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The Birth of
Motion Pictures
(1910-1915)

Contents: The House with Closed Shutters (1910), An Unseen Enemy (1912), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) and Love, Loot and Crash (1915).

This poorly-produced collection of three D.W. Griffith films and a Charley Chase Keystone comedy seems an ill-conceived represenation of the birth of motion pictures. Don’t be misled by the photo of the Gish sisters on the cover — this disc doesn’t include Orphans of the Storm (1921).

Alpha Video
2011 DVD edition

The Birth of Motion Pictures (1910-1915), black & white, 55 minutes total, not rated, including The House with Closed Shutters (1910), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, An Unseen Enemy (1912), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated, The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), black & white, 14 minutes, not rated, and Love, Loot and Crash (1915), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6609D, UPC 0-89218-66099-2.
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 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 4 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 26 July 2011.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.

This DVD-R collection has been mastered from 8mm reduction prints. In all cases, the results are substandard.

The films are accompanied by soundtracks compiled from old preexisting recordings.

For our comparative reviews of some of the individual films, see our The House with Closed Shutters on home video page.

This is not a collection worth buying, even at this low cost, as all of the films are available on home video in better-looking editions. Save your money.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.