Tonka of the Gallows (1930) - a great film, just restored

[Lokke Heiss]

Tonka of the Gallows - An Unearthed Treasure.

I don't like to say a film has been 'rediscovered,' it always makes me wonder who found the film in the first place and then who lost it. So let's just say the Czech Archive has just unearthed a treasure of a film. The name of this treasure is Tonka of the Gallows, and it screened last night at MoMA as part of a month's program of Czech films.

In the beginning of the film we see city girl Tonka (played by an amazing Ita Rina) traveling by train back to her childhood home in the country, and the contrasts between city and country life are clearly marked, making comparisons between this film and Sunrise inevitable. Soon though, Tonka returns to the city and when we learn she has been able to earn a living only by being a prostitute, the film starts to become darker and more complex.

Things get very dark indeed for Tonka, when - from an act of pity - she volunteers to spend a night with a condemned man in his jail cell before his execution the next morning. Although her night with the man is one spent in innocent tenderness, as she allows him to relive his happy days as a child, to the rest of the world she is a now a 'hanged man's widow' - a pariah to be shunned and avoided. Tonka has become a 'fallen angel,' cursed by her act of kindness, an act which threatens any chance she has of happiness.

All the acting in this film is superb, but especially wonderful is Ita Rina as Tonka, who is completely convincing as the woman who no matter how hard she tries, can never shake off or destroy the pure heart that is deep inside of her. She gives one of the greatest silent film performances I have ever seen, and if you need just one reason to seek out this film, it is to see her in this part.

But there are many other reasons. The art direction combines social realism with many elements of expressionism: the characters in this film are trapped by social convention, some are trapped by prison walls, but mostly, the characters are trapped by jagged lines, jiggles, and figures of darkness that spring up and surround them, cutting them off from escape and freedom, sometimes even prophetically displaying themselves on the walls and on their faces, like the dark hand of fate, symbolically forecasting their futures. This movie is a nightmarish wonderland of shadows.

And finally, in a thematic way, these shadows of confusion and concealment extend into the narrative itself - as a bruised and beaten Tonka sings for her supper to a crowd in the bar - they yell that all they want is to hear about her night of passion with the hanged man. The crowd care nothing about what really happened, and they don't care about her, they just care about what they already believe. The myth has become fact and Tonka must live in the myth or die. It's a cruel lesson to learn, and a lesson that seems more timely than ever.

[Jess McGrath]

I'm planning to catch this one on Saturday night at MOMA, as it sounds fantastic.

One question for clarification: is the film silent or sound?

[Saint-Just]

I have the DVD of this but haven't given it a look yet.

[goldenband]

This sounds amazing -- thanks for bringing it to my/our attention.

[Saint-Just]

I gave this a look last night and was blown away - I can only concur with everything Lokke Heiss said.

[Mike Gebert]

So there's a version from a TV broadcast on Dailymotion, which is decent, and there's a DVD on Amazon with a cover which suggests dupe-- is that the one anyone who's bought it has, or did you buy it directly from a Czech source (with English titles)?

[Danny Burk]

So there's a version from a TV broadcast on Dailymotion, which is decent, and there's a DVD on Amazon with a cover which suggests dupe-- is that the one anyone who's bought it has, or did you buy it directly from a Czech source (with English titles)?

I ordered the Amazon version this morning, which comes from a Czech seller.

[Saint-Just]

I bought mine from a Czech seller on amazonUK - it's the official Czech archive disc. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonka-Sibenice ... he+gallows" target="_blank

[Mike Gebert]

Well, I think that's what I ordered. It looked kind of borderline-professionally designed, so I wasn't sure. Anyway, looking forward to it.

[Lokke Heiss]

Hi Jess, the film is technically a sync sound film with two songs which are lip synched - the rest of the film is played 'silent' with intertitle cards, but with a music score, ala Don Juan.

So less pedantically, this is a silent film with two short songs lip synched, which do not damage the silent film aesthetic. If you agree Modern Times is a silent film, and a wonderful one at that, so is this.

I got a msg from Rodney Sauer that he's played a version of the film with a couple of scenes out of order - either I did not notice them, or they had been fixed in the print I saw (at MoMA for a Czech series). But aware of the DVD you get will probably have what Rodney talked about - but I sure didn't see anything off when I saw it.

The usual warning that most silent films play much better with a appreciative crowd - but this one should do okay with a small screen. The sync soundtrack for the most part worked well, and I thought was more sophisticated than the Don Juan soundtrack.

Can anyone come up with a short list of great silent films from around 1930? This may be my top film of that year - silent OR sound, although the Japanese films are hard to compare, since they were still going full guns there.

[Changsham]

Ordered mine from Amazon UK. Always great tips from Nitrateville contributors. Forcing me to spend money all the time. They had three left and now all sold out. Same as Amazon.com.

[Rick Lanham]

I ordered mine from Amazon US, has been shipped from Europe. I knew that if I checked on Amazon UK, I would end up ordering at least two more movies from there.

Rick

[Mike Gebert]

So I ordered both of these titles, sight unseen, from an Amazon seller named Czechmovie. (Erotikon is the 1929 Gustav Machaty film, no relation to the 1920 Stiller film which Kino put out.)

Happy to report that both are official releases with scores and English subtitles. Both have nice clear images; Erotikon is a little more worn but otherwise has the better contrast; Tonka looks cleaner but not as rich blacks by comparison. Still, of very good quality overall. Anyone interested in these titles can buy with confidence.

[Mike Gebert]

So I finally watched these for Watch That Movie Night, cross-linking here:

Tonka of the Gallows
Erotikon

[Rodney]

I got a msg from Rodney Sauer that he's played a version of the film with a couple of scenes out of order - either I did not notice them, or they had been fixed in the print I saw (at MoMA for a Czech series). But aware of the DVD you get will probably have what Rodney talked about - but I sure didn't see anything off when I saw it.

Not sure why I didn't notice this post in 2017... but the film I played for where I felt some scenes were out of order was, in fact, the Czech version of Erotikon, not Tonka of the Gallows (which I haven't seen).

No spoilers, and it's been a while, but I remember it's the sequence where the country girl is heading to the city and we see the day of the city man beginning. Something about the scenes of him taking a shower and meeting with his girlfriend (?) seemed to be in an illogical sequence. It did not really affect the story, which I think is wonderfully told.

[Mike Gebert]

Hmm, seemed okay to me... he's cleaning up to go out, post-dalliance, she's still lounging about.

There is rather a large narrative jump from Ita Rina being rescued in the woods and what follows, to them being married and her being a prosperous urbanite all of a sudden. But it seems deliberate, just a little awkward and abrupt, like the Olive Thomas film I saw once that had her married and widowed within a single title.

[Keatonesque]

I hope this one can get a release (Flicker Alley, work your magic!) as it sounds fantastic.

[Rodney]

Tonka is on the program at the San Francisco silent film festival in early May.

[Mike Gebert]

As I noted a while back, you can get a pretty good copy of it, not perfect but good enough to convey the quality of the film, from the Czech Republic, and from this Amazon seller (though this page has the wrong image, but I got the right film nonetheless).

That said, it would be great if the SFSFF version is a more thorough restoration, and yes, if it comes out from someone like Flicker Alley. It deserves to be held in the same company as Sunrise and Seventh Heaven and Lonesome among tail-end silents.

[rudyfan]

I had bought the dvd on the recommendation of Farran Smith Nehme and had just not gotten around to it. It screened today with Stephen Horne playing a sensitive and emotional score. I was, in a word, blown away.

The chiraoscuro lighting, the arc of the story through the seasons, the searing and heart-wrenching portrayal by Ita Rina as Tonka was just incredible.

If you get an opportunity, do not miss seeing this. It is a gut punch, a well made film. Light and dark. What a movie and so happy I got to see it with a nice appreciative crowd.

[Trueblood]

I acted also from a previous posting here, too, and purchased TONKA SIBENICE and EROTIKON--both with very moving performances from Ita Rina. Nicely done DVD's. TONKA has some subtitled bonuses and a booklet of essays. You'll need a player that can handle PAL disks. I purchased them both at very fair prices from CZECHMOVIE on EBAY. They also have a website--https://czechmovie.com/. I spent several enjoyable hours browsing that website and ordered three more Czech films--all sound ones this time.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

I watched this on YT, before this came up or I might have waited. Even without English subtitles and in the condition this was in [from a French print], it was still very impressive and very moving, and better in my view than some of the other silents [ATLANTIS, 1913 and BY THE LAW, 1926] which were in decent prints with English translation.

[Keatonesque]

Now let's get Flicker Alley to release this so the rest of us can finally see it.

[Mike Gebert]

How did the SFSFF version look?

[rudyfan]

How did the SFSFF version look?

Mike, it looked very good. I need to plop my dvd in to compare. The print looks to be the same Narodni Film Archiv as what flashed on the screen. Assuming the DVD is the same.

[Rodney]

And that score that Stephen Horne played was gorgeous... one of his themes is still stuck in my head days later, which doesn't happen often to me.

I thought the film was lovely, though I don't put it on a level with Sunrise, myself. A better quality original would help, as it had numerous scratches and other damage; but the quality of the original production shines through.

I knew the main actress from Machaty's Erotikon, and she was very, very good here as well. As was the condemned man, who was portrayed as being far more dangerous than I was expecting... in his first scene, one of the guards chastises him for crushing all of his metal cups; so he clearly has anger issues; and poor Tonka is going into a physically more risky situation than I had anticipated based on the synopsis.

There was a slide during the pre-show that claimed that 75-80% of the Czech silent features are thought to survive, which shows a level of care far past what other countries were doing at that time.

[missdupont]

I thought it was beautiful and moving, "Sunrise" in reverse, in that the country is peaceful and full of love and the city brings darkness and despair.

[rudyfan]

There was a slide during the pre-show that claimed that 75-80% of the Czech silent features are thought to survive, which shows a level of care far past what other countries were doing at that time.

All the more remarkable given the destruction in WWII.

[Jason Holt]

It deserves to be held in the same company as Sunrise and Seventh Heaven and Lonesome among tail-end silents.

Thanks, that sealed the deal for me. I just watched some snippets online and ordered the DVD. Looking forward to seeing the whole film.

[Jim Roots]

Now let's get Flicker Alley to release this so the rest of us can finally see it.

Amen!

Jim