Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Whispering Shadows

Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

Whispering
Shadows
(1921)

This social drama, directed by Emile Chautard, stars Lucy Cotton and Robert Barrat, with support from Charles A. Stevenson, Philip Merivale, George Cowl, Alfred Dundas and Marion Rogers.

Hugh Brook (Barrat) is falsely accused of embezzlement by his rival Stephen Pryde (Merivale) for the affections of Helen Bransby (Cotton). Predictable complications ensue.

Originally produced in 1920, the film was released on the State Rights market in 1921.

Undercrank Productions
2017 DVD edition

Whispering Shadows (1921), black & white, 68 minutes, not rated, with The Devil’s Assistant (1917), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 23 minutes, not rated.

Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 320 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 17 October 2017.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 8.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered in high-definition from a preservation print, preserved by the Library of Congress from a 28mm Pathéscope reduction print. The very-good source print is a bit soft on image details and has a moderate amount of dust, speckling, chipping, and other minor print damage but also a broad range of balanced greytones.

The film is accompanied by a good music score performed on theater pipe organ by Andrew E. Simpson.

Recommended as a good example of B-studio film production in the 1920s.

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