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 Coward
(1915)
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A young Charles Ray stars in this Civil War film production of Thomas H. Ince’s, made to capitalize on the success of The Birth of a Nation (1915). With the Civil War breaking out for the Confederacy, Ray must cope with feelings of cowardice amongst the outrage of family and friends.
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 Twilight Time
2018 Blu-ray Disc edition
The Birth of a Nation (1915), color-toned black & white and black & white, 191 minutes, not rated,
including The Coward (1915), black & white and color-tinted black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Twilight Time, 329-BR, UPC 8-11956-02235-6.
Two 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, ? Mbps audio bit rate, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, optional English language SDH subtitles, chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 2018.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a 35mm source print.
The film is accompanied by a music score presented in lossless 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo sound.
The supplementary material includes three additional Civil War short films; the sound film introduction and intermission sequences from the 1930 reissue featuring D.W. Griffith and Walter Huston; outtakes and camera tests from the production of The Birth of a Nation; “The Birth of a Nation Score Recording Sessions,” documentary footage in 5.1 audio; D.W. Griffith’s appearance on Lux Radio Theater with Cecil B. DeMille; “The Birth of a Nation: The Legacy,” a featurette by John McCarty; “The Clansman: From Stage to Screen,” a featurette by Daniel Griffith; a text essay “We Can Never Censor the Past” by Kevin Brownlow; a text essay “The Birth of a Nation: The 2015 Restoration” by Patrick Stanbury; a text essay “Fighting Back: Responding to The Birth of a Nation” by Ashley Clark; a still photograph gallery; and an 8-page insert booklet with an essay on The Birth of a Nation by Julie Kirgo.
This is our highly-recommended home video edition of The Coward. Huzzah!
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Film Preservation Associates
2000 DVD edition
Civil War Films of the Silent Era (1913-1915), color-toned black & white and black & white, 134 minutes total, not rated,
including The Coward (1915), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID9703DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-97032-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 7.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; snapper DVD case (reissued in standard DVD keepcase); $24.99.
Release date: 19 December 2000.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 6 / additional content: 7 / overall: 8.
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This DVD edition of The Coward (1915) has been mastered from an excellent but worn 35mm rerelease print — which is marred with a light amount of speckling and dust, occasional sprocket damage in the image area, and with more than the usual amount of vertical emulsion scratches (which has been supplemented with a footage insert from a good 16mm reduction print). The full-frame, natural-speed video transfer is quite detailed, with a broad range of the source print’s greytones well-reproduced from deep but defined shadows to subtly-detailed highlights, to the point that this older DVD still looks great on high-definition equipment with the standard NTSC 480-line interlaced-scan signal upconverted to an HD 1080-line progressive-scan signal.
The film is presented with a music score performed on MIDI synthesizers by Eric Beheim.
Short of the release of a new high-definition transfer of this excellent source material, there will likely not be a better-looking edition of The Coward on DVD home video.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other silent era CHARLES RAY films available on home video.
Other CIVIL WAR FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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