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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Flight
(1929)

This early sound feature drama, directed by Frank Capra, stars Jack Holt and Ralph Graves, with Lila Lee, Alan Roscoe, Harold Goodwin and Jimmy de la Cruze.

Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment
2024 Blu-ray Disc edition

Frank Capra at Columbia (1928-2024), black & white, ? minutes total, not rated, including Flight (1929), black & white, 116 minutes, not rated, with Ladies of Leisure (1930), black & white, 100 minutes, not rated.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment,
12709928, UPC 0-43396-63593-7.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.20:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 27.8 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound encoded at 1.6 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, permanent English language subtitles (missing audio sequence only); 16 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase in cardboard library box; $230.99.
Release date: 19 November 2024.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 7 / additional content: 9 / overall: 9.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from an excellent 35mm print. The image has been digitally stabilized and cleaned, with significantly reduced film grain (not gone but also not prominent). The greyscale range is excellent with controlled highlight and shadow details. A pleasure to watch.

The film is accompanied by its original synchronized soundtrack. Audio has been cleaned, with virtually no pops and crackles, but the primitive audio technology and mixing techniques can still make exterior dialog hard to understand. A brief section of missing audio beginning at 44:25 has been seemlessly replaced with ambient sound and subtitles for missing dialog.

Supplemental material includes a silent theatrical trailer for Flight; audio commentary for Ladies of Leisure by Jeremy Arnold; and the full-length documentaries, Frank Capra’s American Dream (1997) by Kenneth Bowser, and Frank Capra: Mr. America (2023) by Matthew Wells.

For information regarding other films included in the boxset, see our Frank Capra at Columbia on home video page.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.