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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Less Than the Dust
(1916)

This drama, directed by John Emerson, of an English girl abandoned in India stars Mary Pickford, David Powell, Frank Losee, Mary Alden, and Cesare Gravina, with a bit part played by assistant director Erich von Stroheim.

Alpha Video
2015 DVD edition

Less Than the Dust (1916), black & white, 93 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7588D, UPC 0-89218-75889-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 24 February 2015.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print of reasonable quality. The video transfer is a little grey and flat, with dark, featureless shadows. We have no idea why this is being touted as a “Revised Edition!”. As has happened before, there may have been a mastering problem with the original release of this edition and this may be the corrected disc.

The film is accompanied by orchestral music compiled from preexisting recordings.

Not a great edition but . . . hey! . . . this is the only known DVD home video edition of this rarely-seen Mary Pickford film.

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