Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The
Americano
(1917)
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Directed by John Emerson, this Fine Arts comedy-drama stars Douglas Fairbanks, Alma Rubens, Spottiswood Aitken, Carl Stockdale and Mildred Harris.
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 Alpha Video
2010 DVD edition
The Americano (1917), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6446D, UPC 0-89218-64469-5.
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 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 26 October 2010.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition appears to have been mastered from an older 8mm reduction print of the Tri-Stone Pictures, Incorporated, rerelease version. The transfer speed runs a little faster than natural pace. The shadows are plugged-up with a dark grey, and some of the highlights are lost in a blasted-out glow of white nothingness.
The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together soundtrack of preexisting low-fidelity music recordings, some taken from scratchy LP discs, which are disjointed and inconsistent with the film sequences they accompany.
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film, but we suspect that the edition noted below will be better, if transferred from at least a 16mm reduction print.
This review was updated in 2025.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 Reel Classic DVD
2009 DVD edition
The Americano (1917), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Reel Classic DVD, 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $20.00.
Release date: 2009.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Ben Model.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other silent era DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS films available on home video.
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Douglas Fairbanks filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List
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