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
Block Signal
(1926)
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This railroad drama from B studio Gotham Productions stars Ralph Lewis, Jean Arthur, Sidney Franklin and Hugh Allen.
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 Alpha Video
2013 DVD edition
The Block Signal (1926), color-tinted black & white, 53 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7257D, UPC 0-89218-72579-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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, PCM 48 kHz 32-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 31 December 2013.
Country of origin: USA
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This budget edition has been mastered from an 8mm reduction print with predictably low-quality results. The tightly-cropped picture is grainy, blurry and at times difficult to watch.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting, low-fidelity recordings.
While this disc is not ideal, it is the only known home video edition currently in-print.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Sunrise Silents
2004 DVD edition
The Block Signal (1926), color-tinted black & white, 52 minutes, not rated,
with Her First Flame (1920), color-tinted black & white, 24 minutes, not rated, and Cops (1922), color-tinted black & white, 20 minutes, not rated.
Sunrise Silents, V1N3-N, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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, PCM 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a music score performed on MIDI synthesizers.
If you own a copy of this disc please consider loaning it to us to review for documentation purposes. We pay postage both ways.
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SUNRISE SILENTS has discontinued business and this edition is . . .
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Other RAILROAD FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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