WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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moira finnie
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by moira finnie »

Lomm wrote:I knew about the hair parting on the wrong side thing, but I thought that happened before he got to be a name star.
Could be. Von Sternberg reportedly never let the facts get in the way of a good story, especially when it made him look like a starmaker. Still, his autobiography, "Fun in a Chinese Laundry," is a fun read, even though it reveals more about the size of the director's ego than it does the cold facts of his life and career.
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Fossy
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Fossy »

Coquette (1929)

The story was certainly different. Norma ( Mary Pickford) played the role of a flirt, but eventually fell for Michael ( Johnny Mack Brown). However, Dad did not approve, and Norma was forbidden to see him. But Norma did see him and was caught in a harmless but compromising position. Tragedy followed as the story unfolded. Although I enjoyed this film very much I did not think that Mary Pickford `s performance warranted an Oscar (but what do I know anyway).. Apparently I was not the only one who thought this, I found this para on IMDB.

Mary Pickford's performance received universally negative reviews but she secured winning the Oscar by inviting members of the Academy's judging committee to her Pickfair mansion for luncheons. Outrage over her being given the award forced the Academy to change its procedures for selecting the winners.
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intothenitrate
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by intothenitrate »

You guys -- someone posted the full version of NIGHT WORLD (1932) on YouTube! This has been like the holy grail for me for many years -- very difficult to find. Check it out before Universal has it pulled!

I've only watched the first ten minutes as of this writing, and had to stop to let you know. I'll circle back and gush about it in the next few days.

[Hmmm needs more exclamation marks: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by WarrenHymersMoll »

Lately I've been indulging in Pre-Codes I haven't seen before and it's been too much fun.

Picture Snatcher (1933): A fun, naughty little WB film. I've seen lots of James Cagney films and this might be my favorite and my favorite Cagney performance (yes, more than Public Enemy and Yankee Doodle Dandy, both of which I love). Young Ralph Bellamy is his usual reliable self and Alice White is a sexy little ball of fire.

I Love That Man (1933): very rarely seen Paramount comedy-drama with Edmund Lowe as a gambling-addicted con man and Nancy Carroll as the woman who loves him. But the guys who steal the show are Driller (Robert Armstrong) and Mousey (Warren Hymer), the two gangsters who are double-crossed by Lowe's character and seek vengeance.

Goldie (1931): remake of the silent film A Girl in Every Port. A Fox Studio rarity with early Spencer Tracy, early Jean Harlow and of course, Warren Hymer. The script is kinda weak, the original film is superior but I can watch Warren Hymer smoke a cigar while reading the phone book and still be thoroughly entertained.
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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feaito wrote:Yesterday I saw "The Vanishing American" (1925) a fine Western directed by George B. Seitz starring Richard Dix (who's very good and believable in his role) as a Native American living in a Reservation Camp in the West during the time of WWI. Dix plays a decent, honest, likable, pacific and good-natured Indian, something unusual in American cinema and that's to be lauded. He's the hero of the picture and the "white" girl (lovely Lois Wilson, giving a sensitive, nuanced performance) falls for him. Noah Beery plays one of the slimiest and most unpleasant villains I have seen lately; I hated him on sight. Malcolm McGregor is a young soldier who falls for Wilson, but whose love is unrequited. The film begins with a prologue that depicts all the inhabitants of the area where the Reservation is located from the beginning of time, going through the Spanish Invasion during the XVIth Century et al. Most of the actors who play native americans are so, and the film also shows the bravery of these people when the went to fight for the USA during WWI.

What I did not like: the excessive use of intertitles and the organ score.
Nothing to disagree with here. I thought the movie had great use of the landscape and an extraordinary amount of extras. THe fight scenes were well staged. This was especially so of the attack of the cave dwelling Natives early in the picture. Richard Dix can be a little over the top but I often expect that of some silent era actors. Beery, as Fernando shares, is properly slimy and you feel WIlson's disgust as he makes advances to her. An interesting story covering an interesting time. When it was made it really covered the 10 years prior so in that sense it is a very modern film even though it still feels like a western. Especially so at the end. If you like sweeping action and beautiful use of the land check this one out.

The current version employed more of a electronic keyboard and its sounds than an organ. The title cards were prevalent I like the way they actually introduced the actors with their parts.
Chris

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movieman1957
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by movieman1957 »

myrnaloyisdope wrote:
The Cheat (1915) - This film really blew me out of the water. Sessue Hayakawa was a revelation, so restrained, and oh so magnetic. It's a shame he didn't get a chance to be a regular leading man (as opposed to the villain or the doomed lover) due to stupid miscegenation laws. The plot involves Hayakawa as wealthy trader who essentially buys the astonishingly foolish Fannie Brice after she loses 10 grand of her hubby's money. I thought De Mille made wonderful use of the simple sets, and through use of close-ups and tight framing really creates a moody and atmospheric, and often claustrophobic tone. The branding scene was particularly brutal, with Hayakawa displaying a sadistic quality that very few could have mustered. Oh and the closing courtroom sequence was astonishing. Fannie Brice finally reveals what Hayakawa did to her, and the entire courtroom packed to the brim with white faces absolutely goes ballistic. I seriously thought a lynching was gonna take place. Marvellously intense, this might be De Mille's best film, certainly his most restrained, and light years ahead of The Squaw Man.
I watched this and had a similar feeling about it. (One correction is the lead actress is Fanny Ward.) It is hard to imagine a court room scene in any other day being quite so action packed. I did think they were going to get to Hayakawa and I even lost him in some of the shots. Coming in at only 59 minutes it hurries along at a pretty good clip.

Another correction is that Ward lost money that was raised for the Red Cross. Hayakawa blackmails her to be his lover by paying her to replace the $10,000. When the husbans's investments come in he gives her the money which she takes back to Hayakawa to buy her way out but he is having none of it.

Watched with Epix channel. They have rather a nice collections of silent films and if it comes with your cable plan well worth checking out.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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laffite
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by laffite »

The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933) starts out like gangbusters, a hard-boiled hard hitting drama where they even speed up the frame and dialogue to set it all up. Jimmy Dolan (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr) has won the light-heavy weight championship of the world and is interviewed still in the ring, talking to Ma and how he is on the straight and narrow, but shortly we see him drunk in his own house with a sleazy girlfriend and right hand man (Lyle Talbot) who is up to no good and then discovers a newspaperman there who threatens to spill the beans about the life that Jimmy really lives. Jimmy tries to talk him out of it but no go, so he slugs him.

One thing here, in this movie don't be a "sucker."

The story quickly turns in to a country love story. He is unconscious and is rescued by Peggy (Loretta Young) and her aunt (Aline MacMahon) who live in a house where they are taking care of "crippled" children under a Federal Program. Jimmy and Peggy are mutual love interests.

Guy Kibbee is a judge who has a bad rep for sending an innocent man to the chair. But he knows something. This is the first time I've seen Kibbee with a relatively hard-boiled role. There are hints here and there of the usual jolliness however. Loretta is fine and as lovely as ever. I have not seen Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and I have no complaints with him. There are four children, one of them being the uncredited Mickey Rooney who was easy of course to spot. I've seen two or three movies with Aline MacMahon and I like her though she is no doubt cast as the matronly type.

Entertaining.

////
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by jamesjazzguitar »

I enjoy most of Fairbanks Jr. 30s work. He brought a lot of energy and charm to his characters, which one finds in The Life of Jimmy Dolan. This is a classic pre-code type character; A person that has committed crimes and lives on the dark side, but with a heart (well at least for Young and children in need). Aline MacMahon does tend to play a matronly type character in many of her roles. She was only 33 when this film was made, and only 13 years older than Loretta Young.

If ones wishes to see a hard-boiled Guy Kibbee, check out City Streets (1931) with Cary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney. Many consider the film to be a pre-noir film.
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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The Master of the House (1925) A Carl Dreyer film. Not one of the exalted chez Dreyer but watchable enough and of course well done. A cozy family drama. That is, until it becomes not so cozy. First there is the husband and father, Viktor. He is approaching middle age. The backstory has it that he has recently lost his business and is now working a job-job and not making enough money. His much younger wife, Ida, who tries desperately to be a good wife. The old woman, nicknamed Mads, who was once Viktor's nanny and is now an "heirloom" and living in the household. A young daughter who is about 12, and a younger son, say 9.

What's wrong with this picture? Viktor is a grouch as well a performer of wry sarcasm. Poor Ida.

The music is piano solo and as a mad crazy appreciator of the classics was delighted to hear the entire slow movement to Symphony #40 by Mozart. It is interspersed among other pieces, non-classical. Sixteen minutes of bliss. The piano could not possible do justice (although it still magnificent) so I have also cited a portion from a symphony to heal alongside the piano. Both excerpts are from the same location in the music. Listen to both for a quick comparison.



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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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:smiley_shades:
was "mr6666" @ TCM
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