Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Hard Luck

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

Hard Luck
(1921)

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 Hard Luck (1921), black & white, 21 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 Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a conflation of at least two prints, which appear to be a 35mm print and a 16mm reduction print. The compiled source material is still incomplete and is missing approximately three minutes of footage, which is indicated by brief sections of black frames.

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

Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923 (1920-1923), black & white, 390 minutes total, not rated,
including Hard Luck (1921), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.

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, 2 chapter stops; three-disc DVD keepcase in cardboard slipcover; $34.95.
Release date: 12 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This remastered DVD edition has been mastered from a conflation of at least two prints, which appear to be a 35mm print and a 16mm reduction print. The compiled source material is still incomplete and is missing approximately three minutes of footage, which is indicated by brief sections of black frames.

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

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Kino on Video
2000 DVD edition

College (1927), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated,
with Hard Luck (1921), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated.

Kino International, K129 DVD, UPC 7-38329-01292-2.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 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; snapper DVD case (reissued in standard DVD keepcase [retail], and in slimline DVD keepcase [boxset]); $29.99 (reduced to $24.95).
Release date: 11 January 2000.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 6.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a conflation by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill of 35mm and 16mm prints that range from very-good to fair quality. The compiled source print is generally either an overall flat grey or is contrasty (depending on the original source material), with frame jitters, dust, speckling, scratches, schmutz and beginning decomposition, and is still missing several sections of footage to splices. The introduction in the source print notes that altogether approximately three minutes of footage is missing, and missing footage within a shot is indicated by several black frames.

The film is accompanied with music performed by Robert Israel on the Fotoplayer.

Once the best-available home video edition, we are now advising that collectors choose either the remastered DVD version or the high-definition Blu-ray Disc version from Kino International noted above.

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