William S. Hart Classics: The Ruse (1915) / Hell's Hinges (1916) / The Toll Gate (1920) / The Bargain (1914) / The Return Of Draw Egan (1916)

Both these reviews are laughable. Disregard them when considering purchase. If you don't like the soundtrack, just turn it off.

Worth having, but do not expect hi-res footage ... Hell's Hinges remains my favourite.

I wrote a review downgrading this set based on if being listed as 'silent'. Because of my interest in silent film and westerns I ordered the above and music is present. But not that effective. I ordered another disc of a silent film and it was listed as silent as is this offering; I think this led to my misinterpretation.But beware -- the music sounds like they attempted to attach portions of classical music that appear to match moods on the screen. I and other collectors did similar efforts with LPs, tape recorders and reels of silent film 50 years ago -- and with similar mixed results. Some fit, much was distracting- especially when one was aware of the music itself or when it clearly was not composed for a given movie scene. There were 'themes ' that local musicians could use and many prominent films had their own scores. Some of these are available from other distributors and demonstrate the effectiveness of music. And usually have been listed as 'silent with music score ' or some similar description.Although this 'music' is not present here, there is William S Hart-- as I understand, he knew the West and was more realistic as the first true Western star. Although moralistic -- read sin and consequences -- the films were more 'adult ' than those westerns after him until John Ford.The transfer is not great -- images are fuzzy and scratched -- I assume this could be better with more resources but it is valuable to have what we do have. These are examples of an art form -- examples almost a century old-- of telling a story only with images and a few titles -- mostly with music.I give 5 stars to the historic content but 1 star to the music and transfer quality .

I collected some 8 mm films as a teen and appreciate them but they were "rarely" without music-even a piano in small theaters-am relucant to order "silent" films without music-in todays technology