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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Anna Christie
(1923)
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This film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eugene O’Neill play was directed by John Griffith Wray and stars Blanche Sweet and William Russell, with George F. Marion and Eugenie Besserer in support. Russell’s overly animated acting style is a bit detrimental to the overall impact of the film, while Sweet carries much of the load.
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 Grapevine Video
2010 DVD edition
Anna Christie (1923), black & white, 87 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10401-5.
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 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); LPCM 2.0 mono sound encoded at 1.5 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95 (raised to $16.95).
Release date: August 2010.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 5 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print duplicated from a foreign export version of the film, the only known surviving source material. Foreign intertitles have been replaced with English intertitles. The reduction print is typical in quality, with dark plugged-up shadows, soft image detail, exposure fluctuations, dust, speckling, emulsion scrapes, some hot, featureless highlights, and other print flaws.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting monaural orchestral recordings.
Despite its shortcomings, this is our recommended home video edition of the film until a better disc is produced.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2021 DVD edition
Anna Christie (1923), black & white, 87 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8399D, UPC 0-89218-83999-2.
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); LPCM 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 9 March 2021.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
Sight unseen, we cannot recommend this home video edition of the film.
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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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Other silent era BLANCHE SWEET films available on home video.
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