Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Heart of Humanity

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

The Heart of
Humanity
(1918)

This World War I drama features Erich von Stroheim in one of his most memorable The Man You Love to Hate roles. Directed by Allen Holubar, the film stars Dorothy Phillips, William Stowell, Robert Anderson, Walt Whitman, Margaret Mann, Erich von Stroheim and Lloyd Hughes.

Grapevine Video
2002 DVD edition

The Heart of Humanity (1918), black & white, 105 minutes, not rated, with Dog-Gone (1918), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10071-0.
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 5.2 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; 12 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95 (reduced to $14.95).
Release date: 2002.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 5 / overall: 5.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a very-good 16mm reduction print. The analog video transfer does a reasonable job of capturing the picture details in the source print, such as highlight details, but the print itself bears the typical amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scrapes and chipping, thin vertical scratches, exposure fluctuations, and other print flaws. In addition, we have a small problem with the faster-than-natural-speed transfer.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music and sound effects recordings.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.