Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Pool Sharks (1915)

Pool Sharks (1915) is a standard comedy of its day, being the story of two rivals for the affections of a young woman. The two mashers decide to settle their dispute at a pool table. Things fall apart for both of them when the object of their affections discovers them in the pool hall.

The film was one of two films W.C. Fields made for the American division of Gaumont. The films constituted Fields’ film debut.

— Carl Bennett

This DVD collection from The Criterion Collection, originally prepared for and released on laserdisc and VHS videotape, features the best edition of Pool Sharks available on home video. Utilizing an excellent 35mm preservation print from the Raymond Rohauer collection that features new main titles and intertitles, with excellent image detail and greyscale range, the video transfer has been made at sound speed and so plays back too fast. This is our only criticism of this edition.

This is still a far better disc than the horrid DVD editions (noted below) of the same six films included in this collection. A couple of the sound films have been mastered from 16mm reduction prints.

Hard to find now but still recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from 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.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD collection will be a complete disappointment to any W.C. Fields fan. To begin with, the 16mm print used for the video transfer of Pool Sharks is blurry and contrasty. I have personally projected a 16mm print of this film and can vouch for the lousy quality of that dupe, so I suspect that Madacy’s print probably originated from the same supplier. Nonetheless, the picture quality is made far worse by bad video mastering. All the of the films on the second side of this disc (The Pharmacist, The Barber Shop and Pool Sharks) look as though they have been transferred from of one of Madacy’s EP videocassette copies of these films. The results are just awful.

As for the sound films in this collection: All are transferred from 16mm reduction prints, some originally made for television distribution. All prints are tightly-cropped on all edges of the frame. In the tee-off scene in The Golf Specialist, heads are completely cut off by the tight framing. The sound synchronization is off by about half a second in both The Dentist and The Fatal Glass of Beer, with the sound leading the picture. The picture quality on these films are OK at best, but with the sound synchronization problems they are rendered almost unwatchable. Thoroughly unpleasant.

We do not recommend this edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Madacy also issued the same material on two DVDs under another package design, with wraparound slipcase as W.C. Fields Hollywood Classics Volume 1 & 2 on 2 March 1999.

This version uses the same DVD masters as the DVD reviewed above.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

On 1 April 1999, Madacy again released a portion of the same program material on two separate DVDs, W.C. Fields Hollywood Classics, Volume 1 and W.C. Fields Hollywood Classics, Volume 2, with volume 2 containing Pool Sharks (1915).

These constant repackaging efforts smack of an attempt to pull a fast one on the DVD purchasing novice.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

We recommend the Criterion edition noted above.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.