Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Cord of Life
(1909)
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This short drama, directed by D.W. Griffith, stars Charles Inslee and Marion Leonard, with George Gebhardt, Anita Hendrie, Florence Lawrence, David Miles and Dorothy West.
The melodramatic scenario and acting in this film can be excused for the sake of one of Griffith’s most renown films of his early career.
A vindictive man pledges revenge on the tight-fisted family he has been rejected from. He hangs their baby in a basket from a high window dangling by only a thin cord. Opening the sash window will release the cord holding up the basket.
The father, now aware of the peril, races home by foot and all the while the mother nearly opens the window in her frustration at having burnt dinner. The father arrives at the last moment with the police.
Astoundingly, the baby’s rescue is staged with the little actress herself and not with a dummy stand-in.
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 The Milestone Cinematheque
2025 Blu-ray Disc edition
Made in New Jersey: Films from Fort Lee, America’s First Film Town (1909-2015), black & white, 383 minutes total, not rated, including The Cord of Life (1909), black & white, 15 minutes, not rated.
Milestone Film & Video, distributed by Kino Lorber,
K26962, UPC 7-38329-26962-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc (two BDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.6 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional English language SDH subtitles; chapter stops; 20-page insert booklet; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $44.95.
Release date: 24 June 2025.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastmastered from a high-definition scan prepared by Film Preservation Society from a very-good to excellent 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. Digital restoration has been performed on the scan removing defects and stabilizing the picture. Very little film grain remains in the scan making for a very-good representation of the continuous greytones present in the source print. The clarity in the image is a revelation. A Film Preservation Society logomark has been added to the lower right corner of the intertitles.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Donald Sosin.
Supplemental material includes twelve other silent era films; the vintage documentary Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee (1935) by Theodore Huff and Mark A. Borgatta; the documentary The Champion (2015) by Marc Perez; a 4K restoration of the Edgar G. Ulmer musical drama Cossacks in Exile (1939); and a 20-page insert booklet with an essay and film notes by Richard Koszarski.
For more information about this collection, see our Made in New Jersey on home video page.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available from
MILESTONE FILM & VIDEO through . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2003 DVD edition
D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 1 (1908-1909), black & white, 102 minutes total, not rated, including The Cord of Life (1909), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-00116-1.
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 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 11 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from 16mm reduction print materials prepared in the 1950s from the Library of Congress paper print collection, which means that the image quality is lower than would normally be expected, with some of the prints quite soft, flat and grey, and others of good contrast and soft image quality — all with some greater or lesser degree of frame movement. The older full-frame analog video master was originally prepared for VHS videotape release in the 1990s.
The films are accompanied by a music score compiled from old low-fidelity recordings.
For information on other films in this collection, see our D.W. Griffith, Director, Volume 1 on home video page.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era D.W. GRIFFITH films available on home video.
Other SHORT DRAMA FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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