Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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White Tiger
(1923)
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This Tod Browning crime film stars Priscilla Dean, Raymond Griffith, Wallace Beery and Matt Moore.
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 Alpha Video
2010 DVD edition
White Tiger (1915), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6475D, UPC 0-89218-64759-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 28 December 2010.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 6.
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This DVD-R edition has been prepared from a very-good 16mm reduction print with reasonable image detail and a fairly broad greytone range. In the last quarter of the film the picture gets a little flat and greyed in comparison with the rest of the print. This source material was provided by National Film Archive, Incorporated (whoever that is) and this represents a break from Alpha’s fairly routine practice of using substandard 8mm reduction prints for their silent film releases.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Douglas M. Protsik. We suspect that this score is from the soundtrack of the source print, and it is a welcome change from the standard Alpha practice of cobbling music together from preexisting recordings.
Well . . . it is a rare occurance that we recommend an Alpha Video release when there are competing editions to be had, but this is the best-looking home video edition of this film we have reviewed. It is recommended until a better edition is released. Note: Our file copy of this release is not a manufactured-on-demand DVD-R disc but is instead a standard manufacture DVD disc. That said, there is no guarantee that discs purchased today will not now be an MOD DVD-R disc.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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 Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition
White Tiger (1915), black & white, 81 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 18 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print that is heavily worn, substantially contrasty, with blasted out highlight details, and quite speckled and dusty.
The film is accompanied by a number of preexisting orchestral recordings, edited to fit the action.
Shock of shocks, we recommend the Alpha Video edition noted above over this Grapevine Video release.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
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Other silent era TOD BROWNING films available on home video.
Other CRIME FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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