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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.

Orchids and Ermine
(1927)

Colleen Moore stars in this frothy romantic comedy of a young telephone operator who is smitten with the idea of a monied suitor who can give her fur coats and exotic flowers.

2009 Grapevine Video edition

Orchids and Ermine (1927), color-tinted black & white, 62 minutes, not rated,
with Felix Gets the Can (1925), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, no UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD-R disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, PCM 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $16.95.
DVD release date: April 2005.
Country of origin: USA

This budget edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.

 

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc is available directly from Grapevine Video.

2007 Sunrise Silents edition

Orchids and Ermine (1927), color-tinted black & white, 65 minutes, not rated,
with Mystery of the Double Cross (1917) [episode 12: “The Riddle of the Cross”], color-tinted black & white, 24 minutes, not rated.

Sunrise Silents, OECM-N (NTSC) and OECM-P (PAL), no UPC number.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC or PAL, one single-sided, single-layered DVD-R disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 6 chapter stops, keep case, $19.95.
DVD release date: 21 August 2007.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 2 / audio: 6 / additional content: 4 / overall: 3.

This public-domain edition has been mastered from a bad-to-fair (what appears to be) 8mm reduction print that is very soft in image detail and flat in graytones, that itself has been poorly duped from a vintage 1930s Kodascope 16mm reduction print. The natural-speed video transfer — which may only consist of projecting the print and capturing it with a digital video camera — does nothing the help the situation, other than to keep the intertitles readable. There has to be better surviving print material of this film than this.

The film is accompanied by a serviceable compiled music score of compositions performed on MIDI synthesizer.

The supplemental material includes a trailer for Finders Keepers (1928) and an exerpt from a Mutt and Jeff cartoon.

We cannot recommend this disc for its presentation of Orchids and Ermine. All content considered, collectors will only want the disc for episode 12 of the serial Mystery of the Double Cross, the best-looking film on the disc.

 

This Region 0 NTSC or PAL DVD-R is available directly from Sunrise Silents.

Other silent era Colleen Moore films available on home video:
Broken Hearts of Broadway (1923)
The Busher (1919)
Ella Cinders (1926)
Irene (1926)
Twinkletoes (1926)
 
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