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RKO Classic Adventures

Painted Desert (1931)                                        The Pay-Off (1930)                                      The Silver Horde (1930)

 

 

Kino Classics and Lobster Films are proud to present four newly restored action- packed films in the RKO CLASSIC ADVENTURES collection. Preserved by the Library of Congress and restored by Lobster Films, these potent two- fisted brawlers from the prolific RKO Radio Pictures studio were the types of movies that sold out theaters in the wild early days of sound film. The Painted Desert is a pistol-packing Western about feuding families starring Bill Boyd and Helen Twelvetrees (and featuring Clark Gable in his talkie film debut). The Pay-Off is a cool-minded gangster movie directed by (and starring!) Lowell Sherman as an honorable mobster in a dishonorable racket. The Silver Horde drops Joel McCrea into the midst of a dreaded rivalry between two fishing groups led by Evelyn Brent on one side and Gavin Gordon on the other.

Posters

Theatrical Release: 1930 - 1931

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

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Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:16:10.440 / 1:10:46.992 / 1:15:17.930
Video

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,916,895,744 bytes

Painted Desert (1938): 16,043,833,344 bytes

The Pay-Off (1930) : 15,771,856,896 bytes

The Silver Horde (1930): 15,869,128,704 bytes

Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps / 26.49 Mbps / 24.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Painted Desert (1931)  Blu-ray:

Bitrate The Pay-Off (1930) Blu-ray:

Bitrate The Silver Horde (1930) Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1560 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1560 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Kino

 

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,916,895,744 bytes

Painted Desert (1938): 16,043,833,344 bytes

The Pay-Off (1930) : 15,771,856,896 bytes

The Silver Horde (1930): 15,869,128,704 bytes

Video Bitrate: 24.98 Mbps / 26.49 Mbps / 24.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• None


 Blu-ray Release Date: May 21st, 2019
 Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 10 X 3

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (May 2019): Kino have transferred three RKO Classic Adventures to Blu-ray. The films are approaching 90-years old and have the anticipated weaknesses, scratches and marks.  Painted Desert looks the best looking fairly good in the 1080P resolution. They are all technically Pre-code films. The Pay-Off and The Silver Horde have issues in terms of the source elements. They probably require film-level restoration (which probably isn't on the horizon) for them to look any better. There is no overt damage but plenty of marks and softness. The grain textures are appealing but thick. The films are housed on one dual-layered Blu-ray.  The image of the older two has flickering contrast but more noticeable in the beginning. They all settle-down to be reasonable, if not ideal, presentations.

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master (16-bit) 2.0 channel mono in the original English language. The audio is, like the video, at the mercy of both the original production limitations or the available sources. Dialogue is imperfect but audible and the available subtitles can be useful. The music in The Painted Desert is by Francis Gromon  with more generic orchestral scores in The Pay-Off (1930) and The Silver Horde (1930). The quality is reflected in the film's age(s). The Kino Blu-ray offers optional English subtitles for all three films (see sample below) on their Region 'A'-locked discs.

The Kino Blu-ray - like their RKO Classic Romances (essentially Pre-Code) - this is also bare-bones with no supplements.

The appeal to these films seem more to suit the the vintage cinema aficionado. We get a western, a crime-drama and one set in the Yukon - about 3.5 hours of entertainment. William Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees and a young Clark Gable (his debut film) are in Painted Desert - with Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur and Evelyn Brent are in The Silver Horde. The Pay-Off  has Lowell Sherman and Marian Nixon. I enjoyed them, but this is not peak quality for the era or the genres - the brazen adultness of Pre-code is not abundant. It is kinda cool seeing such older films in 1080P Blu-ray, but beyond that you have to appreciate the times these were made - and the performers. Extras may have improved appreciation. 

Gary Tooze

 

Menus / Extras

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damage
 

 

  

 

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

    

Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

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Gary Tooze

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