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

Easy Street (1916)

Charles Chaplin’s famous rollerskating comedy pits an errant waiter, posing as a society gentleman, against big Eric Campbell for the attentions of Edna Purviance, with most of the rivalry played out on a roller-rink floor. A lively and funny comedy, but what is going on with Edna’s hairstyle in this film?

With much of this edition being mastered from an archival 35mm positive, the visual quality is generally very-good with from a good 35mm positive. The edition benefits greatly from the new video transfer.

The film is presented with an ensemble music score performed on piano, horn and cello as composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau. An optional improvisational piano score performed by Antonio Coppola is also available. It is a bit annoying that the Thibaudeau music is out-of-sync with the film’s action.

The supplemental material includes a 28-page booklet, the documentary The Birth of the Tramp (2013); the documentary Chaplin’ss Goliath (1996) on Chaplin star heavy Eric Campbell.

The collection is issued in limited-edition steelbook packaging, which we feel must be handled gingerly to avoid damaging its discs and the case itself.

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The special features include the documentary The Gentleman Tramp (1975), narrated by Walter Matthau, with excerpts from My Autobiography read by Laurence Olivier; Chaplin family home movies, including scenes of Chaplin at home near Vevey, Switzerland; the documentary Chaplin’s Goliath (1996) on Chaplin star heavy Eric Campbell; “The Mutual-Chaplin Specials,” an appreciation by Jeffrey Vance, author of Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema; “Making The Gentleman Tramp,” a reminisence by Richard Patterson; and a stills gallery containing more than 90 images from the collection of Jeffrey Vance, many never before published.

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That being said, readers have noted that there is surviving footage from these films that does not appear in this home video edition. Our understanding is that most (if not all) of these films have originated from the Van Beuren Company 35mm negatives that were prepared in the 1950s. Those prints featured music by Winston Sharples and synchronized sound effects, and they can be viewed in their 1950s form (transfered at sound speed) on early laserdisc and VHS collections from Image and Republic. While these 35mm negatives feature superior visual quality, portions of the original footage and intertitles were removed in the 1950s. Some early 16mm reduction prints from Blackhawk Films and others, which originated from other surviving positive prints, feature footage that doesn’t appear in this DVD edition. Logic would lead some to assume that this extra footage survives in 35mm prints held by the world’s film archives and by private collectors.

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The film is accompanied by a custom music score by The Alloy Orchestra and is the principal reason to own this collection (if you like their music).

This edition was later reissued on manufactured-on-demand DVD-R disc and both the DVD and DVD-R editions are now out-of-print.

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This DVD boxset is full of low-quality video transfers of short and feature-length films. At the time of its release, the majority of the titles were previously available from other budget disc producers of similar low-quality. This edition has been transferred from a dark 16mm reduction print.

While the temptation is to get three discs for a low price, the quality of prints used for the video transfers are commensurately low.

Easy Street is available in higher-quality home video editions elsewhere. Not recommended and it’s out-of-print now, anyway. No loss.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.