I must admit that I really enjoy the silent films that Kino Lorber has released over the years having found some amazing discoveries for me. The label recently released a silent film double-feature on Blu-ray-Drifting and White Tiger. Both films have a lot in common; they are from 1923, directed by Tod Browning and feature Priscilla Dean, Wallace Beery and Matt Moore, which is probably why they were paired together.

Drifting takes place in Shanghai, where an American girl Cassie Cook (Priscilla Dean, Outside the Law) who is selling opium and falls for a mining engineer Capt. Arthur Jarvis (Matt Moore, Deluge, Rain) who is an undercover government agent! She wants to go straight and get out of the drug smuggling business, but she is afraid of the man who heads the drug ring (Wallace Beery, Dinner at Eight) who go after her. To stop the drug smuggling, she too goes undercover, being closely watched by Jarvis. Together they intend to end the drug smuggling once and for all.  

Drifting is a decent film when you are in the mood to watch a silent. The acting by the cast is top-notch, which depends greatly on the facial expressions of the characters, which Priscilla Dean excelled at.  Even though she is billed at bottom of the credits, the talented Anna May Wong (Impact, The Savage Innocents) had one of the biggest roles and is a key figure in the chaotic climax.

The co-feature, White Tiger, is the story of three crooks who pull off their biggest heist. A gang leader is killed, and his two children Sylvia (Priscilla Dean) and Roy Donovan (Raymond Griffith, Time to Love) are raised by criminals.  Bill Hawkes (Wallace Beery) has raised Sylvia to be a pickpocket while her brother becomes a scam artist chess player. Roy is recruited by Hawkes and along with Sylvia, they become an ‘unholy three’ as it were. They commit a big-time robbery and are forced to hide out together they slowly begin to distrust each other.

White Tiger is another entertaining silent with the same big three that were in Drifting. Tod Browning did a fine job with both films keeping the films moving at a steady pace with basic no-frills storytelling.

Drifting and White Tiger are given a region free Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber.While both films are in 1080p, only Drifting was given a 4k scan and looks far superior between the two.  

Drifting, while it does have its share of problems such as print damages and vertical lines, debris, and jump cuts, the image is still sharp and crisp. The various colors that appear during the presentation such as yellow, sepia, blues and reds are strong throughout. It appears that there was some clean-up for the presentation. White Tiger looks as if no restoration took place and resembles the Alpha Video DVD, except that this release is HD and has better contrast. Various lines, print damages, speckles and other film wear are prevalent during the viewing experience, which did deter. My impression based on this was that White Tiger was an extra film thrown in. It is watchable but not exactly something you would want to show someone interested in seeing a movie in HD.

The audio track, English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 is just flawless as the soundtrack for each film scores by Anton Sanko (Drifting) and Andrew Earle Simpson (White Tiger) are perfectly clear.

There are a few extras for this package. Drifting gets a commentary by Anthony Slide, while White Tiger has a commentary by Bret Wood. The commentary by Slide has a lot of information for those wanting to learn more about the film. The same can be said for Wood’s commentary for White Tiger, who does talk about the poor condition of the film that is presented on this Blu-ray.

There is also a fragment of the lost Tod Browning / Priscilla Dean film from 1919, The Exquisite Thief.

Another pair of silent movies make their way to Blu-ray. While not the world’s greatest transfers, the films are still entertaining to watch and with the additions of commentaries, this offering is more than worthwhile!

Drifting / White Tiger

Director- Tod Browning

Cast- Priscilla Dean, Matt Moore, Wallace Beery

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-12/13/20