WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[myrnaloyisdope]

If you haven't seen Variete you are missing out. One of the greatest German silent films, right up there with the Langs, Murnaus, and People on Sunday. Absolutely glorious film.

I think I need to check out La Roue again, I was underwhelmed when I saw, basically the only thing that impressed me was the use of rapid editing and montage pre-Eisenstein. Also the version I saw was 180 minutes, as opposed to the longer restored version. Given how much I dug Napoleon, I think I should give this another chance.

The clips I have seen from J'Accuse(mainly from Kevin Brownlow's Silent Europe series) look amazing. Plus it's a World War One film, which happens to be one of my favorite subjects. I missed it when it was on TCM a couple months ago, so I will have to check out the Flicker Alley DVD at some point.

[Gagman 66]

Justin,

I haven't seen PEOPLE ON SUNDAY either. I believe you mean CINEMA EUROPE. But I should mention that there is also a documentary called SILENT BRITAIN, that just was but out by the BFI a few years ago. Have you seen this before?

[charliechaplinfan]

Gagman. have you not seen People on a Sunday?I have it, it's a wonderful film, not at all like Wilder's later work. It's one of my favorite German silents.

[myrnaloyisdope]

I watched a couple of pre-codes I got in the mail today.

First up was 1933's Broadway Bad with Joan Blondell and Ginger Rogers. Joan plays a cynical chorus girl trying to hide the fact that she has a child, Ginger provides support as her best friend, but she doesn't get enough to do. Ricardo Cortez is the underexplained friend/lover?? of Joan's character, while Allen Vincent plays Joan's slimy ex-husband. The movie was odd due to the fact that the cast, pace and story are total Warner Bros. style yet the film was made by Fox. I had no idea Joan did anything but Warners films in the 30's. Sidney Lanfield directed the film, and did quite a good job stylistically, with lots of symbolism, and smooth edits. There seemed to be a lack of chemistry between Blondell and Cortez, which wasn't helped by the lack of explanation for his character. That being said I did enjoy the film, and had a great ending, which seems to offer a justification for lying under oath.

I also checked out 1932's Night World which was basically a distillation of casting connections to some of my favorite films. Firstly Lew Ayres (Holiday, All Quiet on the Western Front), Mae Clarke (Waterloo Bridge), Boris Karloff, (Scarface), ditto George Raft, Bert Roach (The Crowd!!), and it even has a Busby Berkeley production number. All it needed was Fredric March and Myrna Loy to show up, and it would have touched every base.

As for the film itself, I was pleased. It's an oddly paced little film being only 56 minutes. The film opens with an extended montage of NYC night life, then there is a long and seemingly innocuous conversation between the doorman played wonderfully by Clarence Muse, and a cop who I don't know the name of but have seen a lot usually playing a cop. It's such an odd way to open the film, and yet it really works.

Lew Ayres plays a drunk with a family secret, and Mae Clarke is the chorus girl he falls for. Boris Karloff is the owner of the club(his name is Happy, and it's odd seeing him play an easy-going and talkative fellow), Bert Roach is a drunk from Schenectady, and George Raft has a small part as a menacing thug. Even Hedda Hopper has a bit as the worst mom ever.

What stood out most was Mae Clarke, giving a very good performance, and even getting to do some dancing which was very cool. I swear Mae was years ahead of her time, she has such great timing, and does so many subtle things that she stands apart from most of her contemporaries. I believe the term is 'naturalistic', she just seems like a real person on screen.

The other thing that stood out was Clarence Muse, who does a wonderful job as the philosophizing doorman, who wants to visit his wife the hospital. I was very surprised to see a black actor have such a large role. He does talk with the stereotypical dialect, but he gives a great performance.

Anyway it's a very cool movie.

[Synnove]

That film sounds very interesting, Myrnaloyisdope. Especially if Mae Clarke is in it. I agree with you, when I've watched her she has always struck me because she acts so naturally that she really stands out. With a lot of 30's actors you have to get used to their slightly melodramatic tones at times, but seldom with her. I almost think she was the best thing in Frankenstein, although that's a bit of a thankless role.

[MissGoddess]

I just watched, thanks to Jeffrey, Raoul Walsh's silent What Price Glory? It may be "silent"
but it's noisy with humanity, really some of the most natural behavior (it's not even acting,
it's more real) and situations to do with men away from home at war that I've ever seen. Victor
McLaglen, Edmnd Lowe and Dolores Del Rio star. I've never seen Vic so attractive, if I loved
him before now I adore him, or Dolores so earthy and charming. She's not yet the somewhat
aloof but exquisitely beautiful creature she would become in a few short years in movies like
Flying Down to Rio; I wouldn't have even recognized her. She plays "Charmaine", a shall
we say "free French" country girl, one of the many "ladies" Vic and Lowe fight over (Lowe
always stealing away his girl in front after front around the world from Peking to France). There
really isn't any plot, it's all situations of soldierly life, the whoring and drinking of course but
it's so natural and free you can see the attraction to it some men must have had, in spite
of it's realistic deptiotion of the hardwhips---it doesn't glamorize war (far from it) and it is not
about officers, it's about the real soldier. Most of these men acting in it were the real thing
who had lived rugged enough lives before making pictures and you can feel it. I think Walshie
may have been the best of the action directors who could get men on the screen behaving in the
most natural way. Not even Hawks is as good at that, maybe Wellman is closer. The movie has
a wonderful looseness to it, and an "off the cuff" feel. This and it's overall muscularity and vigor
make it a truly American classic. I recommend it to anyone exploring silents for the first time,
I like it even better than Wings and that's saying a great deal. You could NOT make this movie
today, I don't even think Ford's remake even compares. It is a moment in time yet the end result
is timeless (at least so long as there are wars and men who go off from home to fight).

Why are silents about the war so much better to me than the sound movies in general. I
wonder. I usually avoid "war movies" like the plague. This one was fun, funny and very
touching, full of sweat and blood and tears (of joy and sadness).

You guys have to see Dolores, she's indescribable. So natural and free of any of the
affectation of Hollywood---you could have knocked me down. I always liked her, but
now she's become a favorite. Seems like only directors like Walsh and Ford really knew what
to do with her north of the border.

Oh, by the way, Walsh said in an interview this movie got so many letters from lip readers
who could tell that the words between MacLaglen and Lowe were NOT so polite as the
titles would have you believe and such a fuss was kicked up---that the movie made more
than doubled it's box office. Listen, I can't read lips but even I can tell that what those
two were saying was, well, unfit for a mixed audience.

This is now my favorite Walsh movie, along with High Sierra, and, oh, so many others.

[Gagman 66]

April,

Hey, I'm so glad that you finally watched WHAT PRICE GLORY? I am so pleased after all these months. While I love the film myself, I must tell you that some of the people I know just hated this movie after their having seen King Vidor's THE BIG PARADE before-hand. I don't know why, but they just did not like it at all?

In this case, you have actually seen WHAT PRICE GLORY?, first, so I will be quite interested to see what you think of THE BIG PARADE afterward? WHAT PRICE GLORY?, is definitely not as good as THE BIG PARADE, but than very few films are.

So now, When do you think you might be able to fit THE BIG PARADE into your busy schedule??? Anytime soon?


The following Moved over here from another thread I started a few weeks ago.

Just a little taste of Raoul Walsh Classic World War 1 drama WHAT PRICE GLORY? Some capture still's from my DVD-R of the film. It's a shame you can't hear the Erno-Rapee-Lew Pollack Fox-Movie-tone score with the images. Just fabulous! Including "Charmaine"!

King Vidor had actually planned to make WHAT PRICE GLORY?, in late 1924 at MGM. When He discovered that Fox had already snapped up the rights. So Vidor produced THE BIG PARADE instead. Ironically, By the time WHAT PRICE GLORY? was finally released in late 1926, it had become Fox's attempt to try an top THE BIG PARADE.

WHAT PRICE GLORY? was not able to match the THE BIG PARADE'S unprecedented level of success. However, it was still one of the biggest, and most popular films of the second half of the 1920's. Making Major Stars of both Victor McLaglen, and Delores Del Rio. Edmund Lowe was already a well established Star by this time.

WHAT PRICE GLORY is an awesome film! One of my favorite Silent's. Very different from THE BIG PARADE, even though the story was written by the same guy, one "Lawrence Stallings"! It is not as good as THE BIG PARADE, but then what is? WHAT PRICE GLORY? had been a huge hit on the Stage in 1923-24.

McLaglen and Lowe in the rolls of "Captain Flagg" and "Sergeant Quirt" are both hilarious, as they constantly bicker back and forth among each other. In the early part of the picture, Quirt repeatedly steals all of Flagg's Woman, including a saucy Phyllis Haver in a guest part as the shameless seductress "Shanghai Mabel". She of the much ogled backside. Picking up stray Marines at the drop of a handbag! Haver is always funny and is a genuine hoot here! She should have been in more of the picture though. There was plenty of room for her to stick around for awhile.

The beauteous melody "Charmaine" written expressly for the films original release score, by the prolific composing duo of Erno Rapee', and Lew Pollack, went on to become a number one hit record, with lyrics added for Guy Lombardo, & His Royal Canadians in 1927.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Jeff! Wow, thanks for those marvelous screencaps.

I actually have seen The Big Parade before and I like it very much, though I prefer The Crowd. However, it's like I said, the silent movies that dealt with war somehow appeal to me more than many of the sound films later on. They seem to be more emotional. I couldn't really compare What Price Glory? to The Big Parade---they are both so different to each other in tone and all. TBP is more like an artist's vision, WPG is more like a soldier's, that's the best way I can put it from my own point of view.

[Gagman 66]

April,

Sorry, I had forgotten that you said you had seen THE BIG PARADE some years ago. If you have not already done so, please vote for DVD releases for both THE BIG PARADE, and WHAT PRICE GLORY?, on the TCM Movie Data Base. They are supposed to share the info with all of the studios.

TCM programmer just told me a few weeks ago that THE BIG PARADE is definitely coming out in 2009, but I have heard that each year since 2004, when the new restoration was completed, and we are still waiting for a TCM premier let alone a DVD. WHAT PRICE GLORY? meantime looks pretty good, but could stand use some additional work as well.

[Synnove]

What Price Glory? is a really good film, isn't it? Although it's focus isn't so much the war as the comic fighting and rather risque love scenes. I was pretty impressed by those. I also want to thank Jeffrey for letting me see this film, and I really hope it will make it to DVD someday.

I watched the new documentary about Anna May Wong today. It didn't go into detail about her personal life the way the documentaries about Clara Bow and Marion Davies did, and it didn't feature a lot of interviews with her relatives and people who knew her. On the other hand, it didn't indulge in so much speculation and sentimentality as those other documentaries sometimes did. I liked it pretty well overall. I especially appreciated the background information about the struggles of the Chinese immigrants. This documentary is a fitting tribute to Anna May Wong, and the hardships she faced. I would have wished for more film clips, but it was still very good. Thanks Ollie.

[myrnaloyisdope]

I watched The Red Mill yesterday, and was very impressed. The more Marion Davies I see, the more I am in awe. She's a great comedic actress.

Davies plays a lowly working girl at a Dutch inn, who falls for a dashing Owen Moore, and through a series of schemes gets mistaken for a princess who happens to be staying at the inn.

I was very impressed that Davies went without make-up for most of the film. It really emphasized the fact the plainness of her character, as well as emphasizing the dramatic change of appearance she goes through when she becomes the princess. It seems like a very bold thing to do for a star such as her. I was also impressed by her body control, just how fluid, and natural it is. She just lets it all loose for the sake of comedy.

I thought it was ironic that the film was directed by Fatty Arbuckle, given Davies connection to Hearst, and because of that time Hearst used his newspapers to brand Arbuckle a rapist, and a murderer.

And the TCM print is fantastic, they did a great job with the restoration.

I should mention a couple of great pre-code films I watched too.

First up I watched When Ladies Meet (thank you Christine), which was very impressive. It kind of works as a companion piece to 1932's The Animal Kingdom in that it explores the themes of love and marriage, and casts both Myrna Loy and Ann Harding. This time around Myrna is the other woman, an author who falls for her publisher, who happens to be married to Harding. Myrna's character happens writing a novel about the same subject(and also incidentally how the other woman and the wife can resolve an affair). Robert Montgomery plays Myrna's relentless suitor, while Frank Morgan is the husband.

The film is very wordy, and set in bourgeouis-MGM style world, which isn't especially realistic, but I thought the film showed great sympathy for its characters, and I liked that Myrna's other woman was actually given a lot of space to develop as a character. The relatationship between Harding and Myrna's characters was really well-done. They end up meeting through a scheme by Montgomery's character to break up Myrna's affair, but neither realizes who the other is. So they end up discussing the ideas of adultery as presented in Myrna's book, without knowing the same thing is happening to each of them. It's kind of far-fetched, but still fascinating.
Everything is helped along by Morgan's sliminess as it really forces the audience to sympathize with both Harding and Myrna.

It's probably the heaviest role I've seen Myrna in, and I thought she did great, and Harding impressed me as well. Oh and the reason I refer to Ann Harding by her last name as opposed to Myrna by her first name, is I don't fell like I know Harding well enough .

The other good pre-coder I saw was 1932's Make Me A Star starring Joan Blondell and Stuart Erwin. Basically Erwin plays a total country bumpkin who moves to Hollywood to become a great cowboy actor like his hero, Buck Benson. There are some great early scenes of him taking the most abysmal and amateur still photos, and him practicing acting using a phonograph and a book of facial expressions. It's just ridiculous.

Anyway who moves to Hollywood, where struggles and starves, until the tough but sweet Joan Blondell gets a him a job playing in a cross-eyed comedy. The twist is that Erwin's character thinks it's a drama, as comedy in his view is demeaning. It's pretty far-fetched, but what makes it work is the absolute sincerity, naivete, integrity and complete lack of self-awareness Erwin brings to the part. He's just so engrossed in his character that you really believe someone could be that clueless, and despite my best efforts I was feeling sorry for him too. It's a virtuoso performance that completely surprised because I had never heard of Erwin before. He basically makes the movie.

Joan does her usual schtick, and looks great doing it, and there are quite a few hysterical parts to it. The film is also a bit of a curiousity in that it was made by Paramount, which surprised given Joan's presence. Because the film is about making movies, it features cameos by a ton of Paramount stars, like Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Sylvia Sidney, Charlie Ruggles, and Maurice Chevalier, although mostly it's just glimpses, and somehow I missed Claudette Colbert and Fredric March.

The film has no real pre-code elements, but Erwin's astonishing performance makes the film a total gem(though almost completely forgotten).

[Ann Harding]

Hi Myrnaloyisdope! It sounds as if you enjoyed When Ladies Meet more than I did! It is certainly well acted, but I was disturbed by the static direction of that hack E.H. Griffith (apparently he was DW Griffith's nephew!!!! )....Perhaps I need to see it again with a fresh eye!

[myrnaloyisdope]

Hi Myrnaloyisdope! It sounds as if you enjoyed When Ladies Meet more than I did! It is certainly well acted, but I was disturbed by the static direction of that hack E.H. Griffith (apparently he was DW Griffith's nephew!!!! )....Perhaps I need to see it again with a fresh eye!

It's actually Harry Beaumont who directed When Ladies Meet, Griffith directed both Holiday and The Animal Kingdom. I do agree that Griffith is a hack though.

By the way what did you think of The Animal Kingdom?? I enjoyed it quite a bit in spite of the direction.

[Ann Harding]

Oops! You're right, it's Harry Beaumont!
Though I must admit I don't like him better than EH Griffith....His Enchanted April is abysmally boring

I prefered The Animal Kingdom to When Ladies Meet because of the script (an adaptation of Philip Barry) which I found more literate. But, I need perhaps to have a look again.

[Synnove]

I saw Parisian Love recently. The film is uneven, with a poorly structured plot, but I thought it was pretty interesting all the same. I hadn't expected to enjoy it. The reason I did was because of Clara Bow's performance as the hoodlum woman.

Here she gets to play a real bad girl, which more conventional hit movies like It didn't let her do. This woman isn't a romanticized street waif, she has a real edge. She doesn't mind robbing houses - it is she who first suggests the target for the robbery. She bosses around and physically abuses her fostermother (though in fairness the mother started it!). She successfully fends off other men's unwelcome advances, and towards the end she has almost turned into a real femme fatale. It is entirely true that she has led her boyfriend into a life of crime, yet the film also shows that she is a sympathetic character, not a morally corrupt vamp. I think she is a interesting and untypical heroine overall. She holds the film together. Otherwise, Parisian Love reminds me of those movies made in the 1910's that were set in the slums, before the grammar of film had been probably invented. It had a similar atmosphere.