Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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White Tiger
(1923)
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This Tod Browning crime film stars Priscilla Dean, Raymond Griffith, Wallace Beery and Matt Moore.
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 Kino Classics
2020 Blu-ray Disc edition
Drifting (1923), color-tinted black & white, 84 minutes, not rated, with White Tiger (1923), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, no catalog number, UPC 7-38329-25141-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 32.4 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 2.0 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 20 October 2020.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 5.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print held by the Library of Congress. The worn source material shows a significant amount of wear still present in the high-definition scan, with dust, speckling, schmutz, vertical scratches, filmbase damage, and other print flaws compromising the picture. It truly is a pity that this film is not known to survive in better condition.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Anton Sanko.
Supplemental material includes audio commentary for The White Tiger by edition producer Bret Wood and for Drifting by film historian Anthony Slide; and a fragment of the presumed lost Browning film The Exquisite Thief (1919) (10 minutes).
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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This
Region 0 Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Kino Classics
2020 DVD edition
Drifting (1923), black & white, 84 minutes, not rated, with White Tiger (1923), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, no catalog number, UPC 7-38329-25140-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 20 October 2020.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print held by the Library of Congress.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Anton Sanko.
Supplemental material includes audio commentary for The White Tiger by edition producer Bret Wood and for Drifting by film historian Anthony Slide; and a fragment of the presumed lost Browning film The Exquisite Thief (1919) (10 minutes).
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2010 DVD edition
White Tiger (1923), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6475D, UPC 0-89218-64759-7.
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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 28 December 2010.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 6.
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This DVD-R edition has been prepared from a very-good 16mm reduction print with reasonable image detail and a fairly broad greytone range. In the last quarter of the film the picture gets a little flat and greyed in comparison with the rest of the print. This source material was provided by National Film Archive, Incorporated (whoever that is) and this represents a break from Alpha’s fairly routine practice of using substandard 8mm reduction prints for their silent film releases.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Douglas M. Protsik. We suspect that this score is from the soundtrack of the source print, and it is a welcome change from the standard Alpha practice of cobbling music together from preexisting recordings.
Note: Our file copy of this release is not a manufactured-on-demand DVD-R disc but is instead a standard manufacture DVD disc. That said, there is no guarantee that discs purchased today will not now be an MOD DVD-R disc.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition
White Tiger (1923), black & white, 81 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 18 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print that is heavily worn, substantially contrasty, with blasted out highlight details, and quite speckled and dusty.
The film is accompanied by a number of preexisting orchestral recordings, edited to fit the action.
Shock of shocks, we recommend the Alpha Video edition noted above over this Grapevine Video release.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
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Other silent era TOD BROWNING films available on home video.
Other CRIME FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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