Film Credits

Scenario by: Thea von Harbou

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Starring: Paul Richter, Margarete Schon, Theodor Loos, Hanna Ralph, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Georg John

Review

Both Image and Republic have released a version of Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen on laserdisc. Image released theirs in a single package while Republic released the saga as two separate discs. We took a look at the content of Kriemhild's Revenge in our review of Image's Die Nibelungen set, and we refer you back to that if you wish to know more about what the film is actually about.

Republic's print of Kriemhild's Revenge is not as good as Image's. Image's source material was fairly strong and in relatively decent shape (considering its age), but Republic's source materials are fairly damaged. Several scenes suffer from a very distracting "solarization" effect, which distorts the entire grey scale. Also, Image's print features title cards in both German and English while Republic's only has the English cards. Unlike Image's disc, Republic's print does not have the negligible banding on the sides.

As far as we can tell, Republic's disc features the same CX-encoded digital surround stereo Gaylord Carter score present on Image's disc; however, the audio sounds a bit more detailed on Republic's disc, but be aware of some distorted rear channels during the opening.

Republic's Kriemhild's Revenge was pressed at Pioneer and has not been chapter encoded. Republic's jacket also contains two errors: 1) they consistently misspell the name of the film, adding in the incorrect final "e" in "Kriemhilde; and 2) they overstate the film's running time as 95 minutes (it's 91 minutes).