Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
Lucky Star
(1929)
|
Frank Borzage’s last silent film, Lucky Star (1929), is another teaming of director Borzage with Fox stars Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor (who had won the first Academy Award® for Actress for her combined performances in 7th Heaven and Street Angel, both directed by Borzage, and for Sunrise). Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams supports in this tale of romance with rural and war themes.
|
 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
2008 DVD edition
Murnau, Borzage and Fox (1925-1932), black & white and color, 1080 minutes total, not rated, including Lucky Star (1929), black & white, 99 minutes, not rated.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,
35622, UPC 0-24543-56220-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (twelve DVDs in the set); 1.20:1 aspect ratio image in pillarboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 448 and 192 Kbps audio bit rates, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, French, Spanish and English (sound films only) language subtitles; 20 chapter stops; clothbound binder with disc pockets in clothbound box; $239.98.
Release date: 9 December 2008.
Country of origin: USA
|
This DVD edition of Frank Borzage’s Lucky Star (1929) has been mastered from an excellent Movietone 35mm print (the picture being cropped to an approximate 1.20:1 ratio). The film is not presented here with its original Movietone soundtrack.
Some collectors have reported scuffed discs that are packaged in the die-cut pockets within the binder, and problems playing the double-sided 7th Heaven/The River disc. This disc packaging choice has been a disturbing trend in larger boxsets like this one and the plastic-slipcased Hitchcock collection with their die-cut disc pockets within stiff cardboard pages. Our own copy of this set has presented no playback problems with the discs on a Panasonic BD player. Others have complained that the set is bulky at seven pounds and hard to handle, with its large binder and two full-size books.
|
|
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
|
|
|
 Loving the Classics
201? DVD edition
Lucky Star (1929), black & white, 90 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
|
|
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.
|
|
This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
|
|
|
|
Other silent era FRANK BORZAGE films available on home video.
|
