Yesterday I watched Maurice Tourneur's Lorna Doone (1922). Funnily, I read R.D. Blackmore's novel years ago and I still have a copy on my shelves. I would need a refresher course as I cannot remember much of it.
England, in the XVIIth century, in a part of Devon full of bandits, the Doones. A young girl is abducted by the pack of bandits and raised as one of their own...
This Tourneur feature boats one of the most amazing cinematography and composition I have ever seen. Each image is exquisitely lit leaving the foreground in darkness and revealing the background with deep focus. Tourneur produces a real 'painting' effect with each scene, like when a door opens and suddenly reveals a new depth to the canvas. One can argue that the film is not perhaps as suspenseful as it should be. But, it certainly has atmosphere. The use of locations (as with many Ince productions of the time) is brilliant: seascape, ravines, torrents etc. The film is some kind of a childhood fairytale story. Very beautiful.
LORNA DOONE is another film I've had for ages and have never watched. I did watch THE COVERED WAGON yesterday, a 1923 film with some great support from Alan Hale, Ernest Torrence, and Tully Marshll. The leads, Lois Wilson and J. Warren Kerrigan, were kinda blah. The on-location work and visuals by James Cruze were quite good, maybe making this film the first western epic?
Yes, I do believe The Covered Wagon was the first epic western, and it led the way for The Iron Horse and The Winning of Barbara Worth. Guess I could also toss in Tumbleweeds, since those four cover the different stages of westward expansion in the US.
I spent a rainy afternoon yesterday watching The Navigator with Buster Keaton. Despite being a big Buster fan I've never watched The Navigator, this was one of his bigger box office hit and it has some really funny moments and incredible timing. The famous scene under the sea (filmed I think at Lake Tahoe) proved very tricky to film but is worth it. The pairing of Buster and his mate was one of the better pairings. She's still the cause of many of his problems but somehow he's more tolerant than usual. It's a great film, I can find no faults but I prefer films like OurHospitality, Sherlock Jnr, The General and Steamboat Bill Jnr.
He's a genius
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
I saw The Blackbird recently. I agree with Fernando and others. I can only add that I really enjoy Lon Chaney's eccentric portrayals. He brought a great deal of colour to his characters, and to films in general. My feeling is that a lot of things became rather conventional once the studio system was in place, but there was still room for creative people like him. I need to watch more of his films.
I also saw the almost-precode Belle of the Nineties starring Mae West. The code was probably not yet completely in place when it was made, since it gets away with some insinuations and scenes that I couldn't see it getting away with later. Still, The Belle of the Nineties production was beset with problems related to censorship. One example of that is the title, which originally was It Ain't no Sin. They had to change it. Another example is Mae West's performance, which is much more subdued here. In a way I like this change. Mae West might have played herself in all her films, but in this one she displays a kind of thoughtfulness missing in her earlier roles. She's also a knock-out in those 1890's dresses and hats, and seems very much at home in that setting. The costuming and decor of this film is superb.
The Belle of the Nineties contains a scene where Mae West sings a song about sin, and the film cuts between her and a religious revival meeting, and it eventually superimposes her face over the meeting. It feels unpleasant to watch black people being depicted as comically ignorant and crazily religious in films from this period, but I have to say, this sequence is really well done, and its cinematic quality astonished me.
Last edited by Synnove on November 11th, 2008, 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ann Harding wrote:I got to see a very funny silent comedy by René Clair: Les Deux Timides (1928). The story revolves around a young lawyer (Pierre Batcheff) who suffers from a terribe shyness. During his first plea in court when he is supposed to defend a wife-beater, he makes a huge blunder and his client gets the maximum. We move some times later. The man has been released after serving his time while the shy young lawyer is trying to court a young lady. But his fomer client has set his eyes on the same person...
All the ingredients of a perfect comedy of manners are assembled: the shy and quite silly lawyer, his overbearing client, the lawyer's powerful aunt (Françoise Rosay), the ingenue and the retiring and shy father of the lady in question. Clair uses very cleverly a split screen technique or 'painting the portrait' of an event as seen by a person. It's brilliantly paced and quite hilarious. He gave this Labiche comedy a wonderful edge. Very funny!!!
I saw this at the SF Silent Film Fest this past summer and could not agree with you more. Delightful!
I'm slowly catching up on some of my backlogged pre-codes and silents, and I managed to watch 3 the other night.
First up I watched King Vidor's Jack-Knife Man, which I believe is his earliest surviving film. The plot revolves around an old tramp who lives on a houseboat, who ends up taking in a dying woman and her young son. The woman dies, and then the tramp is forced to take of the boy. There are some nice scenes with the tramp and the boy, that I want to say are evocative of Vidor's later film The Champ, but I haven't actually seen it. But the rapport between the boy and the tramp reminded me a bit of Chaplin in The Kid.
It's not the most substantial work, as it's more of a light comedy-drama and clocks in at under an hour. But it's pretty accomplished nonetheless. One of Vidor's great strengths was his ability to tell a story simply and effectively, and this film is no exception. It's worth a look.
I also checked out John Ford's Four Sons, and I have to admit it was a big disappointment, especially after Gagman's raves about it. That's not to say there weren't some good things, notably the famous battle sequence which is beautifully shot as Ford does his best Murnau impersonation. There was another great sequence early on in the film where the sons are introduced, the editing is marvelous and so fluid. I also liked the Movietone score, although I thought the sound effects could have been more prominent. The battle sequence is given a ghostly quality due both to the photography, and the haunting Movietone voice calling out "Matterchen".
As for my complaints well, I didn't like the whole subplot with the mean German officer. It didn't accomplish anything other than perhaps to suggest the motivation for the one son joining the US Army. If that subplot was removed, and more time devoted to actually developing the characters of the four sons, I think it would have worked a lot better. Plus the film falls prone in my mind to some of Ford's excesses, notably a kind of pro-America jingoism that undermines the fact that the characters are German.
The film failed to stir me even though I really wanted it to. Instead what I was were some great sequences, and a lot of filler.
Finally I watched 1931's Rebound with Ina Claire and Myrna Loy. It's a typical drawing room comedy-drama, and was based on a play by Donald Ogden Stewart, who worked on both Holiday and The Philadelphia Story. I was curious about this one for a few reasons, firstly obviously is Myrna, secondly was the source material, and thirdly was the presence of Robert Williams who I thought was great in Platinum Blonde.
The plot revolves around Claire who plays a wealthy socialite whose true love (Robert Ames) is engaged to a less than honorable lady (Myrna). Williams plays Claire's friend who also is in love with her. The story doesn't play out like you think it would, at least not directly, as Claire ends up marrying Ames about a half hour into the film, while Myrna marries some rich guy named Lyman (Lyman!). Things get complicated when Myrna shows up on the honeymoon, and Ames ends up spending most of his time with her, and not even having the decency to sneak around. All the while, Williams pines away like the lovable fool that he is, offering his love and support and getting rebuffed time and time again.
Common sense would tell you that Claire and Williams would end up together, but you'd be wrong. Williams basically begs Claire to be with him, she says no, and then goes on this huge rant about how she's let marriage change her, and make her weak and dependent, and she tells Ames what she thinks of him and Myrna. She's now a free and independent woman...until the last scene. Ames comes crawling back, saying he's a changed man, and how much he truly loves her. Claire says no dice, starts walking out the door, and literally in the last 10 seconds of the film takes him back.
Sorry to spoil the film, but I was pretty annoyed by it. Ames' character was just so stiff, stodgy, boring, and he's unfaithful, and yet he gets the girl in the end. Hell he's not even handsome. I've noticed a lot of the early talkies suffer from a dearth of charismatic leading men, and Ames is among the worst. He's not as bad as Conway Tearle, but he's pretty bad. His character in Rebound could have worked if he was able in anyway to portray some sort of charisma or charm that would suggest at the very least he could make you laugh, but man it just doesn't work at all. I will say that Ina Claire was pretty good in it, I've never seen her before, but she has a Claudette Colbert-esque style to her. Myrna is good as always, although she doesn't get a ton to do, and Williams impressed me again, it's a shame that he died with only 4 films under his belt, he was doing Spencer Tracy before Spencer Tracy, and I think he would have done some pretty great things.
"Do you think it's dangerous to have Busby Berkeley dreams?" - The Magnetic Fields
Well, Myrnaloyisdope, that's really interesting!
Just one point, the earliest surviving Vidor film is Bud's Recruit (1918), a nice little short available on Treasures from the American Film Archives Vol III.
As for Robert Williams, he was a fantastic comedian! I have only seen him in Platinum Blonde and Devotion and he won me over completely: his fantastice witty delivery and acting. Such a shame he died so young.....
As for Ina Claire, I have only seen her in The Royal Family of Broadway and she was absolutely superb in it. Her acting hasn't dated one bit unlike many other players of the era.
Last edited by Ann Harding on November 12th, 2008, 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yesterday I watched Souls for Sale (1923) by Rupert Hughes with Eleanor Boardman, Richard Dix and Lew Cody.
Eleanor Boardman marries super-cad and villain Lew Cody, but escapes from the train as she is suddenly scared stiff of him. She ends up in Hollywood and works as an extra while her hubby is fleecing various 'wives'...
This film is certainly a very interesting curio. A film about Hollywood made years before Show People and showing von Stroheim at work on Greed, Charlie Chaplin, Fred Niblo and a few others! I though Eleanor Boardman was just as sensitive and touching as in her later years under Vidor's direction. Cody was doing his usual dyed-in-the-wool villian with gusto. Certainly a very interesting feature!!! Thanks Jeffrey.
I loved Souls For Sale when I watched it. It's shares a lot in common with Show People the biggest difference of course is that it isn't a comedy. To me it felt really truthful as to what it must have been like behind the scenes in Hollywood.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Watched last night a 1932 "modern dress" version of VANITY FAIR, starring Myrna Loy in her follow-up to EMMA. This is supposedly Loy's first top-billed movie.
This was made 3 years before the Miriam Hopkins BECKY SHARP, famous for being the first full Technicolor film.
Maybe because this one was stripped of costumes and ornate settings, Loy's Becky sure seemed nastier than I remember from the Hopkins film or Thackeray's great novel. The basic story and motivations all remained the same.
Barbara Kent was a blah Amelia. Conway Tearle was Rawdon. Walter Byron (from QUEEN KELLY) was Osborne. Most supporting players were like something out of Dickens. For example, Billy Bevan, the Mack Sennett comic, plays Joseph Sedley.
Take two rival kings, both in love with the same woman, and both addicted to gambling, add some treachery, murder, and plenty of elephants, a cast of thousands, and toss in the exotic locale of India, (as seen through the eyes of a German director), and you’ve got the incredible silent film, A Throw of Dice. Plenty more ingredients are used to further spice up this luscious fable, (including a hooded-cobra, which crawls over a napping man), but the less said the better.
Director Franz Osten keeps the fairy-tale moving, has a penchant for push-ins and pull-backs that work to great effect, and certainly knows how to fill a frame (with elephants!). He also has the absolutely stunning Seeta Devi as his female lead. How could he miss?
Hmm, Birth of a Nation, I hesitate before reviewing this because I don't want to stir up a hornets nest. On the other hand it does deserve a review. I've been reading Karl Brown's book Adventures with D W Griffith a completely fascinating read, highly recommended for any silent movie lovers.
I'm really torn about this film, the film is extremely marred by the slant Griffith chose to give it. He does tell a good story though, the editing style and the photography keeps the story flowing, 3 hours 10 minutes flew by. After having read Karl Brown I felt I was privy to some of the secrets of filming, I was kept busy looking out for the scenes he described.
Griffith mastered the art of building his film to a rousing climax and he led the field and showed other film makers how making movies should be made, but for me it's flawed because of it's subject matter.
I think this is very much what I felt about Griffith too, Karl Brown almost describes an enigma, a gentleman but a gentleman who couldn't see the offence he might cause with his views on the South. Like all enigmas, I'd like to know more.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
I though Eleanor Boardman was just as sensitive and touching as in her later years under Vidor's direction. Cody was doing his usual dyed-in-the-wool villian with gusto. Certainly a very interesting feature!!! Thanks Jeffrey. 
