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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.

The Vanishing
American

(1925)

Adapted from a Zane Grey novel, this story of the clash of the traditional and the modern stars Richard Dix, Lois Wilson and Noah Beery.

A companion to the later Redskin (1929), in which Dix again portrays a native American fighting the wrongs of the corrupt white man.

2000 Image Entertainment edition

The Vanishing American (1925), color-tinted black & white, 108 minutes, not rated.

Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID9229DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-9229?-?.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 16 chapter stops, snapper case, $24.99.
DVD release date: 17 October 2000.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 0 / overall: 7.

This early DVD edition, that shows its age a bit, has been mastered from a very-good 35mm print that flickers a bit with slight exposure fluctuations in this nearly full-frame video transfer from 1999. Image details are clear enough, and the disc is satisfying viewing (aside from the flickering). However, the disc’s video information is a bit overcompressed to facilitate its fit onto a single-layer DVD, resulting in a nearly constant swarm of artifacts that look like filmgrain but are not (as any still frame will reveal). Most viewers will be able to ignore it, but we can’t . . . especially on a high-definition system.

The film is accompanied by a theater organ music score performed by John Muri that was recorded during a live presentation.

We recommend this edition as the best currently available on home video, but we look forward to an updated edition that has been mastered to current standards.

 
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
 
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
Other silent era Richard Dix films available on home video:
Redskin (1929)

Other silent era WESTERN films available on home video.

 
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