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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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The
Scar of Shame
(1927)
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This crime drama from the Colored Players Film Corporation dahses in a little social commentary into its mix of two-bit hustlers, upper-middle-class stoicism, guns, attempted rape and suicide. The story by David Starkman, as directed by Frank Perugini, is melodramatic yet effective. The “all colored” cast is led by Harry Henderson, Lucia Lynn Moses, Norman Johnstone and Lawrence Chenault.
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 Kino Classics
2016 Blu-ray Disc edition
Pioneers of African-American Cinema (1915-1946), black & white and color, 1266 minutes total. not rated, including The Scar of Shame (1927), black & white, 86 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K20601, UPC 7-38329-20601-7.
Five single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) progressive scan AVC (MPEG-4) format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Mbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; one cardboard wrap with three plastic BD trays in cardboard slipcase; $99.95.
Release date: 26 July 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in high-definition from a 35mm print from the Library of Congress. This edition contains an additional four minutes of footage previously not in prior home video editions.
The film is accompanied by a music score by Paul D. Miller (AKA DJ Spooky).
The collection is supplemented with an 80-page booklet that includes notes on the films and essays by collection curators Charles Musser, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, and others.
This is our recommended home video edition of The Scar of Shame.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Kino Classics
2016 DVD edition
Pioneers of African-American Cinema (1915-1946), black & white and color, 952 minutes total. not rated, including The Scar of Shame (1927), black & white, 86 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K20600, UPC 7-38329-20600-0.
Five single-sided, dual-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 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; one cardboard wrap with three plastic DVD trays in cardboard slipcase; $79.95.
Release date: 26 July 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This abbreviated DVD collection has been mastered in high-definition from a 35mm print from the Library of Congress. This edition contains an additional four minutes of footage previously not in prior home video editions.
The film is accompanied by a music score by Paul D. Miller (AKA DJ Spooky).
The collection is supplemented with an 80-page booklet that includes notes on the films and essays by collection curators Charles Musser, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, and others.
This is our recommended DVD home video for those collectors who have not yet adopted Blu-ray Discs.
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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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 The Library of Congress /
Smithsonian Video
2001 DVD edition
The Origins of Film (1900-1927), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color-toned black & white, 560 minutes total, not rated, including The Scar of Shame (1927), black & white, 79 minutes, not rated.
The Library of Congress/Smithsonian Video, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID9807UMDVD, UPC 0-14381-98072-1.
Three 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; three standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $79.99.
Release date: 13 March 2001.
Country of origin: USA
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This 34-film collection contains a high-quality edition of The Scar of Shame, the first on DVD home video, transferred from a 35mm print.
This valuable early DVD collection is now regretably out-of-print.
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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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 Encore Home Video
2003 DVD edition
The Scar of Shame (1927), black & white, 67 minutes, not rated.
Encore Home Video, F 416, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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), 4.8 Mbps average video bit rate, 256 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $18.88.
Release date: 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 6.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 35mm duplicate negative of the same 35mm print held by the Library of Congress utilized for the edition noted above. There is some image instability, a little speckling, moderate dust and other minor print damage, but the greyscale range is a little flat and image detail is reasonably good, with some highlight and shadow details held and some of them lost. The resulting quality of the full-frame video transfer is very-good and is comparable to the LoC/Smithsonian edition.
The film is accompanied by John Muri performing on the Barton theatre organ. The musical performance is flawless, but it has been reproduced from a slightly damaged optical soundtrack transfer, and some crackling, dropouts and infrequent distortion are audible.
Given that this home video edition is now out-of-print, we recommend the Kino editions noted above.
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ENCORE HOME VIDEO has discontinued business
and this DVD-R edition is . . .
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 Alpha Video
2013 DVD edition
The Scar of Shame (1927), black & white, 75 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7137D, UPC 0-89218-71379-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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), ? 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; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 27 August 2013.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely presented with a music score compiled from preexisting recordings.
With other high quality editions noted above, we cannot recommend this edition.
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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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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other AFRICAN-AMERICAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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