Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.5

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 9, 2023

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cohen Media Group's The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 release.

After having brought out The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 1, The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 2 and The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 3 in relatively short order starting in 2019, Cohen Media Group then slowed down quite a bit before it finally released The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 4 over a year later in 2020, and that interim between releases has only been extended with this latest effort. I in fact had assumed Cohen was done with Keaton since it had been so long and the label had begun a "new" (for it) set of releases featuring another titan of cinema even earlier than Keaton in the form of both Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood / The Black Pirate and Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers / The Iron Mask. But the good news is that Cohen evidently isn't through with Keaton yet, and this double feature offers two of the silent master's best remembered efforts.

As with the other Buster Keaton films Cohen has been releasing, Our Hospitality had a prior release on Kino Lorber, and those wanting a plot summary and technical analysis of that release are encouraged to read Casey Broadwater's Our Hospitality Blu-ray review. Kino also offered a 2019 remastered version.

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Our Hospitality is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. While the back cover offers an interesting "for this restoration, a total of 17 elements were compared, with first generation nitrate positive held at the Library of Congress being the main element used", two text cards before the actual presentation offer even more information, to whit:

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

Seventeen elements have been analyzed, studied and compared for the restoration of Our Hospitality.

Three elements have been used for the reconstruction: a first generation nitrate positive from the Library of Congress; a second generation negative duplicate and another second generation negative duplicate (for one shot only), both held at the Cohen Film Collection.

The first negative duplicate was in better photographic conditions than the other elements, but it featured nitrate decomposition printed in through almost the entire film. Therefore it was used only for some portions of two out of the seven reels. With the exception of one single shot, the rest of the film was restored from the nitrate positive.

The restoration was carried out by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Cohen Film Collection at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2016.

The first thing that many will notice is that Kino's first release had yellow tinting, while its remastered version offered yellow and blue, while this is in black and white only. I'd love to know the history of the tinting and/or toning with regard to this production, but one way or the other, it's probably the most overtly noticeable difference. Aside from any controversy that may engender, the look of this transfer is definitely better than that of Three Ages, at least in terms of recurrent, major damage. Yes, there's certainly observable age related wear and tear on display here, but there's none of the bubbling emulsion issues or recurrent print through problems, and on the whole things are in remarkably good shape. There's obviously nothing close to contemporary levels of fine detail, but "little" items like textures on fabrics manage to peek through more often than not. I frankly expected a bit more grain, but things are never really waxy looking. My score is 4.25.

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Our Hospitality features another enjoyable score by Carl Davis, though I was a little surprised to see a separate orchestrator, namely David Cullen, credited, even though Davis himself conducts the Thames Silents Orchestra. DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options are offered, and they both support a rather nicely sumptuous approach very well, though I found the surround rendering to be just a little "wet" for my tastes, meaning some of the soaring string work in particular can sound just a little like it's emanating from a well or something. That said, both tracks offer problem free fidelity and some nice dynamic range.

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Our Hospitality Re-release Trailer (HD; 1:00)

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Our Hospitality has long been considered one of Keaton's most significant films, and it certainly bears revisiting. Fans will have to decide whether this monochrome version is to their liking, but the image itself is generally secure, and the Davis score is quite appealing. Cohen needs to up its supplements game if they want to compete with Kino Lorber, but otherwise this comes Recommended.