Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Social
Secretary
(1916)
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Norma Talmadge stars as a beautiful secretary who stays one step ahead of her wolfish employers by taking a job as a social secretary to a society woman. Erich von Stroheim appears in a small role as a newspaper reporter.
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 Grapevine Video
2004 DVD edition
The Social Secretary (1916), color-toned black & white, 52 minutes, not rated, with The Forbidden City (1918), black & white, 62 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10042-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 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 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a dark, color-toned 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed on theater organ.
Currently, this is the best home video edition of this film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2012 DVD edition
The Social Secretary (1916), black & white, 48 minutes, not rated, with ’Twas Henry’s Fault (1919), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6696D, UPC 0-89218-66969-8.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 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 ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 3 January 2012.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a fair to good Blackhawk Films 8mm reduction print. The video transfer is contrasty, with plugged-up shadows and blasted out highlights.
The film is not accompanied by any kind of music score.
Not at all recommended. Until a better edition comes along, get the Grapevine Video edition noted above.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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Other silent era NORMA TALMADGE films available on home video.
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