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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Beverly of
Graustark
(1926)
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This delightful Marion Davies comedy-drama, directed by Sidney Franklin, features Antonio Moreno, Roy D’Arcy, Albert Gran, Creighton Hale and Paulette Duval.
Beverly (Davies) must step in for her injured cousin (Hale) who is to be confirmed as King of Graustark, otherwise he would lose his throne to usurping General Marlanax (D’Arcy). In princely male disguise, Beverly meets debonair Dantan (Moreno) and the comedic mishaps of mistaken identity ensue.
Davies and Moreno really add some charming sparks to the well-mounted Cosmopolitan production for MGM. Of note are the witty intertitles written by Joe Farnum. This was the most profitable of Davies’ silent era films and it is easy to see why.
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 Undercrank Productions
2022 Blu-ray Disc edition
Beverly of Graustark (1926), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color, 77 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 7-45808-09973-2.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R BDMV); 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 30.6 Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $24.99.
Release date: 12 April 2022.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 8 / additional content: 0 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in 4K high-definition from an excellent original 35mm nitrate film print from the Marion Davies collection held by the Library of Congress. The source print is detailed and has a wide range of greytones, and features the original 2-color Technicolor ending. The natural-speed HD scan is reasonably free of speckling, dust and other print flaws.
The film is accompanied by an entertaining music score composed and performed on virtual theater pipe organ by Ben Model.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film. Really a pleasant viewing experience, we wish that all silent film presentations could look at least this good on home video.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Undercrank Productions
2022 DVD edition
Beverly of Graustark (1926), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color, 77 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
unknown 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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.99.
Release date: 12 April 2022.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered in high-definition from 35mm film elements.
The film is accompanied by an entertaining music score composed and performed on virtual theater pipe organ by Ben Model.
This is currently our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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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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Other silent era MARION DAVIES films available on home video.
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