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A Little Princess
(1917)

Based on the novel Sara Crewe by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this Mary Pickford vehicle is another of her early ‘poor little rich girl’ films that silent era audiences loved. Norman Kerry and ZaSu Pitts support.

The Milestone Collection
2003 DVD edition

Without Lying Down (2000), color and black & white, 55 minutes, not rated, with A Little Princess (1917), black & white, 62 minutes, not rated.

Milestone Film & Video, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID1025MLSDVD, UPC 0-14381-10252-9.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 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 6.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.99.
Release date: 11 March 2003.
Country of origin: USA •

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

This DVD edition of A Little Princess (1917) is included as supplementary material to a documentary on writer Frances Marion. The film is presented in a full-frame video transfer which runs at slightly faster than natural speed, and with windowboxed still-frame titles on the majority of main titles and intertitles. The entire presentation could well be a video-only compilation of the best surviving elements.

The source print is generally in very-good condition but a little contrasty, with plugged-up shadows and some featureless highlights, and some sections of higher amounts of speckling and emulsion scuffing. Some shots (of the exterior of the palace, for instance) are out-and-out blurry.

The film is accompanied by a piano score.

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