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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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His New
Profession
(1914)
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This Keystone comedy stars Charles Chaplin, with Jess Dandy, Charley Chase, Cecile Arnold, Harry McCoy and Roscoe Arbuckle in support.
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 Flicker Alley
2010 DVD edition
Chaplin at Keystone (1914), black & white, 590 minutes total, not rated, including His New Profession (1914), black & white, 12 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA0018,
UPC 6-17311-67579-9, ISBN 1-893967-57-3.
Four single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; four slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $79.95.
Release date: 26 October 2010.
Country of origin: USA
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This four-disc DVD collection has, for the most part, been mastered from 35mm source material to render the best-looking editions of these Keystone films on home video. The prints are often conflated from two or more 35mm prints, with missing footage duplicated from 16mm reduction prints. The results are generally very-good to excellent, with moments of fair to good footage. Many of the 35mm source prints are worn, but the picture clarity allows the identification of supporting actors and extras much easier than from earlier home video editions from substandard 16mm and 8mm reduction prints.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed by Antonio Coppola.
The collection’s supplemental material includes Charlie et sa Belle [Charlie’s White Elephant] (1916), Inside the Keystone Project (2010) documenting the Chaplin Project (10 minutes), Silent Traces: The Keystone Locations (2010) with John Bengtson, author of Silent Traces (12 minutes), and a stills gallery.
Overall, the improvement in quality over previous home video editions is so great that you’ll toss your other Keystone Chaplin discs when you see this collection. Highly recommended!
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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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 Madacy Entertainment
1999 DVD edition
Chaplin (1914-1918), black & white, 91 minutes total, not rated, including His New Profession (1914) [rereleased as The Good-for-Nothing], black & white, 14 minutes, not rated.
Madacy Entertainment Group,
DVD9 9103, UPC 0-56775-03619-5.
One double-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD 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, 448 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 3 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $11.98.
Release date: 2 March 1999.
Country of origin: Canada
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 1 / overall: 3.
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This low-budget DVD edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print of the 1918 rerelease version of the film, which had been reedited with new intertitles and released with a new film title. The source print is quite cropped in its top and left sides. On most monitors, standard or HD, heads will be cut off and players cut in half by the errant cropping.
Far from ideal, with so many budget video producers releasing the film in cheap DVD sets, it is unlikely that that edition will be better to worse than any other until a quality edition is produced.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Madacy Entertainment
1999 DVD edition
Chaplin (1914-1918), black & white, ? minutes total, not rated, including His New Profession (1914) [rereleased as The Good-for-Nothing], black & white, 14 minutes, not rated.
Madacy Entertainment Group,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Two single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 3 chapter stops; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 1999.
Country of origin: Canada
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A repackaging of the same Madacy DVD program reviewed above was also issued under a different title and on two discs, with a slipcase wraparound, as Chaplin: Hollywood Classics.
No doubt, just as rough.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Madacy Entertainment
1998 DVD edition
Chaplin: The Collection (1914-1918), black & white, ? minutes total, not rated, including His New Profession (1914) [rereleased as The Good-for-Nothing], black & white, 14 minutes, not rated.
Madacy Entertainment Group,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Five single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 3 chapter stops; five standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 1998.
Country of origin: Canada
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Yet another Madacy repackaging, this a boxset, of the content reviewed above.
Have they no shame in their repackaging attempts to deceive the consumer?
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other silent era CHARLES CHAPLIN films available on home video.
Other KEYSTONE comedy films available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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Charles Chaplin filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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