Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Blue Eagle (1926)

This comedy-drama, directed by John Ford, stars George O’Brien, William Russell and Janet Gaynor, with support from Margaret Livingston, Robert Edeson and David Butler.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a VHS videotape dupe recorded from an American Movie Classics television cablecast. As is common to most VHS tapes, the bottom portion of the picture is often full of mistracking artifacts. The original source material appears to be a 35mm preservation print from the Library of Congress (preserved in 1997 from 35mm prints and a poor 16mm reduction print) that has been transferred at sound film speed making action run a little too fast for natural movement. Some footage is heavily marred by advanced nitrate decomposition. The running time is only 51 minutes instead of the advertised 58 minutes.

The film is accompanied by a solo piano score, which is from the AMC television cablecast that this edition has been pirated from. The soundtrack crackles may get to you.

Note that this company apparently has a history of pirating other home video editions or pirating television network recordings to produce their products. Be aware that purchasing pirated home video editions does not benefit the original edition producers nor the composers whose music is often pirated as well.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film but there is plenty of room for improvement, even from the less-than-acceptable survival state of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .