Contents: His Picture in the Papers (1916), The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916), Flirting with Fate (1916), The Matrimaniac (1916), Wild and Woolly (1917), Reaching for the Moon (1917), A Modern Musketeer (1917), When the Clouds Roll By (1919), The Mollycoddle (1920), The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Nut (1921).

This boxset collection of early Douglas Fairbanks films won an award at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2009 for excellence.

Our first look at this five-disc, eleven-film collection has generally been a delight, and the release of these films on DVD home video has been a long time coming for the relatively neglected Douglas Fairbanks. At first overwhelming, this collection of films released by Triangle, Artcraft Pictures and Fairbanks’ own United Artists is a great overview of the first phase of Fairbanks’ motion picture career, predominantly comprised of his light-hearted comedies, leading to the well-known action-adventure films of the 1920s. Not only does the viewer appreciate the charming talents of Douglas Fairbanks, the collection also gives some perspective of the early careers of John Emerson and Anita Loos, with three of their collaborations included here, and of directors Victor Fleming (two films) and Allan Dwan (one film).

The majority of the films are very-good to nearly excellent in both print material and their full-frame video transfers except for the coarsely transferred His Picture in the Papers, Reaching for the Moon, Wild and Woolly and When the Clouds Roll By, with their coarse (vertical!) pixels easily detected and distracting on high-definition monitors, that may play acceptably on standard televisions.

The films are accompanied by musical scores performed by Eric Beheim, Philip Carli, Frederick Hodges, Robert Israel, Rodney Sauer, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Franklin Stover.

For a review of this edition of The Mark of Zorro, see our The Mark of Zorro on DVD page.

Included is a 32-page booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta. The supplemental material includes productions stills and pressbook reproductions, an audio essay for A Modern Musketeer, and a reproduction of Fairbanks’ first film contract.

Note: A few DVD players have encountered problems playing some discs in this boxset. Flicker Alley has inititated a program to replace defective discs from this Fairbanks set. Click here to report defective discs.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.

Other silent era DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS films available on home video.

Douglas Fairbanks filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List