Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Too Wise Wives

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

Too Wise Wives
(1921)

This domestic drama, directed by Lois Weber, stars Louis Calhern and Claire Windsor, with Phillips Smalley and Mona Lisa.

Kino Classics
2018 Blu-ray Disc edition

Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (1911-1929), black & white and color-toned black & white, 1710 minutes total, not rated, including Too Wise Wives (1921), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K23411, UPC 7-38329-23411-9.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc (six BDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 22.8 Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.5 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 5 chapter stops; 80-page insert booklet; three double-disc plastic trays on cardboard wrap in cardboard storage box; $99.95.
Release date: 20 November 2018.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from at high-resolution from a very-good to excellent 35mm duplicate negative held by the Library of Congress. The scan is relatively free of print flaws, with a sparce amount of dust and speckling, substantial but infrequent vertical scratches, emulsion scrapes, mild frame jitters and moderate exposure fluctuations remaining. The viewing experience is quite pleasing.

The film is accompanied by a fine music score composed and performed on piano by Makia Matsumura.

Supplementary material for this film includes audio commentary by Gaylyn Studlar; and a Lois Weber featurette with contributions by Shelley Stamp and Anthony Slide (9 minutes).

This Blu-ray Disc edition is a considerable improvement over the 2001 DVD edition noted below, and this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The Library of Congress /
Smithsonian Video
2001 DVD edition

The Origins of Film (1900-1927), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color-toned black & white, 560 minutes total, not rated, including Too Wise Wives (1921), black & white, 78 minutes, not rated.

The Library of Congress/Smithsonian Video, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID9807UMDVD, UPC 0-14381-98072-1.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (three DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 4.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; three standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $79.99.
Release date: 13 March 2001.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This DVD edition has been mastered in an analog video transfer from a very-good to excellent 35mm duplicate negative held by the Library of Congress. The results are not extremely sharp, and the print is marked with dust, speckling, emulsion scrapes, schmutz, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano.

This edition is now regretably out-of-print but is no longer a recommended home video edition of the film.

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