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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Fluttering
Hearts
(1927)
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Fluttering Hearts (1927) with Charley Chase and Oliver Hardy. Charley helps his girl’s rich father retrieve a compromizing letter from a blackmailing thug (Hardy).
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 Film Preservation Associates
2002 DVD edition
Slapstick Encyclopedia (1909-1929), black & white and color-toned black & white, 1089 minutes total, not rated,
including Fluttering Hearts (1927), color-tinted black & white, 25 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID0699DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-06992-1.
Five 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), 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 224 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; five standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $69.99.
Release date: 7 May 2002.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 5 / additional content: 7 / overall: 6.
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This quality DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good, slightly color-tinted, 35mm print that is missing its main titles.
The film is accompanied by synthesizer music performed by Brian Benison.
Despite its age, this is still our recommended home video edition of Fluttering Hearts.
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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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 Madacy Entertainment
2012 DVD edition
Slapstick Encyclopedia (1909-1929), black & white and color-toned black & white, 1089 minutes total, not rated,
including Fluttering Hearts (1927), color-tinted black & white, 25 minutes, not rated.
Madacy Entertainment, distributed by Image Entertainment,
VB951290, UPC 6-28261-12909-6.
Five 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, 224 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; rollfold cardboard DVD videobook with cardboard disc pockets; $16.98.
Release date: 25 September 2012.
Country of origin: Canada
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 5 / additional content: 7 / overall: 6.
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This budget DVD edition of the mammoth silent comedy collection has been released by the questionable company historically responsible for some of the worst-looking silent film DVDs ever released. However, it is apparent that the video masters prepared by producer David Shepard have been licensed and utilized for this cheap edition.
We caution that disc mastering makes a huge difference in the visual quality of DVDs. Since the content has been manufactured onto five double-sided discs, and if proper care has been taken to master the DVDs, the visual quality should be comparable to the 2002 Image edition noted above.
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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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 Alpha Video
2009 DVD edition
Silent Comedy Classics (1913-1987), black & white, 207 minutes total, not rated,
including Fluttering Hearts (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 5941D, UPC 0-89218-59419-8.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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, chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 24 November 2009.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 7 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This budget DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print but is so highly compressed to fit more than 200 minutes of content on a single-sided DVD that the picture is coarsely rendered, and looks terrible on a high-definition system. Easily the worst-looking edition of the film available on home video.
The film is accompanied by synchronized sound effects and a music score performed on digital keyboards by Don Kinnier.
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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 CHARLEY CHASE films available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other silent film music scores by ROBERT ISRAEL available on home video.
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