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
Confession
(1920)
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This feature drama, directed by Bertram Bracken, stars Henry B. Walthall and Francis McDonald, with William Clifford, Margaret McWade, Margaret Landis, Barney Furey and Henry Stanley.
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 Grapevine Video
2012 DVD edition
The Confession (1920), black & white, 78 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, 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 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.95.
Release date: 14 April 2012.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on virtual theatre pipe organ by David Knudtson.
Sight unseen, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Reel Classic DVD
200? DVD edition
The Confession (1920), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with Amateur Night on the Ark (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Reel Classic DVD, no catalog number, UPC 7-62184-80502-3.
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; 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 Griggs 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a theatre pipe organ music score, with a spoken introduction by John Griggs, that originates from the source print’s optical soundtrack.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from
REEL CLASSIC DVD through . . .
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 Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition
The Confession (1920), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7382D, UPC 0-89218-73829-5.
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 5.0 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; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 25 May 2014.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 0 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a fair to good Griggs 16mm reduction print that is dark in its greyish shadows and flecked with dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scuffing, and other print flaws. Of course, the resulting image from this budget analog video transfer of a less than perfect print is blurry at its best and a strain to watch at its worst.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting low-fidelity orchestral music recordings.
This review was updated in 2026.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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