Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 8, 2024

Collectors of home media products can tend to be "rabid completists" (ahem), and in that regard, for those who see Volume 5 emblazoned across the top of the front cover of this release and who may therefore instantly go into "must find the first four volumes" mode (which was this rabid completist's reaction), it may be salient to note that evidently that opening quartet has only been released on DVD as of the writing of this review. Quite fascinatingly for me personally, at least given my bifurcated career as a film journalist and musician, the extremely rare silent films in this collection are being made available courtesy of composer Jon. C. Mirsalis, who evidently has a collection of these so-called "accidentally preserved" oddities (though some prefatory text cards reprinted below suggest he may have gotten his copies from other collections somewhere along the way), and who provides some fun scores for these versions. For archivists the really interesting thing about these films is that they were "preserved" because rental libraries made 16mm copies for (if you're ready for some "everything old is new again" information) home movie enthusiasts, which suggests collecting and/or "rabid completists" may predate all of us by quite some time. Those copies were made on 16mm safety stock, which has a longer shelf life than 35mm nitrate, hence "survival", though as can be gleaned by some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, that doesn't mean "unscathed".

Three of the four films aggregated in this set are what were probably considered "feature length" in their day, even if they tend to have running times more in line with contemporary hour long television dramas.

Lorraine of the Lions is basically a female Tarzan of the Apes, with Lorraine (Patsy Ruth Miller) surviving a shipwreck as a child and being raised in the wild by protective ape Bimi, an animal who had appeared in a circus owned by Lorraine's parents. The film also kind of oddly also involves a "psychic" who is tasked by Lorraine's grandfather with finding her.

Love at First Flight is the one "short" of this collection, and offers the blandishments of the "Sennett Girls" (in kinda sorta color), as well as some at times funny vignettes, including what looks like an actual "wing walker" on an airplane who spies the "cow jumping over the moon".

Hoofbeats of Vengeance, aside from having my personal favorite title in this grouping, may also be amusing to some in that its marquee star is Rex, King of Wild Horses, rather than any, you know, humans. Rex's original owner has been killed by villain Jud Regan (Al Ferguson), who has his own "evil" horse to boot. Luckily, good guy Jack Gordon (Jack Perrin) shows up and with Rex is able to bring the culprit to justice, while also wooing a female character somewhat comically named (at least for those with an interest in musical theater) Mary Martin (Helen Foster).

The Fourth Commandment, in the "missed it by that much" department, has a title actually referring to "honor thy father and thy mother", which some Bibliophiles may know shows up as the fifth commandment in many numberings, but one way or the other, this is a surprisingly contemporary feeling tale that has a certain Edna Ferber-ish aspect of seeing familial dramas and arguable peccadilloes play out over the course of two generations. A kind of headstrong woman named Virginia (Belle Bennett) is married to Gordon (Henry Victor), though not before the film has already documented a failed love affair between Gordon and another woman. Social climbing or at least status is part of that failure, and rather interestingly becomes part of Virginia's "arc" as well, though the film is rather prescient in a way in depicting a woman who isn't necessarily satisfied to be a stay at home wife and mother. There's more than a whiff of one of Belle Bennett's best remembered films, Stella Dallas, in the subsequent plot dynamics.

Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots 1, 5, 8, 12, and 16 are from Lorraine of the Lions. Screenshots 2, 6 and 9 are from Love at First Flight. Screenshots 3, 7, 10, 13, 14 and 17 are from Hoofbeats of Vengeance. Screenshots 4, 11, 15 and 18 are from The Fourth Commandment. Per Undercrank's standard release regimen, these discs are BD-R.

Accidentally Preserved Volume 5 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Undercrank Productions (with a little help from the Library of Congress) with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in slightly variant aspect ratios, but all hovering around Academy ratio. All four films in this set come with prefatory text cards which impart some information about provenance as well as releases and curation, as follows:

Lorraine of the Lions was released by Universal Pictures on October 11, 1925. Norman Kerry and Patsy Ruth Miller - the stars of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) - were paired again, with direction by Edward Sedgwick, a well known action director. The same year Lorraine was made, he was called in by Universal to rescue the first failed cut of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) by shooting an entirely new climax.

The film was originally released at 7 reels, and was subsequently released as a 16mm Show at Home print for the home and non-theatrical market. No 35mm archival material on the film exists. An original Show at Home print in the collection of the late Marty Kearns was used to make a 16mm reversal print, and that print was scanned at 2K by the Library of Congress for their Silent Film Project.


Love at First Flight was released by Mack Sennett on January 29, 1928. There are no 35mm archival prints of this title, but an original tinted Kodascope print, including some 2 color Technicolor footage, was found in the collection of the late Gordon Berkow. This print was scanned at 2K by the Library of Congress for their Silent Film Project.

The brief Technicolor scenes in the film were added to the 16mm Kodascope prints using the Dunning color process. The resulting color is less vivid and darker than the original provess used for theatrical release of the film.


Hoofbeats of Vengeance was copyrighted on May 9, 1928 by Universal Pictures, but was not released until June 4, 1929. The film stars Rex, King of Wild Horses, with human leads Jack Perrin and Helen Foster playing secondary roles. The story was written by George Plympton who has an astonishing 300 credits to his name, spanning 1912-1957, including the classic serial Flash Gordon and the not so classic Zombies of Mora Tau!

Universal released the film as a 16mm Show at Home print for the home and non-theatrical market. No 35mm archival material on the film exists. An original multi-tinted Show at Home print in the collection of the late Gordon Berkow was scanned at 2K by the Library of Congress for their Silent Film Project.


The Fourth Commandment was released by Universal Pictures on March 20, 1927 as a Universal Jewel, one of their premier releases. The film was written and directed by Emory Johnson, who was born in San Francisco, and spent much of his career making films in and about the Bay Area. The film stars Belle Bennett, best known for her heart breaking title role in Samuel Goldwyn's 1925 Stella Dallas.

Originally released at 8 reels, the film was recut to 7 reels, and that version was subsequently released as a 16mm Show at Home print for the home and non-theatrical market. No 35mm archival material on the film exists. A well worn, multi-tinted print was discovered in the collection of the laste Gordon Berkow, and was scanned at 2K by the Library of Congress for their Silent Film Project.

As can probably be pretty easily gleaned from the screenshots accompanying this review, all of the films included here show sometimes significant damage and age related wear and tear, including everything from quite a bit of scratching and nicks, but extending to things like emulsion damage and warped and/or unstable frames. That said, there can still be some surprisingly solid detail levels in at least close-ups. Tinted material is rather nicely suffused, probably more so with regard to blues than other tones. The supposed color footage is pretty wan looking, even by 2 strip standards. These films are obviously rare and little known and/or remembered, and their historical interest probably outweighs any deficits in video quality, considering how rare they are.

Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All four films in this set feature scores by Jon C. Mirsalis presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. Longtime readers of my reviews know I tend to chafe when no lossless audio is offered, and while I would have preferred a lossless presentation here, the Dolby Digital tracks provide reasonably full bodied accounts of some rather fun scoring choices by Mirsalis.

Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on either disc in this two disc set.

Accidentally Preserved Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lovers of silent film should find this a really appealing set despite some obvious age related issues with the video. All four have their own distinctive flavor, but The Fourth Commandment in particular struck me as being really quite modern feeling, even if it is obviously attempting to echo Stella Dallas. I recommend that those interested in this release parse the screenshots to get some idea of what's in store, and audiophiles should also be aware there's only lossy audio on the BD-Rs. With caveats noted, and for, well, rabid completists if no one else, Recommended.