Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923

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

Buster Keaton
The Short Films Collection
1920-1923
(1920-1923)

Contents: The High Sign (1921), One Week (1920), Convict 13 (1920), The Scarecrow (1920), Neighbors (1920), The Haunted House (1921), Hard Luck (1921), The Goat (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The Boat (1921), The Paleface (1922), Cops (1922), My Wife’s Relations (1922), The Blacksmith (1922), The Frozen North (1922), Day Dreams (1922), The Electric House (1922), The Balloonatic (1923) and The Love Nest (1923).

This Keaton short film collection includes all of his solo comedy shorts in chronological order by production date.

Kino International
2011 Blu-ray Disc edition

Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923 (1920-1923), black & white, 390 minutes total, not rated,
including The High Sign (1921), black & white, 19 minutes, not rated, One Week (1920), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated, Convict 13 (1920), black & white, 19 minutes, not rated, The Scarecrow (1920), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated, Neighbors (1920), black & white, 19 minutes, not rated, The Haunted House (1921), color-toned black & white, 20 minutes, not rated, Hard Luck (1921), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated, The Goat (1921), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated, The Playhouse (1921), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated, The Boat (1921), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated, The Paleface (1922), black & white, 20 minutes, not rated, Cops (1922), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated, My Wife’s Relations (1922), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated, The Blacksmith (1922), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated, The Frozen North (1922), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated, Day Dreams (1922), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated, The Electric House (1922), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated, The Balloonatic (1923), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated, and The Love Nest (1923), color-toned black & white, 20 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K756, UPC 7-38329-07562-0.
Three single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 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, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; three slimline BD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $49.95.
Release date: 12 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

This remastered Blu-ray Disc collection has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

Among the supplementary content created for this collection are 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Kino International
2011 DVD edition

Kino Lorber, K755, UPC 7-38329-07552-1.
Three single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard three-disc DVD keepcase in cardboard slipcover; $34.95.
Release date: 12 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

This remastered DVD collection has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.