WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Yesterday I revisited "Torch Singer" (1933) with my wife and two friends and the enjoyed it very much. Claudette is sensational in this Precoder!

[jdb1]

Yesterday I revisited "Torch Singer" (1933) with my wife and two friends and the enjoyed it very much. Claudette is sensational in this Precoder!

Nando, is that the one with Lyda Roberti? What did you think of her?

[feaito]

Yes it is Judith. She's a total riot, a hoot!

I wrote this back in 2004 when I first saw the film:

This 1933 Paramount film, is a sophisticated and greatly acted drama, with the Depression as background and a powerful performance by the great comedienne and actress, Claudette Colbert, as a chic "fallen" woman. I'd even dare to say that this one pleased me even more than that other favorite 1934 tearjerker, "Imitation Of Life".

Awesome Miss Colbert's costumes, designed by the best Hollywood costume designer of all time, Travis Banton, to "showcase" her "conversion", when she turns into the successful "Torch" Singer-Mimi Benton-of the Title.

Great performance by Latin-named, but European born, Ricardo Cortez, as Miss Colbert's lover and mentor and a good one too by David Manners, as the rich guy, who "unwantedly" & "unknowingly" disgraced Miss Colbert's life.

Nice acting by beautiful Mildred Washington, who plays Miss Colbert's maid, and "punchy" Lyda Roberti, who plays an earthy woman who befriends Colbert in the beginning of the film. Ethel Griffies, gives a good "nasty" performance, as Manners' stiff-upper-lip, aristocratic, embittered aunt.

Mention apart deserves Charley Grapewin as the mischievous sponsor of Miss Colbert's Radio Show. He delivers some great lines!

I won't add anything more about the plot of the movie, 'cos you oughta watch it for yourselves! A must see for Pre-Code and 1930's film lovers!

[jdb1]

Thanks for the review, Nando. I'm sorry to say I haven't seen this entire film, only some clips which are available on YouTube. It looks very intriguing.

There are also a few for the most part pretty poor-quality clips of Roberti from various movies on YouTube, and it's evident even from these brief clips that she was really something. Good-looking, good singer and dancer, deft comedienne, and dynamic screen presence. Her very early loss was a sad one. I think the closest match to the "can do it all" Roberti in contemporary musical-comedy performers is probably someone like Bernadette Peters.

And don't forget Roberti's wonderful performance as Mata Machree, "The Woman No Man Can Resist," in Million Dollar Legs. The entire movie is on YouTube, and "a hoot" is certainly the best way to describe Roberti. "Eeet's terrreefeek!"

[feaito]

Thanks for your input re. Lyda Roberti. I'll look for "Million Dollar Legs" on Youtube. She also appeared in an Eddie Cantor film if I recall well.

[feaito]

Thanks to Christine I got to see the very interesting "Daughter of the Dragon" (1931) which contains the only teaming of the legendary Chinese actress Anna May Wong and the equally legendary Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa (playing a Chinese character). Wong is the daughter of the evil Doctor Fu Manchu (Warner Oland) and has sworn to avenge his family. Bramwell Flecther plays the last member of the family who reportedly caused the disgrace of the Fu House in China. Although the film is rather stiff most of the time, there are some interesting sequences and is worth watching for early talkies lovers -like me.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched The Black Watch (1929, J. Ford) with Myrna Loy et Victor McLaglen. This is one of the worst pictures I have ever seen in my life. The script is inept, the acting atrocious and the direction nonexistent. Myrna is a warrior queen near the Khyber pass who falls in love with Cpt King (V. McLaglen). She wears some incredible attire including a dress where her nipples are highlighted by buttons sewed inside the fabric! McLaglen is so wooden you feel he is going to take root any minute. Neither of them seem to believe a word they are saying. And their delivery is so awful: a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-t-i-n-g every word....OMG! I felt I was watching Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968)...except that this one was meant to be serious! Certainly, John Ford's worst picture.

After this terrible letdown, I watched a snappy little programmer The Star Witness (1931, WA Wellman) where a family happens to witness a shooting between gangsters and ends up being threatened and kidnapped by them. Walter Huston plays with his usual charm the district attorney who is trying to indict the murderer using the family's testimony. We get to see Loretta Young's sister, Sally Blane, cute little Dickie Moore and a host of other character actors. The violence in some scenes shows it's a pre-code. The film felt like a masterpiece after that terrible Ford.

[drednm]

I watched the one reel or fragments thereof that exist of Marion Davies' 1923 Adam and Eva, which looks like it would have been a decent comedy about a rich girl (Davies) and her siblings who are rich and spoiled. The exasperated father is meeting with a young executive (T. Roy Barnes) about sending him back to a rubber plantation in South America. But the executive complains about how lonely life is there. The father is desperate for solitude so they agree to exchange places with Barnes in charge of the ditzy family. The scene then shifts to the family living happily on a farm when daddy returns. Barnes has told them the old man was financially ruined and has gotten them all, led by Davies, to work for their livings.

Although the archive where this fragment is stored claims this to be reel 5 of 8, it's not a complete reel or apparently from one reel since plotwise it certainly seems we have a piece of the setup and a piece of the conclusion. Davies looks great in her 1923 costumes and it's interesting to see Barnes, famous from the Carl LaFong bit in W.C. Fields' It's a Gift in a leading role. Maybe more of this film will surface some day.

[feaito]

Yesterday I watched a very good early talkie "24 Hours" (1931), a Paramount film directed by Marion Gering and starring Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins and Regis Toomey. I was quite blown away by Miriam Hopkins' superb performance as a brassy nightclub singer who's involved with Clive Brook, who plays a millionaire married to Kay Francis, who's involved with another man (Minor Watson). The film is very short (66 minutes). Francis and Brook are basically calling it quits, Brook is permanently inebriated and completely at loss. His beautiful wife (Francis never looked so elegant, sexy and sophisticated in a series of sexy gowns, dresses and furs) is not happy with her life either nor with her current beau. Hopkins gets to sing two torch songs -so sincerely delivered and she has a fine voice- and looks very beautiful in super sexy in sequined evening gown; she also has problems with her no-good, cowardly husband, a hit man played by Regis Toomey. Interesting camera shots and premise that all the events of the film take place within 24 hours.

[drednm]

Fernando I knew you'd like 24 Hours... and yes Miriam Hopkins is superb....

[feaito]

I liked it very much indeed Ed and as much as the I liked the aforementioned film, perhaps I liked even more: "Honor Among Lovers" (1931), directed by Dorothy Arzner with Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Charles Ruggles, Monroe Owsley and Ginger Rogers. March is a millionaire and Colbert his super-efficient secretary....there's a lot of chemistry between the boss and his secretary, but marriage is not on March's plans and Colbert wants a home, so she marries an apparently fine fellow (very well played by Monroe Owsley) who works as a stockbroker, but he turns to be a cad, of the worst sort. Charlie Ruggles is a hoot, as usual, as March's pal and Ginger Rogers is very funny as his dizzy fiancée. The film impressed me for its modernness and its adult quality. Colbert and March are both superb and play their characters very honestly and thus make them believable. This film definitely deserves a release on DVD. There are lot of hidden gems in Paramount's 1930s catalogue and many underrated movies.

BTW, in both films Kay, Miriam and Claudette look so sexy and attractive in their classy gowns! Wow! I guess that Travis Banton -one of the great designers of all time- was responsible for them, although I do not remember reading his name in the films' credits.

[feaito]

I watched Herbert Brenon's "A Kiss for Cinderella" (1925), a beautiful, magical and inventive film starring the very beautiful and talented Betty Bronson. She's such a petite beauty and has an incredibly expressive face. Ms. Bronson gives a very moving performance as the title character, in fact her perfect looks, flawless features, frail femininity and her unaffected and natural acting style reminded me a lot of Lillian Gish. This film deserves to undergo a thorough restoration process and to be released on DVD (or Blu-Ray) just as "Peter Pan" (1924) was. Miss Bronson plays a half-starved, poor maid in London during WWI, who lives in her own fantasy world. She's befriended by and old man and a tough but good natured policeman (Tom Moore). There's a fantastic, offbeat ball dream sequence in which Bronson is a very special Cinderella and in which the King & Queen offer the weirdest kind of food given in a ball to their guests... and when they are standing beside their thrones they get hold like if they were riding the tube! A lost gem of the Silent Cinema. Thanks Edward.

[JackFavell]

Oh god, if ever there was a candidate for restoration, it would be A Kiss for Cinderella, and fast, because it is deteriorating right before our eyes.

I LOVED the movie, every character and every frame. Betty Bronson is a wonderful natural actress, and I find Tom Moore to be the perfect hero in this film - at start, a stodgy humorless policeman, melted into kindly humanity by the gentle fun-loving nature of Betty. This kind of movie just isn't made any more and it's a crying shame. The odd little touches (the beds attached to the walls, the weird dream sequence) really make this film special. There should be a place in the world for this kind of whimsy and fairy-tale.

[drednm]

A charming film indeed. Betty Bronson was a winner and is just about totally forgotten now... she made a few forgettable talkies and disappeared.

I watched Devil-May-Care tonight and liked it. The 3 stars were solid even if the story seemed overly familiar. Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, and Marion Harris (in her only major film) had charm to spare and the songs weren't bad either. Thanks Fernando.

[drednm]

More on Devil-May-Care... Apparently the "Love Ballet" number with Albertina Rasch dancers was originally shot in 2-strip Technicolor. I thought this number rather jarring since it didn't fit into the plot of the film. Music for the number was by Rasch's husband, Dimitri Tiomkin. The color clip is on YouTube but not in the film.....

The film was Novarro's third 1929 release to break $1M (internationally) (with The Flying Fleetand The Pagan)and the 3rd most successful film of his career. While reviews were mostly ok, it was a personal success as Novarro's starring talkie debut.

The original title was The Battle of the Ladies... good choice to change that one!