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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The Cry of
the Children
(1912)
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The drama, directed by George Nichols, features Marie Eline, Ethel Wright, James Cruze, Lila Chester and William Russell.
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 Edition Filmmuseum
2011 DVD edition
Screening the Poor (1889-1914), black & white and color-tinted black & white, ? minutes total, not rated, including The Cry of the Children (1912), black & white, 28 minutes, not rated.
Edition Filmmuseum, 64, unknown UPC/EAN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD discs (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (720 x 576 anamorphic pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English, French and German language intertitles, optional English and German language subtitles; chapter stops; 16-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; €29,95.
Release date: May 2011 (second edition, July 2011).
Country of origin: Germany •
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 6 / additional content: 8 / overall: 6.
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This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from archival film materials held by the George Eastman Museum film archive.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ by Andrew Crow.
Supplemental material includes recreations of the reformist magic lantern slide shows Billy’s Rose (1888) (8 minutes), A Bunch of Primroses (1889) (8 minutes), The Magic Wand (1889) (6 minutes), The Emigrant Ship (1890) (13 minutes), Enter Not the Dramshop (1890) (5 minutes), In the Workhouse (1890) (7 minutes), Dustman’s Darling (1894) (5 minutes), Ora Pro Nobis (1897) (6 minutes), Buy Your Own Cherries! (1905) (28 minutes), The Little Match Girl (1905) (9 minutes), and Don’t Go Down in the Mine, Dad (1910) (5 minutes), with recordings of live performances of the slide shows by speakers Ludwig Vogl-Bienek (German), Karin Bienek (German) and Mervyn Heard (English); documents about each title (accessed as DVD-ROM features by computer); and a 16-page bilingual (German and English) insert booklet.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This
Region 0 PAL DVD edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Thanhouser Company
Film Preservation
2004 DVD edition
The Thanhouser Collection, DVD Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (1911-1916), black & white, 262 minutes total, not rated, including The Cry of the Children (1912), black & white, 31 minutes, not rated.
Thanhouser Company Film Preservation Incorporated,
no catalog number, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R discs (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 ? 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; insert booklet; double-wide three-disc DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 6 / additional content: 6 / overall: 6.
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This DVD-R edition, originally released on VHS videotape, has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print held by the George Eastman Museum. While watchable, the print lacks much of the detail and ranges of greytones of the original 35mm prints. Some beginning nitrate decomposition was in the original source print. The video transfer has been slightly windowboxed.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ by Andrew Crow.
Supplementary material includes a booklet of Thanhouser history and film notes by Victor Graf.
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 Marengo Films
2002 DVD edition
Thanhouser: A Study in Film, Volume 1 (1911-1915), black & white, 104 minutes total, not rated, including The Cry of the Children (1912), black & white, 26 minutes, not rated.
Marengo Films, MRG0025, UPC 8-07013-00259-1.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; 4-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 6 / additional content: 6 / overall: 6.
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This DVD editionhas been mastered from archival film materials held by the George Eastman Museum film archive.
The films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed on a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ by Andrew Crow.
This edition of the film is long out-of-print.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .
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Other SHORT DRAMA FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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