Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Hollywood
the Unusual
(1927)
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Hollywood the Unusual (1927) is a fascinating look at the unusual architecture of late 1920s Hollywood. If you thought that Los Angeles had only recently lost touch with reality, take a look at these views of southern California buildings from the late 1920s. The film includes a view of the recently-opened Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre.
— Carl Bennett
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 Flicker Alley
2018 Blu-ray Disc edition
The Garden of Eden (1928), black & white, 78 minutes, not rated, with Hollywood the Unusual (1927), color-toned black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA-MD3-053, UPC 8-10162-03351-4.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc
(BD-R BDMV); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: 24 July 2018.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition has been transferred full-frame from a very-good to excellent 35mm color-toned print supplied by the Library of Moving Images.
The film is accompanied by music performed on piano by Alan Boyd.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition is available directly from FLICKER ALLEY through . . .
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 Flicker Alley
2003 DVD edition
The Garden of Eden (1928), black & white, 78 minutes, not rated, with Hollywood the Unusual (1927), color-toned black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, and The Toy Shop (1928), color, 9 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 22 April 2003.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been transferred full-frame from a very-good to excellent 35mm color-toned print supplied by the Library of Moving Images.
The film is accompanied by music performed on piano by Alan Boyd.
Supplementary material includes material on The Garden of Eden: a collection of lobby cards, cast bios, newspaper ads, promotional materials and stories, and suggested promotional schemes from the 1928 press book; production stills from the estate of director Lewis Milestone (10 images); a section “Color in The Garden of Eden,” which covers the presumed lost Technicolor dream sequence that was originally in 1928 prints and includes more exerpts from the 1928 press book and also seven stills from the sequence.
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Flicker Alley
2002 DVD edition
The Garden of Eden (1928), black & white, 78 minutes, not rated, with Hollywood the Unusual (1927), color-toned black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA0001, UPC 8-03120-00222-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 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), 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 2 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $22.95 (reduced to $19.95).
Release date: 6 November 2002.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 8 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition of Hollywood the Unusual (1927) has been transferred full-frame from a very-good to excellent 35mm color-toned print supplied by the Library of Moving Images. The video transfer sports a persistent LMI logo in white type in the lower right-hand corner. Since the video sources on a DVD are usually protected against unauthorized copying by digital encryption scheme, the logo identifying LMI’s prints are unnecessary and are annoyingly intrusive. Source print credits after the end of the films and in the disc’s packaging should be enough promotion to suit LMI — the logos do not belong in the video transfers.
The film is accompanied by music performed on piano by Alan Boyd.
We certainly welcome the future efforts of this new home video company — especially if they will be bringing more generally-unknown, quality silent era films to the home video market.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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