Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The High Sign (1921)

In his first solo film production, Buster Keaton is hired as a bodyguard to protect a man from a secret society of killers.

The High Sign (1921) was actually the first Keaton short produced by his own company in 1920, but was held for later release favoring the release of One Week (1920) instead.

This Blu-ray Disc edition of The High Sign has been mastered in high-definition from a moderately scuffed 35mm print. The film is presented in two versions in the collection: one version in its unmodified HD video transfer (revealing a moderate-to-pronounced amount of emulsion scuffing), and in the other version that has been slightly digitally cleaned of some of the scuffing, sacrificing a small amount of the image sharpness for the sake of a smoother overall picture. The difference in quality between the two versions in the Blu-ray Disc edition.

At least one insert shot and an intertitle comes from another source print, which is a little stretched horizontally. The overall print detail is very-good to excellent. You can even read the signage off in the distance of a long shot (Plaza Auto Park Drive In).

The film is accompanied by a piano score composed and performed by Ben Model.

Among the supplementary content created for this collection are 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Supplementary material includes an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; a recently-discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; a video essay by critic David Cairns; a discussion of Keaton’s style by actor Pierre Étaix; an audio recording of Keaton at a 1962 party; and a 184-page booklet with a roundtable discussion with critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt, an essay and with detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance; an essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; an excerpt from Life with Buster Keaton (1951) in cluding a reenactment by Keaton of Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance,” first performed in The Cook and the words of Buster Keaton.

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.

This remastered DVD edition of The High Sign has been mastered in high-definition from a moderately scuffed 35mm print. The film is presented in two versions in the collection: one version in its unmodified HD video transfer (revealing a moderate-to-pronounced amount of emulsion scuffing), and in the other version that has been slightly digitally cleaned of some of the scuffing, sacrificing a small amount of the image sharpness for the sake of a smoother overall picture. The difference in quality between the two versions in Kino’s new DVD edition is not as great as in the Blu-ray Disc edition. We feel that either or both of the two versions will satisfy most collectors who choose the DVD edition. The increased picture quality of the HD transfer, stepped down in resolution for this DVD release, shows marked improvement over the analog transfers from the 1990s utilized for Kino’s 2000 DVD edition.

Among the supplementary content created for this collection are 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This DVD edition of the Keaton short The High Sign (1921) has been produced for home video by David Shepard, and appears here as it was released by Kino on VHS videotape in 1995. The film has been transferred from a very-good but worn 35mm print, with some constant emulsion scuffing.

The film is accompanied by an older small orchestra recording, with sound effects, from a previous sound film rerelease.

For information on the other Keaton releases in this collection, see our The Saphead on home video page and our One Week on home video page.

This edition of Buster Keaton’s first solo film production will please viewers with its quality picture image and pleasant musical accompaniment.

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