Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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A Tale of
Two Cities
(1911)
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This Charles Dickens drama, directed by Charles Kent, stars Maurice Costello and Florence Turner, with Charles Kent, Leo Delaney, William Shea, William Humphrey, Tefft Johnson, Edith Halloren and Norma Talmadge.
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 Grapevine Video
2014 DVD edition
A Tale of Two Cities (1917), color-tinted black & white, 76 minutes, not rated, with A Tale of Two Cities (1911), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: July 2014.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Christopher Congdon.
Supplemental material includes the 1911 version of the story.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2007 DVD edition
Norma Talmadge at Vitagraph (1911-1916), black & white, 114 minutes total, not rated, including A Tale of Two Cities (1911), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10278-3.
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; $14.95.
Release date: 2007.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from an older analog video master that was prepared for release on VHS videotape in the 1990s.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
This collection is likely to be rough going for most viewers, with the dedicated Talmadge fan being the most forgiving viewer of all. Unfortunately, the charming Norma Talmadge isn’t quite enough to buoy this collection above its so-so source prints.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2018 DVD edition
A Tale of Two Cities (1911), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with Vanity Fair (1911), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8101D, UPC 0-89218-81019-9.
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 to $8.98).
Release date: 24 July 2018.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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