WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Wow! You did watch a number of great films Kevin. I agree about "The last Command" (a terrific film in all aspects). Marvellous. "Underworld" I have yet to see (have a copy) & "The Silver Horde" is small gem I discovered many years ago. The kind of role played by Evelyn Brent in that one was the type in which Stanwyck later excelled in later on.

[charliechaplinfan]

Some great movies there MichiganJ. I think The Last Command is one of the better films of the late twenties, it's my favorite Emil Jannings performance.

[feaito]

I saw an interesting French film "Catherine, Une Vie Sans Joie" (1924), a film co-directed by Albert Dieudonné (who later played the title role in Gance's "Napoléon" (1927)) and Jean Renoir. It stars Catherine Hessling who plays a servant who's humiliated by some members of the ruling class and passes through many awful things during the length of the feature. Only good-natured Monsieur Maillet (Louis Gauthier) and his sister Madame Laisné (Eugénie Nau) are nice to her. I was impressed by Mme. Nau's portrayal of the widowed mother of Dieudonné's melancholic, doomed character. The film is very melodramatic, but the use of the camera, the cinematography and the tackling of certain social issues, such as the hipocrisy of the ruling classes and what goes on in the "bas-fonds" of Nice is most interesting. Ms. Hessling is very effective in the leading role, but at only 24 years old, she looks much older due to the excessive use of make-up- That's my only complaint; she had quite a beautiful face (resembling Gloria Swanson's) and she was playing a young, naïve maid, so the amount of make-upe she used -in comparison with other female performers featured in the film- was unnecessary and affected the credibilty of her impersonation -her facial look was more that of a rich and spoiled lady than that of a demure girl.

[Ann Harding]

(Lil Dagover)
Yesterday I went to see a Julien Duvivier silent called Le Tourbillon de Paris (The maelstrom of Paris, 1928) with Lil Dagover and Léon Bary. It proved a worthy trip. It's among the best Duvivier silents I have seen. Amiscia (L. Dagover), once a famous opera singer, has retired in an isolated mountain village. Her husband, a Scottish aristocrat, comes to take her back. But once in Paris, she refuses to go back to Aberdeen and instead resumes her career in Paris. Alas, a man she rejected organises a cabal during her comeback performance. She has a terrible attack of stage fright. After a while she recovers enough composure to be able to resume singing and win over the public. That was the best sequence in the film. Lil Dagover, a German silent star (she was in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari) is really superb in the lead. She manages to give the part real humanity. I think that's what makes the film stand apart of those cheap novel adaptations that litered French cinema in the 20s. The main character here is a woman full of doubts, fear and desire to perform. Dagover knows how to convey those feelings very well. Duvivier is using a lot dissolves and double exposure to illustrate the feelings of Dagover. It feels sometimes a little too much, but for the main sequence on stage, it's just right. Dagover is behaving like somebody who is drowning and the sea waves crashing around convey that terrible feeling of stage fright. Thinking about it, this is exactly the image that Powell & Pressburger used in The Red Shoes when Moira Shearer is dancing on stage. Another sequence illustrated Lil Dagover's singing a Fauré art song called Les Berceaux (the cradles) with some great double exposures: the ships leaving the harbour and the women left behind rocking a cradle. Dimitri Kirsanoff shot a talkie short in 1935 called Les Berceaux with that same art song. (You can view it on YouTube: here). Kirsanoff obviously got the idea from Duvivier as the illustration is virtually similar. Overall, it was a very nice discovery in a very good print to boot.
Léon Bary & Lil Dagover

[drednm]

Having just finished a biography of Mabel Normand by Betty Fussell, I re-watched Raggedy Rose, a short film starring Normand as a juank man's assistant. A few years after The Extra Girl and after a disastrous stage attempt, Normand returned to films but with Hal Roach. Her final set of shorts for Roach have a bittersweet quality as Normand, in bad health, goes through her paces. There are funny bits and the stories are ok but the films are nothing special. Indeed, her contract with Roach was for 6 films; she completed 5.

Funniest parts here are Mabel with a mountainous pile of discarded clothing that she must sort and Mabel and junk man Max Davidson with their mechanical cats, howling behind a fence so people will throw tin cans or whatever at the cats.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched The Love of Jeanne Ney (1928, GW Pabst) with Edith Jéhanne et U. Henning. The film starts in Crimea where Jeanne Ney's (E. Jéhanne) father is killed. Being French, she goes back to Paris to live with her uncle, leaving behind Andreas (U. Henning) whom she loves. The sinister Khalibiev (F. Rasp) enters her uncle household and starts romancing his blind daughter (Brigitte Helm)... This is a Pabst film I enjoyed very much. After a very strong start in Crimea, we move to Paris where he uses to the full the Parisian locations (les Halles and les Buttes-Chaumont). Edith Jéhanne appeared in several Raymond Bernard pictures (Tarakanova, The Chess Player, Triplepatte) and her lovely face is always a pleasure to behold. Here, she is caught in a web of deceit surrounded by the malevolent Khalibiev and her libidinous uncle. We find the hallmarks of Pabst showing the dark recess of the human mind with his extreme close-ups and claustrophobic shadows. The story-telling is extremely well handled. I should add that the Kino edition has a very good score by Thimothy Brock which is quite reminiscent of Herrmann's Vertigo. Very good film.

[Ann Harding]

The French Cinémathèque is organizing a Pola Negri season at the moment. So yesterday I went to see A Woman of the World (1925, Mal St. Clair) with Chester Conklin and Holmes Herbert. It proved to be a very funny comedy where Pola playing an Italian Countess arrives in a small midwestern town. She is completely at odds with the place: looking furiously sensual covered in feathers, diamonds, pearls and even a tatoo on her arm. Her cousin (Chester Conklin) receives her in his house and she is immediately the talk of the town, especially because the local DA wants to rid the city of its sins and sinners... What made the film so funny was the fact that Pola looked so out-of-place in such a small town. They really played on her vamp image. I adored the scene where she asks Holmes Herbert (the very stern Lanyon in Mamoulian's Dr Jeckyl & Mr Hyde) to lit her cigarette knowing full well he despises smoking women. He virtually turns to jelly before our very eyes! The idea of using Chester Conklin to play Pola's cousin was brilliant as they are so different. A real fun evening!

[Ann Harding]

Today I saw The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna, 1929) directed by Hanns Schwarz with Brigitte Helm and Franz Lederer. This melodrama has been restored from the original camera negative and the image is just breathtakingly beautiful. Brigitte Helm looks absolutely gorgeous bathed in a surreal light that makes her look like Garbo. This melodrama takes place in St Petersburg before the Revolution. Nina Petrovna (B. Helm) is the mistress of a Colonel, until she meets the youthfull Lt Rostoff (Franz Lederer). Madly in love with him, she leaves her rich lover to live in poverty. Alas, fate is against them and she has to go back to her former lover when he threatens to name Rostoff as a cheat... Brigitte Helm has never looked more human and feminine as in this film. Her Nina Petrovna is extremely moving. Franz Lederer (later called Francis Lederer in Hollywood) is a very naive young man who will bring disaster into Nina's live quite unwittingly. The film was accompanied by the original score by Maurice Jaubert (a great French film composer of the 30s) which enhanced enormously the film. This is the perfect package: glorious images, great music and great acting. Let's hope that this restoration will find its way onto DVD.

[JackFavell]

Both of those films sound absolutely fantastic, Ann Harding! I have NEVER seen Brigitte Helm look as good as she does there, I really had no idea it was her. And Franz Lederer is one of my all time favorites, I only wish I could see his face in that still.

The Pola Negri one sounds charming and funny. I'll have to check and see if either of these are available here.

[MichiganJ]

Today I saw The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna, 1929)

I think this is one of the very best silent films. The ease in which the opening sequence spells out Nina's character is silent film at its purist. And Brigitte Helm is terrific. (Not to mention gorgeous.)

[feaito]

Wow Christine, you have seen quite a few intriguing, rare films, especially the latter which stars Brigitte Helm and Francis Lederer; after reading your comments and seeing that gorgeous still -Brigitte Helm resembles Lilian Harvey in it- from the movie and reading Kevin's comments, I would definitely buy it right away if it were released on DVD.

The Lil Dagover and Pola Negri films sound very interesting too. BTW, I have "The Love of Jeanne Ney" and I will watch it ASAP.

[feaito]

Thanks to Christine I got to see the magnificently opulent and sumptuous super-production "Casanova" (1927) starring Ivan Mosjoukine in the title role. At 2 hours 13 minutes of length the film is absolutely entertaining, enjoyable and beautifully filmed. We follow Casanova's exploits through Venice, Austria and Russia. The cinematography is quite outstanding and the Venice Carnival segment is shot in colour. Mosjoukine is totally right as the mischievous Casanova and he reminded me of John Barrymore's tongue-in-cheek performance in "The Beloved Rogue" (1927), because he resembles him physically. Loved it.

[Ann Harding]

The cinematography is quite outstanding and the Venice Carnival segment is shot in colour.

Really happy to read that you enjoyed it! Actually the Carnival sequence was not shot in colour. It's a sequence that was hand-coloured using stencils. In Europe, the two-strips Technicolor was not in use at the time.

[feaito]

The cinematography is quite outstanding and the Venice Carnival segment is shot in colour.

Really happy to read that you enjoyed it! Actually the Carnival sequence was not shot in colour. It's a sequence that was hand-coloured using stencils. In Europe, the two-strips Technicolor was not in use at the time.

Thanks for the correction Christine. I was doubtful because of the high quality of the hand-colouring. It really looks as it had been shot in two-strip Technicolor.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I saw the very rare Bella Donna (1923, G. Fitzmaurice) with Pola Negri, Adolphe Menjou, Conway Tearle and Conrad Nagel. The film seems to have been restored recently from various prints. Alas, the quality is not great: it's a grainy dupe though entirely tinted. As for the film itself, well, let's say it's a real turkey! Ruby (P. Negri) is married to a jealous husband (A. Menjou) who kills a man who tried to kiss her. Later, in London, she seduces a young engineer (C. Nagel) who is going to inherit a big fortune. Alas, he doesn't, so she decides to poison him helped by her lover, Prince Baroubi (Conway Tearle in a black face). As you can see, Ouida Bergère's script is really a cheap soap opera. BTW Ouida was hiding, under that overblown nickname, the very plebeian Ida Berger. Then the wife of Fitzmaurice, she wrote his scripts. Here, George seems to be going through the motions and shoots everything rather flatly. None of the actors seems to really believe in his part. I doubt that even in 1923, the film could have been successful. Pola is overdressed in some rather ridiculous costumes and on top, not a single scene was shot on locations. We get only some rather ugly painted backdrop of Egypt and Venice. A real turkey.