Warner Archive market an excellent print of Gilbert's Desert Nights (1929). There is one proviso, however. A small amount of footage is obviously missing in a confrontation scene between Gilbert and Ernest Torrence. How much footage is missing from the film is a matter of speculation. The American Film Institute Catalog offers a total footage count of 7,177 feet on 7 reels. This doesn't make sense. There's no way in the world you could wind 7,177 feet on to 7 reels. A standard reel holds 8 or 9 minutes of film. You could squeeze 10 minutes on a reel, but certainly no more. So the original release ran no more than 70 minutes – and most probably 2 to 5 minutes less. As the Warner DVD/TV print runs 62 minutes at 25 frames a second, that means it would unroll in more than 64 minutes in a cinema. At the most, therefore, no more than 5 minutes is missing. This small break doesn't mar my enjoyment of the movie, which is certainly one of William Nigh's best. Mr Nigh is definitely not a director with any sort of a cult following. To put it plainly, he's a hack. Most connoisseurs do their darndest to avoid watching any of his 120 movies. Yet towards the end of the silent period, he was highly regarded and managed to land some prestige assignments including this movie, plus Across to Singapore (1928) – not a bad picture at all, very well produced, starring Ramon Novarro and Joan Crawford – and Mr Wu (1927) with Lon Chaney at the height of his popularity. In 1930, Nigh directed Lord Byron of Broadway. This total disaster put an end to his flirtation with "A" movie studios. For the rest of his career, he dwelt exclusively on Poverty Row. On Desert Nights, however, Nigh (who also produced) was not only working with a superior cameraman, James Wong Howe (noted both for his artistry and his ability to light scenes quickly), but had the services of a brilliant cast in our John Gilbert, Ernest Torrence, Mary Nolan trio. Any movie with any one of these three would qualify as a must-see item. Put them together and the sparks really fly. The desert locations are also striking. William Axt has contributed a most effective music score. In all, I think M-G-M made the right decision to produce this movie as a silent with music and sound effects. Spoken dialogue would have undermined the mood and drawn attention to plot implausibilities.
Review of Desert Nights
