WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[MichiganJ]

ccf:
If you liked Josephine Baker in ZouZou you have to see her in Siren of the Tropics. Her unabashed overacting and effervescent charm is irresistible. The film itself is wacky as anything, ranging from slapstick to pure melodrama and back again, but Baker does do her version of the “Charleston” and is free with that infectious smile of hers. Be warned that, while not gratuitous, she’s also free showing her “assets”, but Baker is obviously enjoying every moment, and this film is a pure gem.

Baker is also in the wonderful La Revue des Revues, although she appears in only two dance sequences (is she really doing the Charelston?). The set-up is even more wafer-thin than the early Hollywood musicals, and is basically an excuse to see many of the actual performances done on the stages in Paris, circa 1927. All of the dances feature elaborate sets and costumes and, did I forget to mention, this Silent film is in COLOR! The historical value alone is worth the price of admission, but this film, too, is wonderful.

[coopsgirl]

I recently watched Seventh Heaven (1927) and City Girl (1929). Both star Charles Farrell with Janet Gaynor and Mary Duncan respectively. I would label them both romantic dramas and I really enjoyed them. I’d give the edge to Seventh Heaven though b/c there was a little more character development in that one and it was such a unique story.

Gaynor’s character Diane is a poor, shy girl who lives with her druggie sister who beats her. One day Farrell’s character Chico (who works in the sewer but yearns to be a street washer) sees Diane’s sister attacking her in the streets and he ends up feeling sorry for her and tells the police she is his wife and he takes her home with him. They end up falling in love and my favorite scene is when Chico comes home with a wedding dress he bought for Diane. He doesn’t outright ask her to marry him but when she asks if it’s a wedding dress he says it is. He’s sweet but a little rough around the edges. She wants him to say he loves her and he tries but says he feels silly saying it. She’s upset but then he says “Chico, Diane – Heaven!” I thought that was great and much more meaningful between these two then him simply saying “I love you”.







City Girl stars Farrell as a good natured farm boy who goes to the city to sell his family’s wheat crop. In a diner he meets Mary Duncan, a waitress who longs for life in the country. When he gets his food, he says Grace over it and Mary along with another waitress watch him and smile as they’re not used to seeing this amongst their customers. Mary and Charles take a shine to each other and end up getting married just before Charles was about to head back to his farm. Their happiness is short lived however as his father is not happy with the union. He says a girl that would marry that quickly can’t be worth having. At one point, the father even hits her and that whole confrontation was very well done and I thought Mary Duncan did an especially good job.

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[MissGoddess]

I really love all the Farrell/Gaynor romances directed by Borzage---if you get a chance to see Street Angel, that one I remember as my favorite. But they are all excellent and were my first real introduction to Borzage's romantic style that has since become a favorite with me.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Supposedly Fox is releasing a DVD Boxset around Christmas of Borzage and Murnau silents, with these titles: Murnau - Sunrise, Four Devils (fragments) and City Girl and Borzage - Lazybones, Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, The River (fragments), Lucky Star, They Had to See Paris, Song O' My Heart and Liliom.

[coopsgirl]

That would be awesome and I would definitely buy both of those sets!!

[charliechaplinfan]

I've got to have that Borzage set.

Thanks MichaganJ for the heads up on Josephine Baker, I'll be looking in to the films.

[feaito]

Supposedly Fox is releasing a DVD Boxset around Christmas of Borzage and Murnau silents, with these titles: Murnau - Sunrise, Four Devils (fragments) and City Girl and Borzage - Lazybones, Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, The River (fragments), Lucky Star, They Had to See Paris, Song O' My Heart and Liliom.

These are fantastic news!!!

[Gagman 66]

Fernando,

I just hope the Fox sets will be ready in time for the Holidays? Nothing has been announced officially to this point as far as I know? And how do we know that they won't strip away the vintage Erno-Rapee Lew Pollack, Maurice Barron, Movie-tone scores, like they did with John Ford's FOUR SONS? I shutter to even think of such a thing! Those scores are positively irreplaceable! I can't imagine SEVENTH HEAVEN minus "Diane", or STREET ANGEL without "Angela Mia"! For goodness sake, just clean the tracks up a little. That music could never be surpassed by anyone!

I never thought in a Million years that SEVENTH HEAVEN, and STREET ANGEL, may actually beat THE BIG PARADE to official DVD, but it certainly looks like this will happen? Unbelievable!

Next year 2009, is the 85th Anniversary of MGM. So, maybe, just maybe, we will get a whole bunch of MGM Silents released to commemorate the event? Although, I certainly won't count on it.

[feaito]

Maybe "The Big Parade" will also be released next year. Let's not lose our hopes. It's important that the companies are aware that there is a market for Silent films.

[Gagman 66]

Fernando,

Yes, again TCM programmer Charles Tabesh is telling me that THE BIG PARADE will "almost certainly be out on DVD, and back on TCM next year. I don't know how soon in the year though? Again they simply must keep the original William Axt, David, and Glenn Mendoza score from 1925. Hopefully, a complete reprisal by Robert Israel and His Orchestra. Carl Davis kept much of the scoring in-tact in his arrangement for the film. I am desperate to hear the original score ever since Jack Theakston said it was much better than the Davis one back in 2005 on the Harold Lloyd forum, after hearing it performed at a live screening! He saw the new restoration of THE BIG PARADE twice in 2005. Both times with the original score.

Even where Live Orchestra's, House Bands, or Theater Organ were playing for films like SEVENTH HEAVEN, and STREET ANGEL. "My Diane, and "Angela Mia" were still part of the live scoring released with these movies to theaters. Scoring was not nearly so make-shift for many Silent films as we are often led to believe.

[Ann Harding]

Thanks to Jeffrey, I was able to watch Tod Browning's The Blackbird (1926) with Lon Chaney, Owen Moore and Renée Adorée. This is really typical of Browning's universe: seedy bars, physical deformities and evil deeds...
Lon Chaney is the Blackbird, a thief and murderer while during the day he plays at being a crippled do-gooder, aka 'The Bishop'. He fights with Owen Moore to take his girlfriend away, Renée Adorée. Overall, quite fun and entertaining. Though, it's not quite as gripping as West of Zanzibar or Freaks. Thanks Jeffrey!

[Gagman 66]

Christine,

I really liked THE BLACKBIRD, or THE BLACK BIRD as it is listed in the TCM Movie Data Base. But then I like anything with Renee Adoree. Great print, and a fine Robert Israel score too. This film was released in January of 1926, so it is essentially a 1925 film. THE BIG PARADE would have still been playing all over the country in it's initial release when THE BLACKBIRD came out. Giving Renee a couple high profile titles running at the same time! Definitely, among Chaney's best performances, and maybe Tod Browning's most underrated feature?

What's more according to Charles Tabesh, after several conversations back and forth, I apparently have managed to get this movie on the TCM October schedule here in the States! The change has not been made On-line yet. I am not sure what part of the month that it will air? As the film is an American TCM premier, I would hope it would receive a little build up and a decent slot? I am taking the Man at his word on this. I am sure that He would not fib about it. So this is exciting news, since the version I have has the foreign translations under the English title-cards. I will now be able to record it without these. Wish I had a better poster, but this is the only one I have found so far.

[MikeBSG]

I just watched a DVD with "Blind Husbands" and "The Great Gabbo" on it.

I really was impressed with "Blind Husbands." This was 1919? I would have bet on a later date, because it seemed very sophisticated in its cross-cutting between subplots. This was easily the best von Stroheim film I've seen. It stayed to the point and didn't have bizarre scenes or characters who seemed to exist solely for shocking the little old ladies of Peoria.

Does anyone know if this film had any influence on the Germans and their "mountain films" of the Weimar and Nazi eras? There was a real sense of "heimat" about this film.

"The Great Gabbo" was a real surprise. A thumbnail description I had read made it sound like a horror movie about an insane ventriloquist. Also, I had seen it describe as a prototype film noir. It is actually neither of those things but rather a backstage drama about the rise and fall of a performer.

It is actually pretty good, BUT I guess this was from that era in talkie history when every film had to be a musical. The musical numbers were okay, but they stopped the plot absolutely dead. Not only did we see the principle singers perform, but then we had to see the chorus dance after they finished. "The Great Gabbo" could have packed a real punch with a much shorter running time, but all the musical numbers made it feel bloated.

I kept thinking of Lon Chaney as I watched "Gabbo." He could have done this. He played a ventriloquist in "The Unholy Three." Also, I was so surprised at how flat and ordinary von Stroheim sounded, just like I was surprised by Chaney's voice in the talkie "The Unholy Three."

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just watched Love with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Gilbert and Garbo in Love, a marketing man's dream. They are good, Garbo never looked lovelier and John Gilbert is the most dashing Vronsky I've seen on film.

Their first meeting in the storm and her unveiling in the inn was shown in the Hollywood series. At this early stage of Garbo's Hollywood career she was looking to John Gilbert for direction, he directed all her scenes.

I think most of know the story of Anna Karenina, there's been many adaptations, this is the only one with a happy ending and I quite like it for that.

I can't think of Vronsky as a proper match for both in this film and in the book. He acts like a spoiled child when confronted by Anna's love for her son, he wants to be loved best, as if it's a comptetion, although in Love he does come to terms with her love for her son.

I've watched both Garbo versions, she is suited to the melancholy Anna. Her chemistry with Gilbert is rivalled by that of her son played by Phillip De Lacy, the chemistry and love displayed when Anna/Garbo comes back to visit him is my favorite scene in the film.

I think Flesh and the Devil is still my favorite Garbo/Gilbert film bujt not by much.

[Gagman 66]

Alison,

In all honesty, I have never been able to appreciate LOVE in the way I have most of the others. Mainly due to the music score recorded at a live screening sometime back in the Mid 90's. I don't think allot of this score, it just repeates the same few themes over, and over. Plus you can hear every little cough, and whisper from the audiance, which is a real pain. Warner's should commision a different score altogether for this picture than what it has now.

I'll probably dub my own music sometime, and I might like this film allot better. I still perfer A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS though.