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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The Place Beyond
the Winds
(1916)
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This early appearance by Lon Chaney was directed by Joseph de Grasse and written by Ida May Park. The film stars Dorothy Phillips and Jack Mulhall, with support by Joseph de Grasse and C. Norman Hammond.
The film has survived incomplete form, with reel one still presumed lost. The incomplete print was among those recovered in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada, in 1978.
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 Undercrank Productions
2022 Blu-ray Disc edition
Lon Chaney: Before the Thousand Faces (1915-1916), black & white, 82 minutes total, not rated,
including The Place Beyond the Winds (1916), black & white, 39 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 7-45808-09976-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R BDMV); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 2 August 2022.
Country of origin: USA
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This BD-R collection of three early Lon Chaney films has been mastered from the surviving 35mm print materials: two of the films were part of the famous Dawson City film recovery.
The films are presented with music scores performed by edition producer Jon Mirsalis.
We recommend this disc as the best available home video edition of these films.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 BD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Undercrank Productions
2017 DVD edition
Lon Chaney: Before the Thousand Faces (1915-1916), black & white, 82 minutes total, not rated,
including The Place Beyond the Winds (1916), black & white, 39 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 0-86547-02315-3.
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 7.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 256 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 17 October 2017.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from the surviving but incomplete 35mm print that was part of the famous Dawson City film recovery. The print (missing reel one) is of very-good image quality but is worn and decomposing in places. (Not a surprise as the print was literally buried for decades.) The HD digital scan could have been stabilized as there is, at times, a distracting amount of frame jitters. The missing reel one has been summarized from contemporary documents and all of Chaney’s screen time has presumably survived.
The film is presented with a music score composed and performed on digital keyboards by edition producer Jon Mirsalis.
Supplementary material includes two other Chaney films: A Mother’s Atonement (1915) and If My Country Should Call (1916).
We recommend this disc as the best available DVD home video edition of this film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other silent era LON CHANEY films available on home video.
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