamless branching.
• Syncopating Sue (1926) - A restored fragment of director Richard Wallaces' lost romantic comedy, starring Corinne Griffith. This new restoration arrives courtesy of the San Francisco Film Preserve, in collaboration with the National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute, Warsaw. Poland.
• The Inimitable Corinne Griffith: The Orchid Lady of the Screen - A visual essay from historian David Pierce, narrated by Claire Lockhart, that explores the life of The Garden of Eden's beguiling star.
• Restoration Demo - A short look at the painstaking process of scanning and preserving the available elements, including two surviving 35mm nitrate reels.
• Image Gallery - Featuring production stills and promotional material
• Booklet Insert - Featuring a new essay by Harlow Robinson, exploring the making of The Garden of Eden
• Optional Language Tracks - English language intertitles with optional subtitles on the main feature in Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, and Spanish
• Optional Double-Sided Slipcover - Available either as a standard release or, exclusively from www.flickeralley.com, special limited edition double-sided slipcover that showcases exclusive artwork
• REGION-FREE