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

Wings (1927)

This first Academy Award® winner for Best Picture features Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Richard Arlen, Clara Bow and a youthful Gary Cooper in a tale of two young aviators fighting the European war during World War I. William A. Wellman established himself as an A-list director with the production of Wings (1927).

This Blu-ray Disc edition of William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927) has been remastered in high-definition from a duplicate 35mm negative held by Paramount. The film underwent a frame-by-frame digital restoration of the picture, removing emulsion scratches and nitrate decomposition. Special color effects and color tints, replicating the original release prints, are a feature of this home video edition.

Much of the film is presented in a yellowish color tinting. After the intermission, the Paris sequence is presented in traditional sepia toning.

The film is accompanied by a new recording of the orchestral music score by J.S. Zamecnik arranged by Dominick Hauser and with pianist Frederick Hodges, is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound, with period sound effects have been added to the soundtrack by Academy Award winning sound designer Ben Burtt to evoke a silent era viewing experience. Uncharacteristic of the silent era, the music takes a backseat to the sound effects when the action starts.

An alternative accompaniment is the beloved theatre organ music score performed by Gaylord Carter in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a new recording of the orchestral music score by J.S. Zamecnik arranged by Dominick Hauser and with pianist Frederick Hodges, with period sound effects have been added to the soundtrack by Academy Award winning sound designer Ben Burtt to evoke a silent era viewing experience. An alternative accompaniment is a theatre organ music score performed by Gaylord Carter.

North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player and/or a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region B Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a new recording of the orchestral music score by J.S. Zamecnik arranged by Dominick Hauser and with pianist Frederick Hodges, is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound, with period sound effects have been added to the soundtrack by Academy Award winning sound designer Ben Burtt to evoke a silent era viewing experience. An alternative accompaniment is the beloved theatre organ music score performed by Gaylord Carter in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on theater pipe organ.

EMOVIEZ no longer sells home video products and this item is . . .

This early Chinese DVD edition, which is occasionally available from sellers on eBay, reveals an OK-looking disc (mastered from a substandard source) that is a little on the dark grey side overall. This edition has nonremoveable Chinese subtitles.

The presentation features the same Gaylord Carter pipe organ music score that was available on Paramount Home Video editions of the film on laserdisc and VHS videotape.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This early Chinese DVD edition of Wings popped up for sale on eBay in 2000. Be aware that often these discs are usually directly mastered from inferior video sources like laserdisc or VHS videotape and are manufactured under less than ideal conditions. These discs are cheaply manufactured to turn a quick and sometimes illegal buck, and the manufacturers often show little care for the quality of the final product.

There is no indication of manufacturer on the packaging or the label of this two-sided ‘flipper’ disc, which has been mastered from a reasonably good quality video source. The disc is likely to have been mastered from the American laserdisc edition from the 1990s, given that the A side of this disc is just over 48 minutes long (the length of the A side of the three-sided laserdisc edition?), with the bulk of the film on the B side.

The film is presented with the Gaylord Carter pipe organ music score that accompanies all known home video editions of Wings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other silent era CLARA BOW films available on home video.

Other silent era CHARLES ‘BUDDY’ ROGERS films available on home video.

Other silent era RICHARD ARLEN films available on home video.

Other silent era GARY COOPER films available on home video.

Other WORLD WAR I FILMS of the silent era available on home video.