This DVD edition features an excellent full-frame, natural-speed video transfer from a high-quality 35mm safety fine-grain master print, with most print flaws like dust, speckling and timing marks digitally removed. Some digital image stabilization appears to also have been done, as there is little in the way of frame jitters to be seen, but are moments when the source print wins the struggle with some momentary picture destabilization appearing early in the film. Also, a digital video glitch appears in the lower left corner of the picture at 0:05:55.

Whether in the source print or added in post-production, the video master features pleasing color-toning, predominantly in a rich sepiatone with gold midtones, blue-toning for night scenes, and a yellow-green toning for outdoor scenes. Some variation on sepiatones are also present.

The film is accompanied by a small orchestral musical score performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, identical to the edition noted below.

Included in the boxset is a 32-page booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta. The supplemental material includes productions stills and pressbook reproductions, an audio essay for A Modern Musketeer, and a reproduction of Fairbanks’ first film contract. This boxset collection won an award at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2009 for excellence.

By far the best home video edition of The Mark of Zorro, we love it for its clean and rich sepiatone picture and for its excellent musical accompaniment — highly recommended.

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

This DVD edition from the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra features a new full-frame, natural-speed video transfer from a high-quality 35mm safety fine-grain master print, supplied by Film Preservation Associates, that features a broad range of greytones and excellent image detail, and which looks great on high-definition systems with resolution upscaling. Defined image details exist in both the highlights and deepest shadows, which is a quality criteria for both source materials and the video transfer. The print is light-to-moderately speckled (especially in the first reel), with a few seconds of dark discoloration later in the film, print flaws, some dust throughout and, at times, a jittery image within the frame all indicates that digital image stabilization and clean-up has not been performed. Timing marks in the source print have also been consciously allowed to remain in the transfer.

The film is presented with an excellent music score compiled by Rodney Sauer and performed by the five-piece Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. In a novel twist, the film is presented with optional subtitles identifying the accompanying music compositions, which we hail as a great pioneering move in the presentation of silent films on home video. The musically uneducated can now identify which contemporary music pieces have been adapted for the accompaniment, and begin to understand the use of musical themes of underscore the progression of the plot and action and to suggest a mood to associate with a character’s actions and personality. A great idea repeated from Mont Alto’s 2006 DVD edition of The General (1926).

The supplemental material includes enlightening audio commentary by author and professor John C. Tibbetts, Kansas Silent Film Festival host Denise Morrison, and musician and edition producer Rodney Sauer — which could have benefited from closer, individual miking of the participants and a lower audio level of the underlying music score. The supplemental material also includes a short guide to silent film scoring, and a gallery of Fairbanks illustrations by Tibbetts (11 images).

This edition, which is sold at Mont Alto Orchestra performances and through their website, is highly-recommended.

This DVD edition has been mastered from very-good 35mm print materials and is an improvement over the older Image edition noted below.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Jon C. Mirsalis.

In addition to the inclusion of Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), the supplementary section includes Fairbanks home movies, an excerpt from a Pathé newsreel featuring Fairbanks vs. Jack Dempsey, an introduction to the film by Orson Welles, an excerpt from Fairbanks’ 1918 book Making Life Worthwhile.

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.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by a theater organ music score performed by Gaylord Carter, which is the chief attraction of this older edition.

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.

This budget DVD edition appears to have been mastered from a very-good fine-grain 16mm reduction print that holds a wide range of greytones and reasonably sharp image details, but the shadows are a bit too dark. The full-frame video transfer, which runs a touch faster than natural speed, itself has a handful of momentary horizontal video glitches. But, we’ve seen worse than this one.

The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together prerecorded orchestral music score (with a few maracas to remind you of the Spanish influence!) that is utilitarian at best.

The running time on the packaging is wrong, with the digits transposed. Not horrible, but not the best edition available either.

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.

The film is likely accompnaied by a cobbled-together soundtrack of preexisting music recordings.