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
Primrose Path
(1925)
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This feature drama, directed by Harry O. Hoyt, stars Wallace MacDonald and Clara Bow, with Arline Pretty, Stuart Holmes, Pat Moore, Tom Santschi, Lydia Knott and Templar Saxe.
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 Alpha Video
2015 DVD edition
The Primrose Path (1925), black & white, 52 minutes, not rated, with Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), black & white, 106 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7671D, UPC 0-89218-76719-6.
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 2.9 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: 4 August 2015.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 2 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print that is reasonably even toned but exceedingly blurry. Dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, and other print flaws are present. The picture is so blurry that you really can’t see the vertical scratches, scuffing and filmbase wear that exists in the source print.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting orchestral music recordings.
One of several terrible-looking home video editions of the film, this edition is recommended for the time being due solely to its low cost. Forgive us.
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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 Synergy Entertainment
2011 DVD edition
The Primrose Path (1925), black & white, 52 minutes, not rated.
Synergy Entertainment,
unknown 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $9.99.
Release date: 29 March 2011.
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.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Prowlin’ Productions
2004 DVD edition
A Double Dose of . . . Clara Bow, Volume 2, black & white, 116 minutes total, not rated, with The Primrose Path (1925), black & white, 53 minutes, not rated, and Get Your Man (1927), black & white, 63 minutes, not rated.
Prowlin’ Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 1-74135-72006-0.
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 3.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 1.0 mono sound encoded at 1.5 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 9 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; unknown suggested retail price.
Release date: 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 2 / audio: 4 / additional content: 4 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a 16mm reduction print, which may have originally been released by Video Yesteryear or Videobrary. The results are low-resolution, flat and quite dark being a combination of substandard print materials, a substandard video trasnfer, and the low-resolution capabilities of DVD. Picture details are coarse and smeary. Dust, speckling, exposure fluctuations, and other print flaws are seen. Tough going, even for the determined.
The film is accompanied by the unidentified theatre organ music score that was prepared for the VHS videotape edition (and not for this edition).
Supplemental material includes a nearly-worthless Clara Bow filmography.
Bad as it is, we still recommend the Alpha Video edition noted above.
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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Other silent era CLARA BOW films available on home video.
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