I like the all-silent version of THE INFORMER just as much if not more than the better-known John Ford version. The part-talkie version is, as noted, merely a curiosity demonstrating how effective silent cinema is compared with the new talkie technology. I'd love it if the two could be put together ...

Back to the mystical year of 1939... Another in the canon of popular 1939 film classics released to Blu-ray this June, and a frequent staple of the Turner Classic Movies channel, was one of the major Academy Award nominees for that year. The MGM production NINOTCHKA is an endearing (and enduring) bl...

And speaking of THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE, it's on TCM's Sunday late-night silent slot next week, July 26, the last of the Sunday silents before August under the Stars pre-empts them.

Another William S Hart movie, 'BLUE BLAZES' RAWDEN (1918) has Hart as a hard-drinking, gambling, womanising lumberjack who falls foul of the town saloonkeeper, an Englishman gone to the bad. Despitethis horrid fellow doing as much of the dirty as he can, Hart manages to kill him in a fight. Just as...

Apparently it was done in a variety of ways even when it first came out. The movie posters and advertising for the original release had the exclamation point after both "Oh" and "Doctor" on many posters, but also had just a comma with no exclamation point on others. http://images.moviepostershop.com...

I find it happily astounding that OH DOCTOR is being restored in 4K. An ancient ocean-floor-deep catalog title with no dialogue and zero big names in front of or behind the camera. There may be hope for the future. If this magically makes it to Blu-ray, whether through Universal or sublicensed to a...

NOTE: I've merged the "FOUND: Show Girl (1928) with Alice White!" topic with this one, as discussion has quickly drifted to numerous other titles besides the one in the thread title.

Just watched GOOD OL' FREDA (2013), a wonderful documentary about Freda Kelly, the shy Liverpool teenager who became friends with and then secretary for The Beatles at age 17 and remained their secretary for eleven years, yet never told her story until now. Any fan of The Beatles needs to see this m...

I'll eventually get reviews of the new Blu-rays of NINOTCHKA and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME posted, but meanwhile, here's another of the extremely rare examples of a major studio actually releasing restored classics to Blu-ray. Hopefully sales will be good enough to encourage many more such release...

Watched two Jacques Tati films last night from the Criterion Blu-ray box set. PLAYTIME (1967) is a 24-hour slice-of-life satire of modern culture and technology as M. Hulot, a bus of American tourists, and others interact in various ways as they attempt to go about their business. Virtually a silent...

THE GHOUL is a lot of fun. If the British Blu-ray is region-free, I'd order it immediately, and am tempted even if it's region B, but I'm hoping there will be a U.S. Blu-ray release from one of the companies licensing titles from MGM. The DVD looks nearly as sharp as a Blu-ray, so a properly-mastere...

And don't forget Sjostrom's THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921), on an excellent Criterion Blu-ray edition that happens to be on sale for half price at Barnes & Noble for the next week or two.

I happened to be in Target today for another reason but while wandering through the video department saw a large section of Blu-rays and another of DVDs that were three for $10, titles normally selling in the $5 to $10 each range (and sometimes $15 to $20 range). They have to be bought in multiples ...

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the new Blu-ray of DODGE CITY (1939), released last month both individually and in Warner Home Video’s six-disc box set “The Golden Year: Five Classic Films from 1939.” Here’s a writeup on the only other film in the set besides DODGE CITY that was actually produced b...

When I look at it in 3-D, there are multiple planes of depth. Chaney is obviously in the foreground with Patsy Ruth Miller some distance deeper into the picture. The goat is definitely some distance behind her with the crowd of people behind it, then the tent a bit deeper still, with the back row of...

Finally finished the last two shorts on the entertaining Marcel Perez DVD, with YOU'RE NEXT (1919) and SWEET DADDY (1921). I'd seen YOU'RE NEXT at a recent Cinecon, but it's a film that can stand up under multiple viewings. Part of this is due to its often off-the-wall sense of humor but for film bu...

Finally got around to watching my Blu-ray of Michael Haneke's award-winning 2009 film DAS WEIßE BAND: Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte ( THE WHITE RIBBON : A German Children's Story). The "Deutsche Kindergeschichte" part of the title interestingly is intentionally not translated in the English subtitl...

Interesting picture of obviously a Technicolor camera outdoors. If indeed Traveltalks were shot in Technicolor, something went wrong along the way....I've NEVER seen a beautiful example of Technicolor in any of those shorts--and I've seen many. Every one has poor color, soft focus and little depth ...

Independence Day weekend is almost upon us (many organizations seem to think that Friday July 3 is the holiday this year), with 4th of July picnics, concerts, programs, and of course nighttime fireworks typically scheduled to commemorate the founding of the United States nearly 240 years ago. It’s a...

And speaking of Warner Archive Collection Blu-rays, here's a review of one that came out this February to capitalize on the release this spring-summer of a remake (which had just a modest theatrical release and will soon be on Blu-ray itself). A brief review of the current remake is also included fo...

Forbidden Trail -1923 was screened at the 2012 Cinefest. It was vivid and entertaining. Here are Bruce Lawton's notes: http://www.picking.com/2012-cf-forbidden-trail.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank Good, thorough writeup! Thanks for reminding me ...

I have split a number of the responses in this thread, which have been starting to drift away from the film in the subject head, into a new thread on "Rediscovered Films" in the "Collecting and Preservation" forum at http://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20498" target="_blank .

The William S. Hart ranch/museum is also a must-see for silent film fans. Unfortunately a pop-up alert on its website indicates it is currently closed until further notice (unless that happens to be a hack of some sort).

6. I am done going through all of the Berkow collection except for some 8mm stuff of no interest. Of the 2323 films in the collection, there were 14 lost (i.e., no known FIAF archive holding) feature films: GOOD BAY BOY (1924), GOLDEN TRAILS (1925), BROTHERS (1929), DARING DEEDS (1927), BIG PAL (19...

DODGE CITY (1939) 104m *** ½ (Blu-ray released 6/9/15) Warner’s Blu-ray of DODGE CITY looks outstanding, and though apparently scanned from a new interpositive rather than the three-strip negatives, has a pristine image displaying the rich Technicolor with a film-like texture of grain that makes it...

It certainly has its flaws, but I rather liked THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, although I somewhat prefer the 1971 remake THE OMEGA MAN and don't mind the 2007 remake (and the only one to use the original story's title) I AM LEGEND. Each interpretation has its own good and bad points and the differences are ...

Also, making a DVD from a 35mm film is not considered "preservation," merely a low-resolution viewing copy from another format. For a true preservation you'll need a high-definition digital scan that will capture all the surviving detail of the original, with or without some digital damage repair, i...

Watched the next two films in Criterion’s "Kinoshita and World War II" Eclipse DVD set. Both are quite fascinating blends of well-acted human stories with obligatory military propaganda. Again, the picture quality looks quite respectable for a DVD, despite some minor film jitter and weaving in the g...

And here's yet another classic western new to Blu-ray, this time from Hollywood's "Golden Year" of 1939... http://images2.static-bluray.com/movies/covers/124599_large.jpg DODGE CITY (1939) 104m *** ½ (Blu-ray released 6/9/15) The year 1939 was notable for many things, from the September outbreak of ...

The 3D seems to be backwards for some reason They look fine to me, with very discernible depth. It's much easier to free-view them as a 3-D image, left eye on left image and right eye on right image, when changing the browser zoom level to 75%, and even easier (and more comfortably) at 50%, althoug...