
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2013 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
Romola
(1924) |
Following the success of The White Sister (1923), the Inspiration Pictures company and director Henry King again teamed Lillian Gish with Ronald Colman for this period drama of love, jealousy and political corruption, shot on location in Italy, that also features William Powell as the villain.
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2005 Grapevine Video DVD edition
Romola (1924), black & white, 106 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown 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, MPEG 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 12 chapter stops, standard DVD keepcase, $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
DVD release date: September 2005.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4. |
This edition of the film has been mastered from a fair to good 16mm reduction print. Some sections of the source print are quite dark, making reading some of the intertitles and following the film’s action rough going for the viewer. The print is contrasty in itself and the video transfer has been adjusted to gray down the image highlights in an attempt to hold detail, resulting in its generally dark picture. However, we have never viewed a 35mm print of this film and this DVD represents the best-looking edition of the three we have seen on home video (which apparently isn’t saying much). Collectors may benefit from increasing the brightness settings on their television monitor when viewing this disc.
The film is accompanied by preexisting recordings from a variety of sources, roughly edited together into a serviceable music score.
Far from an ideal edition, this disc will have to do until a better edition can be mastered from the print held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
| USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website. |
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| This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from GRAPEVINE VIDEO. |
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2009 Classic Video Streams DVD edition
The Actors: Rare Films of Lillian Gish, Volume 3 (1919-1924), black & white, 140 minutes total, not rated,
including Romola (1924), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Classic Video Streams, no catalog number, unknown 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, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono? sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, standard DVD keepcase, $16.99.
DVD release date: 28 December 2009.
Country of origin: USA |
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This edition has likely been transferred from a 16mm reduction print.
The presentation likely features a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
| USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website. |
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200? eMoviez DVD edition
Romola (1924), black & white, 118 minutes, not rated.
eMoviez, 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, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, standard DVD keepcase, $19.99.
DVD release date: 200?
Country of origin: USA |
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed on theater pipe organ.
| This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from EMOVIEZ. |
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| Other silent era LILLIAN GISH films available on home video.
Other silent era HENRY KING films available on home video.
Other silent era WILLIAM POWELL films available on home video.
Other silent era RONALD COLMAN films available on home video. |
| Lillian Gish filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List |