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Silent Era Films on DVD
Reviews of silent film releases on DVD home video.
Copyright © 1999-2008 by Carl Bennett. All Rights Reserved.
Spite Marriage
(1929)
on

Buster Keaton’s last silent film is a very good comedy, but shows emerging signs of studio meddling and restriction of Keaton’s creative process. Tightly scripted and shrewdly planned to hold down production costs, Spite Marriage (1929) nonetheless still succeeds with audiences.

2004 Warner Home Video edition

Spite Marriage (1929), black & white, 76 minutes, not rated, with The Cameraman (1928), black & white, 76 minutes, not rated, and Free and Easy (1930), black & white, 93 minutes, not rated, with So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM (2004), color and black & white, 38 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video, 67009, UPC 0-12569-70092-5.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, two single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 1, 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono and stereo sound, English language intertitles, English, Spanish and French language subtitles, 15 chapter stops, plastic trays on cardboard wrap in cardboard slipcase, $39.95.
DVD release date: 7 December 2004.
Country of origin: USA

This collection of Buster Keaton’s first three films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also includes the modern documentary So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM by Kevin Brownlow.

The quality of the 35mm source materials for Spite Marriage range from very-good to excellent. The film is presented with its original synchronized music score from 1929, well-reproduced in digital mono sound.

Also included as supplementary material is audio commentary by Glenn Mitchell, author of A-Z of Silent Film Comedy: An Illustrated Companion on The Cameraman; commentary by John Bengston, author of Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton and Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered on Spite Marriage; and photo montages from the silent films.

 
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 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)
College (1927)
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)
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
Buster Keaton filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
 
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