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Hunchback of Notre Dame on DVD
 
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Silent Era Films on DVD
Reviews of silent film releases on DVD home video.
Copyright © 1999-2008 by Carl Bennett. All Rights Reserved.

America
(1924)
on

1999 Image Entertainment edition

America (1924), color-toned black & white, 140 minutes, not rated.

Image Entertainment, ID4726DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-47262-2.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 29 chapter stops, snapper case, $29.99.
DVD release date: 9 March 1999.
Country of origin: USA

Our first look at this early DVD was a little disappointing, but understandably forgiveable. The disc was prepared in 1999 from the video masters produced by David Shepard for the mid-1990s Image Entertainment laserdisc edition. While the DVD bit rate is at a reasonable level, the resolution of the video master itself is low-enough that sharp-eyed viewers will note the horizontal interlacing of the video image in some shots and, in particular, in the intertitles. Those with HD televisions won’t miss seeing the interlacing at all. The overall result is a softer, less-detailed, picture that doesn’t fully do justice to the clarity of the surviving source print (very likely originating from the surviving print of the British version of the film, Love and Sacrifice, held by the Museum of Modern Art).

This is the best available edition of the film on home video, but we welcome a time soon when a high-resolution edition can be prepared and released.

 
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
Other D.W. Griffith films available on DVD home video:
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914)
The Battle of the Sexes (1928)
Biograph Shorts (1909-1913)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Dream Street (1921)
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 1 (1908-1909)
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 2 (1909)
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 3 (1909)
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 4 (1909)
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 5 (1909-1910)
D.W. Griffith, Years of Discovery (1909-1913)
The Idol Dancer (1920)
Intolerance (1916)
The Love Flower (1920)
Orphans of the Storm (1920)
Sally of the Sawdust (1925)
True Heart Susie (1919)
Way Down East (1920)

Other silent era Americana films available on DVD home video:
Betsy Ross (1917)

 
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