What's The Last Silent Movie You Watched? [2020]

[Mike Gebert]

I thought there was one too, but I'm probably thinking of the old DVD of The Love of Jeanne Ney.

[Jim Roots]

I thought there was one too, but I'm probably thinking of the old DVD of The Love of Jeanne Ney.

Which, as it happened, I pulled out of my collection at the same time. Hope to watch it again tomorrow or Friday.

Jim

[Brooksie]

The Joyless Street was one of the films released on a foreign G.W. Pabst box set earlier this year. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of? The details are at https://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.co ... tures.html.

[Jim Roots]

The Joyless Street was one of the films released on a foreign G.W. Pabst box set earlier this year. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of? The details are at https://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.co ... tures.html.

Never heard of this set before! Unfortunately I've already got all but one or two of the films in it. Also, since it's coming from France, I would assume it is region coded for Europe. (Let's not get into the "buy a region-free player" thread again.)

Jim

[Battra92]

Jane’s Declaration of Independence - This was put up on Vimeo via the SF Silent Film Expo.

Sadly this is a severely truncated version of the original picture so you get the gist of the story but a lot of the details are missing. Still, it's not a bad way to spend 15 minutes or so as it has some nice shots and the fashions and such look quite nice. Nice score by Mont Alto.

[Brooksie]

The Joyless Street was one of the films released on a foreign G.W. Pabst box set earlier this year. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of? The details are at https://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.co ... tures.html.

Never heard of this set before! Unfortunately I've already got all but one or two of the films in it. Also, since it's coming from France, I would assume it is region coded for Europe. (Let's not get into the "buy a region-free player" thread again.)

Jim

Yes, it's a Region 2 release (the full specs - in French - are at https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... u-ray-dvd/) - it ain't cheap, either. If Criterion Collection released something similar, I'd be all over it.

[Jim Roots]

The Joyless Street was one of the films released on a foreign G.W. Pabst box set earlier this year. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of? The details are at https://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.co ... tures.html.

Never heard of this set before! Unfortunately I've already got all but one or two of the films in it. Also, since it's coming from France, I would assume it is region coded for Europe. (Let's not get into the "buy a region-free player" thread again.)

Jim

Yes, it's a Region 2 release (the full specs - in French - are at https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... u-ray-dvd/) - it ain't cheap, either. If Criterion Collection released something similar, I'd be all over it.

You and me both!

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

Finally finished watching the new Grapevine Video Blu-Ray release of "The Son of Tarzan" (1920). Starring Kamuela C. Searle as Korak, the son of Tarzan, this is definitely a very watchable example of its type. Very enjoyable on several levels, the first 4 episodes of 15 get into the swing of things quite well, and they're adult enough to capture just about anyone in an audience who's gone to see the feature after the serial chapter. Chapters 5 and 6 should have been excised. They're actually very redundant and not very well produced. Chapters 7 through 11 get all going again at a good pace, though by now they're dropping their adult appeal appreciably and definitely appealing more to children and near young adults. Chapter 12 needed to be cut at its beginning by about 3 to 5 minutes; but after that, begins to really propel all things forward again at more of an adult level. The last 4 chapters are very much in the cliffhanger, serial mode, and they roar to the finish with a certain aplomb. We also see Searle riding an elephant as though he's participating in some kind of elephant rally. Good scenes, including one where Searle is tied to a post held up by the elephant's trunk which, when dropped, severely injured Searle in real life. The scene is kept in the film! Others in this 248 minute marathon are P. Dempsey Tabler as Tarzan/Lord Greystone (who keeps looking a lot like Walter Huston in "Dodsworth"! and who's listed as Lord Greystone, not Greystoke!), Karla Schramm as Lady Greystone/Jane (and, yes, in the serial she's listed as Lady Greystone, not Greystoke!), Nita Martan as Meriem (unfortunately, not a very good actress), Frank Morrell (whose evil eyebrows cover a football field), and many others. For the silent film lover, this is really a treasure. It has all the faults that most serials had from the beginning - superbly bad cross-cutting editing, repetition of scenes that can be maddening at times, ridiculous plot points that couldn't happen even in most people's imagination - but it also has great cliffhanging endings at the finish of each chapter and a constancy of motion - move, move, move, move, move, chase, chase, chase, chase, chase - capture, cut, escape, capture, cut, escape - that it keeps the viewer hooked for more, more, more. Congratulations, Jack and Jason Hardy! Let's have more, please. Let's remember, too: this was a Kickstarter restoration project that revived a 100 year old treasure and viewing culture. David Drazin's accompanying music was also much appreciated.

One added note upon reflection: it's always a pleasure to see Louise Emmons in a film at this period. She's VERY easy to spot because of her puffy, but very recognizable face. She was buried in an unmarked grave when she died. Finally, just a few years ago, enough people were prompted to contribute enough for a marker. Her unmistakable face graces many a classic film, not just things like this serial.

[R Michael Pyle]

Re-watched all nine shorts on the anthology DVD "Accidentally Preserved, Volume 3". They're all wonderfully funny in their own way, and, quite frankly, second (and in a couple of instances, third) time around is even better! Nearly in order on the disc are "Wanted, A Nurse" (1915) with Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, "Service a la Bunk" (1921) with Bobby Ray and Billy Evans, "The Whirlwind" (1922) with Joe Rock, "No Vacancies" (1923) with Jack Duffy and a host of other great comics, "Love's Young Scream" (1928) with Anne Cornwall and Jack Duffy, "Hot Luck" (1928) with Malcolm Sebastian and Billy Sullivan, "Whose Baby?" (1929) with Arthur Lake and Gertrude Messenger, "Half a Hero" (1929) with Billy Barty (of which only 1 reel survives), and "A Citrate Special" (somewhere in the late teens and early twenties), with Thurston Hall and 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil (this, maybe, an inside studio joke not meant for general release, and an unbelievable satire!). "The Whirlwind" is the one that just tickles me. The editing is so much fun during 'the wind' scenes. The timing is impeccable and truly a laugh riot! "Service a la Bunk" is the only one that didn't appeal to me as much. It's just too much slapstick for me. Some may like it exactly for that. "Wanted, A Nurse" is as chauvinistic as can be, and may be over the limit for some female audiences today. They'll want to crucify Sidney Drew by the end! He was already 51 or 52 when he made this, and his young second wife (playing the other lead) was only 25, but his attitude towards having to have a good looking nurse - and a particular one, at that - is not only chauvinistic, patriarchal, and just plain high-schoolish, but not acceptable by most today, I would think. Still, it's well done for what it was at the time. Thanks to the folks at Undercrank Productions and the Library of Congress (with whom Undercrank has a mutual business working relationship) for these wonderful films and Ben Model for his musical accompaniments. The release date of this Kickstarter project was 2015. There are now four volumes in this particular series. For more DVDs available through Undercrank, check out their site at undercrankproductions.com/

[tslater]

Kiss (Andy Warhol, 1963, '64, '66). Finally watched this after having the dvd for many years and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. A lot of passion, especially from the men, and erotic without being pornographic. Much more could be said, but I won't go into details.

[Frame Rate]

Grapevine's DVD of THE JUNGLE PRINCESS (1920) has poster art on its keepcase promoting THE LOST CITY (1920), and the notes on the back explain that the DVD inside contains instead the feature cut-down of what was originally "the first million-dollar serial". As I expected, the narrative is one (short) series of rapid-fire capturings, brawls, brushes with certain death and narrow escapes -- but what's "extra special" about this overly ambitious independent production (purchased for release by the just-starting-out Warner Bros.) is its bizarrely nonsensical melange of (alleged) geographical locations, character costumes, animal species and native/tribal ethnicities! (Imagine, if you will, battle sequences intermixing Spanish swordsmen, Arabian riflemen and African spear-throwers!)

Ed Hulse's splendidly researched, illustrated and detailed (but lacking an index!) book "Handsome Heroes and Vicious Villains" recounts the serial's tortuous path to completion and eventual box-office gold, including repeated injuries to cast and crew while trying to deal safely with various ill-tempered beasts borrowed from Colonel Selig's Zoo. Ed's plot synopsis and character descriptions threw me at first, however, until I realized that it wasn't just the main title that was different for the (simultaneous) release of the chapter-play and feature-length versions. All the character names were changed as well! And since the two versions' twin releases pre-dated the Federal Trade Commission's rule requiring "full disclosure" of such a title alteration, both in the ads and in the opening credits, the feature version could easily have "suckered" a ticket-buyer into paying twice for the same story, particularly if the unsuspecting patron was susceptible to the charms of curly-headed serial queen Juanita Hansen and hoped to see her romanced by stalwart George Chesebro again -- in a "new" screen adventure!

I was then reminded of the interview I once had with the last surviving Ziegfeld Girl, Doris Eaton, during which I asked her about the three films (according to various reference works) she made in Britain. On the contrary, she insisted that she had been paid for only one movie -- and that the producers seemed to have carved out three different story lines by re-arranging and re-titling the footage in which she appeared!

[R Michael Pyle]

"Why Worry?" (1923) could apply to those of us who are apprehensive about having a hedonistic dessert after a delicious dinner, but go ahead and have it anyway. Starring Harold Lloyd, this 63 minute feature is just so nonsensical, implausible, and ridiculously hilarious a piece of fluff that it serves as a perfect dessert before going to bed tired and stuffed. The dinner was in no way as good as the dessert! Also in the piece are Jobyna Ralston, Johan Aasen (amazingly tall!!!), Jim Mason, Wallace Howe, Leo White, and others. Lloyd begins the piece as a "clubsman", a member of a country club who is rich and utterly idle, but, too, a hypochondriac's hypochondriac who takes pills nearly by the minute for one thing or another. He's so idle he needs a rest! So...he gets tickets (yes, that's plural because he has to also take his nurse and his valet) for Paradiso, an island west of South America somewhere where he can get some good rest from the idlers and golfers he's been around. When he gets there, he finds a revolution is occurring, though he doesn't figure that out immediately. Eventually, during all the doings and goings-on, his nurse (Ralston) is kidnapped, his valet...well, you get the picture... Meanwhile...he meets a giant of a man, Colosso (Aasen), who helps him over and over and over and over again to get out of scrapes and combat the combaters, armies of hostile men who treat the villagers, not like dirt, but dust. If you know Lloyd, you can figure out what happens. Do you think he'll need pills by the end? Do you think his nurse remains his nurse? Is the Pope Catholic? After 63 minutes of this dessert, I didn't need anything else. I was sated and smiling as if I'd just won the lottery. Very highly recommended! Made the same year as, and released just after, "Safety Last", by the way. We'd already had dinner hanging by a clock, now it was time for some relaxing-frenetic dessert. Trust me, the energy expended in the movie will make you need your sleep - if you can stop laughing...

[Jim Roots]

If you know Lloyd, you can figure out what happens. Do you think he'll need pills by the end? Do you think his nurse remains his nurse? Is the Pope Catholic?

Psst ... Michael ... In this context, you mean "Is the Pope Jewish?" 'Cause the answer to all those questions is "No", not "Yes!"


Ji

[boblipton]

"Why Worry?" (1923) could apply to those of us who are apprehensive about having a hedonistic dessert after a delicious dinner, but go ahead and have it anyway. Starring Harold Lloyd, this 63 minute feature is just so nonsensical, implausible, and ridiculously hilarious a piece of fluff that it serves as a perfect dessert before going to bed tired and stuffed. The dinner was in no way as good as the dessert! Also in the piece are Jobyna Ralston, Johan Aasen (amazingly tall!!!), Jim Mason, Wallace Howe, Leo White, and others. Lloyd begins the piece as a "clubsman", a member of a country club who is rich and utterly idle, but, too, a hypochondriac's hypochondriac who takes pills nearly by the minute for one thing or another. He's so idle he needs a rest! So...he gets tickets (yes, that's plural because he has to also take his nurse and his valet) for Paradiso, an island west of South America somewhere where he can get some good rest from the idlers and golfers he's been around. When he gets there, he finds a revolution is occurring, though he doesn't figure that out immediately. Eventually, during all the doings and goings-on, his nurse (Ralston) is kidnapped, his valet...well, you get the picture... Meanwhile...he meets a giant of a man, Colosso (Aasen), who helps him over and over and over and over again to get out of scrapes and combat the combaters, armies of hostile men who treat the villagers, not like dirt, but dust. If you know Lloyd, you can figure out what happens. Do you think he'll need pills by the end? Do you think his nurse remains his nurse? Is the Pope Catholic? After 63 minutes of this dessert, I didn't need anything else. I was sated and smiling as if I'd just won the lottery. Very highly recommended! Made the same year as, and released just after, "Safety Last", by the way. We'd already had dinner hanging by a clock, now it was time for some relaxing-frenetic dessert. Trust me, the energy expended in the movie will make you need your sleep - if you can stop laughing...

It’s my personal favorite of Lloyd’s features.

Bob

[R Michael Pyle]

If you know Lloyd, you can figure out what happens. Do you think he'll need pills by the end? Do you think his nurse remains his nurse? Is the Pope Catholic?

Psst ... Michael ... In this context, you mean "Is the Pope Jewish?" 'Cause the answer to all those questions is "No", not "Yes!"


Ji

Oops...I forgot he converted!!!!!!!!!!!! It's my Scottish Presbyterian upbringing. Always have something else on my mind when all the rest are tithing. Even my mind is - frugal...

[Battra92]

When the Earth Trembled (1913) - This film is about a couple of people who seem to have everything bad in life happen to them and really suffering for their love. The kids of two business partners get married and the groom's dad isn't so supportive of the union and cuts his son out of his life. Then he tries to ruin his son's business but come to find out the son was in a shipwreck. Then the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire happen and well ... that's just the first reel or so of this three reel "feature."

My biggest issue with the film was so many "Two weeks later" title cards that it was really hard to recall just how much time had passed.

This is possibly the first film to depict the San Francisco earthquake and fire and the special effects (intercut with stock footage) are really quite good for the time.

Luckily this film survives and the SF Silent Film fest has it on their site for streaming. Check it out if you can!

[R Michael Pyle]

"Lost and Won" (1917), with Marie Doro, Elliott Dexter, Carl Stockdale, Mayme Kelso, Mamie van Buren, Robert Gray, and Clarence Geldart, and directed by Frank Reicher and "Director General" Cecil B. DeMille, left me immediately wondering, after I'd finished watching, "Who was the audience for this?" My conclusion was that this was the perfect after dinner fodder for those young ladies who were workers and who needed to see how they could be, not just the stuff that turns the wheel, not simply a cog that moves the wheel forward or around, but the wheel, or a major part of it, that purposefully drives existence. It's a simple film. It moves quickly and well. Marie Doro is absolutely gorgeous. Her eyes are the size of gleaming cities, dark though they are. The fact that she mimes ten years behind the filmic times is of no consequence; she's wonderfully watchable. She begins a poor family's ward, an orphan who sells papers on street corners, and she's tough enough to be able to take care - usually - but there are lots of others out there - lecherous older men - who'd take advantage if they could. Her friend is a reporter for the paper. That's a good thing. He lends her a book: Daddy-Long-Legs. She wishes she could find her own Daddy-Long-Legs. Up steps Elliott Dexter (Doro's husband in real life at this period) - who sends her to school - who makes her into what she always wanted to be as a personality... Now, it's time to see if he can win a bet he proposes. During the year's time, though, another incident occurs that is a wrench in the cogs, or could be.

Really a fun little film. It's a little film, but it's done well for its period. Nothing earth-shattering, but for 50 minutes a good relaxation. A working girl today might snigger about it all, but this retired old film lover enjoyed it a lot. This is a newly restored film by The Library of Congress, Ed Lorusso and Joe Harvat, part of a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Musical accompaniment is supplied by David Drazin. Nicely done. Good to see the phoenix rise from the ashes: Marie Doro was a major actress on stage in the day; today she's nearly forgotten altogether. She was already 33 or 34 when she made this film, playing a young lady perhaps just 21 or so.

[Dave Pitts]

I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (1929 Ger.)
(One spoiler ahead, for those who need these warnings.)
Late silent starring Marlene Dietrich and Harry Liedtke, a light romance of the kind Hollywood turned out every week. The plot trope is poverty-stricken nobleman romancing a rich woman. Nothing extra-clever occurs in the writing or acting, although there is a nice Lubitsch touch at the end where the motions of an elevator, which keeps arriving at floors with people waiting, but never opens its doors, clues us in to what has occurred between the two leads.
Dietrich is good, and attractive, although when the film arrived in the states in '32, after her big breakthrough, the critics said her hair and makeup were wrong, i.e., missing the stylization that had been achieved at Paramount.
Now to Liedtke, who is smooth but lacking in the magnetism he is said to have had for German audiences. He was a matinee idol, and the highest paid film actor in Germany by the late silent days. I just don't see it. Facially, he resembles Harry Houdini, but with a slight pearish quality to the cheeks. Medium height, relaxed performance. This guy swept women off their feet? Made Dietrich's character drool?
Photographically sharp, as we expect from 20s German product. A nice way to spend 70 minutes, and interesting to see that light-hearted fluff came out of the German studios along with the dark and outre titles.

[R Michael Pyle]

"Castles for Two" (1917) stars Marie Doro, Elliott Dexter, Mayme Kelso, Jane Wolfe, Harriet Sorenson, Lillian Leighton, Julia Jackson, Horace B. Carpenter, and others, and it takes place in merry young Ireland where Brian O'Neill (Dexter) has just come into the heritage of Kilcuddy and is now lord and head of the village - but he and his family are poor as church mice. There's someone new who has arrived, though: Irish by heritage, Patricia Calhoun is "a rich American". This is Doro, of course. Dexter's three shrewish sisters and his mother know what he has to do: marry the rich American! He sees the rich American and...doesn't wish to marry the older woman... You see, Doro doesn't want to be known, so she substitutes her secretary as "the rich American" and she (Doro) plays a housemaid. This way, Doro can flit around the countryside and be free of her heritage of $$$. She can roam the woods and the meadows and the valleys, go along streams and waterways, get put off by a cow, and meet --- oops, fairies??? You see, Doro seems to be --- fey --- yes, that's the word used in the film.

For fifty minutes this utter nonsense goes on. I obviously was hypnotized by some remote source because such a thing would never have captured me - but, somehow it did. I enjoyed its fifty minutes, nitrate deterioration in some places and all. It has charm. Honest to goodness charm. It's easy to see why Marie Doro was popular as an actress. She's a stage actress - even on film. She plays to the third balcony. There'll be those who care. I admit that. I enjoyed it anyway. This is one of only three or so films of Marie Doro that survive of the eighteen she made. Too bad. The one thing about this film that will startle most modern audiences is the stereotyping that runs rampant throughout this piece. Were I a true Irish man or woman, I'd be flabbergasted, insulted maybe; no, certainly. On the other hand, were I fey enough, I might be charmed by surrounding creatures and not realize what was going on...

This is newly "restored" (as much as could be) by The Library of Congress, Ed Lorusso, and Joe Harvat through a Kickstarter campaign. Strange aerial creatures in Ireland may have had a hand in all this, too. After over one hundred years this has appeared out of utter obscurity and is charming us all again.

[boblipton]

Once upon a time, I seemed to get my copies of Ed's dvds before everyone else. Now R. Michael Pyle has already reviewed Lost and Won (1917) above. Well, perhaps I'll notice something different.

Marie Doro is a newsie with a lot of friends. Elliot Dexter (her real-life husband) is a rich young stockbroker with a taste for speculation. When his friends at luncheon complain about gold-diggers, and how they'll never fall for one, he bets them a total of $50,000 that he can take that gamine sitting across the street reading a copy of Daddy Long-Legs and turn her into a girl they'll all want to marry.

So we can see that the set-up of the movie is a bit of a mash-up of Shaw's Pygmalion and Jean Webster's Daddy Long-Legs, both of them recent hits on the stage. Yet that only makes up the first half of the film, as situations change thanks to villainous banker Carl Stockdale. The second half is both more conventional and better plotted.

Marie Doro may be forgotten today, but she was a major Broadway star before she became a major movie star for Jesse Lasky. She is lovely and striking; her first shot shows only her hands, gracefully manipulating a pair of dice, and her large, expressive eyes are soon revealed. She is lively and pleasant, and seems very approachable, with funny Oirish foster parents, and her stardom is no mystery. What is a mystery is how she came to be so forgotten. The explanation is that she was 33 when she made this movie, and she retired in 1923.

This movie appears on a two-movie dvd produced by Ed Lorusso and Joe Harvat, with a handsome score by David Drazin. The print is in excellent shape, and the result is a surprisingly engaging movie from more than a century ago.

Bob

[R Michael Pyle]

After 190 short films, "Dr. Jack" (1922) was only Harold Lloyd's third major feature film after "Sailor-Made Man" and "Grandma's Boy". The wildly frenetic antics and pacing that were the trademark of Lloyd films continued with "Dr. Jack" and carried it raucously and joyously from its beginning to its conclusion. There is a certain "story" to this film, but, frankly, it's really just one hectic caper or frolic piled up on another for exactly one hour. Dr. Jack is actually short for "Dr. Jackson", but everyone just calls Lloyd "Dr. Jack". Suffice it all to say that his method of "curing" people is far more psychological, though in a physical sense(!), than with medicine of any sort. His method is his medicine. The one person who seems to run throughout this romp is The Sick-Little-Well-Girl, played by Mildred Davis, who married Lloyd the following year in real life, retired from films, and remained his wife until her death in 1969.

Like all Lloyd silents, a joyous gambol and endless stream of sight gags that are hilarious and amazingly creative! I loved it from start to finish.

[boblipton]

Erdgeist aka Earth Spirit (1923): Asta Nielsen is Lulu, the object of desire for men in the arty crowd. One by one, they get to view her as a personal possession, then along comes a betrayal, a death, and it's on to the next man. Miss Nielsen says she doesn't want it, that she was much happier when she was a poor, barefoot dancer.... but she sure looks good in the white furs and shiny dresses they clothe her in.

There certainly were a spate of movies, particularly in Germany, that centered on the femme fatale which evolved into film noir. It sounds to me like guys blaming the woman, but Miss Nielsen bounces from one fur-covered bed to the next , occasionally interspersed with her dancing on stage in a butterfly costume. Interestingly, like the best-remembered of these Erdas, Louise Brooks (also called 'Lulu') in Pabst's Pandora's Box, Miss Nielsen wears a black wig in a shiny shingle cut.

Bob

[boblipton]

Thanks to Bob Fells calling our attention to it, I just looked at Love Or Justice (1917).

Louise Glaum is a tough egg, a leading light of the underworld. Charles Gunn -- he would die the following year of the Spanish Influenza -- is a lawyer, brought low by drug addiction. Glaum calls him a weakling, and helps him get the monkey off his back. He offers her marriage, but she's contemptuous of society's norms, so it's off to respectable society and the District Attorney's office. Yet Miss Glaum realizes she has changed too, so she quits the rackets, gets a respectable job, and pushes away her old associates. One of them decides to frame her, and in the attempt, he winds up dead... and Gunn is ordered to prosecute her, and get a conviction, lest the entire office lose their jobs.

It's a potboiler from Thomas Ince Productions, with a script by Lambert Hillyer - he would turn director the following month -- and there's a lot of high-flown language in the titles, and hand-waving as to procedure. Still, there's a nice perverse set of motives here: Gunn believes her innocent, and she knows he'll lose his job.... so who will look out for their own interests?

Bob

[boblipton]

R. Michael Pyle has beaten me to commenting about Castles For Two (1917), but that won't shut me up.

Elliott Dexter has just inherited the lordship and the estate, but there's no money, and the tenants sass him. His sisters decide he must marry the rich American girl who has rented the next castle over. It's Marie Doro, but she has her secretary, Mayme Kelso, pretend to be her so Miss Doro can romp through the countryside and look for pixies. Dexter doesn't wish to marry the older lady; he much prefers the pretty young girl who seems to be the housemaid, but as he explains to her, they're broke.

So Miss Doro knows who he is, but he can love her for herself, and she knows it. It's certainly not the first time any of us have seen this plot, and it's all set up so Miss Doro can be charming and artfully artless, offering little bits of business and breaking the fourth wall by flashing her lovely eyes as the audience. At fifty minutes of screen time, it certainly doesn't have time to pall.

The copy of the movie that appears on the dvd co-produced by Ed Lorusso and Joe Harvat is not in pristine condition. The first half of the last reel have a lot of decomposition, but it doesn't interfere with the good-humored fun. David Drazin's score quotes extensively from "Kerry Dance." Of course.

Bob

[NotSoSilent]

I had a chance to watch Lost and Won this morning. It's a great little film and Marie Doro is striking. Those eyes...

Yet that only makes up the first half of the film, as situations change thanks to villainous banker Carl Stockdale. The second half is both more conventional and better plotted.

I actually thought the first half of the film was better. It felt modern and well constructed. The second half, although still enjoyable, felt overly melodramatic and far-fetched (maybe even by 1916/1917 standards). However, it didn't take anything away from the film, which moves quickly and is fun to watch.

Thank you, Ed, for bringing us another great gem! I look forward to backing your projects next year!

[drednm]

What I liked about Castles for Two was that it had a nice role for Mayme Kelso, who was usually relegated to small parts. And it's not every day you see a heroine treed by a cow...... LOL

[R Michael Pyle]

After a thirty year intermission, I re-watched "Moulin Rouge" (1928). I'd forgotten how long it was, 2 hours and 17 minutes. Starring the redoubtable Olga Tschechowa, Eve Gray, Jean Bradin, and others, this is a visual feast of feasts for the film lover who revels in the cinematographer's grasp of filmic beauty. Here, that person is Werner Brandes. However, the matter of the film should come into play for the viewer, too. There are stretches in this celluloid that also stretch the viewer's tolerance to endure the matter being shown for the length it runs. Nevertheless, the BFI restored print from StudioCanal is a treat, no matter. This was my first experience with this particular print. Olga Tschechowa is nearly hypnotic, and it's easy to watch the worthy actress perform. Eve Gray and Jean Bradin are equally good in their performances, though the part played by Bradin compels the viewer to wish a different ending. Plus, Bradin could wear thin on some male viewers who find his sometimes dishonorable and even unmasculine (no, I'm not trying to be non-PC) behavior beneath de rigueur. The plot begins in the Moulin Rouge theater house in Paris. Eve Gray and Bradin are sitting in a theater box waiting for Parysia to come out on stage and perform. Parysia is the cat's meow to all viewers of such entertainment in Paris. Parysia is, of course, Tschechowa. She's Gray's mother, though she's not seen Gray for at least three years while her daughter has been away in a private school. Bradin and Gray have, meanwhile, become engaged - secretly - this, because Bradin's father has forbidden the marriage to take place because Gray's mother is an actress. Bradin, however, after seeing Parysia falls in love with HER. The complications which ensue go on and on. The photography holds the 'on and on' together like super glue. Nevertheless, there are moments when the viewer might wish that the glue would be a tad more malleable, even likely to break. It doesn't. Still, for those who stick it out (pun intended), it's a beautiful piece of film. Directed by Ewald André Dupont, you get what you get. His films all seem to be masterfully photographed, but not always edited to par of patience. Still, I recommend this film in all its splendor, Tschechowa for her stunning beauty and not her personal frazzle of a life and what she must have been, and the story because it's inviting for good melodrama. Oh, yes, this is melodrama of the highest sort. But, too, the last twelve to fourteen minutes are great (minus the ending!) - and worth the entire other 2 hours and so many minutes! Really worth it! And further, this is a British film, even though you might not know that fact after watching the film, and, yes, Ray Milland is an extra in the crowd in his first film. So there.

[boblipton]

Damon and Pythias (1914): William Worthington is Damon and Herbert Rawlinson is Pythias in this Universal feature. When the Carthaginians invade Agrigentum, Dionysus, the Syracusan dictator sends an army. Because he has a yen for Rawlinson's fiancee, he appoints Rawlinson commander; Rawlinson, however, survives. Back in Syracuse, Dionysus is tired of being a tyrant and tries to become king. This sets off the freedom-loving senators, led by Worthington, who is sentenced to death. Rawlinson offers himself as hostage so Worthington can go say goodbye to his wife; between her weeping, a slave who kills his horse so he can't go back to die, and the horse he steals to go save his friend foundering, will he make it back to save his best bud?

So it's a High Concept film that combines the story of David and Bathsheba, and the assassination of Julius Caesar by someone who has heard of the Bible and of Shakespeare. It's a major production for its 54-minute length. Clearly, Universal was trying to outdo the Italians in epic features, and this was the first feature to come out of Universal City, even before it opened. The sets are immense; the performers wave their arms in high style like they're on stages, and there's even a chariot race. Then four months later, Birth of a Nation premiered and this movie dropped off the map.

It's the only movie in which I've ever seen Frank Lloyd perform; he plays Dionysius. He had already begun his directing career. Other well-known performers include Cleo Marsden, Duke Worme, and Harry Davenport. There are claims that Hal Roach and Lon Chaney play small roles. but they're unconfirmed.

Bob

[FrankFay]

The title card I've seen has the emblem of the Knights of Pythias worked into the border, so I suspect they had a hand in the production

[Ken Mitchell]

Tatjana - 1923

I think this was the last thing I saw at the Cinema Museum in London before the world got turned on its head.

A nice 35mm print from the BFI archive, researched by Michelle Facey. Good fine detail and grey scale here. Modest amount of fine vertical scratches. A very pleasant viewing experience. Jon Sweeney on piano gave us a moody, sad, dramatic and poignant accompaniment. What a musician!

More background detail of this film on the Cinema Museum website:
http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2020/ken ... jana-1923/

This is a melodrama about the Russian revolution and it’s laid on thick but delivered well through decent acting and good cinematography. Lots of nice shots of old timber framed farmhouses and snow-covered fields and dark forests against light snow.




<<<<<<< Spoilers Follow >>>>>>>>




Tatjana is the daughter of Russian Count and is properly in-love with one prince Orlov. The Count is portrayed as a decent chap, someone who actually gives a damn about the peasants on his land. An early scene finds the Count quite fed up with giving money to one of his peasant wards, Ivan. He believes Ivan has received sufficient funding to have made something of himself, become a doctor or a lawyer. The recipient of this frustration is Ivan's mother. Ivan is an intelligent but restless soul and dreams of revolution.

Tatjana is fond of both Ivan and his mother, and she is unhappy when she finds Ivan’s mother distressed and upset at the loss of income from her father. She tries to persuade her father to carry on funding Ivan but her beau, Prince Orlov intervenes and says he will pay.

Ivan’s mother meets her son and tells him to get back to the farmhouse as she is expecting a visit from Tatjana. Ivan complies but sits brooding and muttering about revolution and how all the nobles will be brought down. ‘Even Tatjana?’ taunts his mother. Tatjana arrives with Orlov and gives them the good news that Ivan will still be funded. Orlov departs and Ivan winces as he sees Tatjana kiss him goodbye. Ivan goes outside to join Tatjana and thanks her for her intervention but then he drops to his knees in the snow and grabs her waist professing his love for her, he promises he will find a way to win her. Tatjana is horrified and struggles out of his grasp, she walks away disturbed. Ivan stares after her, brooding intensely.

Two years pass and Tatjana is now a princess, blissfully married to Prince Orlov. Friends are visiting their home but bring worrying news of peasant revolts in neighbouring estates. Property has been burned and at least 2 nobles murdered. Orlov doesn't think they have anything to worry about as they treat the peasants on their estate well. Nonetheless Tatjana visits her father to pass on the grim tidings and like Orlov, he cannot believe they are in any danger.

A few days later the prince and princess are entertaining religious leaders when a cart pulls up in the yard. Some loyal peasants have brought her injured father whom they have rescued from a rebellious mob. The father is taken to bed but doesn't last long.

As Orlov and Tatjana struggle to come to terms with the situation, Ivan’s mother is pounding on the service door trying to warn them that a drunken mob is heading their way and baying for blood. What they don't know is that Ivan’s mother is following her son's plan and it is he who has paid for the mob to get drunk and it is he who has rabble roused them. Still loyal to Tatjana, Ivan’s mother has a horse drawn sled waiting and they make a break for it but Ivan guessed this would happen and has mounted revolutionaries ready to pursue and catch them. During the chase, Orlov shoots one of them dead but they are caught and overpowered.

Dragged in front of a kangaroo court, Orlov is quickly sentenced to death and led away but Tatjana can go free. However, this is another of Ivan’s cunning schemes. His mother tells Tatjana that her son is now an important man and suggests she begs his mercy. Ivan, who has been waiting in the wings, strolls in and says to Tatjana that he will see what he can do and then facilitates it for her to spend the evening with her condemned husband. When she visits her husband in the cell, Ivan sends one of his men in and tells him to swap clothes with Orlov. Freshly disguised, Ivan’s mother whisks them away on a sled in to the forested wilderness. Ivan follows hem and says he will take Orlov to the border and get him a passport, Tatjana must wait with his mother. A week later Ivan is back but tells Tatjana that Orlov has been shot dead near the border by a revolutionary patrol. He tells her he can protect her, but only as her husband. Tatjana is distraught and stays with Ivan's mother having no other future or people to rely on but not wanting to marry Ivan.

Sometime later Tatjana receives a letter from Ivan telling that he has managed to save some of her jewels and that she can collect them in Petrograd under escort of his mother. She does exactly that but falls straight in to the next phase of manipulative Ivan's plan. Stopping in an inn on the way to Petrograd some drunken revolutionaries are under Ivan's orders to try and molest Tatjana and they go about their assigned business with gusto. ‘Hero' Ivan bursts in and saves the day, comforting the terrified Tatjana, he again tells her he can better protect her as her husband.

We go forward in time and Tatjana is wed to Ivan and living in Copenhagen. The move to Denmark is not explained in the film. Michelle Facey did say approximately 5 mins of the film are missing. It's not hard to see that they would have needed to leave Russia as it would have been difficult for Ivan to carry on his revolutionary leader role whilst wedded to a former princess! They are clearly well off in Copenhagen, probably off the back of Tatjana's jewellery.

Tatjana hears a street musician fiddle a wistful tune that her dead Prince Orlov used to play on piano. She broods about Orlov again but Ivan just tells her the same story of Orlov being shot dead at the border. He has an errand to see to in town and suggests his mournful wife might benefit from a trip out with him. She agrees.

Whilst Ivan is getting his shoes polished by a street vendor, Tatjana spies a familiar looking face hanging around the street corner. She is dumbstruck to see that it is Orlov, poverty stricken and very sick. Orlov catches her eye and after a moment of shock, shuffles off. Ivan returns to their car but Tatjana tells him she will walk home and Ivan departs. Tatjana asks the shoe cleaner if he knows Orlov. He sends her to a slum area and a dive of a rooftop apartment, where she finds her former husband in bed, dying of a lung problem. She embraces him and holds him as he coughs wretchedly. Orlov relates the true story of what happened that night when Ivan sprang them from jail. Ivan took Orlov to the border but after shaking his hand and waving him off he produced a pistol and shot him. Wounded, Orlov staggered over the border fence and Ivan shot him again, Orlav collapses. Guards from the other side of the unnamed border arrive and return fire and chase Ivan off. They pick up Orlov and take him away.

Back at home we witness Tatjana observing the staff departing for an evening out, leaving her and Ivan alone. Tatjana asks Ivan again what happened on that night and Ivan becomes exasperated at the subject being brought up again. Tatjana tells him she knows exactly what happened as she heard it from her former husband, who died in her arms this afternoon. Tatjana produces a pistol, Ivan is completely shocked, Tatjana fires.

The final scene is of the chief of police in Copenhagen who has just read Tatjana’s account of everything. The address on the letter is the slum apartment. When the chief and his policemen arrive at the slum, they find Tatjana slumped over the bed of Orlov. She is dead from self-administered poison.

Not a barrel of laughs then, but well worth watching if you get the chance.