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

The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)

This early Edison comedy shows a quick view of a forward shoe clerk who dallies with a willing young woman until her chaperone objects.

The film is also a commentary, perhaps unintentional, on the changing mores of the time; rigid victorian values in conflict with a more open and relaxed attitude emerging in the new 20th century.

No version of the film looks that great as the actors are poorly lit and cannot be clearly seen, appearing almost in silhouette.

— Carl Bennett

The film is accompanied by a spry music score performed on piano by Jon C. Mirsalis.

This currently remains our recommended DVD home video edition of the film for American audiences.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 2 PAL edition has been prepared from 35mm print materials. There is a typical amount of speckling and dust. The picture is cropped tighter at the bottom of the frame to remove the overlapping frameline that can be seen in the still frame to the NFPF edition noted below, yet more of the original image appears at the top of the picture.

The film is accompanied by an improvised piano music score performed by Neil Brand, John Sweeney or Stephen Horne.

The disc includes optional audio commentary written by film historian Barry Salt, and a 24-page illustrated booklet with filmmaker biographies and notes.

This is certainly our recommended PAL home video edition of the film for European audiences. 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 edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This DVD edition of The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903) has been windowbox transferred from a very-good 35mm preservation print prepared from a 35mm nitrate negative. The transfer is a bit more contrasty than other home video editions, mainly with deeper blacks. There is a typical amount of speckling and dust. Note the overlapping horizontal frameline at the bottom of the picture (the dark line over the carpet) that does not appear in some of the other home video editions.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano by Martin Marks. Marks contributes information on the music selected for the various scores to the program book included in the set.

The program notes book written by Scott Simmon features information on the film. The book notes have been entirely duplicated as text notes on the collection’s discs, making the printed book a bit superfluous.

The collection’s original 2000 packaging is comprised of a slipcase of thin cardboard that is too flimsy to adequately protect the program book and the four clear plastic DVD trays wrapped in black cardboard covers that can easily fingerprint and wear. The flimsy slipcase is far less important to us than sturdy ‘keep cases’ that could have protected the collection’s discs without premature packaging wear.

We recommend this DVD collection as a representative cross-section of American film archive holdings but the editions noted above are just slightly better viewing.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on digital piano.

If you do not already own David Shepard’s two-volume Landmarks of Early Film laserdisc or DVD editions culled from this collection, then seriously consider purchasing the Movies Begin boxset. All of the content of the Landmarks discs is available here, with the additional films of the other The Movies Begin programs and the bonus films of this early DVD edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD is also available directly from . . .

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from the old Library of Congress 16mm reduction compilation prints that were originally released on VHS videotape by Kartes Video in the 1980s. It appears that the source print itself is tightly cropped compared to the 35mm prints utilized for the other editions noted above. There is a typical amount of speckling and dust.

The film is accompanied by a vintage preexisting low-fidelity recording taken from 78rpm gramophone disc.

This edition is not horrible but the tight cropping of the picture is a quality deficit.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .