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 Gold Bug
(1924)
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This comedy short, directed by Herman C. Raymaker, stars Monty Banks and Ena Gregory, with William Blaisdell and Merta Sterling.
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Grapevine Video
2018 DVD edition
The Films of Monte Banks (1923-1924), black & white, 92 minutes total, not rated, including The Golf Bug (1924) black & white, ? 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; $16.95.
Release date: 5 October 2018.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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 from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition
The Films of Monty Banks (1923-1924), black & white, 92 minutes total, not rated, including The Golf Bug (1924) black & white, ? 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; $19.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R collection of the Monty Banks comedy Wedding Bells (1924) is likely to be identical to the presentation reviewed here.
All of the films have been transferred from 35mm nitrate prints.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Grapevine Video
2003 DVD edition
A Woman of the World (1925), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated, with The Golf Bug (1924), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10063-5.
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 5.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 2003.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 3 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print that is dark in its shadows and somewhat cropped on all sides of the frame. As would be expected, there is a significant amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jumpiness, filmbase wear, and other print flaws in the picture. This edition is likely to be visually identical to the other Grapevine editions noted above.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting low-fidelity music recordings.
This review was updated in 2025.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era POLA NEGRI films available on home video.
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