Ben Model’s Undercrank
Productions will be delivering a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition — celebrating
the 100th Anniversary — of director Colin Campbell’s 1918 silent
film classic, Little Orphant Annie (that’s correct … not orphan but
“orphant”).
The iconic silent film
star, Colleen Moore, stars as James Whitcomb Riley’s Annie, which Undercrank —
working with film historian and archivist Eric Grayson and the Indiana James
Whitcomb Riley Centennials — has selected Apr. 17 as the street date for the home
entertainment Blu-ray debut, which, by the way, is the earliest surviving Moore
feature film available.
Greyson, working with
various surviving elements and The Library of Congress (which had six minutes
of the original 35mm nitrate print — with various tints) has been able to not
only deliver a final work product that will have collectors singing his
praises, but through tireless research on his part has finally reassembled the
film in its proper theatrical sequential release order (from a collector’s
original script for the film) … that’s all 57 minutes properly restored!
Bonus features include
commentary from Eric Grayson, who is joined by Colleen Moore's biographer, Jeff
Codori, and historian Glory-June Greiff, a video session with Eric Grayson and Glory-June
Greiff reads Riley’s poem “Little Orphant Annie” and excerpts from “Where is
Mary Alice Smith?” (the real Orphant Annie).
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