Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Power God (1925)

This 15-chapter serial, directed by Francis Ford and Ben Wilson, stars Ben Wilson and Neva Gerber, with Sam Allen, Jess Cavin, Allan Garcia, Jack Henderson, Catherine Kent, Nelson McDowell, Lafe McKee, Ruth Royce, William H. Turner, Chief Eagle Wing and Francis Ford.

When Professor Daniel Sturgess (McKee), an inventor in the “radio-electric age,” produces a power engine that generates its energy from the atoms in the air, frightened oil and coal company oligarchs intend to capture the technology and suppress it to secure their positions of money and influence (sound familiar?). Sturgess’ daughter, Aileen (Gerber), and his assistant, Jim Thorpe (Wilson), become entangled in the intrigue when crime boss Weston Dore (Garcia), hired by the oligarchs to steal the technology, sets his sights on the engine to establish more criminal power for himself.

A word of advice: Don’t be too distracted by Ben Wilson’s horrible toupée.

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from 16mm print materials that are often quite dark, with dust, speckling, maddeningly persistent frame jitters and jumps, schmutz, emulsion scrapes, print tears, and other print flaws. Image quality is compromised by mastering compression for the relatively low resolution of DVD, rendering a picture that is soft in its image details. The compression is high enough to leave artifacts that are seen during playback by educated eyes and by others in still frames. Nonetheless, it’s all tolerable considering this edition likely looks better than other publishers’ home video editions of the serial.

The serial chapters are accompanied by soundtracks compiled and abruptly-edited from preexisting low-fidelity music recordings, some of them being off-the-mark when paired with the serial’s action. You’ll get so sick of hearing the same recordings over and over you’ll be tempted to turn down the sound to save your sanity. Some of the music selections in chapters 1, 3, 5, 9-11 and 14-15 sound as if they have been lifted from some of Eric Beheim’s recordings as captured from two rooms away.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the serial.

This review was updated in 2025.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

The serial chapters are likely to be accompanied by cobbled-together soundtracks of preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

The serial chapters are likely to be accompanied by cobbled-together soundtracks of preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

The serial chapters are likely to be accompanied by cobbled-together soundtracks of preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .