BD 221-226 The Navigator, Seven Chances, Battling Butler, Our Hospitality, Go West & College

[DeprongMori]

Fortunately I have most of these. Three questions on the list:

1) What is it that distinguishes the 2019 Kino release of the feature Our Hospitality?

2) Is there any notable difference between the 2011 Kino release of Educational Pictures Shorts in the big Keaton Blu-ray box set and their 2012 standalone Blu-ray release under the title Lost Keaton?

3) Is there a 2016 Kino Short Films release, as listed for Hard Luck, or is that a conflation of the 2011 Kino and 2016 MOC?

Thanks.

[SeizureMilk]

What about the Canadian International Pictures release of Buster Keaton Rides Again, wouldn’t that be a better release for it’s special features and extra film “Helicopter Canada” that’s included?

[DeprongMori]

I was able to answer my own question #3: Yes, there was a 2016 Kino release, with significant improvements to Hard Luck derived from newly discovered sources, and it looks like I can buy it separately for streaming without having to buy the whole set of short films for the fourth or fifth time.

HARD LUCK has been restored by Lobster Films in collaboration with Film Preservation Associates, from a 35mm safety dupe negative and a 24mm ozaphane Cinelux print in the Lobster films collection. Some short fragments were added from a nitrate print from the Cineteca Italiana, a 35mm safety fine grain from the Cinémathèque Française and a 9.5mm print from a private collector. Intertitles are reconstructed according to the font of the time, based on translation of original French cards. 24mm Nitroscan: Eclair. Scan and Restoration: Lobster Films laboratories, 2015.

[EddieLarkin]

If you have the MoC 2016 Blu-ray Shorts then you already have that version of Hard Luck, with one important caveat; the MoC mistakenly leaves in an old explanatory intertitle from an earlier restoration of the short when it was still missing its ending. With the ending restored, the intertitle shouldn't be there, as is the case with the 2016 Kino Blu-ray. But somehow it ended up being inserted back in by MoC (probably as a result of their effort to replace the french translated intertitles that otherwise plague the Kino set).

The Kino Our Hospitality wins because, like the Kino College, it is of far higher quality than the version on the MoC/Cohen sets.

The Lost Keaton discs are identical between the standalone and box set releases, as far as I know.

[tenia]

I did some screencaps of the Navigator/Sherlock Jr Lobster release, and compared those to the French Elephant BDs :
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... 5#p2907755

The Navigator is a much better restoration, but as expected, it has an awful encode.

[EddieLarkin]

Thanks tenia. Hopefully Kino will port it over to the US like the other Lobster restorations.

[hearthesilence]

I did some screencaps of the Navigator/Sherlock Jr Lobster release, and compared those to the French Elephant BDs :
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... 5#p2907755

The Navigator is a much better restoration, but as expected, it has an awful encode.

Thanks for the heads up. I was ready to buy the import myself but I guess I'll hold off now.

They actually screened the Lobster restoration at MoMA - was looking forward to it but had to miss it at the last minute.

[TMDaines]

Arbuckle Shorts (1917-1920) - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray

The Saphead - MoC 2022 Blu-ray

The High Sign - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
One Week - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
Convict 13 - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Scarecrow - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
Neighbors - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Haunted House - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray and MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
Hard Luck - Kino 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Goat - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
The Playhouse - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Boat - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Paleface - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
Cops - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
My Wife's Relations - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Blacksmith - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Frozen North - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Electric House - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
Day Dreams - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray
The Balloonatic - Kino 2011 Shorts Blu-ray
The Love Nest - MoC 2016 Shorts Blu-ray

Three Ages - Kino 2017 Blu-ray
Our Hospitality - Kino 2019 Blu-ray
Sherlock Jr. - MoC 2017 Vol 1 Blu-ray (std ed released 2019)
The Navigator - Complicated: the FR Lobster 2021 Blu-ray reportedly uses a superior restoration to the MoC Vol 2 2020 Blu-ray, but I've yet to see caps AND Lobster are notorious for encoding their stuff extremely poorly, especially their silents.
Seven Chances - MoC 2020 Vol 2 Blu-ray (std ed released 2021)
Go West - MoC 2020 Vol 3 Blu-ray (std ed released 2021)
Battling Butler - MoC 2020 Vol 2 Blu-ray (std ed released 2021)
The General - MoC 2017 Vol 1 Blu-ray (std ed released 2019)
College - Kino 2017 Blu-ray
Steamboat Bill, Jr. - Kino 2017 Blu-ray or MoC Vol 1 2017 Blu-ray (std ed released 2019)

The Cameraman - Criterion Blu-ray
Spite Marriage - Criterion Blu-ray
Free and Easy - WAC DVD
Doughboys - WAC DVD
Parlor, Bedroom and Bath - WAC DVD
Sidewalks of New York - WAC DVD
The Passionate Plumber - WAC DVD
Speak Easily - WAC DVD
What! No Beer? - WAC DVD

Educational Pictures Shorts (1934-1937) - Kino 2012 Lost Keaton Blu-ray

Columbia Pictures Shorts (1939-1941) - Sony 2006 65th Anniversary DVD

Un duel a mort (1952) - Kino Our Hospitality Blu-ray
Film (1965) - BFI Blu-ray
The Railrodder (1965) - MoC Vol 3 Blu-ray
Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) - MoC Vol 3 Blu-ray
The Scribe (1966) - Kino College Blu-ray or Moc Saphead Blu-ray

I think that covers just about everything you can get Keaton related on home video, outside of acting appearances like Twilight Zone and Sunset Blvd. If anyone knows of anything missing please let me know.

Can anyone remind me why the Kino Blu-ray shorts set was deemed preferable over the MoC here?

[EddieLarkin]

Not preferable overall, just in the cases of the noted shorts. Those particular films are taken from superior elements on the Kino set.

Three Ages may be out of date on that list, I haven't seen caps of the new MoC release.