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Chaplin
The Artist in His Prime
(1914-1925)

Contents: Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914), The Cure (1917), Shoulder Arms (1918), Sunnyside (1919), A Day’s Pleasure (1919), The Kid (1921), The Idle Class (1921), Pay Day (1922) and The Gold Rush (1925).

Koch Vision
2000 DVD edition

Chaplin: The Artist in His Prime (1914-1925), black & white, 362 minutes total, not rated, including Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Cure (1917), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Shoulder Arms (1918), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Sunnyside (1919), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, A Day’s Pleasure (1919), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Kid (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Idle Class (1921), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Pay Day (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The Gold Rush (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Koch Vision, KOC-DV-6302, UPC 7-41952-63029-6.
Three single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; three standard DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $19.98.
Release date: 19 December 2000.
Country of origin: USA

You have to wonder about the quality of budget-priced boxsets when four of the films included are listed with the wrong release years. We haven’t yet seen this boxset of three discs, but with all of the films previously available in high-quality DVD editions it seems this set may attract only the most budget-minded (or casual) of silent film collectors. We are always suspicious of deals that seem too good to be true. Historically, budget disc producers utilize poor quality 16mm prints for their video transfer source material. There may be more than 360 minutes of Chaplin on these discs, but will it be six hours of pleasure or torture?

At this time we cannot recommend this Chaplin boxset, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try to sneak a peek at it to let you know whether it might be worth its modest price.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.