Wanted: Blackhawk Cricket On The Hearth

[Fred Guida]

I'm looking for a VHS copy of Blackhawk's release of the 1923 American silent feature THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. (If necessary, a Beta copy will do too...) As far as I know, this never came out on Laserdisc or DVD.

Will also consider Super-8 or 16mm but would want a print with a music track.

Also looking for other silent Dickens adaptations.

[Jim Reid]

If you can play region 2 DVDs there's a very nice BFI DVD called "Dickens Before Sound".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dickens-Before- ... 303&sr=1-1

[Fred Guida]

Thanks for reply. That is a great DVD. Unfortunately -- and surprisingly -- it is not available over here in NTSC format as is the case with SILENT SHAKESPEARE.

In any event, it contains an earlier short version of THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. Hopefully, someone will come through with the later feature version that Blackhawk released. As I recall, it used to be pretty common in several film and video formats.

[Jim Reid]

Thanks for reply. That is a great DVD. Unfortunately -- and surprisingly -- it is not available over here in NTSC format as is the case with SILENT SHAKESPEARE.

I just picked up a DVD player from Walmart that is easily hacked to play region 2. It was less than $27 including shipping.

[Marr&Colton]

Not that it will help you now, but many years ago I had a 35mm diacetate print of CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. Each sequence where the tinting changed was hand spliced-in on the release print--a practice I can't imagine the complexity of to its original distributor/lab--when many prints must have been made this way. At the time, I didn't care for the movie, so sold it to another collector. Perhaps if I saw it now I would appreciate it on a different level.

[Richard M Roberts]

Not that it will help you now, but many years ago I had a 35mm diacetate print of CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. Each sequence where the tinting changed was hand spliced-in on the release print--a practice I can't imagine the complexity of to its original distributor/lab--when many prints must have been made this way. At the time, I didn't care for the movie, so sold it to another collector. Perhaps if I saw it now I would appreciate it on a different level.

All tinted theatrical prints were assembled, they were broke down into the sequences that were all going to be tinted the same color, then assembled into sequence once tinting had been done. I know of at least one silent film that was rediscovered in a print that was still cut into tinting order and had to be assembled like a jigsaw puzzle.

RICHARD M ROBERTS