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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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The
Squaw Man
(1914)

This western drama, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel, stars Dustin Farnum, Monroe Salisbury and Winifred Kingston, with Dick La Reno, William Elmer and Princess Red Wing.

Warner Archive Collection
2012 DVD edition

The Squaw Man (1914), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated, with The Squaw Man (1931), black & white, 106 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video,
no catalog number, UPC 8-83316-31166-0.
One single-sided, dual-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, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles, 7 chapter stops (1914 version); standard DVD keepcase; $19.95 (reduced to $12.99).
Release date: 9 February 2012.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from what appears to be a high-quality 16mm reduction print, with dust, speckling, minor scratches, exposure fluctuations, some visible splices, schmutz and emulsion scuffing still visible in the video scan.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on MIDI synthesizer by H. Scott Salinas.

This disc is recommended as it is the best-looking edition of The Squaw Man on home video.

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

Passport Video
2007 DVD edition

The Cecil B. DeMille Classics Collection (1914-1926), black & white, 1622 minutes total, not rated, including The Squaw Man (1914), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated.

Passport Video, DVD-5090, UPC 0-25493-50900-0.
Five single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 4.1 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 mon0 sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 11 chapter stops; five-disc DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 12 June 2007.
Country of origin: USA

This multidisc budget DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print, at a slightly faster than natural transfer speed. The source print is a little flat in greyscale range and soft of image detail but more of the original picture details are retained in the video transfer, which results in slightly better quality than the contrasty, analog-based Alpha edition noted below.

The film is accompanied by a series of preexisting recordings.

This edition is not ideal, but it is likely — temporarily — the best available edition on home video.

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.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Alpha Video
2006 DVD edition

The Squaw Man (1914), black & white, 80 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP5121D, UPC 0-89218-51219-2.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 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 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 7 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $6.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 25 July 2006.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD edition of Cecil B. DeMille’s first film reveals a windowboxed video transfer from a 35mm source print, but the disc appears to have been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of the transfer. Tell-tale smears over shadows to the right of highlights and a specific absence of sharp image details reveals the disc’s analog origin. Freeze-frames will reveal many digital video artifacts indicating overcompression. However, we have seen discs far worse than this that were mastered from VHS and this is, regardless of its less-than-perfect mastering, quite watchable.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano by Rachel Gutches for this presentation.

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

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

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

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

Grapevine Video
2006 DVD edition

The Squaw Man (1914), black & white, 80 minutes, not rated, with Slim Becomes an Editor (1914), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10058-1.
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, English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $12.95).
Release date: 2006.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.

The film is likely accompanied by a compilation soundtrack of 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 . . .