Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Code of the West

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

The Code
of the West
(1929)

This late silent era western, directed by the prolific J.P. McGowan, stars Bob Custer and Vivian Bay, with Bobby Dunn, Martin Cichy, Bud Osborne, Cliff Lyons, Tom Bay, Buck Bucko and Dick Dickinson.

Grapevine Video
2009 DVD edition

The Manhattan Cowboy (1928), black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, with The Code of the West (1929), black & white, 53 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10199-7.
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 4.0 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; $14.95.
Release date: May 2009.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 3 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from VHS videotape copy of an analog video transfer from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print that overall a bit too dark in its midtones, with dust, speckling, schmutz, splices, scratches, signs of beginning nitrate decomposition, and other print flaws in the picture.

This is presented with a soundtrack compiled and crudely and abruptly-edited from preexisting low-fidelity music recordings. Some pretty lengthy audio-drop outs disrupt the viewer’s attention.

For notes on the accompanying feature, see our The Manhattan Cowboy on home video page.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This review was updated in 2025.

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