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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The
Sea Lion
(1921)
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This drama features Hobart Bosworth in a story, made for his own production company, that also stars Bessie Love and Emory Johnson.
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 Grapevine Video
2013 DVD edition
The Sea Lion (1921), black & white, 57 minutes, not rated, with Russian Baloney (19??), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10620-0.
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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95.
Release date: 15 November 2013.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a new music score by David Knudtson, likely performed on the Miditzer virtual theater organ (computer-based) system.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC 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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 Unknown Video
2008 DVD edition
The Sea Lion (1921), color-toned black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with The Average Woman (1924), color-toned black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Unknown Video, 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; $18.95.
Release date: 1 August 2008.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from an original print.
The film is presented with musical accompaniment performed by David Drazin.
Even sight unseen, we would recommend this edition of The Sea Lion over the TeleVista edition noted below. If you own a copy of this disc please consider loaning it to us to review for documentation purposes. We pay postage both ways.
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UNKNOWN VIDEO has discontinued business and this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is . . .
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 TeleVista
2009 DVD edition
The Sea Lion (1921), black & white, 63 minutes, not rated.
TeleVista, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 7.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 12 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 6 January 2009.
Country of origin: USA •
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print that is reasonably detailed, and features a good range of greytones except of the lighter grey shadows than necessary. The edition could have benefited from some greyscale range adjustment of the full-frame, natural-speed video transfer that is, at least, watchable.
The film is accompanied by a music score cobbled together from a very diverse selection of preexisting recordings.
For us, other TeleVista editions have been of such lousy quality for the relatively high cost that we usually recommend that you instead purchase another edition, if there is one to be had. This TeleVista edition at least does not shame the company’s home video producers.
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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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 Alpha Video
2013 DVD edition
The Sea Lion (1921), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7217D, UPC 0-89218-72179-2.
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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 10 December 2013.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack cobbled together from preexisting recordings.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. 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 NAUTICAL FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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