Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
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So Funny It Hurt
Buster Keaton & MGM
(2004)
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This Photoplay Productions documentary, directed by Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird, covers Buster Keaton’s bittersweet years at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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 The Criterion Collection
2020 Blu-ray Disc edition
The Cameraman (1928), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated, with So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM (2004), color and black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
The Criterion Collection, CC3158BD (collection number 1033), UPC 7-15515-24731-3, ISBN 978-1-68143-730-9.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc; 1.37:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 31.6 Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 2.3 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 18 chapter stops; 40-page insert booklet; standard BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 16 June 2020.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from archival materials.
Supplementary material includes an audio commentary on The Cameraman recorded in 2004 by Glenn Mitchell, author of A-Z of Silent Film Comedy: An Illustrated Companion; Time Travelers, a new documentary by Daniel Raim featuring interviews with John Bengtson and film historian Marc Wanamaker; Spite Marriage (1929), Buster Keaton’s next feature for MGM after The Cameraman, in a new 2K restoration, with a 2004 commentary by film historians John Bengtson and Jeffrey Vance; So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM, a 2004 documentary by film historians Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird; The Motion Picture Camera (1979), a documentary by A.S.C. cinematographer and film preservationist Karl Malkames; an interview with James L. Neibaur, author of The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia; plus a 40-page booklet featuring an essay by film critic Imogen Sara Smith. Mitchell’s commentary is entertaining but a little uninformed, as he makes a small number of unresearched and inaccurate statements regarding actors’ filmographies and the survival status of a couple of films. Mitchell also manages to mispronounce Marion Davies’ name more than once.
This is our recommended home video edition of the documentary.
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This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 The Criterion Collection
2020 DVD edition
The Cameraman (1928), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated, with So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM (2004), color and black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
The Criterion Collection, unknown catalog number (collection number 1033), UPC 7-15515-24741-2, unknown IBSN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; insert booklet; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 16 June 2020.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered from archival materials.
Supplementary material includes an audio commentary on The Cameraman recorded in 2004 by Glenn Mitchell, author of A-Z of Silent Film Comedy: An Illustrated Companion; Time Travelers, a new documentary by Daniel Raim featuring interviews with John Bengtson and film historian Marc Wanamaker; Spite Marriage (1929), Buster Keaton’s next feature for MGM following The Cameraman, in a new 2K restoration, with a 2004 commentary by film historians John Bengtson and Jeffrey Vance; So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM, a 2004 documentary by film historians Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird; The Motion Picture Camera (1979), a documentary by A.S.C. cinematographer and film preservationist Karl Malkames; an interview with James L. Neibaur, author of The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia; plus a 40-page booklet featuring an essay by film critic Imogen Sara Smith. Mitchell’s commentary is entertaining but a little uninformed, as he makes a small number of unresearched and inaccurate statements regarding actors’ filmographies and the survival status of a couple of films. Mitchell also manages to mispronounce Marion Davies’ name more than once.
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the documentary.
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This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era BUSTER KEATON films available on home video.
Other PHOTOPLAY PRODUCTIONS DOCUMENTARIES available on home video.
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Buster Keaton filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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