Made contemporaneously with the storybook operettas of Ernst Lubitsch (The Smiling Lieutenant) and Rouben Mamoulian (Love Me Tonight), Congress Dances shares a similar blend of risqué comedy, playful camerawork, inventive sound, and of course, romantic ballads. The luminous Lilian Harvey stars as a shopkeeper who promotes her wares by ambushing world leaders with floral bouquets. When she performs this stunt just before a gathering of world leaders in Vienna, she is thrust into the political and romantic entanglements of the crowned heads of Europe.

For in-depth thoughts on Congress Dances, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:.

[youtube https://youtu.be/nCFu9d_qi4Q?t=1860]

Video Quality

Congress Dances makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics and Murnau Stiftung with a decent transfer. As the opening text explains, there are no surviving negatives or contemporary copies of the complete version of the film. The most complete source is a copy of the negative in the wrong picture format. This restoration was conducted by the F.W. Murnau Foundation in 2017 is based on the negative for sound and cutting while the pictures were taken from a duplicate fragment with missing sequences inserted from the duplicate negative. These moments can be spotted by the fact that they have a black bar at the top of the screen. The film has been mastered in 2K and made to look as healthy as these conditions allow.

For a film that is over 90 years old now, this is an admirable but imperfect presentation. The lovely black-and-white photography shines in high definition with thick natural grain intact. There is a decent amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. The new transfer shows off a substantial amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. Black levels present with a fair amount of depth with no overwhelming occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The contrast is fairly well defined, but the transfer experiences a notable amount of flicker and larger specks of damage to the print. There are also more than a handful of stray vertical lines that make a quick appearance without ruining the overall aesthetic of the film. Kino Classics has done as well as could be expected given the quality of the source material.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a fairly solid LPCM 2.0 Master Audio track in the original German that serves this movie well enough considering its place in early sound recording. Dialogue and background noises are represented in pleasant harmony with all competing elements. This track does feature a decent amount of age related wear and tear including some hissing, crackles and distortion that likely date back to the source elements. The music rarely overpowers the dialogue or other important information. There are optional English (SDH and Non-SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. The good folks at Kino Classics have done their best to provide the most stable track possible for this one given its vintage.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Film historian Eddy Von Mueller provides an informative commentary track in which he explores the place of this film in cinema history, the careers of the artists involved, how it completely disregards real-life history, the different versions of the film and more. This helps contextualize the legacy of this film that is helpful when viewing. Well worth a listen!

Final Thoughts

Congress Dances is a very enjoyable tale that largely keeps things light, but it does indulge in a bit of heightened drama at points. Lilian Harvey is a radiant talent who keeps you glued to the screen in the midst of the layered narrative at its core. There are certain plot threads that are more exciting than others, but by and large most elements work together to deliver a good time. Kino Classics has rescued this forgotten gem with a new Blu-Ray sporting a pretty solid A/V presentation all things considered and an interesting commentary track. There is a very specific audience for this type of vintage German romantic musical dramedy, but if it sounds in your wheelhouse you should give this release a shot. Recommended

Congress Dances is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.