Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Wrecker (1928)

This British-German railroad drama, directed by Géza M. von Bolvary, stars Carlyle Blackwell and Benita Hume, with Winter Hall, Joseph Striker, Leonard Thompson, Gordon Harker and Pauline Johnson.

The film features the largest staged railroad crash in British film history, filmed with no less than 22 motion picture cameras.

There is enough documentary footage of trains and railroad equipment, procedures and stations to satisfy the railway enthusiast.

Of note are the use of alternate shots lifted from the production of The Lodger (1926), spanning from 02:13 to 02:38 in the film. Alfred Hitchcock is the gentleman on the telephone with his back to the camera.

This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. Despite low expectations, the image quality is good to very-good with a typical amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scuffing and chipping, frame jitters, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on synthesizers by Neil Brand.

Supplemental material includes a presentation of the Pathéscope abridged 9.5mm version with accompaniment on piano by Neil Brand (14 minutes); a featurette about the making of The Wrecker (5 minutes); the featurette “Walking the Line” with Martin Dean (16 minutes); a video interview with composer Neil Brand (20 minutes); [Vintage Cine Kodak Services Trailer] (19??) (1 minute); Mid-Hants Railway: A Line Preserved (19??) (5 minutes); Iowa State Fair Staged Rail Crash (1932) (1 minute); Derailment (1944) (8 minutes); Impressions of a Train Wreck: Korea (1952) (4 minutes); and a 32-page insert booklet with writings by Bob Geoghegan, Harold Holcroft and Chris J. Tolley, illustrated with historical clippings.

Recommended. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .