SilentComedyMafia.com

Hey Gang,

I know this will shock everyone here to hear me say this, but did anyone else notice that the early Harold Lloyd shorts TCM ran last week were way too fast?

From what I could tell, LONESOME LUKE MESSENGER was moving at something like 28-29 fps, and it was not just the film transfer, the music was speeded up as well.

Just running through the others looked like similar, but less speedy issues were going on as well. I haven't had time or been home long enough to give them a thorough look.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Dear Diary;

Today it rained chocolate ice cream, tree's sang and flowers told risque jokes, and everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line spoke Manderin.
Oh.....and Richard M. Roberts (noted speed merchant) writes of actually seeing a silent comedy running too fast.

My psychiatrist is right, the world is flat.

And it is not April 1st...!

Seems like we can count on Criterion to correct this? Here, from DVDbeaver, are the running times of three of those shorts as included in the new Safety Last Blu-ray:

Take a Chance (1918 - 10:21),
Young Mr. Jazz (1919 - 9:50),
His Royal Slyness (1920 - 21:39).

Those numbers look alright to me - what were the TCM running times?

Incidentally, that release appears to be a must-have for the transfer alone, let alone the extras discussed previously:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_59/safety_last_blu-ray.htm

Uli

The Criterion editions of these shorts are completely different, and new, transfers from the ones shown on TCM. The TCM versions were provided by the Harold Lloyd Trust, but Criterion insisted on creating their own masters.

(I didn't work on the Safety Last Blu-Ray, but my producer on the To Be Or Not To Be Blu-Ray, Karen Stetler, was the producer on Safety Last, and we talked about it during work on To Be)

I didn't realize Lubitsch and Criterion made you relapse into providing audio commentaries, David -- that's brilliant news!

Hoping for more of the same,

Uli

A SAMMY IN SIBERIA looks beautiful...and complete.