Customer Reviews

The general; Steamboat Bill Jr.; The Kid; Tillie's punctured romance

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I knew that the "Legends of the Silver Screen" DVD's would be awful, but what's worse is that they simply stole transfers from other companies. "The Kid" is from the old CBS-FOX laserdisc (later a DVD from Image Entertainment). While the great transfer is obvious, the nearly 2.1 mbs bitrate makes the image totally blurry. The General and Steamboat Bill Jr. appear to be from Killiam prints released by Republic on laserdisc (both are very blurry). Tillie's Punctured Romance isn't terrible, but it too is obviously from another company's laserdisc.

AVOID this 2-disc set. Get the Image Entertainment DVD for The General and Steamboat Bill Jr and the Warner/MK2 DVD for The Kid. I think Image Entertainment has a DVD of Tillie, but I'm not sure. If they do, it'll at least have something better than 2.1 mbs!

I had to watch all four films from these dvds in my film class, and I loved them. Yes, the film quality is lacking, but you have to remember just how old these films are. Charlie Chaplin's The Kid is, in my opinion, one of the best films ever made. And of course, Buster Keaton keeps you laughing. I've been looking for this specific collection at walmart (my teacher told us thats where he got it from) with no success, so I'm very excited to find it here. If you can convince yourself to sit and watch the movies, then you'll soon be sucked in, and fall in love with them too.

These comments concern the Chaplin-Keaton double-disc called "Legends of the Silver Screen".

First, three of the four films look pretty good considering their age, and there are scene selections. But, what I care about is the music. The choice of music matters A LOT with silent films, and you almost never know what you're getting with these old photoplays. A quick overview:

STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. - The organ score is jolly and entertaining. There's some effective mickey-mousing and it sounds Southern, which is appropriate. Audio quality is clear and strong. I believe this is Gaylord Carter. Some sound effects, also.
Picture quality: clear, with an attractive orange or peachy tint all the way through.

THE GENERAL - old pop orchestra recordings, not a score. Audio is shaky and pinched and the style clashes with the movie which calls for something folksy and period, not a dance-band. Positively irritating.
Picture quality: not so good here - grey and fuzzy.

TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE - a series of piano rags. On the plus side, they're beautifully performed and reflect the time frame of the movie. However, the source seems to be a slightly scratchy LP, and of course the rags don't follow the activity on the screen. On the whole, not too bad.
Picture quality: grey and rough, but then this was 1914.

THE KID - a Chaplin re-release - mostly heavy, syrupy, Neopolitan-sounding orchestra, likely by Chaplin himself. Each of the several main characters in the film is represented by a distinct melody, and the scoring varies at least a little from scene to scene. The music is not descriptive as one might usually expect for a silent, but is definitely effective scene-setting. The main theme (for the Kid's mother) is slightly overbearing but nice.
Picture quality: no tints but looks good.

On the whole, the collection's OK except for THE GENERAL. STEAMBOAT BILL is very well presented. I don't regret the purchase.

If you're really into the music as I am, the best scores I know for three of these movies are those by William P. Perry on the piano. His STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. is available on KINO DVD, and both THE GENERAL and TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE on Republic Pictures VHS. The scores for the two Keaton movies are particularly inspired, although they do suffer in spots from shakiness in the old source tape.

Of the four movies in this set, three (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., and The Kid) are timeless classics, while Tillie's Punctured Romance is a fun movie notable for being the first feature-length comedy film. I disagree with a couple of the reviewers who one-starred it because the picture quality wasn't as good as other prints. Honestly, I sat through all four films hours after I received my order and the quality seemed fine and didn't distract me a bit. It was even better than a couple DVDs from my local library! This was one of the best purchases I've ever made for under five dollars. Chaplin and Keaton were masters of cinema and these DVDs prove it.

Watching these DVDs is like watching a tiny mpeg blown up to fill the screen. The compression artifacts are annoyingly apparent and it's like watching the video through a curtain of debris.

"The Kid" isn't as bad in quality as the other three shorts are, but the picture is still a bit blurred nonetheless.

I'm going to take pjmccart's advice and get the Warner/MK2 copy of "The Kid" ... or maybe even the 2-disc Special Edition version.

In one of my college classes recently we watched a Charlie Chaplin film, so when I saw this box set at WalMart (for $5.50) I knew it was too good to be true. These four movies are absolute classics; they can never be replaced by the movies of this day and age. If you're the type who can sit through a silent movie... this is definitely for you.