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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Luke’s
Movie Muddle
(1916)
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This early Harold Lloyd comedy short features his Lonesome Luke character as the operator of a small movie theater. Harold gets help from Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard and other Hal Roach regulars.
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 All Day Entertainment
2006 DVD edition
American Slapstick (1914-1929), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 279 minutes total, not rated,
including Luke’s Movie Muddle (1916), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
All Day Entertainment, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ADE3581DVD, UPC 0-14381-35812-4.
Three single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed and 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 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 1 chapter stop; three-disc DVD keepcase; $39.99.
Release date: 21 November 2006.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a fair 16mm reduction print that is a bit on the dark side. (“Luke, I am your father.”) The results here are about the same as other editions we have viewed on VHS videotape — likely mastered from the same pedigree of source prints — and that is, not great. Shadow details are plugged up with dense blacks and the soft image details are greyed.
The film features musical accompaniment by Ben Model.
The disc’s supplemental material includes a short film from the 1960s featuring clips from silent films (5 minutes) and a PDF copy of The Charlie Chaplin Book (1916).
This film is not uncommon on home video but none of them we have viewed look any better than this.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Reelclassicdvd.com
2004 DVD edition
A Festival of Silent Comedy, Volume 2 (1916-1926), black & white, 93 minutes total, not rated,
including Luke’s Movie Muddle (1916), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Reelclassicdvd.com, no catalog number, UPC 7-62184-87622-1.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $20.00.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R editon has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is presented with a music score performed by Ben Model.
As Reelclassicdvd.com provided the video transfer for the All Day Entertainment edition noted above, this DVD-R edition should be virtually identical in quality.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from Reelclassicdvd.com through . . .
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Other silent era HAROLD LLOYD films available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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