George Beban

[Mike Gebert]

George Beban is the star of The Italian. After that, he made a dozen films as star, writer and occasionally director, according to the IMDB, before his death in 1928 (fall from a horse, they say):

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064819/

Mostly Italians. Anyone ever seen any of them? Any of them survive? Or is George Beban synonymous with his first film only?

The Loves of Ricardo (1926) .... Ricardo Bitelli
The Greatest Love of All (1924) .... Joe (the iceman)
The Sign of the Rose (1922) .... Pietro Balletti
One Man in a Million (1921) .... Lupino Delchini
Hearts of Men (1919) .... Nicolo Rosetti
One More American (1918) .... Luigi Riccardo
... aka The Land of the Free (USA: informal English alternative title)
Jules of the Strong Heart (1918) .... Jules Lemaire
When It Strikes Home (1918)
Lost in Transit (1917) .... Niccolo Darini
The Cook of Canyon Camp (1917) .... Jean
A Roadside Impresario (1917) .... Giuseppe Franchini
The Marcellini Millions (1917) .... Guido Bartelli
The Bond Between (1917) .... Pierre Duvl
His Sweetheart (1917) .... Joe, the Iceman
Pasquale (1916) .... Grocer
Pawn of Fate (1916) .... Pierre Dufrene
The Alien (1915) .... Pietro Massena
... aka The Sign of the Rose (USA: Los Angeles première title)
The Italian (1915) .... Beppo Donnetti

[Harold Aherne]

George Beban is the star of The Italian. After that, he made a dozen films as star, writer and occasionally director, according to the IMDB, before his death in 1928 (fall from a horse, they say):

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064819/" target="_blank

Mostly Italians. Anyone ever seen any of them? Any of them survive? Or is George Beban synonymous with his first film only?

Looking through the list of surviving Paramounts posted on AMS by Jon Mirsalis, at least the following are still around
[...]

[see bottom post]

Some of his films (The Alien, The Sign of the Rose and The Loves of Ricardo) were performed with a live action interlude during their big-city engagements.

-HA

[silentfilm]

Grapevine has The Italian on DVD-R.
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/italian.htm

This film survived due to the Library of Congress' paper print project.

[James Bazen]

I've often wondered about this. Beban is outstanding in The Italian, which is an excellent film. It's one of the films I would offer as a counter to the folks who believe Griffith was the only one doing anything significant in films during that period. I've been eager to see Beban in something else.

[Mike Gebert]

Grapevine has The Italian on DVD-R.
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/italian.htm

This film survived due to the Library of Congress' paper print project.

I don't think that's right. David Shepard posted this at Dave Kehr's site:

Close to the same date [as the most recent Treasures release, ie, October], our Blackhawk Films Collection will release through Flicker Alley two very important early social dramas not included in the Treasures set, TRAFFIC IN SOULS (1913) [white slavery] and THE ITALIAN (1914) [immigration]. Both are from excellent original film materials with new scores (respectively Philip Carli and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra) and with expert second track commentaries. Both films have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress.

I believe "original film materials" doesn't mean paper prints (and anyway, isn't 1915 too late for paper prints? Didn't they come to an end with the change in the law in 1912?) On the other hand, I can't seem to find any sign that The Italian has come out yet from Flicker Alley, but I'd wait for that edition (and Traffic in Souls is very good too).

[Rodney]

George Beban was, oddly enough, Irish; but he made his career playing Italians. There's a discussion of his career in Brownlow's book "Behind the Mask of Innocence," with an emphasis on the Italian. The film is interesting in that when the Italian of the title is in Italy, he is fluent and comfortable; when he moves to America we see the stereotypical bad accent and over-emphasized hand gestures, which is probably pretty accurate.

According to Brownlow, the film was going to have a more denigrating title (as I remember, "The Wop"), and it was at George Beban's insistence that it was changed to the more respectable "The Italian." Note that Paramount's later "Redskin" had the opposite fate; it was based on a novel called "The Navajo."

Our score for the film is quite romantic, and uses a number of classical pieces composed in Italy. Here's a little sample:

http://www.mont-alto.com/MontAltoWet.mp3

[James Bazen]

Our score for the film is quite romantic, and uses a number of classical pieces composed in Italy. Here's a little sample:

http://www.mont-alto.com/MontAltoWet.mp3

That sample of music was very nice. With all of the attention being given to early socially conscious films, I wonder if there's a chance for any of the lesser-known and seen early Lois Weber films being released.

[Christopher Jacobs]

The beautiful 35mm print of THE ITALIAN that LOC supplied for the Cinesation a few years back was actually painstakingly copied from a paper positive. It's drastically sharper and with much better contrast than the previous copy from the paper print done some 30-40 years ago or more (and which Murray Glass used to sell on 16mm through his Glenn Photo Supply). LOC's new process for recopying their paper prints is more time-consuming but yields prints that look like they're from film, whereas all the old paper print copies looked pretty soft and washed-out, sometimes a bit jittery (but at least became accessible again).

There is or was, however, 35mm film material on THE ITALIAN out there somewhere as well. My own 16mm is a composite with the first and last reel a decent-looking but softish copy from the paper positive (printed to order from Murray Glass back in the late 1980s) and the middle three reels a beautiful sharp reduction from a nitrate print that was obviously a later reissue, with different lettering for all the titles and a couple of shots missing. That dual-version is the print that ran at the Orlando Cinecon. I don't know if the rest of the reissue version survives on nitrate or not, but David Shepard could probably recount what versions he's aware of.

I'll be really looking foward to the new DVD of THE ITALIAN with TRAFFIC IN SOULS, both films prime examples of early non-Griffith features that can stand on their own cinematic merits.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/cjacobs

[silentfilm]

I've got the Library of Congress Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress catalog, and it is one of eight Ince features preserved in the collection. Some of the others are early William S. Hart features.

That is great news that it is coming out with Traffic in Souls later this year. Traffic is one feature that I've been dying to see for years.

[Mike Gebert]

Traffic has sometimes gotten knocked and I don't know why. It's a very well-crafted police procedural-slash-social drama, not excessively Victorian or melodramatic toward the subject of prostitution, and for a 1913 film, plays like 1918.

When the director, George Loane Tucker, died in 1921, an article in Photoplay (I think) declared him "the first of the immortals" among film directors-- largely, one suspects, on the success of the Lon Chaney film The Miracle Man, which had a huge reputation at the time (when Photoplay ran a reader poll for the best film of all time, it beat Broken Blossoms and The Kid to come in at #1). Sadly, apparently none of his other films besides Traffic in Souls survives, apart from some fragments here and there (such as the footage we all know from The Miracle Man).

[Harold Aherne]

I was looking up George Beban in the 1880 census and found something odd: his parents, whom various online sources name as Rocco and Johanna, were listed with two sons: Ludivico (age 13) and Isadore (age 11).

George should be included as a 6- or 7-year old, but isn't. I don't *think* either named son is George, because I found both living in SF in 1900, Lewis as a boarder and Isadore with his own family. George would've already begun his stage career by that point.

I didn't find George in 1900, but he is present in 1910 living as a boarder in Atlantic City (age given as 36) and in 1920 living with his wife and son in Los Angeles (age given as 45). In 1918 he registered his birthdate as 13 Dec 1872.

Anyone else have insight as to origins?

-Harold

[Mike Gebert]

Are we sure those are the right Bebans? (I assumed Beban was Irish, but Ludivico and Isadore doesn't exactly sound it...)

Otherwise, who knows, maybe he was apprenticing with Uncle Giuseppe at the cigar factory at that point or something.

[boblipton]

His father was a Dalmatian named Rocco. His mother was an Irish setter.


Err....

Bob

[Harold Aherne]

Well, I've looked up Beban's work and it seems that only one survivor can be added:

Pasquale (1916) LOC
His Sweetheart (1917) LOC
The Bond Between (1917) LOC
The Marcellini Millions (1917) MOMA
The Greatest Love of All (1924) Gosfilmofond

...any or all of which would be interesting to see.

-HA

[DShepFilm]

The Flicker Alley release is called PERILS OF THE NEW LAND. It consists of TRAFFIC IN SOULS, THE ITALIAN and three or four Edison late one-reelers, all looking good with fine scores. About 75% of THE ITALIAN comes from 35mm celluloid, and the rest from paper -- but an authentic LoC print, not the dupe of it sold by Glenn Photo.

David Shepard