WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

Sounds wonderfully futuristic! I am having a hard time picturing the future Mrs. Colman/Sanders taking off her clothes in ways that don't advance the narrative.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

It - Starring Clara Bow

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I just watched this silent film starring Clara Bow as It. She played a character named Betty Lou Spence and she was delightful as she can be ... this movie is a classic - so charming and incredibly playful too. It was on TCM last night and I was so entertained by this movie and the way its turned out at the end.

I just loved it.
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Gagman 66
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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:? This was the same print transfer of IT that TCM always has shown since May of 1999. The Thames Silents edition with a great Carl Davis score long out of print on DVD fom Milestone. Ben mentions a nitrate film print of IT being found in Prague in the 60's? That is certainly news to me. As far as I know Paul Killiam pinched the only surviving print after Paramount literally pitched it out into the street. He also mentions extensive restoration taking place? But Kevin Brownlow said that it has not been restored in any way. Just was an exceptionally well preserved Nitrate-print that was used for this transfer. So very confusing. Maybe there is a newer restoration that was screened at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April in 35 millimeter? IT is a title I would like to see Kino, Image Flicker Alley or someone, put out in a Ultimate Edition on Blu-ray with both the Davis and William Perry scores.

You can get a great transfer of MANTRAP (1926) on DVD authorized by Paramount as part of the TREASURES WEST BOX SET. Treasures From The American Film Archive Volume 5. Also includes WOMAN HANDLED (1925) with Richard Dix and Esther Ralston plus allot more. Well worth picking up, And of course WINGS is beautifully restored on Blu-ray and DVD from Paramount. Someone asked about CHILDREN OF DIVORCE I know people who have seen this at festivals, but have never been able to find a copy on DVD-R anyplace. I do have an excellent transfer of HULA. Not the cheap dupes found on Ebay.

Speaking of Blu-ray don't tell me everyone here missed the announcement last week of THE BIG PARADE finally being released October first? It only took Warner's 9 years to finally get the not so new anymore restoration to hit the market. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first Silent Warner's has released on Blu-ray Unless, I missed something in the recent Romance Classics Box-set? We might get a TCM Premiere in December, but I sort of doubt it will be shown until veterans day in November.


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Fossy
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (1927)

George O`Brien—The Man
Janet Gaynor—The Wife
[b]Margaret Livingston[/b]—The Woman From The City

A great show, but it dragged a bit in the middle, so much so that I asked myself “when is it going to end”. The man and the wife are happily married , with a young daughter. The man becomes infatuated with the woman from the city, who persuades him to murder his wife and come away to the city with her.
He looked evil as he approached his wife to drown her, but he could not go on with it. The terrified wife fled when they reached the shore. In the city they eventually made up, and when they were returning home a storm upset the boat, and they were both in the water. The man reached the shore but the wife could not be found.

When the woman approached him, the man tried to kill her, but just in time he received word of his wife`s rescue.

At sunrise the woman was on her way back to the city, and the man and the wife were in each other`s arms.

I think that the acting in this movie was superb, The love for the man shone from the woman, followed by the terrible fear of him, and then again the love for him at the end. The passion of the man and the woman from the city, followed by the intense hatred at the end of the man for the woman. The evil countenance of the man as he approached his wife to murder her would make Boris Karloff look like a kindergarten boy.

Excluding tv, shorts, and uncredited movies Janet Gaynor appeared in 38 movies. Unfortunately I have only 12 of them.
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

Certainly Gaynor is one of the most underrated actresses in classic film.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched Downstairs again, John Gilbert is simply terrific and this is such a good bridging role from the matinee idol to actor trying to branch out into more substantial roles, he's terrific, I simply hate him for the bounder he is but don't want to see him in any big trouble. I wonder if he felt hope after making it, or just enjoyed taking his paycheck. It's such a pity there wasn't more room for him at MGM, I love Gable and company but I have room enough for Gilbert too.

I also watched Doorway to Hell an early Cagney movie that starred Lew Ayres, Cagney really stands out, it's easy to say that because he became the star but he just dominates. I do like Lew Ayres though, he was made for good guy roles but there wasn't much for him to stand out with here apart from the death of his little brother. I also watched The Reckless Hour with Dorothy Mackaill, interesting, there were many films made along these lines of girl goes to the wrong side of the tracks, this isn't one that stands out for me, I usually like Dorothy but she seemed a bit too mature to be playing a young innocent girl.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

I feel just the same about Gilbert, I think he could have done anything had his health been better.

I love Doorway to Hell Alison... Cagney really bowls you over, he's such a standout that you wonder it took the studio even a year to get him into starring roles. When the movie starts, it's hard to imagine Ayres as a tough guy but I think he does a great job of pulling it off by the end. I really REALLY like this movie.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I like Lew Ayres, he's a complete contrast to Cagney but I've never seen him as a bad guy and so enmeshed for me as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front. For me Doorway to Hell was a look at things to come, both for Cagney and gangster pictures in general.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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It is more of a precursor. I just was surprised at how effective Ayres was, I didn't think he had it in him to do it. It's not his greatest role or anything, but he makes it work pretty well considering. When I think of what some of the other boy leads from that time might have done with the role, it makes me cringe.
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movieman1957
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by movieman1957 »

I watched D.W. Griffith's "America." A rousing film set in the days of the Revolutionary War centered around a Massachusetts farmer and his love for the daughter of a man still loyal to the king.

Neil Hamilton (TV Batman's Commissioner Gordon - and always will be) plays the farmer/courier and Carol Dempster plays his love. They, as well as the main cast, do a fine job that is mostly devoid of the often times overacting in some silent pictures. Lionel Barrymore is on hand as an evil British officer responsible for some terrible acts of war. Period costumes and colonial settings are really good. I thought the characters were well established.

When they get into the meat of the story it really picks up. And the last 40 minutes is pretty exciting. The climax shows Barrymore invading a fort where there is a pretty intense battle. It is well played with only one issue and that is that though the guns looked authentic several of the bit players at times used them as if they were newer guns that were not muskets. A small point and hardly a distraction.

I liked it.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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I would love to see it Chris ... man, this is good stuff that you've shared here.
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movieman1957
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by movieman1957 »

Thanks. I got it from Netflix.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I've never seen America, Griffiths later work seems mired in controversy but as has been proven with countless others just because movie writers write them off it doesn't mean that the work outside of their greatest works don't have merits.

I rewatched Heroes For Sale, Richard Barthelmess as a war hero, only he didn't get decorated, it went to someone else by mistake. He seems soch a long way from Tol'able David, Broken Blossoms and even farther still from his character in Only Angels Have Wings , I've always liked him as an actor and he's so effective here as the everyman hero who is brave, innovative but wearied from battle. He can't settle working in the bank, he becomes a delivery man after being weaned off the heroine he'd been given in the POW camp for pain, he makes his round successful, then he backs a machine that eventually makes everyone unemployed, he gets put into prison for inciting a riot when he was only there to stop it. At every turn life was bad to him apart from in two regards, he had a beautiful son with Loretta Young (who was killed in the riot) and he made a fortune from his backing the invention ( the inventor going from socialist to capitalist once successful) and he gives all his money away to fund a soup kitchen run by Aline Macmahon. I like these movies because they give a glimpse of the reality of the Depression, it has warner's gloss but Warner's has the knack with themes like this.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

I'm definitely renting America, Chris. I do love Griffith when he doesn't blunder into "issues." Some of his camera set ups and angles are so beautiful, and yet, when he gets it right, it's completely natural, rather than forced. You ought to try some of his "Years of Discovery" dvd's. The first couple of films are pretty tough going, but suddenly there are leaps and bounds happening, and his early films show incredible emotion and growth as a filmmaker. I think John Ford took a page out of Griffith's book as far as tableaux are concerned. They both have a way of effortlessly moving characters into the most fabulous pictures while remaining in a natural pattern of movement. I know it's de riguer to knock him, but I think he was a great filmmaker, whether or not he was the innovator his reputation would have us believe or not. Like many greats, he was his own worst enemy.

I haven't ever sat down to Heroes for Sale, Alison, but I recorded it some time ago thanks to some reviews here and I guess it's time for a look. You got me when you mentioned Aline MacMahon.
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