WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Payment Deferred with Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan and Veree Teesdale. Can someone help me here, the plot seemed quite fimiliar and the film had the feel of a Hitchcock movie, was it remade? Set in England, Laughton works in a bank and has huge debts which he can't clear, that is until his nephew comes around flashing wads of cash, one of Ray Milland's first roles, he comes to a sticky end, I love how the camera keeps looking out of the window to the grave outside. The Laughton uses his nephew's money to but him out of poverty and take a sure tip on the French currency, this makes him a wealthy man but he can't move because of his secret in the backyard, so his wife takes a holiday and he gets visited by the attractive Ms Teesdale who blackmails him, the film ends with a twist and Laughton's performance is pathetic and sinister, quite a feat.

[Ann Harding]

I haven't seen the film, but I know it's an adaptation of a Cecil Scott Forester novel, the author of the Captain Hornblower saga and African Queen. Certainly a favourite of mine.

Recently I saw the new restoration of the fabulous documentary The Great White Silence (1924, Herbert G. Ponting). The film was shot during the ill-fated Scott expedition in the Antarctic in 1910-1912. Herbert Ponting was a photographer by training. But, he went along with two movie cameras. We can only bless him for bringing back such magnificent images of the White Continent. He filmed human beings struggling in this dangerous environment as well as animals. But, mostly he had the eye of an artist. He managed to capture the frozen landscape with incredible poetry. The new restoration is incredibly beautiful. The BFI has made the new print from the original negative; it's toned and tinted throughout. The film manages to be a feast for the eye as well as a moving human story. If you've never seen it, you should. The only negative point is the electronic score. It's really irritating and disjointed. The composer never seems to understand what Ponting is trying to convey. It's probably best to keep the film mute and to put on Vaughan-Williams' Symphonia Antarctica to accompany the film.

Left: clouds forming at the surface of the ocean with the wind; Right: Grotto in Berg with the Terra Nova in the background

Left: The poneys playing in the snow after the gruelling sea crossing; Right: Men practicing before the departure to the pole.

Left: Herbert Ponting with one of his movie cameras; Right: ice formation at the surface of the sea looking like waterlilies.

[MichiganJ]

The Great White Silence is available on a region free Blu-ray and is stunning. Lots of goodies as extras, too. Highly recommended.

[feaito]

The Great White Silence looks & sounds wonderful.

I watched three Marie Dressler & Polly Moran comedies in a row: "Politics" (1931), "Reducing" (1931) and "Prosperity" (1932). I enjoyed all of them, but probably the best is the latter, although I disliked Norman Foster's stupid character...."Politics" has an interesting background concerning the politics of the time, gangsters, Prohibition, etc. "Reducing" has lot of slapstick and Polly Moran has a field day in it! Some of the supporting players appear in two of the aforementioned films, like William Bakewell or Anita Page.

[feaito]

Kevin, your Maria Ouspenskaya avatar is superb! Is it from "The Wolf Man"?

[MichiganJ]

Kevin, your Maria Ouspenskaya avatar is superb! Is it from "The Wolf Man"?

Yes. This "Spook-tober" I figured I'd honor some of the great woman of classic horror.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Hands of Orlac with Conrad Veidt a Criterion restoration nicely done, I found the parts with Veidt watchable but I felt there were problems with the pacing and the film felt overlong. Worth watching, especially for Veidt.

[MichiganJ]

I watched The Hands of Orlac with Conrad Veidt a Criterion restoration nicely done, I found the parts with Veidt watchable but I felt there were problems with the pacing and the film felt overlong. Worth watching, especially for Veidt.

I really like The Hands of Orlac. It reunites director Robert Weine with his Caligari star, Veidt, and instead of distorted nightmare sets, he emphasis characters who are surrounded by shadows. It is deliberately paced, but I found the relentless battle between body and soul very satisfying and ultimately the film asks more questions than it answers.

Good choice for the Halloween season.

Are you sure it is a Criterion DVD? I have it from Kino, but don't see a listing by Criterion.

[charliechaplinfan]

I came back to The Hands of Orlac because I didn't think I did it justice, I guess I was just running out of steam yesterday. It was the Kino edition, silly me. I was interested in it because it does unite the star and director of Caligari but I would say that I don't appreciate Caligari as much as some, I can see that it is a masterpiece of it's time, it's forward thinking and very original and I did like it and I wanted to love it. My problem with Orlac was that I felt it was overlong for a silent and the struggle of Orlac against his hands, I'm thinking of his acting was to overblown and for me it removed some of the tension. I liked the fact that the stars are only billed by surname, it gives an edge and I can see that it's been remade with Peter Lorre, I love Peter Lorre so I'm looking forward to seeing it at a later date. The restoration is a good one and something that struck me too is that the leading lady, bless her, was an ordinary, large by today's film standards, normal to anyone else, a great deal hadn't been spent on her costumes yet she was so effective that she managed to steal as much of the picture as Veidt did. I do prefer Veidt in talkies but I think I'm just a sucker for accents.

[MichiganJ]

I can see that it's been remade with Peter Lorre

The Lorre film is Mad Love (1935) and is a must see. I like the silent a lot, but Mad Love is better.

[charliechaplinfan]

Both men are great villans and great actors, it will be good to see what Lorre makes of Orlac.

[feaito]

I've seen some Precodes lately:

"Son of the Gods" (1930). An interesting early talkie about racial prejudice against Chinese people in the US. Rich and suave Dick Barthelmess is looked down and ostracized by most of his classmates in his College, because he's Chinese (he doesn't look like one though, and that's the problem, because some girls who don't know it fall for him and then feel repulsed when the learn this "unpleasant" fact). Interesting film with good performances by Barthelmess and Constance Bennett as a rich and spoiled heiress who unwittingly falls madly in love with him.

"Hell Harbor" (1930). A Precoder which I got as a present (a VCI release which includes two versions: 64 min/ 84 min). The differences between both doesn't have to do with censorship but with scenes that were eliminated to fasten up the pace of the film. The 64 minutes print is pristine and crisp; the 84 minutes fair. I watched them both back to back, and it was interesting to see the cut scenes. Lupe Vélez is the coquettish daughter of the great, great grandson of Pirate Morgan, both of whom live on an island in the Caribbean. The father (a menacing Gibson Gowland with a heavy British accent) beats her constantly and intends to marry her to the "highest bidder", a slimy villain who trades in everything (an unpleasant and scarred Jean Hersholt)....buth, then American captain (John Holland) comes along and aids Lupe. Lupe looks mighty pretty and there are fine location scenes, which help the film's decadent atmosphere. Fine direction by Henry King and fine camera work for a 1930 feature. A good precoder.

"Jungle Bride" (1933) This Poverty row film is absolutely campy and I'd already seen it (an Alpha DVD), but the print used by VCI is excellent! It was like watching another film. Anita looks sultry and Charles Starrett is credible as a heroic "Tarzan by chance". The sets are obviously fake, save for the beach scenes, but it's a B low-budget release and nothing could be done about that. The scenes depicting the sinking of the ships were obviously "borrowed" from a Silent film; was it about the sinking of the Titanic? At least people were dressed in the fashion of that Era. Starrett is a man -unjustly- accused of murder who's captured by a journalist (Kenneth Thompson), whose fiancée (Anita) is the sister of the young man (they belong to a rich family) who really committed the crime but won't confess. The ship in which they all travel sinks and they're stranded somewhere on the African coast à la Admirable Crichton.

[feaito]

Today I also saw the very interesting and finely acted "Our Betters" (1933), a British drawing room comedy-drama (based on a Somerset Maugham work) deftly directed by George Cukor. The film has lot of cynicism, immorality, witty dialogue and decadence. It deals with the relationships of a group of American expatriate heiresses married to impoverished European and British nobles; social climbers; gigolos, etc. Connie Bennett is married to a British Lord and she is willing to perform her obligations, but she discovers (on her wedding day) that he married her ("this creature") only for her money and that she's in love with another noblewoman, whom he could not marry because she's as penniless as him. Thus, dear Connie becomes a bitter, cynical woman and the leading lady of the British "scene"...her marriage is a fake (she and her husband lead separate lives)...he with his lover and she with her many successive lovers, phony friends, parties, etc. Enter Violet Kemble-Cooper (a widowed Duchess - her husband had a French title), luminous Phoebe Foster (a Princess by marriage -honest and true to life, for a change), Grant Mitchell (a gossipy phony American who copies the mores and ways of high class Britishers), Anita Louise (Connie's young sister, who's marveled at this ideal "world" in which her sister lives and at the prospect of being married to a British Marquis), Gilbert Roland (a shameless, arrogant, cynical gigolo who uses Kemble-Cooper), Charles Starrett (a cousin of Connie and Anita, just arrived from America, who wants to mingle in Connie's set, but who carries a torch for Anita) and Minor Watson (Connie's current rich lover). The exchanges between these people are a joy to listen to, especially Connie Bennett and Violet Kemble-Cooper, both of whom give terrific, first-rate performances. And at the end of the film, a very offbeat, cartoonish "pansy" character arrives to Connie's estate, to teach dance lessons to the ladies -most notably the Tango to Kemble-Cooper- Tyrrell Davis -the ultimate effeminate character allowed before the Code and discussed in some Pre-Code books.

Delightful film.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched So Big with Barbara Stanwyck, I've never watched the later version, I can't imagine that Jane Wyman could improve on a Stanwyck performance, no disrespect to Jane, I just like Barbara and what she brings to a role. This is a film of two halves with Bette Davis being in the second half in one of her earlier roles. I liked the first half better, thinking that it evoked the feel of the dutch farming community at the turn of the century, whereas the second half it became a contemprorary drama albeit a good one. I'm a softie too, I love the fact that So Big was a reference to her son.