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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Drifting
(1923)

This crime drama, directed by Tod Browning, stars Priscilla Dean and Matt Moore, with Wallace Beery, J. Farrell MacDonald, Rose Dione, Edna Tichenor, William V. Mong and Anna May Wong.

Capable of ending a life with a single look, Priscilla Dean could cast an icy stare that would freeze solid the most robust of persons. No Browning film with Dean in it would be complete without at least one of those fatal glances and there are a number of them to be seen in this film.

Kino Classics
2020 Blu-ray Disc edition

Drifting (1923), color-tinted black & white, 84 minutes, not rated, with White Tiger (1923), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K25141, UPC 7-38329-25141-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC 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 37.2 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 2.0 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 9 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 20 October 2020.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the 2015 high-definition digital reconstruction by the George Eastman Museum from archival film elements held by the Museum, Gosfilmofond and the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute. It appears that no digital clean-up has been performed on the scan as there is a significant amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, vertical scratches, rough splices, and other print flaws remaining in the picture. Otherwise, the picture is a fairly enjoyable viewing experience.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Anton Sanko.

Supplemental material includes audio commentary for Drifting by historian Anthony Slide and for The White Tiger by edition producer Bret Wood; and a fragment of the presumed lost Browning film The Exquisite Thief (1919) (10 minutes).

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Kino Classics
2020 DVD edition

Drifting (1923), black & white, 84 minutes, not rated, with White Tiger (1923), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K25140, UPC 7-38329-25140-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD 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; $19.95.
Release date: 20 October 2020.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD edition has been mastered from archival film elements held by the Library of Congress.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Anton Sanko.

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Other silent era TOD BROWNING films available on home video.

Other silent era ANNA MAY WONG films available on home video.

Other CRIME FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

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