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 Headless
Horseman
(1922)
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This independent feature, directed by Edward Venturini, stars Will Rogers and Lois Meredith, with Ben Hendricks Jr., Charles Graham, Mary Foy, Bernard Reinold, Downing Clarke, Jerry Devine and James Sheridan.
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 Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition
The Headless Horseman (1922), black & white, 72 minutes, not rated, with Haunted Spooks (1920), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10039-0.
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 ? 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; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2002.
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 recordings.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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 Reel Classic DVD
200? DVD edition
The Headless Horseman (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, with Shivering Spooks (1926), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Reelclassicdvd.com, no catalog number, UPC 7-62184-87782-2.
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 ? 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; $20.00.
Release date: 200?.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The films are accompanied by a music score performed by Ben Model.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
REEL CLASSIC DVD through . . .
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 Alpha Video
2005 DVD edition
The Mechanical Man (1921), color-toned black & white, 26 minutes, not rated, with The Headless Horseman (1922), black & white, 51 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 4873D, UPC 0-89218-48739-1.
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 3.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); standard DVD keepcase; $6.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 27 September 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition of Will Rogers’ version of the Washington Irving tale has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a video transfer from 16mm film elements. The picture is low-resolution at a low video bit rate, so viewing the disc can be rough going.
The Alpha Video logomark is superimposed into various corners from time-to-time throughout the presentation. While this is intended to foil other video producers who may be tempted to duplicate this video transfer in a competing product, we lobby for discontinuing the practice since it shows blatant unconcern for the expectations and desires of the consumer, who may wish to purchase a video product that is presented as close as possible to the film’s original state.
This disc is likely to be the worst-looking of all available home video editions of the film.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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Other silent era WILL ROGERS films available on home video:
Big Moments from Little Pictures (1924)
Going to Congress (1924)
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