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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The Darkening
Trail
(1915)
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This western drama stars William S. Hart and Enid Markey, with George Fischer, Nona Thomas and Milton Ross.
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 Alpha Video
2015 DVD edition
The Disciple (1915), black & white, 66 minutes, not rated, with The Darkening Trail (1915), black & white, 48 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7694D, UPC 0-89218-76949-7.
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 4.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 1 September 2015.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from an 8mm reduction print that is rather flat and dark. Frame jitters, dust, speckling, hairs on the negative, and other print flaws are there just to remind you of how bad 8mm prints are.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack crudely compiled from noisy preexisting recordings.
Not great, and only recommended until a better home video edition becomes available.
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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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 Loving the Classics
201? DVD edition
The Darkening Trail (1915), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics,
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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.99.
Release date: 201?
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other WILLIAM S. HART films available on home video.
Other WESTERN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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