Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Deerslayer and Chingachgook (1920)

This German adaptation of the venerated James Fenimore Cooper tale, directed by Arthur Wellin, stars Emil Mamelok and Herta Héden, and features a young Bela Lugosi with Gottfried Krause, Eduard Eysenck, Margot Sokolowska, Kurt Rottenburg, Erna Rehberger and Willy Schröder.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a good 16mm reduction print with English language intertitles (possibly from the film’s original USA release). The limited resolution of VHS renders a soft picture that borders on blurry. The windowboxed presentation hides much of the video mistracking often seen at the bottom of the picture, which is characteristic of VHS.

A rare occurance for Alpha Video, the film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano by Rachel Gutches. We suspect that the music was improvised as it does feel to be in turns random and repetitive and tentative — when stuck in a musical corner, throw in a glissando or two and maybe you’ll get out of a fix. However, that said, this music is far better than a clumsy parade of low-fidelity recordings any day.

The Alpha Video logomark is superimposed into various corners from time-to-time throughout the presentation. While this is intended to foil other video producers who may be tempted to duplicate this video transfer in a competing product, we lobby for discontinuing the practice since it shows blatant unconcern for the expectations and desires of the consumer, who may wish to purchase a video product that is presented as close as possible to the film’s original state.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print of an English language release version of the film. The older analog videotape master has a few video glitches in it and the print itself contains a typical amount of dust, speckling, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together soundtrack of preexisting monaural orchestral recordings that have been reprocessed for fake stereo. Duophonic sound won’t die, will it?

Supplemental material includes a Charley Chase Jimmy Jump comedy short from a poor to fair 8mm reduction print.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

Other GERMAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.