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 Crowd
(1928)
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King Vidor’s late, great silent feature The Crowd (1928) features Eleanor Boardman and Vidor discovery James Murray in a tale of crushed ambitions and self acceptance. One of the great films of the entire silent era.
There is no valid reason why there is not a Blu-ray Disc or DVD edition from Warner Archive of this great film.
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 Bach Films
2013 DVD edition
The Crowd (1928), black & white, 100 minutes, not rated.
Bach Films, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional? French language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 16 September 2013.
Country of origin: France
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This French PAL DVD edition has likely been mastered from 35mm materials. Initial reports on the visual quality are favorable.
Supplemental material includes an interview with Jean-Loup Bourget; five lobby card reproductions; and an insert booklet.
This DVD edition has not been viewed but may be the best-looking home video edition available. If not, the MGM Home Video laserdisc from the 1990s would still be the best edition. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 BoYing
2007 DVD edition
The Crowd (1928), black & white, 103 minutes, not rated.
BoYing, BD891, UPC 9-787885-72696-6, ISBN 7-88572-696-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional Chinese language subtitles; 18 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 2007.
Country of origin: Hong Kong •
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.
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This Chinese DVD edition has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a video transfer from a good to very-good 16mm source print. BoYing disc encoding has always left us wanting, and this is no exception. The results here are a little dark and flat, with soft image details due in part to the analog video source tape and in part to the substandard source print. Quite a bit of dust and speckling remains in the transfer, indicating to us an overall disregard for delivering quality to the end consumer. One small advantage to the English-speaking collector are the optional subtitles which can be turned off.
The film is accompanied by a cobbled-together music score comprised of preexisting orchestral recordings that have been reprocessed for ersatz surround sound.
This is not a recommended edition. We still recommend the long out-of-print MGM laserdisc edition as the current best home video edition of The Crowd.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Tesco
2009 DVD edition
The Crowd (1928), black & white, 103 minutes, not rated.
Tesco, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English? language intertitles, optional Spanish language subtitles?; chapter stops; 12-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 2009.
Country of origin: Spain
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This Spanish DVD edition has been mastered from a commercial VHS videotape, and reportedly the results are not very good. A 12-page booklet is included.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Tripdiscs
2022 DVD edition
The Crowd (1928), black & white, 98 minutes, no BBFC Certificate.
Tripdiscs,
no catalog number, UPC/EAN 7-437134-495472.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 PAL or 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; $13.00.
Release date: 2022.
Country of origin: England
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print or has been pirated from another source. Note the shortest running time of all known home video editions.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 PAL or NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Rare Films and More
2026 DVD edition
The Crowd (1928), black & white, 93 minutes, not rated, with Lonesome (1928), black & white, 68 minutes, not rated.
Rare Films and More, 4756, no 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; $19.99.
Release date: February 2026.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from files pirated from an Internet streaming site or from another company’s home video edition.
The film is likely accompanied by a music score pirated from another company’s home video edition or a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
Note that this company apparently has a history of pirating other home video editions or pirating files from Internet streaming sites 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.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era KING VIDOR films available on home video.
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