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Buster Keaton
A Hard Act to Follow
(1987)

This documentary, directed by Photoplay Productions’ Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, covers the early years of Buster Keaton’s career.

Network Distributing
2006 DVD edition

Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987), black & white and color, 156 minutes, BBFC Classification U.

Network Distributing, 7952472, UPC 5-027626-247249.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £49.95.
Release date: 27 February 2006.
Country of origin: England

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

Personal opinions of the series that we have from others have been glowing. Our own opinion concurs and, based on the past work of Messers Gill and Brownlow, we think that this series is worth every dollar charged. However, because the three episodes of the documentary are crammed into a songle dual-layered disc, the over-compressed picture is often compromised by the original interlacing of the picture that cannot entirely be filled-in by high-definition equipment capable of image upscaling. This was OK on older CRT-based televisions with their lower picture resolution but is now a liability on HD systems and has caused us to retain our old laserdisc copy of the documentary.

The documentary, narrated by Lindsay Anderson, is enhanced by music composed and arranged by Carl Davis.

Still our recommended home video edition of the documentary but there is certainly room now for an upgraded disc. Please, please. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

NETWORK DISTRIBUTING discontinued business in 2023 and
this Region 2 PAL DVD edition is . . .