Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > A Society Sensation
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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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A Society Sensation
(1918) |
Carmel Myers turns in a charmingly unaffected performance in A Society Sensation and, for her brief screen time in the abbreviated version, ZaSu Pitts is brilliantly meek as Mary, with her subtlely-rendered mannerisms that turn to comedy when she faints.
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 2007 Flicker Alley edition
Valentino: Rediscovering an Icon of Silent Film (1918-1922),
color and black & white, 226 minutes total, not rated,
including A Society Sensation (1918), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated,
with Stolen Moments (1920), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 35 minutes, not rated, The Young Rajah (1922), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, and Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA0004, ISBN 1-893967-32-8, UPC 6-17311-67329-0.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, two single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 0, 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 4 chapter stops, dual-disc keep case, $39.98.
DVD release date: 11 September 2007.
Country of origin: USA
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 The release of this two-disc collection of Rudolph Valentino material is both a happy and sad occasion. Sad, for the unhappy survival condition and incomplete state of surviving prints of these films; happy, for the opportunity to view them in any state whatsoever.
For A Society Sensation (1918) the film is presented in an excellent windowboxed video transfer from the surviving abbreviated 1924 two-reel rerelease version in a 35mm print, which is very-good but, in places, worn. The print shows a moderate amount of frame jitters, sections of pronounced and persistent filmbase scratches, dust, faint early decomposition, speckling and light emulsion damage that can be distracting for the viewer.
The film is accompanied by a pipe organ score performed by Bob Mitchell.
The DVD’s high video bit rate ensures that, despite how rough the source prints are, the disc will render the best-possible image, even on high-definition television monitors. We highly recommend this disc set.
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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 2009 Passport Video edition
The Rudolph Valentino Collection (1918-1925),
black & white, 420 minutes total, not rated,
including A Society Sensation (1918), black & white, ? minutes, not rated,
with The Married Virgin (1918), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Sheik (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Blood and Sand (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties (1923), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated, Cobra (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The Eagle (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Passport Video, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, three single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, multidisc keep case, $19.98.
DVD release date: 11 August 2009.
Country of origin: USA
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This three-disc collection of Rudolph Valentino films may have been mastered from 16mm reduction prints. All of the films in the collection have previously appeared on DVD in high-quality editions.
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 RUDOLPH VALENTINO films available on home video. |
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