Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
The Old
Oregon Trail
(1928)
|
This B-studio western, directed by Denver Dixon (Victor Adamson), stars Art Mix (Victor Adamson) with Delores Booth, F.C. Rose and Art Seales.
When settlers choose a spot on Oregon’s John Day River to establish their ranches, they are rescued from everything from horse rustlers to arsonists and potential rapists to striking laborers by a group of cowboys led by Calamity Joe (Art Mix).
The film is an OK mix of drama and comedy that is a little weak in plot.
— Carl Bennett
|
 Grapevine Video
2015 DVD edition
The Old Oregon Trail (1928), color-toned black & white, 40 minutes, not rated, with Hot Scotch (1928), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 6-60845-44739-4.
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; $14.95.
Release date: October 2015.
Country of origin: USA
|
|
This DVD edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by David Knudtson.
|
|
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
|
|
|
 Alpha Video
2010 DVD edition
The Old Oregon Trail (1928), color-toned black & white, 44 minutes, not rated, with Revenge on the Range (1925) [excerpts], black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 6427D, UPC 0-89218-64279-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 28 September 2010.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 4 / additional content: 4 / overall: 5.
|
This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print. The coarse, full-frame video transfer runs a little faster than natural speed, and loses highlight detail. There is the usual amount of vertical scratches, speckling, dust and print scuffing, The print quality is reasonably good with easily discernable background image details that can get lost in lower-quality reduction prints. The video transfer is a little haloed, which (to us) indicates a lower-quality, standard resolution transfer system.
The film is accompanied by a compiled music score of preexisting recordings.
|
|
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
|
|
|
|
This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .
|
|
|
 Sinister Cinema
2010 DVD edition
The Old Oregon Trail (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.
Sinister Cinema, W345, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $11.95 (reduced to $8.95).
Release date: unknown
Country of origin: USA
|
|
This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a compiled music score from preexisting recordings.
|
|
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
|
|
|
|
Other WESTERN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
|
