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Black Lightning (1924)
Black Lightning (1924) poster
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Black Lightning (1924)

Drama • 1h

Director: James P. Hogan

Cast: Thunder the Dog, Clara Bow, Harold Austin, Eddie Phillips, Joe Butterworth, Mark Fenton, John Gilbert

Letterboxd
IMDbThe Movie Database (TMDB)

Best video format

1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming

Flicker Alley Blu-ray Focus on Clara Bow according to their calendar


About the film

A WWI drama in which a Red Cross dog saves a man.

More from James P. Hogan

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Director: James P. Hogan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

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Director: Marcel L'Herbier

Best English-Friendly:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Same 4K restoration but no comparison available

Director: Frank Urson

Best English-Friendly:

Older Restoration: Flicker Alley Blu-ray

2026 Restoration: YouTube 4K Streaming

Best Video:

Older Restoration: Lobster Films DVD

2026 Restoration: YouTube 4K Streaming

Video Notes:

Older Restoration: Lobster Films DVD > Flicker Alley Blu-ray (Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD has every 25th PAL frame deleted)

Director: Lewis Milestone

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2K scan of a surviving 35mm safety fine grain provided by the Academy Film Archive

Director: Lewis Milestone

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray

Director: Erich von Stroheim

Best English-Friendly:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray

Best Video:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray new 4K restoration

Director: Harry O. Hoyt

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Upcoming Flicker Alley Blu-ray Focus on Clara Bow according to their calendar

Director: Herbert Brenon

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Upcoming Flicker Alley Blu-ray Focus on Clara Bow according to their calendar

Director: Raoul Walsh

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Flicker Alley DVD

Directors: William Heise & William K.L. Dickson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Edison: The Invention of the Movies DVD or Flicker Alley Landmarks of Early Film DVD

Directors: Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

No comparison available, three options:

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

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

Director: Kenji Iwaisawa

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Netflix Streaming

Upcoming Release:

US GKIDS Blu-ray announced

Best Audio:

Japan Pony Canyon Blu-ray for original 7.1 mix

Netflix Streaming for English dub

Director: Rob Reiner

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.

Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here. 

The 4K master has a shot at the very end of the movie (on James Caan's face) that looks incredibly soft and not good at all. This was visible on the DCP as well so it might just be a source issue rather than being the fault of Kino, Capelight or Arrow.

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray slightly better encoding than Criterion (caveat: missing Criterion extras)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Theatrical Cut: Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray
Redux Cut: Lionsgate vs Eagle Pictures?
Final Cut: Lionsgate or Eagle Pictures, both are not great (visible chroma noise)

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

Best Audio:

Theatrical: Germany 4K Blu-ray/US Blu-ray DD 5.1 (1979 mix)

Additional Info:

In the Lionsgate US/UK 6-disc set, there are 4 discs of the main feature. For whatever reason, the 4K discs lack the *original track. The Germany 4K Blu-ray release is different on this matter.

  1. UBD: Final Cut: Atmos, DD2.0

  2. UBD: Redux/Theatrical: Atmos

  3. BD: Final Cut: Atmos, DD2.0

  4. BD: Redux/Theatrical: Dtru5.1 (Redux mix?), DD5.1 (?), DD5.1 (Theatrical only), DD2.0 (downmix??)

    1. As a result the Theatrical Cut has 4 tracks, The Redux has 3. Differences are unclear.

  5. BD: Hearts of Darkness

  6. BD: Special Features

Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Fox Blu-ray

Director: Sylvester Stallone

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros 2024 Ultimate Knockout Collection 4K Blu-ray/ Warner Bros 2023 Knockout Collection 4K Blu-ray (replacement disc)

Additional Info:

All foreign language tracks were pitched too low, replacement disc and Ultimate Knockout Collection disc fixed the error. 

The Steelbook and UK standard edition are the same disc as the 2023 knockout collection. 

Director: John G. Avildsen

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original Stereo mix: Columbia Pictures LaserDisc, Sony 4K Blu-ray 

5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray, Sony Blu-ray 

Dolby Atmos remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray 

Director: John G. Avildsen

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original Stereo mix: Columbia Pictures LaserDisc, Sony 4K Blu-ray 

5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray, Sony Blu-ray 

Dolby Atmos remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray 

Director: Sylvester Stallone

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

2024 Ultimate Knockout Collection Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray Box Set 

Video Notes:

> 2023 Knockout Collection 4K Blu-ray

2023 disc has a brief moment where the aspect ratio changes from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1, 2024 release fixed the error

Additional Info:

Both cuts of the movie are on the same disc and don’t appear to be seamlessly branched. 

The Steelbook and UK standard edition are the same disc as the 2023 knockout collection.

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 4 months ago

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