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
Wishing Ring
(1914)
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This comedy-drama, directed by Maurice Tourneur, features Vivian Martin, Alec B. Francis, Chester Barnett, Simeon Wiltsie, Walter Morton and Johnny Hines.
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 Film Preservation Associates
2003 DVD edition
Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J. (1964), color and black & white, 40 minutes, not rated, with The Wishing Ring (1914), color-tinted black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates,
distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID1855DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-18552-2.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $24.99.
Release date: 20 May 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good source print, which is likely the known 35mm preservation positive that was optically enlarged from a surviving 16mm reduction print of a British release version of the film. While the original source material is a little worn, with speckling, dust and incidental scratches, and sections of overly-light tones, the print is a pleasant viewing experience.
The natural-speed video transfer is reasonably detailed, evenly capturing the colortone range and image detail of the surviving material. The restrained highlights of the transfer, keeping them on the toned side of completely white, holds what image information still remains in the 16mm print. While the print material is not ideal, the disc still renders a reasonably good-looking picture on high-definition systems that upconverts a standard interlaced signal to a progressive-scan HD signal.
The film is accompanied by a music score compiled by Rodney Sauer and performed on piano, violin, oboe and cello by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Very entertaining.
This is our recommended 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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 Loving the Classics
202? DVD edition
The Wishing Ring (1914), black & white, 54 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 or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era MAURICE TOURNEUR films available on home video.
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