Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers

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

The Extraordinary
World of
Charley Bowers
(1917-1940)

Contents: Grill-Room Express [The Extra Quick Lunch] (1917), A.W.O.L.; or, All Wrong Old Laddiebuck (1919), Egged On (1926), Fatal Footsteps (1926), He Done His Best (1926), Now You Tell One (1926), Many a Slip (1927), Nothing Doing (1927), A Wild Roomer (1927), Say Ah-h! (1928) [fragment], There It Is (1928), Whoozit (1928) [fragment], It’s a Bird (1930), Believe It or Don’t (1935), Oil Can and Does (1940), A Sleepless Night (1940) and Wild Oysters (1940).

Flicker Alley
2019 Blu-ray Disc edition

The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers (1917-1940), black & white, 288 minutes total, not rated,
including Grill-Room Express [The Extra Quick Lunch] (1917), black & white, 6 minutes, not rated, A.W.O.L.; or, All Wrong Old Laddiebuck (1919), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated, Egged On (1926), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated, Fatal Footsteps (1926), black & white, 22 minutes. not rated, He Done His Best (1926), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated, Now You Tell One (1926), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated, Many a Slip (1927), black & white, 12 minutes, not rated, Nothing Doing (1927), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated, A Wild Roomer (1927), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated, Say Ah-h! (1928) [fragment], black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, There It Is (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Whoozit (1928) [fragment], black & white, ? minutes, not rated, It’s a Bird (1930), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, Believe It or Don’t (1935), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated, Oil Can and Does (1940), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, A Sleepless Night (1940), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, Wild Oysters (1940), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.

Alternate Cover

Flicker Alley, FA0064, UPC 6-17311-68649-8.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC 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 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles, chapter stops; two-disc BD keepcase; $59.98.
Release date: 12 July 2019.
Country of origin: USA

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

This Blu-ray Disc collection, a reworking of Lobster Films’ 2004 DVD collection of Charley Bowers films, has been remastered at 2K high-resolution from very-good to excellent 35mm prints — some that are incomplete and some that are beginning to decompose.

The films feature optional musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin, Antonio Coppola and Neil Brand.

The supplemental material includes: Looking for Charley Bowers (15 minutes); and a 24-page booklet with an introduction by Serge Bromberg, an essay by Sean Alexander and a brief Bowers filmography.

For our reviews of individual films in the collection, see our A.W.O.L. on Home Video page.

This is our recommended collection of Charley Bowers’ films.

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