Peter Pan (1924)

Silent film, 1st Peter Pan film
-Year: 1924
-Year in film: ~1900s
-Country: USA
-Who in clothing: Michael ~7, John ~13, sailor suit
-Who in clothing 2: pajamas, shorts, costumes
-Available on DVD: yes
-I own: yes
-Clothing occurrence: very low
-Rating: 5/10
-Rating: *****
-Comment: Philippe De Lacy (1917-1995) and Jack Murphy (1911-1962) in dark long sailor suits (pictured). Quite long dark collar. Also both in pajamas. Later also 6 other boys in shorts and nightshirts. Also fur costumes. I think also one pirate in a white sailor suit, but not shown from behind.

First, usually I don't like silent movies (but classics) and don't like Peter Pan. Especially not if played by a woman (Betty Bronson), but he didn't wear a sailor suit anyway. I saw a publicity pic at an auction of De Lacy riding on the dog Nana (George Ali) in a sailor suit. I couldn't find the movie online, so I even bought it.

I hoped for more sailor suit scenes, there are just some brief scenes at the beginning. But they are quite good. Also John was being embraced by his mom and grapped by the collar flap. Also a short bathtub scene (of Michael, also at the beginning), but nothing special there. Pajamas at 10 minutes, nightshirts at 47, shorts 1h15.

Maybe I don't have to tell more about the plot about Peter Pan, who wouldn't grow up and Wendy, Captain Hook, Tinker Bell and Never Neverland. Famous play by J.M. Barrie. This movie was the first Peter Pan film and lost for almost 30 years. Still copyrighted as the copyright was renewed. There is also a new music score in 1999. The film is quite good and very good for it's time with some special effects of the Fairy and flying people. Quite entertaining but I don't think a must have. Quite good music. I sometimes don't notice that it's a silent film.

DVD: I own the US NTSC DVD (which is RC-0, not RC-1) brown/red cover. 102 minutes + extras. There is also an Italian PAL DVD (black/white cover, also digitally restored, not sure if the same extras, but this was not available so fast and not so cheap). Picture quality is acceptable with some scratches and stripes. Some few pirate scenes are dark blue tinted.

Extras: Some extras like text infos, a photo gallery, 2 interviews (audio tracks, 1+30 minutes) and 2 pics of the orchestra. I had problems viewing the extras on my BD-Player. There are 2 menue pages. And the photo gallery was playing extremely fast, so I watched it on my PC. Although this old film, the extras could be better. Obviously not even all of the publicity pics. And why no video showing the restoration and the new composing?

For sailor suit scenes and the movie rating 5. For another movie starring the 13 yo De Lacy, see "Sarah and Son", rating 5, white sailor suit with flying up collar. Coming next update of Vater, Mutter und neun Kinder (if neccessary).