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

Triple Feature Comedy Classics Volume 2 (1922-1926)

Contents: The Paleface (1922), The Blacksmith (1922) and The General (1926).

Navarre Corporation has released a line of budget triple feature DVDs whose collective content spans from the silent era to latter day camp classics. The quality ranges from the usual budget video 16mm reduction prints to transfers of surprising quality (for budget video) from 35mm prints.

This disc features a collection of Buster Keaton films.

— Carl Bennett

This low-budget DVD collection of Buster Keaton films is a little short on content when the disc is compared to others in the Navarre triple feature DVD series, with its inclusion of one feature film and two short comedies. However, for some collectors, the disc might be worth its modest cost.

Our review of this edition of The General (1926) appears on our The General on home video page.

The Paleface (1922) and The Blacksmith (1922), two very good Keaton shorts, are the standouts on this disc, which appear to be presented from video transfers originally prepared by David Shepard for home video release by Kino International. Both films have utilized 35mm print materials for the transfers, which feature a broad range of greytones and very good image detail. However, experienced eyes will detect a slightly lower-quality appearance to these shorts on this Navarre disc over the Kino editions, due to the higher MPEG compression of the video information. Both films are accompanied by canned orchestral music scores.

If viewers are more budget than quality conscious, this disc will be a good buy. However, we recommend the Kino International DVD editions of these films over this disc from Navarre.

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Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.