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 Love
Expert
(1920)
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This comedy-drama, directed by David Kirkland, stars Constance Talmadge and John Halliday, with Arnold Lucy, Natalie Talmadge, Fanny Bourke, Nellie P. Spaulding and Marion Sitgreave.
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 Alpha Video
2015 DVD edition
The Love Expert (1920), black & white, 90 minutes, not rated, with Her Bridal Night-Mare (1920), black & white, 35 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com
ALP 7717D, UPC 0-89218-77179-7.
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 3.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 6 October 2015.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print, which has the normal amount of dust and speckling, schmutz, emulsion scrapes, splice marks, and other print flaws.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack crudely compiled from crackling preexisting low-fidelity recordings.
Given the discouraging details noted above, this is still the recommended home video edition of the film until a better one is released.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 Silent Hall of Fame Enterprises
2016 DVD edition
The Love Expert (1920), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Silent Hall of Fame Enterprises, 52, 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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; slimline CD jewelcase; $29.99 (raised again to $37.99).
Release date: 2016.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print (as might be surmised from the publisher-provided still frame above).
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music sources.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available through . . .
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Other silent era CONSTANCE TALMADGE films available on home video.
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