WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[Birdy]

Search for Beauty rated pretty high on the dorky scale, but I still enjoyed it for the performances of the good looking Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino, the hard-boiled James Gleason, the ditzy Toby Wing and the reverend-with-a-twist Frank McGlynn.
All in all, I enjoyed the boxed set very much and thank those whose recommended it here.
Birdy

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, it's a great box set. I think out of all the films, it was the weakest. (Buster Crabbe was quite nice) I hope the set sold well enough to justify another box set.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've watched His Picture in the Papers, a film Douglas Fairbanks made in 1916 that pokes more than a little fun at health food and vegetarians. It's interesting to see Doug away from his swashbuckling films although his athleticism is fully in evidence here, as is his toned physique. I can't wait to see the other films in the box set.

I do prefer him with his moustache though.

I also watched Bombshell with Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy. Harlow was a deft comedienne even at this early point in her career. I find films that give you a glimpse behind the scenes look at Hollywood compelling to watch. Harlow's role as Lola Burns relies heavily on Harlow's history, one scene featuring the barrel scene from Red Dust which needed reshooting. It's quite strange, this was the scene that Harlow returned to after Paul Bern's death, MGM obviously thought this was a scene worth teasing the audience with again. Poor Lola has no control over her family, Frank Morgan hilariously plays her father. I loved the scene with the journalist who puts the idea into Lola's head about a baby and Lola goes straight out to the orphanage wanting to bring the baby back straight away, just like some groceries. A great Harlow movie.

[Birdy]

ccfan-
Glad you enjoyed Bombshell, one of my favorites.
I love her tirade when she can't find one of her cars at home. 'Say, how do you get out of this place?'
I hope she had fun making it because it sure watches fun!
B

[charliechaplinfan]

I thought the whole film was an absolute ball, it's a pity Jean didn't live longer, I'm sure there were some more splendid screwball comedies in her. Is Bombshell screwball, I'd say no but you can see the makings of screwball developing.

I watched Flirting with Fate a early Douglas Fairbanks comedy, completely enhanced by titles by Anita Loos. Doug plays an artist who paints a girl he sees in the park, he meets the girl, a society girl and he is not rich enough to marry her but she loves him too. Refused by the girls family he refuses to sell his picture of her but after it is stolen he hires a hitman to kill himself. When his picture is returned and he inherits money from a deceased relative he remembers the hitman and a amusing chase develops. This is what the audience of the day must have been waiting for, a chase involving Douglas Fairbanks, this one has him swinging in and out of cars, scaling buildings etc.

[MichiganJ]

Brief story on All Things Considered yesterday about "Early Indie-Movie History", namely the Thanhouser studio and the family's effort to find, rescue and make available the catalogue . The link goes to the text of the story with a link to listen to it and links to two Thanhouser films.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =120182236

[MichiganJ]

The last couple of weeks I've been watching the films of John Barrymore and it's been very interesting how many of his silents were period films (nearly all that are available on DVD). In most of the movies, the directors take the Barrymore's moniker "the Great Profile" way too literally. In some of the films you just sit back and wait wait for the profile shot, which can be quite distracting (although it could be a new drinking game.) Speaking of, drinking copious amounts of alcohol is featured in many of the films, and at least two require Barrymore to be blind drunk as plot points. (Knowing what alcohol would eventually do to Barrymore can't help but make these sequences, which are sometimes intended to be humorous, rather depressing.)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Still one of the best adaptations of Stevenson's novel (novella?), the first transformation scene--a single take from Jekyll to Hyde-- is still magnificent. You can see how much fun Barrymore had playing Hyde, and, although her part is small, Nita Naldi is pretty great, too.

Sherlock Holmes (1922) Barrymore is perfectly cast as the famous detective, but the plot doesn't give him anything to detect. There's no mystery for Holmes to solve, except, maybe the one he muses over when we first meet him: "What is love?", he writes in his diary. Huh? Gustav von Seyffertitz is hammy fun as Moriarty, but he can't save the film from being a huge disappointment.

Beau Brummel (1924) Was expecting a dull, overlong costume drama but found the film rich in plot, atmosphere and subtlety. One of Barrymore's best performances and a terrific production. (This is a Warner Archive DVD and the print looked fine and had an orchestral score that was a bit ambitious but settled down and became quite enjoyable.)

Don Juan (1926) The first commercial film released with a synchronized soundtrack, the laserdisc even opens with an hour of the Vitaphone shorts, which accompanied the film at its premier. (That Will Hays is somethin' else.) May be my favorite Barrymore film, which features tremendous sets and costumes, and a plot that has sword fights, torture, rescues and basically intrigue galore. Interesting that Don Juan is a highlight in the art form that synchronized sound would soon destroy, silent film.

When a Man Loves (1927) Based on the 18-Century novel Manon Lescaut, When a Man Loves is epic in scope and delivery, endlessly entertaining and entirely insane. Barrymore is a student for the priesthood, but is (twice) "distracted" by the beautiful Manon (Dolores Costello). Love, lust, gambling, murder, and even mutiny are tossed in the fray. And the film is under two hours! (Another Archive title, which looks fine and has the original Vitaphone soundtrack, which is boisterous.)

The Beloved Rogue (1927) More swashbuckling heroics here, this is one Fairbanks could have done (and did, it was called Robin Hood). All of the performances are quite broad, none more so than Barrymore's (although Conrad Veidt comes close). The Kino edition has a slightly cleaner picture than the Image release and the Kino edition also contains an introduction by Orson Welles for the PBS silent film series in the 70s. In his introduction, Welles admits that this isn't one of Barrymore's best, but adds, "…there isn't anything else on TV better than this film, so, you might as well watch this." I concur.

Tempest (1928) This film is a visual treat. Shot by Charles Rosher (who did many Pickford films as well as a little movie called Sunrise), there are so many gorgeous shots and sequences that the silliness of the plot is easily overlooked. Barrymore is in fine form again as a peasant calvary officer caught in some romantic intrigue with a haughty princess (Camilla Horn) while the Russian Revolution looms. The magnificently staged birthday ball sequence rivals anything in Sunrise. Here the Image release is far superior to the new Kino version. The Image picture is much better and the disc offers two soundtracks as well as a Barrymore home movie with him playing on his yacht!)

Eternal Love (1929) Hard to believe that Ernst Lubitsch directed this, a film which really could have used some of his comic "touch". An epic romance, briskly told (71-minutes), it still amounts to a silly soap opera that makes little sense and an ending that really, really tries to be emotional… No dice. Still, it's beautiful to look at, and Lubitsch, although he pushes his camera in too much, does offer some wonderful shots. (Like the scene where Barrymore discovers the "other woman" in his room.)

Not sated yet, I watched two Barrymore talkies:

Counsellor at Law (1933) Hold onto your hats! Is this move fast, or what? Barrymore is simply terrific as the high-powered attorney, who, while a good guy, is no angel (He's involved in insider trading and bilks wealthy clients without raising an eyebrow.) Bebe Daniels is also great as his secretary (who is in love with him, but he doesn't know it) and Isabel Jewell is hysterical as the attorney's phone operator. Great film!

The Invisible Woman (1940) Along with the Frankenstein's, this October I watched The Invisible Men series, too, and this was a real surprise. Quite funny and really daring (there are plenty of references to the fact that the invisible party--in this case the alluring Virginia Bruce--must be naked while invisible). Barrymore is obviously slumming, but seems to be having a good time nevertheless. Not a bad little film.

[charliechaplinfan]

Some good films there Michigan J, I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes all out on an actors wanting to watch and rewatch everything they've ever made. I love Counsellor At Law.

I've been treating myself to the sound of James Mason's voice and Charlie Chaplin's films. Unknown Chaplin is a lovely combination put together by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill.

Episode one is packed with the Mutual outtakes, some very funny, highlighting the way Chaplin worked and the relationship between him and Edna. I particularly liked the segment that showed The Immigrant taking shape.

Episode two is mostly about The Gold Rush and City Lights. Virginia Cherrill and Georgia Hale are both contributors, interestingly the original ensuing of The Gold Rush, Georgia says that that was the beginning of her romance with Chaplin because by this time his marriage had failed. She said he demanded retakes of the onboard kiss finally letting Georgia know how he felt about her. This ending was removed when Chaplin reissued the film with himself as narrator. City Lights, the first meeting of the Tramp and the flower girl is the most retaken scene in movie history I believe, poor Virginia, she talks of admiring Chaplin but he must have been a hard task master, he took so long to make the film but for me it is perfection, my favorite Chaplin movie with the perfect ending.

Episode three is possibly the weakest but is still a goldmine for a fan like me, especially the outtakes from The Circus, edited together by Photoplay, a ten minute segment that Chaplin just discarded.

Watching this programme made me appreciate even more what a unique position Chaplin had made for himself, he could create perfection, which for me he did until 1952, he could take as long as he wanted and spend as much as he wanted to and create some of the best films cinema has ever seen.

[JackFavell]

Oh thank you, Michigan for your reviews of the Barrymore silents. I love that you watched all of them!

[Ann Harding]

You know, Alison, at Pordenone, Kevin Brownlow presented the latest edition of his documentary on Chaplin. It was accompanied by a book -The Search for Charlie Chaplin. Alas, it's all in Italian, published by the Bologna Cineteca.

He gave a very funny talk describing how long it took him and D. Gill to get hold of the Chaplin footage. Something like 2 to 3 years! They finally got hold a huge amount of footage from Raymond Rohauer, a private collector. One day, they saw a huge truck arriving from France. The custom officer wanted to check the content: when they saw how many reels they were, he just slamed the door of the truck. And they started looking at this massive amount of material. Chaplin never put numbers on takes. He just numbered them from 1 to infinity. They had to assemble this huge puzzle and that way they discovered how he worked.
The book mught see the light of day in English at some point.

The same with Buster Keaton, ther is a book and the documentary on DVD. But all in Italian, alas....

[MichiganJ]

Episode three is possibly the weakest but is still a goldmine for a fan like me, especially the outtakes from The Circus, edited together by Photoplay, a ten minute segment that Chaplin just discarded.

Watching this programme made me appreciate even more what a unique position Chaplin had made for himself, he could create perfection, which for me he did until 1952, he could take as long as he wanted and spend as much as he wanted to and create some of the best films cinema has ever seen.

I actually think the third episode of Unknown Chaplin is the best (or at least on par with the first two episodes.) It really demonstrates how Chaplin worked, how he literally wrote with film.

You're right that Chaplin was in a unique position, which allowed him the luxury of time (lots and lots of time), to hone and perfect his films. I wonder if Lloyd and Keaton had that same luxury, if they would have had the patience that Chaplin showed. I suspect they would have put out considerably more films.

Ann,

Wish those books were available in English. (But doesn't the picture on the cover of the Chaplin book look a little like a mug shot?)

[charliechaplinfan]

I think I was hard on episode three, the complete box set of Charlie's works that is available in Britain so all the extra footage I'd seen before, it's amazing to have it available. I hadn't ever seen the Mutual footage, it gives a little more away as to the relationship Charlie had with Edna.

As documentaries go, it's one of the very best along with A Hard Act To Follow and the Hollywood series.

I wish Kevin was still making documentaries. I wonder if he ever looks in here and knows how appreciated his work is.

[feaito]

Michigan, you watch some excellent films! "Tempest" is one of my favorite Silents and "Counsellor-at-Law" one of the best Pre-Codes I've seen. Barrymore is superb in both.

Thanks to Christine I saw the very enlightening and interesting Kevin Brownlow documentary on the great Abel Gance "Abel gance, The Charm of Dynamite", a perfect companion to Brownlow's chapter on Gance in "The Parade's Gone By".

[drednm]

Finally got around to watching The Younger Generation, a Frank Capra silent/talkie that starts slowly bet gain emotional power as it goes along. The story of Morris Goldfish (Ricardo Cortez) and his rise from the lower East Side slums to wealth and social prestige after he changes his name to Maurice Fish (odd choice). He takes along his old world parents (Jean hersholt, Rosa Rosanova) and his sister (Lina Basquette) but they never feel at home in his mansion.

Basquette gets involved with a struggling song writer (Rex Lease) who gets duped into helping rob a jewelry store. The parents struggle with leaving behind their old ways and religion as Cortez becomes more and more gentrified.

The film's use of sound effects in the silent passages is rather clunky. Foot steps, slamming doors, crowd noises etc are all too loud and emphatic. But the talkie passages are nicely done and the sound is quite good for 1929. The actors all do well. This must have been an especially difficult film for Cortez who was renamed by Hollywood since his Jewish roots and name (Jake Krantz) had to be hidden. Cortez was never quite comfortable as the "latin lover" and actually had a long and decent career in silents and talkies even if he never made the front ranks.

[MichiganJ]

I watched the Blu-ray of Sunrise and was astounded at how great it looks. I thought the picture would be improved, but the image is significantly cleaner and brighter than the Murnau/Borzage box set DVD. Like the box set, the Blu-ray contains both the U.S and Czech prints, and they are both in 1080p (hi-def). Stunning doesn't begin to describe the picture.

The mono Movietone score sounds great and the Brock stereo score (2-channel) is a terrific alternate score. The commentary track and the documentary on the lost Murnau films are also included.

While I'm not going to hold my breath, I really hope more silents are released on Blu-ray. It's like seeing the film for the first time. (I know The General is out on Blu, and I think Potemkin may be on the horizon. C'mon Odessa steps…)