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 Devil’s Foot
(1921)
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This collection of short British Sherlock Holmes productions includes films from the first 1921 series of Holmes films produced by the Stoll company. Eille Norwood portrays a believeable and satisfying Holmes.
A family is found sitting upright and dead at their dinner table in The Devil’s Foot (1921) and Holmes must deduce both the mysterious method and motive.
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 Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1912-1921), color-toned black & white and color-tinted black & white, 105 minutes total, not rated, including The Devil’s Foot (1921), color-toned black & white, 27 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 image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 224 Kbps audio bit rate, PCM 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 4 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R collection has been mastered from 16mm reduction prints of varying quality. The Devil’s Foot (1921) is even worse as some intertitles are barely readable; most have been freeze-framed to hold the most-legible frames long enough to be read, but does little for those that are too dark in the best of frames. Even so, with its too dark print, the film’s action can still be followed.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
The print quality of the Stoll films brings down the overall visual quality of this disc, but it is still the recommended home video editions of these films.
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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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 Alpha Video
2019 DVD edition
Sherlock Holmes Silent Film Collection (1921), black & white, 80 minutes total, not rated, including The Devil’s Foot (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8220D, UPC 0-89218-82209-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 16 April 2019.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R collection has likely been mastered from 16mm reduction prints.
The films are likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack of preexisting recordings.
We have not yet viewed these films in this home video edition.
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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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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other SHERLOCK HOLMES FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other BRITISH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other CRIME FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other SHORT DRAMA FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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