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 Stampede
(1921)
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This B-studio western film was directed by Francis Ford and stars Texas Guinan and Francis Ford, with support from Frederick Moore, Jean Carpenter, Vale Rio and Fred Kohler.
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 Grapevine Video
2017 DVD edition
The Stampede (1921), color-tinted black & white, 56 minutes, not rated,
with Letters of Fire (1919), black & white, 12 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 6-60845-44871-1.
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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 21 July 2017.
Country of origin: USA •
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good amber-tinted 16mm reduction print. The print often has blasted-out highlight details and the tinting only patrially keeps us distracted from that fact. The windowboxed transfer runs at a slightly faster than natural pace.
The film is accompanied by a music score compiled from preexisting orchestral recordings and is abruptly edited in places.
This may be (unconfirmed) the best available home video edition of this film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2015 DVD edition
The Stampede (1921), black & white, 45 minutes, not rated,
with The Gun Woman (1918), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7711D, UPC 0-89218-77119-3.
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 3.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 6 October 2015.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print. The old analog video transfer is taken at sound speed so the action runs at a faster than natural pace, which accounts for the shorter running time than other home video editions. In addition, the picture highlights in this transfer are often blasted out to a featureless white and there are more than one passing analog video glitches that run through the middle of the picture.
The film is accompanied by a music score compiled from lo-fi preexisting recordings.
Not recommended; we think the Grapevine Video edition noted above will be of better quality than this.
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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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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Unidentified Company
201? DVD edition
Texas Guinan Silent Westerns (1918-1921), black & white, ? minutes total, not rated,
including The Stampede (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Unidentified company, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc (two 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 ? 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, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $17.50.
Release date: 201?.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The films are likely accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting recordings.
The video edition producer has since expanded this release into a three-disc home video edition which is available on eBay. This producer from Stayton, Oregon, has released DVD-R editions under the company names FatKat Enterprises and Rare Silent Films.
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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 TEXAS GUINAN films available on home video.
Other WESTERN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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