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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King Lear
(1916)
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The Thanhouser Film Corporation’s production of King Lear (1916) stars renown actor Frederick Warde as Lear, with support from director/actor Ernest C. Warde, Ina Hammer, Wayne Arey and Edith Diestal.
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 Thanhouser Company
Film Preservation
2007 DVD edition
The Thanhouser Collection, DVD Volumes 7, 8 and 9 (1910-1917), black & white, 302 minutes total, not rated, including King Lear (1916), black & white, 36 minutes, not rated.
Thanhouser Company Film Preservation,
no catalog number, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc (three DVDs in the set); 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 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); insert booklet; double-wide three-disc DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: September 2007
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 8 / additional content: 5 / overall: 5.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a print held by the George Eastman Museum, with dust, speckling, schmutz, mild frame jitters, emulsion scratches and chipping, print tears, and other print flaws present in the picture.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on theatre pipe organ by Raymond A. Brubacher.
Supplemental material includes an insert booklet of Thanhouser history and film notes. Download a PDF of the insert booklet from the Thanhouser Company.
For more information about other films in this collection, see our The Thanhouser Collection, DVD Volumes 7, 8 & 9 on home video page.
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
This review was updated in 2026.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition
King Lear (1916), black & white, 63 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7321D, UPC 0-89218-73219-4.
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; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 25 February 2014.
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 music score compiled from preexisting recordings.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 TeleVista
2007 DVD edition
King Lear (1916), black & white, 64 minutes, not rated.
TeleVista, no catalog number, UPC 0-29502-19164-1.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.0 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; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 2 October 2007.
Country of origin: USA •
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 7 / additional content: 0 / overall: 4.
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This overpriced DVD edition (for the quality tendered) has been mastered from a fair-to-good contrasty 16mm reduction print of sufficiently low quality, with its blasted-out highlights and plugged-up shadows, to make many of the medium-shot facial features hard to discern and some of the intertitles hard to read. A shame.
The film is accompanied by a serviceable cobbled-together music score performed on orchestral instruments and MIDI synthesizers.
Ask yourself, why is it OK to charge twenty bucks for this kind of quality?
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available from
TELEVISTA through . . .
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Other SHAKESPEARE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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