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

The Struggle Plus Other Rare Shorts (1913-1924)

Contents: The Struggle (1913), Broncho Billy and the Greaser (1914), Humanity [Naked Hands rerelease version] (1916) and Two Wagons — Both Covered (1924).

This DVD-R collection features Broncho Billy Anderson short westerns, with a Will Rogers parody of The Covered Wagon (1923). Stupidly, Alpha Video has confused two different films released as The Struggle in 1913; the film presented here does not star Broncho Billy but is, instead, the film produced by Broncho Motion Picture Company featuring Elmer Morrow, E.H. Allen and Richard Stanton.

This DVD-R collection of short westerns has been mastered from 8mm reduction prints.

Broncho Billy and the Greaser (1914) has been mastered from a tightly-cropped fair 8mm reduction print. Dust, speckling, frame jitters, and other print flaws are present in the picture. The video transfer was made at sound-film speed rendering movement at a faster-than-natural pace.

The Struggle (1913) has been mastered from a tightly-cropped fair to good 8mm reduction print, with dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scrapes, and other print flaws present.

Two Wagons — Both Covered (1924) has been mastered from an older analog videotape copy of a fair to good 8mm reduction print, with dust, speckling, emulsion scrapes, and other print flaws present.

The films are accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting low-fidelity music recordings.

For our comparative reviews of some of the individual films in this collection, see our Humanity on home video page.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of some these films not released elsewhere.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

Other silent era WILL ROGERS films available on home video.