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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Quality Street
(1927)

A spry compromise between benefactor William Randolph Hearst’s penchant for historical dramas and Marion Davies’ own preference for comedic acting is this romantic comedy-drama adapted from the James M. Barrie play.

The Milestone Collection
2002 DVD edition

Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001), color and black & white, 65 minutes, not rated,
with Quality Street (1927), black & white, 111 minutes total, not rated.

Milestone Film and Video, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID1033MLSDVD, UPC 0-14381-1033?-?.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 18 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.99.
Release date: 17 December 2002.
Country of origin: USA •

Included as supplemental material to a Marion Davis biography, this DVD edition features a natural-speed, full-frame video transfer of Quality Street (1927) from what appears to be a good-to-very-good 16mm reduction print that is soft in image detail, a little muddy in its greytones, and moderately speckled, with some dust, frame movement and beginning decomposition. On high-definition systems, with resolution upscaling, the softness of the source material is only more emphasized.

The presentation is accompanied by an original music score performed on piano.

The disc also includes a photo gallery (100 images), and a documentary on the life and career of Marion Davies.

This edition is currently out-of-print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.