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Hal Roach Presents
Early Pathé
Comedies
(1920-1926)

Contents: Merely a Maid (1920), Straight Crook (1921), Years to Come (1922), Be Honest! (1923), Tight Shoes (1923), At First Sight (1924), The Bouncer (1925), Tell It to a Policeman (1925), 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926) and What’s the World Coming To? (1926).

Alpha Video
2016 DVD edition

Hal Roach Presents Early Pathé Comedies (1920-1926), black & white, 120 minutes total, not rated, including Merely a Maid (1920), black & white, 12 minutes, not rated, Straight Crook (1921), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, Years to Come (1922), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, Be Honest! (1923), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, Tight Shoes (1923), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, At First Sight (1924), black & white, 12 minutes, not rated, The Bouncer (1925), black & white, 9 minutes, not rated, Tell It to a Policeman (1925), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated, 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated, and What’s the World Coming To? (1926), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7821D, UPC 0-89218-78219-9.
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; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 19 July 2016.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R collection has been mastered from a range of 16mm and 8mm reduction prints, with more than one being low-quality duds.

The films are accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting recordings.

For our comparative reviews of some of these films, see our At First Sight on home video and 45 Minutes from Hollywood on home video pages.

We wouldn’t recommend this below-average disc but a few of the films are available nowhere else on home video. However, the low quality of many of the source prints can make this DVD tough going.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.