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Bumping into
Broadway
(1919)

This short comedy, directed by Hal Roach, stars Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels, with Snub Pollard, Helen Gilmore, Mark Jones, Noah Young, Marie Mosquini, William Gillespie and Gus Leonard.

Harold and Bebe are overdue with their boarding house rent. Bebe gets fired from her dancing job; Harold is peddling his new musical comedy. Chasing Bebe, who has been spirited away by a stage door johnnie, Harold stumbles into a gambling den and actually wins big at roulette.

You’ve never seen so many billy clubs in one comedy before.

The Criterion Collection
2015 Blu-ray Disc edition

Speedy (1928), black & white, 85 minutes, not rated, with Bumping into Broadway (1919), color-tinted black & white and black & white, 26 minutes, not rated.

The Criterion Collection, CC2561BD (collection number 788), UPC 7-15515-16201-2, ISBN 1-68143-082-7.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 27.8 Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); 12-page insert booklet; standard BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 8 December 2015.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in high-definition from a new 4K digital restoration of archival 35mm print materials held by UCLA Film and Television Archive. The digital work includes frame stabilization and presumably major damage removal. A moderate amount of dust, speckling, emulsion scuffing and vertical scratches have been allowed to remain but, surprisingly, dust and speckling have sparingly been digitally added to still frame captures of intertitles (we would assume to attempt to make them look consistent with the rest of the print).

The film is accompanied by the 2004 music score compiled and conducted by Robert Israel, performed by a small orchestra.

Supplementary materials include audio commentary featuring Bruce Goldstein and Scott McGee; “In the Footsteps of ‘Speedy,’” a new short documentary by Goldstein about the film’s New York locations; a new visual essay featuring stills of deleted scenes from the film and narrated by Goldstein; a selection of archival footage of baseball legend Babe Ruth; a selection of Lloyd’s home movies narrated by his granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd; plus, a 12-page insert booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

The Criterion Collection
2015 DVD edition

Speedy (1928), black & white, 85 minutes, not rated, with Bumping into Broadway (1919), color-tinted black & white and black & white, 26 minutes, not rated.

The Criterion Collection, unknown catalog number (collection number 788), unknown UPC number, unknown ISBN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (two DVDs in the set), 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) progressive? scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); insert booklet; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 8 December 2015.
Country of origin: USA

This two-disc DVD edition has been mastered from a new 4K digital restoration of archival 35mm print materials.

The film is accompanied by the 2004 music score compiled and conducted by Robert Israel, performed by a small orchestra.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

New Line Home Entertainment
2005 DVD edition

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection, Volume 2 (1919-1930), black & white, 466 minutes total, not rated, including Bumping into Broadway (1919), black & white, 26 minutes, not rated.

New Line Home Entertainment, N8447,
UPC 7-94043-84472-0, ISBN 0-7806-5290-8.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, optional English and Spanish language subtitles, closed captions, chapter stops; and one dual-sided, dual-layered (side A)/single-layered (side B) Region 1 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, optional English and Spanish language subtitles; closed captions; chapter stops; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 15 November 2005.
Country of origin: USA

This two-disc DVD collection is mastered from 35mm restoration prints overseen by The Harold Lloyd Trust, which should represent the best-surviving prints of these seven Harold Lloyd shorts and feature films. The Freshman is presented with audio commentary by Leonard Maltin, Rich Correll and Richard Bann.

We fully expect that this collection will be the best-available editions of these wonderful films, and recommend it sight unseen.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Kino on Video
2004 DVD edition

The Harold Lloyd Collection (1918-1922), black & white, 207 minutes total, not rated, including Bumping into Broadway (1919), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated.

Kino International, K367, UPC 0-38329-03672-0.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 5 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $39.95 (reduced to $29.95).
Release date: 3 August 2004.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD edition of Harold Lloyd films was produced for home video by Lobster Films, Paris.

The films are accompanied by music scores by Neil Brand.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Passport Video
2007 DVD edition

Smiles and Spectacles: A Harold Lloyd Treasury (1917-1947), black & white, 600 minutes total, not rated, including Bumping into Broadway (1919), black & white, 25 minutes, not rated.

Passport Video, DVD-5160, UPC 0-25493-51609-8.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (five DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); double-wide five-disc DVD keepcase; $19.98.
Release date: 13 February 2007.
Country of origin: USA

This budget DVD edition has mainly been mastered from 16mm print materials.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Alpha Video
2013 DVD edition

Lost Comedy Classics, Volume 2 (1917-1919), black & white, 82 minutes total, not rated, including Bumping into Broadway (1919), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.

Alpha Home Entertainment, distributed by Oldies.com,
ALP 7236D, UPC 0-89218-72369-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 5.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); standard DVD keepcase; $6.98 (raised to $8.98).
Release date: 10 December 2013.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 3 / additional content: 3 / overall: 3.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from an extremely contrasty 8mm reduction print. with plugged-up shadows and highlights that are blasted-out to white. An inferior home video edition of this film.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music sources.

It is shameful that Alpha Video releases such poorly produced product. It shows just what the company thinks of you, the end consumer.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.