Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Alloy Orchestra Plays Wild and Weird 14 Fascinating and Innovative Films (1902-1965)

Contents: A Trip to the Moon (1902), Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906), The Red Spectre (1907), The Acrobatic Fly (1908), The Thieving Hand (1908), Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909), Those Awful Hats (1909), Artheme Swallows His Clarinet (1912), The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912), The Pet (1921), The Playhouse (1921), Filmstudie (1926), The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928), Clay; or, The Origin of Species (1965).

This compilation has filled an interesting niche in silent film collecting, being for the most part, focused more on the musical accompaniment of films. The collection presents varied musical styles by The Alloy Orchestra to a loosely organized parade of films that are of an experimental or simply unusual ilk. Most of the films have been presented on home video before in other collections, so the scarceness of the films is not the attraction but, instead, it is the music that is important. As we have said before, if you are familiar with The Alloy Orchestra’s work you either love them or hate them. We love their sometimes quirkiness, sometimes melodic, often thrashing approach to silent film accompaniment. We feel that, with so many fine practitioners of the historic forms of silent film accompaniment, there is room — even a need — for alternate forms of music to bring silent films alive for audiences who might think that they and their traditional forms of music are too old-fashioned to be of interest.

— Carl Bennett

Most of the films in this DVD collection have appeared on home video before in other collections. These films have been transferred full-frame from 35mm print sources.

The films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed by The Alloy Orchestra.

The supplemental material includes the brief featurette Alloy Orchestra Plays Filmstudie (2011) presented in 16:9 anamorphic video (10 minutes).

For our comparative reviews of the individual films in the collections, see our Those Awful Hats (1908) on home video page.

Recommended but, unfortunately, the disc is now out-of-print.

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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other AVANT-GARDE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other silent era D.W. GRIFFITH films available on home video.

Other EARLY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other GEORGES MéLIÈS films available on home video.

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other RUSSIAN and SOVIET FILMS of the silent era available on home video.