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Flying Luck
(1927)

This aerial comedy, directed by Herman C. Raymaker, stars Monty Banks and Jean Arthur, with Jack W. Johnston, Kewpie Morgan, Eddy Chandler and Silver Harr.

Undercrank Productions
2014 DVD edition

Flying Luck (1927), black & white, 99 minutes, not rated.

Undercrank Productions,
no catalog number, UPC 7-39189-94333-3.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 30 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 7 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 2014.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 6 / overall: 7.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 35mm nitrate print (possibly the one held by the Gosfilmofond film archive). The video transfer shows some signs of edge sharpening and of coarse aliasing on contrasting diagonals in the picture (such as the trim on the foreign diplomat’s automobile seen at 11:15 into the disc) which may indicate an older scanning system. The very-good source material is detailed, with a broad and balanced range of greytones. Regretably, there are portions of the print that have been lost to active nitrate decomposition.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on virtual theatre pipe organ by Ben Model.

Supplemental material includes approximately 38 minutes of Kinograms, Pathé and William J. Ganz newsreel footage focused on the 1927 transatlantic flight of Charles A. Lindbergh, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film but we would love to see this one remastered for release on Blu-ray Disc.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

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