Category: Undercrank Productions
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Let’s get “The Bat” on the National Film Registry!
Every year in December, 25 films are added to the National Film Registry for their being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and are selected by the Librarian of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board. Given the connection to Batman that Roland West’s THE BAT (1926) has, I’d say it deserves to be on the National…
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An award for the Raymond Griffith Blu/DVD!
The Il Cinema Ritrovato is held every year in Bologna, Italy and is a prestigious international festival of classic and silent film. The festival has an awards competition for Blu-rays and DVDs that were released the previous year. 5 awards are given out for different categories, and also each of the competition’s jurors selects a release for…
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Interview with Ben Model about his “Laughter Restored” presentation
On Saturday May 18th I will be giving a presentation entitled “Laughter Restored: Discovering Rare Gems of Silent Film” at the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Restored and Rediscovered Festival. This will be a first for me, as I’ve not given this presentation before. I’ll be talking about how I became a boutique home-video label, without…
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A Thank-You Note For Undercrank’s 10th Anniversary
The month-long sale on Undercrank Productions Blu-rays and DVDs is over now, and I am grateful to everyone who bought any of our releases. The celebration of Undercrank’s 10th anniversary was a two-fold opportunity to thank and to serve silent film fans. From the beginning my idea was to find a way to get films…
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Raymond Griffith: Ready To Launch
Today I made one last trip to my local post office, bringing the last batch of backer copies to the USPS. In late March 2022, I launched a Kickstarter for a new Blu-ray/DVD project, Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian. The project funded in a few hours, finishing up with a total of 536 classic…
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DVD: “Not Dead Yet”
I’ve been producing and releasing DVDs via my Undercrank Productions label since 2013 and, in January, began releasing our titles on Blu-ray as well. All new releases in 2022 were issued on both formats. At a time when some other labels catering to classic and silent film are releasing only on Blu-ray, I was curious…
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Undercrank Prods: “Beat the Boots”?
It’s an endless game of whack-a-mole. To some degree, there’s nothing to be done about it. I’m impressed that most of my DVD and Blu-ray releases have not been illicitly uploaded to YouTube. But several of them have, and aside from claiming rights on the scores, there isn’t much I can do about this. Or…
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Tom Mix: From Ubiquitous to (Somewhat) Unknown
From Tom Mix’s entry into motion pictures in 1910 for the Selig Company and his quick rise to starring roles, then into feature-length in 1918 for the rest of the silent era, he was never off the silver screen. Movie audiences and fans could always count on the fact that there’d be a new Tom…
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Finding More of Baby Peggy
A Baby Peggy Rediscovery — or: When “Circus Clowns” Doesn’t Mean “Circus Clowns” I was pretty much set with additional material for the DVD of the Library of Congress’ restoration of The Family Secret. After playing for MoMA’s restoration of the short Miles of Smiles, I’d inquired about and gotten the okay to include it…
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Saving Monte Collins
A lot of one-reel comedy shorts from the late 1920s seem to only survive in 16mm home use prints from the 1930s. Wedding Slips (1928) with Monte Collins now only exists as a digital file. Luckily I snagged this one in its final throes of vinegar syndrome decomposition, and managed to get two passes at…