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
Big Town
(1925)
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In 1922, Hal Roach created a new series of comedy short films starring a group of young kids who, although they were officially named Hal Roach’s Rascals, quickly became popularly known by the title of one of their earliest films, Our Gang (1922). Roach soon learned that he had tapped a gold mine, and produced far more than 100 Our Gang films from 1922 through 1938, when the rights to the series were sold to Our Gang distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The series featured a number of talented and popular child performers who inevitably grew too old to remain participants in the series and were replaced by other children. Fans of the Our Gang series grew to love Mickey, Jackie, Joe, Farina, Mary, Wheezer and others, and later grew attached to Spanky, Alfalfa, Porky, Buckwheat, Darla and Butch in the golden era.
This early Our Gang film features Mickey, Mary, Joe, Jackie and Farina in an accidental adventure to the Big Apple.
— Carl Bennett
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 Reel Classic DVD
200? DVD edition
A Festival of Silent Comedy, Volume 5 (1914-1927), black & white, 108 minutes total, not rated, including The Big Town (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Reel Classic DVD, no catalog number, UPC 7-62184-87722-8.
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 ? 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; no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 200?.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print and is likely to be of similar poor quality to Reel Classic DVD’s disc noted below.
The film is presented with a music score composed and performed by Ben Model.
For information about other films in this collection, see our A Festival of Silent Comedy, Volume 5 on home video page.
Despite the quality, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
REEL CLASSIC DVD through . . .
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 Reel Classic DVD
2004 DVD edition
Square Shoulders (1929), black & white, 61 minutes, not rated, with The Big Town (1925), black & white, 19 minutes, not rated.
Reel Classic DVD, no catalog number, UPC 7-62185-05252-5.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R 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 ? 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; no chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print, which is quite flat in a narrow range of greytones.
The film is accompanied by soundtrack compiled from vintage jazz recordings.
For information about other films in this collection, see our Square Shoulders on home video page.
Far from a good presentation, this may be the only home video edition of the film available.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
REEL CLASSIC DVD through . . .
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Other OUR GANG films of the silent era available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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