Silent Film; Poetry in Motion

Boobley's Baby

2014-11-05T02:45:00.001-08:00

This was part of a series of films shown at this year silent film festival in Pordenone, Italy. It starred Sidney Drew, the talented uncle of the equally talented Barrymore siblings (Ethel, Lionel, and John). The festival showcased the family, though only three of Ethel's films were shown.

Sidney Drew was known more as a comedian than a dramatic actor, and he really shines in this movie. The titular character complains to two coworkers that whenever he rides the streetcar, it's full. If he does manage to find a seat, he has to give it up when an adult with a child boards.

One of his coworkers suggests that Boobley get himself a baby - a big joke to them, since he isn't married. This plants a thought in his head, and during his lunch break, he buys a doll the size of a baby. It works like a charm, and our hero can find a seat whenever he wants one. Then he turns the doll face-down on his lap and rests his newspaper on it, or uses it to fool the fellow residents at his boarding house. It's all great fun, until he falls for a new coworker who believes that the doll is a real baby.

I'd love to have this and Drew's other films on DVD. Sad to say, he died in 1919, having never recovered from the death of his only son in World War I.

Die Nibelungen

2014-10-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

I attended this year's silent film festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) in Pordenone, Italy. One of the movie experiences - and quite the experience it was! - was a showing of both films in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen saga.

After the first film (147 minutes), we had an hour break for dinner. It's not easy to scamper quickly to a restaurant when you've been glued to the screen all day. I was a few minutes late for the start of the second movie.

This is a movie saga like no other. Everything is fascinating about it; the story, the performances, the direction, the set and costume designs. Yes, it's long, so it's not for everyone. But it's worth the time taken to watch.

Mickey Rooney

2014-04-16T02:51:00.001-07:00

With the recent passing of Mickey Rooney, another piece of silent film history has left us.

Lillian Gish made her first film (with D.W. Griffith) in 1912, and her last in 1987. Rooney has broken this record, having spent approximately 88 years working in front of the camera. How many current stars will be able to say the same?

RIP, Mickey.

Discovery in Iowa

2013-12-30T10:46:00.002-08:00

Yes, silent films are still turning up...

http://www.omaha.com/article/20131230/NEWS/131239969/1707#films-stashed-in-shed-open-priceless-window-on-past

Too Much Johnson

2013-10-27T15:01:00.001-07:00

I was one of the lucky crowd at the first-ever public screening of Too Much Johnson, a silent film made by Orson Welles three years before he burst on the screen with Citizen Kane. This silent film was never finished, and the version we saw was a very rough cut by Welles.

We endured some very long speeches before the movie started, then a running commentary. Pordenone is famous for its silent-film festival, and it's almost too good to be true that this movie, long thought to have been lost, was found in Pordenone itself. Hence the speeches; everyone wanted to get in on the fame.

It was fascinating to see Joseph Cotten in the lead, with some truly hair-raising stunts during which he scrambles from one rooftop to another - in a now long-gone New York City. It was equally fascinating to see the home movie footage showing Welles himself, directing the film. The screening room was packed; I don't think there was an empty seat in the house, and several people were leaning against the back wall.

So what happens for the movie now? I don't know. I can only say that watching it was a rare experience.

A moment of silence...

2013-04-04T01:08:00.001-07:00

Fujifilm has stopped making motion-picture film.

Yes, digital is easier. Yes, it has good definition. Yes - and this is VERY important - it's better for the environment.

It's still the passing of an era. The original motion-picture film was nitrate-based. Not only was it highly flammable, it decomposed easily and rapidly (one of the reasons why so many silents are gone).

Safety film took over in the early 1950s, and it deteriorates too, just not the way nitrate stock does. And now, one major producer no longer makes it. Me? I'd like to see it stay around.

Silent Winter

2013-02-15T10:36:00.001-08:00

Yes, this is a late announcement, but I'm doing it anyway. San Francisco's Castro Theatre is showing silent films all day tomorrow (February 16).

The schedule:

10 a.m.: Snow White (starring Marguerite Clark)

12 p.m.: Buster Keaton short features

2:30 p.m.: The Thief of Bagdad (starring Douglas Fairbanks)

7:00 p.m.: My Best Girl (starring Mary Pickford)

9:00 p.m.: Faust (starring Emil Jannings)

Ticket prices:

$15 General / $13 Members / $5 Children under 12

Timeline Films

2013-02-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Timeline Films is an American film production company that has made several documentaries about stars of the silent screen. Most of the documentaries concern women of that era - Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Olive Thomas - but a couple of men have found their way in; specifically, Cecil B. De Mille and Buddy Rogers.

The movies are well researched and narrated by various modern Hollywood stars, including Ted Danson, Jane Fonda, and Charlize Theron. The filmmakers have done silent film fans a great service with their documentaries, showing us rare footage of films that are now lost, such as a short bit of Theda Bara's Cleopatra (only one of her films survives in full), and clips of Olive Thomas, a name now known by only a few die-hard fans.

To purchase one of their excellent productions, click here.

February 1, 1966

2013-02-02T14:37:00.001-08:00

The day Buster Keaton died of cancer.

It's so ironic - Buster was the youngest of the "Big Three" (the others being Chaplin and Lloyd), yet he was the first to go. They died in reverse order of age: Buster, Harold, Charlie.

Buster will always be the king, in my opinion. Far more talented than Lloyd or Chaplin, more inventive, more creative. Engineer, dancer, stuntman, acrobat, filmmaker, comedian, actor.

He was well aware (unlike Chaplin) that the camera was another participant in films, and made full use of it. For Buster, the camera was just as important as anyone and everyone in front of it. He used his innate skill to make eleven exposures of himself on one strip of film (something the cameraman said was impossible) in The Playhouse. He put the camera underwater in The Navigator. He had an understanding of the mechanics of filmmaking that remains unparalleled.

And he could be sentimental without being maudlin, unlike Chaplin, who always begged the audience to feel sorry for his Little Tramp character. Lloyd was better at sentiment (as in Girl Shy), but Buster was the Everyman, the human Timex, who rolled with the punches and got the girl in the end.

Sherlock, Jr. was, and is, a true landmark of filmmaking; every single gag works perfectly. Buster even acted as stunt double for one of his costars, because he knew how to take a fall better than anyone in the business. Riding the handlebars of a motorcycle directly across the path of an oncoming train; hanging from a water tower and falling to the train tracks as the force of the water causes him to loosen his grip (he broke his neck doing that stunt, by the way); jumping "through" a person and the fence behind that person; playing an extremely complicated game of pool. Buster could do it all.

Here's to the greatest genius Hollywood will ever know.

Cinecon 2012

2012-07-07T06:35:00.005-07:00

From August 30 to September 3, Cinecon will delight lovers of silent and classic sound films.

Two silent titles (not all of the films to be shown have been posted on the Cinecon website) are Harold Lloyd's Hot Water, and an early John Ford film, Upstream.

More information can be found at the website.

The Master, Restored

2012-06-17T07:08:00.002-07:00

The British Film Institute has restored nine silent and early sound films from the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.

The films are:

The Pleasure Garden
Blackmail
The Ring
The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog
Downhill
Easy Virtue
The Farmer's Wife
Champagne
The Manxman

An additional treat can be found in the restorations; an extra twenty minutes of footage from The Pleasure Garden were discovered, allowing the BFI not only to restore the film, but lengthen it, too. Blackmail is being released with a score by Neil Brand - and he's amazing; I've heard his impromptu piano accompaniment to several silent films at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone.

Hats off to Martin Scorsese and his Film Foundation, which raised most of the money for the restoration! The BFI will hold a festival of all Hitchcock's films during the London Olympiad, and two actors from his films - Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie) and Bruce Dern (Marnie, Family Plot) will speak at the event.

Ray Bradbury

2012-06-06T16:12:00.002-07:00

What is a post about Ray Bradbury doing on a silent-film blog?

It's a tribute. As most, if not all, of you know, Mr. Bradbury has passed away. I began to read his stories and books at an early age, and I've been hooked ever since. He wrote of one of his early influences, Lon Chaney, especially in his most famous role, that of Eric in The Phantom of the Opera. I own The Lon Chaney Collection, in which Bradbury speaks of Chaney's characters - that he typified the things in us we felt could never be loved; the fear that nobody, ever, could love us.

Spread a little stardust upon us, Mr. Bradbury.

More on The Artist

2012-04-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, I finally saw The Artist. I know. I should have seen it long ago. I realize this.

It was well worth the wait. I recognized clips from The Mask of Zorro in the scene where George is watching what is supposed to be one of his own films; I also identified many silent stars in the character of George. There is more than a touch of Fairbanks, especially with the charming smile George often has. John Gilbert. Rudolph Valentino (George's last name is, after all, Valentin). And the many stars who never made a successful transition to talkies.

I loved the movie. No, I adored it. The costumes, the situations, the locations, and the faces. The problem with most modern actors is that they have the look of this century stamped all over them. Put them in costume, and they look like modern actors in period costume; they don't look realistic.

Jean Dujardin, however, does; so do all of his costars. Granted, the women are too thin, but I can forgive them for that. I found an interview with the two leads, and I was amazed at the difference between the actors and the characters they play; they really do immerse themselves into their roles.

Hats off to all involved in this cinematic triumph!

The Artist strikes again!

2012-03-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

Rentals of silent films have risen by approximately 40% due to the success of the recent Oscar-winning silent film The Artist. Now, screenings of films from the silent era are playing to sell-out crowds:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9585206.Silent_movie_pulls_in_the_crowds/

This showing was three hours long, with silent cartoons in addition to the main feature, Harold Lloyd's sweat-inducing 1923 film Safety Last.

Yes! Silents forever!

Phil-for-short

2012-03-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

This is a truly delightful 1919 movie about a young woman, Damophilia (who goes by the nickname of Phil), whose world is turned upside-down when her father, a professor of Greek, dies suddenly.

Phil now finds herself the unwanted recipient of too much attention from a lecherous banker, who manages to have himself named her guardian. Rather than put up with him, Phil promptly dresses as a boy and runs away.

This cross-dressing works very well for her, but not for another professor of Greek. John Alden has just discovered that his fiance has been keeping her boyfriend on the side all along, and plans to support him after she is married. Embittered towards all women, he has no plans to get involved again. He meets Phil first as a boy, then as Phil's twin sister, when she gets hired as his assistant.

Will she win him over? She might. The movie doesn't end when you think it will, and there's more story than you would expect. One of those movies that should be released on DVD, if it hasn't been already.

The Artist - Oscar winner!

2012-02-27T01:50:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how pleased I am that, for the first time since the 1920s, a silent film has won the Oscar for Best Picture.

And Actor, and Director. Yes.

Sometimes, Hollywood really does get it right.

Hail the Woman

2012-02-21T01:57:00.000-08:00

This is a very impressive, pro-feminist film. The "woman" of the title is Judith (Florence Vidor), the only member of her family who has the courage to stand up to her domineering, narrow-minded zealot of a father (Theodore Roberts). Judith is accustomed to being held accountable for every evil that has ever existed in the world, since she was born - gasp! - female. Her brother David (Lloyd Hughes) doesn't have it much better; he isn't viewed as the embodiment of sin, but their father has taken it for granted that David will do whatever he is told.

When it is revealed that David secretly married Nan (Madge Bellamy), a local woman, and that Nan is now pregnant, their father Oliver buys off Nan's father (Tully Marshall) with a check for a thousand dollars. Rather than face the entire town while she is pregnant - and the marriage certificate now destroyed - Nan leaves for the big city.

Judith is also accused of wrongdoing, having been seen associating with a poet, of all things, and smoking a cigarette. She, too, leaves for the city; not out of shame, but because she simply can't stand living with her father any longer, and who can blame her?

There is a marvelously touching scene between Judith and Nan, whom she finds in the city one Christmas. I'm not a fan of Madge Bellamy, who was extremely bland, but she really gives a fine performance here. The scene is also photographed beautifully, and is very emotional.

Eventually, of course, Judith returns home, and Oliver is given a taste of his own medicine. 1921, folks.

A double tragedy

2012-02-15T02:29:00.000-08:00

I was thinking the other day about the movie Bettina's Substitute, which I have posted about here. I was curious about the actors in it, and discovered some fascinating information.

Bettina's fiance was played by Richard Rosson, who acted in several silents. He was a director as well, with his most famous film being the 1932 Scarface. His brother Arthur was a director; his other brother, Harold, was a cinematographer; his sister, Helene, was an actress. All in all, they were quite an illustrious family, with everyone but Helene continuing to work well into the sound era.

Rosson was married to silent actress Vera Sisson, who made her last film in 1926.

So far, so good - except that Rosson committed suicide in 1953, at the age of 60. His health was failing, and the cause of death is given as "carbon monoxide poisoning". (Most likely, he shut the garage door and turned on the car engine.)

Vera died the following year, of an overdose of barbiturates. They are buried side-by-side in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

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.