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
King of Kings
(1927)
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Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic (one of many) stars H.B. Warner with Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Josef Schildkraut, James Neill, Robert Edeson, Jacqueline Logan, Rudolph Schildkraut, Sam de Grasse, William Boyd, George Siegmann and a host of other recognizable faces, and features spectacular Technicolor sequences.
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 The Criterion Collection
2004 DVD edition
The King of Kings (1927) [roadshow version], black & white and color, 155 minutes, not rated, and The King of Kings (1931) [rerelease version], black & white and color, 112 minutes, not rated.
The Criterion Collection, KIN190, collection number 266,
UPC 0-37429-18732-6, ISBN 0-78002-799-X.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 5.1 surround sound, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound and Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 1.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 27 chapter stops (1927 version) and 23 chapter stops (1931 version); two-disc DVD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 7 December 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This 2004 DVD edition represents a definite improvement over the Criterion/Voyager laserdisc of the 1990s (which was prepared from a Paul Killiam print), this new edition of The King of Kings contains two complete versions of the film: the 155-minute 1927 roadshow version and the 112-minute 1931 rerelease version. The results still look very-good on a high resolution system capable of line-doubling this interlaced NTSC disc.
Accompanying both versions of the films are new music scores by Donald Sosin (1927 version) and Timothy J. Tikker (1931 version), plus the original mono Hugo Riesenfeld score for the 1931 rerelease.
Until a Blu-ray Disc edition is released, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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