Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Greene
Murder Case
(1929)
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William Powell stars as Detective Philo Vance in this early-sound murder mystery, with Jean Arthur, Eugene Pallette, Florence Eldridge, Ulrich Haupt, E.H. Calvert, Gertrude Norman, Lowell Drew, Morgan Farley and Brandon Hurst.
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 KL Studio Classics
2024 Blu-ray Disc edition
Philo Vance Collection (1929-1930), black & white, 213 minutes total, not rated, including The Canary Murder Case (1929), black & white, 80 minutes, not rated, The Greene Murder Case (1929), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The Benson Murder Case (1930), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K26651, UPC 7-38329-26651-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.20:1 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; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 21 May 2024.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 7 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a new 4K restoration of the film which is finely detailed and relatively (but not completely) free of dust, speckling, scratches, scuffing, and other flaws. No image stabilization has been performed.
The film is accompanied by its original synchronized soundtrack of music and post-synched dialogue. The soundtrack is just as clean of excessive hissing, crackles, pops and other audio flaws common to sound films of this vintage.
Supplemental material includes a new 4K restoration of The Canary Murder Case and a 2K restoration of The Benson Murder Case; audio commentaries for The Canary Murder Case and The Greene Murder Case by film historian Kim Newman and writer Barry Forshaw; and audio commentary for The Benson Murder Case by film scholar Jason A. Ney.
Obviously, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 Sinister Cinema
2025 DVD edition
The Greene Murder Case (1929), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and The Bishop Murder Case (1930), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Sinister Cinema, M676, 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; $12.95.
Release date: 2025
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 35mm print.
The film is likely accompanied by its original synchronized soundtrack of music and post-synched dialogue.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era WILLIAM POWELL films available on home video.
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