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The Idle
Class
(1921)

This collection contains the last of Charles Chaplin’s short films, made under his First National contract.

CBS/Fox Home Video
2000 DVD edition

Charles Chaplin: A First National Collection (1918-1923), black & white, 206 minutes total, not rated, including The Idle Class (1921), black & white, 25 minutes, not rated.

CBS/Fox Home Video, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID9177CUDVD, UPC 0-14381-91772-7.
One single-sided, dual-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 4.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 1.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $29.99.
Release date: 8 February 2000.
Country of origin: USA •

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This DVD collection has been mastered from archival 35mm print materials. It appears that the masters from the 1993 Chaplin: A Legacy of Laughter laserdisc series have been utilized for this and other year 2000 Chaplin DVD releases.

The films are accompanied by music scores supervised by Chaplin from the soundtracks of his approved rerelease prints.

Supplemental material includes Chaplin’s noncommercial short film Nice and Friendly (1922); rejected footage from Shoulder Arms; and footage of General Leonard Wood’s visit to the set of Shoulder Arms.

This disc is now contractually out-of-print to make way for another Chaplin family-authorized compilation of these films. This edition is still available as a previously-owned item but the costs asked are usually outrageous.

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