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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.
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The Trap
(1922) |
Lon Chaney, Alan Hale and Dagmar Godowsky star in this Northwoods drama.
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 2009 Alpha Video edition
The Trap (1922), black & white, 46 minutes. not rated,
with Outside the Law (1920), color-tinted black & white, 75 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Video, ALP 5800D, UPC 0-89218-58009-2.
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 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 7 chapter stops, keep case, $6.98.
DVD release date: 28 April 2009.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 5 / overall: 4.
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This budget edition has been mastered from an analog videotape of a transfer from a 16mm reduction print. The resulting picture is low resolution and contrasty, with completely blasted out highlight details. As a result, all intertitles have been reset as video-based still frames to make them readable. The source print is quite dusty, speckled and worn, and has occasional clusters of splices. Action in the transfer runs a bit too quickly for natural speed, which can make Chaney’s overacting comical. Altogether, watching the disc is a challenge at best.
