Cineteca Milano: The Circus Kid (1928) Frankie Darro, Joe E. Brown - correct projection speed?
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:54 pm
The Cineteca Milano now offers an Italian export print of the 1928 fun American FBO silent "The Circus Kid" directed by George B. Seitz starring Frankie Darro, Poodles Hanneford and Joe E. Brown in 1080p (5,- € Paywall) https://www.cinetecamilano.it/film/3012
The overall quality of the film scan is nice but nevertheless the file is a little irritating: it's shuddering a lot and sometimes looks "stuttering" (double images?) or like playing in slow motion.
The file length doesn't fit properly with the corresponding measuring figures of the film. The file runs 73'56 at a speed of 25 fps, that would be 2107 metres. The US version was 1855 metres, which would be 67'48 (24 fps) or 65'05 (25 fps). The Italian print measured 1792 meters and i.e. 65'30 (24 fps) or 62'53 (25 fps). So the file would be ca. 10 minutes longer than the film actually was.
Sometimes it's really difficult to figure out which is the correct speed for a particular silent but here 24 fps seem correct as the AFI indeed lists a running time of 65 minutes and 6085 feet: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3318-THE-C ... cp=1&pos=0
There are some snippets of a version with English intertitles around running at a different speed but seem not to be any reasonable reference: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... 1928+darro
So what do you think - is the Italian file running at the correct speed or much too slow or suffering from technical difficulties?
The overall quality of the film scan is nice but nevertheless the file is a little irritating: it's shuddering a lot and sometimes looks "stuttering" (double images?) or like playing in slow motion.
The file length doesn't fit properly with the corresponding measuring figures of the film. The file runs 73'56 at a speed of 25 fps, that would be 2107 metres. The US version was 1855 metres, which would be 67'48 (24 fps) or 65'05 (25 fps). The Italian print measured 1792 meters and i.e. 65'30 (24 fps) or 62'53 (25 fps). So the file would be ca. 10 minutes longer than the film actually was.
Sometimes it's really difficult to figure out which is the correct speed for a particular silent but here 24 fps seem correct as the AFI indeed lists a running time of 65 minutes and 6085 feet: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3318-THE-C ... cp=1&pos=0
There are some snippets of a version with English intertitles around running at a different speed but seem not to be any reasonable reference: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... 1928+darro
So what do you think - is the Italian file running at the correct speed or much too slow or suffering from technical difficulties?