Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Lupino Lane Silent Comedian (1927-1929)

Contents: Hello Sailor (1927), Sword Points (1928), Fisticuffs (1928), Summer Saps (1929), Good Night Nurse (1929), Battling Sisters (1929), Joyland (1929) and Fire Proof (1929).

This Kickstarter crowdfunded collection is of high quality and compares favorably to any commercial release. The collection is a valuable resource for the reevaluation of Lupino Lane’s comedic career.

One thing we observed was that Lane had a tendency to repeat routines and gags in several films, sometimes repetitiously within the same film: watch for wire gags, escalating fights, and trap doors in particular.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from archival prints held by the Library of Congress, Eye Film Instituut Nederland, FPA France (Lobster Films collection), and private film collections. High-definition scans were made mainly from very-good to excellent 35mm and 16mm materials, and from alternate 35mm and 16mm reduction prints (and about 3 seconds from VHS videotape) to replace missing footage and intertitles. Foreign language intertitles have been replaced with new English intertitles. The image of all films has been digitally stabilized, and some image repair has no doubt been performed. Moderate amounts of dust, speckling, mild exposure fluctuations, emulsion scrapes and fine vertical scratches remain in some of the scans.

The films are accompanied by two optional music scores for each film composed and performed on piano by Neil Brand, on virtual theatre pipe organ by Donald MacKenzie, and on piano by Meg Morley. The performances are lively and add favorably to the viewing experience.

Supplemental material includes a 35mm United Kingdom print of Good Night Nurse (1929) decomposing fragment (1 minute); an extract from a “Bob Monkhouse’s Mad Movies” television episode with excepts from Good Night Nurse (7 minutes); an extract from the Blackhawk Films short Memories of Silent Stars, No. 1 with Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino and Violet Blythe (3 minutes); an excerpt from Life in Hollywood, No 5 (1927) with Lupino Lane, Glen Cavender and Dick Sutherland (2 minutes); an audio recording of “Nip and Nunky in ‘Fireworks’” Parts 1 & 2 (1930) with Lupino Lane and Wallace Lupino (6 minutes); featurette “Meet Nip’s Granddaughter: Sara Lupino Lane” (14 minutes); and featurette “Behind the Scenes” with David Glass on the restoration of the films in the collection (9 minutes).

The original Kickstarter discs included an 8-page insert booklet, which is not included in retail copies of the collection. The publisher has kindly provided a PDF copy of the booklet for collectors’ reference.

This is our enthusiastically recommended home video edition of the films.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The films are accompanied by two optional music scores for each film composed and performed on piano by Neil Brand, on virtual theatre pipe organ by Donald MacKenzie, and on piano by Meg Morley.

Supplemental material includes a 35mm United Kingdom print of Good Night Nurse (1929) decomposing fragment (1 minute); an extract from a “Bob Monkhouse’s Mad Movies” television episode with excepts from Good Night Nurse (7 minutes); an extract from the Blackhawk Films short Memories of Silent Stars, No. 1 with Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino and Violet Blythe (3 minutes); an excerpt from Life in Hollywood, No 5 (1927) with Lupino Lane, Glen Cavender and Dick Sutherland (2 minutes); an audio recording of “Nip and Nunky in ‘Fireworks’” Parts 1 & 2 (1930) with Lupino Lane and Wallace Lupino (6 minutes); featurette “Meet Nip’s Granddaughter: Sara Lupino Lane” (14 minutes); and featurette “Behind the Scenes” with David Glass on the restoration of the films in the collection (9 minutes).

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the films. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD-R edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.