Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
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A Drunkard’s
Reformation
(1909)
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This drama, directed by D.W. Griffith, features Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Adele de Garde, Florence Lawrence, David Miles, Mack Sennett and Marion Leonard.
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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 A Drunkard’s Reformation (1909), black & white, 15 minutes, not rated.
Edition Filmmuseum, 64, unknown UPC/EAN number.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD discs; 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 6.0 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; no chapter stops (within the film); 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: 4 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 6.
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This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from a 35mm duplicate print from a 35mm paper print held the Library of Congress. Because of its survival status (as a paper print) the picture is not great. Significant dust, speckling and frame jitters, with emulsion scrapes and a hair or two in the gate, are present.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Günter A. Buchwald.
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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 Grapevine Video
2005 DVD edition
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 2 (1909), black & white, 112 minutes total, not rated, including A Drunkard’s Reformation (1909), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-00117-8.
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 4.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); 6-page insert brochure; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2005.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 5 / overall: 5.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print that differs from the source materials utilized for the Edition Filmmuseum disc noted above. The print (or the video transfer) is quite dark, with closed-up shadows throughout the film.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting low-fidelity recordings.
Not recommended. Ugh!
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era D.W. GRIFFITH films available on home video.
Other SHORT DRAMA FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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