drednm wrote:The Love of Sunya had several credited writers.... Swanson did not write the screenplay but she did produce the film (her first) for Gloria Swanson Productions.
May I ask, is the film you watched from a VHS? I had a videoyesteryear VHS, long gone. I remember liking the film and would love to see it.
drednm wrote:It's from a DVD from buyersgallerymemorabilia.com I've had for several years.... decent quality and score. Where THEY got it from I have no idea.
Hmmm, their website is closed. Oh well, live and hope for someone else to pick it up. Thanks!
I was wondering where I could get a copy of Sunya myself. Ahhhh. well.
I have to agree about College being weak simply for it's unoriginality.... it's still got some great gags. I have a very hard time watching The Cameraman, but I think that is my own baggage hoisted on Keaton's work... I just cannot bear to watch him at this point in his career, where he started losing control over his films....and something about the pathos in this film bothers me....
I know what you mean about the Cameraman, Buster's story has real sadness to it, but it started so well, The Cameraman is pure Keaton but with the polished look of a MGM film. When I first saw it I didn't know his background, same with Spite Marriage but I can seperate these two from the rest of the films he made with MGM. I don't think Buster ever blamed anyone but himself for what happened to his career, if he's been more of a businessman and got himself into a similar position to Charlie or Harold Lloyd or if MGM would just have had more faith in him and of course, if he hadn't been such a big drinker.
When reading biographies of alcoholics, is is only me who thinks 'how much?
I'm sure Gloria claimed credit for Sunya in her autobiography.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
I watched The Clinging Vine yesterday. Cute comedy stars Leatrice Joy as the mannish and lonely A.B. who practically runs a big paint company. She gets invited to her boss' big mansion (I forget why) where she is taken under the wing on "Grandma" (a sprightly performance by Toby Claude) and gets a makeover just in time for the arrival of the grandson (Tom Moore). Of course the makeover turns Joy into a fluttery, simpering thing (just what men like) and she wins the heart of Moore.
A sublot has the boss (Robert Edeson) buying up an emeraldite mine in Maine. Another house guest (Dell Henderson) decides to bilk everyone by buying up the mine stock. But A.B. and the company Vice president (Snitz Edwards) have other ideas, espcially concerning a broken-down farm Moore owns.
There's a hilarious scene where the egg beater invented by Moore is demonstrated.
Leatrice Joy is amazing in her opening scenes. The mannish makeup is excellent. The makeover is funny, and the simpering Joy, eyelashes a flutter, is quite funny. Tiny Toby Claude as Grandma (she was 50-ish here) is a real scene stealer as the smart and modish manipulator. Moore, Edeson, and Henderson are all ok. Snitz Edwards always threatens to steal any scene he's in.
I had a difficult time with The Clinging Vine. It drove me crazy that Leatrice Joy, who essentially was the manager of the paint company, found it necessary to dumb herself down in order to get a man. And what a man, too. Tom Moore, the grandson of the firm's owner, is fired because he's inept. He spends a small fortune to build a giant egg beater(!), and is so dumb that he doesn't see the potential application for the paint company! A real catch, that one. Naturally Joy wants him.
And Joy, phew. I think is says something that she looks more like she's in drag after her transformation into a "woman". Her performance is fine, but that hair...
Usually I have little problem getting into the mindset of the period a film was made, but The Clinging Vine, to me, was an equal opportunity offender. All of the men were ineffectual and dumb as hammers, and the women, of course, can't help but swoon.
Too bad, too, because had the film makers taken the premise further, it could have been a pretty good farce, or even approach screwball.
Apparently Cecil B. DeMille pitched a hissy after Joy (his big replacement star after Gloria Swanson left him) cut off her hair, supposedly in a downtown Los Angeles barber shop!
Anyway... here's a sample of contemporary reviews:
I guess I'm not alone. Believe me, I really wanted to like it. Generally these kinds of movies are right up my alley.
Here's my complete review from when the DVD was originally released. Even if you don't read the text, the DVD jacket shows the before and after of Joy's transformation. Like I said before, "Yikes"!
I was blown away by the opening scenes of Leatrice Joy as the mannish A.B. Beautifully done. Most comedies that show a woman dressed as a man, from Marion Davies and Laura La Plante to Julie Andrews and Gwyneth Paltrow, are totally unconvincing (if you are really being objective). But Joy's mannish makeup was superbly done.
Thanks to Fernando, pointing me in the right direction on Youtube I got to see The Story Of Temple Drake. I wonder if this precode will see the light of day on DVD? As precodes go it's pretty racy. Temple is a girl who likes to date guys but only goes so far with them. She is the granddaughter of the local judge, the Temples are an old and respected family but every so often the turn out a bad sheep, Temple thinks she may be another black sheep, unable to settle down with her regular guy. At a party at her grandfather's house she leaves with a drunken guy and goes for a ride, the car crashes and they seek refuge at a house.
SPOILERS
The house is full of undesireables, one woman is amongst them who provides no comfort to Temple. Temple is unable to find anyone to take her to town and has no option but to sleep in the barn. Towards morning she is set upon by Trigger a local gangster, who shots a guy who tries to protect her. Trigger has his way with her then takes her to a seedy den where they stay for a few weeks. Another man is arrested for the murder and refuses to name Trigger as the killer. His wife, the other woman at the house speaks out and the attorney defending her husband who is also Temple's old flame finds Temple and Trigger at the seedy den. Rather than telling what has happened to her she plays up to Trigger pretending she had gone there under her own will to protect the attorney. Later she shots Trigger when he threatens her again. She is supeonaed as a witness and on the stand she admits what had happened and that she's killed Trigger.
Very racy for it's day, well played by Miriam Hopkins, it deserves to see the light of day.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Closing out October, I watched a few silent horrors.
The Haunted Castle (1921)--There's nothing remotely haunting about F. W. Murnau's The Haunted Castle, which is, in reality, nothing more than a dull drawing-room mystery. There are no German expressionistic sets or shadows, which may have at least made the film visually interesting. Heck, there's not even a dead body! Was expecting a whole lot more from Murnau, but I guess they can't all be masterpieces.
The Avenging Conscience (1914)--An uneven, but often unnerving, early Griffith feature, which is essentially a re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart (with a bit of The Black Cat, Annabel Lee and other Poe stories and poems tossed into the mix). Henry B. Walthall gives a terrific performance as the "murderer" who is haunted by visions of his dead Uncle. "Sweetheart" Blanche Sweet gives an understated and very naturalistic performance as well. Wish she were in the film more.
Secrets of the Night (1924)-- a comedy mystery in the vein of Cat and the Canary (but not nearly as good), the story is about a bank that is about to go under because it made a substantial loan to someone without collateral (like that would ever really happen), and one of the banker's has a life insurance policy that would more than cover the loss. Catch is, he can't kill himself, otherwise the policy won't pay. While Madge Bellamy is billed as the female lead, it's Zasu Pitts who steals ever scene she's in.
I rewatched Zander the Great today, a solid Marion Davies comedy adventure about an orphan who gets taken into a household where the old lady (Hedda Hopper) eventually dies, leaving Marion with baby Zander, whose father left years ago to adventure in Mexico.
Marion takes off in a Ford with Zander and his rabbits to looks for his daddy. On the border she gets involved with a gang of thieves headed by Harrison Ford. He says he's the kid's daddy but when Marion discovers they are bootleggers wanted by the local sheriff (Hobart Bosworth) she decides to leave. But the kid is abducted and Marion gets involved in a skirmish with Black Bart (George Siegmann) and his band of marauders until there is a big shootout and happy ending with a twist.
Davies is terrific, and her opening scenes at the orphanage are very funny.
I watched Search for Beauty part of the box set of precodes released earlier this year. This has to be the weakest off all the films released in this category. It just didn't click for me. It's a good chance to see Ida Lupino in an early role, Buster Crabbe is the male lead, he's easy on the eye. The star of the show for me was Gertrude Michael.
It is what it says in the title, it's a huge beauty contest arranged by a health magazine involving the US and British colonies, all the winners converge on a health spa. There are some shady characters caught up in this for good measure. I just couldn't get into it.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
