Tweet Silents in TCM's Aug. Summer Under the Stars lineup

Posted the full list in Talkie News, but here are the silent (or silent-related) titles:

2012 Summer Under the Stars
Schedule

All times Eastern. Schedule subject to change.
* Indicates first time being featured in TCM's SUMMER UNDER THE STARS
Titles in bold indicate TCM premieres.

Thursday, August 2 – Myrna Loy
6:00 AM The Great Divide (’29)

Don't know this film...is it a full-on talkie?

Friday, August 10 – Lionel Barrymore*
6:00 AM West of Zanzibar (’28)
7:15 AM The Devil Doll (’36)
8:45 AM Mata Hari (’31)
10:15 AM Grand Hotel (’32)
12:15 PM Should Ladies Behave? (’33)
1:45 PM This Side of Heaven (’34)
3:15 PM The Return of Peter Grimm (’36)
4:45 PM A Yank at Oxford (’38)
6:30 PM Young Dr. Kildare (’38)
8:00 PM You Can’t Take it With You (’38)
10:15 PM Night Flight (’33)
12:00 AM Key Largo (’48)
2:00 AM The Gorgeous Hussy (’36)
4:00 AM Lone Star (’52)

Wednesday, August 15 – Lillian Gish*
6:00 AM Broken Blossoms (’19)
7:45 AM Orphans of the Storm (’21)
10:30 AM La Boheme (’26)
12:15 PM The Scarlet Letter (’26)
2:00 PM Commandos Strike at Dawn (’42)
3:45 PM Portrait of Jennie (’48)
5:15 PM The Comedians (’67)
8:00 PM Intolerance (’16)
11:30 PM The Wind (’28)
1:00 AM The Night of the Hunter (’55)
2:45 AM Orders to Kill (’58)
4:45 AM One Romantic Night (’30)

Tuesday, August 21 – Kay Francis* (not silent-welated, but we all wuv her just the same)
6:00 AM Doctor Monica (’34)
7:00 AM Mary Stevens, MD (’33)
8:15 AM Jewel Robbery (’32)
9:30 AM One Way Passage (’32)
10:45 AM The Keyhole (’33)
12:00 PM British Agent (’34)
1:30 PM Confession (’37)
3:00 PM Women are Like That (’38)
4:30 PM Little Men (’40)
6:00 PM The Feminine Touch (’41)
8:00 PM Guilty Hands (’31)
9:30 PM The House on 56th Street (’33)
10:45 PM Mandalay (’34)
12:00 AM Stranded (’35)
1:30 AM Give Me Your Heart (’36)
3:15 AM My Bill (’38)
4:30 AM Play Girl (’40)

Thursday, August 30 – Warren William* (I'll include these too, just because)
6:00 AM Bedside (’34)
7:15 AM The First Hundred Years (’38)
8:30 AM Wives Under Suspicion (’38)
9:45 AM The Mouthpiece (’32)
11:15 AM Skyscraper Souls (’32)
1:00 PM Three on a Match (’32)
2:15 PM The Match King (’32)
3:45 PM The Mind Reader (’33)
5:00 PM Gold Diggers of 1933 (’33)
6:45 PM Times Square Playboy (’36)
8:00 PM Lady for a Day (’33)
9:45 PM Cleopatra (’34)
11:45 PM Employees Entrance (’33)
1:15 AM The Case of the Howling Dog (’34)
2:45 AM The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (’39)
4:00 AM Arsene Lupin Returns (’38)

More silent Barrymore would have been nice (although I confess, I've never seen the 1931 Mata Hari)...but there are some Gish titles I haven't seen, so that's a treat.

Plus lots of pre-code titles I can't wait to see. My DVR is going to be bulging at the seams.

Based on information via IMDB, THE GREAT DIVIDE was a full talkie, using Vitaphone as the sound system.

Based on information via IMDB, THE GREAT DIVIDE was a full talkie, using Vitaphone as the sound system.

Warner Archive Collection has it on DVD. It's a super-creaky early talkie. Warner Bros. posted a clip on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzBCQxDj7g

Based on information via IMDB, THE GREAT DIVIDE was a full talkie, using Vitaphone as the sound system.

IMDb also says there was a silent version released, but since this has already been issued as a talkie via Warner Archive, it's a safe bet that's what TCM will be showing.

Chaplin aside, what would the last silent version of a talkie released by a major Hollywood studio? Would 1929 be the last year this practice took place?

I don’t know if it was the last, but there was All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930.

[Christopher Jacobs]

While it was more common in 1929, there were still quite a few silent editions of major studio talking pictures released in 1930. Besides ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, one of the best (like AQOTWF arguably better than the talkie) was William Wyler's HELL'S HEROES. There was also Clara Bow's TRUE TO THE NAVY, Frank Capra's LADIES OF LEISURE, and a number of others.

There was some speculation a while back (http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?p=39021) about a now-lost silent conversion of Garbo's 'Anna Christie', which must surely have been the last. It makes some sense, in that Garbo's career in sound lagged somewhat behind her peers (the story being that MGM deliberately stalled as they were worried about how her accent would go over).

In that thread, I wonder whether there's a source that definitively separates films which were made in both silent and sound versions (e.g. 'Marianne') from sound films that were released as silents in certain markets. I still haven't found one, if indeed one exists ...

A slightly different topic, but Murnau's 'Tabu' (1931) would have to be one of the last custom-made silents to be distributed by a major studio, would it not? Again as discussed in an older thread (http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10036), the distribution of silents was formally phased out on 1 January 1933, but by that point, the market was composed solely of older films reaching the end of their distribution run. Had this end-point not been imposed, I wouldn't be surprised if some of those markets had've continued on with silents for some years beyond that.

THE GREAT DIVIDE (1929).....
IMDb also says there was a silent version released, but since this has already been issued as a talkie via Warner Archive, it's a safe bet that's what TCM will be showing.

The sound version has been on TCM a few times already over the years, so there should be no doubt that's what will be on in again in August.

Based on information via IMDB, THE GREAT DIVIDE was a full talkie, using Vitaphone as the sound system.

IMDb also says there was a silent version released, but since this has already been issued as a talkie via Warner Archive, it's a safe bet that's what TCM will be showing.

Chaplin aside, what would the last silent version of a talkie released by a major Hollywood studio? Would 1929 be the last year this practice took place?

Not quite what you're asking, but The SIlent Enemy was a silent that was released in 1930. Though filmed silent, Paramount added a spoken prologue and a screen credit for the musical score, so it was not intended to be presented in "silent fashion," it's just that they didn't take sound equipment into the wilds of northern Canada.

[silentfilm]

And Murnau's City Girl (1930) was released in a silent version in Europe and probably Asia too. That version is available on BluRay. The movie was refilmed as a talkie (without Murnau's participation) and that is the version that was released in the USA.

There were several silent B-westerns released in 1930.

Calling The Great Divide a Myrna Loy film isn't quite accurate- Dorothy Mackaill is the star.

WHOA TCM kick a*** this August especially in Silents