This year marks the 100th anniversary of a classic silent era film and trailblazer, The Sheik. Paramount Home Entertainment will celebrate this incredible milestone by bringing The Sheik into the Paramount Presents Blu-ray line on October 19th, 2021.
An extensive restoration was required for The Sheik’s Paramount Presents Blu-ray debut. In Paramount’s words:
The Sheik restoration employed modern technology so viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent film. Since original negatives for silent films rarely exist, Paramount searched the world for the best elements and used a print and an intermediate element called a fine grain. One source of the film yielded better results for image quality, another for intertitles. One of the elements was “stretch-printed” and had to be adjusted digitally during the restoration process. In the silent era there was no standard frame rate, so stretch printing was done to show silent films at 24 frames per second. In addition, tints and tones were digitally applied, guided by an original continuity script from the Paramount archive. The result is the best picture quality The Sheikhas had since it was originally shown in theaters 100 years ago.
Film historian and professor Leslie Midkiff DeBauche will explore the controversial themes of The Sheik in the all-new featurette, Desert Heat: 100 Years with The Sheik.
The Sheik Blu-ray will also include a music score by Roger Bellon and Digital copy.
