Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
Fidelity
(1911)
|
This Pathé split-reel melodrama starring Gertrude Norman features a fire death and a dedicated St. Bernard.
|
 Kino Classics
2025 Blu-ray Disc edition
Wonder Dogs!: Canine Stars of the Silent Era (1897-1928), black & white, color-tinted black & white, color-toned black & white, and color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 477 minutes total, not rated, including Fidelity (1911), black & white, and color-tinted black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K27007, UPC 7-38329-27007-0.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Discs; 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 20.4 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.6 or 2.0 Mbps audio bit rate (music), and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate (commentary); English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 20 May 2025.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
|
|
This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from an excellent archival 35mm film print held by the Library of Congress which is quite detailed and with a balanced greyscale range. As with other films in the collection, no digital clean-up has been performed on the dust, speckling, schmutz, scratches, frame jitters, or other print flaws in the scans, leaving the film to appear in its honest survival state.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Esin Aydingöz.
Supplemental material includes audio commentaries by the prolific Anthony Slide (including one for Fidelity); interviews with archivists and curators of this collection Lynanne Schweighofer and George Willeman (21 minutes); and an interview with composer Andrew Earle Simpson (12 minutes).
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
|
|
This
Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
|
|
|
 Undercrank Productions
2016 DVD edition
Found at “Mostly Lost” (1911-1940), black & white, 106 minutes total, not rated, including Fidelity (1911), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 7-39189-94332-6.
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; no chapter stops (within the film); standard DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 2016.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
|
|
This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print struck in either the 1930s or 1940s.
The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano by Andrew Earle Simpson.
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
|
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
UNDERCRANK PRODUCTIONS through . . .
|
|
|
|
Other silent era ANIMAL STARS films available on home video.
|
