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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Kid Boots
(1926)
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This Paramount feature comedy, directed by Frank Tuttle, stars Eddie Cantor and Clara Bow, with Billie Dove and Lawrence Gray.
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 Film Preservation Society
2025 Blu-ray Disc edition
Clara Bow Double Feature (1926-1927), black & white, 149 minutes total, not rated, including Kid Boots (1926), black & white, and color-tinted black & white, 71 minutes, not rated, Get Your Man (1927), black & white, 61 minutes, not rated, and A Decree of Destiny (1911), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Society,
no catalog number, UPC 6-20969-98351-2.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $35.00.
Release date: 1 June 2025.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the 2021 digital restoration supervised by Paramount and conducted by the Library of Congress from a 1926 35mm nitrate workprint and a fourth-generation 35mm safety duplicate positive. Additional digital clean-up and image stabilization was conducted by the Film Preservation Society in 2024. The results are generally very-good to excellent.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Daan van den Hurk.
Supplemental material includes the D.W. Griffith Biograph short, A Decree of Destiny (1911), with a piano and small ensemble by Donald Sosin. Another sneak peek at the ongoing FPS project of early Griffith restorations on home video. Compared to other Griffith films on home video, this presentation is a “wow!” as the HD scan has been digitally-cleaned and stabilized rendering excellent results.
This is our enthusiastically recommended home video edition of the film.
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This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 Original Cast
2006 DVD edition
Kid Boots (1926), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated, with A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor (1924) black & white, 6 minutes, not rated, and A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1929), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated.
Original Cast, OC-6201, UPC 7-41117-62019-3.
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 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 18 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.99 (reduced to $14.98).
Release date: 2006.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 6 / overall: 5.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print. The video transfer is a little blasted out in its highlights, but the shadows detail is reasonably open and defined.
The film is accompanied by an original score written and performed on piano by Arthur Siegel. The music is a little out-of-sync with the film’s action.
Supplemental material includes two short films featuring Eddie Cantor: A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor (1924) is an early synchronized sound film produced with the DeForest Phonofilm system, and A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1929) is a later short sound film produced by Paramount and featuring Cantor, with cameos by Richard Dix, Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw.
This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
This review was updated in 2026.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Alpha Video
2022 DVD edition
Kid Boots (1926), black & white, 60 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 8484D, UPC 0-89218-84849-9.
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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $8.98 (raised to $9.99).
Release date: 15 March 2022.
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.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 Loving the Classics
2026 DVD edition
Kid Boots (1926), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics, no catalog number, 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; $14.99 (raised to $15.49).
Release date: 14 March 2026.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
Note that this company apparently has a history of pirating other home video editions or pirating television network recordings 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 EDDIE CANTOR films available on home video.
Other silent era CLARA BOW films available on home video.
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