What's The Last Silent Movie You Watched? [2014-15]

[drednm]

Maybe a tad over done that "jag," but important to show Haines' total "sea change."

[Roscoe]

I watched John Ford's FOUR SONS the other day, and got a lot out of it. Focusing on a German mother and her four sons before during and after WWI, the movie flirts with melodrama and sentimentality, but never once crosses the line, despite a rather prolonged denouement and I'm feeling churlish bringing it up because of the incredibly high quality of what has gone before. Marvelous and affecting, it shows the influence of F.W. Murnau and German Expressionism very very clearly indeed, lots of shadows and gorgeous black and white and moving camerawork. Essential viewing.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

I watched John Ford's FOUR SONS the other day, and got a lot out of it. Focusing on a German mother and her four sons before during and after WWI, the movie flirts with melodrama and sentimentality, but never once crosses the line, despite a rather prolonged denouement and I'm feeling churlish bringing it up because of the incredibly high quality of what has gone before. Marvelous and affecting, it shows the influence of F.W. Murnau and German Expressionism very very clearly indeed, lots of shadows and gorgeous black and white and moving camerawork. Essential viewing.

Yes, a very affecting and enjoyable slice of sentiment, which becomes more powerful as it progresses. And another of Ford's gallery of memorable mothers. I found the scene-setting a bit hard to take, but once the plot gets under way the film becomes most engrossing. The copy I saw had an orchestral score, but I wondered if it was available with the original Movietone soundtrack.

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

The other evening I saw Sidney Franklin’s The Primitive Lover (1922), starring Constance Talmadge, Harrison Ford, and Kenneth Harlan. One of those films I first heard about a long while back, and finally caught up with. I found it entertaining, generally speaking, but rather mild compared to some of Connie’s other, funnier vehicles. The plot has Connie torn between her stodgy ex-husband (Ford) and his rival for her affections, a supposedly adventurous novelist (Harlan). Her ex decides to take matters into his own hands and prove that he’s the real adventurer, while the rival is not what he pretends to be.

One problem: Connie’s character doesn’t drive the plot. She spends most of her time reacting to the situation, as she—and the viewer—realize that her ex is the better man. Another problem, for me anyway, is that I didn’t find the male leads very charismatic, and there aren’t many other characters around for most of the running time until Big Joe Roberts finally shows up, towards the end, and provides some laughs. I wish he’d been written into the story a lot earlier. The best sequence is the prologue, a nautical fantasy that’s deliberately overplayed, and quite amusing.

In sum: worth seeing, but if I wanted to show someone unfamiliar with Connie Talmadge a good example of what she could do, I’d select Her Sister from Paris or The Duchess of Buffalo.

[greta de groat]

I haven't seen any comments from anyone who went to the silent series at the Stanford this summer. I only caught two, and missed the shorts on the second half of the programs since it was already was past my bedtime. Dennis James introduced and accompanied all, so you know the music was great.


Eve's Leaves (1926). Grapevine has this, but i hadn't seen it. I'm a big Leatrice Joy fan so i wanted to go to both of her films in the series. Here she's the daughter of a sea captain who keeps her in trousers and a short haircut and hopes for the best. She's starting to get interested in men, though, and her only source of information is the cheesy self-help books that the cook loans her. On shore leave in China, she spots William Boyd and tries to see if they have the correct vibrations. Eventually he gets shanghaid and she tries to vamp him, with amusing results. The film has a subplot of annoying Chinese bandits that keep menacing everyone and goes on way too long, and for a girl raised with sailors, she sure seems to be an ineffective fighter. But it was overall a fun film and Leatrice is a much underrated comedienne.

Up the Road with Sallie (1918) Constance Talmadge is always fun to watch, though i confess i ended up a bit disappointed with th is one since the premise was so promising. Dutch inherits a little money and "kidnaps" her old aunt, who had had a tyrannical husband and no fun, and they go on a driving trip to seek out adventure. Is it too much of a spoiler to say that at the second stop they meet men and go home? Not that they didn't have some adventure but still ... I'm finally beginning to realize that Norman Kerry could be quite attractive if he'd just lose that revolting waxed mustache.

Regrettably, i'm under the weather at the moment and missed For Alimony Only last night, so hopefully someone will report on that. Or the other films in the series, there were several Reginald Denny films, one of which i hadn't seen, as well as a Clara Bow double bill.

greta

[CJBx7]

Twilight of a Woman's Soul (1913) by Yevgeni Bauer. It tells a fairly simple story of a young noblewoman who helps the poor, only to be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man. When she tells her newly-wed husband her dark secret, it affects both of their lives forever. It was a rather haunting film, and the earliest of Bauer's work that survives. It's not quite as refined as what Griffith was doing at the time, but the lighting and camera angles are occasionally quite interesting. The acting shows the influence of contemporary theater work, but it's more subdued than some other efforts from this time. Overall pretty intriguing, and it tells the story in a very economical and precise way.

[Donald Binks]

"Old Heidelberg" (1928)

A package of films arrived in the post from America this morning. The first one I choose to shove in the DVD machine, put my feet up and gawk at was “In Old Heidelberg” (1928) (sometimes known as “The Student Prince” - or as we lovingly called this musical in Oz "The Stupid Ponce")

I was delighted with every minute of it – and made use of the box of Kleenex towards the end. 

I am a sucker for schműtzen und schmaltz and I daresay contemporary audiences would not view the picture the way I do. I am probably more akin to the audiences of 1928 the way I look at these pictures. I empathise totally with the times. Also, I am well acquainted with all the courtly ways and means as existed in the German monarchies – which were all swept away after the Great War. This film brought everything back with a loving sweep.

At first I did not think that I could warm to Ramon Navarro as a German Crown Prince – but, he had a charm on the screen that certainly came across. Jean Hersholt was also marvelous and I loved the Lubitsch touch of having him dance with a two ton Tessie in one scene. Norma Shearer – whilst not an absolute beauty – was nonetheless very effective in her part.

The story was perhaps a more dramatic reading than the Operetta and the only music that Carl Davis used that was also in the operetta was Guedemas Igatur (something which I have sung myself when a member of a choir ). I think it is an older song than the operetta and was incorporated into it.

I often wonder why people who make period films don’t watch these old silents – so that they may get some inkling as to correct dress and whatnot. They have no idea today in a lot of pictures – in this film, everything was splendid.

I think this is one of those pictures I shall carry around in my head for a long time. I do this with all the good films I have seen.

[entredeuxguerres]

...Norma Shearer – whilst not an absolute beauty – was nonetheless very effective in her part.
...

Not an absolute beauty, perhaps, but without question an absolute sweetheart. Her beauty, however, kept improving & didn't reach its peak for a decade.

I also thought Novarro acquitted himself surprisingly well; one of supreme favorites.

[sepiatone]

Mid-Channel(1919), Clara Kimball Young. I liked it better than "Eyes of Youth".(Youtube)

[Donald Binks]

...Norma Shearer – whilst not an absolute beauty – was nonetheless very effective in her part.
...

Not an absolute beauty, perhaps, but without question an absolute sweetheart. Her beauty, however, kept improving & didn't reach its peak for a decade.

I also thought Novarro acquitted himself surprisingly well; one of supreme favorites.

Agree with you. I think the problem with Novarro is that one tends to know about his private life too much and this tends to unavoidably cloud one's judgement when of course it shouldn't. He was therefore a very good actor if he could pull of such a convincing performance - which he did.

I couldn't help wondering whether the then current Prince of Wales saw this film and whether or not it affected his judgment in any way in making the momentous decision he was to make eight years later?

[Donald Binks]

After steaming up the Rhine the other day in 1902 to visit "In Old Heidelberg", I decided yesterday to continue my Ruritanian adventures by taking another steamer, this time up the Danube about the same period in time. I was to pay a visit to "The Merry Widow" (1925) in the form of the delightful Mae Murray - she of the bee-stung lips - a comedienne who had at her disposal a whole plethora of enchanting mannerisms and looks and who could transform herself into a very effective tragedienne at a moment's notice. How absolutely awful that her career plunged over the precipice in the early part of the 1930's and that she died in abject poverty. For the life of me, I can see no reason for this tragic end to what I would have thought was a promising further career.

"The Merry Widow" is a film that Erich von Stroheim actually managed to finish - although whether he kept to a budget, I do not know. There is a curious title card which announces that the film is "under his personal direction". Does this imply that directors on other films issued their instructions by way of long-distance telephone? Curious.

The film starts off by introducing us to a country known as "Mounteblanko" which is a rather unsubtle way of disguising what is obviously a setting in Montenegro. We see the King and Queen and learn that the King is also "Gospodar" of the country - a fact that I think we could have well done without in that it may have led to unnecessary titters throughout the audience.

I must have attended a morning performance of the film, as the full orchestra was not in attendance and instead I was serenaded by the lush trumpeting of the Mighty Wurlitzer (which I later found out to be the Moller organ at the Fox Cinema in Atlanta - ably played by Mr. Dennis James).

Of course watching the film one immediately starts to think of the operetta by the celebrated Austro-Hungarian composer - Lehar Ferenc and I am pleased to say that some of the airs from that operetta are cleverly woven into the accompaniment - but not to an extant where they become overwhelming. The story line of course is made more into a drama so coursing it in a direction away from the lightheartedness of the musical version.

One of the first characters we see in some detail waft on the screen is the Crown Prince Mirko - from the House of Teeth; an absolute rotter played by that master portrayer of villianry - Roy D'Arcy (whose career also took a nosedive in the early '30's). von Stroheim wanted to play this role himself - and you can see why - but he imbued Mr. D'Arcy with every nuance of the leering, unkind, spoiled utter wretch of a man the he was.

Next we see Crown Prince Mirko's cousin - Prince Danilo, played by John Gilbert as effortlessly and as swaggeringly as he dealt with most of his roles. I could not help but notice that he had the most expressive eyes. So much could be conveyed by one of 'his looks' - none of which could have been written on a title card. He was probably the inspiration for the song "With one look" from the musical version of "Sunset Boulevard".

The storyline is the usual drivel that forms the basis of most romantic plots. Miss Murray is a danseuse in a show on tour from America and the cast are trying to find lodgings in the same Inn as the Army Company of which the two Princes are members. Both princes are smitten by Miss Murray's charms (who wouldn't) and the story then enlarges itself as a battle between the evil one and the nice one.

Another character I should not forget to mention is Tully Marshall who von Stroheim must have picked as a man who could transform his facial expression so easily into a leering, lascivious lecher - almost drooling with anticipated nastiness. As part of the ludicrous plot, this character is actually the one who marries Miss Murray before falling down dead on his wedding night - much to our relief and I daresay Miss Murray's.

If I say that the plot is ludicrous - do not let this dissuade you from looking at this picture, as the way it is all put together is full of charm and wonder. One has to expect that from time to time a plot does not have to seriously get in the way of a good picture which can be carried alone by the people appearing in it.

There are memorable scenes and I think everyone has probably seen the Waltz scene - which was featured on the "Hollywood" series. I found it all quite enchanting and of course von Stroheim - with his eye for detail has ensured that everything is lavish and sumptuous - probably much to the chagrin of the accountants at MGM.

I was very pleased to have spent some time in an era now long gone, but fondly recalled and thus enjoyed this picture immensely.

[Murnau]

I watched John Ford's FOUR SONS the other day, and got a lot out of it. Focusing on a German mother and her four sons before during and after WWI, the movie flirts with melodrama and sentimentality, but never once crosses the line, despite a rather prolonged denouement and I'm feeling churlish bringing it up because of the incredibly high quality of what has gone before. Marvelous and affecting, it shows the influence of F.W. Murnau and German Expressionism very very clearly indeed, lots of shadows and gorgeous black and white and moving camerawork. Essential viewing.

I'm a little bit late but I have to tell to everyone that the German officer who looks out of the train's window is Carl von Haartman from Finland. He arrived to Hollywood in 1926 or so, worked with Erich von Stroheim in The Wedding March, William Wellman in Wings and Howard Hughes in Hell's Angels before returned to Finland. He directed here two films (Korkein voitto, 1929 and Kajastus, 1930) but they flopped and that was the end of his career.

[entredeuxguerres]

..."The Merry Widow" is a film that Erich von Stroheim actually managed to finish - although whether he kept to a budget, I do not know. There is a curious title card which announces that the film is "under his personal direction". Does this imply that directors on other films issued their instructions by way of long-distance telephone? Curious....

Cecil B. sometimes included that same phrase in his credits...as if viewers might be dubious so eminent a personage would deign to trouble himself with mere technical details, & might delegate them instead to vassals.

I've never understood why picturizations of, or based upon, Lehar's divine operetta don't simply adhere to its well-known libretto; it's not broke, so why try to fix it. The settings of this picture, Old Heidelburg, & The Wedding March lead me to pigeonhole them together, mentally. I love all three, but am most moved by the latter (despite reservations about parts of it), owing to Fay Wray's unforgettable performance.

Hard to believe so marvelous a picture as this one hasn't rated a full orchestral score; I'm willing to endure the "Mighty Wurlitzer" for the sake of the picture, but I won't pretend to like it.

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

Film Forum is currently hosting a Frank Capra retrospective, so this evening I dropped in for The Matinee Idol (1928), which I hadn’t seen before. It’s a charming movie, and a terrific vehicle for Bessie Love, who is feisty, funny and touching. I loved the way the film develops from a straightforward comedy into something more complex and poignant. The print looked great, except for some choppy moments during the acting troupe’s first performance of their Civil War melodrama. (Some of the gags in that sequence bear a noticeable resemblance to the similar sequence in Spite Marriage, released a year later.) I did wonder if a scene or two might be missing, first because surviving prints of this feature run less than an hour, but more specifically because the romance between Bessie and leading man Johnnie Walker seems to happen very abruptly, off-stage as it were. Even so, an enjoyable and offbeat movie. My favorite scene: towards the end, when Bessie realizes that Johnnie has been posing as someone else when the rain washes his makeup off -- a very clever device.

[Mike Gebert]

Cecil B. sometimes included that same phrase in his credits...as if viewers might be dubious so eminent a personage would deign to trouble himself with mere technical details, & might delegate them instead to vassals.

It means someone who had his own production unit would make both movies he was the executive producer of, and movies he directed himself and presumably were more personal or bigger budgeted or whatever. For instance, a movie like Eve's Leaves, mentioned here recently, came out of DeMille's unit but was directed by someone else and wasn't to be considered as lofty as King of Kings.

A similar example today would be someone like Steven Spielberg who's behind lots of things, from dramas and comedies to animation, but only some of those are A Steven Spielberg Film— Lincoln, yes, Real Steel or Transformers: Rise of the Fallen, no.

[entredeuxguerres]

Cecil B. sometimes included that same phrase in his credits...as if viewers might be dubious so eminent a personage would deign to trouble himself with mere technical details, & might delegate them instead to vassals.

It means someone who had his own production unit would make both movies he was the executive producer of, and movies he directed himself and presumably were more personal or bigger budgeted or whatever. For instance, a movie like Eve's Leaves, mentioned here recently, came out of DeMille's unit but was directed by someone else and wasn't to be considered as lofty as King of Kings.

Opening credits for Why Change Your Wife placed Cecil's name at the top as Producer, & below the title, his humble (older, I think) brother William's as Director; if this were the only picture William directed, it would make him one of my favorites.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Watched a wonderful Japanese silent movie last night, JAPANESE GIRLS AT THE HARBOR (1933) by Hiroshi Shimizu, a touching, visually lyrical character drama with a sometimes surprising but gentle touch of romantic melodrama, about two best friends who go in unexpectedly diverse separate ways after graduating from school. It’s always a welcome surprise to discover new films that do interesting things in different ways, such as unexpected uses of settings, image composition, and transitions to reinforce or complement the moods, themes, and characterizations. The optional score by Donald Sosin is very evocative.

Unfortunately it is only on DVD rather than Blu-ray, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. The picture quality is still mostly very good, with a few issues like periodic scratches, gate weave, or visible splices that might be fixed digitally if the film had a major audience. It really deserves to be more widely seen. It’s part of a four-film "Eclipse" set of low-key working-class dramas by the same director from the 1930s-40s that just arrived in yesterday’s mail from the Criterion Collection's 24-hour half-price sale last week.

[Chris Snowden]

I haven't seen any comments from anyone who went to the silent series at the Stanford this summer. I only caught two, and missed the shorts on the second half of the programs since it was already was past my bedtime. Dennis James introduced and accompanied all, so you know the music was great.

I got to see most of these films. This series was evidently designed to be a horn-tooting opportunity for the Stanford Foundation's preservation work, as all of the films were among its preservation projects, and most (maybe all of them) originated in the John Hampton Collection.

I didn't see the Gish Sisters' Romola (1924), but I heard later that the print was beautiful and that it was a terrific show. I also missed Reginald Denny's What Happened to Jones (1926), but I did see it at the Stanford years ago and it's a wonderful light comedy.

I'd also seen Denny's That's My Daddy (1928), and it was so good that I was very eager to see it again. Before the screening, Dennis James mentioned that the restoration crew had taken three incomplete prints of varying image quality and used the best scenes from each to create the restoration. Unfortunately, someone at UCLA must have pulled the first box he found labeled "That's My Daddy," because what we got was one of those three incomplete prints, not the restoration. It was missing a couple of reels (and the climactic scene), and was frequently covered in weird abrasions, as if someone had unspooled the print and cleaned it with a Brillo pad. A huge disappointment. I hope the restoration gets screened at a film festival or two; it's a very charming comedy and deserves to be seen.

Richard Barthelmess' The Bright Shawl (1923) is a pretty good film, but when it's also got Dorothy Gish and Edward G. Robinson in the cast, you really get your hopes up and the film doesn't rise to meet the challenge.

I'd already seen The Goose Woman (1925) before and wasn't in a hurry to see it again, so I stayed home that night. But I wouldn't have, if I'd known that a second feature was being screened afterward: The Home Maker (1925), with Alice Joyce and Clive Brook. It was screened here and at Cinecon, and I managed to miss it twice. Oh well. It was an idiosyncrasy of this festival that the bonus films weren't announced ahead of time; you had to know to look at a promo poster in the window of the theater as you exited, and to look way down at the bottom where next week's bonus films were mentioned.

Most of those bonus films were pretty bad, and all but a couple were shorts. Lightnin' Wins (1926) presents a young Gary Cooper in support of a German Shepherd. The film is abysmal but at least Coop gets a lot of screen time. The same can't be said for Humphrey Bogart, whose earliest known film (The Dancing Town, 1928) was screened next. It's even worse than the one with the dog, and Bogart's appearance is literally a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role. He's on screen for maybe six frames, standing in a doorway in medium-long shot.

Among the other shorts were three of the Hal Roach comedies that TCM viewers saw a week or so ago, and several cartoons. There was also the first half of Chapter 10 of Pearl White's Plunder (1923), featuring an almost unrecognizably young and scrawny Warren William. Pearl was no longer in great physical shape when Plunder was made, but you wouldn't know it from watching that reel: she climbs down the front of an old New York brownstone and chases a villain through a construction site, scrambling over all sorts of stuff, definitely without the use of a double.

As far as I could tell, Clara Bow drew the biggest crowd of the festival. Unfortunately for the eager attendees, the film was the dreadful Parisian Love (1925). But this turned out to be a double feature: the other film was Poisoned Paradise (1924), with not only Clara but Raymond Griffith as well. I'd seen it years ago at Cinecon and really enjoyed it. I didn't care for it as much this time around, but it was still well worth seeing.

Reginald Denny returned once again for The Fast Worker (1924), with Laura La Plante. As usual with Denny, it was a charming light comedy (and there was a terrific high-speed automobile chase to cap it all off), although I did feel the film ran about one reel too long.

As for the films that Greta mentioned in her review, I kind of liked Up the Road with Sallie (1918), but it wasn't especially good. It's just fun to watch Constance Talmadge in anything! But I'm sorry to say I didn't like the romantic comedy/adventure film Eve's Leaves (1926) at all. I felt Leatrice Joy was painfully miscast, playing a complete idiot of a woman who doesn't have even a three-year-old's idea of what love and romance are, and trying way too hard to be cute at all times. And when your leading man is William Boyd and your leading lady looks more masculine than he does, your movie's in trouble. This one was dead on arrival for me.

[NewAsOfRegistration]

Among the other shorts were three of the Hal Roach comedies that TCM viewers saw a week or so ago, and several cartoons. There was also the first half of Chapter 10 of Pearl White's Plunder (1923), featuring an almost unrecognizably young and scrawny Warren William. Pearl was no longer in great physical shape when Plunder was made, but you wouldn't know it from watching that reel: she climbs down the front of an old New York brownstone and chases a villain through a construction site, scrambling over all sorts of stuff, definitely without the use of a double.

This was the one where Pearl's (male) stunt double was killed while jumping from a bus, right? Didn't they actually keep the first (pre-death) part of that footage in the film?

[greta de groat]

Thanks for the report, Chris. Sorry you missed The Home Maker, a terrific film.

So, did nobody see For Alimony Only?

greta

[oldposterho]

I think I had a life changing viewing experience after watching Asta Nielsen in Hamlet. It's the first movie I've seen with her and am just completely bowled over. The only other film I can even compare it with (that I've seen) is Nazimova's Salome. Absolutely jaw dropping and *totally* not what I expected, and that's taking into account that I'd already factored in silent Shakespeare, (who is always better in the original Klingon).

Just...Wow.

--Peter

[entredeuxguerres]

I think I had a life changing viewing experience after watching Asta Nielsen in Hamlet. It's the first movie I've seen with her and am just completely bowled over. The only other film I can even compare it with (that I've seen) is Nazimova's Salome. Absolutely jaw dropping and *totally* not what I expected, and that's taking into account that I'd already factored in silent Shakespeare, (who is always better in the original Klingon).

Just...Wow.

--Peter

And this, I presume, is the famous scene in which the Prince confronts Gertrude in her bedchamber, steeped, as he says, in incestuous lovemaking, & tells her "assume a virtue if you have it not."

[oldposterho]

Don't recall that particular scene.

Did continue the Asta Nielsen spree and what better way to start than with her first film, The Abyss (aka Afgrunden), which despite being a very early 1910 the story is not too creaky. What makes it stand out - and apparently what started Asta's career - is the dance number that is so hot I thought my teeveetron was going to burst into flames. Absolutely stunning.

I'm not sure how many of her films survive but I'm going to try to make it a point to see them all. What a revelation she is.

[PickfordFoundation]

I recently bought a film projector and watched a Blackhawk super 8 of Griffith's The Lonely Villa (1909), a nice suspenseful little drama featuring a young Mary Pickford. I had seen it before on DVD, but it was a whole new experience with the whirring of the projector and the flickering of light on the wall.

[entredeuxguerres]

...the dance number that is so hot I thought my teeveetron was going to burst into flames. Absolutely stunning.

Getting hot in 1910 duds--sounds like something I need urgently to see. But where are you finding this incendiary stuff? Just checked the Grapevine list because it has many silents--nothing of Asta there. Hope it's not online only--think I'd have some difficulty changing my life via that medium.

[greta de groat]

Don't recall that particular scene.

Did continue the Asta Nielsen spree and what better way to start than with her first film, The Abyss (aka Afgrunden), which despite being a very early 1910 the story is not too creaky. What makes it stand out - and apparently what started Asta's career - is the dance number that is so hot I thought my teeveetron was going to burst into flames. Absolutely stunning.

I'm not sure how many of her films survive but I'm going to try to make it a point to see them all. What a revelation she is.

Love Asta! Quite a few of her films have been commented on over the years here. For a change of pace, i was quite amused by the comedy Das Eskimobaby. She has a terrific body of work and i'm always on the lookout for more of her films. Several are on youTube as well as DVD from Edition Filmmuseum and the Danish Film Institute.

greta

[oldposterho]

Danish Film Museum compilation as well as the German one with Eskimobaby are definitely on the list - super glad I didn't ditch the PAL multi-region player now!

Asta's steamy dance is all over YT but definitely worth putting on the big screen as there are a couple that are more than adequate resolution.

We truly live in wondrous times that these films are so readily accessible. It wasn't so long ago that it was a major pipe dream to ever actually think I'd see them.

[entredeuxguerres]

...super glad I didn't ditch the PAL multi-region player now!

Not possessing one of those, I risked incinerating my laptop by watching this 5 min. condensation on YT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqHtkY9jllM" target="_blank" target="_blank

Found the Philip Glass-like score to be most appropriate & effective...for 5 min. Also appreciated lack of titles. Will later try working my way through one of the complete versions, if I find one with a not too-inappropriate score.

Don't think I'm quite ready, however, to discard my copy of Olivier's production.

[Brunhilde]

Faust it's one I can watch anytime too. I love everything about this movie. If my house caught on fire, I'd grab it on the way out!

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

Another incomplete, but amazing survival from Oscar Micheaux, THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED (1920) features a light-skinned black girl travelling to claim her inheritance. and automatically falling foul of a mulatto hotel-keeper ashamed of his heritage and determined to do the dirt on any black person he encounters. Fortunately her new neighbour is friendly and helpful, though hides his true feelings, believing her to be white. Meanwhile, both of them encounter adversity from a villainous ex-preacher, an Indian fakir and a couple of horse-thieves, who combine to cheat the neighbour by fair means or foul. The foul means is by threats and an attack by the villains disguised as Ku Klux Klan members. Unfortunately, there is some missing footage here, and it is unclear what exactly happens to these horrid individuals.

It's difficult to be entirely fair here, as some of the plotting is a bit uneven in places, but how much of this is due to the writing and how much to the missing footage is impossible to guess, as the ending as it stands comes over as a bit unconvincing. Entertaining and interesting as well as showing Micheaux's use of villainous blacks as well as good ones.