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SILENT ERA FILMS ON HOME VIDEO
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2009 by Carl Bennett.
All Rights Reserved.
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Lon Chaney
Collection
(1921-2000) |
Contents: The Ace of Hearts (1921), The Unknown (1927), Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) and Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000).
Lon Chaney is among the most-popular of silent era stars, largely for the lasting appeal of his wide-range of character roles. The highlight of this collection is the appearance on DVD of three lesser-known Chaney films that are yet among his best films.
Chaney fans, hungry for more of their man’s work, will be pleased with the quality home video debuts of The Ace of Hearts (1921) and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928). The Unknown (1927) is a deliciously quirky Tod Browning gem, and Kevin Brownlow’s gorgeous documentary features rare footage, and valuable info and photographs.
The films are accompanied by new scores from The Alloy Orchestra, Robert Israel, and two winners of the TCM Young Composers Competition.
The DVD collection is economically priced for its five-and-a-half hours of content. — Carl Bennett
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 2003 Warner Home Video edition
Lon Chaney Collection (1921-2000),
black & white and color, 329 minutes total, not rated,
including The Ace of Hearts (1921), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated, The Unknown (1927), black & white, 49 minutes, not rated, Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), black & white, 73 minutes, not rated, and Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), black & white and color, 85 minutes, not rated.
Warner Home Video, 65791, UPC 0-12569-57912-5.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, two single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 1, 5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, French and Spanish language subtitles, chapter stops, dual digipak in cardboard slipcase, $39.98.
DVD release date: 28 October 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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 This collection from Warner Home Video is packed with attractive extras. Not only does the collection contain the three main films, also included is the Photoplay Productions documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), Rick Schmidlin’s lame 2002 photo reconstruction of the lost film London After Midnight (1927), audio commentaries by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake, an introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne, and photo and memorabilia galleries.
Follow these links for full reviews of this edition’s presentations of The Ace of Hearts, The Unknown, Laugh, Clown, Laugh and Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces.
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.co.uk. |
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