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

Ben Turpin Returns (1909-1926)

Contents: Mr. Flip (1909), The Musical Marvel (1917), Out of Control (1917), Ten Dollars or Ten Days (1924) and The Fickle Bridegroom (1926).

This DVD-R collection has been mastered from a range of reduction prints.

Mr. Flip (1909), featuring a young Ben Turpin has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print. Ben is foiled at numerous attempts at flirting.

The Musical Marvel (1917) has been mastered from a fair 16mm reduction print from the Blackhawk collection. The picture is not great but OK, being rather flat with grey highlights.

Out of Control (1917) has been mastered from a fair 8mm reduction print. The image is greyed-out, tightly cropped, and coarse in picture details.

Ten Dollars or Ten Days (1924) has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of an incomplete 16mm reduction print. The resulting picture is quite greyed-out and the usual VHS picture artifacts can be seen throughout. Complete prints of the film are available elsewhere.

The Fickle Bridegroom (1926) has been transferred from a very-good 16mm reduction print but, like all the other films in this collection, the picture features a flat range of greytones and passable image detail.

The films are accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting recordings.

We wouldn’t recommend this below-average disc but a few of the films are available nowhere else on home video.

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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

Other silent era BEN TURPIN films available on home video.