The release of this two-disc DVD collection of Rudolph Valentino material is both a happy and sad occasion. Sad, for the unhappy survival condition and incomplete state of surviving prints of these films; happy, for the opportunity to view them in any state whatsoever.
The film has been prepared from a very-good 16mm reduction print held in the collection of Daniel J. Bursik and is presented in a natural-speed, windowboxed video transfer, with new video-based intertitles presumably because the source print had foreign language titles. As should be expected, the print has a number of issues including residual dust, speckling from the negative, emulsion scrapes and chipping, schmutz, and a slightly contrasty greyscale range.
The film is presented with an entertaining music score arranged by Robert Israel and performed on piano and violin.
Supplementary material includes a 12-page insert booklet featuring an essay by Emily W. Leider.
The DVD’s high video bit rate ensures that, despite how rough the source prints are, the disc will render the best-possible image, even on high-definition television monitors. Incomplete prints of films are rarely available on home video, so the occasion of the release of this DVD set is cause for celebration of the opportunity to view what is, at least, cohesive representations of these films that have been hard to locate or thought lost forever. We highly recommend this disc set.
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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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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .
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