Silent Era : Home Video : The Strong Man (1926) Review

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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.

The Strong Man
(1926)

This early Frank Capra comedy is our personal favorite among Harry Langdo n’s films.

2000 Kino International edition

The Strong Man (1926), color-toned black & white, 76 minutes, not rated,
with Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), color-toned black & white, 62 minutes, not rated, and Long Pants (1927), color-toned black & white, 58 minutes, not rated.

Kino International, K173, UPC 7-38329-01732-3.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, dual-layered DVD disc, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 12 chapter stops, keep case, $39.95 (reduced to $29.95).
DVD release date: 2000 (rereleased 2 September 2003).
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 6 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This edition of The Strong Man, produced by David Shepard, has been mastered from an excellent 35mm print, which is nearly free of dust and speckling, and features a broad range of graytones. It is one of the best-looking prints we have seen, but we are not as happy with the windowboxed natural-speed video transfer. While the picture looks great on standard televisions, viewing the disc on a high-definition system capable of upconverting an NTSC signal to a 1080-line progressive-scan HD signal only shows that the analog transfer isn’t as sharp as it could be and reveals a bit of red fringing on the right side of highlights and intertitles type.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on synthesizers by Eric Beheim. — Sigh. — How about Carl Davis instead?

This edition of The Strong Man is recommended as is, but we would love to see a new high-definition video transfer of this great-looking source material, coupled with new music, released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.

Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD is also available directly from Kino International.

Other silent era Harry Langdon films available on home video:
All Night Long (1924)
The Chaser (1928)
His First Flame (1927)
His Marriage Wow (1925)
Long Pants (1927)
Lost and Found: The Harry Langdon Collection (1924-1944)
Saturday Afternoon (1926)
Three’s a Crowd (1927)
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926)

Other silent era Frank Capra films available on home video:
Long Pants (1927)
The Matinee Idol (1928)
That Certain Thing (1928)

Other silent era WORLD WAR I films available on home video.

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