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Dog Shy
(1926)

This short comedy, directed by Leo McCarey, stars Charley Chase and Mildred June, with Stuart Holmes, Josephine Crowell, William Orlamond, Fred Kelsey, Jerry Mandy and Buddy the dog.

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 Shy (1926), black & white, 20 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 or 2.0 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; chapter stops; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 20 May 2025.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a very-good archival 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. Apparently, as with the other films in this collection, no digital clean-up has been performed on any of the films to remove the dust, speckling, schmutz, scratches, frame jitters, emulsion scuffing and scrapes, brief sections of footage lost to print splices, and other print flaws in the scan, leaving the films to appear in their honest survival state.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Caroline Gao. We question the value of adding pops and crackles to the soundtrack to emulate a vintage sound when we all are tired of hearing them in soundtracks on other home video releases cobbled together from scratchy LP records.

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).

By far the best-looking of those available, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Kino on Video
2005 DVD edition

The Charley Chase Collection, Volume 2 (1922-1926), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 151 minutes total, not rated, including Dog Shy (1926), color-tinted black & white, 23 minutes, not rated.

Kino International, K432, UPC 7-38329-04322-3.
One single-sided, dual-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 5.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 4 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: 13 September 2005.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This DVD edition was originally produced for home video by Eric Lange and Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films, Paris, from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print that has some dust, speckling and schmutz, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a lively music score composed and performed on piano by Neil Brand.

Supplemental material includes a Paul Parrott (Charley’s brother) short comedy; and A Charley Chase Biography (2004), a special montage about Chase’s life, narrated by Serge Bromberg and directed by Eric Lange (5 minutes).

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

The Milestone Cinematheque
2011 DVD edition

Cut the the Chase: The Charley Chase Collection (1924-1926), black & white, 303 minutes total, not rated, including Dog Shy (1926), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated.

Milestone Film & Video, distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories (now distributed by Kino Lorber), Mile00118, UPC 7-84148-01184-4, ISBN 978-1-933920-14-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 7.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 5.1 surround sound encoded at 448 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 7 chapter stops; two-page insert card; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 2011.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 8 / additional content: 6 / overall: 7.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print that is a bit soft in its image details (moreso on the right side of the frame) and has a moderate amount of dust and schmutz, significant speckling, brief sections of footage lost to splices, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Ben Model.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available from
MILESTONE FILMS through . . .

Alpha Video
2016 DVD edition

Charley Chase Rarities (1915-1926), black & white, 90 minutes total, not rated, including Dog Shy (1926), black & white, 20 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7862D, UPC 0-89218-78629-6.
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 4.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 27 September 2016.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from an old VHS videotape transferred from a fair to good 16mm reduction print. As would be expected, the picture is full of analog videotape artifacts including shadow ghosting to the right of white picture elements and residual interlacing artifacts that cannot be totally removed by HD systems capable of progressive scan upscaling. Compared to other home video editions, this is one of the worst-looking examples among them.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .