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Ben Turpin
Returns
(1909-1926)

Contents: Mr. Flip (1909), The Musical Marvel (1917), Out of Control (1917), Ten Dollars or Ten Days (1924) and The Fickle Bridegroom (1926).

Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition

Ben Turpin Returns (1909-1926), black & white, 59 minutes total, not rated,
including Mr. Flip (1909), black & white, 4 minutes, not rated, The Musical Marvel (1917), black & white, 25 minutes, not rated, Out of Control (1917), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, Ten Dollars or Ten Days (1924), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, and The Fickle Bridegroom (1926), black & white, 9 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7412D, UPC 0-89218-74129-5.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 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 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 5 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 29 June 2014.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.

This budget DVD-R collection has been mastered from a range of reduction prints.

Mr. Flip (1909), featuring a young Ben Turpin has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print. Ben is foiled at numerous attempts at flirting.

The Musical Marvel (1917) has been mastered from a fair 16mm reduction print from the Blackhawk collection. The picture is not great but OK, being rather flat with grey highlights.

Out of Control (1917) has been mastered from a fair 8mm reduction print. The image is greyed-out, tightly cropped, and coarse in picture details.

Ten Dollars or Ten Days (1924) has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of an incomplete 16mm reduction print. The resulting picture is quite greyed-out and the usual VHS picture artifacts can be seen throughout. Complete prints of the film are available elsewhere.

The Fickle Bridegroom (1926) has been transferred from a very-good 16mm reduction print but, like all the other films in this collection, the picture features a flat range of greytones and passable image detail.

The films are accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting recordings.

We wouldn’t recommend this below-average disc but a few of the films are available nowhere else on home video.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.