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

[Big Silent Fan]

Bob, I had the VHS tape from Grapevine until I got rid of all my tapes. Yes, it DID exist once, and with a piano score. I DID replace my tape of "The Fighting Coward" with a DVD, but I've never gone back to look for "The Fighting American". I always thought that "American" finally showed Astor to full advantage, her earlier stuff just puff. She's very pretty in it. You've made me wish to re-visit it possibly.

Michael,

FWIW, the LOC print is somewhat worn but is sharp with good contrast.

Bob

Yes, the LOC video of The Fighting American has a full orchestra too.

[bobfells]

Yes, the LOC video of The Fighting American has a full orchestra too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zDGJKltwKY

Michael,

Of course the LOC video on YT has a full orchestra too. It's mine and I added the music. I hope you like it.

Bob

[BenModel]

Thanks so much for the kind words about the Douglas MacLean features, R. Michael and Bob! It's always reassuring to hear other people are enjoying these as much as I have.

The ledge MacLean goes out on may be one of the same sets Lloyd used, on top of the Hill Street tunnel.

DVD is available for pre-ordering now, and you can find links to your favorite online retailer for the DVD here.

[FrankFay]

Why Be Good? is a very enjoyable programmer which was promoted as a rediscovered masterpiece.

[drednm]

A Sailor's Sacrifice (1910) was directed by Laurence Trimble on the Maine coast. It stars Florence Turner, Leo Delaney (I think it's him), and Jean the Vitagraph dog. Simple story has Delaney giving his dog to Turner while he goes to sea. When her father runs out of money, he must return to the sea (with Delaney). There is a shipwreck and the old man is among the survivors. Broke, they must move away. Turner is reduced to digging clams for a living (Jean helps) until Delaney miraculously returns from his watery grave. Short and sweet with beautiful (if windy) location shots. Turner is very pretty and Jean gets to do more than in her other surviving films.

[Brooksie]

Why Be Good? is a very enjoyable programmer which was promoted as a rediscovered masterpiece.

Amen to that. It's a fun movie, but that's all.

Apropos Jean the Vitagraph Dog, I once spent a long time searching my family history for this mysterious 'Jean' who kept turning up in my great-grandmother's diary. A nickname, an anonymous cousin, a family friend? It wasn't until I found a photo of a collie marked 'Jean' in an old family album that the penny dropped. I wonder how many other families of the era had their own Jeans?

[Jim Roots]

Watched "The Farmer's Wife" (1928) which is contained in the new blu-ray set "Hitchcock: British International Pictures Collection". Starring Jameson Thomas as the farmer, it also features Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Gibb McLaughlin, Maud Gill, Louie Pounds, Olga Slade, Antonia Brough, Ruth Maitland, and Haward Watts. Hitchcock is certainly not remembered as a comedic director, but his works contained a fair share of fascinating humor, sometimes very sharp and pointed, if not hurtful. This piece is a sheer piece of wonderful comic drama. Some have said it is slapsticky, but that it's not, although there are characterizations of a couple of people that border on raucous. Gordon Harker is more a stock comic misogynist than a truly slapsticky character. And, too, he nearly steals every scene he's in, especially in the beginning.

Opens with the farmer's wife dying. Now, he becomes in the market for a new one. We meet those available. None seem right. Of course, the right person is under his nose all the time. His pursuit of the others first is very well done, a pleasure to watch. His getting the right person in the end is certainly a pleasure. But for me, the really great thing about this film was the mise-en-scene. The time, the essence, the place, the characters, the photography of these things - is nearly perfect, and it's SO Hitchcockian. Not a thing out of place, from the clothing to the way people act IN the clothing. I could feel the dust on shelves in the buildings, even though someone surely cleaned it every day. The ruralness was ingrained in the show. Outstanding acting from each and every character.

I highly recommend this to anyone who thinks that Hitchcock couldn't do comedy. This is charming in all ways and beautifully realized. The new release here, too, is outstanding. From Kino Lorber.

Watched this last night. Small correction to Michael's review: the film opens with the farmer's daughter marrying, not with his wife dying. The latter is already long dead. One of the old people attending this wedding wisely (?) announces that the daughter's wedding will motivate the father to re-wed (words to that effect, not a direct quote). Then we proceed to a genially amusing if quite standard film about the farmer interviewing four obviously unsuitable women before having his eyes opened to the gem serving under his nose.

Gordon Harker is like Alistair Sim for me: I can't stand the man but with a few exceptions. The Farmer's Wife is not one of those exceptions. I enjoyed the film in spite of Harker, not because of Harker.

The biggest complaint I have is that the last half-hour is dragged out beyond endurance. It takes Thomas and Hall-Davis 20 minutes to ask "Will you marry me?" and answer "Yes" ... and during those 20 minutes they literally do nothing and say little more than nothing. Once it's established that they will marry, the film continues on with a 10-15 minute epilogue that could and should have been cut.

As Michael said, the mise-en-scene is fantastic. The sets and the landscapes are truly the real thing ... although I did wonder, when Thomas rides horseback to visit his first target, how the flat farmlands suddenly got transplanted into the midst of a very high mountain-range.

Jim

[drednm]

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?

[bobfells]

Getting into the spirit of Super Bowl Sunday, I downloaded a beautiful video (direct from 35mm) of HOLD EM YALE (1928) from the De Mille studio starring Rod La Rocque and Jeanette Loff with Tom Kennedy. The video was mute so I recruited Paul Whiteman, etc. to provide jaunty music for this jaunty film. It's typical of the college football comedies of the day, no more/no less, but the print quality is a joy all by itself. I posted my finished work on Youtube - it's the only version with music - and I invite you to watch it.

[R Michael Pyle]

Watched "The Farmer's Wife" (1928) which is contained in the new blu-ray set "Hitchcock: British International Pictures Collection". Starring Jameson Thomas as the farmer, it also features Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Gibb McLaughlin, Maud Gill, Louie Pounds, Olga Slade, Antonia Brough, Ruth Maitland, and Haward Watts. Hitchcock is certainly not remembered as a comedic director, but his works contained a fair share of fascinating humor, sometimes very sharp and pointed, if not hurtful. This piece is a sheer piece of wonderful comic drama. Some have said it is slapsticky, but that it's not, although there are characterizations of a couple of people that border on raucous. Gordon Harker is more a stock comic misogynist than a truly slapsticky character. And, too, he nearly steals every scene he's in, especially in the beginning.

Opens with the farmer's wife dying. Now, he becomes in the market for a new one. We meet those available. None seem right. Of course, the right person is under his nose all the time. His pursuit of the others first is very well done, a pleasure to watch. His getting the right person in the end is certainly a pleasure. But for me, the really great thing about this film was the mise-en-scene. The time, the essence, the place, the characters, the photography of these things - is nearly perfect, and it's SO Hitchcockian. Not a thing out of place, from the clothing to the way people act IN the clothing. I could feel the dust on shelves in the buildings, even though someone surely cleaned it every day. The ruralness was ingrained in the show. Outstanding acting from each and every character.

I highly recommend this to anyone who thinks that Hitchcock couldn't do comedy. This is charming in all ways and beautifully realized. The new release here, too, is outstanding. From Kino Lorber.

Watched this last night. Small correction to Michael's review: the film opens with the farmer's daughter marrying, not with his wife dying. The latter is already long dead. One of the old people attending this wedding wisely (?) announces that the daughter's wedding will motivate the father to re-wed (words to that effect, not a direct quote). Then we proceed to a genially amusing if quite standard film about the farmer interviewing four obviously unsuitable women before having his eyes opened to the gem serving under his nose.

Gordon Harker is like Alistair Sim for me: I can't stand the man but with a few exceptions. The Farmer's Wife is not one of those exceptions. I enjoyed the film in spite of Harker, not because of Harker.

The biggest complaint I have is that the last half-hour is dragged out beyond endurance. It takes Thomas and Hall-Davis 20 minutes to ask "Will you marry me?" and answer "Yes" ... and during those 20 minutes they literally do nothing and say little more than nothing. Once it's established that they will marry, the film continues on with a 10-15 minute epilogue that could and should have been cut.

As Michael said, the mise-en-scene is fantastic. The sets and the landscapes are truly the real thing ... although I did wonder, when Thomas rides horseback to visit his first target, how the flat farmlands suddenly got transplanted into the midst of a very high mountain-range.

Jim

Jim's right, of course, about the VERY beginning. It's just that when I describe a film blow by blow I tend to fill an entire internet page. It's called diarrhea of the mouth. It's as if I've been ex-lexiconed instead of ex-laxed.

I still stand by my appreciation of Gordon Harker, though. He's like so many Scots I know in the islands, I can't tell you - but I am... I think he's a super actor, and, believe it or not - you won't, but you should! - I actually collect Gordon Harker films. I've presently 26 of his 64.

By the way, Jim, if you wonder how a flatlands suddenly becomes mountainous, it puts me in literal astonishment how there's a mountain in Muncie, Indiana in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"! There's nary a hill in sight. I know, because I only live 50 miles from there. I guess Steven Spielberg filmed the scene from the moon and accidentally had Utah in his camera lens. Oh, well...

[Jim Roots]

By the way, Jim, if you wonder how a flatlands suddenly becomes mountainous, it puts me in literal astonishment how there's a mountain in Muncie, Indiana in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"! There's nary a hill in sight. I know, because I only live 50 miles from there. I guess Steven Spielberg filmed the scene from the moon and accidentally had Utah in his camera lens. Oh, well...

Yes, I remember wondering why that mountain was standing out there all by itself on the flat plain, without even a foothill or two within sight. (At least, that's how I remember responding when I saw the VHS reissue in the 1980s...)

Jim

[FrankFay]

Why Be Good? is a very enjoyable programmer which was promoted as a rediscovered masterpiece.

Amen to that. It's a fun movie, but that's all.

Apropos Jean the Vitagraph Dog, I once spent a long time searching my family history for this mysterious 'Jean' who kept turning up in my great-grandmother's diary. A nickname, an anonymous cousin, a family friend? It wasn't until I found a photo of a collie marked 'Jean' in an old family album that the penny dropped. I wonder how many other families of the era had their own Jeans?

Do you recall an episode of FRASER where Fraser and Niles read some very distressing information about themselves in their late mother's diary .......only to find that she is writing about her lab rats. ("we're named after vermin?")

[Scott Eckhardt]

Getting into the spirit of Super Bowl Sunday, I downloaded a beautiful video (direct from 35mm) of HOLD EM YALE (1928) from the De Mille studio starring Rod La Rocque and Jeanette Loff with Tom Kennedy. The video was mute so I recruited Paul Whiteman, etc. to provide jaunty music for this jaunty film. It's typical of the college football comedies of the day, no more/no less, but the print quality is a joy all by itself. I posted my finished work on Youtube - it's the only version with music - and I invite you to watch it.

Very nice job, Bob. I watched it tonight on my flat screen with the soundbar. It was nice to see a silent with the beautiful Jeanette Loff. Very enjoyable. Love the soundtrack selections.

[bobfells]

Thank you Scott. I appreciate the feedback.

Bob

[Jim Roots]

A tactful member of this board sent me a PM about the beginning of The Farmer's Wife, as a result of which I humbly apologize to Michael Pyle.

The film begins with a very brief, moving shot of a woman lying in bed and instructing the maid to remember to wash and properly dry "the master's drawers". This is followed by a melange of shots of men's longjohns being hung to dry by the fire ... so many, that I turned to my wife and commented, "I never knew Hitch had a fetish for longjohns!" And then the film gets underway with the daughter's wedding.

This "intro" scene is so brief and elliptical that I completely forgot about it, and I never at any point realized the woman in bed was the wife and she was dying. I thought she was just someone who would be properly introduced to us later in the film, and she was merely giving the maid her usual bedtime instructions for the morning. She sure looked radiantly healthy and youthful, ready to jump up and play a couple of hours of tennis before breakfast.

So, apologies all around (especially to Michael) for my error.

Hey, whaddaya expect from someone who has never worn longjohns, even as a kid?

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

Jim, you don't owe me any apologies, especially in print. BECAUSE - if you do then I OWE NEARLY EVERYONE ON THIS BOARD an apology for the incorrect bu-----t I've put up at one time or another. Besides, you were - generally - correct. As long as you watched the show - another silent film - hey, I'm not only a happy camper, I have to remember that, besides the one thousand who participate on this board, there are only another couple of thousand out of six and a half billion who'd watch the thing, Hitchcock or not. We're family. Now, that DOES mean that we fight. I LOVE to fight. Bare fisted. I still have teeth to bite, too. All which reminds me: what's Mom cooking for dinner anyway?

[Jim Roots]

Jim, you don't owe me any apologies, especially in print. BECAUSE - if you do then I OWE NEARLY EVERYONE ON THIS BOARD an apology for the incorrect bu-----t I've put up at one time or another. Besides, you were - generally - correct. As long as you watched the show - another silent film - hey, I'm not only a happy camper, I have to remember that, besides the one thousand who participate on this board, there are only another couple of thousand out of six and a half billion who'd watch the thing, Hitchcock or not. We're family. Now, that DOES mean that we fight. I LOVE to fight. Bare fisted. I still have teeth to bite, too. All which reminds me: what's Mom cooking for dinner anyway?

Probably spinach!

Jim

[drednm]

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.

[boblipton]

Just looked at It (1927) off TCM for the first time in a quarter of a century, in the Brownlow restoration. Carl Davis’ score is a very lively one for him, using quotes of musical standards from the era too brief to run afoul of copyright problems.

The only thing I might add to the probably millions of words on this movie is to consider the camerawork and lighting. The credited cinematographer is H. Kinsey Martin. It’s not a name to conjure with, but in his nine years as lighting cameraman for Paramount, he did a goodly number of comedies, and a fairly large number of them were Bebe Daniels vehicles. Clearly he was appreciated for making his ladies look good, and you can see it here. Most of the women are shot in the sort of flat, unmoving, head-on attitude that was so popular for cheaper productions in the late1910s, but Miss Bow is shot consistently in half-profile and with the lights placed to favor her above others. It’s a nice touch for the standard good-shopgirl-weds-wealthy-heir plot that this movie uses.

Bob

[Brooksie]

Why Be Good? is a very enjoyable programmer which was promoted as a rediscovered masterpiece.

Amen to that. It's a fun movie, but that's all.

Apropos Jean the Vitagraph Dog, I once spent a long time searching my family history for this mysterious 'Jean' who kept turning up in my great-grandmother's diary. A nickname, an anonymous cousin, a family friend? It wasn't until I found a photo of a collie marked 'Jean' in an old family album that the penny dropped. I wonder how many other families of the era had their own Jeans?

Do you recall an episode of FRASER where Fraser and Niles read some very distressing information about themselves in their late mother's diary .......only to find that she is writing about her lab rats. ("we're named after vermin?")

Almost as bad - I was looking through another old photo album recently, only to stumble over a photo of myself with an old, long-forgotten horse I used to feed on my grandparents' farm. Her name must have lodged in my head, forgotten by all but the subconscious ... because I gave my daughter the same name.

I'm not sure about the survival of the Jean movies beyond what Ed mentions, but Jean The Matchmaker (1910) was discovered in the New Zealand archives and is available online. It's quite fun. https://www.filmpreservation.org/preser ... maker-1910

[Jim Roots]

Almost as bad - I was looking through another old photo album recently, only to stumble over a photo of myself with an old, long-forgotten horse I used to feed on my grandparents' farm. Her name must have lodged in my head, forgotten by all but the subconscious ... because I gave my daughter the same name.

Your daughter's name is Mr. Ed?

Jim

[bobfells]

I downloaded another mute print from the LOC Online. This time it's SOUTH OF PANAMA (1928) a low-budget romantic comedy that has pleasing photography and good production values. Carmelita Geraghty stars with Lewis Sargent wearing horn-rim glasses and takes a lot of pratfalls like a bargain basement Harold Lloyd. The real surprise is Eduardo (later Edward) Raquello as a Valentino--like leading man. He has a great screen presence and would seem a safe bet to have had a fine screen career. But he pops in and out of films over the decades and lived through the 1970s. His next film after this one was 1937's CHARLIE CHAN AT MONTE CARLO where he looks like Charles Boyar and again shows a real film presence. There's got to be an interesting back story there. I added jaunty 1920s records to match the mood of the story and I like to think they help make up for the occasional lull in this 68-minute film that could have been a tad more exciting at, say, 58 minutes. I uploaded the finished production to Youtube for those interested.

[Battra92]

Home sick today with some vertigo issues so there's not much I can do but watch TV and play around online. So I decided to crack open my Douglas MacLean set and watched the first feature: One a Minute. It was a fun little comedy taking place in Centerville IA which sounds like a location out of Homer Price (which was actually Centerburg) but is indeed a real place. Honestly, it has that small town appeal that I wish I could visit for a while.

If I could say one majorly positive thing about the film it's that, as much as I love the slapstick clowns, I really appreciate the more subtle comedy here (save for a couple of jokes which did not age well at all) and the excellent score by Mr. Model.

So yeah, very good stuff all around. The only sad part is that there aren't a dozen more of them where this one came from. Still, I am very happy to have made my pledge and doubly happy to have seen so many familiar names on the backer list alongside mine.

Highly recommended!

[sepiatone]

A Sailor's Sacrifice (1910) was directed by Laurence Trimble on the Maine coast. It stars Florence Turner, Leo Delaney (I think it's him), and Jean the Vitagraph dog. Simple story has Delaney giving his dog to Turner while he goes to sea. When her father runs out of money, he must return to the sea (with Delaney). There is a shipwreck and the old man is among the survivors. Broke, they must move away. Turner is reduced to digging clams for a living (Jean helps) until Delaney miraculously returns from his watery grave. Short and sweet with beautiful (if windy) location shots. Turner is very pretty and Jean gets to do more than in her other surviving films.

Leo Delaney, died 100 years ago today - February 4, 1920. We don't hear or know too much about him other than his Vitagraph films but at least he's remembered on N'ville. So many deaths of young actors from around this time give or take a few months; ie, Lamarr Johnstone, Mary Moore, William Stowell, Gaby Deslys(died February 11, 1920).

[R Michael Pyle]

Last night I watched "Her Sister from Paris" (1925) with Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman, George K. Arthur, Gertrude Claire, Mario Carillo, and Ellinor Vanderveer. Delicious comedy with Constance Talmadge playing twin sisters, one married to Colman and the other a somewhat notorious dancer. Talmadge with those big eyes could charm paint off of a da Vinci portrait! She's absolutely at her best here: she's forced by circumstances to play her sister when her husband (Colman) and she have a nasty argument which causes a separation. Colman doesn't realize the deception, of course, but by the end is repentant as he can be - and love conquers all. The machinations of Talmadge to win her husband back are wonderfully realized by director Sidney Franklin. Colman shows a marvelous range of characterization in this film. Indeed, even George K. Arthur is fun to watch, an actor I generally despise for his over mugging and silly attitudes in other films. He and Arthur Lake are two actors whose films generally make me turn the other way to avoid them. Well, here he's just ducky. So's the film overall. It was such a pleasure to watch. Recommended highly. My print is from the double DVD Kino print that has "Her Night of Romance" on it, too, also with Constance Talmadge and Ronald Colman. Picture quality on "Her Sister from Paris" ranges from pretty bad nitrate deterioration to really excellent, but there are many, many artifacts on the film and they could be distracting for some. Just a warning. However, it's really a good thing that we have this Talmadge/Colman film at all based on the number of such films that no longer seem to exist.

[s.w.a.c.]

I guess it's the Lumiere Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, remastered in 4K, 60 fps by a YouTuber with too much time and computer power on his hands.

I did a separate post elsewhere, but I'll throw it in here as well. Has to be seen to be believed.

[bobfells]

I guess it's the Lumiere Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, remastered in 4K, 60 fps by a YouTuber with too much time and computer power on his hands.

I did a separate post elsewhere, but I'll throw it in here as well. Has to be seen to be believed.

It's gorgeous and looks like it was just filmed yesterday. No, that's too long ago. Looks like it was just filmed a half hour ago!

Bob

[boblipton]

I guess it's the Lumiere Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, remastered in 4K, 60 fps by a YouTuber with too much time and computer power on his hands.

I did a separate post elsewhere, but I'll throw it in here as well. Has to be seen to be believed.

Beautiful!

Bob

[Big Silent Fan]

I guess it's the Lumiere Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, remastered in 4K, 60 fps by a YouTuber with too much time and computer power on his hands.

I did a separate post elsewhere, but I'll throw it in here as well. Has to be seen to be believed.

Beautiful!

Bob

Incredibly Beautiful!

I never could have imagined such clarity, and the train and cars must have been brand new! Everyone in the crowd was certainly properly dressed. Imagine what we'd look like if it was a film of today's travelers?

[boblipton]

There’s been earlier discussion of The Woman Disputed here: viewtopic.php?t=21436

In Norma Talmadge’s last silent movie, she plays a prostitute. A man comes to her apartment, talks about a sense of peace and pulls out a gun. Norma phones his nephew as he shoots himself. Austrian officer Gilbert Roland, and his best friend, Russian officer Arnold Kent show up. She explains what happened and when the police arrive, they alibi her. Norma is thrown out of the apartment, so the two men take her under their wings, get her a job, and when they are both ordered off to fight the First World War, she agrees to marry Roland.

However, the Russians invade, and Norma and various stuffy people try to flee. They are all to be shot, but Kent is the commanding officer and says he will not shoot anyone if Norma will be his. She refuses in a fury, but all the stuffy people now urge her to do it, to save them.

If the story sounds familiar, it’s because it’s from a story by Guy de Maupassant. It’s not the only time it was turned into a movie. Kenji Mizoguchi directed the story as Oyuki the Virgin (1935).

Co-director Henry King and Sam Taylor direct this movie with lots of well-shot battle scenes, and lots of Miss Talmadge doing her usual dramatic turns with lots of zest. She is wonderful, even though I have issues with her apparently restored virginity. Still, that’s not the point of the story. It’s the hypocrisy of so-called good people that de Maupassant was concerned with, people who preach redemption and then forbid it, who are ready to sacrifice another’s virtue for their own interest.

This being a starring vehicle for Miss Talmadge, those people are thrust into the background, and the story suffers. Even so, the three lead actors give it their all, and deliver.

Bob