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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The Grim Game
(1919)
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Famous illusionist Harry Houdini stars in this action feature drama, directed by Irvin Willat, with Thomas Jefferson, Ann Forrest, Augustus Phillips, Tully Marshall, Arthur Hoyt and Mae Busch.
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 Loving the Classics
202? DVD edition
The Grim Game (1919), black & white, 71 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics,
no catalog number, no 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 subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.99.
Release date: 202?
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. Note that the running time is significantly longer than the fragment in the Kino Houdini collection noted below.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Kino International
2008 DVD edition
Houdini: The Movie Star (1918-1923), black & white, color-tinted black & white, color-toned black & white, and color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 450 minutes total, not rated, including The Grim Game (1919), color-tinted black & white, 5 minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K563, UPC 7-38329-05632-2.
Three single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs; 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 160 and 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; three slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $39.95.
Release date: 8 April 2008.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition offers the serial The Master Mystery (1918-1919), an incomplete but reconstructed version from 35mm footage once held by Douris UK Ltd. (now held by Cohen Media Group); the surviving 35mm footage from The Grim Game (1919) held by George Eastman Museum (5 minutes); Terror Island (1920) from an excellent but incomplete 35mm print (missing reels three and four) held by the Library of Congress; the best available edition (of several) of The Man from Beyond (1922), having been mastered from the Library of Congress preservation version prepared from surviving 16mm print materials; and Haldane of the Secret Service (1923) from a very-good 35mm print held by Cinema Arts.
The film excerpt is accompanied by a music score.
Supplemental material includes documentary footage of Houdini escapes (circa 1907 through 1923), an audio recording of Houdini introducing his “Water Torture Cell” (1914), Slippery Jim (1910) a Houdini-inspired comedy, an examination of film scenes censored by the New York State Censor Board with correspondence, Houdini’s illusion “Metamorphosis” performed by Houdini’s brother Hardeen (4 minutes), image galleries, and film notes.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other HARRY HOUDINI films available on home video.
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