Grapevine Sept 2014

[Eric Cohen]

Here's Grapevine Video's Sept. releases:
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/new_releases.html" target="_blank
A 30 min. condensation of A Girl's Folly was in the Image 2003 dvd, Before Hollywood, There was Ft. Lee.
The complete, but poor quality version is also available from http://www.reelclassicdvd.com/silent_era.htm" target="_blank with a different organ score by Bernie Anderson and a co-feature, another Ft Lee production, The Beloved Blacmailer '18.
One of us has already seen Timothy's Quest and reviewed it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013682/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2" target="_blank
The NYT reviewed Korda's The Prince and the Pauper:
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res ... 8389639EDE" target="_blank
Kit Carson Over the Great Divide with Roy Stewart (the Daddy Warbucks in Sparrows) looks like fun.
Marie Windsor fans, Doll Brown in HELLFIRE was one of her favorite roles:
http://hornsection.blogspot.com/2011/01 ... -1949.html" target="_blank

[silentfilm]

I wouldn't say that the ReelClassic version is "poor quality". The surviving print has nitrate decomposition in the first reel. (Maybe it does in the last reel too, I can't remember.) The reason that Blackhawk and later David Shepard only included the Ft. Lee studio scenes in their versions of this film is because they survive in excellent quality, they are funny, and that is the most interesting part of the movie. The first and last reels are a framing story about how boring Doris Kenyon's life is and how life in the big city is not for her either. Mark Roth sold me the 16mm print used for his transfer, and it is one of the treasures of my collection.

[Christopher Jacobs]

A GIRL'S FOLLY is one of my favorite films of the teens. Not only is it a great look into moviemaking practices and the fan culture already established by 1917, but in its complete form it's an interesting philosophical contrast between the easygoing and perhaps dull but decent small-town and rural life with the exciting but wicked and depraved life in the big city. This pervading theme is present in countless Hollywood (or New York) films from the teens through the 60s, and occasionally even surfaces in films from the 70s to the present. It's also fascinating to observe in A GIRL'S FOLLY the acting styles of the actors while they're "acting" for the movies they're making within the movie and when they are being themselves in the movie that we're watching. That "old-time silent movie acting" was obviously already a cliché to be made fun of by 1917!

[silentfilm]

[Brooksie]

One way or another, I'm looking forward to A Girl's Folly. By coincidence, I've just been reading up on World Pictures' The Pawn of Fate (1916), which Tourneur made with Doris Kenyon the previous year (in fact, it was her first major role). The simplicity of the story - a naive Normandy farmer is tricked into believing he is an art genius by a devious city artist who hopes to win the heart of the farmer's wife - and the beauty of the setting make it sound something like an ancestor to Sunrise (sadly, it's lost). I'm not sure how many of Tourneur's films from this period survive, but it sounds like he was doing some very interesting work.

[Frederica]

"...and Robert Warwick plays the picture man as if entirely familiar with the role."

[jcp7701]

I'm happy to see that two of Roy Stewart's 1925-26 westerns are available from Grapevine. Stewart is definitely an over-looked (if not completely forgotten) silent western actor, and starring vehicles of his are hard to find!

[drednm]

Jack tells me the print for Timothy's Quest is excellent. I have an old grainy version. No major stars in the film, but it's an excellent film nonetheless.

[Ann Harding]

One way or another, I'm looking forward to A Girl's Folly. By coincidence, I've just been reading up on World Pictures' The Pawn of Fate (1916), which Tourneur made with Doris Kenyon the previous year (in fact, it was her first major role). The simplicity of the story - a naive Normandy farmer is tricked into believing he is an art genius by a devious city artist who hopes to win the heart of the farmer's wife - and the beauty of the setting make it sound something like an ancestor to Sunrise (sadly, it's lost). I'm not sure how many of Tourneur's films from this period survive, but it sounds like he was doing some very interesting work.

It's not lost. 3 reels (out of 5) have survived. The film is delightful, but doesn't look at all like Sunrise. In fact, the script was written by the star of the film, George Beban.

[Brooksie]

One way or another, I'm looking forward to A Girl's Folly. By coincidence, I've just been reading up on World Pictures' The Pawn of Fate (1916), which Tourneur made with Doris Kenyon the previous year (in fact, it was her first major role). The simplicity of the story - a naive Normandy farmer is tricked into believing he is an art genius by a devious city artist who hopes to win the heart of the farmer's wife - and the beauty of the setting make it sound something like an ancestor to Sunrise (sadly, it's lost). I'm not sure how many of Tourneur's films from this period survive, but it sounds like he was doing some very interesting work.

It's not lost. 3 reels (out of 5) have survived. The film is delightful, but doesn't look at all like Sunrise. In fact, the script was written by the star of the film, George Beban.

Well, that will come as news to the Library of Congress - their database lists it as 'no holdings found in any archive'. I had not encountered George Beban's name before researching the title, and he seems to have been an interesting fellow - tried to break out of the Latin stereotype and such.