Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Charley’s Aunt
(1925)
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This feature-length comedy, adapted from the famous Brandon Thomas play and directed by Scott Sidney, stars a dapper Sydney Chaplin, with Ethel Shannon, James E. Page, Lucien Littlefield, Alec B. Francis, Phillips Smalley, Eulalie Jensen, David James, James Harrison, Mary Akin, Priscilla Bonner, George B. French and Leo White.
This comedy of errors is tried and true and Syd Chaplin shines as Charley’s aunt, but we are not fans of the numerous Lucien Littlefield reaction shots.
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 All Day Entertainment
2008 DVD edition
American Slapstick, Volume 2 (1915-1937), black & white, 440 minutes total, not rated, including Charley’s Aunt (1925), black & white, 71 minutes, not rated.
All Day Entertainment, distributed by Facets Video,
DV96585, UPC 7-36899-11822-8, ISBN 1-56580-777-4.
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 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 12 chapter stops; 16-page insert booklet; standard three-disc DVD keepcase; $39.99.
Release date: 22 July 2008.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good to excellent 16mm reduction print held by Film Preservation Associates. The source material is worn with an avarage amount of dust, speckling, emulsion scuffing and scrapes, and other print flaws. Not bad viewing but we hope there are surviving 35mm materials from which a restoration could be prepared.
The film is accompanied by an energetic music score composed and performed on piano by David Drazin.
Supplementary material includes a 16-page insert booklet with information by Steve Massa about the performers represented in the collection.
This is our recommended home video edition of Charley’s Aunt.
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ALL DAY ENTERTAINMENT has discontinued disc sales
and this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2011 DVD edition
Charley’s Aunt (1925), black & white, 76 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, 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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95.
Release date: December 2011.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed by David Knudtson.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2012 DVD edition
Charley’s Aunt (1925), color-toned black & white, 91 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6739D, UPC 0-89218-67399-2.
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 5.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 7 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 13 March 2012.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition features a complete presentation of the feature-length comedy, Charley’s Aunt, mastered from a fair 8mm reduction print. The picture is tightly cropped compared to the All Day Entertainment edition noted above.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
Not recommended. You will enjoy the film much better viewing it from one of the other editions noted above.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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