Humoresque (1920)

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:20 am

Has Borzage's "HUMORESQUE (1920) ever been cleaned up and restored? Does anybody remember it ever being shown at any Silent Film Festival?

There is much to recommend about it, but the only existing copies floating around are a bit deteriorated, and the music score is not relevant to the theme of the violin. But I found in interesting enough to follow it through to its sentimentally sappy end.

One element that struck me was the part of the disabled brother. At no other time have I seen such a realistic portrayal of a severely developmentally disabled adult.

However, the book "The Paramount Story" makes a mistake in saying that Alma Rubens played the part that Joan Crawford played in the 1946 remake. There was no spoiled, rich, drunken patron in the original. Rubens played the sweetheart from the ghetto.

Danny

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:25 am

There was no spoiled, rich, drunken patron in the original.

Who are you referring to? Certainly not the magnificent Joan Crawford.....

I liked the Alma Rubens version although it bore little resemblance to the Crawford film. But I thought Gaston Glass was a dud.

Interestingly, the 1920 film won the first Photoplay Magazine's "best film" award.

radiotelefonia · Post by **radiotelefonia** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:26 am

It was shown almost twenty years ago in a festival of silent films in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I saw it for the very first time... with no background music! The print came from UCLA that has preserved this film.

Post by **silentfilm** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:51 am

It screened at the New York MOMA in March 2000 and in 2008

Humoresque. 1920. USA. Directed by Frank Borzage. From a story by
Fannie Hurst. With Gaston Glass, Vera Gordon. In Borzage's first great
family melodrama, everyone suffers when success on the concert stage
catapults an immigrant violinist into the alien world of Park Avenue.
Silent, with musical accompaniment. Approx. 70 min.
Friday, October 3, 2008, 4:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Saturday, October 4, 2008, 2:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1

Frank Borzage Retrospective at the Museum of Moving Image, Astoria
July 22, 2006 4pm HUMORESQUE

It has not shown at Cinecon.

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:53 am

I liked the Alma Rubens version although it bore little resemblance to the Crawford film. But I thought Gaston Glass was a dud.

But that was my point. Alma Rubens did not play the Joan Crawford part. There was no Joan Crawford part in the 1920 version. Now I'm wondering how the original Fanny Hurst short story read. Maybe the rich patron lady was added to the 1946 script.

Danny

Frederica · Post by **Frederica** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:55 am

silentfilm wrote:It screened at the New York MOMA in March 2000 and in 2008

It has not shown at Cinecon.

It was shown in May at the Silent Movie Theater, as part of the Silent Treatment's programming.

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 3:18 pm

It's also played LA in the past ten years either at the Egyptian, UCLA, or LACMA, because I saw it.

BenModel · Post by **BenModel** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:06 pm

The restored print is tinted. I remember this because when the film started, one of our brilliant senior citizen audience members yelled out "Too red!!", thinking there was something wrong with the projector.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:25 pm

I haven't watched this one in years but I remember a dark red tint throughout... and I'm not THAT old....