Silent Film; Poetry in Motion

Tickets

2010-10-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

A Cheap Seat is offering tickets at a deep discount. Upcoming events include Roger Waters, Ozzy Osbourne, Carrie Underwood, and Lady Gaga (ST. PETE TIMES FORUM TICKETS).

Not only does the site offer discounted tickets to concerts, but also to sports events, theatre shows, and circuses. One such event is the ACC Men's Football Championship (ACC Mens Football Championship Tickets).

Venues nationwide are included in the offer, including Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (VERIZON CENTER TICKETS).

Enjoy your show!

More silents!

2010-10-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

I just discovered that the British Film Institute has its own channel on YouTube. The name is BFIfilms.

Some fascinating things here, such as Anny Ondra's sound test for Hitchcock's (and Britain's) first sound film, Blackmail. Footage of the construction of the Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic. Footage of London, pre-WWII.

Take a look!

This year's Giornate

2010-10-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

I couldn't make it to Le Giornate del Cinema Muto this year, and I'm heartbroken. The program is rich and varied, as I saw from checking the website:

http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/giornate/questa_edizione.html

The Giornate has been suffering from budget cuts; this year, the admission fee had to be increased. It's still worth it. Where else can you find such marvelous treasures, eight days' worth, available to you?

Silent film historian Kevin Brownlow attends the Giornate every year. This year, as I blogged earlier, he is receiving an honorary Oscar for his work in getting silent films restored. Maybe more attention will be focused on this field, keeping the silents alive for all of us.

I hope it's a good one. And I am determined to make it next year!

Oscar time!

2010-09-01T03:22:00.000-07:00

I get good and tired of watching Oscars being handed out to blandly pretty faces with no talent behind them. I haven't even watched the ceremony in years.

However, I would LOVE to see the recipients on November 13. One of them is film historian Kevin Brownlow, who has finally been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his unceasing efforts to have classic films restored.

Brownlow is also the author of The Parade's Gone By, a work on silent film, and has made a number of documentaries of such luminaries as Buster Keaton and Mary Pickford.

Finally, FINALLY, his fine work has earned him a statuette. Read this, Hollywood; his work. Not a talentless botoxed surgery-laden face and anorexic body. His dedication to film, his achievements in having major films restored, and his success in bringing them to the public eye.

A job well done.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

2010-07-05T05:08:00.001-07:00

This festival is coming soon. To take a look at the offerings this year, go to: http://www.silentfilm.org/index.php

Return of the silents

2010-06-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

New Zealand is returning a LARGE collection of American silent films to the United States:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/movies/07silent.html

Here's hoping that these films are in, at least, relatively good shape, and can be viewed by us soon.

The Cheat

2010-05-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

I found this to be a very interesting film, despite Fannie Ward's over-the-top arm gestures and horrified eyes.

Ward plays a married woman who lives to be seen and admired; we first see her out shopping for clothes and arguing with her husband that she simply won't give up her way of life - which includes not only shopping for horrendously expensive clothes, but keeping company, as they used to say, with an ivory baron (played by Sessue Hayakawa).

This is one of the things that intrigued me - the movie was made in 1915, and a high-society woman is associating with a man of a different race. I'm sure she wouldn't do it if he weren't rich, of course, but the same can be said of many Caucasian men. Even more intriguing, the film was re-released in 1918, and the Hayakawa character was changed from Japanese (as he was in the original) to Burmese.

Why? Because Japanese-Americans objected to the way a Japanese man was portrayed in the film.

This was the same time The Birth of a Nation was raising hell due to its almost unbelievable racism, with a fledgling organization called the NAACP protesting mightily - and with the fullest justification - against the way the black characters were shown.

That's what interests me, apart from the technical aspects of both movies. They both showed non-Caucasian characters in an unfavorable light, and they both received criticism for it. In 1915. Long before the civil rights movement; when the States were still segregated. Even then, there were organizations setting the stage for reform.

Back to the movie, it had some fascinating lighting techniques that Griffith never used, but then, it's not Griffith; it's DeMille. The two leads are a bit much, especially Ward, but Hayakawa is perfect and perfectly cast. Ward and Jack Dean, who played her hard-working husband, were married offscreen the following year; they remained married until his death in 1950. Ward and Dean join the ranks of the Forever Silent, neither of them ever having made a talkie film.

The Hill Park Mystery

2010-05-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

I saw this Danish movie at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, a few years ago. The movie, fortunately, had English titles; not only that, but the names of the characters were also English, as if Copenhagen could be mistaken easily for London.

I love it. It's the same old plot of a reporter getting mixed up in a crime, but in this case, the story is a comedy. Our Hero is no damn good at staying out of trouble, and he's equally inept at keeping a low profile. The comedy really works here, and shows us how funny a movie can be with images rather than words.

I'm glad to be able to inform anyone who's reading this that it's available on DVD:

http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/info/p29_A-W--Sandberg--Der-goldene-Clown---Zerr-ttete-Nerven.html

For some reason, the link option isn't working here, so I have to post the URL without it.

The other movie on the DVD is one that I haven't seen, but if it has the same standard as The Hill Park Mystery, then I,for one, have no problems owning it. I haven't bought it myself; it's still on my wish list.

If anyone out there does buy it, will you tell me your thoughts on the other movie?

Lumiere

2010-04-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's almost too perfect that the Lumiere Brothers got into filmmaking in the very early years. Lumiere is French for "light", an essential quality in creating a photograph or moving picture.

I found a few of their shorts on YouTube today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nj0vEO4Q6s&feature=related

I love watching these candid views. You aren't looking at pumped-up, undernourished, botoxed, surgically altered, overly-tanned mannequins dressed up (in modern fabrics sewn by modern machines) to look like the people of 1895. You're looking at 1895 as it really was. A train pulls into a station, and people get on it. A boat arrives at a dock, and the passengers disembark, with some of the men smiling and tipping their straw hats to the camera. A group of men sit at an outdoor table, having drinks. A young boy plays a trick on a man who is watering his garden.

These are the images of 115 years ago, before World War I blasted that sort of life away forever.

Comic influences

2010-03-17T03:03:00.001-07:00

No, this isn't about humor. It's about silent actors/characters who have influenced comics. I was surprised to find that silent film still has this kind of influence on popular culture, though most people don't know it.

The character of Superman was based on two wildly popular performers of silent cinema. Harold Lloyd - more specifically, his "Glasses" character - was the inspiration for the character of Clark Kent. The physique of Superman was modeled on the astoundingly fit Douglas Fairbanks.

Silent and sound actor Jack Holt provided the features for Dick Tracy.

ZaSu Pitts was lampooned by voice talent Mae Questel in the character of Olive Oyl; Pitts's nervous, "oh dear" mannerisms were used to great effect.

One of the most surprising, for me, is Conrad Veidt, as Gwynplaine from The Man Who Laughs. This sympathetic 17th-century character, who has had his mouth deliberately carved into a permanent smile by his father's enemies and who is forced to work in a traveling show, provided the look for a famous villain. Let's see - who could that villain have been?

Take a look above.

In case you still don't know - and I admit, the image could show more of his face - the character is the Joker, from the Batman series.

Silent images

2010-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

The post about silent-movie action figures got me thinking.

When I look for posters of famous silent movies, I find reprints of the originals. This is all well and good, but I'd also like to see images that look more realistic, and softer, rather than the hard-edged drawings that I usually find.

Yes, I know; that's how they did it back then. But we can do more, I think. Why not create posters showing some of the classic images of silent movies, uncluttered by titles? And how about just showing one
image in the posters, rather than a montage?

Is there anything to prevent it? I'd like to know.

Metropolis

2010-02-11T07:46:00.001-08:00

This is one that has had us all peeing ourselves with joy since we heard the news last year; the silent film usergroup I belong to had post after post after post about it. It didn't have the staying power of the "Silent Hotties" thread, but a lot of excitement ensued.

This year's Berlin Film Festival is showing the newly-restored Metropolis for FREE at the Brandenburg Gate. Now I am jealous. I thought it would be a ticketed event that would sell out sometime last year.

Nope, it's open to the public - well, as much of the public as can see over each other's heads, anyway.

More information here.

Now, the question is: When are we going to see the full version on video?

Action figures

2010-02-04T13:13:00.001-08:00

Why don't we have more of these?

I discovered a wonderful action figure of Lon Chaney from the famous (and, sadly, lost) film London After Midnight. You can also get figures of him as Erik in Phantom of the Opera and as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I did find, much to my delight, a series called Silent Screamers Action Figures. These gems include the Frankenstein monster from Edison's 1910 version of the classic tale (in which Charles Ogle played the monster) and Count Orlok from Murnau's classic Nosferatu.

These figures were all sold out at the website I checked. But they're sold all over the place.

How about some other figures?

- John Gilbert and Lillian Gish in La Boheme

- Valentino and Agnes Ayres in The Sheik

- Buster Keaton and Brown Eyes in Go West

- Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston in Girl Shy

- Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky in any of their movies

- Richard Barthelmess and Lillian Gish in Way Down East

- Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson in The Affairs of Anatol

- George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor in Sunrise

Come on, people! Get with it! Make some!

EDITED: It seems that my blog IS being read; someone has answered this post! Click on "comments" below to read it.

Silents on DVD

2010-02-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

I came across a nifty little site for buying DVDs of silent movies. It links together several different sites I'd never heard of, and a few I had, such as Kino International, purveyors of many fine films (but not enough silent movies, folks; sad, but true).

I discovered - joy! joy! joy! - that Hearts of the World can indeed be purchased on DVD! I'd only found it on VHS, on Amazon. This particular gem is available from the French company Bach Films. Be warned, though; their website is all in French, so if you don't speak it, find a friend who can translate for you. I will give you some help here:

Hearts of the World - Les Coeurs du Monde

The Avenging Conscience - La Conscience Vengeresse

Way Down East - A Travers L'Orage

The Shock - La Terre a Tremble

The Penalty - Satan

As far as ordering the DVDs is concerned, I'm afraid you're on your own. Brush up on your French!

The Charles Farrell/Mary Duncan drama The River is also available, from an Austrian company. Drool. Drool.

Enjoy!

Arthur Johnson

2010-01-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

Johnson is another in the "forever silent" category. According to the IMDb, he made his first movie in 1905. He would die of tuberculosis eleven years later, just shy of his fortieth birthday.

I just watched a short feature he made in 1909, directed by none other than D.W. Griffith. There is some of the posturing that was a trademark of those early films - arms flung wide, fists pressed to foreheads - but the actors are all very watchable.

The story's a bit lame; violin teacher falls for his rich pupil, then almost immediately joins a group of anarchists (Down with the Rich!) when she rejects him. When he discovers he's been sent to blow up her house, he regrets his hasty action and saves the day.

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish claimed that Griffith "discovered" Johnson, which may well have been true. Bobby Harron, for one,got his start first as a message boy, then as an actor, at Biograph. Johnson, however, never reached the fame of his fellow actors - certainly not the enduring fame of Lillian Gish, not the fleeting fame (and later, constant character roles) of Henry B. Walthall, and not the fame cut short of Bobby Harron.

The IMDb lists his final films as being directed by Johnson, as well as starring him; the production company was the "Lubin Manufacturing Company", which is a new one on me.

What intrigues me about this actor is not only that he died before the advent of sound, but that he didn't achieve any type of fame - at least, nothing that has lasted. Was it his health? Possibly. Tuberculosis is a particularly nasty disease. He wasn't lacking in the looks department, and if he improved his acting style, then I can see him being a very effective leading man, as was the younger Walthall.

Maybe we'll never know.

Click here to see one of his films.

Silent discovery!

2009-11-13T03:30:00.000-08:00

I love it when a movie from the silent era is found, since we have so few of them left. Recently, one was found on eBay.

Morace Park found a listing for an old film, and decided to bid on it. He found the container more interesting than the old film, but the contents have proven to be the real find here.

£3.20 bought the item. Inside the container, Park (who deals in antiques as a sideline) found a Charlie Chaplin film. The title read, "Charlie Chaplin in Zepped". Park searched online for this title, but drew a blank.

Park's neighbor, John Dyer, once worked for the British Board of Film Classification, so Park turned to him for help. The two of them investigated the film's history, and why nobody had ever even heard of it.

The film combines live-action footage of Chaplin and dreamlike animation; true to its name, it concerns an attack by a Zeppelin (very topical at that time, since Germany began attacking Britain by air in 1915, using the selfsame aircraft).

The film also bears a reference to the Essanay studio, where Chaplin worked eearly in his career, before various conflicts caused him to break with the company.

Hammad Khan, a documentarist, has gone with Park and Dyer to Los Angeles. The latter two are in town in a search for more information; Khan is (naturally!) making a documentary.

Michael Pogorzelski, director of the archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has also viewed the film, stating that "It is an extremely interesting find." He also refers to it as a previously unknown and uncataloged Chaplin film.

He thinks Essanay may have cobbled together the film by using footage from other films Chaplin made for the studio and adding newer footage of Zeppelins, as well as creating the animation. He refers to it as "either piracy or entrepreneurship – depending on which side of the fence you're on."

Film historian David Robinson has assessed the value of Zepped at anywhere from £3,000 to £40,000.

Pogorzelski states that the film (a 35mm nitrate print) must be transferred to safety stock, adding that the Academy has volunteered to do this work, though the film should stay where it was found, in the UK.

Jacksonville film studio

2009-10-13T13:33:00.001-07:00

Jacksonville, Florida, was the rather surprising place to make films, once upon a time - and by "once upon a time", I mean, "a century ago". In 1916, more than thirty companies shot films in Jacksonville, with some of the hottest stars of the time. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Lionel Barrymore were among them, as well as a pre-Laurel Oliver Hardy.

The top studio in the Arlington section of town was entrepreneur Richard Norman's studio, appropriately named Norman Studios. Norman purchased the studio in 1920, and it was one of the first to make movies with an all-black cast. In addition to this surprising fact, Norman Studios may well be the only surviving silent film studio in the country. The rest have been demolished.

Political leaders Lake Ray and Glorious Johnson, intent on saving the studio, are trying to get local residents involved in the cause; the struggle to preserve this precious piece of film heritage has been going on for years. Ray, who served on the City Council in 2002, convinced the city to buy property on which the studio stands.

The idea is to turn the former studio into a silent film museum and film school, but there is a drawback - the cost will be close to three million dollars.

Only six features were shot at Norman Studios between 1920 and 1928, but they broke ground by featuring black actors in positive, non-stereotypical roles; the crew members were also black.

Norman's son, Richard E. Norman, supports the movement to save the studio; he states that his father (who was white) felt that making black-oriented movies was morally right, as well as good business sense.

For more information, go to www.normanstudios.org. They're in bad need of funds for this endeavor!

The Avenging Conscience

2009-10-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

I love this movie. It's one of Griffith's best, and Walthall's best. Anyone who really wants to know what Walthall was capable of doing, should watch this film. Griffith made it just before his (in)famous epic, The Birth of a Nation, which, of course, also starred Walthall.

In brief, Walthall is a young man with only one surviving relative, his uncle, who has raised him. When Walthall's character (simply known as "The Nephew" in the titles) falls in love, the uncle feels threatened by his nephew's lack of attention, and grows intolerant and demanding. This leads to...

A hell of a good story, is what it leads to. Walthall really shines in this movie, as the young man in love/devoted nephew/thwarted lover/criminal/nervous wreck. Nobody could do it the way he could, and he's just marvelous. The movie shows a strong Poe influence (even down to one of his poems). And the outdoor scenes! They show a bucolic Southern California that now only exists in these classic films. Isolated houses, empty fields, and even the sepia air looks better, somehow.

Great Halloween watching. Take a look.

Edna Purviance

2009-10-11T04:11:00.000-07:00

Once leading lady to Charlie Chaplin, now all but forgotten. A dedicated group of film lovers have started an online petition to have Edna given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If you want to sign the petition, click here.

Halloween

2009-10-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season for watching scary movies, at least for me.

Here are a few recommendations:

Nosferatu (1922). Ground-breaking film from German director F.W. Murnau, with a fascinatingly ugly vampire (played by Max Schreck).

The Avenging Conscience (1915). The great Henry B. Walthall gives an outstanding performance as a man who has murdered his domineering uncle. Frightening dream sequences and hallucinations in this Poe-inspired Griffith film.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1924). John Barrymore plays the title characters. According to rumor, the appearance of Mr. Hyde caused the cameraman to faint.

The Man Who Laughs (1928). Not a horror film per se, but dark and richly atmospheric. Conrad Veidt is an English nobleman, Gwynplaine, whose father fell afoul of the King of England. In revenge, Gwynplaine (as a child) has been forced to undergo a surgical procedure in which a permanent smile is carved on his face. Outstanding performance by Veidt, and even Mary Philbin, as his love interest, is very effective.

The Penalty (1920). Another non-horror film, but hard-hitting and thoroughly gripping. Lon Chaney plays a man whose legs were amputated in childhood; as an adult, he has become a much-feared crime boss. Chaney's legs were strapped behind him for this role, and he really does appear to be legless.

Shopping for goodies

2009-10-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

With three major (in my view, anyway) holidays coming up, quite a few people are turning to the Internet to do their shopping, rather than risking the crowded streets, choked malls, and rabid shoppers.

Well, why not?

ShopWiki, which has another post here on my blog, is offering advice on HOW to buy things - what to look for - which is a great idea.

One of my goals is to have a home theater - by which I mean, a room especially designed for watching movies. Or TV, if you must, but for me, the movies are the important thing. Big screens! Sound! All the goodies that go with the experience, but without those rude people kicking your seat!

Of course, there's also the alternative of getting yourself a good TV.

Or, if you're saving up for the big stuff, in the meantime, you can go for a good computer system to watch your DVDs.

Why not?

I see above that I'm recommending this things not for your loved ones, but for you. If this is something you want, why not drop your loved ones a few heavy hints?

Happy holidays!

Francis X. Bushman

2009-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

The life of silent star Francis X. Bushman has finally been written!

Author Lon Davis, who recently published Silent Lives (a series of short biographies of silent stars), has finally completed a project that took almost 30 years.

Bushman (1883-1966) is best remembered for his role as Messala in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur. Unlike many stars of the silent era, he didn't have a problem adjusting to talkies... but the talkies may have had some problems adjusting to him. According to Bushman himself, he made an enemy of Louis B. Mayer, that same mogul who is rumored to have ruined the career of superstar John Gilbert. Evidently, Mayer hated Bushman's attitude; Bushman attempted to get more money during the shooting of Ben-Hur, and afterwards, found so much difficulty finding work that he placed the blame at Mayer's door.

At the age of 13, Davis met Beverly Bayne, Bushman's second wife. She had little, if anything, good to say about Bushman, but Davis was fascinated; this is when he began to research Bushman. Lon and his then-fiancee, Debra, began to co-author the manuscript in the early 1980s; they met Bushman's last wife, Iva, who kindly allowed them to view and even handle some of Bushman's silent-film paraphernalia (much of which they shipped to the Smithsonian later). The book was finished in 1983, but remained unsold until it was published by Bear Manor Media.

What happened to Bushman's career?

To hear Bushman tell it, it was because he made a powerful enemy out of Louis B. Mayer. In 1917, Bushman starred in Mayer’s first production, "The Great Secret," a serial that was something of a flop. When he was making "Ben-Hur" in the mid-twenties for the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer company, Bushman alienated Mayer by holding him up for more money when the production was stalled. After a few major movies at the end of the twenties, he turned to radio for the next two decades.
He did state that he loved the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur, and even helped to promote the film.

Will we see more of Bushman's films now?

I hope so!

For Charley Chase fans

2009-09-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

The most common reaction is "Who?" The second most common reaction is, "Oh, you mean Charlie Chaplin, don't you?"

Nope, Charley Chase. He was another silent comedians, not one of the Big Three, but very popular. A recent article states that his collected works are now available on DVD.

Write Jordan Young states:

"To my mind there are two kinds of people—those who love Charley Chase, and those who never heard of him. All Day Entertainment's Becoming Charley Chase, recently released by VCI Entertainment, is a 4-DVD box set affectionately put together by people who are clearly in the first category; it’s not the work of a soulless corporation trying to make a fast buck, like so many video releases these days.

"This collection should do much to bolster the reputation of this most unjustly underrated comedian of the 1920s and ‘30s, perhaps best remembered now for an uproarious cameo in Laurel and Hardy’s Sons of the Desert. One disc is devoted to Chase’s embryonic 1915 work for Mack Sennett; two discs are comprised of 1924-1925 shorts made at Hal Roach Studios; and a fourth samples his efforts directing other comics, including his brother James Parrott (who himself directed many of Charley’s comedies, as well of some of Laurel and Hardy’s best), Will Rogers and Snub Pollard. Our Gang, whose earliest comedies Chase supervised as Director General at Roach, are seen as guest stars in The Fraidy Cat.

"Even the Chase aficionado who has all or most of these 40-odd comedy shorts in 8mm, 16mm, Laserdisc or VHS will find the box hard to resist. There are new scores for all titles, with some highly entertaining and imaginative work by the Snark Ensemble, Ben Model, the Redwine Jazz Band, and the West End Jazz Band. There are also optional audio commentaries on all films by a gaggle of Chase historians and film scholars; a 45-minute documentary, The Parrott Chase; and an archival interview with Chase's daughter June.

"The quality of the films is erratic but not for lack of effort; producer David Kalat notes how he acquired six prints of one especially poor-looking title, and choose the best of the lot. We’re fortunate so many of Chase’s silent shorts exist, as the tantalizing fragments of some lost ones remind us... A DVD set of his ‘30s Columbia shorts is in the works; meanwhile, for more on Charley visit the definitive website."

As always, I'm DELIGHTED to see more silent films coming out on DVD. We just don't have enough; DVD hasn't yet caught up to VHS in terms of the number of films available, especially those from the silent era. I always love sharing the news of another silent release.

Hot news!

2009-08-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

This from the Associated Press:

Early 20th century films found in Polish cellar

Fri Aug 21, 12:03 pm ET

WARSAW, Aug 21, 2009 (AFP) – Several rare early 20th century Swedish, German, Italian and American movies have been discovered in a cellar in southern Poland, the country's national film library said Friday.

"They are going to undergo cleaning and conservation, before being watched, identified and archived," library spokeswoman Justyna Jablonska told AFP.

The Polska newspaper reported that experts have identified several cinematic gems in the metal boxes discovered in a parish building in the city of Sosnowiec.

The newspaper said they included the 1913 "Gränsfolken" (People of the Border), adapted by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller from a novel by French icon Emile Zola, as well as "Zwei Himmelblaue Augen" (Two Skyblue Eyes), released in 1932 by Germany's Johannes Meyer.

In addition, Polska said, the films include a 1929 German version of the Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Richard Oswald, one from the long-running Italian series "Maciste", which began in 1914 and starred Bartolomeo Pagano.

Experts reportedly also discovered parts of a 1913 movie by Germany's Otton Rippert, who often worked with Fritz Lang.

The collection belonged to the parish priest Father Jerzy Barszcz, a local film buff who began collecting movies after World War II, and who died in 2004, Polska reported.

Exciting to learn for all lovers of early film!

Favorites

2009-08-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Who is my favorite?

That would have to be Buster Keaton. If anyone deserves to win the Blog Awards, he is that one.

Buster was and is the greatest genius and artist Hollywood and the film industry will ever see. He wrote, directed, and starred in his own films, once he had reached the required popularity to be the lead, rather than a supporting player to Arbuckle. Even with all the problems in his life - the infamous Arbuckle trial, his truly dreadful monster of a first wife spending $900 a week on clothes - he just kept on going, and he created the best comedy ever to grace the silver screen.

He also designed and built a magnificent house, the Italian Villa in Beverly Hills, later owned by James and Pamela Mason, to whom we all owe an enormous debt for saving Buster's old films, which they found in his former editing room on the property; Buster had forgotten all about them, and had it not been for the Masons, his irreplaceable comedy would have been lost to us forever.

Buster is, in my opinion, the clear winner of the Best of the Best Awards (or the BoB Awards, for short). He was no Chaplin, begging the audience shamelessly to pity him always. Whatever befell Buster's character, he kept on going, finding a way through his difficulties. That's part of his charm; that unsmiling, yet highly mobile, expression in the face of any number of calamities and absurdities.

And his stunts! That stunt in Steamboat Bill, Jr. could have cost him his life; a few inches either way, and he'd have been gone. The long chase scenes in Sherlock, Jr. The spinning house in One Week. The three men one each others' shoulders in Neighbors. He never faltered, never failed.

Please nominate me in the Best of the Best Awards.

Buster Keaton Convention

2009-07-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

The 15th Annual Damfino Convention will take place October 2 and 3, 2009, in Muskegon, Michigan.

Events include:

- A screening of Buster's classic film, The General

- A walking tour of Buster's former neighborhood in Bluffton.

- A banquet on Saturday night.

- A reception at the train depot in Muskegon.

For more information, tips on places to stay, downloadable registration forms, and more, take a look here.

Hearts of the World

2009-07-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite Bobby Harron films. He had grown out of supporting-role status and had become a leading man, and a very effective one. He's believable in everything he does here.

It's also fascinating for its authentic battleground footage, shot in WWI France. Griffith could have died while filming it, and some of the soldiers accompanying him one day were killed by a shell that barely missed Griffith and his crew; Lillian Gish reported how shaken and tearful he was when he told them, later that day, what had happened.

Bobby Harron would die in real life two years later, and in this movie, there is a scene where his fiancee (the incomparable Lillian) thinks he has been killed. What she does, in this scene, is something I've never seen anywhere else. I'll let you find out for yourselves. There's the interest of viewing Lillian and Dorothy playing rivals for The Boy, when in real life, Dorothy was the one involved with Harron. Dorothy gives her best performance here; at least, it's the best I've ever seen from her. She's marvelous as the "Little Disturber", who makes a play for The Boy in the beginning, then finding strength of character during the bombardment of her village. Her role is both comic and dramatic. I can't help wondering what she thought of the scene in which Lillian kisses Bobby, the only time I can think of where you can clearly see Lillian kissing her leading man.

The movie contains many surprising scenes: A shot of a civilian victim; the real ruins of a French town after heavy bombing; the trenches; and one shot you wouldn't even see in a modern film, that of a woman breastfeeding her child.

Griffith intended to show the horrors of war, and I think that his own experiences with the first world war made him even more qualified to do so.

Bobby, you were wonderful.

Olive Thomas

2009-07-15T10:30:00.001-07:00

Olive Thomas is an interesting (and sad) chapter in silent film. Lillian Gish was the consummate actress. Mary Pickford was the eternal, annoying little girl. Louise Brooks was a sex symbol. Garbo was the lady of mystery.

Olive was the tomboyish character, yet with style and class. Her film career was woefully short - only four years - but by the time she had made her final film, The Flapper, she was a confirmed star.

Olive had one of those rags-to-riches backgrounds. She married her first husband when she was only sixteen, divorcing him a few years later. She moved to New York City and won a beauty contest; this led to her being offered a job in the Ziegfeld Follies. (At late-night parties, Olive would appear wearing only balloons, which the rich men would pop, one by one, with their cigars.)

The film world wasn't far away in those days, with as many films being shot on the East Coast as on the West. Olive made her first film in 1916, and in October of that year, she married Mary Pickford's younger brother Jack. Jack was also in film, though he would never achieve the heights that his sister did. With Olive now a member of the industry, they often found themselves shooting on opposite coasts, putting a strain on their marriage; another problem was caused by Jack's frequent philandering.

In 1920, Olive and Jack sailed for Europe to give their marriage another try. Olive had confided to a friend, not long before this, that she didn't know if she could take being married to Jack any longer.

In the dead of night, in Paris, Olive went into the bathroom and swallowed a solution of mercury bichloride. She woke Jack to tell him what she had done; he administered first aid, and called for help. It was too late; after several days of agony, Olive died in a Paris hospital. She had been blinded by the solution, which had also burned through her vocal cords.

Jack, with Olive's body, sailed for New York. His boat was met by his sister Mary; Jack burst into tears and said, "I've never had to see anyone die before." Olive was buried in the Pickford family plot, but her name wasn't put on the stone.

Her last film, The Flapper, was a perfect showcase for her talent. She played Ginger King, a teenager from Florida who is sent to a boarding school in New York State. The character of Ginger has a real talent for getting into dramatic situations, which she milks for all that they're worth. Olive truly shines in this role, and the film gives us views of a long-gone New York City.

Much has been made of Olive's death, especially in light of the fact that her marriage was on the rocks. Was it suicide? I doubt it. Olive had thought nothing of divorcing her first husband, who, to all accounts, didn't cause her any of the problems that the irresponsible playboy Jack Pickford had. She may have felt that it was her duty to try to make things worth; this is plausible. Yet suicide by means of mercury bichloride is a rash step. (On the other hand, the "Biograph Girl", Florence Lawrence, committed suicide by eating ant paste.)

My feeling is that she got up late one night, thirsty, went into the bathroom, and drank what she thought was water. As for the solution itself, mercury bichloride was used in those days for acne; it was mixed with water and applied to the skin.

It was also used for syphilis, which, evidently, Jack had - and had passed on to Olive.

I think Olive deserves much better than to be relegated to the status of a Pickford in-law. She was very talented, certainly far more talented than the grungy-looking Jack, and I'm sure she would have been one of the greats. Timeline Films has made a very good documentary about Olive; click on the link at the bottom of this page to find out more. (One of the fascinating things about the documentary is that it contains film footage of Olive with two other actresses, sitting on some steps. One actress is Chaplin's one-time leading lady, Edna Purviance. The other is Virginia Rappe, who would die so dramatically the year after Olive did.)

Sad news

2009-07-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

I hope that Bob Mitchell's family won't mind me putting this text here:

Bob Mitchell was born in Los Angeles on October 12, 1912. He began piano study at four and pipe organ at the age of ten. He accompanied silent movies beginning in 1924 (at age twelve) until 1928 when sound replaced live music. At eighteen he was the youngest candidate to receive the degree of Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (F.A.G.O.). He was a scholarship winner at Eastman School of Music and the New York College of Music and still found time to sing and play on his own radio show in New York City.

Returning to Los Angeles, he founded the Mitchell Choirboys in 1934 - which continued for nearly 70 years. They performed in some one hundred motion pictures, most notably Going My Way, The Bishop's Wife, and White Christmas. They toured extensively - five times abroad and once around the world, and made thousands of radio and TV appearances.

Bob served overseas in the Navy during World War II, and was pianist/organist for Meredith Willson's Armed Forces Radio Service Orchestra.

He served as staff pianist/organist at several Los Angeles radio stations - KFI, KHJ, KECA, among others, and on TV with Art Linkletter's House Party, The Jack LaLanne Show, and even The Mitchell Choirboys Show. Bob and the choir were featured in the Academy-nominated short film Forty Boys and a Song, and he was honored on Ralph Edwards' This Is Your Life.

Bob was organist for four years for the Dodgers and Angels at the then new stadium, the only person to 'play' for both the National and American leagues at the same time. He was Musical Director for many religious institutions over his 87 years as a professional musician, and most recently regularly exciting his many fans at the Silent Movie Theater (on Fairfax Blvd.), Hollywood. Bob passed away peacefully on Saturday afternoon, July 4, 2009.

The Arbuckle scandal

2009-07-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

This, in my opinion, was one of the biggest tragedies ever to strike Hollywood.

Things were going so well for Arbuckle in 1921. He was a famous comedian, he was the first in his field to make a million dollars a year (a fabulous sum now, and truly astronomical then). He had introduced to screen the incomparable Buster Keaton, and in 1921, Buster made his first feature film. The two were good friends, and Arbuckle needed all the friends he could get after all hell broke loose.

In Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, footage was included of Buster being interviewed about his friend Roscoe (who was NEVER called "Fatty" by his friends; he hated the nickname). Buster said indignantly, "Certainly he was wronged! He was no more guilty of that than I was!"

As for what really happened during the infamous Labor Day party, we may never know. A week later, a would-be starlet was dead, and Arbuckle was blamed for causing her death. The accounts vary wildly; either Arbuckle was a sex fiend who assaulted this poor, innocent young woman, which then led to her death of peritonitis due to a ruptured bladder, or this extremely active young woman, already infected with more than one sexually-transmitted disease, died of peritonitis from a ruptured bladder as the result of a botched abortion, one of several.

Certainly, Hearst was willing to put the blame squarely on Arbuckle. Buster stated that Hearst said - in front of Buster himself - that the Arbuckle affair sold more papers than the sinking of the Lusitania.

When I watch the movies Arbuckle and Buster made together, Buster's genius is obvious, even in his very first role. Arbuckle was no mean hand at physical comedy himself, and he had some pretty good little routines, but had it not been for the storm surrounding him, much of which continues to this day, what would have happened to him? He didn't have the staying power that Buster did, or Harold Lloyd. He did have talent, though, and his joy in making comedy still shines through.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

2009-07-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

It's coming up soon! July 10 - 12 at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, built in 1922.

Click here to see what's playing. I noticed that several of the films on offer were shown at Pordenone last October. Anyone who wanted to attend Pordenone, but couldn't, has the opportunity to see some of the movies that were shown there.

I think we should have more such festivals. Every capital city should have one, and large countries should scatter them nationwide. Each month should bring another festival, and not just a few movies, but a rich offering of silent-era movies.

(On a side note, while I do appreciate the fact that some filmmakers like to make modern-day short silent films, I never get anything out of watching them at festivals. I prefer to have only vintage films shown, and nothing recent.)

This may be the biggest festival until Pordenone this October. I've never been to it myself, so I can't vouch for it, but the combination of silent films and San Francisco has tremendous appeal.

Intolerance

2009-07-04T06:18:00.001-07:00

Will you look at that? Will you just look at that?

This is one of my favorite images of all time. The scale of the Babylonian set is breathtaking, as is the pioneering "crane" shot Griffith created. (He had a scaffold built which contained an elevator, on which the camera was placed. The scaffold had wheels, so the cameraman cranked away while the elevator went down as the entire structure was slowly wheeled forward.)

I must say, I'm glad Griffith got huffy and self-pitying after the storm of protest following the release of The Birth of a Nation. If he hadn't gotten it into his head that he'd been dreadfully wronged, he might not have made Intolerance. And we wouldn't have this stunning spectacle to view.

What really gets me is that something this beautiful wasn't carefully maintained and preserved. Nope; it was just a movie set. Get rid of it. It stood at the studio on Prospect Street. Imagine walking past and just drinking in the sight of it! I showed a friend a clip from the movie, pointing out the wall where a chariot was driven. He was impressed - not as much as I am, though.

You just don't see sets like these anymore. CGI, eat your heart out.

Pordenone revisited

2009-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

More on the festival!

The website has been updated, showing some of the goodies in store for us at this year's Giornate.

I found that several films on the ever-popular character of Sherlock Holmes are going to be shown, the earliest of these from 1909. There are quite a few to choose from.

There are also some early Technicolor films; a few offerings from Carl Theodor Dreyer; an Asta Nielsen retrospective; and more!

It's always sheer joy to go to the Giornate, quickly replace by sheer exhaustion after a day or two, when we have all been sitting, rapt, in a dark room all day, eating high-calorie food at nearby restaurants, staying up late at night and getting up early the next morning. This quickly leads to vertical naps in the screening rooms. It's a rare day when you don't hear someone snoring during at least one movie (one year, someone got in a good one right when the accompanist trailed off; the room was silent for a split second, and then a snore punctuated the screening).

It happens every year. We can't see all the movies we want to see, but by God, we try.

The Miracle Man

2009-06-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

You can see the only surviving footage of The Miracle Man on YouTube (link below).

This is one of those films that cause intense anguish for me, wondering what might have been. We see just enough of it to want to see the whole thing, but most of it hasn't survived, unless there's a print out there somewhere, hidden away.

It was Chaney's breakthrough role, as a con man named Frog, and he's incredible, as always. DeMille leading man Thomas Meighan also stars, but that one scene - the fake healing, followed by the real thing - makes the film Chaney's, and his alone.

I hope that, as with Metropolis, we'll soon hear that the "lost" footage has been found, and the whole movie will be restored and presented to the public.

Take a look.

The Man Who Laughs

2009-06-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is one gorgeous movie.

I saw it a few years ago, and I wonder why it took me so long. It's a late-era silent (1928) with the incomparable Conrad Veidt as the title character. It seems that Gwynplaine (Veidt) is the son of a man who pissed off the King of England in a very serious way; the father is sentenced to the Iron Maiden, while the son is given to a band of gypsies who excel in plastic surgery.

The gypsies carve a permanent smile in his face before abandoning him, alone and friendless. Finding a blind baby still clutched in her dead mother's arms, he takes the baby and eventually finds a home with a traveling show. Gwynplaine, as an adult, becomes a part of the show and is known, of course, as "The Man Who Laughs".

This is such an atmospheric film, with many touches of the German Expressionists (and one of Expressionism's best-known actors), matched by a fascinating, bizarre story. Veidt is always excellent, and even Mary Philbin gives a good performance as the blind Dea, the woman he loves but feels he doesn't deserve.

The film is dark, the story is consistently interesting, and everything just works. An interesting footnote is that Veidt's appearance - hair slicked back, face constantly smiling - provided the inspiration for the comic-book character of the Joker, nemesis of Batman, though Gwynplaine is a highly sympathetic, tragic character. Veidt had to wear wire hooks to hold his mouth in place, which prevented him from speaking. (There is some talk that Lon Chaney was originally cast in this role, which makes perfect sense, given his talent for strikingly original makeup.)

One of the things that interests me about this movie is the fact that it does have a soundtrack, though you don't hear the actors speaking their lines. Some of the sound is synched; some is a musical score. One romantic scene has a woman's beautiful voice singing. It's a far cry from the primitive sound that was, even then, taking over the film business.

Best of all, the film is available on DVD!

Forever silent

2009-06-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of those silent actors whose voices, for one reason and another, were never heard on film.

Here are some of them:

Elliott Dexter. Retired from the screen in 1925.

Bobby Harron. Died in 1920.

Wallace Reid. Died in 1923.

Clarine Seymour. Died in 1920.

Constance Talmadge. Retired from films upon the advent of sound.

Olive Thomas. Died in 1920.

Rudolph Valentino. Died in 1926.

And, of course, the older actors who had simply faded off the screen, or died, before sound came in.

Then there's one who only made one sound film: Lon Chaney. What might he have done with his voice, as he did with his face and body, had he lived longer?

Flicker Alley

2009-06-02T14:09:00.001-07:00

Big news!

Flicker Alley has released a John Gilbert double feature on DVD. The two films are Bardelys the Magnificent and Monte Cristo.

I don't know what else is in it; I know that we can count on the good people at Flicker Alley to throw in all kinds of delightful goodies, though. The first film is one I saw last year at the Pordenone festival, and I loved it. One reel was missing, so when it was restored by Lobster Films in France, they used stills to recreate the story during that scene. Bardelys is about a 17th-century Parisian nobleman who finds himself betting an acquaintance that he can "make" a young noblewoman of the country fall in love with and marry him. And that's just the beginning of the story.

I've never seen Monte Cristo, but Gilbert is in it. That's good enough for me.

British Silent Film Festival

2009-06-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

Good news for film fans in Britain!

The 12th British Silent Film Festival starts at the Barbican Cinema on June 4, running until the 6th. One of the features is Hitchcock's last silent film, The Manxman.

The focus this year is on the relationship of sound and film. Pordenone regulars Neil Brand and Philip Carli will be attending (and accompanying); at least one of the films presented is an early sound film, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel Under the Greenwood Tree.

For more information, go here.

ShopWiki Kitchen Appliances Buying Guide

2009-05-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

This one kind of blows me away.

Most of us know what it's like to go shopping for a major appliance, and to be faced with an enormous number of brands and styles. This is the first online buying guide I've seen (though, granted, I've never looked for one), and it's impressive.

It covers the big ones - ranges, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, trash compactors - and even things that (in the States, anyway) aren't commonly found in kitchens, such as washers and dryers. As I scrolled down, the list became even more detailed.

If you're looking for a buying guide for soy milk makers, well, here you go. Related products are given at the bottom of the page (yogurt makers, ice cream makers, juicers, etc.). I was rather amused at the spice rack buying guide. I can only assume that enough people have shown an interest in them that the company has decided to provide this guide.

At the bottom of the page, there is an eye-popping list of related searches, underneath the list of major manufacturers, studded with familiar names.

I wonder what other buying guides they have?

Pordenone '09

2009-05-30T09:44:00.001-07:00

Some of the films to be shown are already on the Giornate's site. The opening event will be Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow, starring John Gilbert and Mae Murray.

An article about the making of the film, written by Kevin Brownlow, accompanies the listing. It seems that the movie encountered enormous problems almost every step of the way, with Stroheim disappointed in the leading man who was foisted upon him (according to Gilbert, they eventually became friends after a little drinking session), and wonder boy Irving Thalberg calling the shots.

You can see a short clip of the waltz scene on YouTube, with the lovely melody "Love Unspoken" on the soundtrack. The video is scratchy, and I hope that the print they show at Pordenone will be better; the good people at the Giornate have a real genius for finding the best existing prints of the films they present.

That's the main news from the Giornate. Not much else to report.

ShopWiki

2009-05-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

So, there’s this new site. Or maybe it’s not new. Anyway, it’s new to me.

It’s a site called ShopWiki UK, and just as the name suggests, it’s a searchable site for stores throughout the UK – more than 30,000, evidently. On a whim, I did a search for “silent film”. I came up with a lot of matches – too many, really, so I narrowed it down to “classic silent film”. That was better, and gave a pretty good variety; not just DVDs, which was what I wanted to find, but also books on the subjects, Kevin Brownlow’s fabulous documentaries, and movie posters.

Then I thought of looking for this. It was a good idea. Only three pages, but if you’re looking for Griffith DVDs, this is a good place to start. It also provides (as mentioned above) other Griffith-related products. If you have a strong urge to buy a poster of The Birth of a Nation, you can find it here. One little gem offered is a DVD containing a Henry B. Walthall double feature – The Avenging Conscience (influenced by the works of Poe) and, appropriately enough, Edgar Allan Poe. I also found some short Christmas films by Griffith on DVD. They even have some movies available on VHS!

If you’re not into that, you can check out the 2009 Women's Summer Style Guide – jewelry, shoes, and clothing. And, for those of you who want to hit the water, they have something for you, too. I think I’ll be searching the little nooks and crannies of this site.

Unexpected treasure

2009-05-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what I was looking for today, but on YouTube, I stumbled across a series of short silent films from the Library of Congress.

They're all, as far as I can tell, from the Edison studio, and all from the 1890s. One of them shows a man taking snuff and sneezing, which I'd seen before. The others, though... One shows a group of Sioux doing the Ghost Dance, one shows three Japanese women doing the Imperial Dance, one has Annie Oakley shooting through coins thrown into the air by her assistant.

Each little movie is less than a minute long, and some are jumpy, but overall, the quality is very good, and a fascinating look at the way people used to be, and the things that people wanted to watch in the new medium. Edison's people were turning the motion-picture camera on anything they wanted, and cranking away; the result is a series of short documentaries of a life long gone. (One of the films shows several stablehands rescuing four horses and a burning wagon from a barn.)

One thing that's rather annoying is that each film has an announcement that the film comes from the Library of Congress, and after it ends, there's another, similar announcement. I muted the sound, which made it much easier to concentrate on what I was seeing on the little screen of YouTube.

One film shows two men dancing, an image of which was used to publicize the documentary The Celluloid Closet, about homosexuality in film, onscreen and off. The little film on YouTube shows that the two of them aren't very graceful in their dancing efforts, with a lone violinist playing in the background, and another man appearing several seconds into the film.

This is the kind of thing we need - short silents available to the public. The LoC has a rather staggering number of films from the silent era in its collection, and very few of them can be seen. Is there no way that, similar to Warner Brothers, they can create an online ordering system so that those who want a certain film can order it on DVD?

John Gilbert - where is his tribute?

2009-05-12T05:23:00.000-07:00

I've seen documentaries of other stars - Mary Pickford, most notably, Greta Garbo, Theda Bara, and even a lesser-known name to modern audiences, Olive Thomas.

Why haven't I seen a John Gilbert documentary?

If there is one, I haven't heard of it. John Gilbert certainly deserves one; I'd be willing to bet that his daughter, Leatrice Gilbert Fountain (author of the Gilbert biography Dark Star - would help with it.

As I mentioned in my post about John Gilbert, he was one of THE stars of the silent era, especially in his teamings with Garbo; I don't think I've ever seen her heat up the screen except when paired with her one-time fiance. He become the leading Hollywood heartthrob after Valentino's death, made film after film in the '20s, and then fell into a decline that ended with his sudden, tragic death.

Let's see this man get the tribute he so richly deserves.

Silent Movie Theatre

2009-05-11T05:20:00.001-07:00

I love this idea. Why don’t more people do it?

There’s a business in Los Angeles known as the Silent Movie Theatre. According to the website, it was built by husband-and-wife team John and Dorothy Hampton in 1942. It was (so the website claims) the only silent movie theatre in the country.
On January 17, 1997, then-owner Laurence Austin was shot and killed in what was purported to be an attempted robbery. The truth came out, though, that Austin’s partner paid a hit man to murder him (said partner hoped to inherit Austin’s estate).
In March of the following year, the Theatre closed and was put on sale. Fortunately for all lovers of silent film, the building was bought (on a whim) by Charles Lustig, who reopened it in November of 1999. The renovation, which cost almost a million dollars, included new paint, floors, Art Deco marquee, screen, projection booth, and a digital keyboard donated by Yamaha. A café was added, along with a movie gallery.

The sad thing is, showings of silent films became less frequent as the years went on. In June of 2006, Lustig sold the Theatre to brothers Sammy and Dan Harkman, and Hadrian Belove. The new owners still show silents, but not exclusively; one advantage is that they show silents that aren’t as well-known to modern audiences. A look at the website shows “Silent Wednesdays” on the bill. The program gives an enticing offer of “orphan films” – something I’d like to see!

The Theatre is also available to rent for private parties. The projection capacity includes 35mm, 16mm, and hi-def digital.

The Theatre is located at 611 N. Fairfax Avenue, north of the Farmers Market.

More on the Bowl

2009-05-07T13:55:00.001-07:00

It seems that the Bowl has quite the lineup these days:
Hollywood Bowl Tickets
The home page shows a staggering aerial view of the Bowl, with the seats rising in a dizzying slant above it. It also contains some history of this entertainment venue.
Hollywood Bowl Tickets
Not bad, not bad... Quite a difference from the early days, when the stage was a small, almost ramshackle construction.
Hollywood Bowl Tickets
Take a look.

The Hollywood Bowl

2009-05-04T01:54:00.001-07:00

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

I regard it as one of Hollywood’s icons, along with the “Hollywood” sign straggling along the hills. An old postcard shows the Bowl, not yet surrounded by urban development, standing small in the hills, with simple wooden benches facing it. According to the website, the Bowl (not yet with its famous shell design) opened in July of 1922, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic giving the opening concert. An aerial photo from circa 1922 gives an idea of how sparsely settled the area was back then, which would have made it perfect for outdoor entertainment.
Allstate Arena Tickets
Pageant Of Masters Tickets
Hollywood Bowl Tickets
A 1926 photo shows the Bowl with its now-iconic shell. The seats are arranged in a semicircle, replacing the earlier benches in a square outlay. A 1927 postcard gives an idea of a concert in those times; the view is from far in the back, with the Bowl not easily visible (though, I would imagine, audible) some distance away.
The years go on; the images show not only the growth of the Bowl itself, but of the neighborhood around it. By 1951, the hills are no longer bare, but filled with streets and houses. The photograph also shows that Southern California curse, air pollution; it hangs heavily along the horizon, unlike the clear scenes of the 1920s.
1972? The Bowl is now right in the center of the action; no more building can be done in the area, because all the land has been taken. A major freeway runs nearby, and it seems that the image from 1927, which showed such a huge audience, would no longer fit into the Bowl's vicinity now, when the seats are well-established in a fixed range. The most recent photo on the website comes from 2007, showing this landmark illuminated by fireworks.
D.W. Griffith’s stunningly beautiful set from Intolerance, the Babylonian construction, is long gone. The wide-open streets of a clear Southern California are choked with traffic. Horses no longer pull carts; streetcars do not run. But the Bowl is still there.
Some things do last.

Good news!

2009-04-11T04:45:00.000-07:00

It seems that Warner Brothers is opening its vault for DVD orders.

According to the story:

"Customers can get digital downloads for $14.95 or order a DVD through the mail for $19.95. DVDs will only be created when a customer orders a certain title, eliminating the need to fill warehouses with inventory.

"The titles range from silent films up through movies released in the 1980s."

Anyone going to see what silent films can be ordered from the Brothers?

I think I will. More on that later.

Today in silent film history

2009-03-11T14:08:00.001-07:00

Raoul Walsh is born Albert Edward Walsh in New York City, 1887.
Dorothy Gish is born in Massillon, Ohio, 1898.

Alice Guy-Blache, the first woman director

2009-03-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

Alice Guy was born in Paris, the fifth child in her family. Her parents lived in Santiago, Chile, but her mother traveled to Paris for the birth. Guy's grandmother in Switzerland cared for her until she was three or four years old. In 1877, Guy's mother collected her and brought her to Santiago, where Guy met her father for the first time.

Around 1879, her father took her back to France to enroll her in boarding school, where two of her sisters were studying. In 1884, the chain of bookstores her father owned in Chile were bankrupt; her parents returned to France, and Guy was enrolled in a less expensive boarding school. Her brother, who had been sick for some time, died, soon followed by her father.

In 1894, Guy washired by Léon Gaumont, to work for a photography company owned by Felix Richard. When, shortly thereafter, Richard lost a patent suit and went out of business, Gaumont bought his inventory and started his own company, with Guy working for him.

On March 22, 1895, Gaumont and Guy were invited by the Lumière brothers to view their cinématographe - a 35mm motion picture camera - in action.

This was when the turning point came in Guy's career. She persuaded Gaumont to let her direct a film using the Gaumont camera. In 1896, Guy wrote, produced, and directed La Fée aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy).

In 1897, Guy was made the head of film production, which would be her job until 1906. By that time, she had produced more than 400 films.

From 1902 to 1906, Guy directed more than 100 phonoscènes, which were films made for the chronophone (a synchronized-sound system introduced by Gaumont in 1902). In 1906, Herbert Blaché, a manager at Gaumont, acted as Guy's cameraman. On Christmas Day, 1906, the two became engaged - Guy was 33 and Blaché was 24.

In 1907, the two married and when Blaché was sent to the United States on business, Guy resigned in order to accompany him. The two were unsuccessful in their attempts to create a chronophone franchise, but in 1908, Blaché was hired by Gaumont to manage a studio in Flushing, New York that would produce English-language phonoscènes.

In 1910, Guy created a company, Solax, renting the Gaumont studio space. By 1912, Solax had become so successful that Guy built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at an alleged cost of more than $100,000. The company produced two one-reeler films per week. At least half of the films made were written and directed by Guy; she also oversaw all the production. At that time, D.W. Griffith was working at Biograph, a few miles away.

On March 1, 1913, Dick Whittington and His Cat was released. It was three reels (45 minutes) long, with a $35,000 budget.

In June of 1913, Blaché's contract with Gaumont ended and Guy made him president of Solax so that she could concentrate on writing and directing. Three months later, Blaché resigned and started his own film company, Blaché Features. The company used the Solax plant, inventory and actors, so that the two companies were easily confused for some months. Eventually, Blaché Features outstripped Solax in terms of production.

From August 1913 to August 1914, Blaché and Guy took turns in producing and directing three- and four-reel films for Blaché features. In the time period of 1914-1916, feature-length films of five reels or more were in increasing demand. Guy and Blaché joined production company Popular Plays and Players. The films were shot in the old Solax Studio in Fort Lee, which at that time still belonged to the Blachés.

In 1916, after two years of cooperation, the Blachés decided to end their work with Popular Plays and Players. Guy directed seven feature films, including The Ocean Waif.

In 1917, the Solax studio was rented to other companies. Guy, now 44, was a highly-regarded film director, but her recent films hadn't enjoyed commercial success.

In 1918, Blaché found Guy work in directing The Great Adventure for Pathé Players. This film is commercially successful. That same year, Blaché moved to Hollywood with Catrine Calvert, an actress who had starred in four films under Guy's direction. Guy moved into a New York City apartment.

In 1919, Léonce Perret hired Guy to write and direct Tarnished Reputations, at a rate of $2,000 for six weeks of work. The film actually took ten weeks to complete, during which time Guy came down with the Spanish influenza, which killed four coworkers. Blaché, then in New York, invited her to join him in California.

In 1920, Guy and her children moved into a Los Angeles bungalow. Though Blaché didn't live with them, he hired Guy as his directing assistant on the Alla Nazimova films The Brat and Stronger than Death.

Tarnished Reputations opened on March 14, 1920. It was the last film that Alice Guy-Blaché would direct.

After a turbulent life after directing, Guy died on March 24, 1968, in a New Jersey nursing home, aged 95.

She isn't just the first woman director. She was one of the first directors ever, starting in the film business at the very beginning, well ahead of the far more famous D.W. Griffith. She is said to have made more than 400 movies, of which only one-fourth survive.

Come to think of it, concerning the enormous numbers of silent films lost to us, that's an above-average survival rate.

So, then, why is there so little about her? Where is the DVD set of her films? The TV specials about her? Why is she barely remembered these days?

I'd like to know.

This weekend in silent film history

2009-03-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

March 7 - Virginia Pearson is born in Anchorage, Kentucky, 1886.
March 8 - D.W. Griffith's film Judith of Bethulia, the first feature-length film, premieres in 1914.
Harold Lloyd dies in Los Angeles, 1971.

Mary Pickford

2009-03-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Little Mary, America's Sweetheart.

I don't like her.

This will probably prove to be an extremely unpopular statement among silent film fans, but it's true. I don't like Mary's doe-eyed expressions or her endless little-girl roles. I know that in real life, Mary was a very shrewd businesswoman, one who knew how to get paid for her work.

That doesn't mean her work was exceptional; it just meant that Mary knew how to get what she wanted. I read that most of the budget for A Romance of the Redwoods went to pay Mary's salary. And this was in 1917. Before three more years had passed, of course, she had cofounded United Artists. She was the highest-paid star in the world.

Well, so what? When I watch her, I feel as if her real-life business sense had spilled over into her screen performances. It looks to me as if she's crafting each performance with the utmost care, not to be the best she can be, but to keep the audience hooked and the money machine in top operation. She just doesn't ring true to me, particularly in her early films, when despite claims that she brought a naturalistic style of acting to the screen, she makes the common mistake of striking a dramatic pose with her arms over her head. Quite a few actresses who made far less money than Mary were doing the same thing. Years later, when she finally played her last little-girl role in Sparrows, she raises her hands over her head in horror. Didn't learn much, did she?

She's simply a neat little package, always adorable, makeup always perfect. She appears on the screen, milking the character for all she's worth. The only time I've ever seen her play an unattractive role - and unattractive it is - is in the film Stella Maris. According to the documentary I watched, most of the crew didn't even recognize her when she appeared on set, hair dull, no makeup, completely opposite to her usual look.

Now, if Mary had done this more often, I might have more respect for her. As it is, I don't feel that acting was her life's passion. Unlike Lillian Gish, who went to great lengths to make her performances the best she could make them, Mary strikes me as someone who viewed acting as a means to an end, said end being financial security. She knew she was in the right profession, and rather than working for it, she made it work for her.

Metropolis

2009-02-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it that Metropolis is going to be remade.

I've seen it. I saw it before the rest of the footage was discovered in Buenos Aires last year. I watched Brigitte Helm's unforgettable performance in her dual role.

And I can't stand the thought of it being remade. I don't know who had this particularly stupid idea, but if you're reading this, you lack imagination. You lack creativity. You shouldn't be making films.

Why?

Because you're remaking a classic. Hell, you're remaking a film. That's more than enough. Want to make a classic? Make your own movie. Don't ride someone else's coattails in a vain attempt to make a name for yourself. If you can't write your own films - and a lot of people can't; there's no shame in that - then adapt a work of fiction that's never been made into a film before. Do something ORIGINAL. Make a film that will be a showcase for your own talents and that of the people involved.

DON'T remake someone else's triumph and try to pass it off as a tribute to a superior filmmaker. Fritz Lang was a groundbreaker in filmmaking; if you can't be one yourself, don't try to redo what he can do, DID do, better. The era in which Metropolis was made had a definite impact on the appeal of the film, then and now. This era is not the same; this era has its own distinctive mark.

Make a real film. Make something that's never been done before. Be DARING. Any idiot can do a remake, and many idiots do. Don't be one of them.

Lost

2009-02-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

One of the saddest things about the silent era; so many films from that time no longer exist. I read somewhere that the guesstimate is 80 - 90%.

That is one GRIM statistic. For all of the great films that still exist, how many more are gone? No wonder we get excited at the news that the missing footage of Metropolis has been found. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of screening rooms, old movie theaters, and the houses of theater owners, in the hope of finding even one reel of a missing film. I'm that intent.

I know that the AFI has a list of "Most Wanted" of the lost films, but I couldn't find it online; I found many mentions of it, but not the list itself.

Here are some of mine:

The Miracle Man
The Greatest Thing in Life
London After Midnight (I've seen this referred to as perhaps the most famous lost film of them all)
Remodeling Her Husband (starring Dorothy Gish and directed by none other than her sister, Lillian; her only film behind the camera)
Cleopatra
The entire epic of Greed
The Boy in Blue
Number 13

Chaney! Gish! Murnau! Hitchcock!

Today in silent film history

2009-02-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

1906: Anita Garvin is born in New York City.
1948: Sergei Eisenstein dies in Moscow.
1974: Anna Q. Nilsson dies in Hemet, California.

Boring

2009-02-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

I experience this problem occasionally. I'll watch a silent movie, looking forward to a great story and amazing acting, yet BORING comes along. There will be an actor or actress in a leading role who has all the depth of a paper napkin. Fortunately, this happens rarely in silent films (yet much of the time in modern films), but it does happen, and makes the experience painful.

This happened the other night with The Volga Boatman, part of my Cecil B. DeMille collection. It was one of the few I hadn't seen from the set. I was already wary, since the male star was William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd. I saw him in Lady of the Pavements last year at the silent film festival in Pordenone. "Hello," he seems to be saying, "I'm boring." Nice-looking man, but not an exciting presence. I think he tries, but he comes across better as part of the decoration rather than as an actor.

The Volga Boatman, though - that was a double whammy. First there was Boyd. Then there was Elinor Fair, whom Boyd later married. I can think of a couple of things they had in common; they were both film people, and neither of them had screen presence. Fair was even worse than Boyd, constantly striking Statue of Liberty poses - I expected her to pull out a torch at some point - and, in general, looking two-dimensional. The plot was interesting; the supporting cast was fine; the leads might just as well have taken off for an extended vacation, leaving cardboard cutouts of themselves to be used in shooting. It would have been more cost-effective, and the audiences would never have noticed.

I expect more of the silents, because they give more. There are far fewer incompetents in them; they have better stories, richer performances, and more memorable faces. When a film falls flat, it's all the more disappointing. The most interesting part of The Volga Boatman is the knowledge that Boyd proposed to Fair onscreen, towards the end. I was looking for it, but I must have blinked and missed it. I was too busy being irritated by Fair, with her hair hanging around her face, still thinking that standing still and looking stupid made her glamorous, to paraphrase Hedy Lamarr.

Today in silent film history

2009-02-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

A landmark for silent AND sound film:

Ronald Colman is born in Richmond, UK, in 1891.

The Show

2009-02-05T12:17:00.001-08:00

This one fascinates me. John Gilbert, as Cock Robin (now, there's a name for you!) is the ultimate antihero here; loud, coarse, manipulative, angry, violent, greedy. His usual expression is a hard, suspicious glare. We've all experienced something like it. He is constantly gauging other people, measuring them up, deciding the best way to use them.

He regards women greedily, wondering how much money he can get from them; in an early scene, he tells a besotted young country girl that he will "let" her buy him dinner that night, then later upbraids her for failing to meet him at the restaurant, complaining that he had to buy his own dinner. The man is a nightmare.

Of course, he has a Good Woman in love with him, though in this case, she's not entirely submissive. Salome (Renee Adoree) is Robin's partner in a popular show, which allows him to take advantage of a wide variety of women, and allows her to watch him do it.

We know that the two were involved earlier, and that Salome is deeply jealous of Robin, frightening away the women who are interested in him, which in itself is a full-time job. To complicate matters, the Greek (Lionel Barrymore), another member of the show, has decided that he owns Salome, and is more than ready to kill Robin to get her.

With the exception of an unintentionally funny scene where both Robin and the Greek are trying to avoid an enraged, deadly poisonous killer iguana, the movie is fabulously dark. As a matter of fact, most of the scenes take place after nightfall.

The title is particularly appropriate, because more than one show is seen here. We have the stage show, the one that scares the hell out of the audiences. We have the show that Salome puts on in front of other women, as if she and Robin are truly involved. We have Robin's show, when he masquerades as a dependable human being. And we have the most important shows, both Salome's, concerning her life at home; this is by far the most touching part of the film.

I did like the ending, despite its happy nature. John Gilbert really pulled off the part, and even his transformation - taking place gradually - is believable. Plus, given the tragically early deaths of both the leads (Renee Adoree died of tuberculosis in the early 1930s; John Gilbert was taken by a heart attack in 1936), it's good to see them playing characters who have a solid future ahead of them.

February 1 and 2 in silent film history

2009-02-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

February 1:

William Desmond Taylor dies in Hollywood, 1922.
Buster Keaton dies in Los Angeles, 1966.

February 2:

Anna May Wong dies in Santa Monica, California, 1961.
Boris Karloff dies in Midhurst, UK, 1969.

Today in silent film history

2009-01-31T12:48:00.000-08:00

1896: Olive Carey is born Olive Fuller Golden in New York City.
1974: Samuel Goldwyn dies in Los Angeles.

Today in silent film history

2009-01-29T10:56:00.001-08:00

January 29, 1880: W.C. Fields is born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania.

The Wind

2009-01-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

Evidently, the original ending was tragic. The ending we have now is happy.

Of course, that all depends on your point of view.

We have the incomparable Lillian Gish coming to a place that must be roughly in the center of hell; desert, no water to be seen, and with a constant windstorm that often kicks into overdrive and does its best to blow the little settlement off the map (no loss, in my opinion).

Not surprisingly, Gish's character, Letty, can't handle the wind. Every time it starts up, her face turns fearful and fearsome; you just wait for her to break. It isn't just the wind, though. There is absolutely nothing of beauty anywhere in the landscape. The people are hard-working and, by the look of them, filled with despair. Some genius has decided to raise cattle in this No Man's Land (with what water? What grass?) and the local men are desperate to keep the operation going.

Rather than throwing in the towel and moving on, they continue to try eking out a living in this area. Letty finds herself stranded in the settlement, penniless, with her friend's ragingly jealous wife having thrown her out of their house. What the friend thinks of this, isn't recorded.

Letty, desperate, marries one of two men who proposed to her on the same night; not surprisingly, she chooses the one who is younger and more attractive, Lige (played by Lars Hanson). A fascinating scene follows, in which Lige takes Letty to his cabin and tries to bed her. When she rebuffs him, you see more of the person he really is. The realization that she has married him for convenience, not love, shatters him and he promises to earn the money to send her away as soon as he can.

The "happy" ending comes after Lige returns from an attempt to capture a band of wild horses to sell to the government, as a way of earning the money to send Letty home. In the meantime, Letty has been raped by another man, who took advantage of a raging windstorm to assault her in the knowledge that Lige could not return for several hours. Letty, in turn, has shot and killed the man, and buried him outside, or rather, let the wind bury him by covering him with the ever-present sand.

At the end, Letty tells Lige that she is in love with him, and that she can stand anything as long as they're together.

Wait. She no longer fears the wind, which almost drove her to a breakdown? She doesn't mind living in the middle of a barren, ugly landscape? She doesn't mind the constant sand drifts? She doesn't mind the very real threat that the whole cabin might blow away, with them in it? She doesn't mind that they'll die poor?

Furthermore, didn't he corral any of the horses, as he set out to do? If he did, he has some money, maybe even enough for both of them to leave the area and find a more hospitable location to live.

I don't see this as a happy ending. Deluded, certainly, but not happy.

Today in silent film history

2009-01-24T05:59:00.001-08:00

This is an ongoing one.

On this date in 1990, Madge Bellamy died in Upland, California.

Buster's walk

2009-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

So many people have imitated Chaplin's walk. I've never seen anyone try to imitate the way Buster Keaton walked, and I've never known anyone to remark on it, either.

It's one of the many things that strike me when I watch him. He has this particular walk, very distinctive, that fits in perfectly with the characters he plays. It's almost a toddle, as if his character is still, primarily, a child. Then he breaks out of it and starts to run, to dance, to climb, but he always returns to that walk.

Even after watching his films over and over again, it's hard to describe it, exactly. He moves through the chaos almost as if it had nothing to do with him (and, often, it doesn't). He toddles, he stumps, he staggers - but whatever he does, it's the right movement for what he is doing at the time. In a way, it's something like a wind-up toy, arms and legs in their own special harmony.

There are none of Chaplin's cane-twirling affectations about Buster; his walk is so much a part of his onscreen character that it can be difficult to focus on it alone. And he never lost it! In the episode of The Twilight Zone ("Once Upon A Time"), he takes on the character, and the walk, with the utmost ease.

Such genius.

Another dream couple

2009-01-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

This may raise quite a few eyebrows.

I was thinking about dream couples (see my previous post by that title), and I came up with one that may seem ridiculous, but it works for me:

Lillian Gish and Buster Keaton.

Yes, I know Lillian was noted for tragedy, and Buster for comedy. Some of you may be shrieking, "No! Dorothy was the comedy player, not Lillian!" I know Dorothy was the comedienne of the family, and a good one, but as far as I'm concerned, there wasn't a single thing Lillian couldn't do, on screen or stage. The same is true for Buster.

They both had an amazing ability to do whatever it took to make the scene - and the film - as effective as possible. They both took enormous risks. They were both completely dedicated to their craft. Lillian subjected herself to hypothermia (Way Down East), intense heat and wind (The Wind), and starvation (La Boheme). Buster came within a hair's breadth of drowning (Our Hospitality), stood still while the front of a house fell around him (Steamboat Bill, Jr.), and ran a wild ride on the handlebars of a riderless motorcycle (Sherlock, Jr.).

Buster has an edge here, having suffered a serious injury on the set of Sherlock, Jr. without realizing it, and only discovering more than a decade later that he had broken his neck (the scene where he is dangling from the chain of a water tower, and the flood of water throws him onto the railroad tracks).

Both were perfectionists; both gave it their all.

So, you may ask, in what sort of film could they have costarred?

Answer: I don't know. Light comedy, perhaps; Lillian was noted for her deeply tragic roles, and it would be nice to see a change of pace. One of Buster's misfortunes on film was that his leading ladies - with the exception of Sybil Seely - simply didn't register much; they were there, and they went through the motions. Lillian would never have been one of the bland, faceless crowd; she'd have given as good as she got, and I think they'd have been marvelous together.

A Midnight Dreary

2009-01-18T12:48:00.001-08:00

I'm one day ahead, but I couldn't wait any longer.

Tomorrow, January 19, is the 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, inventor of the modern mystery story, whose disappearance and death are as mysterious as anything he himself could ever have written.

I've waded through all sorts of ideas about Poe's death: That it was due to alcohol; that he had contracted rabies; cerebral edema; you name it. Whatever the cause, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Poe would have been delighted to know that he would still be a subject of debate more than 150 years after his death.

A quick look at the IMDb provided an interesting reminder. In 1909, one hundred years ago, and one hundred years after Poe's birth, D.W. Griffith made the short film The Sealed Room, loosely based on Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado". In 1914, Griffith made another Poe-inspired film, the truly creepy The Avenging Conscience. In 1915 came a very loose Poe biography (this one from director Charles Brabin).

The link between these films, besides Poe himself, is that they all starred Henry B. Walthall, who made The Sealed Room the same year he began acting in films. By the time The Raven was filmed, Walthall had left Griffith's stable of actors.

Now that we know - well, most of us, I hope - that Poe was maligned by Griswold well after his death, these bygone looks at his life show how he was viewed by long-gone audiences. Poe's life was tragic enough without being accused of alcoholism and drug abuse, but as Mark Twain so aptly put it, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

The Avenging Conscience is my favorite of the Poe-inspired films. Walthall plays a nameless man who is well and firmly under the thumb of his uncle, and experiencing almost unbearable anguish when the domineering old man refuses to allow the nephew to marry the woman he loves (whom Walthall's character calls Annabel; we never know her real name, either). Walthall was the perfect choice to play the sensitive lover, downtrodden nephew, and unwilling criminal in the film. His scenes with a suspicious police officer will have you on the edge of your seat.

It's sad, but true, that the films have not treated Poe well, by and large. Some of the most dreadful schlock has been "based" on his works; very few of these films are worth watching. The silent films I've seen that have been influenced by Poe - especially the three mentioned here - are the best, in my opinion.

Forevermore, Mr. Poe.

Horrifying news

2009-01-17T14:17:00.000-08:00

It seems that the acting director of the National Film Archives of India, based in Pune, has decided to sell off the old films belonging to the archives. Evidently, the smell was unpleasant, and bothered said acting director.

How terrible, to work around an unpleasant smell! Yes, it makes perfect sense for the acting director to throw away film history, our cinematic heritage, to clear the air. Oh, I can hear you saying, but what if the NFAI contains a film, or films, thought to have been lost? It's happened before, in archives worldwide. What if the eternally-wise acting director sells off, or throws away, an irreplaceable screen gem?

Too bad! The smell cannot, must not, be tolerated! Out with the old, and in with the pleasantly-scented! The acting director can't be expected to simply put up with it. Really, how can anyone expect it?

Sarcasm aside, I'd cheer myself hoarse if the acting director were unceremoniously booted from the NFAI, desk contents thrown at him one by one, and forced to take a full-time, minimum-wage job in one of these positions:

Sewer worker
Morgue attendant
Night janitor in the emergency room of an inner-city hospital
Fat renderer
Wastewater plant peon
Cleaning up crime scenes (particularly messy ones, at that)

Really, if the person in charge of a piece of cinematic heritage has such delicate nostrils, he should get a whiff of something really unpleasant.

Another DVD beef

2009-01-11T13:26:00.001-08:00

Why is it that, when a special-interest film is released on DVD, some distributors will release a horrible print? Yes, I understand that nitrate stock doesn't hold up. I know it disintegrates. I know it burns like mad. Yes.

And, yes, sometimes by the time it's copied, the process of decomposition has already begun, leaving a lackluster print. As we all know, there isn't unlimited money for film restoration.

My idea is, why don't the distributors list the films they could issue on DVD, with the warning that the films aren't in good shape? It would be so much better than ordering a DVD, waiting eagerly for it to arrive, then playing it, only to find that it's a fifth-generation copy, either so blown-out or so dark that no detail can be seen? If they can issue them on DVD, why not offer a short clip of the film so the would-be buyer can see what the film looks like, in order to make a more informed decision?

I'd love to see fundraising efforts among the public - for example, Company X has a film that needs restoration. Company X tells the target audience that said film needs restoration. Company X tells the target audience where donations can be made. Company X (ideally) offers a lower price on the final product for donors. Film is restored and offered to an enthusiastic public as it should be seen.

Is this a pipe dream?

Murnau, Borzage and Fox box set

2009-01-09T12:39:00.001-08:00

I've been drooling over this since I found out it existed. It's about time! The collection contains Murnau's classic film Sunrise and the lesser-known City Girl, as well as Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and several more (including quite a few talkies).

One beef I have with The Powers That Issue DVDs is that they release all of the worst films imaginable, while the good ones - and I don't just mean silents here - await their turn. Thus, when a set like this is issued, it's cause for rejoicing! I regard Murnau as one of the great geniuses of film, and Borzage's work is very impressive.

I rented Sunrise years ago, on VHS, and the copy was so bad that I lost interest in the film. Years later, I had the opportunity to see it on the big screen. That's when I discovered what I'd been missing. The print was crystal-clear and absolutely beautiful, and the audience - all film fans, or they wouldn't have been there - remained still throughout the screening. It was one of the quietest showings I've ever known. How could it not have been, with that magic on the screen?

The cost of the set has put me off buying it yet, and I'm glad I did. The reviews have been interesting. People adore the films, and the quality of them, but they hate the packaging; it seems that the DVDs are packaged so that they can scratch easily, and they do scratch. I hope Fox takes the hint and protects the DVDs in further issues of the set. Sometimes it's good not to get what you want, right when you want it!

Thanks due

2009-01-09T12:28:00.001-08:00

Many thanks to Luke McKernan, who linked to my blog yesterday. A link back to his blog can be found at the bottom of this page. His is a fascinating compendium of all kinds of info concerning silent film (with a large number of links to follow).

Silent film festivals

2009-01-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've decided to put up a list of silent film festivals worldwide. I want to note that I am not receiving any advertising money for it; I just wanted a comprehensive list of festivals so that fans can find the one closest to their location. I want to state, however, that I am very open to having any festival pay to advertise on this blog; just leave a comment and I'll find it and contact you by email.

I'm listing these festivals in order of the time of year they take place. If anyone would like to see a festival listed here, please contact me with all the necessary details, and a link to the festival's website. The festival dates for 2009 will be given here, subject to updates.

JANUARY

SLAPSTICK 2009
January 22 – 25
Bristol, England

TRADER JOE'S SILENT MOVIE MONDAYS
January/June, 2009
The Paramont Theatre
Seattle, Washington

FEBRUARY

SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FESTIVAL WINTER EVENT
February 14, 2009
One day only.

KANSAS SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
February 27 and 28, 2009
White Concert Hall
Campus of Washburn University
17th and Jewell
Topeka, Kansas

SEPTEMBER

CINECON
September 3 – 7, 2009
Egyptian Theater
Hollywood, California

SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
September 4 – 6, 2009
Deluxe Theatre
Opotiki, New Zealand

THE FALL CINESATION
FILM PRESERVATION FESTIVAL
September 24 – 27, 2009
Lincoln Theatre
Massillon, Ohio

OCTOBER

LE GIORNATE DEL CINEMA MUTO
October 3 – 10, 2009
Pordenone, Italy

I want to state here that there are more festivals out there, but they hadn't updated their websites from last year, so I couldn't find this year's dates. If you want your festival included, just send a comment!

Lloyd's romances

2009-01-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

I'll say it right out: I am not a fan of Chaplin.

Go ahead and scream, then turn on your favorite of his movies; I can watch his work, but I don't view him as a genius. Keaton, yes. Chaplin, no.

However, this post is about Harold Lloyd. I just had to get the Chaplin talk out of the way.

I do like Lloyd, very much; he is second to the great Buster in silent comedy. I like his romantic comedies the best, since he is rather abrasive in some of his earlier films. The movies with Jobyna Ralston are my favorites, not only because of their perfect screen chemistry, but also because of the sweet-natured storylines. Girl Shy is, in my opinion, the best film Lloyd ever made, and it was a wonder to me to discover that it influenced The Graduate, more than forty years later.

When Lloyd isn't being the brash young man, he is very effective and believable in a romantic film. Girl Shy works in large part because the character of Harold Meadows is very shy, withdrawn, and due to a stutter, largely unable to communicate with women - not that he would know what to say to most women anyway, as we see in the film. His meeting with Mary on the train, at first stuttering madly, then talking to such an extent that they don't notice their train has arrived and that they are the only passengers still on it, is one of the best scenes in the film. Lloyd also has Ralston making the first move; as Harold stands outside her taxi, trying to look reserved and studly, Mary leans out and kisses him on the mouth.

Girl Shy and The Freshman have a similar scene concerning the character of Harold and his beloved. In Girl Shy, Harold views Mary's reflection in the water and sighs longingly; in The Freshman, he wipes the soap off the mirror in his room only to see, not himself, but Peggy, standing in the doorway behind him. It works, both times.

In the earlier films I've seen, with Bebe Daniels, there is more of a sexual element to the proceedings; that image of Lloyd and Daniels eating ice-cream cones and eyeing each other, is a prime example. In his films with his soon-to-be-wife, Mildred Davis, this element is toned down somewhat, though Lloyd's characters still tend to grate on the nerves. It's with Jobyna Ralston that he shows a softer, vulnerable side, as when Harold breaks down and cries in Peggy's lap in The Freshman. In The Kid Brother, he is so eager to keep Mary in sight that he climbs ever higher in a tree, then falls out of it. In For Heaven's Sake, after Mary tells him off in public, he smiles in wonderment and gladly tours the mission with her, remarking "Very pretty," as he looks at her, not at the surroundings.

Lloyd could, in my opinion, have been a leading man in dramatic roles, too; he had the talent, and he certainly had the looks! He was very effective at glamming down for his films, hiding his beautiful face under makeup and behind glasses (and when the glasses were removed, people didn't recognize him). On the other hand, had he done so, we might not have this wonderful set of films to view.

An unexpected gift

2008-12-24T08:37:00.000-08:00

I received a Christmas card from a friend the other day. It was the standard sized envelope, but thicker and heavier than your usual Christmas card. I discovered the reason when I opened it.

Inside, I found a card, a Christmas message, and this:

Please excuse the bad cropping job from the scan I did.

The back of this little booklet (printed entirely in Danish) states that it comes from A/S Kosmofilm, Copenhagen. I have a strong feeling that this gift dates from the time when The Birth of a Nation was released.

And to all a good night.

Performances

2008-12-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of some of my favorite performances in silent film. Yes, I'm sure I'll be returning to this topic, too.

Lillian Gish. Well. Is there anything Lillian couldn't do? I doubt it. I don't have just one favorite performance; here are some of them:

Lucy in Broken Blossoms. Pushing up the corners of her mouth in a rictus rather than a smile, while her eyes overflow with terror; regarding a doll with wonder and quiet joy.

Anna in Way Down East. The baptism scene is my favorite in the movie. She gently applies water to the baby's head, then looks heavenward with an expression of pleading on her face. Lillian claimed that the baby's father, who was watching the filming of this scene, fainted while it was being filmed. She heard a thump as he slid to the floor.

Mimi in La Boheme. Starving herself for three days to make her death scene more realistic. Holding the back of a cart and letting it drag her along a street. Throwing herself at John Gilbert as he attempts to storm out of the room. Everything works in this performance.

Okay, on to other performers.

John Gilbert in The Show. God, what a triumph it was for him, and what a great talent was dimmed so soon. He's the ultimate anti-hero; someone you simply can't stand, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but Gilbert makes you watch him. You can't take your eyes away.

Henry B. Walthall in The Birth of a Nation. Such a shame the film took the slant that it did. Walthall effortlessly takes control of his scenes, matched only by Lillian Gish as his love interest. His best scenes, for me, are the battle scenes where Ben Cameron is ducking bullets; the scenes in the hospital, when he is recovering from his wounds; and the love story with Elsie Stoneman.

Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs. Having the corners of his mouth wired in a permanent smile, able to show his feelings only through his eyes. How many other actors could do it?

Lon Chaney. Here's another one with a string of excellent performances. Among them:

Tito in Laugh, Clown, Laugh. Portraying a middle-aged man who has fallen in love with his foster daughter, to whom he can only ever be her father. The look of pain on his face when interacting with her near the end of the film is heartrending.

The Miracle Man. I know, I know - only a few minutes of footage still exist. Even so, it's enough to show Chaney's incredible ability to work with his body, as his character is "healed" by faith.

The Penalty. He was brutal in that film, and it works perfectly. His physical stunts were no less impressive; hauling his whole body upwards by means of pegs inserted into holes in the wall never ceases to amaze me.

Buster Keaton. Everything Buster did, was uniquely his. That ability he had to convey a wide range of emotions without laughing or smiling is one that nobody will ever be able to do again. All of his performances are my favorites, even if not all of the films are.

Harold Lloyd in Girl Shy. Harold's "glasses" character can get on my nerves, but here, rather than being the typically brash young man, he's shy, withdrawn, and has a stutter. I was most impressed by the scene where he is pretending to his girlfriend that she never meant anything to him, and begins to laugh. In the midst of his laughter, you see an expression of deep disgust on his face that makes the scene even more poignant.

More later.

Crushes

2008-11-30T11:29:00.001-08:00

I belong to an Internet group for lovers of silent film. For the most part, the group is pretty quiet. We get news of screenings worldwide from one member, and occasionally someone posts some news concerning silent film, but not much else, except for the recent flurry of excitement when the missing footage of Metropolis was discovered.

Last year, though, one of the members started a thread that became wildly popular. We were all to list our favorite "hot" silent stars. The key word was SHALLOW.

Responses came thick and fast. The men were listed first, until someone broke the ice and started listing women. Then the names came even faster. One member asked to be removed from the email list, as a result.

After doing a brief tally of the candidates, I discovered the winners among the men:

Richard Barthelmess and Rudolph Valentino. These two received the most mentions. Ronald Colman ran a respectable second, and Wallace Reid was third. Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd outstripped Douglas Fairbanks and fellow comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Among the women, the winner was clear:

Clara Bow. She received far more mentions than Greta Garbo, who, though on the list, lagged behind Corinne Griffith, Jobyna Ralston, and Pola Negri. Clara ranked above them all.

There were a few odd mentions, such as George O'Brien and Conrad Veidt. One member voted for Rin-Tin-Tin. The enthusiasm was something I haven't seen on the list before or since, at least until the Metropolis news, but at least one member didn't share the joy, as shown by this plaintive message:

"Will this thread ever die? It's like the time someone left their autoresponse on and flooded everyone's mailbox."

Marion's Wall

2008-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

I wish Jack Finney were still alive. He was one of the funniest writers I've ever read, and another staunch fan of silent film.

I highly recommend his novel Marion's Wall - and no, I'm not getting paid to say this. I love it because it's funny, because it's nostalgic, because it speaks of a way of life that is long gone, and was long gone even at the time it was written, which was early in the 1970s. I won't go into a synopsis of the plot; you can find that on Amazon. I'll just say that it's a novel, not a work of non-fiction, but with a great deal of silent film history thrown in.

Another discovery

2008-11-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

One of the marvelous things about silent film is that I'm always discovering a performer I'd never heard of before, but who is a joy to watch. Currently, my discovery is Elliott Dexter.

I ran across him when I was watching A Romance of the Redwoods on DVD. It's a vehicle for Mary Pickford (as Jenny), of course - it seems that most, if not all, of her films were - but he walks away with the show as a rough, dirty stagecoach robber who has stolen the identity of Jenny's murdered uncle. He walks with a menacing air; he casually burns his girlfriend's hand with the back of a cigarette when she reaches for his wallet; he coolly takes care of a fellow robber who has tried to cheat him; he threatens Jenny with a whip to intimidate her into maintaining the fiction that he is her late uncle, John Lawrence.

Jenny, of course, "tames" him; less than twenty-four hours later, he is clean, hair combed, and already showing signs of jealousy when she talks to another man. The transformation from hard-living, fast-shooting bandit to yes-dear character who decides to go straight is only believable thanks to Dexter's performance.

He looks to be about thirty in this film, which was released in 1917. This made it all the more surprising to discover - from the scant information I found on the Internet - that he was born in 1870. He must have been doing something right; even in the closeups, and in later films I've seen, he still looked much younger than he really was.

I watched Don't Change Your Husband, in which he played Jim, a loving but clueless, sloppy, scallion-scarfing husband whose wife decides to divorce him for a sweet talker who turns out to be a real jerk. Jim, desolate at his loss, starts working out, shaves off his mustache, and becomes far more presentable to his ex - but the real surprise, for her and for the audience, is the fact that Jim has far more character and determination than he has shown before. In The Whispering Chorus, he is an upstanding district attorney. Every time I see him, he's perfect for the role, but my favorite performance is still the one he gives in A Romance of the Redwoods.

I couldn't find much about him. Like so many other actors, he came to film from the theatre; he was married in 1916 and had a son, but the marriage didn't last; he made his first film in 1915, and his last in 1925; he died in 1941.

One taunting piece of information I did find, is that in 1916, he made a film called Daphne and the Pirate. I think you'll know which character he played. The other character was played by Lillian Gish. Anyone know where I can get a copy of it?

Spotlight: John Gilbert

2008-11-24T01:55:00.001-08:00

John Gilbert is one of Hollywood's saddest stories, in my book. He was an immensely talented man, with incredible charisma and the seemingly effortless ability to get the viewer to watch him, to the exclusion of the other actors in the frame.

I saw Bardelys the Magnificent at the silent film festival this year. John Gilbert plays the title role, Bardelys, a 17th-century French aristocrat with an eye for the ladies. ALL the ladies. He is also very adept at getting out of these messy little entanglements without sorrow or hurt feelings, and he is completely believable at it. It was the first time I'd seen him in a comedy; the other films I've seen (such as The Big Parade) were dramas.

He was perfect. He reminded me of Douglas Fairbanks, but he was better. His classic stance - legs apart, hands on hips - is one that I've seen Fairbanks use, but John Gilbert would have you believe that he invented it. He doesn't appear to be taking himself too seriously, and that may be some of the charm of his performance and the film as a whole.

Watching a film like this is agonizing in the knowledge that John Gilbert would be gone from us approximately a decade later. I've read various stories about his fall from stardom with the advent of sound, and whatever the reason was, we can all see the effect. Rather than continuing as a leading man, he was relegated to minor roles in B films. No Lifetime Achievement Oscar, no awards from his contemporaries. No long, distinguished career.

In The Show, he truly shines as a dyed-in-the-wool jerk, a classic opportunist, who relentlessly schemes and manipulates to get ahead. I remember a scene where the leading lady (the ill-fated Renee Adoree) asks him plaintively if he's going to see a certain young woman (read: victim) that night. Gilbert glares at her and bites out a "Yes" that you can almost hear.

What a talent we lost! And how ironic that Gilbert spoke so eloquently at the funeral for his friend Valentino, little dreaming that he himself would follow in less than ten years' time.

I'll probably come back to this topic, too. It deserves more writing, more attention. Before I sign off, though, I'll just share with you some information I read recently: It seems that Flicker Alley is going to release a Gilbert double-feature DVD with Bardelys the Magnificent and Monte Cristo, sometime next year.

For more biographical info on John Gilbert, follow the link at the bottom of the page.

Dream Couples

2008-11-20T04:58:00.001-08:00

We know of certain screen pairings. Gilbert and Garbo. Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor.

What of actors who never were a screen couple? With no regard to the actors' ability to costar (such as the ages of the parties, one of them having died early in his/her career, etc.), here are some of my dream pairings:

Lillian Gish and Rudolph Valentino. The "Latin lover" and the top film actress of all time. Imagine that!

John Gilbert and Olive Thomas. Olive had a tomboy quality that would have worked very well with Gilbert's strongly masculine presence. The fireworks would probably have caused the set to go up in flames.

Ronald Colman and Greta Garbo. As opposed to the fire-and-ice pairing she had with John Gilbert, I think Ronald would have made a marvelous leading man for her.

Richard Barthelmess and Gloria Swanson. Richard tended to look a bit uptight in some of his roles. I think Gloria might have loosened him up.

I know I'll think of more later. This will be an ongoing theme. One of the ongoing themes, I should say.

The Men of Griffith's Films

2008-11-16T13:03:00.001-08:00

I got to thinking about some of the men who starred in Griffith's films in those early days. I've already posted about Walthall, Bobby Harron, and Bobby's brother John.

It's a sobering thing to think about. A fair number of the men who acted in his early films, died young or middle-aged:

Charles Avery (1873 - 1926). One of the original Keystone Kops. Suicide.

Elmer Booth (1882 - 1915). Booth and fellow Griffith actor George Siegmann were in a car driven by not-yet-famous director Tod Browning when Browning ran the car headlong into a moving train. Booth was killed instantly; Browning and Siegmann were seriously injured.

Thomas H. Ince (1882 - 1924). There's an interesting story. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure. However, Ince had been aboard the Oneida, the yacht belonging to William Randolph Hearst, for a birthday party (his own); rumors flew, and persist to this day, that Ince was actually shot by Hearst. The rumor is that Hearst's lover, Marion Davies, had been carrying on with fellow party guest Charlie Chaplin, and that the insanely jealous Hearst drew a gun on Chaplin, intending to kill him, only to miss and shoot Ince in the head. Since Ince's body was cremated, the story could never be disproven.

Owen Moore (1886 - 1939). Heart attack. He was Mary Pickford's first husband, and he died the same year, of the same ailment, as her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks.

Jack Pickford (1895 - 1933). Mary Pickford's younger brother. The cause of death was given as multiple neuritis, but Jack was also a heavy drinker and suffered from syphilis. His first wife, popular star Olive Thomas, died in Paris in 1920 at the age of 25, after swallowing mercury bichloride. Rumors of suicide persist, but it seems far more likely to me that she mistook the glass of the bichloride solution for ordinary water.

Wallace Reid (1891 - 1923). Cause of death given as influenza. Reid was a heavy drinker even before he was badly injured working on a film in 1919. A doctor was dispatched to the set to keep him doped up with morphine so he could keep working. Reid soon became hooked on the drug, and went into one sanitarium after another in fruitless attempts to kick the habit. His death (along with the Roscoe Arbuckle trial and the murder of director William Desmond Taylor) was one of the major scandals to rock Hollywood within a period of two years, helping to usher in the stifling Hays Production Code.

The Thousand Faces

2008-11-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

Lon Chaney. Now, there was a silent performer for you.

I'm constantly amazed by the way he threw himself into his roles - a legless crime boss, a deformed opera fanatic, a tough Marine drill sergeant, a handicapped criminal. It's so easy, given his gift with makeup, to watch one of his films without realizing that he's even in it. It happened to me just last month: "What... Chaney was in that? What part did he play?"

I've noticed that looking at his eyes and nose help to identify him. Not always, but often.

Nomads of the North is interesting to me for his leading-man casting, the adorable baby animals, and a villain named Bucky. I'm sorry, folks, but a "Bucky" is not a villain. A guy named Bucky would be the butt of every joke in Canada. He would not be a murderous, obsessive fiend. He would avoid bars, avoid the lumber camps, and plant flowers in his mother's garden, while she sat on the front porch with a shotgun, ready and willing to chase away anyone who made fun of her darling boy.

He would not tangle with Chaney.

Chaney's film The Penalty is one of his most startling performances. No unusual facial makeup, but his legs are strapped behind him to simulate a legless character - the realistic nature of it will make your jaw drop, as will his ability to haul himself up a series of pegs in the wall, using only his hands. Douglas Fairbanks must have been envious.

What do I wish? That Chaney had lived much longer, and that we had been able to see him in more talkie roles. The one talking picture that he did make, suffers from the poor sound quality of the day, that made voices so irritating. He'd have been marvelous in a film noir, for example.

But, what we have is very good indeed. I maintain hope that we will, one day, be able to watch all of The Miracle Man and London After Midnight.

Leah Baird

2008-11-15T04:09:00.000-08:00

I know virtually nothing about Leah Baird. The IMDb yields scant details; birth and death dates, name of spouse, and a very brief biography.

I, myself, have only seen one of her movies. It's a serial from 1918 titled Wolves of Kultur. (Yes, "kultur", not "culture".) Her character, Alice Grayson, becomes involved in an espionage plot, linked to WWI, in which she must defeat the bad guys and aid the war effort. She is joined by Bob (Charles Hutchison), taking on one after another of the evildoers.

The story isn't much. When one of the "Wolves of Kultur" is defeated, another member of the group takes his place. Alice and Bob are frequently captured, yet always manage to escape. Typical for a chapter serial, each installment ends with a cliffhanger.

It's addictive, though, even with the thin plot; you see the leads (and the supporting players) doing their own stunts. For Baird, this involved dealing with the long skirts and high-heeled boots of the era. Bob is less hampered by his clothing, of course, though his shoes couldn't have been convenient for scaling buildings or rocks, both of which he does here.

People are always being thrown, falling, or jumping into water, usually a river or the ocean. Alice and Bob shoot the rapids in a wooden canoe. Bob jumps on the top of a car, thunders down the road on a horse (with Alice keeping pace on another horse), and even jumps off a lighthouse in one scene.

These people could have been badly hurt, maimed, or killed, but they keep going, much like the characters they play. Watching it now, ninety years later, it doesn't appear that either of them thought of the possibility of injury. There's no hint of a "Wow! Look what I just did!" on anyone's face. There's a grim determination at work here.

Baird's character is a far cry from the helpless female so popular in fiction at the time. Yes, she does get kidnapped; yes, she is at risk often. It's a serial, after all. She also keeps going regardless of the threat to her personal safety, even regardless of the threat to Bob's personal safety. When, at the end of the serial, Bob is facing death at the hands of the last of the evil group, it is Alice - wandering through the woods in search of him - who blows away the villain with a rifle.

Here's to Leah Baird, pioneer stuntwoman.

Bettina's Substitute

2008-11-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

I loved this film. It's a 1912 comedy about a woman named - naturally - Bettina.

Bettina has an office job, working for a lecherous old coot who is more than twice her age. Bossman takes advantage of his position to hit on Bettina - pinching her cheeks and invading her personal space.

This was 1912, though. The term "sexual harassment" didn't exist, and wouldn't for decades yet. What was a woman of that time to do, when protesting could cost her her job? What if she were not only fired, but unable to find employment due to her former boss' influence? There was no legal recourse, and it would have been her word against his.

Bettina, depressed, tells her mother and her fiance, Billy, what has happened. There are no titles to show what Billy is saying, but the meaning is clear; he shakes his fists angrily, ready to storm off to Bettina's workplace and give the boss what for.

Bettina has a better idea. A much better idea. She calms Billy down, and (again, no title cards) begins to explain to him. Billy's response is enthusiastic, and I knew, watching it, what she was suggesting.

I was right. The next time we see Billy, he's outfitted in a dress. Bettina hands him a wig and a hat, turning him into a solidly-built, unattractive female. With the black eyeliner that was so common in film makeup of those days, of course. She hands him a note explaining that she is sick, and has sent her friend to work for her until she can return to the office.

Billy charges off and presents himself to Mr. Lecher, who takes about five seconds to start up with Billy - using the same tactics he used with Bettina; he's not very original. Billy promptly turns the tables, pinching the boss' cheeks and chasing him around the office until the boss, terrified, flees the building and takes a cab (horse-drawn!) back to his house. Unknown to him, Billy is going along for the ride, clinging to the back of the cab.

Once home, Billy follows the boss inside, to find him talking to his wife. Shock! Horror! Oh, how DARE he put the moves on Billy when he's a married man! And just look at his wife! How on earth did he end up with her? After raising hell, Billy storms out, pausing in the doorway with a "humph!" expression and a stamp of the foot.

After his departure, of course, Mrs. Boss proceeds to beat the hell out of her husband.

AFTERMATH: Bettina returns to work, with Billy - this time dressed in his own clothing. She shows her new ring to her boss, who duly admires it, then introduces him to Billy. After shaking hands, Billy pulls out the wig and puts it on, to the horror of the boss. After having a hearty laugh at his expense, the two depart.

One of the things that really impressed me about this film was Billy's eagerness to help his girlfriend, even including taking her place at the office, in drag. There is no hint of Billy worrying that his family or friends might see him. He doesn't think that anyone might question his sexual orientation. Dress like a woman? Well, why not? He agrees instantly, very gung ho about the whole thing, and he plays his part beautifully.

It's one of those intriguing windows into the past. What of all the women out there who didn't have a Billy on their side? And how many men outside of fiction would really be willing to defend their girlfriends in this manner? None, probably. The film allows us to imagine that such things could happen, but audiences know that they didn't. My hope is that Bettina's Substitute shed light on some of the problems facing working women (O. Henry also wrote about it), and helped to implement some changes in the workplace.

Pordenone Silent Film Festival

2008-11-14T13:53:00.000-08:00

For strictly tourist purposes, Pordenone doesn't have much to offer. It's in a convenient location - Venice and Trieste are easily accessible by train - but apart from the city's original center, the place is modern and featureless.

Every October, though, Pordenone is heaven for lovers of silent film. Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (The Silent Film Festival) has been held there every year since the early 1980s. It started small and got big. The festival is attended by historians, film professors, documentarists, archivists, preservationists, businesspeople who deal in silent film, and others who have a real passion for the medium.

The range is breathtaking. Every year, the festival manages to come up with something new, something once thought lost. Every year, people from around the world flock to Pordenone, filling the hotels and the screening rooms, to get a sight of the latest offerings. The festival receives some funding from the Italian government, and has several contractual partners, so the cost is low. 30 euros buys you entrance to all the films except the two special screenings, for which you have to buy a ticket. You receive a folder full of information, a catalog of all the films being shown at the festival (complete with articles and synopses of the films), a program, free Internet access (both Wi-Fi and via computers provided by the Giornate), advice, help with lodging, and a hell of a good time.

The movies are shown all day, for eight days straight. Not surprisingly, this leads to extreme sleepiness fairly early in the game, and the films are often punctuated by the sound of a loud snore somewhere in the audience, followed by a ripple of laughter. I'm still waiting to hear a really good, loud, chainsaw-style snore.

Most of the films can't be seen anywhere else. The Giornate deals with the Library of Congress, various film archives, and private collectors to get the films for its program. Some classics are shown, often with a live orchestra (these are the "special screenings" mentioned above). Most, though, are films thought to have been lost, or films of whose existence no one knew, until they were brought to light.

Live music accompanies all the movies; piano, violin, full orchestra, and this year, a harp. The musicians are incredible. They make it up as they go along, never having seen the films before. They do this every day at the festival, and some of them do it year-round. The scores always fit, too. Someone remarked after one screening this year, that he wished the live score had been taped for the film; he couldn't imagine any other score being put on it.

We get together and talk. We talk about the movies we've seen, the ones we're going to see, and the ones we missed because we had to make the difficult decision between two movies that were being shown at the same time, in two different locations. We grab bites in between screenings, stay up late, get up early, and repeat the process throughout the festival. Sometimes, as I mentioned above, we fall asleep. Actually, we always fall asleep. Everyone I know has at least one movie nap during the Giornate.

I've met many a fascinating person there, and when I go back, I can see all my festfriends again. For most of them, this is the only chance we have to see each other. There's nothing like getting together with a group of people who have a shared interest; in this case, the interest being somewhat less than common, it means all the more to me, and I think it does to them, too.

Bobby Harron, Early Hollywood Tragedy

2008-11-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

Robert ("Bobby") Harron's life was almost literally a rags-to-riches story. He started working for Biograph Studios as a teenager, doing janitorial work and acting as messenger boy. Eventually, the up-and-coming D.W. Griffith decided to put Bobby - still in his teens - in front of the camera, often plastering a mustache on him to make him look older (before the age of twenty, he would play the part of a married man with a baby in The Battle of Elderbrush Gulch). He had an unusual face, with a high, somewhat bulging forehead; he grew into his looks and became a very effective leading man.

Bobby was close friends with the Gish family, and Lillian claimed that he and her sister Dorothy were a couple starting from the time he was fifteen and she was thirteen. The Biograph actors were like a family, and Bobby - one of the youngest members - was a favorite. He came from a large biological family, and helped to support them; his sister Tessie and brother John also became actors, both of them appearing in Hearts of the World (1919), in which Bobby played the lead opposite his by-then frequent leading lady, Lillian Gish.

Bobby's death in 1920 was sudden and mysterious. He was in New York for the premiere of Way Down East - starring Griffith's new "discovery", Richard Barthelmess - when he called the reception desk of his hotel and gasped out that he had shot himself. During a period of consciousness in the hospital, Bobby claimed that he had purchased a gun from a man who needed money, then put it in his jacket pocket and forgot about it. When he was taking the jacket out of the closet, the gun fell to the floor and discharged, the bullet penetrating Bobby's lung. In those days of no antibiotics, the wound was a death sentence.

It has been suggested that the wound was self-inflicted; evidently, Bobby had been keen to play the lead in Way Down East, and was depressed at being passed over for Griffith's latest star. However, when asked by his priest if he had shot himself deliberately, he denied it.

Griffith's cameraman, Billy Bitzer, stated that everything changed after Bobby's death. He had been so young, so enthusiastic when he started to work for Griffith, and suddenly, he was gone. An era had ended for Griffith, his actors, and the history of motion picture. Dorothy Gish, deeply in love with Bobby, was desolate.

The year before Bobby's death, his sister Tessie contracted the dreaded Spanish flu and died; Lillian Gish also fell gravely ill, but survived. John Harron would die of a sudden heart attack in 1939.

There's something very touching about Bobby; his youth, his eagerness, his acting ability. The knowledge that this man, who almost grew up in front of the camera, would die so young (he was only 27), makes his remaining work all the more poignant to me. Hearts of the World was a perfect showcase for him - well, for all the actors, really - and I wonder: What would he have done if he had lived? Would he have made the transition to talkies? What sort of future would he have had?

All unanswerable.

Profile: Lillian Gish

2008-11-14T02:51:00.001-08:00

Where do you start with Lillian Gish? She was the leading lady of silent film, with a range and believability that are still unmatched.

Lillian and her younger sister, Dorothy (who was more famous for her comedic roles) went on the stage as children, to support the family after their father deserted them. While Mrs. Gish stayed at home and worked, Lillian traveled with an actress in the troupe who cared for her and watched over her, as did Dorothy. Her early exposure to the theatre would lay the foundations for her incredible film career.

Lillian and film grew up together, in a way; as she was traveling from city to city for her stage shows, the early films were being viewed avidly - the subject of the films didn't matter; they were moving pictures, and the public was fascinated by them. Growing to adulthood, Lillian and Dorothy absorbed the stage snobbery toward film, and neither of them could believe it when they saw another stage actress, their friend Gladys Smith, appearing in a short film. They rushed to tell their mother, who also knew the Smith family well; their mother remarked that times must be very bad indeed if Gladys now had to appear in films.

When the Gish sisters saw Gladys again, they questioned her about her career choice. Gladys urged both of them to audition for a film, overcoming no small resistance from all the members of the family. The promise of high wages helped to break them down, and Lillian and Dorothy agreed to meet D.W. Griffith, who had directed Gladys - now renamed Mary Pickford - in her early film appearances.

Griffith later told Lillian what a pretty picture she and Dorothy made on that day in 1912 when he first saw them; they were sitting together, and at first, he couldn't tell them apart. They made their first film appearance together - playing sisters, appropriately enough - and Lillian's film career, which would span an astounding 75 years, had begun.

In her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me, Lillian spent page after page extolling the virtues of D.W. Griffith. It is almost as much his biography as her autobiography, and I had the feeling, when reading it, that Lillian thought Griffith could do anything short of walking on water. His film innovations were detailed precisely; his accomplishments, his looks, his voice, his generosity, all were given their due.

Griffith was a real star-maker; he had a knack for bringing out the best in the people who worked for him. His talent was, of course, not infallible, but he did have a remarkable success rate. Lillian told of his demands on his cast. They took dancing lessons; rode horses; exercised regularly; took voice lessons; anything that might help them in their performances, they did - and, in Lillian's case, anyway, did gladly. These truly were golden days for film, when new techniques were being tried all the time, when the caste system had yet to establish itself, when actors thought nothing of having a leading part in one film, yet only appearing as an extra in the next film. Lillian's autobiography dwells upon the excitement of those early days, in a long-gone clean and sparsely populated Southern California, when the actors worked long, brutal days to get the maximum of sunlight.

As Griffith's films became more popular, so too did his actors. Mary Pickford left him early, having demanded and found higher pay elsewhere; Walter Miller made his last Griffith film in 1913; Henry B. Walthall left the fold after Birth of a Nation; Blanche Sweet was offered a lucrative deal by another studio, and Griffith himself told her she should take it. Lillian and Dorothy stayed on, as did Robert Harron, growing increasingly famous.

Lillian became the leading lady of Birth of a Nation, True Heart Susie, A Romance of Happy Valley, Broken Blossoms, and Way Down East, among others. Her talent shines through in every performance, regardless of the story. As the abused young girl, Lucy, in Broken Blossoms, the expressions crossing her face upon being given a doll by her Chinese admirer are mesmerizing; her eyes widen slightly when she realizes that the doll's arms and legs move, she gives an approving nod, then remarks "Yep," before cuddling the already-beloved gift. Later in the film, the harrowing scene where Lucy has locked herself in the closet in a vain attempt to escape her murderous father, is almost too painful to watch; Griffith was in tears at the end of it.

Lillian, with her fragile beauty and tiny frame, looked far too delicate to endure more than a gentle breeze blowing upon her. In reality, she was one of the toughest, and likely the most dedicated, performer in film. Way Down East contains the famous scene where Lillian's character, Anna, faints and is carried down a river on an ice floe, headed for the waterfall. Lillian was lying on the ice wearing a thin dress and a cape, with much of her hair and one hand immersed in the water. For the rest of her life, she had problems with her right hand. In La Boheme, to make her character's death scene more realistic, she went without food for three days; her gasping, wide-eyed performance is almost unbearably true.

This was the reality of women in film; onscreen, they were portrayed as weak, frail creatures who fainted at the drop of a hat. Women in silent films were easy to kidnap; the villain simply threw a sheet or a coat over them, and they were out for a week or so. Lillian was living proof of what a woman could endure. She wasn't the only one - Leah Baird, Pearl White, and Miriam Cooper were all strong, athletic, daring women - but she is remembered by more people today.

It was Griffith who made the break with Lillian, after Orphans of the Storm, and she, devastated, began to work with other directors, including King Vidor and Victor Sjostrom (who went by the name of "Seastrom" when he worked in Hollywood). Vidor directed La Boheme, and Lillian claimed that her leading man, John Gilbert, proposed to her after the film's premiere; her secretary claimed that Vidor fell in love with her, too.

She spent most of her time in plays after the advent of talkies, only making the occasional film. One triumphant role was that of Miss Rachel in the 1955 film The Night of the Hunter, in which tiny, waiflike Lillian faces down and defeats the psychotic - and twice as big - Robert Mitchum with a rifle. She is clearly a force to be reckoned with, and my feeling is that this character came closest to the person she really was.

Lillian, then in her nineties, made her last film in 1987, The Whales of August. Her costar was another screen legend, Bette Davis, who actually looked older than Lillian, despite being young enough to be her daughter (they played sisters in the film). The supporting cast included Vincent Price, Ann Sothern, and Harry Carey, Jr. Price's wife heard that the working title of the film was Alive; she said that, considering the cast, the title should have been Still Alive?

It was Lillian's last shot at an Oscar, but she wasn't even nominated. When Ann Sothern expressed her sympathy, Lillian responded, "It could have been worse. Suppose I'd been nominated and lost to Cher?"

Henry B. Walthall - Much More than the "Little Colonel"

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The image at the left shows Walthall before he performed in Birth of a Nation, the most (in)famous film he made with director D.W. Griffith.

Walthall started on the stage; when the "flickers" gained popularity, he had the then-typical stage actor's disdain for this low, cheap form of entertainment.

Eventually - like so many other stage performers - he was enticed to try his luck in film, joining Griffith's stable of actors and making his film debut in the short feature A Corner in Wheat, in 1909. He found role after role with Griffith; sometimes as a leading man, sometimes in a supporting role, sometimes as an extra. This was standard practice with all the actors in the Griffith stable, as a matter of fact.

Walthall, one of the first film stars, had an amazing ability NOT to overact for the camera, a common failing amongst the largely stage-trained actors of the day. Very few people realized the sensitivity of the camera lens, and they tried to play to the back row - using exaggerated gestures and facial expressions, which were laughable on screen. Griffith was adept in getting from his actors the sort of low-key mannerisms that this new medium demanded, and as with so many other actors who worked with him, he struck gold with Walthall.

From 1909, when he made his film debut, to 1915, when he left Griffith, Walthall made a startling number of films. Audiences demanded ever more of this new form of entertainment, and the cameras ground constantly to turn out picture after picture. Walthall's costars were a stupendously talented group: Lionel Barrymore, Mae Marsh, Blanche Sweet, Mary Pickford, Walter Miller, Bobby Harron, and the best female star Griffith ever had, Lillian Gish. Walthall was adept in any role he was given, from honorable gentleman to fallen idealist to bereaved father to weakling brother to murdering nephew. Some of his best work was showcased in such films as The Avenging Conscience, Death's Marathon, and The Burglar's Dilemma.

It was Birth of a Nation, of course, that would leave a lasting impression on moviegoers then and now, and despite the often repellent subject matter, Walthall's performance as Ben Cameron, the "Little Colonel" is hard to beat. The scene in the hospital, where Cameron is looking intensely at love interest Elsie Stoneman, has lost none of its heat in more than 90 years.

Lillian Gish, in her autobiography, only mentions Walthall a few times. She remembered that during the shooting of Home, Sweet Home, when she and Walthall were suspended by wires and suffering severe discomfort while Griffith and the cameraman argued over how to shoot the scene, Walthall didn't raise his voice or complain - "he simply fainted and hung there limply." She also states that Walthall had a drinking problem, and that while they were shooting Birth of a Nation, a bodyguard had to be hired to keep him sober and on the set on time. Could this be the reason why he left Griffith after this film?

Walthall remained a performer in constant demand in his post-Griffith period; one costar who achieved cinematic immortality was Lon Chaney. Year after year, the work came in, and Walthall took it. During this time, he and his first wife divorced, and he remarried. He and his second wife had a daughter, Patricia, Walthall's only child.

In 1926, he found himself working once again with his most famous leading lady, Lillian Gish, in The Scarlet Letter. Walthall played her brooding, intense husband, a role he would recreate in the 1934 talkie version, this time starring Colleen Moore.

By the time the talkies came out, Walthall was no longer a leading man. His fine, resonant, stage-trained voice allowed him to make the transition to sound film easily. He continued his film work in supporting parts, but he never stopped working. One of his last film roles showcased him with another silent film star, Ronald Colman, in A Tale of Two Cities (1935). Walthall played Dr. Manette, the unbalanced father of the heroine of the piece.

The following year, when shooting China Clipper (an early Humphrey Bogart film), Walthall collapsed on the set, dying a few days later. The cause of death was given as "influenza and a nervous condition". I have to wonder if his constant work was also a factor. He was 58 years old.

As a sad footnote, one of Walthall's costars from his Griffith days, Walter Miller, became a bit player in films as the 1930s wore on. Miller had a small role in China Clipper as well. Four years later, Miller himself would collapse on the set of another film - of a heart attack - and die later.

To see some of Walthall's talent, take a look at this video on YouTube.

Landscapes

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One of the fascinating things about silent film is the look of the land. Films could be, and were, shot outside with no worries about sound (and much less traffic than now), and they provide a look into the cities and countryside of the past.

It's hard to imagine, now, Los Angeles with streetcars, or New York City, for that matter, but there it was. The streets look miles wide; dusty, unpaved, with those now-antique cars moving along them at a pace that would barely be tolerated today. Horse-drawn carts still have a place amidst the motorized traffic. Everything looks so much bigger than the cityscapes of today.

The Los Angeles of, say, 1910 looks nothing like the sprawling monster city that it would become. The coastline is largely empty; the buildings are only around ten stories high, if that; people can ride horses down the street and hitch them up when they go indoors. The early films of D.W. Griffith show areas that have long since been swallowed by urban sprawl. Some of them, no doubt, have turned into high-crime districts.

But not in 1910. Not yet; not before two world wars had blasted the innocence from the faces shown on the screen. Southern California was still a place for people to visit - and move - due to the climate, the almost-constant sunshine that still reflects from the objects in the flickers that survive. There were many places to have a private ranch, with no one within miles of you. It was a town/city of neat little houses, covered with flowers, and the front porches that hardly anyone builds these days. Vandalism is rarely seen, and spray paint hasn't made its ugly mark.

One of the joys of watching a pre-WWI movie made in Europe, is to discover just how the cities looked at the time. Buildings that have long since been destroyed are still intact and in use, with no steel-and-glass monstrosities towering uncomfortably over the older neighboring buildings. Paris, Berlin, London - they are all as they had been for centuries.

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Greetings, one and all! Welcome to my brand-new blog about silent film.

I'll be posting whatever I feel like posting on this topic, so I hope you'll bear with me if I ramble or if I suddenly go off on a tangent, as I am wont to do.

I'm not involved with any archives, restoration companies, or universities; I'm just someone who has a passion for silent film. Though, I hasten to add, I can be involved with any of the aforementioned groups, not to forget documentarists, authors, and the like. Yes, if you have work for me, I'm willing to do it!

Stay tuned for further updates.