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

The Scar of Shame (1927)

This crime drama from the Colored Players Film Corporation serves a little social commentary into its mix of two-bit hustlers, upper-middle-class stoicism, guns, attempted rape and suicide. The story by David Starkman, as directed by Frank Perugini, is melodramatic yet effective. The “all colored” cast is led by Harry Henderson, Lucia Lynn Moses, Norman Johnstone and Lawrence Chenault.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in high-definition from a 35mm print from the Library of Congress. Compared to earlier home video editions, the immediate reaction is a wow! Yes, there remains the dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scuffing, scrapes and chipping, scratches, image instability, occasional mild cupping, sprocket damage, and other flaws, including seen in earlier editions. However, the image quality is improved enough to make the viewing experience a pleasure. This edition contains an additional four minutes of footage (the wedding sequence) not previously seen in prior home video editions.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on digital piano by Makia Matsumura.

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 Scar of Shame.

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 on digital piano by Makia Matsumura.

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

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 . . .

This early edition of The Scar of Shame, the first available on DVD home video, has been transferred from a duplicate 35mm print that has a number of flaws, including dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scuffing, scrapes and chipping, scratches, image instability, occasional mild cupping, and more.

The film is accompanied by a fine music score composed and performed on piano by an uncredited musician.

This valuable early DVD collection is now regretably out-of-print. Thankfully, we can look to the Kino Lorber editions noted above.

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

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 35mm duplicate negative of the same 35mm print held by the Library of Congress utilized for the edition noted above. There is some image instability, a little speckling, moderate dust and other minor print damage, but the greyscale range is a little flat and image detail is reasonably good, with some highlight and shadow details held and some of them lost. The resulting quality of the full-frame, slightly coarse, slightly faster than natural speed video transfer is good but far surpassed in quality by the editions noted above.

The film is accompanied by John Muri performing on the Barton theatre pipe organ. The musical performance is flawless but the audio, likely transferred from the optical soundtrack of the 1971 print “owned” by Spectra Pictures, is muted and has some audible crackling, hissing, dropouts and infrequent distortion.

Given that this home video edition is now out-of-print (and that is no loss), we recommend the Kino editions noted above.

ENCORE ENTERTAINMENT has discontinued business and this DVD-R edition is . . .

The film is likely presented with a music score compiled from preexisting recordings.

With other high quality editions noted above, we cannot recommend this edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .