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 Sultan’s Wife
(1917)
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This two-reel comedy, directed by Clarence Badger, stars Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon, with Joseph Callahan, Frank Bond, Blanche Payson, Gonda Durand and Phyllis Haver.
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 Passport Video
2007 DVD edition
The Gloria Swanson Collection: 10 Fabulous Films (1915-1931) black & white, 675 minutes total, not rated, including The Sultan’s Wife (1917), black & white, 20 minutes, not rated.
Passport Video, DVD-5151, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (five DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame and windowboxed 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; no chapter stops; double-wide five-disc DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 13 February 2007.
Country of origin: USA •
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This budget DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. Identifying logomarks are superimposed over the lower right corner of the picture to discourage video transfer piracy but, who would bother?
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from dopey preexisting recordings. Annoying, at best.
The sparce supplementary material includes the short documentary “Hollywood Biography: Gloria Swanson” (25 minutes).
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film. This edition is now out-of-print. Well, it's not much of a loss.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Loving the Classics
202? DVD edition
The Sultan’s Wife (1917), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics,
no catalog number, no 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; $19.99.
Release date: 202?
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.
The publisher is going to have to explain why they charge $20.00 for less than twenty minutes of disc content.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era GLORIA SWANSON films available on home video.
Other KEYSTONE comedy films available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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