Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Scarecrow

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

The Scarecrow
(1920)

The Scarecrow (1920) is an early Buster Keaton comedy that also features likeable Keaton leading lady Sybil Seeley.

Kino International
2011 Blu-ray Disc edition

Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923 (1920-1923), black & white, 390 minutes total, not rated, including The Scarecrow (1920), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K756, UPC 7-38329-07562-0.
Three single-sided, Region 0 Blu-ray Discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) progressive scan AVC (MPEG-4) format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Mbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; three slimline BD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $49.95.
Release date: 12 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

This remastered Blu-ray Disc collection has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

Among the supplementary content created for this collection are 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Eureka Entertainment
2016 Blu-ray Disc edition

Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 (1917-1923), black & white, 740 minutes total, BBFC Classification PG, including The Scarecrow (1920), black & white, ? minutes, BBFC Classification PG.

Eureka Entertainment,
EKA70218 (MoC 150), unknown UPC number.
Four single-sided, dual-layered, Region B Blu-ray Discs; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; four plastic BD trays on cardboard wrap in cardboard slipcase; £49.99.
Release date: 18 July 2016.
Country of origin: England

This Region B Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from an archival 35mm print.

Supplementary material includes an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; a recently-discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; a video essay by critic David Cairns; a discussion of Keaton’s style by actor Pierre Étaix; an audio recording of Keaton at a 1962 party; and a 184-page booklet with a roundtable discussion with critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt, an essay and with detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance; an essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; an excerpt from Life with Buster Keaton (1951) in cluding a reenactment by Keaton of Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance,” first performed in The Cook and the words of Buster Keaton.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Kino International
2011 DVD edition

Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923 (1920-1923), black & white, 390 minutes total, not rated, including The Scarecrow (1920), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K755, UPC 7-38329-07552-1.
Three 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), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 2 chapter stops; standard three-disc DVD keepcase in cardboard slipcover; $34.95.
Release date: 12 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This remastered DVD collection has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Kino on Video
1999 DVD edition

Go West (1925), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated, with The Scarecrow (1920), black & white, 19 minutes, not rated, and The Paleface (1922), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.

Kino International, K132DVD, UPC 7-38329-01322-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 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 subtitles; 5 chapter stops; snapper DVD case (reissued in standard DVD keepcase [retail], and in slimline DVD keepcase [boxset]); $29.99 (reduced to $24.95).
Release date: 23 November 1999.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This early DVD edition, produced for home video by David Shepard, was previously released VHS videotape in 1994 and on laserdisc in 1995. The windowboxed video transfer has been produced from a very-good 35mm print, which is relatively grey and flat.

The film is accompanied by a music score written and performed on piano by Robert Israel.

For information on the other Western-themed Keaton releases in this collection, see our Go West on home video and The Paleface on home video pages.