Arliss Alert! – THE GREEN GODDESS (1930) TCM Feb 4 @8AM

[bobfells]

THE GREEN GODDESS was Mr. A’s first talkie and was produced during the summer of 1929. At his suggestion, TGG was withheld from release until Mr. A’s second talkie, DISRAELI, had been released first, in October 1929. Mr. A felt that DISRAELI was the better of the two films, an opinion generally shared by most film reviewers of the day. That said, THE GREEN GODDESS is a highly enjoyable film and is quite topical to the 21st century with its story of eastern intrigue, jealousy, and terrorism. George Arliss was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award together with DISRAELI. It marks the only time in Academy history that an actor competed against himself in two separate films. The voting selected DISRAELI alone, meaning of course, that Mr. A won out against himself. But he also won over other nominees including Ronald Colman and Maurice Chevalier.

THE GREEN GODDESS is wonderful entertainment with Mr. A as the slinkiest of villains. His closing line alone is worth the price of admission!

[entredeuxguerres]

I'd say I loved it and Disraeli equally, except for one factor that turns the scale in favor of Goddess for me: Alice Joyce. Would have loved to see her in the silent version.

[greta de groat]

I've seen both, and both have their points. The talkie of course has Arliss' wonderful delivery, while the silent is, i think, a little peppier. Delightful in both cases.

greta

[rudyfan]

I've seen both, and both have their points. The talkie of course has Arliss' wonderful delivery, while the silent is, i think, a little peppier. Delightful in both cases.

greta

I've long wanted to see the silent version. Greta is it accessible anywhere on DVD or did you see it at an archive?

[bobfells]

I posted my version of the 1923 version of THE GREEN GODDESS on Youtube as a private file. It's not the UCLA restored edition, unfortunately, but one made overseas from a different source and apparently recorded off a screen. I've worked to reduce the flicker with only limited success. You're welcome to check it out:

https://youtu.be/jIjg-TNus74" target="_blank

[entredeuxguerres]

I posted my version of the 1923 version of THE GREEN GODDESS on Youtube as a private file. It's not the UCLA restored edition...

Thanks--I'll take a look just to see Alice in '23. So glad to hear the restored ed. is safely stored away in a locked vault, beyond the reach of terrorism or nuclear war.

[rudyfan]

I posted my version of the 1923 version of THE GREEN GODDESS on Youtube as a private file. It's not the UCLA restored edition, unfortunately, but one made overseas from a different source and apparently recorded off a screen. I've worked to reduce the flicker with only limited success. You're welcome to check it out:

https://youtu.be/jIjg-TNus74" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks Bob! Will do!

[entredeuxguerres]

Watched half of it--100+ min. seems rather long for '23. Had a feeling some of the titles were missing; for ex., what was the commotion over the white evening gown? Jedda discouraged her from wearing it, then her husband apparently said something disagreeable about it.

[bobfells]

Watched half of it--100+ min. seems rather long for '23. Had a feeling some of the titles were missing; for ex., what was the commotion over the white evening gown? Jedda discouraged her from wearing it, then her husband apparently said something disagreeable about it.

The 1923 version is ten reels so the 100+ mins running time makes sense. Some intertitles are all of one frame long. Whoever put this together made new main titles and "freeze framed" the intertitles but didn't catch them all. It helps if a viewer is familiar with the talkie version because once the story takes up at Rukh it follows along pretty much the same. Not sure about the white gown but perhaps a symbol of virginity?

[boblipton]

Watched half of it--100+ min. seems rather long for '23. Had a feeling some of the titles were missing; for ex., what was the commotion over the white evening gown? Jedda discouraged her from wearing it, then her husband apparently said something disagreeable about it.

The 1923 version is ten reels so the 100+ mins running time makes sense. Some intertitles are all of one frame long. Whoever put this together made new main titles and "freeze framed" the intertitles but didn't catch them all. It helps if a viewer is familiar with the talkie version because once the story takes up at Rukh it follows along pretty much the same. Not sure about the white gown but perhaps a symbol of virginity?

She's a married woman, so chastity. Unless that's the point. Her husband is a bottle-day man.

Bob

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

THE GREEN GODDESS was Mr. A’s first talkie and was produced during the summer of 1929. At his suggestion, TGG was withheld from release until Mr. A’s second talkie, DISRAELI, had been released first, in October 1929. Mr. A felt that DISRAELI was the better of the two films, an opinion generally shared by most film reviewers of the day. That said, THE GREEN GODDESS is a highly enjoyable film and is quite topical to the 21st century with its story of eastern intrigue, jealousy, and terrorism. George Arliss was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award together with DISRAELI. It marks the only time in Academy history that an actor competed against himself in two separate films. The voting selected DISRAELI alone, meaning of course, that Mr. A won out against himself. But he also won over other nominees including Ronald Colman and Maurice Chevalier.

THE GREEN GODDESS is wonderful entertainment with Mr. A as the slinkiest of villains. His closing line alone is worth the price of admission!

Ronald Colman was double-nominated for BULLDOG DRUMMOND and CONDEMNED the same year as well as Chevalier for THE LOVE PARADE and THE BIG POND.

[entredeuxguerres]

She's a married woman, so chastity. Unless that's the point. Her husband is a bottle-day man.

Bob

Possibly her chastity turned him into a bottle-a-day man? It's happened before, and not rarely.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

I posted my version of the 1923 version of THE GREEN GODDESS on Youtube as a private file. It's not the UCLA restored edition, unfortunately, but one made overseas from a different source and apparently recorded off a screen. I've worked to reduce the flicker with only limited success. You're welcome to check it out:

https://youtu.be/jIjg-TNus74" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks for the link - will add to the list!

[boblipton]

She's a married woman, so chastity. Unless that's the point. Her husband is a bottle-day man.

Bob

Possibly her chastity turned him into a bottle-a-day man? It's happened before, and not rarely.

My thought was that the bottle a day left him unable to perform his marital duty. However, your interpretation is almost as amusing.

Bob

[bobfells]

Quote: Ronald Colman was double-nominated for BULLDOG DRUMMOND and CONDEMNED the same year as well as Chevalier for THE LOVE PARADE and THE BIG POND.

At that time, a person was nominated for all his/her films for the year. So a winner was honored for all those films. In the case of George Arliss, he was nominated for GREEN GODDESS and DISRAELI. To this day, the Academy has no explanation for why the Best Actor Award was given for only DISRAELI. It creates an impression that Mr. A was competing against himself between the two films, though that assertion is more whimsical than accurate.

[greta de groat]

I've seen both, and both have their points. The talkie of course has Arliss' wonderful delivery, while the silent is, i think, a little peppier. Delightful in both cases.

greta

I've long wanted to see the silent version. Greta is it accessible anywhere on DVD or did you see it at an archive?

Saw it at the Stanford, many years ago.

greta

[wich2]

Bob, I assume you've heard the Welles version?

[greta de groat]

Watched half of it--100+ min. seems rather long for '23. Had a feeling some of the titles were missing; for ex., what was the commotion over the white evening gown? Jedda discouraged her from wearing it, then her husband apparently said something disagreeable about it.

The 1923 version is ten reels so the 100+ mins running time makes sense. Some intertitles are all of one frame long. Whoever put this together made new main titles and "freeze framed" the intertitles but didn't catch them all. It helps if a viewer is familiar with the talkie version because once the story takes up at Rukh it follows along pretty much the same. Not sure about the white gown but perhaps a symbol of virginity?

She's a married woman, so chastity. Unless that's the point. Her husband is a bottle-day man.

Bob

If i remember correctly, she chose the gown because it had the least revealing neckline, at which The Raja indicated his disappointment.

greta

[entredeuxguerres]

If i remember correctly, she chose the gown because it had the least revealing neckline, at which The Raja indicated his disappointment.

greta

Understandable, considering his familiarity with La Vie Parisienne (a wonderful touch!), but why would that have precipitated her husband's outburst?

[bobfells]

Bob, I assume you've heard the Welles version?

Yes, on the Campbell Playhouse in 1939. Madeleine Carroll played the Alice Joyce part (Lucilla Traherne) and perhaps to build up the part more, several lines from other characters were given to her. Welles added a great coda whereby Mrs. Traherne has a chance encounter with the Rajah in Monte Carlo some years later where he lives as a king in exile.

I also have a 1935 radio version where the Rajah is played by Boris Karloff and the narration is provided by Al Jolson (of all people). In 1947, Ronald Colman played the Rajah in another radio version where he recalled his playing the High Priest in the 1920 stage play with Arliss.

[entredeuxguerres]

Welles added a great coda whereby Mrs. Traherne has a chance encounter with the Rajah in Monte Carlo some years later where he lives as a king in exile...

And was she single by then? (And free, hopefully, of the brats she was obsessing over in the picture?) Wish that ending could have been added to the original film, or the remake.

[bobfells]

For those who missed THE GREEN GODDESS on today's airing, you can watch it on demand for free on your PC, iphone, ipad, etc. at WATCH TCM from now through February 11th at http://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/movies/1366 ... ddess-The/" target="_blank" target="_blank

[entredeuxguerres]

Watched it last night for the first time since the primitive Age of VCR (had a copy buried among my hundreds of tapes, but too much trouble to find it; who wants 'em?). Surprised by how condensed the story seemed compared to its telling in the longer '23 version. But if for no other reason, I preferred the talkie for the many long close-ups of Alice Joyce's heavenly face; the photographer seemed as much taken with her as myself. And also Warner and Forbes are simply better actors than their silent counterparts. Arliss himself seemed somewhat more caustic, less obsequiously courteous, but maybe that's only the difference between hearing the lines vs. reading them. .

[bobfells]

Arliss was quite critical of the talkie version although he may have conflated the silent and talkie versions. He said that they came "to the bombs" much too quickly and sacrificed character development. Indeed, reading the play reveals more fully developed characters. The dialogue was skillfully pruned for the film, a move that Arliss understood was necessary, but was unhappy with the choices made. He said he deferred to the advice of the "experienced" filmmakers on TGG but when he discovered that the emperor had no clothes, he insisted and received much more authority on his films. Warners at least deferred to him by holding off on releasing TGG until after his next project, DISRAELI, had been in release for several months.

[ClayKing]

The impressive set where most of the finale takes place, with the huge doors and Hindu columns - does anyone know if it was built for the film or was a standing set from an earlier film?

[bobfells]

The impressive set where most of the finale takes place, with the huge doors and Hindu columns - does anyone know if it was built for the film or was a standing set from an earlier film?

I understand that the massive sets were left over from NOAH'S ARK (1928). Warners used Western Costume Co. in LA for their needs.

[wich2]

For another legendary actor's take on the piece, here's Ronald Colman's version:

http://ia802308.us.archive.org/34/items ... oddess.mp3" target="_blank

[bobfells]

This is most unusual version of THE GREEN GODDESS that I've come across - Boris Karloff as the Rajah in a radio playlet; introduced and narrated by Al Jolson (of all people) on his SHELL CHATEAU in 1935:

https://arlissarchives.files.wordpress. ... t-1935.mp3" target="_blank

[wich2]

From the early period of radio Variety, when folks like Welles and the Barrymores* could be heard doing Shakespeare on Rudy Vallee's show!

And the SHELL show is also the source of one of Buster Keaton's only extant radio performances (which lead to me getting a few residual pennies to Eleanor, but that's another story...)

-Craig

*P.S. - Happy Birthday, Jack!

[bobfells]

I'm not sure that Jack and Orson performed Shakespeare together on Rudy Vallee's Sealtest show, but here are Jack and Lionel doing a bit, introduced by Vallee on May 1, 1941:

http://oldhollywoodincolor.files.wordpr ... srored.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank