Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
Before Hollywood,
There Was
Fort Lee, N.J.
Early Moviemaking
in New Jersey
(1964)
|
This documentary covers the early years of film production, which was somewhat concentrated in Fort Lee, outside the city of New York.
|
 Flicker Alley
2017 DVD edition
Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J.: Early Moveiemaking in New Jersey (1964), color and black & white, 40 minutes, not rated, with The New York Hat (1912), black & white, 16 minutes, not rated, The Wishing Ring (1914), color-toned black & white, 60 minutes, not rated, and A Girl’s Folly (1917) [exerpts], color-toned black & white, 30 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, distributed by MovieZyng,
FA-MD3-026, UPC 8-89290-24798-8.
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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95 (raised to $21.99).
Release date: 28 March 2017.
Country of origin: USA
|
|
This DVD-R edition of Thomas Hanlon’s documentary is presented from a very-good source print, with modern picture inserts of some of the sample film clips.
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
|
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
FLICKER ALLEY through . . .
|
|
|
 Film Preservation Associates
2003 DVD edition
Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J.: Early Moveiemaking in New Jersey (1964), color and black & white, 40 minutes, not rated, with The New York Hat (1912), black & white, 16 minutes, not rated, The Wishing Ring (1914), color-toned black & white, 60 minutes, not rated, and A Girl’s Folly (1917) [exerpts], color-toned black & white, 30 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID1855DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-18552-2.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 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 subtitles; 10 chapter stops; insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; $24.99.
Release date: 20 May 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
|
This DVD edition of Thomas Hanlon’s documentary is presented from a very-good source print, with modern picture inserts of some of the sample film clips.
Supplemental material includes an insert booklet featuring an essay by Richard Koszarski.
Surprisingly, with such a short documentary, we feel that the films should be the focus of this disc and the documentary should be its supplementary material. Overall, the image quality is very-good and the experience a little like sitting in a classroom and watching a 16mm school district circulation print.
|
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
|
|
|
|
Other silent era-related DOCUMENTARIES available on home video.
|
