Great serial, awful picture & sound
griffin | Northants | 03/16/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I know this DVD is cheap, but you certainly get what you pay for here. No restoration has been done on this 1934 serial, so we get very hissy, muffled sound and plenty of scratches and flecks etc on a washed-out, very rough-looking print. Oh and an alpha logo popping up on the chapter titles cards. The RHS text of some of the opening chapter summary cards is also cropped off.
This is the only DVD version available at the moment, so by all means buy it, but be prepared - you will certainly not benefit from DVD quality!"
The Best Serial produced and the worst reproduction
Richard D. Downey | USA / FRANCE | 08/01/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"What a shame that possibly the best of all the movie serials produced should be one of the worst available, technically. Except for the annoying performance of Sonny something-or-other, the acting is good, John Davison is superior. What a fine speaking voice. The first chapter has too many loops of the same bomb being dropped, but from chapter two on, the continuity is more than OK.
However, the quality of the dvd print is terrible, just awful. The sound track is bass muffled and audio gain control non-existant. I've viewed many old serials from a number of distributors but this one is pathetic in quality.
I would pay a premium price for a good copy of "Perils", if one existed. And if I only had one serial, this would be it.
I give 4.5 stars for the serial acting and content. One-half star for the technical quality. It gets the one-half because at least the dvd exists."
Fun Movies
Pauline M. Frampton | Bountiful, Utah | 02/23/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I had seen the original black and white version of these episodes when they were silent. This version is still fun to watch. I enjoyed them."