Silent Era : DVD : Chess Fever (1925) Review

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

Chess Fever
(1925)
on

2004 Image Entertainment edition

Chess Fever (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with Bed and Sofa (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Image Entertainment, ID5753DSDVD, 0-14381-57532-3.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided?, dual-layered? DVD disc, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 5.0 stereo sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $24.99.
DVD release date: 9 March 2004.
Country of origin: USA

We have not viewed this DVD. But, interestingly, the film is presented with both English intertitles and Russian intertitles on the alternate video angle. The film is accompanied by new music by Rodney Sauer.

This DVD includes audio commentary for Bed and Sofa by Julian Graffy, professor of Russian Literature and Cinema at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London, and author of Bed and Sofa: The Film Companion (I.B. Taurus Publishers, 2001).

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.

2003 Kino International edition

Chess Fever (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with Earth (1930), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The End of St. Petersburg (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Kino International, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided?, dual-layered? DVD disc, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $29.95.
DVD release date: 13 May 2003.
Country of origin: USA

We have not viewed this DVD. We do assume, however, that either this edition from Kino or the one from Image will be of very-good to excellent quality. A decision on which edition with Chess Fever to purchase may be based on which films are packaged with it. We hope to review both of these editions for you soon.

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 Russian silent era films available on DVD home video:
Aelita (1924)
Arsenal (1928)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Bed and Sofa (1927)
By the Law (1926)
The Cameraman’s Revenge and Other Fantastic Tales: Ladislaw Starewicz (1912-1958)
Earth (1930)
The End of St. Petersburg (1927)
The Girl with the Hatbox (1927)
Glumov’s Diary (1923)
Kino-Eye (1924)
Mad Love: The Films of Evgeni Bauer (1913-1917)
Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Mother (1926)
My Grandmother (1929)
October (1928)
Old and New (1929)
Storm Over Asia (1928)
Strike (1924)
Zvenigora (1927)

About Russian filmmakers:
Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography (1996)

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