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The Champion
(1915)

Flicker Alley
2015 Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition

Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies 1915 (1915-1918), black & white, 405 minutes total, not rated, including The Champion (1915), black & white, 31 minutes, not rated.

Flicker Alley, FA0044, UPC 6-17311-67939-1.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc (two BDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; and one single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (three DVDs in the set); 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; one standard two-disc BD keepcase and one standard three-disc BD keepcase in cardboard slipcase; $59.95.
Release date: 10 November 2015.
Country of origin: USA

The Chaplin Essanay films have been collected together by Flicker Alley and Film Preservation Associates for the third and final installment of the Chaplin Project (led by Lobster Films and Cineteca di Bologna), a massive, twelve-year endeavor conducted under the aegis of Association Chaplin to restore all of Chaplin’s cinematic output from 1914-1917. All of the Essanay films were scanned in 2K high resolution from original 35mm prints gathered from archives all over the world, then digitally assembled and restored.

Musical accompaniment has been provided by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Robert Israel and Timothy Brock.

Supplementary material includes Triple Trouble (1918), an ersatz film edited together by the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company without Chaplin’s knowledge from Chaplin outtakes and new bridging footage, and released in an attempt to fill the coffers of the failing production company; the Blu-ray/DVD premiere of the newly-restored Charlie Butts In, a one-reel film widely distributed in the 1920s having been compiled from alternate takes of the standard, two-reel version of A Night Out; additional two-reel edits of A Night Out and A Burlesque on Carmen, restored and conforming as nearly as possible to Chaplin’s original intentions for release; a never-before-seen restoration of Police!, including a newly-improved final shot; and a 28-page booklet with rare, behind-the-scenes images, and an extensive essay by film historian Jeffrey Vance, author of Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema.

As would be expected, we think this Blu-ray Disc/DVD collection will be the best home video edition of Chaplin’s Essanay films available to collectors.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc / Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com.