WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[phil noir]

Isn't Amarilly the one is which Mary is introduced cleaning a window? She's sitting on the window ledge, with her feet dangling inside, and wiping the soap off the outside of the glass, and as she does so, she reveals her face and her 'star presence' to the camera and to the cinema audience? It's a really charming moment.

I think it's interesting to see the ways in which the star is introduced to the audience in films. The audience has come to the cinema specifically to see that actor; they know to expect them; but a teasing kind of game is being played with the public's expectations.

Another one of Mary's films in which she stages a delightful first appearance is My Best Girl, where she plays a stock girl bringing pots and pans to the shop floor. To begin with they are piled up in her arms, obscuring her face, but as she drops them, we see who it is. The scene ends with her knickers falling down, if I remember... Mary steps nonchalantly out of them, and another woman coming along a few minutes later mistakes them for her own...

[Ann Harding]

You're absolutely right Phil Noir! In Amarilly, the first glimpse of Mary is through a window she is cleaning. I haven't seen My Best Girl yet, but I surely need to do it soon!

[charliechaplinfan]

I really enjoyed Harry Baur's performance. I'm goingto look out for more of his films.

I'm glad you're liking Mary Pickford, I thought she was going to be all hearts and flowers before I started watching her movies nothing was further fom the truth, she really understands her image and what her public want. My Best Girl is a superb Pickford movie.

[drednm]

MALE AND FEMALE (1919): Re-watched this ons Friday.

Very solid Cecil B. DeMille production of JM Barrie's play, "The
Admirable Crichton" with a few DeMille flourishes.

Crichton (Thomas Meighan) is a very proper butler in a staid British
home. Of course he has a distant crush on Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson), a
very pampered and spoiled young lady. Tweeny the household maid (Lila
Lee) has a crush on Crichton.

The family, headed by a silly old man (Theodore Roberts) decides to
take a sailing trip to the South Seas and gathers up a party of family
and friends. Of course they run the yacht into a rock and are washed
ashore on a deserted island. The rich are all nitwits and haven't a
clue how to do anything for themselves. They assume Meighan and Lee
will continue to wait on them. Wrong.

Slowly it occurs to everyone that there is a new order on the island.
The crafty and self-sufficient Meighan sets out to build a shelter, a
fire, harvest food, etc. while the rich sit and watch. Their attempts
to copy him are sadly disastrous. Eventually they "join" the former
butler's group with Meighan as a sort of king.

Among the items that have washed ashore after the wreck is a book of
poems that talks about a Babylonian king. In a typical DeMille moment,
Swanson daydreams about her life in a Babylonian court. The sequence
that follows ranks among the most famous in silent film history as
Meighan becomes the Babylonian king who sentences the reluctant maiden
(Swanson) to the lions' den as his jealous courtesan (Bebe Daniels)
gleefully watches. The scene is much shorter than I remembered as the
fabulously gowned Swanson walks in among the lions. The famous scene of
the bare-backed Swanson with the roaring lion atop her was very real
(no double).

And so the merry band of islanders, under King Crichton, goes on for a
few years until, just before the marriage of Swanson and Meighan), they
are "rescued" and returned to their former lives (and stations).

Meighan and Swanson are terrific. Roberts is funny as the old man. The
supporting cast includes Julia Faye (as a maid), Robert Cain (as
Swanson's boring suitor), Edmund Burns (as the vicar), Raymond Hatton
(as the silly ass Ernie), Mildred Reardon (as Lady Agatha), and Rhy
Darby (as the pitiful Lady Duncraigie who marries her chauffeur).

Logic aside, this is a stylish and solid film and features a ravishing
20-year-old Gloria Swanson in one of her first big hits for DeMille.
Another famous scene is early in the film as Swanson prepares to taker
her morning bath, a ritual that includes several maids, gallons of rose
water, and another of DeMille's groundbreaking interior designs.

A must see for fans of silent films.

[charliechaplinfan]

I think the thing I like best about the early DeMille silents are the fashions and interior decor. I like his teamings with Gloria Swanson, I think my favorite is The Affairs of Anatol.

I watched a great precode last night, The Torch Singer, starring Claudette Colbert as a young woman who is deserted when pregnant, she's forced to go to a charity hospital to have her baby. When she leaves she moves in with one of the mothers she has met there, she looks after the two children whilst her friend works. The arrangement works until her friend losses her job. She then tries to get employment as a chorus girl again but all doors are shut to her. Unable to take care of her baby she puts her up for adoption, all she asks is that she keeps the name she had given her. Fastforward 5 years and she is a notorious torch singer and, by chance, voice of a childrens radio programme. She longs for her child and tries to find her via the radio programme. Thankfully she finds her and all is well in the end.

This is the second film I've seen in a week with Ricardo Cortez. I absolutely adore Claudette Colbert and the scene were she gives her baby up for adoption really made my eyes well up.

An absolutely great precode, thanks Fernando.

[drednm]

I think I read somewhere that DeMille was the first director to really pay attention to interior design. He (or his set designers) really started a fashion toward getting away from Victorian fussiness and usher in the "arts and crafts" period. The interiors designs in MALE AND FEMALE, WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE, and DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND were really quite trend setting.

Plus with Gloria Swanson as his clothes horse, DeMille created many fashion trends in dresses, shoes, hats, etc.

Silent films are a real and true window into the post-WW I world, the roaring 20s, etc.

[charliechaplinfan]

I agree with you there, I usually prefer the silent movies that are set in their time, I just love the fashions and interiors. Wasn't DeMille famous at this time for showing bathrooms. I can remember seeing a few, usually with Gloria or Thomas Meighan in them.

[feaito]

Thanks to Alison I watched a copy of "Paramount on Parade" (1930), which although not complete, was an absolute joy to see; especially the sequences featuring Maurice Chevalier. I especially liked the Apache segment in which he appeared opposite Evelyn Brent. I was also amazed at Nancy Carroll's beauty and energy. She looks more beautiful than I have ever seen her, with longer hair and a sexier look, dancing with so much pizzazz. Charles Rogers and Lillian Roth have a lovely duet. George Bancroft, Cecil Cunningham and Kay Francis appear in a funny sketch. Ruth Chatterton has one of the stronger dramatic moments singing to her "Marine". For once Mitzi Green did not annoy me, doing an imitation of Chevalier. Clara Bow is also featured to good advantage.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday, I watched Seitz's The Vanishing American (1925) with Richard Dix and Lois Wilson. This western boasts some incomparable images of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. On top, we get a story which shows the fate of the Indians starved in a reservation and victims of crooked government agents. Richard Dix is the leader of a vanishing tribe victim of super-villain Noah Beery (it was really funny to hear the public applaud at his demise on the soundtrack!). I thought that Devil's Doorway owed a lot to that film in terms of narrative. The more I watch silent westerns, the more I realise how much later westerns owed to them. Thanks Jeffrey!

[myrnaloyisdope]

So I've now watched The Last Flight for a 3rd time, and find it more and more engaging upon each viewing. The performances which I thought were uneven on first viewing, now seem perfectly nuanced and I can't envision them any other way. Gosh what a great film, equal parts curiosity and classic. Does anyone happen to have a better copy? Mine is widescreen (?), and cuts off right before the end. PM me if you can help me out.

I also watched the Marie Dressler vehicle Emma, which I was very impressed by. Dressler has such a unique screen presence, as she can be very funny, but can also be alternately sincere and sarcastic. Really there's no one quite like her. She's great in this film and really holds it together. My main reason for watching was the presence of Myrna, who plays the very spoiled and petty daughter to Jean Hersholt. She doesn't get a ton to do, and she's actually genuinely unpleasant in the film (never thought I'd say that). But it's Dressler's picture all the way, as she keeps the film from veering into overt sentimentality or getting too maudlin.

I also should note Clarence Brown's direction which impressed me quite a bit. There are quite a few long takes, and lots of camera movement. There is also some great framing, and uses of foreground and background. The movie looks very good, and has a very polished and modern feel, it doesn't feel like most early talkies. I am eager to see more of Brown's films.

I also checked out The Greeks Had A Word For Them (aka Three Broadway Girls), which is your typical pre-code gold-diggers movie. Joan Blondell, Madge Evans, and Ina Claire play the gold-diggers, with Evans being the good girl, and Claire being the bad one, while Joan tries to keep it all together. The film is fast and fun (and a bit forgettable), with Claire and Joan both getting ample wisecracks. It's a cute film, worth watching if you are fan of the leads, but it feels very much like a programmer. A better print would have been nice.

[drednm]

Myrna... I'll check my copy of LAST FLIGHT which I believe is complete... off to dentist right now....

and always remember: I'll take vanilla.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday, I went on exploring silent westerns with Victor Schwertzinger's Redskin (1929) with Richard Dix.
The film explores, like The vanishing American, the fate of the Indians. The film boats a gorgeous duotone Technicolor for all the scenes taking place in the Indian native place. I found the script less interesting than that of Vanishing American. It didn't explore as well all the facets of the humiliations that the Indians faced. Tully Marshall was a hoot. It's funny to think that Victor Schwertzinger started his career as a film composer!!! Still worth watching, even if it's just for the wonderful cinematography.

[phil noir]

I've just been watching - via youtube - Joan Crawford's last silent film, Our Modern Maidens (1929). It was no masterpiece, but I enjoyed it a lot. It had a sound effects and music soundtrack, which was quite odd at times; the voiceless actors listening to the radio, for example.

The last Joan Crawford film I saw was the superb Possessed (1947), so it was like watching another person, seeing her in her 'jazz baby' persona. Good performances from her, Rod La Rocque and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (he did some amusing impersonations in a party sequence of John Barrymore as Jekyll & Hyde, John Gilbert, and his own father as Robin Hood - not quite Marion Davies in The Patsy, but pretty funny.)

The only other film I've seen Anita Page in was Free and Easy (1930), and I thought she was pretty terrible in that. I was a little more impressed this time, but overall, she doesn't do much for me. I tend to think she is overpraised, simply because she lived to such a ripe old age.

There are a lot more Joan Crawford films on youtube from the same poster - liftoffgirl - if anyone's interested.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Ironically enough I just checked out a couple of Joan Crawford films last night.

First I checked out the very seldom seen Letty Lynton, mostly because I wanted to see some more of Clarence Brown's direction. I wish my copy wasn't so poor, so I could appreciate it better, but again Brown's command of filmmaking was on display once again, there's several tracking shots, some dense mise-en-scene, and some great framing of scenes. I'm planning to check out another Crawford-Brown film in 1931's Possessed.

As for the film, well it's your standard girl falls in love with the perfect man, and then her past comes back to haunt her plot. It's been done a lot, but it's given the MGM treatment which means everything is lavish. Crawford is quite good as the lead, while Robert Montgomery plays the likable love interest, it was nice to see him tone down the goofiness, so he comes off more as charming instead of being desperate. Nils Asther seems entirely in his element as the slimy continental lover from Crawford's past. The film isn't especially salacious, but does have a nice pre-code twist at the end, which is always nice to see. The film is worth checking out.

I also checked out 1928's Our Dancing Daughters which is another early synchronized sound film, and the first of the 3 Crawford-Anita Page films. It's not a great film, but it's pretty fun nonetheless, with its greatest significance probably being as a late document of the flapper era. Lots of snappy dressers, champagne, and "wild youth" on display. It's the first Crawford silent I've seen, and it's interesting to see that she already has her persona somewhat intact as the strong, independent woman with a touch of well-timed vulnerability. The real highlight for me was Page, who is just so wildly over-the-top that she won me over in the end. Initially I was wondering why Johnny Mack Brown's character would choose her over Crawford, and I suppose it still doesn't make sense, but Page just runs with it as the absurdly petulant, spoiled, sleazy, selfish other woman. A particular highlight is when she scolds a bunch of woman for working, urging them instead to essentially whore off their daughters to rich men. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 2 films have in store.

[charliechaplinfan]

Phil Noir, you might have started with the wrong Anita Page movies. She is just superb in Night Court.