Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Polly of the Circus
(1917)
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The charming Mae Marsh stars in her first film for the Goldwyn studio, with support from Wellington Playter, Vernon Steele, Charles Eldridge, George Trimble and Lucille LaVerne.
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 Grapevine Video
2013 DVD edition
Polly of the Circus (1917), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated, with Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco, Cal. (1915), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10567-8.
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 6.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 23 May 2013.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 6 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been prepared from a 16mm reduction print that is quite dark in its shadows and rather soft in its image details. The film has been transferred at a faster-than-natural-pace speed, which rushes the film’s action past the viewer.
The film is presented with a good music score performed on virtual pipe organ by David Knudtson.
It’s not great but, until a better disc is released, this is our recommended home video edition of Polly of the Circus.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition
Polly of the Circus (1917), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7284D, UPC 0-89218-72849-4.
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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 28 January 2014.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print and, from the running time, we suspect that the film has been transferred at a faster-than-natural-pace speed.
The film is likely accompanied by a compiled music score of preexisting recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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Other silent era MAE MARSH films available on home video.
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