Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
The
Pleasure Garden
(1925) |
Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature film, shot in a cooperative arrangement in Germany, stars Virginia Valli, Carmelita Geraghty, Miles Mander and John Stuart. |
 Network Releasing
2008 DVD edition
The Pleasure Garden (1925), color-toned black & white, 60 minutes, BBFC Classification PG.
Network Releasing, 7952921, UPC 5-027626-29214-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £5.99.
Release date: 18 August 2008.
Country of origin: England
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 5 / overall: 7. |
This PAL DVD edition of Hitchcock’s first feature film, The Pleasure Garden, has been amstered from a 35mm print from the Raymond Rohauer collection (held by the Cohen Media Group), and caused us to breathe a sigh of relief. After so many years of cheap, inferior home video editions of Hitchcock’s silent films, it was a relief to see that, not only was this film finally on DVD but, the edition was of sufficiently high quality to be collectable.
The film is accompanied by a theater organ music score from the Rohauer print composed and performed by the late Lee Erwin in the Carnegie Hall Cinema in New York, New York.
Among the supplemental material is an image gallery (5 images), a May 1966 interview with Alfred Hitchcock shot for an episode of the Granada television series Cinema, compiled from rushes footage (the program itself has not survived), and rough footage from another interview shot for Cinema in November 1969.
North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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 Network Releasing
2008 DVD edition
Hitchcock: The British Years (1925-1939), black & white and color-toned black & white, 810 minutes total, BBFC Classification PG,
including The Pleasure Garden (1925), color-toned black & white, 60 minutes, BBFC Classification PG.
Network Releasing, 7952741, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc (ten DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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; chapter stops; ten slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; £59.99.
Release date: 25 February 2008.
Country of origin: England •
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This Hitchcock DVD boxset was the original release of the Network DVD edition of The Pleasure Garden noted above.
Among the supplemental material is an image gallery (5 images), a May 1966 interview with Alfred Hitchcock shot for an episode of the Granada television series Cinema, compiled from rushes footage (the program itself has not survived), and rough footage from another interview shot for Cinema in November 1969.
North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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 Entertainment One
2011 DVD edition
The Great Alfred Hitchcock Movie Box (1925-1928), black & white, 215 minutes total, not rated,
including The Pleasure Garden (1925), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated.
Entertainment One, SCG EXP 001-9, UPC 8-07297-07519-9.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (three DVDs in the set); 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 9.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 320 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; three standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $16.98.
Release date: 8 November 2011.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This inexpensive three-disc DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print and the results here are no surprise. The picture is dark and mostly plugged up in its shadow details and almost always blown out to white in its highlight details. Despite the seemingly high video bit rate of the picture signal, the video is coarsely mastered at a low-enough resolution that scan lines can readily be seen in the picture at times and always in the intertitles.
This edition has been made even worse by a “Screen Gems” diamond logo placed in the upper right corner of the picture throughout the film presentation. This is done to discourage pirated copies but since it is likely this edition was pirated from another, earlier crappy edition, this precaution is ludicrous and only serves to annoy collectors who don’t want the logo there at all. All this is a stupid bit of deception as the upper right corner of the picture is digitally smeared to wipe out the logomark of the company (or television network) that this transfer has been lifted from. This edition is identical to the German home video edition from The Archive as both editions feature identical discs manufactured in the EU.
The film is accompanied by a pipe organ music score, with the audio overcompressed and full of ringing compression artifacts that make listening a trial. The soundtrack has been poorly duplicated from the Rohauer print utilized for the Network edition noted above.
Not recommended since the Network DVD edition noted above is visually better than this one.
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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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 The Archive
2011 DVD edition
The Pleasure Garden (1925), black & white, 74 minutes, Rated 12.
The Archive, SCG 003-9, UPC 8-07297-07499-4.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional German language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 21 October 2011.
Country of origin: Germany
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This PAL DVD edition of The Pleasure Garden may be every bit as bad as other budget home video editions as the disc may have been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. As with other Hitchcock DVDs from The Archive, this edition has likely been made even worse by a “Screen Gems” diamond logo placed in the upper right corner of the picture throughout the film presentation. This is done to discourage pirated copies but since it is likely this edition was pirated from another crappy edition, this precaution is ludicrous and only serves to annoy collectors who don’t want the logo there at all.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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Germany: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.de. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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 Enjoy Movies
2011 DVD edition
The Pleasure Garden (1925), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated.
Enjoy Movies, no catalog number, UPC 8-033406-830461.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 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, optional Italian language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 18 January 2011.
Country of origin: Italy
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This Italian DVD edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The films are likely accompanied by a music score compiled from preexisting recordings.
North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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 eMoviez
200? DVD edition
The Pleasure Garden (1925), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
eMoviez, no catalog number, no UPC number.
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; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.99.
Release date: 200?
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
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EMOVIEZ no longer sells home video products and this item is . . .
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Other silent era ALFRED HITCHCOCK films available on home video.
Other BRITISH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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Alfred Hitchcock filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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