Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 20, 2019

Note: This version of this film is available as part of The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 3.

Cohen Film Collection is back with its third installment of Buster Keaton classics, after having offered fans The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 1 (which included The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.) and The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 2 (which included Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator). As with the previous volumes, this Cohen release is a “two-fer”, and it also boasts new restorations and new scores, along with some arguably less than thrilling supplements.

As with all of the other Keaton greats that Cohen has thus far resurrected for this series of new releases, Battling Butler has had a previous release on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. For those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to Casey Broadwater's Go West / Battling Butler Blu-ray review of the Kino Lorber release. Casey's review is also a good source for screenshot comparisons between the two versions.

Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Battling Butler is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. While Cohen's "minimalist" insert booklet doesn't really contain any technical information, this presentation starts with a series of text cards which state:

The Keaton Project was launched in 2015 by Cineteca di Bologna and the Cohen Film Collection to restore all of the films made by Buster Keaton between 1920 and 1928.

For the restoration of Battling Butler, thirteen elements were inspected and analyzed, eight of those — from the Cohen Film Collection and Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique — were digitized and compared. Upon inspection it was confirmed that the first generation positive print held by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique was struck from a B negative and therefore not used for reconstruction. Four elements were finally selected for restoration: the original camera negative, two positive prints (one vintage and one from the 1940s) and a second generation duplicate negative, all preserved by Cohen Film Collection.

The dupe negative was used, whenever possible, to replace portions that were missing in the original negative, namely the entirety of reel 1, and portions in every reel with the exception of reel 3. Color grading used the amber tinted vintage print as a reference; the choice was confirmed by the information reported in the middle tails of the original negative.

Opening cards were re-edited to match the vintage print.

Restoration was carried at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and completed in June 2017.

I again refer those interested to look at the screenshots Casey uploaded to accompany his Go West / Battling Butler Blu-ray review (keeping in mind that because he reviewed both films together, Battling Brother is represented by screenshots 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19. ) I also restate my mantra that readers should not put too much stock in comparing video scores between Casey's review and this one, since there's no guarantee I would have rated the Kino Lorber release the same as Casey did. Once again, as with Seven Chances, it may be with regard to the amber tinting that this presentation departs most obviously from the prior Kino Lorber offering, though as Casey mentions in his review, that presentation has what might be termed more of a sepia tint. As can be gleaned from the screenshots I've uploaded to this review, though, the amber tinting is not used uniformly for the entirety of the presentation so that, for example, when our intrepid "campers" get to know each other at nighttime, things move toward a more standard black and white appearance. Detail levels are very good to excellent throughout this presentation, with fine detail on elements like patterns on clothing quite precisely rendered almost all of the time. Damage is minimal, and in fact from a cursory review of the screenshots Casey uploaded to his review, it looks to me that the Cohen release is the clear winner in that particular category. Eagle eyed videophiles will also note that the Kino Lorber release has slightly rounded edges in the corners of the frame, though from the looks of Casey's screenshots, that rounding seems to have been somewhat variable. The really eagle eyed videophile may note that selected scenes in this presentation also seem to have very minor rounding, probably due to the different elements that Cohen mentions were sourced for this restoration.

Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As I mentioned in the Seven Chances Blu-ray review, while both of the films included on this third volume of Keaton offerings feature scores by Robert Israel, for whatever reason Israel's enjoyable music is presented in both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 versions, while Seven Chances only "scored" (sorry) a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Israel's score is typically fresh and occasionally whimsical, and the surround track offers nice differentiation between orchestral sections. Fidelity is excellent across the board.

Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with previous releases in this still nascent series, this volume of Keaton is presented on one disc, with a few marginally interesting supplements. This might be one department where Cohen needs to up their game, since many of the Kino Lorber releases came packed with extra features.

• Buster Keaton: The Daredevil (1080p; 3:44) is another aggregation of the same talking heads we've seen on the two previous releases.


• Seven Chances Restoration Trailer (1080p; 00:55)


• Battling Butler Restoration Trailer (1080p; 00:45)

Battling Butler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Battling Butler provides a great opportunity to see Keaton in his "hapless fop" mode, though his character also has to pretend to be a prizefighter, which adds to the hilarity. This new Cohen version has noticeably different tinting than the earlier Kino Lorber release, so interested fans are encouraged to compare screenshots between the two releases. This does offer solid technical merits, though supplements are pretty sparse. Recommended.