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La Bohème
(1926)

This MGM drama vehicle for star Lillian Gish and leading man John Gilbert was directed by King Vidor, and features Renée Adorée, George Hassell, Roy D’Arcy, Edward Everett Horton, Karl Dane, Mathilde Comont, Gino Corrado, Eugene Pouyet, Frank Currier and David Mir.

Warner Archive Collection
2010 DVD edition

La Bohème (1926), black & white, 93 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video,
no catalog number, UPC 8-83316-22735-0.
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 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 9 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95 (reduced to $12.99).
Release date: 12 January 2010.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 6 / additional content: 0 / overall: 5.

This DVD-R edition is as originally prepared for release on laserdisc and for presentation on Turner Classic Movies from a 16mm reduction print (thought to be the best surviving material). The full-frame video transfer crops out the shadowy edges of the tight framing of the 16mm print, which cropped the original 35mm picture (common among vintage 16mm prints). Perhaps as much as 10 percent of the original picture is lost to cropping, but the intertitles remain readable in full.

The film is accompanied by a modern music score performed on piano and cello.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of this film.

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