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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California
Straight Ahead
(1925)
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This Universal adventure comedy-drama, directed by Harry A. Pollard, stars Reginald Denny and Gertrude Olmstead, with Tom Wilson, Charles Gerrard, Lucille Ward, John Steppling and Fred Esmelton.
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 Grapevine Video
2014 DVD edition
California Straight Ahead (1925), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated,
with Alice’s Balloon Race (1926), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10186-1.
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; $14.95.
Release date: 2014.
Country of origin: USA
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This remastered 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 music sources.
Probably not a great presentation but this remastered DVD home video edition of the film may actually be an improvement over their previous edition.
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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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 Alpha Video
2022 DVD edition
California Straight Ahead (1925), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8494D, UPC 0-89218-84949-6.
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 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 30 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 31 May 2022.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good but quite worn 8mm reduction print. The picture is rather blurry and there is the usual amount of dust, speckling, print scuffing and other flaws in the print.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting low-fi music sources.
Well . . . this is not a good presentation and, no surprises here, this budget DVD cannot be recommended.
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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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 Grapevine Video
200? DVD edition
California Straight Ahead (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown 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; unknown retail sales price.
Release date: 200?.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition was likely mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film was likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music sources.
This edition was replaced in 2014 by the remastered Grapevine Video edition noted above.
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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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is . . .
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Other silent era REGINALD DENNY films available on home video.
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