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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Straight Shooting
(1917)

This western feature film, the first directed by John Ford, stars Harry Carey and Molly Malone, with Duke R. Lee, George Berrell, Ted Brooks, Milt Brown, Hoot Gibson, Vester Pegg and William Gettinger.

Carey is the stereotypical good bad man caught in the middle of a struggle for land control between farmers and ranchers, and his own struggle to become a good man.

The standoff between Carey and Pegg is suprisingly modern-looking in Ford’s choice of framing and camera placement that eschews right angles. Also of note is Ford’s rare use of closeups to express tension between characters. Ford’s direction is confident even though he was only 23 years old at the time.

You have to love the sheriff’s black shirt with the stark white piping!

— Carl Bennett

KL Studio Classics
2020 Blu-ray Disc edition

Straight Shooting (1917), black & white, 62 minutes, not rated, with Hitchin’ Posts (1920) [fragment], black & white, 3 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K24868, UPC 7-38329-24868-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc; 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 34.6 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 2.0 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; 12-page insert booklet; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 14 July 2020.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 7 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the excellent 4K restoration of the film supervised by Universal Pictures. Restoration utilized a 35mm safety fine-grain print from the Library of Congress and a 35mm print from the Museum of Modern Art. Image stabilization has been performed and the intertitles have been cleaned. Dust, speckling and minor print flaws have been allowed to remain in the moving images. Overall, the viewing experience is excellent.

The film is accompanied by a piano and acoustic guitar music score by Michael Gatt.

Supplementary material includes an excellent audio commentary by film historian and Ford biographer Joseph McBride; “Bull Scores a Touchdown,” a video essay by film critic and Ford biographer Tag Gallagher; a short fragment of the lost Ford film Hitchin’ Posts (1920) preserved by the Library of Congress; and a 12-page insert booklet with an essay by Tag Gallagher.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film for North American collectors.

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

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

Masters of Cinema
2021 Blu-ray Disc edition

Hell Bent (1918), black & white, 53 minutes, BBFC Classification 12, with Straight Shooting (1917), black & white, 62 minutes, BBFC Classification 12, and Hitchin’ Posts (1920) [fragment], black & white, 3 minutes, not rated.

Eureka Entertainment,
EKA70419 (MoC 245-246), unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region B Blu-ray Disc (two discs in the set); 1.37:1 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 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; two standard BD keepcases in cardboard slipcase?; £24.99?
Release date: 19 April 2021.
Country of origin: England

This Region B Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the excellent 4K restoration of the film supervised by Universal Pictures. Restoration utilized a 35mm safety fine-grain print from the Library of Congress and a 35mm print from the Museum of Modern Art. Image stabilization has been performed and the intertitles have been cleaned. Dust, speckling and minor print flaws have been allowed to remain in the moving images.

The film is accompanied by a piano and acoustic guitar music score by Michael Gatt.

Supplementary material includes audio commentary by film historian and Ford biographer Joseph McBride; a 1970 audio interview with John Ford by Joseph McBride; video essays “Bull Scores a Touchdown” and “A Horse or a Mary?” by film critic and Ford biographer Tag Gallagher; a video interview with film historian and Kim Newman; a short fragment of the lost Ford film Hitchin’ Posts (1920) preserved by the Library of Congress; an insert booklet featuring writings by Richard Combs, Phil Hoad and Tag Gallagher; plus a limited edition O-card slipcase and reversible slipcase artwork.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film for European collectors.

United Kingdom: Click logomark to purchase this Region B Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

KL Studio Classics
2020 DVD edition

Straight Shooting (1917), black & white, 62 minutes, not rated, with Hitchin’ Posts (1920) [fragment], black & white, 3 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K24867, UPC 7-38329-24867-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16x9 (720 x 480 pixels) anamorphic interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 7.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 14 July 2020.
Country of origin: USA

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

This Region 1 DVD edition has been mastered from the excellent 4K restoration of the film supervised by Universal Pictures. Restoration utilized a 35mm safety fine-grain print from the Library of Congress and a 35mm print from the Museum of Modern Art. Image stabilization has been performed and the intertitles have been cleaned. Dust, speckling and minor print flaws have been allowed to remain in the moving images. Overall, the viewing experience is excellent.

The film is accompanied by a piano and acoustic guitar music score by Michael Gatt.

Supplementary material includes an excellent audio commentary by film historian and Ford biographer Joseph McBride; “Bull Scores a Touchdown,” a video essay by film critic and Ford biographer Tag Gallagher; and a short fragment of the lost Ford film Hitchin’ Posts (1920) preserved by the Library of Congress.

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film for North American collectors.

USA: Click logomark to purchase this Region 1 DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click logomark to purchase this Region 1 DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition

Straight Shooting (1917), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated, with The Four-Gun Bandit (1919), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated, and Roping a Bride (1915), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7395D, UPC 0-89218-73959-9.
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 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 24 June 2014.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a very-good 8mm reduction print, which has been transferred at a faster than natural pace speed and is missing footage. It should be no surprise that many of the highlights are blasted out to white, and that shadows are featureless. The source print has the usual amount of dust, speckling, schmutz and scratches. Framing is tight, with some intertitles cut-off at the sides. A rather horrid-looking disc on a large high-definition monitor. For us, the disc looks best played on a computer in a small window with the software allowing us to slow playback to about 85 percent of the transfer speed.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting low-fidelity orchestral recordings.

Supplemental material includes Tom Mix in Roping a Bride (1915), from a good 8mm reduction print, and Pete Morrison in The Four-Gun Bandit (1919), from a very-good 8mm reduction print.

Not at all a great edition and not recommended.

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

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

Buyers’ Gallery Video
2004 DVD edition

Straight Shooting (1917), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.

Buyers’ Gallery Video, no catalog number, no UPC number.
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 ? 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; standard DVD keepcase; $12.99.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: Canada

This DVD-R edition from eBay retailer Buyers’ Gallery Video has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.

It is unknown whether a soundtrack accompanies the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is . . .