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

That Certain Thing (1928)

That Certain Thing (1928) was the first of a series of several films Frank Capra cranked out in the latter 1920s at Columbia Pictures, and ultimately it is nothing more than a sweet trifle. But despite his quick work and the film’s frugal production budget, Capra took this innocuous comedy material and infused it with his bright personality. Getting warm and winning performances from his cast was Capra’s forte, even this early in his career. Ralph Graves is an appealing hero and we especially liked Viola Dana’s comedic performance in this film. That Certain Thing still plays well to modern audiences.

That Certain Thing has been preserved by Sony Pictures in a new 35mm preservation print duped from the only surviving original 16mm reduction print of the film. We assume that plans to restore That Certain Thing may follow the example of Sony’s digital restoration of Frank Capra’s The Matinee Idol (1928).

— Carl Bennett

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a blurry, greyed 8mm reduction print. Alpha Video and TeleVista must be in competition to consciously release the worst-looking discs in the world. Wow. How can they take money with a straight face for this crap? Honestly, the video transfer looks as if the reduction print were projected against a wall and taped by a 30-year-old consumer tape recorder. Shameful.

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

We were looking forward to upgrading to a watchable home video edition of this film but no such luck. We slightly favor this edition due to its low cost and not for any quality difference. The only good thing that can be said for the Alpha Video edition is that the cover art is attractive.

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

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 8mm reduction print and the results are predictably awful. The print and/or the video transfer is so poor that even the print scratches in the original source material are blurry. Better-looking prints exist; we’ve seen ’em.

The film is accompanied by an embarrassing soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Not at all recommended. Terrible.

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.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

Note the shortest running time here of all editions.

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

Known 35mm prints of the film originate from an interim 35mm preservation negative duped from an original 16mm reduction print, with the state of the original 16mm print being generally good. Its defects range from shutter jitters to prolonged print scratches, and the framing of the 16mm print seemed to be close to that of the original 35mm frame dimensions. All of the title cards had generous neutral space surrounding the intertitles and characters’ heads were not cropped off due to bad 16mm reduction print duping.

If you own a copy of this disc please consider loaning it to us to review for documentation purposes. We pay postage both ways.

SUNRISE SILENTS has discontinued business and this edition is . . .

Other FILMS FROM 1928 available on home video.