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The
Chaplin Revue
(1918-1923)

Contents: A Dog’s Life (1918), The Bond (1918), Shoulder Arms (1918), How to Make Movies (1918), Sunnyside (1919), A Day’s Pleasure (1919), The Idle Class (1921), Pay Day (1922) and The Pilgrim (1923).

Park Circus
2010 DVD edition

The Chaplin Revue (1918-1923), black & white, 323 minutes total, BBFC Classification U, including A Dog’s Life (1918), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, The Bond (1918), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, Shoulder Arms (1918), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, How to Make Movies (1918), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, Sunnyside (1919), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, A Day’s Pleasure (1919), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, The Idle Class (1921), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, Pay Day (1922), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U, and The Pilgrim (1923), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification U.

Park Circus, PC0019, UPC 5-060203-34019-3.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD discs; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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) 5.1 surround sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase in cardboard slipcover; £15.99.
Release date: 15 November 2010.
Country of origin: Scotland

This PAL DVD collection of The Chaplin Revue, from a Scottish distribution company and produced for home video by MK2 Diffusion, has been mastered from 35mm print materials controlled by the Estate of Charles Chaplin.

The film is presented with the established music score composed by Charles Chapli n.

The disc’s supplemental material includes an introduction by David Robinson.

This being nearly identical in content to the 2004 Warner Home Video edition noted below, owners of that edition may not feel the need to acquire this Park Circus edition. This edition, currently the only high-quality edition in print, is recommended for those who want to add the film to their collection now. With no high-definition home video option, we recommend this edition.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Warner Home Video
2004 DVD edition

The Chaplin Revue (1918-1923), black & white, 288 minutes total, not rated, including A Dog’s Life (1918), black & white, 33 minutes, not rated, The Bond (1918), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, Shoulder Arms (1918), black & white, 36 minutes, not rated, How to Make Movies (1918), black & white, 16 minutes, not rated, Sunnyside (1919), black & white, 29 minutes, not rated, A Day’s Pleasure (1919), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated, The Idle Class (1921), black & white, 31 minutes, not rated, Pay Day (1922), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated, and The Pilgrim (1923), black & white, 40 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video, 34460, UPC 0-85393-44602-4, ISBN 0-7907-9111-0.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD discs; 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, Spanish and Portuguese language menus; English language intertitles, optional English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Korean and Thai language subtitles; chapter stops; cardboard wrap case with plastic trays in cardboard slipcase; $29.95.
Release date: 2 March 2004.
Country of origin: USA

Our first look at the discs reveals the high quality one would expect from video transfers utilizing 35mm prints and negatives from Chaplin’s own film collection. The detail and greyscale ranges are consistently excellent. However, we have had problems with the disc displaying properly to a 16:9 high-definition television when played from one of our DVD players. The picture fills the 16:9 monitor in width (already wrong for a 4:3 format picture) and crops the top and bottom of the picture to do so. No amount of manipulation of the picture settings ideally resolves the issue. Other DVD players will not have this issue.

Be aware that that isn’t the only issue with the production of this set. Despite how they are labeled, disc 1 is disc two and disc 2 is disc one. Confused? So were we.

The disc includes the option to view the films in the Chaplin Revue form that Chaplin assembled for release in 1959 (including Chaplin’s overview introduction) or as the individual films themselves — appealing to collectors who want the individual films presented as closely as possible to their original form.

The supplementary material includes the unreleased Chaplin film How to Make Movies, the war bond comedies The Bond and [Harry Lauder] (1918), outtakes from Shoulder Arms and Sunnyside, informal momento films, introductions by David Robinson, stills and posters galleries, and trailers.