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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The
Strong Man
(1926)
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This early Frank Capra comedy is our personal favorite among Harry Langdon’s films.
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 Kino on Video
2000 DVD edition
Harry Langdon . . . the Forgotten Clown (1926-1927), color-toned black & white, 196 minutes total, not rated, including The Strong Man (1926), color-toned black & white, 76 minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K173, UPC 7-38329-01732-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 12 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $39.95 (reduced to $29.95).
Release date: 2000 (rereleased 2 September 2003).
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 5 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition of The Strong Man, produced by David Shepard, has been mastered from an excellent 35mm print, which is nearly free of dust and speckling, and features a broad range of greytones. It is one of the best-looking prints we have seen, but we are not as happy with the windowboxed natural-speed video transfer. While the picture looks great on standard televisions, viewing the disc on a high-definition system capable of upconverting an NTSC signal to a 1080-line progressive-scan HD signal only shows that the analog transfer isn’t as sharp as it could be and reveals a bit of red fringing on the right side of highlights and intertitles type.
The film is accompanied by a well-composed music score by Eric Beheim performed on annoying synthesizers. — Sigh. — How about Carl Davis instead?
This edition of The Strong Man is recommended as is, but we would love to see a new high-definition video transfer of this great-looking source material, coupled with new music, released on Blu-ray Disc.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Mr. Fat W
2017 DVD edition
The Strong Man (1926), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Mr. Fat W, no catalog number, UPC 1-91091-50900-5.
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; $19.95.
Release date: 19 September 2017.
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 likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
Not recommended but this may be the only home video edition of the film left in-print.
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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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Other silent era HARRY LANGDON films available on home video.
Other silent era FRANK CAPRA films available on home video.
Other WORLD WAR I FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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