This is quite a nice DVD featuring about 80 minutes worth of silent film footage: from scenes out of movies, behind-the-scenes takes, newsreels and general publicity shots, each only a few seconds or minutes in length, but there is certainly a lot of variety. It is divided in 6 parts, each about 12 minutes long, and each part focusses on an aspect of Hollywood: eg Comedians, "Behind the Scenes", Candid Moments, "The Men Behind the Megaphone" and Stars in Newsreels. These original mini-documentaries are by Blackhawk Films, and Blackhawk has done an excellent job of supplying good notes to introduce each segment of film footage so that the viewer knows which star or director will be seen next - and that is a big help because many celebrities featured here are probably not well known at all today. The stars most silent film viewers will be well familiar with, and who appear at least once for a few seconds on this DVD are: Clara Bow, Jackie Coogan, Lon Chaney, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Charles Ray, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Eric von Stroheim, Priscilla Dean, Bebe Daniels, Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Dressler, Pearl White, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Lewis Stone and - featured a little more than all the others, the "King and Queen" of Hollywood in the 1920s, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Some of these stars are only spotted briefly as they enter Grauman's Chinese Theatre or attend a movie premier. D W Griffith is also seen, and the part entitled "The Men Behind the Megaphone" shows other directors like Alan Crosland at work. In fact, quite a few scenes on this DVD show filming in action or other `behind the scenes' moments, so that it might still be of interest to the general film enthusiast even though not many famous stars are shown. There is a short newsreel segment on Tom Mix's visit to The White House, and Doug & Mary's arrival home from another European vacation, and plenty more long-forgotten silent stars.
The picture quality of most of this footage is very good and clear, and it has Unknown Video's usual competent musical score on electric organ by Bob Vaughn. As a bonus on this DVD, there is a slide show of nearly 150 colour stills of movie magazine covers of the 1910s and 1920s, and accompanied by a jazzy Twenties tune it also makes for a pleasant and entertaining few minutes viewing. I had no trouble at all playing this DVD, but as it is a DVD-R, it might cause problems on some DVD players. Although this DVD is nothing special or brilliant, I'd say it would definitely still be of interest to serious silent film enthusiasts, even if only to test one's knowledge of stars and names!

