WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[drednm]

I like the Garbo silents. FLESH AND THE DEVIL and the little seen SINGLE STANDARD are my faves..... The Garbo/Gilbert LOVE is a solid version of Anna Karenina, and WOMAN OF AFFAIRS is also well done. On the "lesser" track are THE TORRENT and THE KISS (never liked Lew Ayres much).

[MichiganJ]

Actually there were two endings filmed for Love. One maintains Tolstoy’s original ending, train and all, while the other is the one where Vronsky and Anna get to live happily ever...

Apparently Thalberg ordered the two endings so that the East and West coasts could get their Tolstoy, while the midwest would get their happy ending. If you look closely, you can see in the tacked-on happy ending scene, Gilbert’s hair style is quite different.(The "happy ending-itis" for the midwest altered many Hollywood classics: In the midwest, Rhett actually does give a damn; Bambi’s mom lives long enough to be a doting grandmother; it turns out Camille only has a chest cold, etc...)

I agree that Garbo’s scenes with her son (Philippe de Lacy) are spectacular and she does share more chemistry with him than Gilbert. Even though she was only in her early twenties, Garbo really shows a maternal love that is missing, somewhat, in the sound remake. This is some of Garbo’s best acting in film.

I must say, though, despite currently living in the midwest, I don’t like the happy ending. For me it ruins the whole symmetry of the story. It’s obviously tacked on, (Karenin is dispatched of in a mere title card), and the inevitability of the “doomed” romance is short-changed, and ends up condoning the affair. The novel’s center is Anna’s choice between her child and the man she loves, and in the case of this ending, she gets both, without any sacrifice or repercussion (except for the brief time away from her son, I suppose).

I’ve never seen the original ending, however (does anyone know if it still exists?) and I must agree with Jeffrey that the soundtrack accompanying the laserdisc version (and what is shown on TCM, I believe) is abysmal. Obviously recorded “live” with an audience, I hate it when they laugh at inappropriate times, particularly during Garbo and Gilbert’s love scenes. Pretty much ruins the passion. This is one Silent that I actually watch silent.

[charliechaplinfan]

The version I watched showed a brief clip of her at the station and then stepping out in front of the train.

This is one of my all time favorite works of literature, it's so well written. I last read it before I had children, I'm sure if I read it again I'd get something new out of it.

Gagman, I loved the live score, it's the first time I'd heard a live score I enjoyed every time I heard the audience laugh. We don't get any silent revivals here so to me it's almost as good as being with an audience.

[drednm]

I thought the "correct" ending was for Europe and the happy ending was for US.....

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday, I watched a very early talkie: The Dance of Life (1929) by John Cromwell and Edward Sutherland with Nancy Carroll and Hal Skelly. This is a backstage musical quite typical of the time adapted from a Broadway success called Burlesque that featured a young Barbara Stanwyck. For the film, they got Nancy Carroll in the lead. She is the real spark of the story that follows the fate of a couple of hoofers: a dancer and a comic. They struggle through the vaudeville circuit until Hal gets a chance at Ziegfeld's. But, success makes him forget about his wife. She asks for a divorce and he slowly becomes an alcoholic....
The storyline reminded me a lot of another 1929 feature, Big Time (by Kenneth Hawks). I felt the film was a trifle too long and would have gained to be shortened. That said, Nancy carroll was absolutely superb, projecting her lovely personality with ease and charm. Hal Skelly played a competent hoofer, but was a bit more stagey. I noticed in a small part the pianist, Oscar Levant, looking incredibly young! (if you can't place him, he was Kelly's best friend in An American in Paris). The film was produced by a young man recently arrived at Paramount: David O. Selznick. The director John Cromwell came from Broadway (like a lot of directors at the time of early talkies) and did a good job.
Overall, worth investigating for Carroll. But Big Time has probably the edge over this film, it's not as static as some of the scenes of Dance of Life.

[drednm]

I love the film DANCE OF LIFE. It was based on a Broadway hit called BURLESQUE which starred Hal Skelly and someone called Barbara Stanwyck! They passed on Stanwyck for the film and hired Nancy Carroll instead. It's sort of a typical backstage musical of the time but Hal Skelly has a unique quality that's hard to pin. He's superb in a quiet moment when he sings "True Blue Lou." I just watched (finally) BEHIND THE MAKE-UP which starred Skelly in a similar role along with William Powell, Fay Wray, and Kay Francis.

Skelly's sad-sack persona would probably not have last long in starring roles. He was killed in a hideous car wreck (hit by a train) in 1934.

[myrnaloyisdope]

So I had an unintentional Loretta Young marathon the other day, where I was catching up on my William Wellman pre-codes, and discovered that pre-code Loretta is quite a gal. Everything I've read about her makes her sound positively uninteresting, but I'd never read much about her pre-code work. So I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover that I love this woman.

First up I watched Heroes For Sale, which was absolutely fantastic. I mean hobos, commies, WWI, morphine addiction, and riots, all in 71 minutes. Only Wild Bill Wellman could pull that off and he does it marvelously. I am astonished that so much could take place in such a short film and yet never feel rushed. I was very impressed by Richard Barthelmess, he gives a great, earnest, yet understated performance. Loretta Young is gorgeous as his supportive wife, and Aline McMahon is quite good too. Overall a wonderful film, gritty, dark, and kind of a bummer, the quintessential depression movie perhaps?

I followed that up with Wellman's Midnight Mary, which cast Loretta as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who tries to make good. The film is told almost entirely in flashback, and shows her rise and fall. It's a somewhat predictable film aided immensely by the performances of Franchot Tone as her true love, Ricardo Cortez slimy as ever, and Andy Devine pulling his usual schtick of well-meaning buffoonery. Loretta is fantastic as the seductive, good-hearted, yet conflicted woman trying to leave her past behind. Two scenes stand out, one in which she tells Tone that she has been using him all along, she does the cynical gold digger schtick as good as anyone, and it's wonderful to watch. Secondly there is a scene late in the movie where she seduces Ricardo Cortez which is absolutely devastatingly sexy. Based on what I know of her later screen persona, this scene is absolutely revelatory, and really emphasizes the potential for sexuality in the pre-code era, in stark contrast to the milquetoast post-code era.

I also checked out Employee's Entrance, which was a bit disappointing. I had heard it was one of the best pre-codes around, but it didn't quite grab me like I had hoped. I think it was mainly because Wallace Ford didn't strike me as a particularly interesting lead, and certainly not worthy of Loretta Young. I find most of the leading men in early talkies to be generally pretty terrible, save for Jimmy Cagney, Warren William, Warner Baxter, and I suppose George Brent. Bill Powell too. They all seem to be so damn wooden, or have an air of arrogance without charm. I should note that Warren William is at his slimy best in the film, and I did like that it didn't wimp out at the end, but all-in-all I was a bit underwhelmed.

Finally I watched Platinum Blonde, which I was very impressed with. I tend not to like early Capra, save for It Happened One Night, as his pacing seems to slow for the time. There are always some good bits, but everything he does seems about 20 minutes too long. So I was very pleased by Platinum Blonde which succeeded despite the obvious miscasting of Jean Harlow as a wealthy socialite, and Loretta Young as a reporter who's just one of the guys(although I must say she is pretty darn cute anyway, I just find it hard to believe no one would notice how damn attractive she is). What really made the movie was Robert Williams who died shortly after the film was made. Williams is very funny doing the tough, cynical, wisecracking reporter role that Clark Gable essentially reprised in It Happened One Night, while also channeling a sort of brawling Spencer Tracy quality circa Woman of the Year. He essentially plays a hybrid of Gable and Tracy, with a bit of a manic quality. But given that the film was made in 1931 it's absolutely fascinating to watch someone with his charisma doing a schtick which wasn't really around yet. It's a shame that he died before getting a chance to build on his success.

I should also thank Christine (AnnHarding) for providing me with a copy of 1930's The Devil To Pay! which managed to reaffirm my adoration for Myrna Loy, convince me that it is indeed a movie well ahead of its time, and serve as my introduction to both Loretta Young and Ronald Colman. So thank you Christine.

In conclusion, Wellman continues to impress, and Loretta Young is my latest crush.

[Ann Harding]

To complete your marathon, you need to watch another two really important Loretta pictures: Zoo in Budapest (1933) R.V. Lee and Man's Castle (1933) F. Borzage. Two of her best performances!!!

[Ann Harding]

I watched -at last!- Abel Gance's La Roue (shot in 1921, released in 1923) in two evenings. First of all, the restoration work of David Shepard for this film is marvellous: contrast, tinting, sharpness are beyond praise. Gance shot the film entirely in locations. The first part with some sets built between railway tracks for realism! and the second was shot in a region I have familiar with: along the track of the Mont-Blanc cogwheel train in the French Alps. The cinematography by his usual cinematographer, Léonce-Henri Burel is just stunning.
The story revolves around Sisif a train driver who rescues a small child, Norma, following a train accident. He raises her as his daughter with his small son, Elie. We move 15 years and now Norma and Elie are both grown up. Sisif starts to become obsessed with Norma, becomes an alcoholic and pretty violent. Norma decides to marry a rich engineer Hersant she doesn't love to escape the now unbearable life of the house. Sisif unable to cope tries to crash the engine and the train carrying Norma. He fails. He is demoted and sent to drive a small cogwheel train the Alps. Both father and son are still obsessed with Norma....

This is really an amazing film: the fast editing used through it was revolutionary at the time and was later copied by countless film makers such as Eisenstein. Gance always created characters which are larger than life and sometimes a bit sketchy. But, in this film, it's not a problem: the narrative is powerful enough to carry some approximations. Ivy Close, a young British actress plays Norma. she displays a very interesting range from tomboy to sophisticated lady. Gabriel de Gavron as Elie is Gance's lookalike. Séverin-Mars is Sisif. The film should be seen as a symphony in light: the relentlessly dark first part with the black soot that covers everything and the second, white with the snow-capped mountains. The film is highly symbolic and shouldn't be taken as a simple narration. The end is strangely spellbinding when circles of smoke rises slowly in the air as Sisif's soul takes flight.
I should add a big word of praise to Robert Israel who produced an amazing orchestral score. He manages to conjure up the various atmospheres in the picture with a Bernard Herrman-like symphonic score. His music is totally different from the one he wrote for Gance's J'accuse. The whole film lasts 270 min. This is indeed very long but it's well worth the effort to stay until the very end.

[MichiganJ]

drednm wrote in regards to Garbo’s Love:

I thought the "correct" ending was for Europe and the happy ending was for US.....

According to Garbo’s biographer, Barry Paris, after they completed the original version of Love Thalberg had them do a “happy ending” version, and then allowed the theater owners to choose which ending they wanted. The coasts’ opted for the tragedy while the midwest went happy. I have no idea if both endings were sent overseas. And, as I mentioned, I’ve never seen the “unhappy” ending and have no idea if it still exists.

Ann Harding wrote:

I watched -at last!- Abel Gance's La Roue (shot in 1921, released in 1923) in two evenings.

I purchased the DVD recently and have been slightly intimidated by its running time. I’m going to take your advice and watch it over two nights.

I see that the Flicker Alley Collection edition of J’Accuse is due to be released on DVD on September 16th. I’ve been interested in seeing this film ever since seeing a snippet of it in a documentary about World War I, and can’t wait for this release.

I recently watched E.A. Dupont’s Variety. Despite the mediocre print on a budget video cassette (which was presented without any soundtrack), Variety is one of the best Silent films I’ve ever seen. The simple plot, a love triangle among trapeze artists, Dupont’s direction, in particular his use of the camera as a subjective participant, is captivating. For me, Silent films require an active participation from the viewer (akin to radio drama), and Dupont’s subjective camera makes our participation all the more vital, and therefore, more rewarding, and fun, too.

There’s a spectacular sequence in which Emil Jannings (by far my favorite Silent film actor. The guy could play anything!), invisions his rival dropping from the trapeze. Dupont literally drops the camera from the heights of the acrobats, so it is the individual viewer who is falling (many of these shots induce a strong sense of vertigo). .
There are many in-camera dissolves and special effects one normally associates with Murnau, and the editing and overall cinematography are amazing. Playing Jannings' wife is Lya de Putti (she played the dual roles of Veronika and Mellitta in Murnau’s Phantom), and she is also spectacular. She and Jannings share a wonderful chemistry, and even after she starts cheating on him, we hope the two can reconcile. The only “flaw” in the film (not including the print, of course) is the framing device used. As in Murnau’s Phantom, the end of the film is told at the beginning, and then the story proper is related in flashback. While, in my opinion, that framing device really hurt Phantom and its story, for Variety, the framing device is of little consequence.

Variety is yet another example of the brilliant German Silent cinema, which, in my opinion, rivals Hollywood. It certainly is worthy of a restoration and proper DVD release.

[The Ingenue]

Regarding the unhappy ending of Love...

The version I watched showed a brief clip of her at the station and then stepping out in front of the train.

I saw the same thing when Love was aired on TCM in June. They showed the film with the happy ending, then two intertitles reading: "What you have just seen is the happy ending to LOVE that was distributed to American audiences. What follows is the original tragic ending which was distributed internationally."

This clip begins at the military dinner as John Gilbert raises his glass after toasting "to love". The scene changes to the railway station where Garbo steps out from behind a post and walks alongside the tracks, listening to the furious approach of a train. She sees it coming, is illuminated by its light and walks onto the tracks -- quick cut: "The End". The scene is 47 seconds long.

[MichiganJ]

That’s interesting. In the Garbo Silents laserdisc collection, they only show the happy ending. I’ll have to wait ‘til TCM reruns Love to see the “Internatioanal” cut. Thanks.

[Gagman 66]

Kevin,

Hey, I can send you a recording, with the Alternate ending. TCM may not run this again for years.

I think there is a restored version of VARIETY from Kino? I haven't seen this movie yet.

[drednm]

I have VARIETE also but have never watched it..... Jannings was terrific

[drednm]

I have VARIETE also but have never watched it..... Jannings was terrific