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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

Overview

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

Release details

Length
60 mins
Type
Movie

More from James P. Hogan

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Director: James P. Hogan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

More from Flicker Alley

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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: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

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

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Director: Liliana Cavani

4K · Solid

Director: Iain Softley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Criterion DVD

Director: Bruce Robinson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion

Director: Olivier Assayas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow UK Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: John Woo

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

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: Steven Spielberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Paramount Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray Dec 15th

Video Notes:

US Paramount Blu-ray > International WB Blu-ray

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 4 months ago

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