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Mike Gebert saw Dressed to Kill (1928) at Capitolfest 14 and wrote

A Fox silent starring Edmund Lowe as the dapper head of a gang of thugs (he looks very out of place next to the rogues gallery the casting department assembled here); poor thief Mary Astor turns up on his speakeasy doorstep, he recruits her and falls in love, but the other fellas don't trust dis dame being part of the gang all sudden-like, see. Plainly influenced by Underworld, but way more sentimentalized and full of plot conveniences, on that level it's not terribly good. But take it purely on the pleasures that run skin deep, and it's great to look at— Astor in a Louise Brooks bob is drop dead gorgeous, her costumes and the Art Deco set designs are dazzling, and though as I said, Lowe's mob barely seems to belong to the same picture as its chic but perennially lightweight star, the atmospherically Expressionist handling of their knobby mugs and menacing manners by director Irving Cummings is stylish as all hell. The parts of this movie are better than the sum, for sure.

The copy I looked at seems to have been a multigenerational one, pulled off a videotape, so it was a bit too blocky and low contrast to judge accurately. As Mike notes, it seems to have been intended to join the down-and-dirty gangster genre that was a-building, but once you’ve put Edmund Lowe in top hat and tails, how dangerous can he be when Mary Astor is in an evening dress...except to Miss Astor, and she knows how to hold him off.

Although it plays on the edge of comedy for a bit, when it turns mean, it does so readily, with some shots that would be stolen for Warner’s gangster cycle in the 1930s. Although the details of the images may not have come through, there are some fine, threatening compositions. Although director Irving Cummings is not well remembered, he certainly knew how to direct a movie!

Bob

SHE (1925) – It’s far from being complete, and the lost sections make a hash of the first half of the surviving print. There’s enough remaining to provide a fair assessment, though, and that assessment is that the film is barely acceptable as a fantasy melodrama. The complete film must have been a dreary, dull experience to view.

Being fantasy, the story is nonsense. That shouldn’t bother a viewer who comes to it with a sense of adventure and a willing suspension of disbelief.

The scenes of the crossing of the gap to the Rocking Stone (you can’t help looking around for the Rolling Stones) are nicely done, with apparently no stunt doubles. Interior shots are your basic White Man’s Jungle Empire Rooms; exterior shots are your basic Tarzan rubber wilderness.

Betty Blythe is all right in the title role; good-looking, but certainly not so beautiful that looking upon her face is a man’s doom. (Neither are her bare breasts.) Carlyle Blackwell looks exactly like a tweedy middle-aged mannish lesbian of the 1920s, especially when he overdoes the lipstick to go with his pert curly blonde bob. The other lead actors give ripe performances; they seem to be still playing as though it were 1910 instead of 1925 (or ’26; sources vary).

Rider Haggard’s purple-prose intertitles – he wrote them all by himself! – seem concussed, and out of touch with what is actually happening onscreen before and after their appearance.

In all, it’s a potential worthwhile fantasy that hasn’t been brought to life.

Jim

Jim Roots wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:00 pm

SHE (1925) – It’s far from being complete, and the lost sections make a hash of the first half of the surviving print. There’s enough remaining to provide a fair assessment, though, and that assessment is that the film is barely acceptable as a fantasy melodrama.

In all, it’s a potential worthwhile fantasy that hasn’t been brought to life.

Jim

There have been numerous efforts to tell the same, "She, who must be obeyed" story.
She: A History of Adventure, an 1887 novel by H. Rider Haggard, and its film adaptations:

She (1911 film), a silent short film featuring Marguerite Snow
She (1916 film), a silent film produced in the UK
She (1917 film), a silent film starring Valeska Suratt
She (1925 film), a silent film starring Betty Blythe
She (1935 film), featuring Helen Gahagan
She (1965 film), starring Ursula Andress
She (1984 film), starring Sandahl Bergman
She (2001 film), with Ophélie Winter

I've never enjoyed any that I've seen.

I assume that is is Blackwell in heavy makeup who gives the ripe and melodramatic performance as his character's dying father. Who ever plays it, it is one of the more memorable things in the film.

Otherwise, it is interesting to see Heinrich (Henry) George in something besides METROPOLIS.

Hitchcock had a wonderful, mischievous sense of humour, but I don’t think anyone would describe him as a maker of comedy films. He started out that way, though, before realizing his wit was most effectively dispensed in the form of brief injections into tense situations.

Champagne (1928) was one of those early efforts at sophisticated light comedy. He has the light touch, all right, and he can fake the sophistication. But where the comedy’s concerned, he ain’t Noel Coward, and at the other extreme, he ain’t Mack Sennett either.

Champagne is a blatant imitation of all of Clara Bow’s flapper comedies. Betty Balfour is saddled with the impossible task of one-upping Bow; she tries hard, but it’s like Adam Sandler trying to imitate Franklin Pangborn – what’s the use?

Like Bow with the odious and thoroughly unattractive Donald Keith, Balfour is forced to pretend she’s madly in love with a wooden-faced ultra-conformist square for whom she wouldn’t have had two seconds in real life (played by Jean Bradin, whoever he was). This guy is the antithesis of the free-spirited, exuberant, energetic flapper heroine: he isn’t just square, he’s super-square, an uptight Establishment man, a sour-faced prude who – like the old maids in Western films – purses his lips so tightly in disapproval that his mouth is literally nothing more than a pencil-thin straight line.

As per Hollywood norms (despite Hitch’s Englishness), the sole purpose of these kinds of films were to brainwash lively and rebellious young girls into accepting their place as dowdy, submissive, docile, obedient wives to all-powerful male pillars of the upper crust. Today’s audience will find that message impossible to digest.

Jim

J’ai tué! (1924): Sessue Hayakawa lost his studio in the Great Tokyo quake. When he arrived in France with a hamper of his remaining objets d’art, they were stolen from him in a waterfront saloon. He has made his way to the estate of his old friend, Max Maxudian and Max’s wife, Huguette Duflos, who have treated him kindly, given him a home and the chance to pursue his arts. Yet all is not well. Mlle. Duflos has been carrying on an affair with the shady Pierre Daltour,. He has turned to blackmailing her. When her husband discovers the situation, Daltour strangles him.... and rather than admitting the affair, Hayakawa finds himself on trial for murder.

Like many a fading American movie star before and since, Hayakawa moved to Europe, where he was still admired. There are bits and pieces of earlier, celebrated roles stuck into this movie. The writer-director, Roger Lion, was a founding member of the Société des Auteurs de Films. Like many an artist who talked of Art, when it came to his own productions, he was not one to mess with proven formulas. The result here is a nice little little, not terribly original, but very competently produced and relying on Hayakawa’s star personna to carry out the mixture of high-society decadence, and melodramatic nobility.

Bob

Have watched several silents lately, including:

(1) "Bellboy 13" (1923) with Douglas MacLean, John Steppling, Margaret Loomis, William Courtright, Emily Gerdes, and others.

(2) "Her Night of Romance" (1924) with Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Jean Hersholt, Albert Gran, and others.

(3) "Kiki" (1926) with Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Gertrude Astor, Marc McDermott, George K. Arthur, Frankie Darro, and others.

(4) "Beau Revel" (1921) with Florence Vidor, Lewis Stone, Lloyd Hughes, Kathleen Kirkham, and others. Watched this one last night. The review by Brian Taves who wrote a biography of Thomas Ince who produced this film is a perfect encapsulation of what I saw - HOWEVER, BE WARNED, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS! (I did correct a spelling error that drives me crazy, however!):

"Among the producer Thomas Ince's series of specials for Paramount, source was as important as star; several were from Louis Joseph Vance novels: False Faces, The Bronze Bell, The Dark Mirror, and "Beau" Revel, as I outline in my Ince biography. All prominently acknowledged the popular author best known for the "Lone Wolf" mysteries. Vance had been signed to a four-picture deal with Ince, and was particularly involved with dramatizing The Dark Mirror and "Beau" Revel. A year earlier, Ralph Ince Film Attractions, a combine including not only Thomas's brother, but also Arthur Sawyer and Herbert Lubin, had secured Vance to compose originals and also analyze the story construction of each script prior to production.

"Beau" Revel, "An Ince-Vance Special Paramount Picture," was introduced with the subtitle, "This is the story of a man who played at love, forgetting in his vain selfishness, the rules of Duty, even Decency—conceitedly 'wasting his manhood in a game unworthy of man.'" That is a precise definition of Lewis Stone as the title character, first shown having his nails trimmed, his shoes shined, and receiving a shave. His latest fancy is Alice (Kathleen Kirkham), a woman whose husband's drunkenness has given Beau an opening. However, she refuses to believe his protestations that despite his reputation for breaking the hearts of many women, if she marries him he will henceforth only love her.

Beau arranges his evening with Alice to meet the woman his son cares for at the Club de Dance. Betty Lee (Florence Vidor) is a dancer, truly in love with Dick Revel (Lloyd Hughes), but his father cynically judges her by his own standards. Alice, for her part, perceives that Beau has a new interest, and she turns out to be correct, for Beau tricks his son into agreeing to not see Betty for two weeks, convinced he can get Betty in his room alone. Dick tries to warn her, but when Betty expresses dismay over such an opinion of his father, Dick believes she is already under his sway.

By the end of the two weeks, Beau has forgotten his promises in the new thrill to fulfill his vanity, and is now avoiding Alice, even though she is ready for the divorce from her husband. Beau's soul, through double-exposures, becomes a literal battleground of temptation, the shadows of women and his wicked self. His reputation is already tarnishing that of Betty, and when father and son both express their desire to marry her, she declares herself through with both. "You have never loved anybody—Not even Dick," Betty tells Beau, "The only thing you've ever loved is the idea of being in love." Dick wins her back, but meanwhile his father has realized that his life has been one of failure and mistakes. He doesn't want to die old, so he jumps to his death. In the last shot, as a metaphor, a moth is drawn too close to the flame of a dying candle.

"Beau" Revel is unusual for its exposure of the empty life, particularly that of a father, as a type of man usually accepted if not celebrated in cinematic narratives—a man who knows how to seize the psychological advantage with women, regardless of consequences. Stone is ideally cast, with Vidor and Hughes complementing him in creating the sense of tragedy. Variety gave high praise to the realism of the acting and the restraint of novice director John Griffith Wray, suggesting he would have the significant Hollywood career that was shortly to occur with Ince. "Beau" Revel cost $134,380, and grossed $209,469."

The Best Man (1919)

A screening at the Cinema Museum, Kennington.

The Christopher Bird print that he kindly shared with us, shows a moderate amount of superfine scratches and the usual amount of white blobs but is otherwise a nice crisp print. Described as a comedy spy film, it's an entertaining affair but by no means a classic. The comedy was more grin inducing than uproarious laughter. I liked J Warren Kerrigan and his bride, Lois Wilson, and that hooked me enough to entertain me.

Chris described how Kerrigan had fallen from the dizzy heights of his top ten actor popularity in the mid-teens, Chris cited an infamous quote he made to a reporter in May 1917 when asking if he would be joining the war effort:

‘I’m not going to war, I will go of course if my country needs me, but I think first they should take the great mass of men who aren’t good for anything else or who are only good for the lower grades of work. Actors, musicians, great writers, artists of every kind, isn’t it a pity that people are sacrificed who are capable of such things and have added to the beauty of the world.’

No surprise that he was no longer quite as popular then!

A reel is missing, or part thereof, at the start, but the film hardly suffers from it.

******** Spoilers Follow ********









In London, a wily but aged Scotland Yard detective is on the track of an international snuggling gang who are operating out of an industrial laundry front. The gang think they have put the detective off the trail but he knows he has his men and bursts in surprising and holding a gun.

Unfortunately, he is overpowered and throttled to death by a senior member of the gang (George Hayne played by Clyde Benson). This man is a US ex pat, in the UK for 15 years. Knowing the heat he will be under from the Yard, he makes plans to return to America and wed a woman, of whose family he used to be acquainted He is blackmailing the daughter (Lois Wilson) of the family with claims that he has letters proving her deceased father was a bigamist. The daughter has agreed to marry him to protect her dear mother.

In the US, Kerrigan, a bit of a fancy on the public front, but is actually an ace customs officer and he reports in for his latest assignment. A customs official with the latest secret code key has been drugged and the code stolen. Stolen by the same gang we have seen operating in London. He must get the code back before the Hayne arrives from London arrives, for in addition to being a murderer, Hayne is also an ace code breaker. Kerrigan is dispatched with the words ‘Let nothing deter you’.

Kerrigan travels to New York and goes undercover as Hayne. He is fortunate because Hayne is on the scene but out of action. After evading international efforts to arrest him, he has accidently locked himself in a closet!
Armed with a ridiculous moustache that looks more like a bird of prey, Kerrigan meets the smuggling gang in a hotel, these are the leaders and they are a well to do bunch. They give him the stolen code and he surreptitiously swaps it for a false one, making an excuse he leaves the hotel room and in to a taxi downstairs. Realising they have been duped the gang send a henchman after him (don’t know who this guy was but he was suitably burly and looked like an ex-boxer) who sets off in pursuit. Kerrigan’s taxi driver thinks his customer is the person that Kerrigan is pretending to be, Hayne, and drives him straight to the wedding that was scheduled with Wilson. Kerrigan goes along with it, concentrating on avoiding the henchmen. At the church, none of the bride’s family has seen the real Kerrigan for fifteen years. With the bruiser henchman still following and the words ‘Let nothing deter you’ resonating in his memory, the startled Kerrigan marries the reluctant bride. Her family and friends are quickly charmed by his manner and more than one of them remarks to him that they never used to like him and how nice it is that he has changed.

Hayne finally gets free of the closet (no euphemisms intended as far as I can see). Rushing to the wedding he is 2-hours late for, he is more than a bit surprised to find the incredulous wedding staff telling him his bride is already married and off to her honeymoon. he sets off in hot pursuit to the train station but conveniently, police recognise and arrest him.

Seeing that the burly henchman is still on his trail Kerrigan suggests the bride’s family accompany him to the train station where they will set off on their honeymoon to Chicago. At the station Kerrigan makes a move to escape but is thwarted and ends up taking the train with his bride Lois Wilson. She is charmed by Kerrigan but remembers the letters she thinks he has sent and keeps an emotional distance. As the train stops in Pennsylvania early in the morning, Lois gets off complaining of the stuffiness of the train. Sensing an opportunity to break away from the henchman on the train, Kerrigan gets their luggage and agrees to walk down the road to see where it takes them. The henchman observes them walking away from his bed and after a frenzy of dressing, follows on foot.
Whilst they are walking, Lois gets stones in her shoe and she is surprised how tenderly Kerrigan treats her. When they come upon a sleepy town, they hire a horse and cart to take them to the next train station The henchmen follows but misses the train they have boarded. However, he knows where they are going to get off and phones ahead to get the gang to spring a trap. On the train Lois cools in her attitude to Kerrigan, when he enquiries why, she shows him the blackmail letters, he says he can't explain yet but demonstrates the handwriting is not his.

When they disembark, the gang are ready and trap them in the back of a cab they unsuspectingly board but Kerrigan smashes the glass with his luggage and relieves the gang of their gun. He chains them up in the cab.

Leaving his bride in a hotel, Kerrigan reports in to his office with the recovered code and his rewarded with a promotion. Meanwhile his bride picks up a paper and is startled to see that the man she thought she married has been arrested for murder and sent back to Scotland Yard. Worrying what has happened to the man she has fallen in love with she is immensely relieved when he walks in unharmed. He explains, they embrace.

The Whipping Boss (1923)

A screening at the Cinema Museum, Kennington.

Thought lost this ‘prison reform’ film was found in the hands of a collector, a 35mm nitrate print that was on its way to rotting oblivion. Kevin Brownlow (who else?) persuaded the collector to copy the nitrate on to a 16mm film and this is the copy that Chris recently purchased, and kindly shared with us. Obviously the 16mm copies degradation from the nitrate master, there are patches where the picture disappears altogether but mercifully these are brief and far between. Elsewhere there more degradation but mostly at the side of the frame where it's less distracting. Some scenes seem a little washed out as well but other scenes look really crisp and sharp. About half a reel is missing and this cut is missing scenes of brutality. Some of the intertitles flashed past way to quickly, and there was extended rolling for one lot of intertitles. Despite all these flaws, it was a perfectly watchable film for anyone who is used to this kind of sufferance to watch rare old silent movies. Costas Fotopoulos gave us a suitably dark and pensive score to accompany the film, it fitted the mood perfectly.

There is rumoured to be elements of this film in Gosfilmofond.

Chris introduced the film and mentioned J P McGowan directing and taking part in it (the Timber superintendent). Known for directing many episodes of the ‘Hazards of Helen’ and marrying its star, Chris pointed out that McGowan was clearly capable of more as demonstrated in this flick. McGowan featured in 232 movies and produced or directed 242.

Chris quoted Kevin Brownlow in his book, ‘Behind the Mask of Innocence’ as describing this film as an ‘Astonishing expose of the convict leasing system’ and praised its documentary realism.
Photoplay said ‘it isn’t easy to watch’.

Chris informed us that the story is based on a real-life incident which ended the convict leasing system in 1923 just before this film was released.

****** Spoilers Follow *******








Jim Fairfax is a mother's much-loved son who is out exploring the world but has run out of money and is camping rough and trying to get home, he is in good spirits nonetheless. We see a scene of his sweet old mother waiting for the postman, but he hasn't written, the postman says she shouldn't be surprised that the young man would not find the time.

Against the advice of a wily old tramp Fairfax and some others down and outs board going through a town called Woodward. The tramp wans them they will be caught there and sent to the chain gang but they don't believe him. At Woodward town, right on schedule, a load of henchmen board the train and overpower the itinerants and arrest them The local judge fines them money they do not have and unable to pay, they are sent for 90 days in jail, but jail in Woodward means they're going to the chain gang for the local Woodward timber merchants, effectively slave labour.

Transported to the logging camp by car, some of the prisoners over power the driver but their hijacked car gets stuck in sand and they are rounded up. At the camp they are introduced to the particularly nasty whipping boss who introduces himself by removing and then throwing away what looks like a military service pin from one of the prisoners, when the prisoner resists, he is punched to the ground. Inside the Spartan wooden shack that serves as prisoner accommodation we are introduced to an old man called ‘Pops’, a civil war veteran apparently banged up for no more than falling on hard times.

We see Fairfax’s mother received a letter from her son begging her to pay the $25 fine.

Elsewhere we are introduced to Forrester, a fine moral upstanding young man, American Legion member, and somebody who is well aware of the brutality of the logging camp. He is also the beau of the daughter of the timber companies’ owner, also by the name of Woodward.

Woodward’s assistant tells his boss that Forrester is becoming a nuisance with his campaign against the camp brutality and that they need to put the frighteners on him, Woodward says this won't work and suggests giving him a job as an accountant. Delighted, the daughter gives Forrester the news and he cautiously accepts.
Back in the logging camp we see the prisoners at work in the fetid and disease-ridden Cyprus swamp. Fairfax is struggling with swollen infected feet. Pops sees his struggle and cuts the side of his boots with an axe and relieves the pressure on his feet. This is seen by the sadistic whipping boss and he drags the terrified pops away and says he is going to give him 15 lashes for damaging company property. But before the first blow can be delivered, a mounted Forrester sees the situation and wrestles the whip from the boss’s hand, a scuffle ensues which is broken up with the help of one of the Whipping bosses’ underlings. Forrester is warned not to interfere with the way the camp is run but remains defiant. At least Pops escapes a beating.

Back at Woodward HQ Forrester protests the brutality but Woodward tells him he needs to fall in line with the company. Forrester says his job is a bribe and quits much to the distress of the daughter who tells him he cannot fight her father. However, Forrester gets a quick win when the state governor bans the use of the whip.
Back at the swamp the camps manager asks the whipping boss why he can't get more out of the men. The sullen whipper shows him the order not to use the whip. The boss tells him to ignore it and tears up the note. The whipper returns, gleefully sadistic, to his work.

Jim Fairfax's mother arrives in town and an elder statesman of the American Legion agrees to pay her son's fine to get him released. Forrester says he will go fetch Fairfax himself.

At the swamp Fairfax is overcome with fever and whilst trying to manually drill a log, all the while the whipping boss is pelting him with rocks. Fairfax falls in to the swamp and the other prisoners rescue him but as he lays semi-comatose on the bank, the Whipping Boss snarls that he will get his tonight. Something we are not shown in this cut of the film.

The next day Forrester arrives with a release order for Fairfax. The camp bosses stall knowing that Fairfax is half dead from the beating he took the previous night. They tell Forrester he has been transferred to another camp. Forrester insists they give him a release order and he will go to the other camp to pick up Fairfax. They comply but send three goons whom overpower Forrester and knock him out.

Back at the swamp camp, word get back to the manager that Fairfax has died from his beating, the manager tells the whipping boss to burn the stockade and to remove any evidence of the beating that Fairfax was given. The whipping boss takes it a stage further, and they chain all the prisoners to their bunks before setting the shack on fire.

In some awkward continuity or perhaps bad edits or missing footage, we find Forrester back in town and somehow aware are of the shack being set alight. He quickly musters the American legion and they set off on horseback. Not far behind is the Woodward daughter and Fairfax's mother. Upon arrival at the inferno the legion starts to throw water on the fire to little effect. Forrester grabs a hammer and enters the smoke-filled shack breaking the chains and freeing the prisoners. Some of those freed go after the camp managers but ultimately are brought back under control by armed guards. One prisoner recognises Woodward’s daughter and corners her, looking like he is going to molest her but she is rescued my Forrester he seems to be everywhere! Pops tells Fairfax’s mother that her son is dead. However, it turns out at the other prisoners were hiding him in a small hut and he is carried out and reunited with his mother although barely able to stand. We are shown he's whipped back but the film wasn't brave enough to show us the wounds that nearly killed him, there are just tears in his shirt and a tiny bit of blood. When the American Legion realise what has taken place, they become enraged and want to lynch the logging camp managers but once again Forrester intervenes and tells them that they hold to higher standards and that the managers will be dealt with by the law.

We cut to the court and the judge sentencing the camp managers, unfortunately this penultimate scene is pretty much rotted out. The last scene is Fairfax looking better with his mother and Forrester embracing the Woodward daughter.

Hollywood wasn't quite brave enough to follow through with Fairfax’s death (which is waht happened in real life) but this is a fairly impactful silent film. I hope one day we can see an unedited version. perhaps a merger of this print and whatever is languishing in the Russian vaults.

The Woman Game (1920)

A showing of Kevin Brownlow's 16mm tinted print and introduced in inimitable style by the great man himself. Lively accompaniment by Jon Sweeney. The print is in good condition and has a nice grey scale and plenty of detail. No congested shadows and no whited-out highlights. Kevin mentioned the condition of the print and wryly commented that this is not always a good thing as it can be indicative of a film that has not been run too often due to a lack of popularity. Kevin called the film slight but I found it entertaining enough and held together well by a good central performance by Elaine Hammerstein. I doubt it would get in anyone's top 50 silents, but it was a pretty solid flick. Elaine was Oscar Hammerstein’s cousin.

****** Spoilers Follow ******






Amy Terrel and her mother live with the well to do Van Trants by the beach in Florida. The Van Trants are the idle rich. Mr and Mrs Van Trant, their adult daughter and young son, about 5. The son doesn't get much attention from his mother and Amy is more of a mother to the boy.

The Van Trants host a cabal of semi contemptible hangers on. A multiple divorcee, a gossiping judge and many more. One of the slightly better ones is a War Hero British Captain, but he is having a torrid affair with Mrs Van Trant, the house is alive with the rumour that the Captain is carrying on with someone but nobody knows who.

Amy is fed up amusing this sorry bunch and taking their scraps of sympathy, such as money won at rigged card games and the like. However, her mother is desperate to keep on the good side of the Van Trants as she doesn't want to lose the good life.

A guest is due at the mansion, self-made millionaire, Danvers. He has a fearsome reputation and the Van Trants are half scared of him and half resentful, the film doesn't make it clear why he is coming. Possibly excised in the 16mm edit.

Amy and her boyfriend have a date at a busy restaurant and are lucky to nab a vacated table. Danvers turns up with his man, having just walked from his broken-down car. Seeing no table available, he bribes the waiter who promptly evicts Amy and boyfriend before they have even seen the menu. Amy realises what has happened and glares at Danvers, blissfully unaware of who he is.

The bored Van Trants and their gang decide to play a trick on Danvers who is known to be disdainful of society girls. They ask Amy to pretend to be a demure young lady to lure Danvers in. Amy is horrified and having none of it, until Danvers turns up and she recognises him from the restaurant. She decides to teach him a lesson and goes along with the Van Trants game. Amy's selfish mother hopes she can lure him in to marriage.
The act goes too well, Danvers is quickly entranced by Amy's old-fashioned lady like act. He also makes instant friends with the young Van Trant boy who hangs around Amy. Danvers reveals his true self to Amy, a tough but fair man who has never taken advantage of anyone who wasn't trying to screw him first. Amy sees him in a new light, a decent man.

As the days go by, Amy becomes increasingly uneasy with the farce and sends a letter to her boyfriend, explaining the ruse and asking him to come to her to give solace and advice. When her beau turns up, Amy is horrified to find he is no better than her mother, the Van Trants and their gang. He wants her to Marry Danvers as well, so he can get market tips! Amy walks away in disgust and Danvers finds her sobbing at the foot of a tree. He tells her he loves her. Amy flees to the house in emotional turmoil. Seeing this encounter, the former boyfriend spitefully sends Danvers the note that Amy sent him. Danvers reads it and is aghast. Amy emerges from the house to confess all to Danvers but he gets in first and gives it to her with both barrels, basically calling her a gold digger. Amy takes so much and then gives as good as she gets telling Danvers his power game is money and hers is marriage. She stalks off leaving a startled Danvers in her wake.

Resolved to end the farce and strike out on her own she tells Mrs Van Trant and her mother that she is leaving. Her selfish mother bemoans the fact that she has not hooked Danvers. Mrs Van Trant persuades her to attend the evening soiree.

We cut to a scene where the English Captain and Mrs Van Trant keep a clandestine liaison in the Captain's room, however the judge calls on the captain and Mrs Van Trant seeks a hiding place behind a dressing screen. The Captain plays it cool but the old judge spies a bit of yellow dress not hidden behind the screen. He gleefully goes and spreads the gossip amid the gang that he has seen a woman in the Captain's room, he doesn't know whom but she is wearing a yellow dress and whomever turns up at the soiree, wearing the same gown, will the captain’s beau. Mrs Van Trant persuades Amy to wear the dress on a pretence of impressing Danvers. When Amy enters the soiree, everybody states at her thinking she is the one having an affair with the English Captain. After an evening of whispers and giggles, Amy turns on everyone, thinking they are making fun of her and Danvers, unaware that they think she is the Captain's clandestine beau.

Eventually Amy twigs what has happened and demands to see Mrs Van Trant in her room. Amy tells her that she is going to tell everyone what she has done. Mrs Van Trant begs her not to, she will be ruined, but as Amy points out, nobody thought of her reputation, she is resolved to spill the beans. However, then enters the son, leaping in to Amy's arms and telling her of a train set Danvers is going to buy him. Cynically the mother sees the relationship between her son and Amy and asks her again if she will tell all. Amy goes downstairs to the crowd, conflicted.
Danvers enters the room and Amy is distraught seeing him again and exits the house.

The Captain comes good and tells Danvers and the gang that Amy is as fine and respectable a woman as he has met and much to Mrs Van Trant’s chagrin, that he is returning to England. Mrs Van Trant’s pulls the Captain aside and asks why he is leaving and he tells her he thinks that her manipulation of Amy was not sporting! Meanwhile Danvers absorps the news and announces he is going to propose to Amy. He finds her outside and pops the question, she accepts, they embrace. Inside Mrs Van Trant looks at her son as if seeing him for the first time and embraces him lovingly.

I needed to provide the music, but I watched Douglas Fairbanks clever 'romantic/comedy' Down To Earth (1917).
The 70 minute feature was complete and the picture quality quite nice. It's a fun story that highlighted Fairbanks' athleticism and love for roughing it as a naturalist.
When he discovers his life-long love being housed in a sanitarium that was simply encouraging their patient's addictions, he decided to save not only her, but everyone at the facility.
Naturally, money's no object, so he falsely convinces them all to get aboard his Yacht and promptly pretends to be lost. Using smoke bombs as a ruse to convince them to abandon ships, the group finds themselves on a desert island. They they stay from more than two months as Douglas provides individual exercise regimen to cure everyone of their self-induced maladies.
Other than "Robin Hood" or "The Black Pirate," I don't care for the excessive humor in most of his other films. This film also makes fun of itself, but there's a compelling story as well.

Nice to see the formerly lost
Enemies of women (1923) turn up. Directed by Alan Crosland, with Lionel Barrymore, Alma Rubens, Pedro de Cordoba, Gareth Hughes, Gladys Hulette, William Collier Jr.
It's an unrestored print from LC, hard to tell how much more sense a restored version might be. It's missing Reels 3 and 9 and has a lot of decomp. For most of it, the titles are numbered and typed, with occasional instructions for chemical fades. Quite a bit is faded, period, but it is sharp. As best as i could discern, Lionel plays a Russian noble who is a jerk. The only thing he can do is fight, which he does well. His orgies are ridiculous and his orgy clothes look silly. He has some connection with Alma Rubens, who somehow has an adult son he doesn't know about. He goes to Paris and teams up with Pedro, an old guy, and Gareth who has bankrupted himself with his system for roulette (and looks like a tubercular teenager). Lionel declares that women are the source of all their problems and they create a He Man Woman Haters Club and lounge around in luxury feeling sorry for themselves. He does rouse himself when he figures out that Russian revolutionaries have stolen his stuff in Russia, so he shows up at his old house and barely survives a fight with a large guy who tosses him around like a rag doll. Returning to Paris, the idlers are challenged to man up and volunteer for the war or continue lounging around. Ending is unconvincing and even weird to my mind, but maybe Reel 9 would have helped. It looks like a prestige production with some great scenery and sets, and some exteriors look like they were shot in Europe. If you ever wanted to see an extended sequence of Lionel Barrymore shirtless, here's your film.

greta

It looks like I forgot to post my thoughts on Enemies of Women here. Since Greta's post has reminded me:

Lionel Barrymore is a rich, degenerate Russian nobleman with gaggles of beautiful women hanging around his palace, dancing and playing harps and doing everything else for his pleasure. He thinks of nothing else. The only woman he likes is Alma Rubens, who also enjoys her pleasures. They have never gotten together because, as he puts it, they each want to dominate in their short relations, and that wouldn't work. After he kills her brother, he leaves Russia, first for Paris, then when the Great War breaks out, Monte Carlo, where he surrounds himself with like-minded male pleasure seekers; they call themselves 'the enemies of women.'

Monte itself has turned into a maelstrom of self-indulgence, fueled by the profits of war. Barrymore is amused that Miss Rubens has taken a young lover to herself.... not knowing that the youth she lavishes her affection and the shrinking remnants of her fortune on is actually her son.

This movie, based on an Ibáñez novel, is in poor shape. Twenty minutes of its length is missing, and there are large sections of the rest that are in poor condition. Director Alan Crosland clearly has a big budget, and many beautiful women, including an early role for Clara Bow, and one for Margaret Dumont as one of a number of 'French beauties'. He lacks the flair for scenes of degeneracy that Demille had, and that Rex Ingram showed in THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE. Barrymore himself is pretty good, but it's odd to see him so physically active, stripping for a duel or wrestling with Ivan Linow... I've seen him in too many talkies, confined to a wheelchair, grumbling his lines.

Despite that, this movie remains watchable through its remaining length, if a bit simplistic and Bible-quoting through its length. The print I saw, derived from one held by the Library of Congress, is probably the best available. It may be that the missing scenes would raise it to a major work of cinema, but, alas, we are confined to what we can actually see.

Bob

Margaret Dumont as a French beauty? Are you sure Groucho didn't have a hand in writing the screenplay? Or at least in casting it?

Jim

Jim Roots wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:17 pm

Margaret Dumont as a French beauty? Are you sure Groucho didn't have a hand in writing the screenplay? Or at least in casting it?

Jim

In the early 20th century Dumont was quite a looker. Not that she was at all bad looking in her later years, but imagine her a bit thinner and trimmer. There are a couple of quite attractive pictures online.

In the 1890's even Trixie Friganza was a head turner.

Bringing Up Father (1928): Polly Moran and J. Farrell MacDonald are Maggie and Jiggs. They fight in matters lifted from the comic strip, while their daughter, played by Gertrude Olmstead, captivates visiting nobleman Grant Withers. Marie Dressler, playing MacDonald’s sister Annie Moore, steals the movie every time she’s on screen.

George McManus created the comic strip this was based on in 1913. In it, Jiggs won the Irish Sweepstake and was now wealthy; Maggie wanted to move into society, but Jiggs preferred his old pleasures and companions... even when Maggie would comment with a rolling pin on his rolling home drunk in the wee hours. It was a constant battle of cultural assimilation, with McManus changing the background from from panel to panel, and once having a character from the topper strip climb down impnto the proceedings.

McManus died in 1954, but King Features kept the strip going until 2000.

Despite top MGM talent behind the camera — Francis Marion did the writing, Jack Conway directed and William Daniels was the cinematographer — the movie doesn’t hold together, despite some very funny comedy set-ups and the irrepressible Miss Dressler.

Bob

drednm wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:15 am

From what I can find, the existing "Jean the dog" movies are Playmates, A Tin-Type Romance, Jean the Match-Maker, and Where the Winds Blow. Anyone know of any others?

Here is another Vitagraph with Jean, THE STUMBLING BLOCK

drednm wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2020 2:35 pm

Just Maine Folks (1912) was directed by Barry O'Neil for Lubin. The existing print runs about 16 minutes. O'Neil and company spent the summer of 1912 on Cape Elizabeth and dubbed it "Lubinville-by-the-Sea." The plot follows several courtships as set against "country life" in a Maine farming village. Ethel Clayton and Harry Myers plays the young sparkers but the oldsters are really the focus of the film's humor. I've not found anything to identify these four actors. Squire Lang and Bart Cullum are rivals for the hand of the wealthy Widow Walters. The spinster Cornelia Bloodgood is also looking for a mate. While these four jostle for the attention of others, we see life in Maine. There's the haying, a moonlight corn husking bee that turns into a barn dance, and the telling of ghost stories that leads the squire to don a sheet and scare the women.

This rather romantic look at country life and the funny folks who live in far-off places has its moments. Cornelia is not only a spinster, she also deaf and "wears" an ear trumpet so everyone has to shout at her. She also faints a lot. I can't even tell if she played by a woman or a man. The few interiors shots are obviously outside open stages and you can see the winds blowing the home furnishings and curtains.

While husking bees and ghost stories might be fun, haying is not. I have vivid memories of helping my father-in-law in August of 1971 in his hay fields above Little Medomak Pond in Waldoboro. I was cut to shreds by the hay (I was wearing cut-offs) and the hay fields were filled with bees and wasps. It was hot, sweaty, hard work. The only respite was a jump in the lake.

Peter Lang and Bartley McCullum are the rivals for Mrs. George Walters (who happened to be the mother-in-law of director Barry O'Neil), guess they used their real names.

Looking for Enemies of Women (1923) today caused me to discover two (previously unheard of) 'epic' films, Barbara Frietchie (1924) and The Chechahcos (1924), an Alaskan made film about the Gold Rush. There was also a clever short feature from 1912, The Portrait of Lady Anne running just 15 minutes.

I checked these films briefly today to see how well my music worked and to get some idea of the story.
For those of us who easily adapt these films without sound to music used in other films, the stories can still be enjoyed.

Barbara Frietchie is another proud look at the history of America as seen through one Southern family who proudly displayed the American Flag. I watched the story unfold from the first pioneer members of the family finding a path through the Rockies and discovering Buffalo to the eve of the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. I plan on watching this 100 minute film completely on Thursday afternoon with a friend now that I know something about the story.

The Chechahcos needed different music since it's a film similar to Frank Lloyd's "Winds of Chance" (1925) and begins in a frozen wasteland. The music from the recently restored "White Hell of Pitz Palu" was a good fit so that's what we'll listen to while watching tomorrow. The Alaska Moving Picture Company is responsible for this 87 minute film and the picture quality is very good.

All three films have unexpected surprises in the stories they tell.
Searching for these, I discovered seven other previously unseen films where the picture quality was remarkable and three even had music.
One was Little Old New York (1923) with Marion Davies.

Who could have imagined that so many Silent Films would be accessible to watch and they're all free.

Big Silent Fan wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:36 pm

Looking for Enemies of Women (1923) today caused me to discover two (previously unheard of) 'epic' films, Barbara Frietchie (1924) and The Chechahcos (1924), an Alaskan made film about the Gold Rush. There was also a clever short feature from 1912, The Portrait of Lady Anne running just 15 minutes.

I checked these films briefly today to see how well my music worked and to get some idea of the story.
For those of us who easily adapt these films without sound to music used in other films, the stories can still be enjoyed.

Barbara Frietchie is another proud look at the history of America as seen through one Southern family who proudly displayed the American Flag. I watched the story unfold from the first pioneer members of the family finding a path through the Rockies and discovering Buffalo to the eve of the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. I plan on watching this 100 minute film completely on Thursday afternoon with a friend now that I know something about the story.

Barbara Frietchie is a real person from history. Did Barbara Frietchie hang an American flag from her window as Confederate soldiers marched by her home in Maryland? Florence Vidor plays Barbara Frietchie, who is in love with a Union officer.

Big Silent Fan wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2020 6:36 am

Big Silent Fan wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:36 pm

Looking for Enemies of Women (1923) today caused me to discover two (previously unheard of) 'epic' films, Barbara Frietchie (1924) and The Chechahcos (1924), an Alaskan made film about the Gold Rush. There was also a clever short feature from 1912, The Portrait of Lady Anne running just 15 minutes.

I checked these films briefly today to see how well my music worked and to get some idea of the story.
For those of us who easily adapt these films without sound to music used in other films, the stories can still be enjoyed.

Barbara Frietchie is another proud look at the history of America as seen through one Southern family who proudly displayed the American Flag. I watched the story unfold from the first pioneer members of the family finding a path through the Rockies and discovering Buffalo to the eve of the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. I plan on watching this 100 minute film completely on Thursday afternoon with a friend now that I know something about the story.

Barbara Frietchie is a real person from history. Did Barbara Frietchie hang an American flag from her window as Confederate soldiers marched by her home in Maryland? Florence Vidor plays Barbara Frietchie, who is in love with a Union officer.

I think June Foray offered the best interpretations of Mrs. Frietchie.

Bob

The Chechachos (1924) was restored by the National Film Preservation Board and is available online at https://www.filmpreservation.org/preser ... hcos-1924# with a music score. If you saw a mute copy it was probably from the alleged "Silent Hall of Fame" when the webmaster takes videos from others, removes the copyrighted music and posts the video there.

It is also available on DVD in the original NFPB Treasures from American Archives DVD set, which was released in 2000 and re-pressed in 2005.

After having the DVD for over 10 years, I finally watched "Old Wives for New" (1918) with Elliott Dexter, Florence Vidor, Sylvia Ashton, Wanda Hawley, Theodore Roberts, Helen Jerome Eddy, Marcia Manon, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and several others. Look for Tully Marshall, William Boyd (yep, Hopalong himself), Alice Terry, Lloyd Hughes, and others as extras or in minor bits. Frankly, this is a rather cynical view of marriage, one that plays today much as it must have played in 1918, though today people will be more bored than intrigued by its "modernity". When more than 50% of marriages in America end in divorce today, such a show as this will seem more normal than spicy. Rather - the show plays like a rather typical soap opera, not even a special one: love triangle that gets messy; then the mess becomes roiling; then the roiling ends in divorce; then the triangle stops and other ends become reality. Still, the characters are well done, the acting quite superb. Only the children of Dexter and Ashton seem a tad ripe in their portrayals, more like acting from 10 years before. Speaking of ripe, Theodore Roberts gives his typical over-the-top performance, but he steals every scene he's in.

This one has Sylvia Ashton bored out of her gourd, lying around all day in bed eating box after box of chocolates, getting fat, letting the house become dirty - though she has housekeepers - and not bathing much, either. Her husband, Elliott Dexter, has become a business mogul and lives for oil and money. Not much on any end here. Cecil B. DeMille, the director, and Jeanie Macpherson, the writer, have set this up, though, as a wife letting herself go, thus prompting the husband to go on the prowl, not the other way around.

Well done, fairly early DeMille. Probably troublesome and sparky in its day; today - well, it's interesting, for sure, but not the bombshell it probably once was. Frankly, I felt as much sympathy for Ashton as for Dexter. His part was written to overshadow Ashton, but she's the better actress, to be honest, and she's more fun to watch!

An Image Entertainment release. Toned, tinted (only in a couple of spots), and B & W. Not necessarily restored much, with lots of artifacts, but a fine enough print anyway.

Good entertainment for a mere 60 minutes or so.

Pauline Starke was only 16 years old (possibly 17) when Frank Borzage – himself only 23, yet already a veteran director of 30 films – picked her for the leading lady in Until They Get Me (1917). She was faced with the task of aging on-screen in two different directions: from a prematurely-old and worn-out child slavey, to a buoyantly youthful woman ready for marriage.

She rises to the challenge with a phenomenally convincing performance. Helped by her tiny size, she is absolutely believable as a child of maybe 10 or 11. Playing a teenager, she lets down her hair and reveals herself to look almost frighteningly exactly like a 1968 hippie chick. Putting her hair back up and donning a lovely Prairie gal’s gown, she appears to be a mature 23-year-old. In each case, she nails the way a girl of that age would act, carry herself, interact with others, and even smile at them.

Of course it helped that Borzage, from day one of his career, had a marvelous touch with his actors. More than that, though, he treated all of his characters as real human beings. He has compassion for each of them, good and bad alike, and he knows how to draw us into sharing that compassion. There is a genuine warmth in each person and in Borzage’s presentation of them.

The story of Until They Get Me is a superb vehicle for this compassion. Out in the Canadian West, which looks a bit too much like the Californian West, a rider desperate for a quick replacement for his exhausted horse fends off a drunk pressing hooch on him. The drunk drops and smashes the hooch bottle, and reacts by initiating a quick-draw duel which he loses. The rider instantly becomes a wanted man.

He’s a bad guy, right? Not so fast. This is a Borzage film! We learn this supposed villain was rushing to attend the birth of his only child, and the concomitant death of his wife. How can you call him a “villain” now?

The new Mountie on the block is charged with bringing him to justice. After escaping across the American border and lying low for awhile, the wanted man sneaks back into Canada with the help of runaway Starke. The Mounties take in Starke, who of course grows up to become a beautiful woman in love with the Mountie even as she helps the wanted man.

This is a beautiful film and a pleasure to watch.

Jim

Just last night I watched The Last Laugh (1924) for the first time. Emil Jannings stars as the head doorman of a ritzy hotel who gets demoted to washroom attendant due to his age.

I'm sure I don't need to go into plot details, so I'll just jot down a few of my thoughts on the film.

Firstly, I very much enjoyed the acting. Jannings' performance was stellar. Not only did it prove intertitles aren't a necessity, but also that a film without them can be better than a film with them. In fact, I was a bit surprised to see the sole intertitle towards the end of the film and found it superfluous.

Secondly, the fluid camera work grabbed and held my attention for the entirety of the film. I especially was impressed by the blurred, unsteady action of the camera during the scenes where Jannings' character has drunk himself into a stupor.

Thirdly and finally, I found the ending to be almost ridiculous. I understand post-WWI Germany was in need for a happy ending, but this was a bit much given the realism of the film up to that point. However, that said, I got the feeling that the scene before the fortunes turn for the doorman - when he falls asleep in the washroom and the night watchman covers him up - suggests that the following events could simply be a sweet dream.

In summation, nearly all aspects of the film were quite enjoyable. Murnau was a master behind the camera and I look forward to working my way through his tragically small oeuvre.

Regards,
Carson

P.S. - Am I crazy to think the ending could be a dream sequence? Or am I crazy for asking?

CelluloidFellow wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 22, 2020 2:02 pm

P.S. - Am I crazy to think the ending could be a dream sequence? Or am I crazy for asking?

It's a valid interpretation. At the very least, it could be accepted as an ironic, fantastical alternate ending.

Watched "Miss Lulu Bett" (1921) with Lois Wilson, Theodore Roberts, Milton Sills, Helen Ferguson, Clarence Burton, Mabel van Buren, Ethel Wales, and others. Takes only a moment to get into this one. Then the plot and the acting of both Lois Wilson and Theodore Roberts take you on quite a spin of women's mistreatment at the hand of society in 1921. Though this is 100 years old, the secondary treatment of women versus men has only in the last quarter century really taken a trending towards turning the tables. Here Wilson plays the sister-in-law to Roberts, a man who's given her and her grandmother the right to stay with his family in their home. What she's become, though, is basically a slavey, in the kitchen first and foremost, but the main clean-up person, too, in a sloppy household - and she does a perfect job. She's also not found any suitors, so remains a spinster. Though Roberts berates her (in a nasty teasing way) for remaining unmarried, he's also glad she remains to be the keeper of the household - though, as mentioned, basically as a slavey. Enter Milton Sills, the local school teacher. A possible heat develops between he and Wilson, though she's extremely cautious about showing any reciprocal 'heat'. Meanwhile, also enter Roberts' brother, Clarence Burton, who's not been around for over 20 years. Now the story becomes very knotted. I'll not give away any more plot.

The film is flawlessly directed by Cecil B. DeMille's older brother, William de Mille. The acting is first rate all around. Even the usual firebrand style of Roberts is excellent here as he portrays a man you'd love to just sock once in a blue moon just for the fun of it. He deserves it. A good example is at the beginning of the film when he stubbornly, stubbornly - I SAID STUBBORNLY - won't allow a clock on the wall to be correct in its time, and instead corrects it to the time showing on HIS watch. Of course then he rants at everybody else for being late to supper because they're all a tad over 10 minutes late according to HIS watch.

Considered one of the best of its type - coming at a stage just barely past the Women's Suffrage movement, which, legitimately, was still going on in many ways - this still plays wonderfully today. Not strident; rather, this one patiently and still forcefully gets its message across, while at the same time coming to a satisfying enough conclusion. I still wonder what's to become of granny at the house...

This is a secondary feature on the Image Entertainment DVD released some years ago with "Why Change Your Wife?".

I was just thinking as I was putting up the Best Film of 1920 thread that I might very well pick Miss Lulu Bett for '21.

Watched a couple recently, FANTE-ANNE (GYPSY ANNE, 1920), a lovely film said to be the first proper Norwegian movie) and FROM MORN TO MIDNIGHT (1920), which was a true oddity which seems to out-CALIGARI CALIGARI. More on these two later...