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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Dog Factory
(1904)
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This Edison short comedy, directed by Edwin S. Porter, depicts a machine that converts live dogs to link sausages and back again.
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 Kino Classics
2025 Blu-ray Disc edition
Wonder Dogs!: Canine Stars of the Silent Era (1897-1928), black & white, color-tinted black & white, color-toned black & white, and color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 477 minutes total, not rated, including Dog Factory (1904), black & white, 4 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K27007, UPC 7-38329-27007-0.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc (two BDs in the set); 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 20.4 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.6 Mbps audio bit rate (music), and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate (commentary); English language intertitles, no subtitles (within the film); chapter stops; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 20 May 2025.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from an archival 35mm film print held by the Library of Congress. The image in the surviving material is a bit blurryAs with the other films in this collection, no digital clean-up has been performed on the dust, speckling, schmutz, scratches, frame jitters, or other print flaws in the scans, leaving the film to appear in its honest survival state.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Anthony Laurie.
Supplemental material includes audio commentaries by the prolific Anthony Slide; interviews with archivists and curators of this collection Lynanne Schweighofer and George Willeman (21 minutes); and an interview with composer Andrew Earle Simpson (12 minutes).
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 National Film Preservation Foundation
2000/2005 DVD edition
Treasures from American Film Archives (1893-1960), black & white, color-tinted black & white, and color, 642 minutes total, not rated, including Dog Factory (1904), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
National Film Preservation Foundation, distributed by Image Entertainment, NATD9706DVD (rereleased as NATD0918DVD), UPC 0-14381-97062-3 (rereleased as 0-14381-09182-3).
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (four DVDs 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 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate, and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles (silent era films), no subtitles; chapter stops; four cardboard wrapped plastic trays with 150-page book of program notes (rereleased with four smaller bookets) in cardboard slipcase; $99.99 (rereleased at $69.95).
Release date: 3 October 2000 (rereleased 10 May 2005).
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 8 / additional content: 3 / overall: 8.
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Original 2000
release packaging
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The DVD edition has been transferred full-frame from a 35mm preservation print copied from a very-good Library of Congress paper print.
The film is accompanied by a music score arranged and performed by Martin Marks. Marks contributes information on the music selected for the various scores to the program book included in the set.
The program notes book features information on each film in the collection, written by Scott Simmon. The book notes have been entirely duplicated as text notes on the collection’s discs, making the printed book a bit superfluous.
Descriptive information on each of the participating film archives has been narrated by actor Laurence Fishburne, and is accessed through each disc’s menu system.
The collection packaging is comprised of a slipcase of thin cardboard that is too flimsy to adequately protect the program book and the four clear plastic DVD trays wrapped in black cardboard covers that can easily fingerprint and wear. The flimsy slipcase is far less important to us than sturdy ‘keep cases’ that could have protected the collection’s discs without premature packaging wear.
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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