Silent Era : Home Video : The Toll of the Sea (1922) Review

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The Toll of the Sea
(1922)

This early Technicolor feature film was intended as a showcase for the relatively new color process, and featured a very young Anna May Wong.

2000/2005 National Film Preservation Foundation DVD edition

Treasures from American Film Archives (1893-1960), black & white and color, 642 minutes total, not rated,
including The Toll of the Sea (1922), color, 54 minutes, not rated.

National Film Preservation Foundation, distributed by Image Entertainment, NATD9706DVD (rereleased as NATD0918DVD), UPC 0-14381-97062-3 (rereleased as 0-14381-09182-3).
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, four single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 0, 6 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles (silent era films), no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, four cardboard wrapped plastic trays with 150-page book of program notes (rereleased with four smaller bookets) in cardboard slipcase, $99.99 (rereleased at $69.95).
DVD release date: 3 October 2000 (rereleased 10 May 2005).
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 8 / additional content: 3 / overall: 8.

The red-green color process film is stunning in this 1985 restoration, transferred full-frame from a 35mm preservation print prepared from the original 35mm nitrate Technicolor camera negatives. The final minutes of the film have not survived, but have been implied here in intertitles drawn from writer Frances Marion’s scenario and by new footage of the Pacific Ocean taken with an original two-strip Technicolor camera.

The film is accompanied by the original music score compiled for the film by Ernst Luz and performed on piano by Martin Marks.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website.

Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website.

2011 Alpha Home Entertainment DVD edition

Toll of the Sea (1922) color, ? minutes, not rated,
with Shifting Sands (1918), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entetainment, ALP 6620D, UPC 0-89218-66209-5.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD 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, $7.98.
DVD release date: 30 August 2011.
Country of origin: USA

This edition of Shifting Sands may have been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.

The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together music score of preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website.

Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase helps support the Silent Era website.

Other silent era ANNA MAY WONG films available on home video.

Other ASIAN-THEMED FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other TECHNICOLOR FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

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