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Tess of the Storm Country (1914)
Tess of the Storm Country (1914) poster
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Tess of the Storm Country (1914)

Drama • 1h 20m

Director: Edwin S. Porter

Cast: Mary Pickford, Harold Lockwood, Olive Carey, David Hartford, Louise Dunlap, William Walters, Richard Garrick, Eugene Walter, Jack Henry, H.R. Macy, H.L. Griffith

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No official release

Only Unofficial Sources

No official edition exists. Anything circulating comes from unofficial sources, so there is no release this site can recommend.

Overview

A young girl, squatting on a wealthy man's land fights for her fellow squatters' right to stay.

Release details

Best Video Release

Really poor public domain version available online

Mary Pick Foundation and Paramount has collaborated for the 2K restoration (see trailer) but no releases

Featured Lists
National Film Registry

Year of Induction: 2006

Length
80 mins
Type
Movie

Featured in National Film Registry

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Director: Terrence Malick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.

Best Audio:

1999 Paramount DVD

Director: Anthony Mann

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2008 Universal DVD mono

Audio Notes:

The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin. 

Additional Info:

The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2005 Universal DVD

Director: Howard Hawks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.

Video Notes:

(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)

Best Audio:

1997 MGM LaserDisc, 1998 MGM DVD

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode

Audio Notes:

DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix

Additional Info:

Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration of mono mix which should be better than what was on the WB 4K Blu-ray and 1999 DVD and revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1971.

Best Audio:

WB 4K 5.1: a remix but has higher fidelity

Mono: 4K Blu-ray/1999 DVD

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Cut: WB 4K Blu-ray

International Cut: Old 2007 Europe Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, both the US and the International Cut, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1980 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

Best Audio:

1999 WB DVD

Additional Info:

No Blu-ray or DVD release has presented the movie in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for the US cut or 1.66:1 for the International cut.

The packaging on the back of the 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray. 

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode

Best Audio:

1994 LaserDisc (marginally)

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

MoC OOP Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1

More from Paramount

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Director: Peter Faiman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD

International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray

Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding

Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut

Best Audio:

Australia Cut: Laserdisc

Additional Info:

The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2D version: Paramount Blu-ray

3D version: Paramount 3D Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray on October 26 2026

Director: Billy Wilder

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono

Audio Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

Director: Robert Altman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

Director: Richard Linklater

4K · Solid

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

Germany Blu-ray has English audio 

Germany Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion but by StudioCanal 

Director: Michael Bay

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Original AR: Paramount 4K Blu-ray

IMAX AR: Paramount 3D Blu-ray

Director: Stanley Donen

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount Blu-ray

Director: Trey Parker

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Paramount Blu-ray

Directors: Arturo Perez Jr. & Samantha Jayne

Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Director: Robert Altman

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab) · mega.nz (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Paramount Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Popeye was mixed for a failed Vistasonic system with 4 discrete tracks (L/C/R/S). That mix has never been released on home video in its original form.

The older 5.1 track appearing on older DVD/BD releases sounds excellent. It appears to be a slight upmix of the original mix, only splitting the surrounds and adding LFE. It sounds close to the old analog LaserDisc, which is likely the original mix in a matrixed form.

The 5.1 included on the UHD is a new remix which significantly differs from previous tracks. There are new foley effects all over the place. Music is jarringly spliced in from different sources. Unlike the old 5.1 which had clearly discrete surrounds, the channels surrounds overlap somewhat with the fronts here.

Details on the new mix from Paramount's former head of restoration: https://youtu.be/P-AmjqViJyE?t=788

The 2.0 tracks on all DVDs/BDs are just downmixes of their respective 5.1 mixes.

Samples

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Preston Sturges

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Video Notes:

No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Best English-Friendly & Video:

OOP Germany Ascot Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Tentative alternative is US Xenon DVD

Director: Martin Scorsese

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Other releases have horrendous DNR

Director: Sofia Coppola

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

MUBI UK 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Lionsgate US release has incorrect gamma

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Kino Lorber disc has audio pitch errors

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray for correct audio (2010 release has audio issue)

Director: Lewis Milestone

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm Fine Grain. Even with its unfortunate and noticeable print damage, tears, and other issues, still easily beats any prior disc release, though the Imprint BD (same master as Kino, but inferior encode) included in their Essential Film Noir Collection Vol. 3 set does include more extras. https://youtu.be/-Wrsn6-XJCo

Director: Michael B. Jordan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Caveat: No IMAX expanded aspect ratio

Director: Steven Caple Jr.

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray

Director: Gus Van Sant

Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video & Audio:

French Carlotta Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Shout! Factory and Carlotta use the same scan https://slow.pics/c/Wcn5YFlw, the Carlotta has two extra bonus features

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 4 months ago

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