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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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The Heart of
Texas Ryan
(1917)
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The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917) was Tom Mix’s last film for The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, and to squeeze at much money out of the film’s release, at a time when Selig was on the verge of financial failure, the studio reedited the short film to five reels, adding footage from other Tom Mix Selig films, The Telltale Knife (1914) and (likely) from Single Shot Parker (1914). As is often the case with this type of studio-expanded release, the film’s continuity is a mess. The Heart of Texas Ryan is thought to survive only in its 1923 rerelease version from Exclusive Features, Incorporated, retitled Single Shot Parker, which itself was reedited — either smoothing out editing rough spots or making things worse.
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 VCI Entertainment
2003 DVD edition
The Great Train Robbery 100th Anniversary Special Edition (1903-1925), black & white and color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 201 minutes total, not rated, including The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917) [1923 rerelease version], black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
VCI Entertainment, 8297, UPC 0-89859-82972-7.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.99.
Release date: 16 December 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 5 / additional content: 5 / overall: 4.
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This DVD edition reveals that it has been mastered from what appears to be a 16mm reduction print of the 1923 rerelease version of the film. As is typical with many 16mm prints, the print’s exposure flutters moderately from reasonable greyscale ranges to entirely too dark ranges in the picture, and often the shadow areas are plugged up to black.
While not ideal, this could be the best-looking edition that we have viewed of the film available on DVD home video.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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 Grapevine Video
2005 DVD edition
The Man from Texas (1915) [1920 rerelease version], black & white, 45 minutes, not rated, with The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917) [1923 rerelease version], black & white, 58 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, PCM 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $18.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: August 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2013 DVD edition
The Heart of Texas Ryan (1917) [1923 rerelease version], black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with A Child of the Prairie (1913), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, PCM 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 28 May 2013.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Other silent era TOM MIX films available on home video.
Other WESTERN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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