The Shorts:

If you ask most casual film fans when sound came to the movies,they'd say in 1927 with the release of The Jazz Singer. While that is when they became popular, various companies werelooking to add sound to movies for years.  The earliest filmsthat were created with synchronized sound for public consumptionwere released way back in 1913 under the Kinetophone label.  Itwas a sound-on-cylinder system created by the Thomas Edison'scompany, and one of the reasons that it didn't catch on inpopularity was that it didn't really work.  The sound andvisuals would often go out of synch and once that happened it washard to get them back together.  Now, thanks to moderntechnology, the Library of Congress in association with the museumof the Thomas Edison National Historic Park has been able to matchup the audio and video to the eight survi...Read the entire review

The Shorts:

One of my absolute favorite compilations of silent film shorts isUndercrank Productions disc TheMarcel Perez Collection. An amazing and totally forgottensilent clown, Perez made hilarious films that were also creative andtechnically innovative. The only down-side was that the 10 shorts onthat disc were all of the films of Marcel Perez that were availableat the time. Luckily, more have turned up so Undercrack has releaseda second volume, appropriately titled The Marcel PerezCollection Volume 2, filled with eight more offerings fromthis silent clown. Just as fun and entertaining as the first volume,this is a disc you'll want to add to your collection.

Perez started out in Europe but immigrated to the US at the outbreakof World War I. This collection starts off with one film from hisEuro...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Though Marion Davies is best known as the William Randolph Hearst'smistress, she was also an excellent actress. A trio of her lesserknown films are begin released by Undercrank Productions including WhenKnighthood was in Flower [reviewhere], The Bride's Play, and this film, 1922's Beauty'sWorth. A light comedy, the film is enjoyable and fun andMarion Davies is delightful.

Prudence Cole (Davies) is a young girl who is being raised by hertwo maiden aunts. Her guardians are strict Quakers "to whom thewhole Twentieth Century is a work of Satan." Needless to say, it's aquiet lifestyle.

When Prudence's childhood friend, Henry, comes for a visit with hismother the two have a great time catching up after being apart foryears. At the end of the visit Henry's mother invites...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Talented silent actress Marion Davies is best known (when peoplerecognize her name) not for her movies, but for being the mistressof newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. And of those who doknow of her, many of them probably think of the shrill andtalentless Susan Alexander, a role based on Davies in Orson Welles'Citizen Kane. Unfortunately, Welles did a huge disservice toDavies in his masterpiece (something he admitted in later years) andthe truth is that Marion Davies is a very talented actress and awonderful comedienne. Hearst did back many of her movies and gaveDavies an incredible amount of publicity in his newspapers. Hepreferred her to appear in classy, elegant films, and since he waswriting the checks he got his way (at first). One of the biggestproductions that he backed was the costume drama When Knighthoodwas in Flower, a film concerning the royal ...Read the entire review

The Shorts:

Undercrank Productions has gone back to the vaults once again andhas emerged with Accidentally Preserved Volume Four. Theseries presents movies that only exist thanks to the home market,movies that were sold (or rented) directly to consumers on smaller(and therefore less expensive) gauge film. Sometimes these reductionprints are the only versions that survive, with no examples to befound in film archives around the world. This time the disc presentseight movies that only exist on 9.5mm prints. While these offer lessresolution that 16mm the images are still clear and all of the filmspresented here look decent.

While the 9.5mm film was never a leading format in the US, they werevery popular in Europe and England. Since three strips of 9.5mmcould be derived from a single reel of 35mm film, the larger gaugefilm was used to imprint three side-by-side images, processed...Read the entire review

The Movies:

For the past four years, film archivists, scholars and movie buffshave headed to the Library of Congress' Packard Campus in CulpepperVA for an unusual film workshop. Entitled Mostly Lost, this freeevent screens unidentified films and clips and asks the audience forany information that they might have on identifying the cast or eventhe film. It is quite a detective game to definitively put a titleto a reel of film, but that does happen. Now the good people atUndercrank Productions have gathered together 11 of the films thathave been identified at this film festival and released them on aDVD-R entitled Found at Mostly Lost. Running nearly twohours in length, the disc is packed with unusual, entertaining, andabove all interesting shorts that have not been seen in decades.

Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/69957 Sat, 24 Oct 2015 18:24:15 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

When Shirley Temple was just a twinkle in her father's eye, there was another child star that was filling the seats in movie theaters across the country: Baby Peggy. Though most of her movies are lost today, the few that survive make it easy to see why she was so popular back in the day. The very young lady had an incredible amount of screen presence and it's hard not to look at her when she's on the screen. Undercrank Productions has just released one of the features she made at Universal (under their prestige "Universal Jewel" label no less) The Family Secret, and the disc includes some really fun extras that make it quite a package.
...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/69828 Sat, 03 Oct 2015 16:27:58 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

After reviewing Accidentally Preserved VolumeOne and VolumeTwo and loving both sets, I was very excited to hear that athird edition was in the works. Undercrank Productions has justreleased Accidentally Preserved Volume Three and it's just asenjoyable and fun as the first two. Filled with very rare silent erashorts with fine accompaniment, the set includes nine silent shortfeaturing rarely seen stars such as Joe Rock and Jack Duffy.

This set starts off with a short from Mr. &Mrs. Sidney Drew, Wanted,A Nurse. When a gentleman encounters an attractive nurseaiding an ill man on the street...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/68674 Thu, 14 May 2015 21:22:42 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

Fans of silent comedy shorts will be excited to learn thatUndercrank Productions has released a second volume of Musty Suffershorts staring Harry Watson Jr. The first volume [reviewed here]was a lot of fun and this quartet of one-reelers (along with somegreat bonus items) is just as enjoyable. Sourced from printspreserved by the Library of Congress and with newly composed pianoscores by Ben Model, this is a wonderful collection of unjustlyoverlooked shorts.

 

Harry Watson Jr., who had a lead act in the Ziegfeld Follies atone ti...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/68379 Mon, 20 Apr 2015 00:04:20 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

Undercrank Productions has dug up some more amazing silent shortsand released them on DVD. The Mishaps of Musty Suffer Volume Onecontains eight one-reel films starring the unjustifiably forgottenHarry Watson Jr. along with some nice bonus material and new musicalscores composed and performed by Ben Model. These films are funny,surreal, and immensely entertaining, everything you want in a silentcomedy.

Harry Watson Jr. was a star of vaudeville, half of the comedy duoBickel and Watson. In 1907 Florenz Ziegfeld tapped them to...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67902 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 19:41:30 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

Undercrank Productions has released Accidentally PreservedVolume Two, a second DVD of rare and obscure silent shortsfeaturing some great, forgotten comedians. This disc features thelikes of Bobby Vernon, Lloyd Hamilton and Neely Edwards, and ifthose names are unfamiliar to you, that's all the more reason topick up a copy of this very good collection.

There are eight shorts, mostly comedies, and an animated commercialon this volume that were made between 1919 and 1929, all accompaniedby Ben Model on the organ or piano. The collection starts off with aBobby Vernon short, Why Wild Men Go Wild. Vernon was prettybig name in comedy shorts in the 1910's and 20's, appearing in over200 films, but he never made the transition to sound and is nowlargely forgotten. This short shows the start as a peppy, energetic,and personable actor who is gre...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67832 Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:44:20 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

Accidently Preserved Volume One is a really fun andinteresting collection of shorts from Undercrank Productions. Filledwith exceedingly rare films, the transfers were taken from 16mmfilm, the only source for most of these. Originally intended for thehome market these reels still exist thanks to collectors whodutifully took care of the prints for decades, accidentallypreserving them in the process.

This first volume presents nine shorts, mostly comedies, featuring awide array of rarely seen comics. There are only three shortsfeaturing Wallace Lupino (brother of the more famous Lupino Lane) inexistence, and one of them starts off this collection. He was anable comedian, like his brother, and gives a fine performance is TheLost Laugh where he buys a new-fangled clothes washing machine(you have to manually pour water into the drum that holds theclothes) from a...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67779 Sun, 01 Mar 2015 21:20:05 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

While the surviving output of the big three silent comedians,Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, is wellrepresented on home video, there are a lot of other talented silentstars who are woefully underrepresented. Case in point: Monty Banks.Though the comedian had his own production company and releasedseveral feature films starting in 1924, none of them have beenavailable until Undercrank Productions released the 1927 film FlyingLucky. Featuring Jean Arthur (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr.Smith Goes to Washington) alongside Banks, the film is partsituational comedy, part service-life parody, and part thrillpicture. A decent romp, its arrival on DVD was long overdue.

Monty Banks plays "Monty" in this film, a m...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67747 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 19:35:19 UTC Highly Recommended

The Shorts:

Read the entire review

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