Seven Chances Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Seven Chances 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, Seven Chances has had a previous release on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino. For those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to Casey Broadwater's Seven Chances Blu-ray review of the Kino release. Casey's review is also a good source for screenshot comparisons between the two versions.

Seven Chances Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Seven Chances 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 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 Seven Chances, 25 elements were inspected and analyzed and 16 of those -- from the Cohen Film Collection, the Library of Congress, the Cinémathèque Française, the CNC — Archives françaises du film — were digitized and compared. For the 2-strip Technicolor opening titles, three elements were analyzed: a decayed original nitrate print, an internegative and an interpositive.

The film reconstruction used a first generation amber tinted positive nitrate preserved at the Library of Congress. One shot with a significant number of missing frames was completed from a second generation safety duplicate negative held by the Cohen Film Collection. The decision to keep the amber tint was dictated by the matching label codes of the positive nitrate and Technicolor print's prologue.

I refer those interested again to Casey's Seven Chances Blu- ray review for screenshot comparison purposes, while also taking the opportunity to remind readers that when my video score for a new release departs from a higher or lower score for another reviewer's score for a prior release, it's often just a case of "different reviewers, different opinions," and I may very well have scored the prior release differently than one of my colleagues. While my 4.0 score for this release therefore doesn't necessarily indicate a huge step down from Casey's 4.5 score for the Kino Lorber release, I will say that in one brief way, and judging only by screenshots, to my eyes it looks like the short Technicolor prologue arguably has marginally better color in the Kino release. On this Cohen release, it's actually almost like the old hand colored frame by frame technique, with rather wan densities and a not very vivid palette. There's also noticeable damage that looks like red splotching running down the left side of the frame for this sequence in the Cohen release. Once the film moves on to its main "black and white" content (a misnomer given that amber tint alluded to above), other than that tinting, I don't see a huge difference between the two presentations, though you'll note that the frame corners are rounded in the Kino presentation, and to my eyes the Cohen looks just slightly darker, even beyond the amber element. I think that darkness along with the tinting can also tend to mask grain a bit in this presentation, though it is certainly there and I never had the impression I was watching an aggressively filtered transfer. Damage is minimal, though eagle eyed videophiles will spot some minor blemishes along the way.

Seven Chances Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Seven Chances features a typically energetic and enjoyable score by Robert Israels presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (for whatever reason, Israel's score for Battling Butler also included in this release is offered in both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0). There's some good separation here despite the lack of a surround version, and fidelity is excellent across the board.

Seven Chances 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)

Seven Chances Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Seven Chances takes a delicious setup (one which has not so coincidentally been co-opted at least in part for some other outings) and then builds to a deliriously funny climax that includes some of Keaton's best sight gags. This presentation has some noticeable tinting differences when compared to the previous Kino Lorber release, and so fans are encouraged to look at screenshots to see what they think of those differences. Otherwise, though, technical merits are strong even if supplements are on the paltry side. Recommended.