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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Wilful Peggy
(1910)
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This historical drama short, directed by D.W. Griffith, features Biograph regulars Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Clara T. Bracy and Claire McDowell.
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 The Milestone Collection
1999 DVD edition
Sparrows (1926), black & white, 107 minutes, not rated, with Wilful Peggy (1910), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.
Milestone Film & Video, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID5958MLSDVD, UPC 0-14381-59582-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, no chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $29.99.
Release date: 5 October 1999.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 4 / additional content: 7 / overall: 6.
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This DVD edition of this Pickford Biograph one-reeler, Wilful Peggy (1910), looks as though it has been mastered from an older video transfer, probably those utilized for the 1990 Image laserdisc The Griffith Biographs. The appearance of the films on DVD (both being slightly soft of image detail and a little flat, with greyish highlights) is virtually identical to the laserdisc.
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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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 Grapevine Video
2009 DVD edition
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 6 (1910), black & white, 117 minutes total, not rated, including Wilful Peggy (1910), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10350-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 3.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 384 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95
Release date: 18 June 2009.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.
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This DVD-R compilation of D.W. Griffith short Biograph films has been mastered from 16mm reduction print materials that are generally good to very-good in quality.
Wilful Peggy (1910) is presented from a very-good 16mm reduction print that is a little jittery. The film is presented with a score performed on digital piano.
The MIDI-based digital piano scores prevalent in this collection are a far cry better than the audio conflations of preexisting recordings of varying quality that were previously presented in Grapevine home video products. The higher audio quality makes the music augment the film’s action rather than letting an inconsistent audio track distract the viewer.
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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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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era MARY PICKFORD films available on home video.
Other silent era D.W. GRIFFITH films available on home video.
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| Mary Pickford filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List |
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