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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What No Man
Knows
(1921)
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This social drama features Clara Kimball Young, Lowell Sherman and Dorothy Wallace, directed by Harry Garson (Young’s husband).
What no man knows? The color of Clara Kimball Young’s knickers.
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 Great Lakes Cinephile Society
2005 DVD edition
What No Man Knows (1921), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Encore Entertainment for The Great Lakes Cinephile Society,
no catalog number, no 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 4.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 256 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $20.00.
Release date: 2005.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 6 / additional content: 2 / overall: 6.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a very-good to excellent 35mm fine-grain preservation positive from the Library of Congress. Missing footage has been bridged with expository intertitles. The source print has a significant amount of dust and speckling, emulsion chipping and scrapes, fine vertical scratches, missing frames due to print tears and breaks, timing marks, and other print flaws. Intended to discourage video bootlegging, occasionally the website address for the society or “cine” will appear in the lower part of the picture. We wish that video publishers did not feel compelled to do this as it is distracting from the viewing experience for the collector of the disc. All of that said, the viewing experience is reasonably good.
The film is presented with a prequel of newsreel footage of Clara Kimball Young attending a premiere in Michigan for What No Man Knows, with Harry Garson and Dorothy Wallace (and someone who looks quite a bit like Monty Banks).
The film is accompanied by a music score performed on a Barton theatre pipe organ by Bob Vaughn recorded live at Cinesation in 1996. The presentation includes a brief video clip of Vaughn from the performance.
Even though it is out-of-print and very likely quite hard to find, we recommend this home video edition of the film over that noted below.
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ENCORE ENTERTAINMENT has discontinued business
and this DVD-R edition is . . .
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 Silent Hall of Fame Enterprises
2016 DVD edition
What No Man Knows (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Silent Hall of Fame Enterprises, 74, 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; slimline CD jewelcase; $34.99 (raised again to $44.99).
Release date: 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has apparently been mastered from the 35mm preservation print held by the Library of Congress (as might be surmised from the publisher-provided still frame above).
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music sources.
This is not recommended as an acceptable home video edition of the film due to the low-quality value (no DVD case, no packaging artwork) provided for the high-cost demanded. $45.00 for this disc is criminal.
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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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