Silent Era Home Page > DVD > College DVD Review
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Reviews of silent film releases on DVD home video.
Copyright © 1999-2008 by Carl Bennett. All Rights Reserved.
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College
(1927)
on
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Buster Keaton returned to a simpler story with College (1927) and reaped one of his most-popular films of the 1920s.
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 2000 Kino International edition
College (1927), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated, with Hard Luck (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Electric House (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The Blacksmith (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K129DVD, UPC 7-38329-01292-2.
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 sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, snapper case (reissued in keep case, and in slimline keep case), $29.99 (reduced to $24.95).
DVD release date: 11 January 2000.
Country of origin: USA
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We have not seen this DVD yet. We are familiar with the film College and have seen the 1991 laserdisc edition from Image Entertainment. The print utilized for that edition was comprised of very good 35mm and poor 16mm print elements. We do not know whether this DVD is identical to that edition or whether it has been remastered from improved elements. The DVD also contains the Keaton films Hard Luck (1921), The Electric House (1922) and The Blacksmith (1922).
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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 2004 Genius Entertainment edition
College (1927), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Genius Entertainment, 62179, UPC 7-96019-62179-3.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, 4 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, no chapter stops, cardboard wrapper, unknown suggested retail price.
DVD release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 6.
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 This low-budget edition utilizes the same slightly windowboxed video transfer as the Kino edition noted above, for it brandishes the Kino International logomark before the film begins. The transfer has probably been lifted from a Kino DVD, with or without their knowledge. The Kino transfer utilized a 35mm print for nearly the entirely of their edition (the Image Entertainment laserdisc used a greater combination of 35mm and 16mm footage), so the clarity is greater than other home video editions of College. Despite the disc’s low video bit rate, in motion the picture looks pretty good and is far better than other budget silent film discs.
The film is accompanied by the same pipe organ score by John Muri as the Kino edition, but is encoded at a low volume and is noisy when turned up.
Once the disc is playing, there is no accessing the disc’s menu (there isn’t one), there are no chapter stops, nor any other interactive controls other than ‘stop.’
The disc is available on eBay and also retails for about $2.00 in stores that carry this super-cheap line of discs, identified on its cardboard packaging by the ‘Movie Classics’ logo that is used instead of a Genius Entertainment logo.
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 2004 GoodTimes Entertainment edition
College (1927), black & white, 66 minutes, not rated, with The General (1926), black & white, 107 minutes, not rated, and The Milky Way (1936), black & white, 88 minutes, not rated.
GoodTimes Entertainment, 05-81684, UPC 0-18713-81684-9.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one dual-sided, single-layered and dual-layered DVD disc, Region 0, 7 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 12 chapter stops, keep case, $9.99.
DVD release date: 30 March 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 5 / overall: 4.
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 While surviving prints of College appear to be composed of surviving 35mm and 16mm materials, this GoodTimes edition has been mastered entirely from a 16mm reduction print which is characteristically soft of focus, coarse of image detail and contrasty in its grayscale range. Despite the high video bit rate on this disc, the quality of the source print seriously compromises this disc.
This multifilm edition also features the Harold Lloyd sound comedy The Milky Way (1936), mastered from a 16mm print, which is at least watchable. For our comments on this edition of The General (1926), see our The General on DVD page.
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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 2002 unknown company edition
College (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with 11 other silent and sound films.
Unknown home video company, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, three single-sided, single-layered DVD discs, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, 3-disc keep case?, $24.99.
DVD release date: 1 July 2002.
Country of origin: USA?
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We are suspicious of the quality of this three-disc set of short and feature-length films. The majority of the titles have previously been offered by other budget disc producers and may be of similar low-quality. While the temptation is to get three discs for a low price, the possibility exists that the quality of prints used for the video transfers are commensurately low.
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com. |
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2002 Catcom Home Video edition
College (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with The General (1926), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Catcom Home Video, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, dual-layered DVD disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, unknown suggested retail price.
DVD release date: 2002?
Country of origin: USA
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| We have not seen this DVD. The only sources for this disc that we have seen are a number of auction dealers on eBay. Like other budget editions, this Catcom edition is likely to feature a video transfer from a 16mm reduction print. Also included in the collection are two Betty Boop golden era sound cartoons. |
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 2005 Brentwood Home Video edition
The General (1926), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with College (1927), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Electric House (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Boat (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Paleface (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Frozen North (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Playhouse (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and Cops (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Brentwood Home Video, unknown catalog number, UPC 7-87364-54939-9.
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 mono? sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $9.98.
DVD release date: 11 January 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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We have no idea whether this budget collection has utilized quality print materials for this edition of College. Sight unseen, we don’t recommend it.
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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Other silent era Buster Keaton films available on DVD home video:
Arbuckle & Keaton, Volume 1 (1917-1919)
Arbuckle & Keaton, Volume 2 (1918-1920)
The Art of Buster Keaton box set (1920-1962)
Battling Butler (1926)
The Best Arbuckle Keaton Collection (1917-1918)
The Cameraman (1928)
The Cook and Other Treasures (1917-1920)
The General (1926)
Go West (1925)
Keaton Plus (1921-1962)
My Wife’s Relations (1922)
The Navigator (1924)
Our Hospitality (1923)
The Saphead (1920)
Seven Chances (1925)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Spite Marriage (1929)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Three Ages (1923)
Other Buster Keaton films available on DVD home video:
The Railrodder (1965) with Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965)
The Twilight Zone, Volume 10 includes episode “Once Upon a Time” starring Buster Keaton
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Buster Keaton filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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