WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

Poor Clara was put into inferior material, Budd Schulberg realised that he didn't need to give her quality productions, he just rushed her from one film to another, much of it the same material, I think she shines but sometimes she has trouble to rise above the script. To watch a movie like Wings, it's a shame she wasn't given more productions of a higher quality.

[drednm]

I watched DeMille's early feature The Golden Chance which boasted great productions values, sets, etc. as well as solid performances from Wallace Reid and Cleo Ridgely (who I've never seen before). The story was a tad far-fetched with a society matron hiring poor Cleo (bad marriage but the daughter of a judge) to pose as a lady at a dinner party to snare Reid so the matron's husband can talk him into investing in a shady business venture. Unfortunately, Cleo's husband is a bum and a thief. The film is nicely shot with some stunning scenes, and I liked the ambiguous ending.

Ridgely kept reminding me of someone and it finally dawned on me: Betty Field.

[charliechaplinfan]

Christopher Strong (1933, D. Arzner) with Katharine Hepburn, Colin Clive, Billie Burke and Helen Chandler was on the contrary a revelation. I have already seen about 3 pictures directed by Arzner and none proved remarkable. But this one is different. Katharine Hepburn absolutely shines as the aviatrix in love with a married man. She is very understated, feminine and charming. Her partner Colin Clive plays the romantic lead. Who could have thought that Dr. Henry Frankenstein could be so convincing against type? I found his scenes with Hepburn really subtle and moving. The film was lit by a master: Bert Glennon (who worked often with Sternberg) and it shows. Kate has never looked better as when she arrives dressed in a tight-fitting silvery dress. She really dazzles and it's no wonder Colin Clive is in love with her. The film is a real pre-code in showing a double adultery without looking for any excuse. A real discovery!

I enjoyed it too, that moth dress, how he could have a sensible conversation with her about his daughter I don't know. It is very sensitively directed and the aldultery is made so much worse because his wife Billie Burke is so nice, even though she knows. Not only adultery but one night stands with Dad's approval. I love precodes.

[JackFavell]

I think Christopher Strong is unjustly looked down upon. I thought it sensitive and sad. But then I also like Spitfire, which most people dislike as well.

[MichiganJ]

I watched DeMille's early feature The Golden Chance which boasted great productions values, sets, etc. as well as solid performances from Wallace Reid and Cleo Ridgely (who I've never seen before). The story was a tad far-fetched with a society matron hiring poor Cleo (bad marriage but the daughter of a judge) to pose as a lady at a dinner party to snare Reid so the matron's husband can talk him into investing in a shady business venture. Unfortunately, Cleo's husband is a bum and a thief. The film is nicely shot with some stunning scenes, and I liked the ambiguous ending.

Ridgely kept reminding me of someone and it finally dawned on me: Betty Field.

I like The Golden Chance quite a bit. Rarely in a film from 1915 are the motives and feelings of the characters so complex and uncertain. It's a film that starts out being about social inequality, perhaps heads towards a love's redemption, but then turns out to be mostly about choices and consequences. That final stare from Ridgely is indeed ambiguous, and unexpected, especially in a film by DeMille.

[Ann Harding]

I think Christopher Strong is unjustly looked down upon. I thought it sensitive and sad. But then I also like Spitfire, which most people dislike as well.

I loved Christopher Strong, but I guffawed when I saw Spitfire. I felt Kate's hillbilly girl was totally hilarious (and unconvincing).

[drednm]

Kevin, I think The Golden Chance was the film DeMille made simultaneously with The Cheat.

Cleo Ridgely was a last-minute replacement for an actress named Edna Goodrich. DeMille fired Goodrich for being drunk on the set and for not photographing well.....

[MichiganJ]

Kevin, I think The Golden Chance was the film DeMille made simultaneously with The Cheat.

Cleo Ridgely was a last-minute replacement for an actress named Edna Goodrich. DeMille fired Goodrich for being drunk on the set and for not photographing well.....

That's right. Not too shabby filming a masterpiece by day and a very good melodrama at night.

This is a too long essay about The Golden Chance I wrote awhile back:
http://digitalsilents.com/Digital_Silen ... hance.html

[drednm]

Kevin, have you ever seen Ridgely in anything else? Apparently she had a few bit parts in the 30s and 40s. But other silents?

[MichiganJ]

Kevin, have you ever seen Ridgely in anything else? Apparently she had a few bit parts in the 30s and 40s. But other silents?

I think DeMille's Joan the Woman (1917) is the only other film I've seen her in.

[drednm]

Have it but have never watched it....

good article....

[MichiganJ]

Have it but have never watched it....

Time for a silent "Joan-a-thon"!

Joan of Arc (1899) Méliés
Joan the Woman (1914) DeMille
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Dreyer
La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1929) Marco de Gastyne

[drednm]

WOOF.... the only Joan-a-Thon I'm likely to do is for Joan Crawford or Joan Blondell....

[feaito]

I watched only one film during the long Weekend: "ZouZou" (1934), a highly entertaining drama-comedy & musical with the very charming Joséphine Baker at her peak! Marc Allégret directed it and it also has Jean Gabin in an early role as Joséphine's sort of brother (they were raised together), but she grows to love him as a man and he only considers her his sister. Towards the end there are a couple of impressive ensemble production numbers, featuring Joséphine and zillions of chorines, dancers et al. She appeard in a gilded cage as an oiseau-de-luxe, dressed as an exotic goddess. The numbers are reminiscent of Busby Berkeley's extravaganzas, but the mise-en-scene lacks the expertise, synchronization and coordination that Berkeley's sequences have and above all, they sadly lack imaginative camera movement. The camera is really too static and it's a pity, because some portions of the numbers were really quite beautifully done. The print I saw was rather uneven in quality. There's plenty of nudity during the film, much more than in a regular American Pre-Code...ladies' bare breasts, buttocks et al, but without being tasteless; just plain natural. The French really had a much more mature and avant-garde attitude towards female nudity.

Also included is a Silent short titled "Le Pompier des Folies Bergeres" (1928) about a fireman who begins seeing naked woman everywhere (in the sub, in the tramway, etc.) after seeing a Folies Bergeres act. This time the nudity is rather tasteless and pointless, but the short subject is interesting from a historical point of view. It's quite surrealistic in a way. Joséphine appears in the subway, but she's not stripped mentally by the incendiary fireman!

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday I watched "Zvenigora," the first feature by Alexander Dovzhenko.

It was a mixed bag. On the one hand, there was a lot of mysticism and Ukrainian folklore, but on the other hand, there was a lot of strident Communist propaganda. The two didn't really mix well. Attitudes toward characters seemed to change suddenly. The old man seemed to be the incarnation of the Ukrainian spirit, opposing foreign (Western) intervention in Ukraine, but suddenly we were to see him as a superstitious old coot who had to be modernized and laughed at.

There were some striking images and scenes, but overall this won't be one of my favorite Soviet silent films.