WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

Today I watch Mary Stevens MD with Kay Francis. She is growing on me. She played a highly sympathetic character, a doctor who is in love with a man who marries another, a fellow doctor who also nearly gets himself locked up after cooking the books. He learns the error of his ways but his wife rather than letting him divorce her pretends she's having a baby. This means that Dr Stevens has to keep her pregnancy secret, she goes to Europe to have her baby, who is incidentally the cutest little baby I've seen on screen. On the way back to meet and marry her baby's father, tragedy happens.

It's a great precode. Lyle Talbot plays her lover and Glenda Farrell plays her nurse and friend.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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MichiganJ
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Post by MichiganJ »

A thoroughly enjoyable “winking” homage to the Western, Ruth Ann Baldwin’s 49-17 (an abysmal name) succeeds because none of the characters know they are in a parody. Filled with all of the requisite Western characters and situations, Baldwin has her actors play everything relatively straight, which adds to the film’s enjoyments.

Densely plotted, 49-17 is essentially the story of a Judge who longs to return to the Old West of his younger days. He enlists his assistant to populate the now deserted “Nugget Notch”, and his assistant hires members from a failing Wild West Show (including an almost unrecognizable Jean Hersholt as bad-guy Gentleman Jim.) There’s a love triangle, gun play, Indians, and plenty of “secrets” that are revealed at the end so that everything makes nominal sense. In one of the best scenes, Hersholt grabs the good guy, and in the grand bad-guy-won’t-just-simply-shoot-James-Bond tradition, Hersholt instead ties the good guy up, and lowers him down onto the edge of a cliff (I hope it won’t be giving too much away to tell you the good guy escapes...and finds gold!)

Since I was completed enamored of the film, enjoying every moment, I paid little to know attention to Ruth Ann Baldwin's actual direction, which I think speaks for itself. Suffice to say, she gets wonderful, naturalistic performances from her entire cast, and handles the complicated plot, which requires your attention (missing a title card could be problematic), very well. It makes no sense to me that this was the final film Baldwin directed.
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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched Lubitsch's The Merry Widow. It's so delightfully naughty and fun:wink: The leads Jeanette McDonald and Maurice Chevalier are perfect in this movie. I admit to not always appreciating Miss MacDonald but I always appreciate Maurice :wink:

In some ways this is a forerunner of the glorious MGM musicals of the 1950s. The ballroom scene is stunning in it's scale, the musical numbers are very catchy.

At the start of the movie all Jeanette's mourning clothes get changed for white, even her black poodle gets changed for a white pooch. The costumes are exceedingly lovely

What makes this film so utterly fabulous is the famed Lubitsch touch
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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MichiganJ
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Post by MichiganJ »

I know technically this isn’t where this should be posted but I just saw Jacques Tati’s masterpiece Playtime for the first time, and it is one of the funniest “silent” films I’ve ever seen. Essentially a number of set-pieces (or shorts, even) the film is linked by Tati’s Monsieur Hulot wandering through the streets of “modern” Paris in an attempt to keep an appointment. His brilliant timing is as flawless as Keaton (and often as slow as Langdon), and his gags are just as funny. Too many highlights, in fact the entire film is a highlight, but the restaurant sequence, by far the longest, is beyond classic.

Shot in 1:85:1 Tati uses every inch of his frame. Sometimes, what is happening in the foreground isn’t what’s interesting, it’s the shenanigans going on in the upper right corner that you want to keep your eye on. The cinematography is breathtaking, with glass doors, when opened, revealing reflections of Parisian landmarks, which are noticeably absent otherwise.

Anyway, brilliant film.
"Let's be independent together." Dr. Hermey DDS
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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

I think I tried to watch Playtime but couldn't get into it. Does it start with very modern looking sets?

I have watched M. Hulot's Vacation. I loved that film. Perhaps I should give him another chance.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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MichiganJ
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Post by MichiganJ »

Yes, that's the one. It does start very slowly, and if you've seen old video versions, the aspect ratio may not be correct, so you may have missed much of the picture. Trust me, Tati does take his time, but the overall effect is well worth the investment. At the very least, fast forward to the restaurant sequence, you won't be disappointed.

I didn't want the film to end.
"Let's be independent together." Dr. Hermey DDS
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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

I'll have to give it another go :wink:
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched Secrets of a Soul 1926 directed by G W Pabst. It's an early film dealing with the psychology of dreams. Werner Krauss takes the central role, he is married to a younger wife even though we are allowed to see pictures that show him, his wife and her cousin together.

A murder occurs across the street from the husband and wife, it's discovered as the husband is shaping his wife's hairstyle with a razor, he cuts her neck. This manifest itself in his dreams along with the arrival from abroad of his wife's cousin.

His dream drives him mad, he has an urge to kill his wife. He ends up staying with a dream psychologist to work through his dreams.

I expect when this film was made that dream therapy was quite new, of course we've seen it now in many films. Another good example of German expressionism.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Synnove
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Post by Synnove »

I saw The Kiss, thanks to Jeffrey. It's one of those films I wish they had included in the Garbo box set, because even though it's not as spectacular as, say, Flesh and the Devil, it's quite good. I like Garbo's performance in this one. She is very sympathetic. I love the stylish late silent era direction. There is such a difference in quality here from the talkies I've seen that were made the same year. Lucky her to have been able to make silents for so long.

I haven't had time to watch many films now, since I'm on holiday in the US. That is also why I haven't been on this site much lately.
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Gagman 66
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Post by Gagman 66 »

:( THE KISS (1929) directed by Jacque Feyder, is missing about a reel, maybe closer to two? But the story still holds up quite well. Have you seen THE SINGLE STANDARD yet? I have both of these on Laser-disc, but the programs I sent are both from TCM I believe?
Synnove
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Post by Synnove »

Like I said, I haven't had so much time now. I look forward to seeing it though. I love Garbo's silents, not so thrilled about her talkies.
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charliechaplinfan
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Post by charliechaplinfan »

I agree that Garbo was lucky yo make silents so long. I love the look of her later silents.

I'm glad you're enjoying your holiday.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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knitwit45
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Post by knitwit45 »

Synnove, where are you? Tell us what you're seeing, how long you'll be here. "Inquiring (nosy) minds want to know!"
"Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is..
The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference." ~ Virginia Satir
""Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it." ~ Soren Kierkegaard
Synnove
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Post by Synnove »

Right now, my family and I are leaving at any moment, for the Niagara falls. Then we're going to Toronto. We'll be gone for a couple of days. After that it's back too Michigan. :D
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bdp
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Post by bdp »

Hey Synnove, I had no idea you were in my neck of the woods! Whereabouts in Michigan have you been staying?
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