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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Made in New Jersey
Films from Fort Lee,
America’s First Film Town
(1909-2015)
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Contents: The Curtain Pole (1909), The Cord of Life (1909), The Indian Land Grab (1910), A Daughter of Dixie (1911), Flo’s Discipline (1912), A Girl of the West (1912), A Grocery Clerk’s Romance (1912), Not Like Other Girls (1912), Robin Hood (1912), Marked Cards (1913), The Vampire (1913), There She Goes (1913), The Danger Game (1918), Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee (1935), Cossacks in Exile (1939) and The Champion (2015).
This collection features films produced in and around Fort Lee, New Jersey, by Biograph Company, The Champion Film Company, Eclair Film Company of America, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Kalem Company, Incorporated, Keystone Film Company, Pathé Frères, Victor Film Company, and The Vitagraph Company of America, supplemented with two documentaries. The set is an expansion of Milestone’s DVD release, The Champion (2021).
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 The Milestone Cinematheque
2025 Blu-ray Disc edition
Made in New Jersey: Films from Fort Lee, America’s First Film Town (1909-2015), black & white, 383 minutes total, not rated, including The Curtain Pole (1909), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated, The Cord of Life (1909), black & white, 15 minutes, not rated, The Indian Land Grab (1910), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, A Daughter of Dixie (1911), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, Flo’s Discipline (1912), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, A Girl of the West (1912), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, A Grocery Clerk’s Romance (1912), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated, Not Like Other Girls (1912), black & white, 9 minutes, not rated, Robin Hood (1912), black & white, color-tinted black & white, and color-toned black & white, 30 minutes, not rated, Marked Cards (1913), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated, The Vampire (1913), black & white, 39 minutes, not rated, There She Goes (1913), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, The Danger Game (1918), black & white, 61 minutes, not rated, Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee (1935), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated, Cossacks in Exile (1939), black & white, 84 minutes, not rated, and The Champion (2015), color and black & white, 35 minutes, not rated.
Milestone Film & Video, distributed by Kino Lorber,
K26962, UPC 7-38329-26962-3.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Discs; 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; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional English language SDH subtitles; chapter stops; 20-page insert booklet; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $44.95.
Release date: 24 June 2025.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc collection has been mastered from high-definition scans of archival film elements held by the Library of Congress, with the cooperation of Film Preservation Society.
Robin Hood (1912) has been mastered from a 16mm duplicate color negative copied from a 35mm nitrate positive with good results. The decomposing source material is responsible for frame jumpiness, filmbase disintegration, and several orange flashes in scenes tinted green and white flashes in violet and rose tints elsewhere. Unfortunately, the picture detail presumably present in the 35mm nitrate has not survived the transfer to 16mm dupe, with images being softer than is desirable. Missing footage is represented by still frames and new expositional intertitles, with some taken directly from synopses printed in industry publications.
The silent films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed by Philip C. Carli, Ben Model, arranged by Rodney Sauer and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Donald Sosin.
Supplemental material includes the vintage documentary Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee (1935) by Theodore Huff and Mark A. Borgatta; the documentary The Champion (2015) by Marc Perez; a 4K restoration of the Edgar G. Ulmer musical drama Cossacks in Exile (1939); and a 20-page insert booklet with an essay and film notes by Richard Koszarski.
For our comparative reviews of some of the individual films in this collection, see our The Cord of Life on home video, The Curtain Pole on home video, The Danger Game on home video, Flo’s Discipline on home video, and A Grocery Clerk’s Romance on home video pages.
This is our recommended home video edition of these films.
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This
Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available from
MILESTONE FILM & VIDEO through . . .
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