WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[Robert Regan]

Thanks, Wendy. Everybody was happy. I still wonder if it was really an accident.

[Gagman 66]

More Silent Lubitsch. Here are three clips from LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN (1925). Ronald Colman received top billing. But the real Star of the picture is probably Irene Rich amply supported by May McAvoy and Bert Lytell.


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[feaito]

I enjoyed Rex Ingram's Mare Nostrum (1926), which has fine location work (including Pompeii, an extended scene in Paestum, and a great chase scene through the streets of Marseille) and superb set design. The handsome Antonio Moreno plays the Spanish sea captain whom is tempted by a beautiful German spy (Alice Terry) to spy for Germany during WWI when Italy has not yet come into the war. The scene where a spy is executed is especially well directed, and there's an interesting underwater scene as well. This is the first Rex Ingram film I've seen, although The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is somewhere in the recorded but not watched pile. The Germans are the villains of the film, and it's worth noting that one of the Germans is clearly modeled on Erich von Stroheim, one is a very large and mannish lesbian (Mme. Paquerette), and one of her assistants is a willowy young man.

"Mare Nostrum" (our sea) is what the Romans called the Mediterranean. That's where the action takes place, and that's also the name of Antonio Moreno's boat. According to the TCM intro, the film is identified as a "Metro-Goldwyn" production because Ingram hated Mayer and refused to allow his name on the film, which was shot at Ingram's studio in Nice.

I have this film recorded on tape and I've only seen it once. I remember it fondly and I think it might be Ingram's best IMO.

[JackFavell]

I just watched two really great movies! Both are from 1915.

The first is called REGENERATION, and it was directed by Raoul Walsh. Walsh makes an exciting and poetic film, using all the elements at play in his greatest movies. Those signatures really stand out, even all the way back at the beginning of his career.



The scope of the movie is large, the inner city streets, the bars, the dives and the tenement squalor.



It's the story of a little boy who loses his mother at age 10. (The scene that starts the film is quite moving. This is not to be a comic adventure film, but a very serious drama).



The boy is taken in by a neighbor woman, a harridan, whose husband is a drunkard who beats her and the boy every chance he gets. The boy starts to lose whatever humanity he had, due to the influence of this battling couple and the tenement world they live in. He forgets every soft thing in his life in a very grim effort to stay alive. In this realistic backdrop, Walsh tells us the tale.



He rises to a position of 'prominence' in the tenement community over the years, since he has all the things that the denizens of the street find attractive - a devil may care attitude, a sense of daring, a lot of strength and good looks.



He's never lost his inner gentle nature, but it's hidden under a mask of bravado and cynicism. The actor, Rockcliffe Fellowes, looks like a cross between Marlon Brando, Jimmy Cagney and Jason Segal. He's quite good... in fact he totally reminds me of Brando in THE WILD ONE. The camera loves him. As Owen, he's able to play both sensitive and tough, which is a magic combination for Walsh.



He falls for Marie whom he calls Mamie Rose (Anna Q.Nilsson), a wealthy girl who is being groomed by her parents for marriage to the city's new District Attorney. The DA has just been appointed and tells all the newspapers that he is cracking down on crime. One night, the girl tells the DA that she wants to see what the street toughs are like for herself. The DA tells her and her friends that he knows a dive where they can see all the lowlifes they want to. Of course, after having his picture in the papers all over town, the DA is immediately recognized and the crowd starts to heckle him showing him how tough they really are. The girl cries out for someone to help the foolish DA, and our Owen breaks up the crowd and leads them to safety. Owen is smitten, and Mamie is struck hard with the need to help the poor and destitute.



She immediately starts work in the neighborhood, doing good deeds and handing out medicine and money to the needy. The rest is just about what you would think a Walsh film would be, with Owen trying to make good out of unrequited love for Marie, who doesn't really realize his feelings. He finds inspiration to become better educated and make something of himself through her ministrations. She turns to him as a pillar of strength when things go wrong. But his past will not let him be. It will rise up and strike him where he lives, at his heart.



His loyal pal, a street kid who has a deformity who Owen once saved from being made fun of, is a splendid actor who remains unknown. His name was not in the credits that I could find. All the street toughs really look like street toughs, which is refreshing and a bit scary. Walsh builds up the action in a very similar way to The Roaring Twenties, with a really evil gang leader who takes over when Owen tries to goes straight. He makes Bogie look like a sissy.



I don't think you can get the feel of the movie from the pictures I've posted. It's very much broader than the intimate scenes I've shown here. The scale feels "city"... big, grimy and filled with people and their refuse. There's a rhythm to it, as in the best Walsh films. There was a surprise ending, for me anyway. and I found myself shedding a tear even though I hadn't meant to and swore to myself I wouldn't. I can see how it made Walsh famous. It made me love him all the more for his sensitivity and realism.



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The other film, also from 1915, was called YOUNG ROMANCE, and I knew nothing about it. It was directed by William C. de Mille, Cecil's older brother. I will definitely check out other films by him. It was a charming, quick moving comedy about a shopgirl who dreams of living like a rich person, so she saves her money to go to a beachfront resort in Maine. She has planned for a year to live in style for a week, impersonating a wealthy woman, a customer at her shop. She buys her clothes for the trip and takes off to find love and adventure whcih she does, more than she expects.



Sound familiar??? I was surprised to see this story (one of my favorites, I love pretty much every movie with this plotline) in 1915. The movie starred Edith Taliaferro, a charming young actress who was really quite brilliant in putting over her character. She's a bit reminiscent of Janet Gaynor in acting style, not in looks. Her actions and reactions are so clear and simple, so natural, you can actually read her lips when she speaks. So if you like MOON OVER MIAMI or HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, this is a film you would enjoy. I loved it. Charming.

Regeneration:
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Young Romance is available at Netflix on a dvd with Regeneration.

[Robert Regan]

Yes, Wendy. Two wonderful movies. And beautifully presented. William DeMille also did Miss Lulu Bett with Lois Wilson, maybe even better than Young Romance.

[JackFavell]

Thanks for reading through that review, Robert! I had fun writing about it. I wish I could capture the Walsh-ness of the film in my writing. I really enjoyed the way these two films came together on one disc, they were complementary colors so to speak. Two very different movies, but it struck just the right balance.

I remember someone here saying they liked William C. deMille better than his brother as a film-maker. It's my first movie by him, and I can't find a flaw with it. I'll go look and see if I can find Miss Lulu Bett. I think the title has always put me off. Lois Wilson is the actress who first played Daisy Buchanan in THE GREAT GATSBY, sadly a lost film from 1926, barely a scant year after the book was written.

[charliechaplinfan]

I think Miss Lulu Bett was released as a double feature with one of the Swanson Demilles. You might be able to find a second hand copy or a library that has a copy, it'a another good film from the period.

I enjoyed your post about these two movies and I commented on the other thread too. I just love the realism of these movies and the naturalness, they are amazing and I've watched them more than once, which is something I cant claim for every silent I've watched, especially from this period. I think they moved the goalposts when they made these films and discovered humanism existed outside comedies and two reelers.

[JackFavell]

I totally agree with you, Alison. I really enjoyed these two movies. Some movies from the time are a real chore to get through. Neither of these were, in fact I got caught up in them. I will definitely watch them again. It doesn't hurt that Rockcliffe Fellowes looks like Brando.

[charliechaplinfan]

You thought that too? It's quite a resemblance.

[JackFavell]

Funny isn't it? Generally speaking, I think the actors of the silent era outside of the latin lovers are a completely different type than we revere today. Their idea of handsomeness back then is far different than ours. So I was surprised by his looks and style of acting. It seemed very modern, at least until the end.

[charliechaplinfan]

His resemblance to Brando went further than looks that's for sure. I wonder if he made anymore movies?

[JackFavell]

I know I've heard the name before so my guess is that he was a popular actor of the time. I will look him up and see what info I can glean from the world wide web....

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Penthouse, of course I misread the label and expected Warren William instead of Warner Baxter but I like him almost as much. It also featured Myrna Loy as a good time girl who helps solve the murder of her buddy, Mae Clarke also has a small role. It's a bit saucy, a bit of frothy fun.

[JackFavell]

I don't know if I've seen that one! I love the idea of Myrna and Warren William together... oh well.

BTW, Alison, I did look up Rockcliffe Fellowes, from Regeneration, and it turns out that his star shone brightest at the time he made that film. However, he did remain in movies, and to my surprise, it turns out I've seen him in several sound films and didn't recognize him. He's probably best known as gangster Joe Helton in the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business! !!!! I can't quite get over this. I must have seen him a thousand times in that movie and never realized he was the same actor when I watched Regeneration. I hope he got some pleasure in those later years, even if he wasn't the big star anymore.