Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Noah’s Ark
(1928)
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Michael Curtiz directed this part-talkie biblical epic starring Dolores Costello and George O’Brien, with support from Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Paul McAllister, Myrna Loy, Anders Randolf, Armand Kaliz, William V. Mong, Malcolm Waite, Nigel de Brulier and Noble Johnson.
Announced in early 1927 before the release of Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic The King of Kings (1927), Warner Brothers tossed in their bid for the biggest motion picture spectacle of the late silent era with Noah’s Ark (1928). Preproduction lasted through 1927 and shooting began in April 1928. As with The Ten Commandments (1923), the film bridges the well-known biblical story with a modern World War I morality tale.
Reputedly, several extras drowned during the shooting of the flood sequences and it’s easy to see how that may have happened. Thousands of gallons of water were dropped onto the extras in unsustained pours. Some extras couldn’t swim at all but, still, were there for the quick money.
— Carl Bennett
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 Warner Archive Collection
2010 DVD edition
Noah’s Ark (1928), black & white, 108 minutes, not rated.
Warner Home Video,
no catalog number, UPC 8-83316-27682-2.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $17.95 (reduced to $12.99).
Release date: 2010.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition of the UCLA Film and Television Archive 2006 reconstruction of the general release version of the film is good to very-good, with a reasonably broad range of greytones. Speckling, dust, minor emulsion chipping and timing marks have been allowed to remain.
The film is accompanied by a restoration of the original Vitaphone synchronized soundtrack, which includes the film’s original overture and song “Heart o’ Mine,” featuring music, sound effects and talking sequences.
Recommended . . . after all, it is the only known home video edition of the film.
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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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