Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Sensation Seekers
(1927)
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Lois Weber’s late silent era film, made for Universal, stars Billie Dove and Huntley Gordon, with support from Raymond Bloomer, Peggy Montgomery, Will Gregory, Helen Gilmore, Edith Yorke, Phillips Smalley and Cora Williams.
Billie Dove has fun playing a small-town bad girl who tries to corrupt the new pastor in town.
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 Kino Classics
2021 Blu-ray Disc edition
Sensation Seekers (1927), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated, with A Chapter in Her Life (1923), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K25290, UPC 7-38329-25290-8.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 13 April 2021.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a 2K high-definition scan of 35mm print materials by Universal Pictures.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Arthur Barrow.
Supplemental material includes audio commentary for Sensation Seekers by Shelley Stamp.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This
Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 Alpha Video
2016 DVD edition
Sensation Seekers (1927), black & white, 43 minutes, not rated, with The Wolf of Cajon (1928), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7822D, UPC 0-89218-78229-8.
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 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 19 July 2016.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.
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This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a very-good but abridged 8mm reduction print, which is tightly cropped with dust, speckling, some scratches, schmutz and splices. Unfortunately, the disc has been mastered at a low-resolution and the results render a fairly smeary picture of soft image details and compression artifacts. It is noted that, with this program of less than an hour, there is plenty of data space left on this disc for a higher resolution video file. We feel that it should always be a goal to master a DVD with the most picture information and the smallest amount of image compression possible. That didn’t happen here.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting orchestral recordings.
This disc is watchable but, perhaps, it would be better when viewed on a smaller monitor or computer screen. If you must own this on DVD, note the shorter running time than that of the Kino Blu-ray Disc edition noted above.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .
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 Video Cellar
2014 DVD edition
Sensation Seekers (1927), black & white, 45 minutes, not rated.
Video Cellar, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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: 13 June 2014.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from an abridged 16mm or 8mm reduction print.
The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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 Loving the Classics
201? DVD edition
Sensation Seekers (1927), black & white, 70 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics,
no catalog number, unknown UPC number.
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; $14.99.
Release date: 201?
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other silent era LOIS WEBER films available on home video.
Other silent era films directed by WOMEN DIRECTORS.
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