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Silent Era Home Page  >  DVD  >  Au Secours! DVD Review
 

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

Au secours!
(1924)
on

This late comedy starring Max Linder, directed by Abel Gance, was his final completed film.

2000 Image Entertainment edition

Au secours! (1924), black & white, 31 minutes, not rated, with La folie du Docteur Tube (1915), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, and Lucrèzia Borgia (1935), black & white, 93 minutes, not rated.

Image Entertainment, ID5744FPDVD, UPC 0-14381-57442-5.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered? DVD disc, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, English language subtitles (Lucrèzia Borgia only), chapter stops, snapper case, $24.99.
DVD release date: 4 July 2000.
Country of origin: USA

We have not seen the DVD. Of the three films included on this DVD of Abel Gance’s Lucrèzia Borgia, we are only familiar with the pioneering avant-garde short film La folie du Docteur Tube, which has been available for several years on public-domain videotapes transferred from tolerable 16mm reduction prints.

The appearance of the first of Abel Gance’s films on DVD home video is quite welcome, and surprisingly beats a DVD edition of Napoléon (1927) to market. (Let us hope also that a DVD of the Francis Ford Coppola produced edition is neglected in favor of Kevin Brownlow’s recent restoration of that Gance epic.) We are certain that this DVD will aid viewers in a reassessment of Gance’s cinematic career.

 
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
Other Max Linder films available on DVD home video:
The Comedy of Max Linder (1907-1913)
Laugh with Max Linder (1912-1921)

Other Abel Gance films available on DVD home video:
La folie du Docteur Tube (1915)
Napoléon (1927)
La roue (1922)

Other French silent era films available on DVD home video:
Anémic cinéma (1926)
Ballerinas in Hell: A Georges Méliès Album (1898-1912)
Le ballet mécanique (1924)
Captain Fracasse (1928)
The Chess Player (1927)
Un chien Andalou (1929)
The Comedy of Max Linder (1907-1913)
La coquille et le clergyman (1928)
The Crazy Ray (1923)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1925)
Entr’acte (1924)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Fantômas (1913)
Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913) (1896-1953)
The Italian Straw Hat (1928)
Judex (1916-1917)
Landmarks of Early Film, Volume 1 (1904-1908)
Laugh with Max Linder (1908-1921)
The Lumière Brothers’ First Films
The Magic of Méliès (1904-1908)
Méliès the Magician (1898-1997)
The Movies Begin (1894-1913)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
La terre (1921)
Les vampires (1915-1916)

 
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