Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Vanishing
American
(1925)
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Adapted from a Zane Grey novel, this story of the clash of the traditional and the modern stars Richard Dix, Lois Wilson and Noah Beery.
A companion to the later Redskin (1929), in which Dix again portrays a native American fighting the wrongs of the corrupt white man.
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 Film Preservation Associates
2000 DVD edition
The Vanishing American (1925), color-tinted black & white, 108 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID9229DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-9229?-?.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 4.5 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 subtitles; 16 chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $24.99.
Release date: 17 October 2000.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 0 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition, that shows its age a bit, has been mastered from a very-good 35mm print that flickers a bit with slight exposure fluctuations in this nearly full-frame video transfer from 1999. Image details are clear enough, and the disc is satisfying viewing (aside from the flickering). However, the disc’s video information is a bit overcompressed to facilitate its fit onto a single-layer DVD, resulting in a nearly constant swarm of artifacts that look like filmgrain but are not (as any still frame will reveal). Most viewers will be able to ignore it, but we can’t . . . especially on a high-definition system.
The film is accompanied by a theater organ music score performed by John Muri that was recorded during a live presentation.
We recommend this edition as the best currently available on home video, but we look forward to an updated edition that has been mastered to current standards.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Alpha Video
2024 DVD edition
The Vanishing American (1925), black & white, 129 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8592D, UPC 0-89218-85929-7.
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 subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $8.98.
Release date: 20 February 2024.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
Sight unseen, this is not our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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Other silent era RICHARD DIX films available on home video.
Other WESTERN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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