Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Paths to Paradise
(1925)
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This feature comedy stars Raymond Griffith and Betty Compson, with support from Tom Santschi, Bert Woodruff, Leo White and Edgar Kennedy.
Confidence man (Griffith) meets confidence woman (Compson) and the pair independently persue the largest diamond in the country, owned by rich codger (Woodruff). Protecting the diamond are three detectives (including Santschi and Kennedy) who are nonetheless helpless to keep the theft from happening. As there is no honor among thieves, Griffith and Compson must learn to trust each other while they fall in love and conspire to remove the diamond from its safe right under the detectives’ noses.
Sparklingly directed by Clarence Badger, the film is a prime example of an American feature comedy of the 1920s. Smart, bubbly and slick, the film avoids falling into a routine formula through the combined boyant charms of Griffith and Compson. The chase sequence is buoyed by a hairraising subjective car chase down a curving mountain road. With the combined motorcycle squads of (ostensibly) San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego in pursuit, the sequence builds to a motorcycle chase version of Cops (1922).
The final reel of the film is thought to have been lost to print decomposition.
— Carl Bennett
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 Undercrank Productions
2023 Blu-ray Disc edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), color-tinted black & white and black & white, 67 minutes, not rated, and You’d Be Surprised (1926), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 7-45808-09981-7.
One single-sided, dual-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 25.8 Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $21.95.
Release date: 13 June 2023.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 9 / additional content: 9 / overall: 9.
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This Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition has been mastered in 2K high-definition from an excellent but incomplete 35mm nitrate positive held by the Library of Congress film archive. The scan is relatively free of dust, speckling and other flaws, with only some very slight frame jitters and occasional exposure fluctuations. Some digital image repair is evident in the final minutes of the presentation to hide the advancing nitrate decomposition that destroyed the final reel of the source print. Two sections lost to decomposition have footage inserted from a 35mm safety duplicate negative. Missing footage in the presumed lost seventh reel is represented by new intertitles explaining the remaining action and dialog. Overall, what a delight to watch.
The film is accompanied by a fun and entertaining music score composed and performed on virtual theatre pipe organ by Ben Model.
Supplementary material includes “Raymond Griffith: Silent Comedy’s Silk-Hatted Secret,” a video overview of Griffith’s career (11 minutes).
This is currently our recommended home video edition of the film, and not likely to be surpassed by another soon.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Undercrank Productions
2023 DVD edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), color-tinted black & white and black & white, 67 minutes, not rated, and You’d Be Surprised (1926), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc (two DVD-R discs in the set); 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: 13 June 2023.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered in 2K high-definition from an excellent but incomplete 35mm nitrate positive held by the Library of Congress film archive. Two sections lost to decomposition have footage inserted from a 35mm safety duplicate negative. Missing footage in the presumed lost seventh reel is represented by production stills and new intertitles explaining the action.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Ben Model.
Sight unseen, this is currently our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Grapevine Video
2016 Blu-ray Disc edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video,
no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R); 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 23 June 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) editionhas been mastered at 2K high-resolution from a 16mm reduction source print.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed by David Knudtson.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2016 DVD edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 23 June 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered at 2K high-resolution from a 16mm reduction source print.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed by David Knudtson.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2023 DVD edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8537D, UPC 0-89218-85379-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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 foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $8.98.
Release date: 1 August 2023.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print of the film.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music sources.
Probably not a great presentation.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 TeleVista
2009 DVD edition
Paths to Paradise (1925), black & white, 85 minutes, not rated.
TeleVista, no catalog number, UPC 0-29502-19725-4.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 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 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 12 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 24 February 2009.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 5 / additional content: 1 / overall: 3.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a good quality 8mm reduction print, which is flecked with dust, debris and speckling, flat in contrast and blurry.
The film is accompanied by a hodge-podge of preexisting recordings. The supplemental section is nothing more than a set of still frames from this subpar print.
Not at all recommended, and not worth $20.00.
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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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Other silent era RAYMOND GRIFFITH films available on home video.
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