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

Perils of the New Land Films of the Immigrant Experience (1910-1915)

Contents: The Police Force of New York City (1910), The Call of the City (1912), Traffic in Souls (1913), The Italian (1915) and McQuade of the Traffic Squad (1915).

This collection of social dramas focuses primarily on tales of human exploitation in America.

This DVD collection has been produced in conjunction with David Shepard of Film Preservation Associates, who has previously released The Italian and Traffic in Souls in earlier home video formats. Their debut on quality DVDs is quite welcome. Traffic in Souls has been transferred from the only known 35mm nitrate material of the original domestic version, and is accompanied by a piano score performed by Philip Carli. The presentation of The Italian has utilized an assembly from three source prints, predominantly an original 35mm nitrate print. For our notes on the individual features, see our pages on Traffic in Souls and The Italian.

Musical accompaniment is provided by Rodney Sauer and The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, who also accompanies the three Edison short films that complete the program.

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