Region 4 Winners and Losers

    There have been a few releases of this movie worldwide. In France, a Region 2 release from mk2 is the source of the new Region 4. It comes as part of a set of Keaton's independent features.

    An older Region 4 release from Force Video was licensed from the US Region 1 release that was put together by Film Preservation Associates, one of the better quality companies putting out silent material. The Force release is quite good, with acceptable video quality and some good extras in a couple of Buster's short silents, One Week and The Blacksmith. The quality though is not nearly as good as the new Region 4. It seems to be an NTSC to PAL transfer and suffers from ghosting artefacts, as well as being less sharp and detailed.

    A Region 1 release from Kino Video sounds as though it is of the same quality as the Force Video release minus the conversion artefacts, and it has three short silents as extras.

    All things considered, if you don't want to buy the French set then the new Region 4 is the best available.