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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Fatty and Mabel’s
Simple Life
(1915)
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 Mackinac Media
2005 DVD edition
The Forgotten Films of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle (1913-1932), black & white and color-toned black & white, 625 minutes total, not rated, including Fatty and Mabel’s Simple Life (1915), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Mackinac Media, MM0006D, UPC 6-89076-96352-7.
Four single-sided, dual-layered?, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; four-disc DVD keepcase; $49.95.
Release date: 24 May 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD collection contains 32 comedies directed by and starring Roscoe Arbuckle, and also feature Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Ford Sterling, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Jackie Coogan, Al St. John, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, Charley Chase, Monty Banks, Lloyd Hamilton and Lupino Lane. The disc has been mastered from archival materials, or from the only known surviving print. The films feature restored intertitles, and several include previously lost or alternate footage.
The presentation features newly-created music scores by Philip Carli, David Drazin, Ben Model, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Rodney Sauer and Donald Sosin.
As of 2008, this four-disc collection is out-of-print and can only be found as a used item. It remains our recommended home video edition of this 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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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Alpha Video
2023 DVD edition
Silent Comedy Classics Collection, Volume 8 (1913-1922), black & white, 68 minutes total, not rated, including Fatty and Mabel’s Simple Life (1915), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8535D, UPC 0-89218-85359-2.
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; $8.98.
Release date: 1 August 2023.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
Probably not a great presentation but, for some of these films, this is the only home video edition of the film we know of.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2012 DVD edition
Forgotten Funnymen: Al St. John (1915-1932), black & white, 69 minutes total, not rated, including Fatty and Mabel’s Simple Life (1915), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6755D, UPC 0-89218-67559-0.
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; $6.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 17 April 2012.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
We don’t recommend this below-average disc since some of the films are available elsewhere in better-looking home video editions.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 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 ROSCOE ARBUCKLE films available on home video.
Other KEYSTONE comedy films available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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Roscoe Arbuckle filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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