Region 4 Winners and Losers

    As this is a film in the public domain, there are several editions available. I have previously acquired two multi-region discs, both sourced from the USA. One is from Navarre Corporation, presented on a disc containing three films, the other two being G. W. Pabst's The Joyless Street with Greta Garbo, and The Extra Girl, starring Mabel Normand. Both of these are silent as well. The picture quality is reasonable but inferior to the new release, although the latter is slightly cropped in comparison. This version includes the deleted material and runs 67:47, but the opening title is missing.

    The other edition I have is from Koch Vision and also includes two other Chaplin films: the feature length Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) and The Cure (1917), a short. The Kid looks like it has been copied from an earlier laserdisc. The picture quality is inferior to the new issue, although it includes the deleted scenes and again is not as cropped as the Warner edition. The running time is 68:28 and the music score is a generic one which does not suit the film.

    In comparison to both of these, the Region 4 image seems to be slightly stretched vertically. It is hard to tell which is the correct vertical height, so I would conclude that this is not a significant issue.

    There was also a release from Film Preservation Associates released on CBS/Fox/Image which is no longer available. Hearsay evidence suggests that the image quality was better on this version, however that was in comparison to the problematic Region 1 versions of this DVD, which I will deal with below. This disc contained a copy of Chaplin's contract with the First National Company. Also included was a sequence from the compilation film The Chaplin Revue, which appears itself to be an extract from How To Make Movies with narration by Chaplin himself. This disc was withdrawn from sale prior to the release of the Warners discs.

    Region 1 also has an equivalent release from Warner with the same contents. However, Warner were supplied by MK2 with a standard definition digital transfer in PAL format which they converted to NTSC, resulting in severe digital artefacts, including ghosting and motion blurring. The version in Region 4 is from the original PAL transfer, which means that we do not have these artefacts.

    The Region 2 editions appear to be identical to the Region 4, so on the basis of image quality, availability and cost I will call the Region 4 the winner.