Craving, The: plus 3 Silent Shorts (DVD)

US Import

You may know Francis Ford for his roles as an old drunk veteran or crusty barkeep in more than twenty of director John Ford's films, but you may not know that between 1910 and 1920 Francis Ford was a silent film star and renowned director of westerns, cliffhanger serials, mystery thrillers, and dramas.

This release presents four of his silent films in new 2K digital restorations by Undercrank Productions featuring new musical scores by Ben Model.

In 1918, Francis Ford used his movie fortune to start an independent company and produced the five-reel feature The Craving. A drama of obsession and addiction, The Craving demonstrates Ford's abiding interest in the use of special effects like double and triple exposures to make psychologically-tormented characters face their fears and obsessions. He incorporated footage from his lost 1915 short of the Indian rebellion, The Campbells Are Coming, as well as found footage from other Universal films to craft a sharp criticism of the needless slaughter of troops in the first World War.

Also included in this collection are three short films: Ford's one-reel western comedy produced by Gaston Melies' Star Films company, When the Tables Turned (1911) co-starring Edith Storey; the two-reeler The Post Telegrapher made for the Bison Film Company; and the jewel thief caper Unmasked (1917), originally released in 1913 as The Black Masks, with the actress and scenarist Grace Cunard, who starred in dozens of Universal films with Ford.