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Reviews of silent film releases on DVD home video.
Copyright © 1999-2008 by Carl Bennett. All Rights Reserved.
City Lights
(1931)
on

2004 Warner Home Video edition

City Lights (1931), black & white, 83 minutes, Rated G.

Warner Home Video, 37648,
UPC 0-85393-76482-1, ISBN 0-7907-7165-9.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, two single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai and Korean language subtitles, 20 chapter stops, cardboard wrap case with plastic tray in cardboard slipcase, $29.95.
DVD release date: 2 March 2004.
Country of origin: USA

This new home video edition was digitally restored from excellent 35mm materials held by the Estate of Charles Chaplin. At first glance, the full-frame video transfer well reproduces the broad graytones range and image details of the source materials.

The supplementary material includes Georgia Hale’s screen test as the blind girl, a short documentary, and more.

  
  
  

 
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.

2000 Image Entertainment edition

City Lights (1931), black & white, 87 minutes, Rated G.

CBS/Fox Home Video, ID9181CUDVD, UPC 0-14381-91812-0.
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 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, snapper case, $29.99.
DVD release date: 8 February 2000.
Country of origin: USA

We have not seen this DVD. But, we are certain that this disc will feature a superior print of City Lights. It appears that the masters from the 1993 Chaplin: A Legacy of Laughter laserdisc series will be utilized for this and other year 2000 Chaplin DVD releases. The City Lights DVD will feature mono tracks of the original 1931 film soundtrack and PCM stereo tracks of the reconstructed music score arranged by Carl Davis and recorded in 1989. The disc is now contractually out-of-print to make way for the Warner edition noted above.

 
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 silent era Charles Chaplin DVDs available on DVD home video:
Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies Volume 1 (1915)
Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies Volume 2 (1915)
Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies Volume 3 (1915-1918)
The Chaplin Mutual Comedies, 90th Anniversary Edition (1916-1917)
The Chaplin Revue (1918-1923)
The Circus (1928)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Kid (1921)
Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)
A Woman of Paris (1923)

Chaplin-related films available on DVD home video:
Chaplin’s Goliath (1996)
Unknown Chaplin (1983)
Charles Chaplin filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
 
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