Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > October

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

October
(1928)

Edition Filmmuseum
2014 DVD edition

Battleship Potemkin (1925) [German release version], black & white, 70 minutes, not rated, with Battleship Potemkin (1925) [1930 German sound version], black & white, 49 minutes, not rated, October (1928), black & white, 116 minutes, not rated, Vintik-Shpintik (1927), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, and Zehn Tage, die die Welt erschütterten (1928), black & white, 35 minutes, not rated.

Edition Filmmuseum, 82, unknown UPC/EAN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate [German release version] and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate [1930 German sound version]; Russian and German language intertitles, optional German, English and French language subtitles; chapter stops; 24-page insert booklet; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; €29,95.
Release date: December 2014 (second edition, February 2015).
Country of origin: Germany

This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from archival print materials.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed by Edmund Meisel and performed by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frank Strobel.

Supplemental material includes texts and documents about Edmund Meisel and the films (accessed as ROM features); and a 24-page insert booklet with writings by Thomas Tode, Richard Siedhoff, Stefan Drössler and Petr Bagrov.

Sight unseen, we recommend this PAL home video edition over the early Corinth DVD noted below. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Corinth Films
1998 DVD edition

October (1928), black & white, 103 minutes, not rated.

Corinth Films, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID4576CODVD, UPC 0-14381-45762-9.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD 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), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 1.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 12 chapter stops; snapper DVD case (reissued in standard DVD keepcase); $24.99.
Release date: 29 December 1998.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 6

This early DVD edition, from Corinth Films (U.S. distributor of the film), has been transferred from a 35mm Russian preservation print at sound speed, which is notably faster than natural speed. The 1990s analog video transfer, originally prepared for the film’s release on laserdisc and VHS videotape, is often full of dark, deep shadows and distracting picture exposure fluctuations in the greyscale range that remains. The print itself is soft in its image details and contains the normal amount of dust, speckling and picture jitters, much of it hard-printed into the preservation print from the original source print. The Russian intertitles have been replaced with video-based English intertitles (some of them with awful typographical errors).

The film is accompanied by the modern Russian music score attached to commonly-available American distribution prints of the film.

This film needs desperately to be remastered from the best materials and released on home video at the proper speed and with balanced exposures. While not ideal, this is our current recommended home video edition.

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 . . .

Eureka Entertainment
2000 DVD edition

October (1928), black & white, 104 minutes, BBFC Classification PG.

Eureka Entertainment,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered?, Region 2 PAL DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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 mono sound, Russian language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £19.99.
Release date: 8 May 2000.
Country of origin: United Kingdom

This high-quality PAL DVD edition has been mastered from a 35mm Russian language print.

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. Purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Films-sans-frontières
2006 DVD edition

L’Intégrale des films de S.M. Eisenstein (1923-1944), black & white, 784 minutes total, not rated, including October (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Films-sans-frontières,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc (four DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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, Russian language intertitles, optional French and English language subtitles; chapter stops; four standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; €90,00.
Release date: 2006.
Country of origin: France

We have not viewed this PAL DVD edition, but have received reports that the visual quality ranges from very-good to excellent.

This edition features a music score composed by Edmund Meisel.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

France: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.fr. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Grapevine Video
2003 DVD edition

October (1928), black & white, 103 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, PCM 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, Russian language intertitles, permanent English language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $9.95 (raised to $12.95).
Release date: 2003.
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 recordings.

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

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .