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Polly of the Circus
(1917)

The charming Mae Marsh stars in her first film for the Goldwyn studio, with support from Wellington Playter, Vernon Steele, Charles Eldridge, George Trimble and Lucille LaVerne.

Grapevine Video
2013 DVD edition

Polly of the Circus (1917), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated, with Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco, Cal. (1915), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.

Grapevine Video, no catalog number, UPC 8-42614-10567-8.
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 6.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $16.95.
Release date: 23 May 2013.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 6 / additional content: 4 / overall: 4.

This DVD-R edition has been prepared from a good 16mm reduction print that is quite dark in its shadows and rather soft in its image details. In case you miss them, dust and speckling, and other print flaws are here to be seen. The film has been transferred at a faster-than-natural-pace speed, which rushes the film’s action past the viewer. OK viewing but there has to be better surviving material on this film.

The film is presented with a good music score composed and performed on virtual theatre pipe organ by David Knudtson.

Supplemental material includes a Roscoe Arbuckle-Mabel Normand Keystone short documentary-comedy from a 16mm reduction print.

It’s not great but, until a better disc is released, this is our recommended home video edition of Polly of the Circus.

This review was updated in 2025.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

Alpha Video
2014 DVD edition

Polly of the Circus (1917), black & white, 77 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7284D, UPC 0-89218-72849-4.
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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $7.98 (raised again to $9.99).
Release date: 28 January 2014.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print and, from the running time, we suspect that the film has been transferred at a faster-than-natural-pace speed.

The film is likely accompanied by a compiled music score of preexisting recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from
ALPHA VIDEO through . . .