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Triple Feature
Horror Classics
Volume 1
(1922-1927)

Contents: Nosferatu (1922), The Phantom of the Opera (1925) [1929 silent rerelease version] and Metropolis (1927).

Navarre Corporation has released a line of budget triple feature DVDs whose collective content spans from the silent era to latter day camp classics. The quality ranges from the usual budget video 16mm reduction prints to transfers of surprising quality (for budget video) from 35mm prints.

This collection contains three popular silent era horror and science fiction films that have been available for years in multiple DVD editions.

— Carl Bennett

Navarre Corporation
2002 DVD edition

Triple Feature Horror Classics, Volume 1 (1922-1927), black & white and color, 306 minutes total, not rated, including Nosferatu (1922), black & white, 80 minutes, not rated, The Phantom of the Opera (1925) [1929 silent rerelease version], black & white and color, 106 minutes, not rated, and Metropolis (1927), black & white, 119 minutes, not rated.

Navarre Corporation, 1613, UPC 7-41027-16139-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 2.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $9.98.
Release date: 12 March 2002.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.

The principal attraction of this DVD collection was the opportunity for casual silent-film collectors to acquire three well-known films for under ten dollars. Unfortunately, the films are not well represented here.

For our comparative reviews of the individual films in this collection, see our Metropolis on home video, Nosferatu on home video and The Phantom of the Opera on home video pages.

This collection of some of the best-known titles of the silent era also represents the most-abused silent films released on home video. The quality of the film prints in this collection are as bad or worse than the other budget DVD editions. We feel that most buyers of this collection will be disappointed with the quality of these editions, even allowing for the modest cost. With high-quality DVD editions already available of Nosferatu and The Phantom of the Opera, and a high quality edition is on its way of Metropolis, I would encourage viewers to pass on this collection and spend the extra money for watchable home video editions of these films.