Slow As Lightning - Silent Film Classic?

[bobfells]

Amazon just alerted me to a new silent film dvd release from Alpha called SLOW AS LIGHTNING. Perhaps Alpha is using the term loosely but it claims the film to be " a lost silent classic." Anybody know anything about this one?

[Rob Farr]

Amazon just alerted me to a new silent film dvd release from Alpha called SLOW AS LIGHTNING. Perhaps Alpha is using the term loosely but it claims the film to be " a lost silent classic." Anybody know anything about this one?

May be referring to the projection speed. JOKE!

[Richard M Roberts]

Amazon just alerted me to a new silent film dvd release from Alpha called SLOW AS LIGHTNING. Perhaps Alpha is using the term loosely but it claims the film to be " a lost silent classic." Anybody know anything about this one?

Well, "classic" is usually debatable, and to me "lost" usually had to include the idea that someone was looking for it in the first place. But Hey, it's another silent film available that may be worth looking at for five bucks.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[rollot24]

It seems like today, anything older than, say, 20 years is considered a classic.

[dr.giraud]

It seems like today, anything older than, say, 20 years is considered a classic.

Anything older than 20 years is considered a relic.

[R Michael Pyle]

I can tell you about 'relic': I'm now 61 going on 62. When I was 60 I became a relic; at 61 the "c" broke off; this year the "i" is going. In October I'll become a 'rel'. Eventually, when all of that runs out, I'll become a dinosaur, and someday an immortal. Just takes time.

Oh, and, Bob, about that film:

Alpha is only one of at least three companies that I know of who've found some old 16mm prints of films that have been considered "lost". Good for them. But look at the titles: "classics"? I hardly think so. There's another company that has found a silent and a sound film, both written up on IMDb as "lost". I bought them. Both are so bad I couldn't even finish the sound film! "Classic"!! Good lord, the only "classic" sound find I'd be genuinely interested in would be "Convention City" or the like. And silent: well, there I'd have a lot I'd like to see, but Alpha won't be printing it up for $5 and slapping a loud cover on it - that much is for the record! Oh, and, Bob, I forgot to tell you: I ordered "Slow as Lightning", too! Got a notice a couple of days ago that it'll be shipped about the 23rd of this month. Goes to show you - there may be more than one born every minute!

[Marr&Colton]

I checked the title on IMDB--it looks like a 1920s routine western.

If Alpha is releasing it, I'm 90% sure the picture quality will be fair to poor.

I often wonder if they do any of their own transfers or just dig up old VHS transfers.

They DO spend a lot of time and money making attractive packaging--but what's inside is another story.

[bobfells]

Lately, Alpha has been actively asking collectors to send them lists of their film holdings so, quality aside (definitely pushed aside!) there may be some interesting titles coming out. Obviously, SLOW AS LIGHTNING ain't one of them!

Grapevine has just issued Fairbanks' AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 MINUTES (1931), a film I saw at MoMA back in the 70s. I later rented it in 16mm from MOMA and showed it locally. Perhaps I should do a review of this dvd release on the talkie site? I'm surprised how very few film buffs have seen this one.

[bobfells]

I can tell you about 'relic': I'm now 61 going on 62. When I was 60 I became a relic; at 61 the "c" broke off; this year the "i" is going. In October I'll become a 'rel'. Eventually, when all of that runs out, I'll become a dinosaur, and someday an immortal. Just takes time.

Michael, I turn 60 myself in a few months. They now call it the "new" 40 and I've figured out why. Because you're going to have to keep working for the next 25 years until you reach the "new" 65!

[R Michael Pyle]

I can tell you about 'relic': I'm now 61 going on 62. When I was 60 I became a relic; at 61 the "c" broke off; this year the "i" is going. In October I'll become a 'rel'. Eventually, when all of that runs out, I'll become a dinosaur, and someday an immortal. Just takes time.

Michael, I turn 60 myself in a few months. They now call it the "new" 40 and I've figured out why. Because you're going to have to keep working for the next 25 years until you reach the "new" 65!

Actually, I've always said they'll carry me out of my job in a pine box. I have no desire to retire. Of course, what's going to change is the residence. I won't be able to afford the house because of insurance, so the street life should look rather interesting. Maybe Scorcese can make a good movie about it, and I'll get some sort of royalty pension at 94. Then, by the time I die at 115-120 maybe I can have enough good coats that I won't freeze to death listening to some poor guy playing sax on the corner! We/I can only hope... My question is: what's the new 100? We're already putting the old three score and ten to shame. Who wrote the parables about that anyway?... Did he pay insurance? How many fillings did he have? If I suffer from arthritis, everybody should... Do you hear? Huh?! Huh?! You talkin' t' me??

[boblipton]

I assume that no one here can afford to die....


Bob

[R Michael Pyle]

I assume that no one here can afford to die....


Bob

No one.

[Ed Hulse]

Alpha's SLOW AS LIGHTNING was mastered by my friend Sam Sherman from a 16mm print he recently bought on eBay. It's a typical Anthony Xydias production. I've seen worse.

[bobfells]

Thanks, Ed. I've been a film collector for over 50 of my 60 years but I've not heard of this producer before. I take it that your saying that you've seen worse isn't really meant a compliment to this film.

[WaverBoy]

I checked the title on IMDB--it looks like a 1920s routine western.

If Alpha is releasing it, I'm 90% sure the picture quality will be fair to poor.

I often wonder if they do any of their own transfers or just dig up old VHS transfers.

They DO spend a lot of time and money making attractive packaging--but what's inside is another story.

Apparently it's not a Western; it takes place in an urban office setting.

SLOW AS LIGHTNING
Release Year: 1923
SYNOPSIS:
Jimmie March (Kenneth McDonald) is a good-natured but hopelessly inefficient employee in the office of E.J. Philips. He's also in love with Philips' daughter Eleanor (Edna Pennington), but the chances of their ever being able to acknowledge, much less act on those feelings, are rendered rather remote by two developments: Jimmie is fired for his inefficiency and seeming ineptitude when it comes to such basics as getting to work (or back from lunch) on time and not getting distracted by life's joys; and Eleanor is being courted by Mortimer Fenton (William Malan), a wealthy would-be suitor who would stoop to anything to come out on top in any competition he's in, especially with Jimmie. Let go from his job, Jimmie decides to try and achieve success on his own, encouraged by a Gypsy fortuneteller who predicts that his hunches will pay off big. With help from some of his friends; an Irishman, an Italian, and a Jewish man from the neighborhood where he lives, he gets involved in investing in the stock market, and he starts to succeed -- this, in turn, makes it possible for him to try and impress Eleanor with his acumen and his abilities as a self-made man, but it also brings on the enmity of Fenton who, before this is over, will involve Jimmie in a plan involving stock manipulation and fraud, and get him targeted by a gang of toughs. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

REVIEW:
For reasons best understood by their editors, a lot of reference sources list Slow As Lightning as a Western -- which is pretty obviously not the case as the movie opens in a decidedly urban office setting and never really leaves it. What's more, it embraces a story and range of characters that would have been all-but-impossible to squeeze into any Western as the genre was conceived in 1923. In short, it's not an oater at all -- it is a decidedly urban comedy/drama about a good-hearted if unfocused young man who succeeds despite his naive nature, with help from three friends: an Irishman, an Italian, and a Jew, who band together with him. The pacing could be quicker, and the humor of some of the situations pushed harder, but overall this is a fascinating social document of its time -- a time when most filmgoers were not from the big city -- and with enaging performances throughout. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

CAST:
Kenneth McDonald - Jimmie March
Edna Pennington - Eleanor Philips
Gordon Sackville - E.J. Philips
Billy Jones - Jimmie March (as a boy}
William Malan - Mortimer Fenton
Joe Bonner - The Italian; Max Ascher - The Hebrew; Otto Metzetti - Chief of Crooks

CREW:
Grover Jones - Director
Bert Longenecker - Cinematographer

Sounds interesting; Mr. Pyle, I'm looking forward to reading a review here of your DVD when it arrives!

[josemas]

I'll pick this up just because it was directed by Grover Jones who definitely had some comedy chops.

Joe Moore

[Christopher Jacobs]

If they did a good transfer, it's quite possible that a beautiful-looking DVD could be the result. I've got another Anthony J. Xydias production on an old original 16mm that looks as sharp as a 35mm print, AFTER A MILLION (1924). That one also stars Kenneth McDonald and is an enjoyable if low-budget action-comedy romp, certainly not up to the major studios' product but also certainly competent enough to be worth seeing for anyone interested in silents. It (and I suspect SLOW AS LIGHTNING) will not likely make anybody's list of favorites, but doesn't come close to the "bad movie" experience that some no-budget and independent features fall into. SLOW AS LIGHTNING sounds like a movie I'd like to see, and if the DVD quality is any good, I'll probably order a copy.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu//instruct/cjacobs

[moviepas]

I have lots of Alpha/Oldies stuff which I get mainly on their specials because we pay a lot for postage for international delivery(per disc not title(unit). The quality does vary a lot but I have got lots of 50s TV most not otherwise available elsewhere and little show in Australia at the time although format copies were made locally of some game shows like The Price is Right & To Tell the Truth(Tell the Truth here). Their serials are not VCI or Serial Squadron quality for sure but some are available no where else as good as.

I am turning 61 this month and being 60(where did those years go?- to 20 was slow, it seems, but the rest just expressed thru). This meant I became a senior for many things(65 in USA, I believe) and a special state government card to flash. helps on transport, meals in many places, moviehouses and so on. To get one over 50 costs money and not all places accept that one. A seniors card can get, often, more benefits than a government pension card(social security) but everyone over 60 can get a seniors card.

I will keep collecting as long as I can and enjoy all over again those things I watched growing up in the 1950s on TV with the exception of silents which were rarely shown unless in comedy shorts compilations that were marketed to TV stations at the time.

[Jerfilm]

I recently bought one of these dim Alpha gems. Which presented a challenge. I downloaded it from DVD to an MPEG file, then loaded the clip into Vegas 8.0 Pro. In just a few minutes, I fiddled with the brightness and contrast and sharpness and if I must say so myself, at least made the "classic" watchable. Question: why can't they spend a couple of hours doing the same thing before they release 'em??? I mean, you don't even need sophisticated equipment to do this. Hmmmmm

[moviepas]

I agree with you and have said this many times in the past. Do it once properly and go on from there. I am sure there are guys out there who are willing to do the job but is their a problem with job description and unions in USA??? Meaning someone more than interested to do the job at home with the right equipment provided and the freetime to do it for free or almost free. Interesting point though. The Warner Archive Collection is a case in point.

[Darren Nemeth]

Grapevine has just issued Fairbanks' AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 MINUTES (1931), a film I saw at MoMA back in the 70s. I later rented it in 16mm from MOMA and showed it locally. Perhaps I should do a review of this dvd release on the talkie site? I'm surprised how very few film buffs have seen this one.

I've always wanted to see this!!!! My Birthday is coming up, also.

[tlanza]

For those in the New York area, the Film Forum is showing AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 MINUTES, along with WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, on March 15 as part of their Victor Fleming festival. They're also showing THE MOLLYCODDLE on Monday, WOLF SONG on the 11th, CODE OF THE SEA on the 12th, MAMMA'S AFFAIR with Constance Talmadge on the 16th, and HULA on the 17th.

Best,
Tim

[bobfells]

I didn't know WOLF SONG existed (I'm assume it's the 1929 Gary Cooper film). If I were in NYC on the Ides of March, I'd make a point to see AROUND THE WORLD, especially if the print is from MoMA.

I want to thank Jerfilm for inspiring me to fiddle with settings on my computer's dvd player. It actually improved the image quality on the Grapevine AROUND THE WORLD.

[R Michael Pyle]

Last night I watched this "discovered lost" silent, "Slow as Lightning" (1923) with Kenneth MacDonald. This is a very pleasant little discovery of a film that seems to be mis-represented in many ways. First of all, the IMDb has it listed as a western. Then they have MacDonald's character name listed incorrectly, to boot! I bought this release because Amazon.com sent out [solicited] ads that represented this as a "lost" western that had been discovered. Now, it's being DVD'd by Alpha didn't bode well with me. Many of their products are so bad as to be literally unwatchable. However, I bought this anyway, and it only set me back less than $10. What a discovery it is! Quality isn't perfect, by any means, but it certainly is not "bad" - at all. And it's not a western in any way. It's a comedy - ala Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. about 1916-17 - that plays extremely well even today. And as the title says - it moves like greased lightning. The speed of the events of the film, and all the action that accounts for those events, moves constantly without a let-up. "Slow as Lightning" refers to the activities of Jimmy Mack, the hero of the piece played by Kenneth MacDonald.

The picture opens with Mack as a youngster (played by Billy "Red" Jones). Then we see him at sixteen working for E. J. Phillips (played by Gordon Sackville), a stockbroker. Jimmy is a 'runner', and he's slippery and good with his information, making the right moves just at the right time for Phillips. Phillips decides to help Jimmy, and he sends him to school to learn about stockbrokering. After ten minutes of this introduction, we finally see MacDonald as a stockbroker working for Phillips, but our introduction is to MacDonald being fired for being late - again, it seems! MacDonald leaves, but not before we are introduced - again - to Phillips' daughter (played by Edna Pennington) who MacDonald has a thing for, and who has a thing for MacDonald. We see her with Mortimer Fenton (played wonderfully by William Malan), the baddie of the piece.

MacDonald making it good on his own is done lightning fast! The stock manipulations are done with comedy, and unfortunately will remind several of the recent debacles that have gone on in the stock market for real! We are also introduced to three characters who play a role in MacDonald's success, a Jew, an Italian, and an Irishman, all three of whom are the quintessential stereotypical comedic types who represented those people in the twenties. But - they ARE funny! Indeed, they're so over-the-top that no one could NOT like them. They're played by Joe Bonner (the Italian), Max Asher (the Jew), and William Lester (the Irishman).

When baddie William Malan tries to squeeze Phillip's company for a shakedown and cash in on a stock finagle, and uses Phillip's daughter as a foil, MacDonald discovers the deal (meanwhile being finagled himself!) and begins to recover the stocks for Phillips. This takes us all the way through the rest of the film and to the end. The acrobatics of MacDonald will remind anyone who has seen a Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. picture of Fairbanks' antics, and they are really well done, too! Also, anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Wallace Reid's surviving road race pictures will see that MacDonald is cut in that image, too. Indeed, they look a little alike, and that likeness is no idle coincidence; it was meant! Same kind of plots; same kind of action. Reid died less than a year before this was released, and he needed some kind of successor. Curiously enough, this was released in New York in December of 1923, but wasn't released nationally until the latter Spring of 1924. Ay-won as the releasing agent may be the reason.

This is highly recommended! It is non-stop fun from the get-go, and at only 57 minutes moves, not slowly at all, but like lightning!

Alpha has a good one here. If it doesn't take the moon to please you, you'll like this one. I thought it was wonderful, and I'd watch it again soon. But then, I'm a Fairbanks, Sr. fan in a very big way, and this so reminded me of those films of his from the teens that it almost seemed as if Doug had come back in another incarnation.

[rogerskarsten]

Thanks for the enthusiastic review, R Michael. It looks like amazon is out of stock on this one for the moment, but I see that oldies.com is selling it. I'm tempted to go for it.

~Roger

[WaverBoy]

Wow, sounds great. Thanks for the review! I'm going to order this from Oldies.com, which I believe is Alpha's own website.

[Christopher Jacobs]

SLOW AS LIGHTNING sounds like it's very much in the pattern of AFTER A MILLION, and likely other even more obscure Kenneth McDonald titles for Sunset Productions -- a bit slow starting to set up the characters and then a mile-a-minute action until the end. As noted their flavor is strongly reminiscent of early Fairbanks and Wallace Reid. Sounds like a good topic for a monograph or Master's Thesis: comparing the action films of Fairbanks, Reid, and McDonald as a major subgenre of the mid-teens to early 20s. I'll definitely have to order a copy of SLOW AS LIGHTNING, though it doesn't appear to be carried by DVD Planet at the present (and if anyone happens to have an original 16mm print, it would be worth considering for the program of one of the usual film conventions).

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs

[bobfells]

Michael, thanks for the review. Isn't it great discover your own little classic?

[josemas]

Some of the misinformation that initially came out on this film may be traced back to the AFI Catalog of films from the twenties which had the film listed as a "Western melodrama(?) No information about the nature of this film has been found."

Joe Moore

[bobfells]

My copy of SLOW AS LIGHTNING arrived today and I watched it almost immediately (with apologies to several major silents in the Warners Archive series that I should have watched first). I agree with Michael - it's a good little film and its outdoor photography has a nice documentary quality to it. I strongly suspect the streets and buildings weren't backlot sets.

The technical work is good enough but the weakness in these low budget production always seems the same - the lack of actors with any film presence (aka star power). If this film had been produced by a major studio with at least one established star in the lead, I think the results would have been ten times more effective. Everybody is competent but that's as far as it goes. Recently, I watched several of the Warners Rin Tin Tin films from the mid-20s. They were all quite enjoyable and I understood why Rinty was so popular. But then I watched some of the low-budget wannabes (lower than Warners at the time, that is). Everything was similar to the Rintys but nothing was quite as good, from the writing, directing, actors, even the dogs (Peter the Great, Fearless, etc), I could see the influence but not the quality. I feel the same way about this film. Still, it's an amusing film and it's nice to have recovered a "lost" silent even if nobody was looking for it!