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

[Big Silent Fan]

An insightful review, Michael, and I too am an admirer of Dix's extended on-screen career. something many of his contemporaries of comparable star power failed to achieve after they became, as you said, a bit "ripe". But I must object to one minor point -- in comparison to some other long-term, screen survivors such as Warner Baxter, who kept the paychecks coming by portraying THE CRIME DOCTOR and Chester Morris, who did the same as BOSTON BLACKIE.

Reading the above brought a nice discovery.
Chester Morris was also in "The Miracle Man" (1932), with Sylvia Sidney, Boris Karloff, John Wray, Ned Sparks, and Hobart Bosworth as the 'Patriarch'. It is a very close remake of the lost, 1919 Chaney film.
I've watched my poor quality recording often, but now I see it's available to watch on line, with a much better image.
https://ok.ru/video/370842143234

It will be nice to watch again.

[R Michael Pyle]

Yes, Kibbee made about 6 or so of these Scattergood Baines films. Sorry this is in the silent thread. Enough. Those were made in the early and middle forties.

[R Michael Pyle]

An insightful review, Michael, and I too am an admirer of Dix's extended on-screen career. something many of his contemporaries of comparable star power failed to achieve after they became, as you said, a bit "ripe". But I must object to one minor point -- in comparison to some other long-term, screen survivors such as Warner Baxter, who kept the paychecks coming by portraying THE CRIME DOCTOR and Chester Morris, who did the same as BOSTON BLACKIE.

Reading the above brought a nice discovery.
Chester Morris was also in "The Miracle Man" (1932), with Sylvia Sidney, Boris Karloff, John Wray, Ned Sparks, and Hobart Bosworth as the 'Patriarch'. It is a very close remake of the lost, 1919 Chaney film.
I've watched my poor quality recording often, but now I see it's available to watch on line, with a much better image.
https://ok.ru/video/370842143234

It will be nice to watch again.

I have a very decent copy of Morris' "The Miracle Man" which I admit I bought from a bootlegger at least 15 years ago. I, too, think it's quite a good film. I watched it again about two years ago. The whole film and everybody in it are excellent.

[R Michael Pyle]

"The Busher" (1919) stars Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, John Gilbert, Jay Morley, Otto Hoffman, and others, and examines with comedy/drama and a good amount of mise-en-scene, Ray being noticed as a potential major league baseball prospect as a major league team becomes stranded in the sticks (the bush). He makes the grade, changes some of his bush-league habits as a person - for a while - fails in a crucial moment, is released from his team as a failure, goes home and learns his lesson. That's it in a nutshell, with Colleen Moore supplying the genuine love interest and Ray's film father supplying the understanding and moral support and gentle urging "growing-up-wise" needed to keep Ray on an even keel. I'd watched this before, a very long time ago, and with the bad print I'd watched just kicked it off as something I'd seen, let's move on. This time was a different story. If you like baseball stories, you'll like this one, though you may absolutely love it if you come from a small town that you might define as "hick". You're a hayseed probably, not a bad thing at all, but you'll far better understand this film than someone from the culture of tough inner-big-city. If you like baseball, even if you love it - if you're from the big city and are strictly an urbanite, you'll find this one very tepid in 2020.

My father's parents were both born in a tiny hamlet in northeastern Indiana that was then utterly rural and very far behind the mentality of the big cities even at the very turn of the twentieth century. In some ways, that particular hamlet remains that way today. The only thing that has radically changed is due to communication, the automobile, and modern electronic devices that have revolutionized nearly all society in the world as a whole. Well, "The Busher" genuinely portrays the rurality of farm life in middle America (and other places, too, I would think) in 1919. There is an amazing reality to the portrayals. Finding that kind of America today will probably be an improbability, though I wouldn't know for certain. The portrayals of the people in Ray's hometown in the film reminded me of my grandparents in many ways. My grandfather became quite a cosmopolitan guy by the time he was in his forties, but my grandmother remained - though the rock of the family in some ways - very "countrified" in an old-fashioned way; even her vocabulary and speech patterns.

Be aware from the beginning what you're in for with "The Busher", but it's a very old-fashioned kind of film - some would say it's a cliché, though this is, frankly, seminal to what has become clichéd and even hackneyed to the point it's become comically stereotypical. "The Busher" was trying to do that in 1919, but those people and their manner still existed extensively in those years. The coming Depression and the second World War changed the entire mentality of the world for the most part, let alone America. I think "The Busher" is an outstanding film of its type. But also be aware that several cut off points for edit cut-to-this or -that are missing, shortening some scenes almost to irritation. Other than that, it's something I'd highly recommend. My print is a recording from TCM done in October of 2007.

[R Michael Pyle]

"Hearts and Diamonds" (1914) is a mildly amusing baseball short of 33 minutes with John Bunny and Flora Finch. The humor is rough, not quite slapstickish, but rough like the early, early Chaplins and much of the early teen one- and two-reel shorts before a quieter and subtler comedic sophistication worked its way into the sometimes violent humor of the late aughts and early teens. Bunny's a widower and Finch a widow. Finch likes baseball stars. Now, Bunny, not particularly tall, but rotund enough to get stuck in a cannon if it fired with heavy powder, and certainly no youngster, plays the owner/manager of a local baseball club, probably something like sandlot of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century up to the teens and twenties. To win the favor - perhaps the hand of - Finch, Bunny also will play to show Finch he's a - player... Some of the stuff is very cute, some of it quite humorous, and some of it just seems to fall flat. A lot of the rough stuff - especially what goes on between Bunny and his two daughters in the beginning of the film - is a lot rougher than what we'd accept as humor now. One amusing thing I found: the team against which Bunny's team must play to show off Bunny's baseball prowess has a pitcher named Matty Christhewson, obviously a play on the best pitcher in baseball in 1914, Christy Mathewson. Similarly, other names are funny in the cast: Tupper, Whipple, Toper Staggs, etc. Nice film to see Bunny and Finch. They were the cat's meow in the movies for comedy in 1914. Bunny died the very next year of Bright's Disease at age 51. Today he's nearly forgotten, as is Finch. He made 200 films in his short career, and she over 250 in a career that lasted another 26 years. She died in 1940 at the age of 72. This is a charming way to spend 33 minutes, light and airy, but with some rough and tumble just to keep the lids open and the mind from wandering.

[Jim Roots]

Hearts and Diamonds is my favourite of the Bunnyfinches, as his and Flora's films were lovingly referred to by fans. Watching him running all-out and doing a cannonball dive at third base, however, was among the most alarming spectacles ever shown on a movie screen. You never got the impression Roscoe Arbuckle was going to expire in front of your eyes from the sheer physical exertion of an obese man, but Bunny was 51 years old when he filmed himself running the bases at top speed, and it is a very, very scary sight.

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

Hearts and Diamonds is my favourite of the Bunnyfinches, as his and Flora's films were lovingly referred to by fans. Watching him running all-out and doing a cannonball dive at third base, however, was among the most alarming spectacles ever shown on a movie screen...but Bunny was 51 years old when he filmed himself running the bases at top speed, and it is a very, very scary sight.

Jim

Amen, brother! I was waiting for the stroke, but it never happened. But...the next year was bad enough for Johnny Rabbit!

[R Michael Pyle]

Well, well, well...as I began to watch "A Florida Enchantment" (1914), unaware of its content, I was not only taken by surprise, but totally smacked in the face by what I was watching. For 1914 this was utterly unexpected. In 1914, when this was first shown, it must have been quite a doozy. I think I can be pretty certain that the humor would have been interpreted in a very different way in 1914 also, but I wasn't there, so I don't know. So, what's it about? Well, due to a very minor mix-up in the interpretation of her fiancé's (Sidney Drew) attention towards another woman, the lady (Edith Storey) stores up her emotions and petty anger until it becomes more than petty. Meanwhile, she discovers a box which contains pills that purportedly will transmogrify a woman into a man or a man into a woman. She takes one. She soon enough gives one to her maid, too, so that the maid will become a valet to her newly-become man. The impending occurrences bring about cross-dressing and inherent what-appear-to-be lesbian feelings. What particularly surprised me about all this "comedy" is that one woman whom Storey began having feelings towards seemed to be perfectly satisfied with the feelings, as if she were...well, lesbian. Today this might be perfectly acceptable, but in 1914 it may have been shattering to many members of an audience. Anyway...Drew is abashed, and through all the antics which follow, all eventually leads to Storey giving Drew a pill, and he becomes...rather feminine! As I watched I kept thinking, I kept wondering; how is this going to get fixed? Is there a need to fix it? How is the change going to be extricated out of the film's plot? Will everything find an ending that gets back to the way it was in the beginning? Well, today's watcher might simply ask: is it necessary to do so. I'll let the ending ride so you can find out for yourself. It IS a comedy, and it IS funny - but only after you let the plot sink into your watching and you realize that you've been railroaded by a sneak-thief...the Director Sidney Drew.

Not bad, but this one is a humongous surprise for 1914. Even with all the cross-dressing of Arbuckle, Chaplin, and all the others, this one takes the cake. It's probably not angel-food, but devil's-food. People seem to love chocolate anyway. This was filmed in St. Augustine and St. Petersburg, Florida. Many films were made in St. Augustine, a fact that is probably not known by the general film-goer anymore.

The one caveat besides the theme: the blacks in the film, and there are many, are all whites in blackface. If that offends you, you'll be nearly instantly offended before the plot even begins. You have the right to be by the way the situation is handled in the film between the races. Just remember, this was 1914; and, no, that doesn't excuse ignorance or racism.

[drednm]

Fanchon the Cricket (1915) is a rare Mary Pickford title that was considered lost for many years. It's discovery and restoration involved many parties. Pickford plays a wildchild in 19th century France. She lives in the woods with granny who's considered to be a witch, so they are outcasts. She falls for the squire's son (Jack Standing) but he's about to marry Madelon (Lottie Pickford). Granny has a few secrets and divulges them before she croaks, clearing the way for a happy ending but the squire's son gets ill. The story is a tad sketchy but Pickford is luminous. Jack Pickford plays a village brat who picks on Standing's brother who is supposedly a half-wit. This is the only film the three Pickfords appeared in together. This is another silent Milton Berle is supposedly in. And rumors also had Fred Astaire in the film; he and sister Adele visited the New Jersey set. Some may think Astaire is playing the brat but it's Jack Pickford.

Directed by James Kirkwood, the natural settings are beautiful but the film overall lacks something.

[Dave Pitts]

I think you nailed it with Cricket. Its central conceit is awkward and steeped in an aura of old musty novels. Fanchon could be a forest pal of Rima the bird girl. And the brother of the leading man -- what exactly was the actor playing? The character was so childish that I assumed he was what old-time stories used to call a lovable half-wit. At one point he yells that he's going to run away and live in the forest. He walks a few feet past the tree line and curls up to sleep on the ground -- where they find him, hours later.
A muddled scenario which (I'm guessing) derived from a muddled novel, and typical of the teens in Hollywood. Pickford herself would have a major hand in changing that, when she focused on the search for better stories and better screenwriters.

[drednm]

Pickford herself was glorious and the final scene in the waving grass is one you'll remember for its simplicity and beauty. The scenario is flawed but the casting of the leading man was a huge error and the guy playing the squire was also just plain awful. Jack Standing was the brother of Wyndham and Guy and died of pneumonia in 1917 at age 31. Pandemic victim?

And as for Milton Berle, I went back through the film and there are no children in any of the scenes. And here's a nod to Gertrude Norman who was only 67, playing the grandmother/witch.

For all its flaws, it's still a real treat to be able to see this long lost film!

[R Michael Pyle]

I think you nailed it with Cricket. Its central conceit is awkward and steeped in an aura of old musty novels. Fanchon could be a forest pal of Rima the bird girl. And the brother of the leading man -- what exactly was the actor playing? The character was so childish that I assumed he was what old-time stories used to call a lovable half-wit. At one point he yells that he's going to run away and live in the forest. He walks a few feet past the tree line and curls up to sleep on the ground -- where they find him, hours later.
A muddled scenario which (I'm guessing) derived from a muddled novel, and typical of the teens in Hollywood. Pickford herself would have a major hand in changing that, when she focused on the search for better stories and better screenwriters.

That musty old novel, as you put it - as I mentioned in my last September 17th review here - happens to be one of George Sand's best known and best-loved pieces of writing, a novella called La Petite Fadette. I also mentioned that the scenarist of "Fanchon" has altered the book considerably. It's not the novel's fault. I also agree with Ed: I think the show showcased Mary Pickford extremely well. The photography was glorious on the new print with beautiful tinting and toning. The editing, on the other hand, and the very weak direction are the culprits. But it is a film that I believe will be much appreciated anyway. As commentators have said, and I think they're right: if you view this film as an adult fairy tale, a lot can be overlooked. But the "better story" began as a good one; it got changed a very great deal at the end. The screenwriter may not have been at fault, necessarily, but the editor granted some scenes far too much time while shunting others that should, or could, have been longer. James Kirkwood as director probably should take the blame you aim. You ARE certainly correct: the film is flawed; nevertheless, it's a wonderful find after having been thought lost for decades. Mary herself was seemingly proud of her work in this film for that period in her career.

[drednm]

I agree, Mike. I certainly was not sorry I had watched it!

[Dave Pitts]

I agree in general with the posts above, and I'm never sorry to see a silent feature that's new to me, especially if it's a restoration. There's always a multitude of interesting things in a film from 105 years ago.
About the final shot of the film -- yes, quite an image; the motion of the grass or wheat or whatever it was made a fascinating pattern. I did think it was strange to thwart the audience expectation that we would see her husband in that final sequence. It made me wonder if there wasn't a lost piece of footage, although there was no indication of that.
The storyline is static, though, and Variety's 1915 review took it to task for lacking sophistication in its construction. 'Wynn', the reviewer, noted that the central situation grew tiresome, adding, "The customary family interferences keep the adjustment postponed until the sufficient number of reels have been projected, the self same family affairs being responsible for this feature, for otherwise it could have been pictured in a single reel." I'm impressed when I read reviews like that, because it must be remembered that Wynn was writing at a time when the feature film was in its -- what -- fourth year?

[R Michael Pyle]

Put in "The Social Secretary" (1916) for the first time in fifteen years. Starring a beautiful Norma Talmadge in a rôle that probably still resonates today for many women in the workforce, Talmadge plays a secretary who is forced to "flee" from several jobs for the pawing, over-reaching wolves of men who've employed her - and she's a wonderful secretary, but - ... She finally sees an ad looking for a social secretary, but one who's "not attractive to men". Of course she gets the job in the rich de Puyster household and becomes super efficient - though she dresses every day as a plain-Jane, puts on appropriately drab make-up, and keeps to herself when not gainfully employed by Mrs. de Puyster, seemingly a widow with a son and a daughter. Meanwhile, she's become close friends with Mrs. de Puyster's daughter. The son, a wild child, eventually discovers her genuine looks. There's an incident...of course... But...through the "incident" he changes, becoming genuinely enamored of Talmadge (Mayme in the film), becomes more than civilized and far more a gentleman. HOWEVER, Talmadge at one time previously had been employed by a Portuguese count... He chased Talmadge to the breaking point with lecherous intent... She was forced to run... Well, now he's ba-a-ack! Only now he's lost his fortune, is on the prowl, and he's now after Mrs. de Puyster's daughter... It becomes necessary for Talmadge to let Mrs. de Puyster in on the facts of the count. I should now write "and so forth"... However, before I end this feminist plight with some good news, enter Erich von Stroheim in his fourth film: he plays Adam Buzzard, an apropos name for him and his profession. He is editor of/owns a/runs a scandalous rag of a tabloid and interferes now by discovering several little secrets in the de Puyster family (including Talmadge) he can dirty up.

At only 52 minutes (possibly longer at one time, possibly not) this moves quickly and is very charming indeed. Beautifully acted, wonderfully written (and there's more to the depth of this than may appear on the surface) by Anita Loos and future husband John Emerson and directed by Emerson besides. Besides Talmadge and von Stroheim, others in the cast include Kate Lester, Helen Weir, Gladden James, Herbert French, and a few more.

[IA]

The Devil's Circus (1926).

Louis B. Mayer presents a God-fearing, morally upstanding saga featuring Satan, gangsters, man-eating lions, rape, war, disfigurement, atheism, and Old Testament justice--directed by the man who brought you Häxan!

This shameless MGM melodrama was predictable result of Benjamin Christensen joining Hollywood's most monolithic studio. The Devil's Circus is a warped hybrid of Mayer-approved hokum and Danish warlock perversity.

Though Christensen received sole writing credit, 20 MGM staff writers played havoc with his original screenplay. Being a vulnerable new employee and immigrant, he decided to be a good boy and do what the studio wanted.

He directed this preposterous material with enough fluidity (having mastered feature-film direction in 1913) and intensity to inadvertently produce a nihilistic, morbid parody of melodrama, interested only in the genre's structural and emotional extremes. The film makes no effort at "realistic" characterization; Charlie Emmett Mack and Norma Shearer are endearingly inept as the wide-eyed leads, dolts at the mercy of Satan's string-pulling.

[Big Silent Fan]

The Devil's Circus (1926).

Louis B. Mayer presents a God-fearing, morally upstanding saga featuring Satan, gangsters, man-eating lions, rape, war, disfigurement, atheism, and Old Testament justice--directed by the man who brought you Häxan!
The film makes no effort at "realistic" characterization; Charlie Emmett Mack and Norma Shearer are endearingly inept as the wide-eyed leads, dolts at the mercy of Satan's string-pulling.

Is this the film with the huge fan and where the circus burns to the ground at the end?

I don't remember this for certain, but I did save a copy on DVD. I must have enjoyed it more than you.

Perhaps my friend and I will watch this again today. We saw it less than a year ago.

[FrankFay]

Is this the film with the huge fan and where the circus burns to the ground at the end?

I don't remember this for certain, but I did save a copy on DVD. I must have enjoyed it more than you.

Perhaps my friend and I will watch this again today. We saw it less than a year ago.

I believe you are thinking of the climax of SOULS FOR SALE where in the confusion of a tent fire Lew Cody attempts to kill Richard Dix with a wind machine - an airplane propeller & engine mounted on a wagon, with no safety shield.

[IA]

I believe you are thinking of the climax of SOULS FOR SALE where in the confusion of a tent fire Lew Cody attempts to kill Richard Dix with a wind machine

That's correct. There are no burning tents in The Devil's Circus, though the titular institution has several workplace safety issues involving lions and trapeze artists.

[boblipton]

I believe you are thinking of the climax of SOULS FOR SALE where in the confusion of a tent fire Lew Cody attempts to kill Richard Dix with a wind machine

That's correct. There are no burning tents in The Devil's Circus, though the titular institution has several workplace safety issues involving lions and trapeze artists.

I can't think of many circus movies where there isn't a lion running around mauling people, and plunging trapeze artists.

Bob

[Big Silent Fan]

My friend and I watched The Devil's Circus (1926) again today. My copy was recorded from TCM and runs 73 minutes, from the familiar MGM Lion to the final "The End." I remember I disliked the music with this video recording so much, I didn't want to watch initially. Instead, I played a musical score from another film which worked well. That's the music heard on my DVD recording we watched again today, dubbed on a DVD with the video from TCM. Without this different music, I doubt I would have enjoyed this film as much as I do. I do wish, somehow, the film could be restored, since so much of the image is washed out. Much planning and careful filming is evident throughout the unrestored video.
IMDB list this at just 70 minutes, but there are enough plots and big production scenes to fill a movie three times as long. There's a huge stage show in the film, with hundreds of dancers (and a large audience watching). The Circus scenes were filmed in a building, not a tent and there were lots of real circus people. Still, this was a traditional, '3 Ring Circus' which was impressed on the 'Silent Film Audience' by watching the spectators in bleachers (on the screen), turning their heads right and then left. I've been to one of those circuses and it was overwhelming, following so many acrobatic acts while trying to watch the dancing Elephants and lion tamers, all at the same time.
My friend pointed out one thing he felt made this film special. It was, there was more than one villain in the story. We have Hugo, the lion tamer with great influence over the owner, but then there's also, Yonna (Carmel Meyers), who is insanely jealous of any woman who catches Hugo's eye. The character, Yonna, fights off her jealousy and anger until it reaches the boiling point. In the film, when she's driven to try and kill Mary (Norma Shearer), there's great camera work to present this woman, trying to fight off urges to harm someone. I think there are several tracking shots as we watch her struggle, knowing it was wrong. We watched as the safety nets are removed just before Mary falls to the ground in the mist of lions from up high. There's an amazing scene where one lion is on top of her and scratches her on the face. So much is happening and yet these are simply subplots to the main (religious) story which is summarized below.
Carl (Charles Emmett Mack) is released from prison and rebuffs the priest's warning, "Without God, he would soon be back in prison." He just made his first haul, money from some rich man's wallet, and he's out on the street when he sees Mary (Norma Shearer), come by and stop at the circus which was closed. We're told Mary's mother has raised her to believe God will protect her. When she cannot find a room, she accepts Carl's offer to come to his place. Carl's known lots of girls before, but is surprised by Mary's innocence. He tries his best to have his way with her but eventually gives her the key to the room he let her use. Somehow, there's a change in Carl and now, he wants only to please Mary. He's in love!
When fellow criminals ask him to help out in a robbery, he declines, believing he is on the straight and narrow and nothing can make him go back to a life of crime. That is, until a visit to the circus (where Mary now worked as a showgirl), had him worried he might loose her. It was Yonna who warned him he might loose Mary.
Carl is wounded in the robbery, and soon arrested (with Mary present). She promises to wait for him, but when Hugo deflowers Mary, she's too ashamed to continue writing to Carl in prison. [Note: This is all before Mary's accident in the fall at the circus which ended her career.]
WWI begins and soon, all the hospitals are filled with the wounded and Mary drops out of sight. Four years later, Carl returns from the army and goes on with his life alone, knowing Mary was injured, but not knowing what has happened to her. It's now Christmastime.
Mary's horrible life experiences have convinced her there is no God, even though Mrs. Peterson (Claire McDowell) continues to plead with her to have faith.
Mrs. Peterson's daughter Anita (Joyce Coad), overhears Mary denying God, and upset, she goes to a neighbor to ask why there isn't a God any more? The old man tells her he hasn't thought about God for a long time and sends her to ask the man upstairs, saying, "He's closer to Heaven." [Surely, this brought laughs from the Silent film audience.]
The man upstairs is Carl, and he assures Anita, God is everywhere and take's the girl back to her flat where he sees Mary for the very first time in years. This could have been the end, but this story doesn't end until it ties up all the loose ends to show how God was working in everything that's happened.
Carl searches until he finds Hugo, intending to kill him to avenge what he did to Mary. It turned out, Hugo lost his vision in the war and Carl's anger toward the disabled man fades away. Yonna, perhaps the real villain tells Carl how she spent five years in prison for what she did to Mary and now walks the streets. Carl leaves them to their miserable existence and returns to Mary.
It's Carl, who tells Mary,

"Mary! God has opened my eyes! He has sent me back to you."

Mary raises up from the chair, suddenly able to walk, and goes to Carl, embracing him, Fade to black, and the film ends with a large bell ringing on a snowy Christmas night. The End.

[R Michael Pyle]

"The Cheerful Fraud" (1926) is another proof that Reginald Denny was one of the great farceurs of the early twentieth century. The story is actually quite impossible, and it begins on a note that borders the ridiculous, but if the viewer sits atop the pole that has no seat for a few minutes and endures the eye-popping silliness, then, for no reason at all, there's a euphoria cum numbness that overcomes and begins to make you laugh. It's so silly and impossible, yet so inviting, everyone will get so involved in the adventure - oh, and that's what it has become - that for the seventy minutes or so you're bagged like a fish in a trammel net. The acting is better than first rate. Frankly, all is first rate but the story. It's stale and over-the-top. What it lacks to make this thing a classic's classic is cleverness. It isn't subtle in any way. It's not slapstick, but it wants to be.

Denny's facial expressions are priceless. But the person who everyway equals Denny in this thing is Gertrude Astor. She's a pip! And, in case you didn't know, Denny was over six feet tall. In her high heels, Astor is often taller than Denny. No short lady. Another in the cast equally tall or taller is Emily Fitzroy. She plays the wife of funnyman and shrimp in height, Otis Harlan. Denny's amour in the piece is Gertrude Olmstead. She's the meek, but self-determined foil to the ridiculous happenings of all the others. Did I mention Charles K. Gerrard? He plays the nasty who impersonates the character Denny IS in the show. Confused? Good. Watch this. Stick with it: it's crazy at the beginning: you'll think, "Wait a minute! No one does that! That's ridiculous!" As I said: stick with it. You'll find it hilarious. One of the title cards actually made me laugh out loud. Trust me, that's not a common thing.

Unfortunately, my print's from Alpha. You get what you get. Picture quality never reaches the good level. Always just under or less. Still, it's watchable. That music that accompanies it is something you can always turn down to a very low level. Then all is well.

[tslater]

Christmas Eve Night French film from 1908 with admirable qualities in the cinematography and editing. But it was strange how Richard Abel said nothing in his commentary about a horse that's thrown over a cliff in the final shot. One of the most shocking scenes I've ever seen.

[R Michael Pyle]

"Sunny Side Up" (1926) [and, no, NOT the 1929 Janet Gaynor/Charles Farrell same title film] stars Vera Reynolds, Edmund Burns, George K. Arthur, ZaSu Pitts, Ethel Clayton, Sally Rand, Louis Natheaux, and others. This was directed by Donald Crisp for DeMille Pictures Corporation, then distributed through Producers Distributing Company, the company through which most of Reynolds', Priscilla Dean's, Marie Prevost's, Joseph Schildkraut's and even Harry Carey's pictures got distributed in the middle to late 20's. There were probably budget restraints on "Sunny Side Up" because plot points shift almost abruptly, unexpectedly, and only a title card gets viewers into how things arrived where they suddenly are, though even this is handled rather deftly by Crisp. The comedy/drama has loads of both: not only is the kitchen sink thrown into the mix, but the dishwashing soap and a drying towel are thrown in free for good measure. For only 66 minutes we're given a huge range of talented actors and actresses strutting their stuff. Reynolds and Arthur (obviously "pals" from way back) begin the film working in a pickle factory for a German owner/boss. Very pat, but nevertheless funny, things happen immediately. The title cards are anything-for-a-laugh, but the laughs come anyway. But suddenly we're watching Reynolds and Arthur (but especially Reynolds) become stars in a stage revue under the aegis of Edmund Burns. Burns doesn't just become enamored of Reynolds, over some time it gets to the point he asks her to marry him. Enter Ethel Clayton. Guess who she is? Yes, she's Burns' wife. Then comes the drama. Meanwhile, back at Arthur and ZaSu Pitts: they've become a something, and just when the drama is hitting the highpoint with Reynolds and Burns, Arthur and Pitts are married! Now the drama of everything is suddenly on fire...I didn't say literally, but I might have...

Reynolds shows she's a really talented actress. She ranges from comedy through drama with a very sure deftness that really captures the viewer. I've seen her before, but never have I noticed her as much as this film. It may be the equivalent of a programmer - though I'm not sure a DeMille produced film is ever a programmer - but it's good, potboiler though it might be. Well worth the look! This is available through Grapevine, but my print was the second show on an Alpha Video that has a Reginald Denny picture, "A Cheerful Fraud", as the main attraction. "Sunny Side Up" on this DVD is not in great condition, with scratches out the wazoo and fading in much of the picture, but overall it still is quite attractive anyway and is certainly an inviting watch because of Reynolds.

[Jim Roots]

"The Cheerful Fraud" (1926) is another proof that Reginald Denny was one of the great farceurs of the early twentieth century. The story is actually quite impossible, and it begins on a note that borders the ridiculous, but if the viewer sits atop the pole that has no seat for a few minutes and endures the eye-popping silliness, then, for no reason at all, there's a euphoria cum numbness that overcomes and begins to make you laugh. It's so silly and impossible, yet so inviting, everyone will get so involved in the adventure - oh, and that's what it has become - that for the seventy minutes or so you're bagged like a fish in a trammel net. The acting is better than first rate. Frankly, all is first rate but the story. It's stale and over-the-top. What it lacks to make this thing a classic's classic is cleverness. It isn't subtle in any way. It's not slapstick, but it wants to be.

Denny's facial expressions are priceless. But the person who everyway equals Denny in this thing is Gertrude Astor. She's a pip! And, in case you didn't know, Denny was over six feet tall. In her high heels, Astor is often taller than Denny. No short lady. Another in the cast equally tall or taller is Emily Fitzroy. She plays the wife of funnyman and shrimp in height, Otis Harlan. Denny's amour in the piece is Gertrude Olmstead. She's the meek, but self-determined foil to the ridiculous happenings of all the others. Did I mention Charles K. Gerrard? He plays the nasty who impersonates the character Denny IS in the show. Confused? Good. Watch this. Stick with it: it's crazy at the beginning: you'll think, "Wait a minute! No one does that! That's ridiculous!" As I said: stick with it. You'll find it hilarious. One of the title cards actually made me laugh out loud. Trust me, that's not a common thing.

Unfortunately, my print's from Alpha. You get what you get. Picture quality never reaches the good level. Always just under or less. Still, it's watchable. That music that accompanies it is something you can always turn down to a very low level. Then all is well.

I've had the Grapevine VHS for at least 25 years, and it is probably better than Alpha's version (probably Alpha made a copy-of-a-copy of Grapevine's version). It's a really good showcase for Denny, and he's up to the challenge.

Idle curiosity: Is this the only film featuring two leading actresses both named Gertrude? The name essentially went out of fashion (in North America, at least; it stayed popular in Germany) at the same time the talkies came into fashion.

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

"The Cheerful Fraud" (1926)

Idle curiosity: Is this the only film featuring two leading actresses both named Gertrude? The name essentially went out of fashion (in North America, at least; it stayed popular in Germany) at the same time the talkies came into fashion.

Jim

You know, it's odd that you ask that. I hadn't even thought about it. Yet, two nights before I watched a Bob Steele Western and the leading lady was Gertrude Messenger! I've had a week full of Gertrudes, and I hadn't even realized it.

[boblipton]

earlietalkiebuffRob talked about La Cigarette (1919) on March 16 in this thread. I finally got around to it, recorded off TCM at the start of this month.

Germaine Dulac's earliest surviving feature -- albeit in an erratically chipped copy -- is a story about the old man Gabriel Signoret (41, albeit in a white wig) married to a young woman, Andrée Brabant. He's an archeologist working on a new display of the mummy of a young Egyptian princess whose elderly husband grew jealous and had her killed with a poisoned seedcake. Signoret grows suspicious that Mlle Brabant is carrying on with Jules Raucourt, whose twin professions are dancing and golf. Determined to kill himself, he poisons a cigarette, puts it in his case, and writes a note to be discovered after he uses it at random. Immediately people start bumming smokes off him, including the innocent missus.

I first encountered Mme. Dulac's movies in the winter of 2003-2004, when a program of them played at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Each film was preceded by a lecture by an earnest young woman. Reading from notes, at each showing she informed the audience that Dulac was a Lesbian and a woman, and that was why she was an important film maker. I preferred to look at the movies instead of being told they were important. I discovered she was a highly competent film maker whose male characters behaved stupidly, often selfishly, occasionally villainously. viewed as. a corrective to the vamp movie, it might be considered turbabout in fair play. However, she had a propensity for dragging out the big scene past my patience. In short, I found her movies tiresome.

Perhaps it is bumptious of me, but this one strikes me as more of the same. Dulac fills the screen with images of Mlle Brabant's innocence. She kisses white doves around the house's fountain. She plays with a white dog. She is vivacious and flirty, but she's fond of the old fellow, little though he deserves it. Just like all men.

Bob

[boblipton]

Les cinq gentlemen maudits (1920): Two men and a woman meet at an opium den. Some time later, the three of them find themselves coincidentally on a boat to Tunis, along wih a couple of other men. By the time they get to their goal, they are all friends. The men go on a trip into the souk, where one of them commits an outrage, removing the veil from a young woman, then knocking down her father when he tries to defend them. He curses them with death, death by the next full moon, and in the order of outrage.

I looked at a Pathe-baby cutdown of this movie; I can't figure out the original time, but it was at least twice as long as the 23-minute version I saw. There seems to be little time for anything but the plot points. Given this is listed as a comedy, there were probably a few light-hearted japes in it. None now survive, although the ending is pretty amusing given the set-up.

Bob

[Jim Roots]

Given this is listed as a comedy, there were probably a few light-hearted japes in it.

Ah, light-hearted japes ... Truly, life can be dolorous without them!

Jim

[tslater]

Blow Job (Andy Warhol, 1963-64). Absolutely silent. Any sound at all would be inappropriate because all we see is the face of a young man expressing pleasure and occasionally glancing down. The action implied by the title is all in the viewer's head. I call this erotic, but not pornographic. What we see is only referencing an implied action in the off-screen space below the frame, but then the title may also be a joke. A sense of humor is definitely involved.