Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Eleven P.M. (1928)

This feature drama, directed by Richard Maurice, stars Richard Maurice and Orine Johnson, with Sammie Fields, Leo Pope, J.M. Stephens, Eugene Williams and H. Marion Williams.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in 4K high-definition from a 35mm preservation print held by the Library of Congress that ranges in quality from fair to excellent and is marked by a significant amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, scrapes and scratches, sprocket damage, and other flaws.

As strange as the film is, it is accompanied by an equally strange and distracting music score composed and performed on electric guitar and keyboards by Rob Gal. OK, after a while the score is downright annoying. Kudos if you can take it for an hour.

Supplemental material includes the documentaries “We Work Again” (1937) produced by the Federal Works Project (15 minutes), and “The Tyler-Texas Black Film Collection: The Missing Link in Black Cinema” (1985), with Ossie Davis (6 minutes); theatrical trailers for Veiled Aristocrats (4 minutes) and Birthright (3 minutes); an interview with historian S. Torriano Berry on the works of James and Eloyce Gist (5 minutes); and the featurettes “Pioneers of African-American Cinema: An Introduction,” with collection curators Jacqueline Najuma Stewart and Charles Musser (8 minutes), “About the Restoration,” with edition producer Bret Wood (8 minutes), “The Color Line,” with Charles Musser (5 minutes), “Ten Nights in a Bar Room: An Introduction,” with Charles Musser (4 minutes), “Eleven P.M.: An Introduction,” with Charles Musser (3 minutes), “The Films of Oscar Micheaux,” with Charles Musser (9 minutes), “The Films of Zora Neale Hurston,” with film archivist Mike Mashon (2 minutes), “The Films of Spencer Williams,” with Jacqueline Najuma Stewart (7 minutes), “Religion in Early African-American Cinema,” with Jacqueline Najuma Stewart and Charles Musser (7 minutes), and “The End of an Era,” with Jacqueline Najuma Stewart (5 minutes); and an 80-page insert book with notes on the films and essays by Charles Musser and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, with contributions from Rhea L. Combs, Mary N. Elliott and Paul D. Miller.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film, although it might be tough going due to the accompanying music.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Rob Gal.

The collection is supplemented with an insert book that includes notes on the films and essays by collection curators Charles Musser and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .