WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

Really loved The Godless Girl, but of course, Marie Prevost is my gal!

The straightener works wonders on my hair. I've only had one for a few months but it's pretty easy to use. I was afraid of it at first.

[feaito]

Thanks for all that info Jeff. So many Silents that should be available on the market...

[Robert Regan]

So This Is Paris on VHS occasionally turns up on Ebay for a couple hundred dollars.

[Gagman 66]

Robert,

I have two versions of SO THIS IS PARIS. One with Spanish Title-Cards. But neither one is the restored print that ran on TCM France in 2010. Try as I may I have not been able to find a copy of that broadcast anyplace. Did you see the clips I posted of LOVES OF CARMEN (1927)?

[Rita Hayworth]

Gagman66 ... The Loves of Carmen ... was great, thanks for sharing it.

[Gagman 66]

kingme,

Glad you enjoyed the scenes. LOVES OF CARMEN (1927) is terrific. Not just those couple of clips. Dolores Del Rio is at her most alluring. Apparently this was a print found in another country and had foreign title cards. So they just made up generic looking English translations. The original title design has been lost. Nevertheless, I would love to see this film in a crisp new transfer on DVD and Blu-ray. Maybe as part of that long postponed Raoul Wash/Howard Hawks at Fox Box set that was talked about some years back. When the expensive Murnau and Borzage Box set didn't sell that well, plans were abandoned.

They recently aired a new version of Walsh THE RED DANCE (Fox, 1928) with Del Rio and Charles Farrell on Arte TV in France last July. Really a beautiful print. I have three clips from that posted on Youtube as well. That one and John Ford's UPSTREAM (1927) might have a chance to premiere on TCM later this year. Although these are both Fox Silents which TCM has struggled to book in the past. The still have never aired SEVENTH HEAVEN. The only two Dolores Del Rio Silents that I know of that TCM has ever run are WHAT PRICE GLORY? (1926), and THE TRAIL OF '98 (1928). They may have run EVANGELINE (1929) years ago. I've had TCM since May 1st 1999 and I have never seen in shown. But it could have been broadcast before that. It used to be on DVD from Image Entertainment.

[CineMaven]

I'm not sure that it was Mayer's libido that was hurt here, but rather his desire for power and his resentment at having that power questioned. Insulted by John Gilbert, punched actually, he proceeded to carefully and deliberately destroy his company's most valuable property. MGM lost millions to assuage the boss' ego.

Ultimately, power and control is always the subtext underneath it all. Ego in Gilbert’s case / Libido in Esther Ralston's case.

The casting couch may have also been a factor in Janet Shaw's career. She was contracted to Warners in the thirties and MGM in the forties, but neither of them really did anything with her. Maybe she was not "cooperative"!

We’ll never know for sure. I loved what you wrote over on Arsaib’s wall on MUBI about Janet Shaw:

Thanks, Arsaib, for getting Janet Shaw credit here for what is almost certainly the best film she was in and the best part she ever had. Seventy movies in fifteen years, nearly half uncredited, and out of the running at thirty. Lost enough indeed. Good enough? When the opportunity was presented to her, she was ready for it. With no more than two minutes on screen and but a handful of lines, she created, with the help of an extremely well-written script and the best director she ever had, a three-dimensional character, moving and memorable. I don't see a rating from you for Shadow of a Doubt. If you haven't seen it, it's got a lot more going for it than Ms Shaw. Wright, Cotten, and Collinge are also at their best, and for once I can't argue with a director calling it his favorite film. Let me know what you think...

* * * * *

Wren, I hope your migraine has subsided. I thought your change of diet had eliminated those headaches. I’m with you on a hoary old movie being better than any daytime tv ( or reality tv show. )

Maven, my headaches are not as often, but I still get them occasionally. And I was bad yesterday, I ate something I wasn't supposed to because I didn't want to offend my mother-in-law, who doesn't understand food intolerance.

Ouch! Lesson learned, I hope. Or is that one of the compromises being married requires?

“THE GODLESS GIRL” is such a great title. It sounds like she is going to get struck down right there on the spot! Would love to see it again.

[charliechaplinfan]

I like The Godless Girl, another example of me preferring DeMille's silents to his talkies.

I'll straighten Libby's hair but not mine, mine is wavy and the hairdresser used to get her apprentices to practice blowing it straight, it just doesn't suit me I guess. Having a hair crimper was always top of my Xmas list when I was young but I never got one, I'd be more inclined to crimp my hair even if I won't suit it.

Back to movies.........

[Rita Hayworth]

Gagman66,

I will try to check out those films that you listed earlier on this thread ... I wrote them down on my notebook for films to look for. I have a system in place to make sure that I don't miss them.

[Gagman 66]

Robert, Wendy, Kingme,

Finally, here is the clip from Lubitsch SO THIS IS PARIS (1926)


[youtube][/youtube]

[Robert Regan]

During a screening of So This Is Paris during MOMA's virtually complete Lubitsch retrospective in the seventies, about ten minutes after the Charleston contest, a reel already projected appeared. Arthur Kleiner, the pianist at that time did not miss a beat, but managed to ring up the booth. The audience began to fuss as is their wont, until it became clear that we were about to see the Charleston contest again, at which time everyone broke into thunderous applause, then settled back to enjoy the pleasure again.

[Fossy]

The Flying Fleet (1929)

A story of six cadets at Annapolis who are about to graduate. Eventually three became navy flyers, and when one was killed in a plane crash two were left, Steve (Ralph Graves) and Tommy (Ramon Novarro). The two became rivals as flyers, and rivals for the affections of Anita (Anita Page). Of special interest was a complete review of all the planes flown by the navy at the time.
This was a good adventure story, and the first of Frank Wead`s books to be made into a film.

I must show this movie to my son, who will be visiting Cairns in August. He has worked with warplanes all his working life. He retired as a Warrant Officer from the RAAF and then worked for British Aerospace in KSA for ten years. On return to Oz he worked for Boeing for five years until the F111 was retired. He is now back in KSA working for British Aerospace again. This film is the best I have seen which features early warplanes.

[Gagman 66]

Fossy,

THE FLYING FEET does not really survive in the domestic version today The TCM print/Warner Archive release is based on a foreign Silent print, heavy on Close-up's, hap-hazardly matched up with the sound discs to the Domestic Goat-gland version. Goat-gland is a term for a Silent with Music and Effects tracks. But it is still an interesting film and was the second or third to last Silent for Anita Page I believe. SPEEDWAY with William Haines being her final Silent.

[intothenitrate]

During a screening of So This Is Paris during MOMA's virtually complete Lubitsch retrospective in the seventies, about ten minutes after the Charleston contest, a reel already projected appeared. Arthur Kleiner, the pianist at that time did not miss a beat, but managed to ring up the booth. The audience began to fuss as is their wont, until it became clear that we were about to see the Charleston contest again, at which time everyone broke into thunderous applause, then settled back to enjoy the pleasure again.

Take THAT, Technology!

[JackFavell]

That's a wonderful story, Robert!