WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

I wonder if The Farmer's Wife is the same entity as the British play by Eden Philpotts? In my reading recently, TFW has been mentioned in different books as a workhorse play given to young actors who were up and coming in The Birmingham Rep. Both Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier played it extensively before hitting their respective strides. It must have been terribly popular. The one picture I have from the production with Richardson seems to fit your description perfectly. Is the main character's name Richard Coaker?


Ralph Richardson with Primrose Morgan

I will definitely be giving this movie a look-see.

[charliechaplinfan]

I haven't watched either of those Hitchcock films, I'm glad you got to watch them at the CF.

[Ann Harding]

I wonder if The Farmer's Wife is the same entity as the British play by Eden Philpotts? In my reading recently, TFW has been mentioned in different books as a workhorse play given to young actors who were up and coming in The Birmingham Rep. Both Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier played it extensively before hitting their respective strides. It must have been terribly popular. The one picture I have from the production with Richardson seems to fit your description perfectly. Is the main character's name Richard Coaker?


Ralph Richardson with Primrose Morgan
I will definitely be giving this movie a look-see.

Yes, it is based upon the play by Philpotts. Hitchcock managed to make it really enjoyable and unstagey. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

[JackFavell]

Thanks for the info and recommendation, Ann!

[drednm]

I watched Baroud (1932). Apparently this Rex Ingram talkie was released in English as Love in Morocco in 1933.

The English version stars Ingram as a Frenchman who falls for Zinah (Rosita Garcia) but this mismatch (for religious reasons) is frowned upon by her brother (Pierre Batcheff) who has fallen for a French chanteuse (Laura Salerni). There's also a tribal war (baroud) which thins out the population.

The Moroccan visuals are solid but the sound is weak, with lots of silent segments. Ingram is handsome but he can't act. Batcheff is quite striking and is a better actor than Ingram. Batcheff apparently died soon after this film was completed. Garcia is ok, and there's also a slave who acts as comic relief (Arabella Fields) who has her moments.

The film is historic as Ingram's only talkie and his final film. Add to this his co-director was silent star Alice Terry. She apparently directed scenes in which Ingram appeared. Terry is listed on IMDb as a cast member but I sure never saw her.

As the IMDb review mentions, there's a very moving scene at the film's finale where Ingram (on horseback) turns and waves to the camera (and the city) and then rides off into the desert sands. Rex's farewell to filmmaking.

When I asked Kevin Brownlow about this film, his comment was something like "Oy vey, what a mess." Yes, I guess. The parts were greater than the whole.

[drednm]

I also watched Hitchcock's Downhill (1927) starring Ivor Novello. I thought this was a fascinating film although it's not very well regarded.

Novello plays a wealthy Oxford student who stupidly takes the blame after a vindictive waitress points him out (his father is rich) as her seducer. The real seducer is his friend, but he takes the blame, assuming it will all blow over. But he gets expelled and sent home where his father pitches a fit and calls him a liar. Novello storms out of the house.

Cast into the cruel world, Novello must find his own way. In a brilliant sequence, following an intertitle that announces "make believe" we see a well dressed Novello holding a cup of coffee, but as the camera pulls back we see that he is holding a tray and serving coffee to a flashy couple (Isabel Jeans, Ian Hunter). Well at least he has a job! But then as the couple heads to the dance floor the camera pulls back again and we suddenly realize that, as the couple starts dancing, they are on a stage. The audience comes into view and a line of high-kicking dancers races out onto the stage.

Jeans turns out to be a selfish woman involved with Hunter. There is never enough money. Novello becomes a hanger-on until he receives a telegram with news about an inheritance. Jeans quickly marries Novello and starts spending freeely. Time passes. Jeans and Hunter are sitting in a lavish bedroom. She's endlessly sitting at dressing tables, admiring herself and her jewels. Novello comes home and find a pile of bills, an overdrawn notice from the bank, and Hunter in the closet. The apartment is in her name and he's thrown out into the cruel world.

Next we find Novello as a taxi dancer in Paris. He seems to have a "manager" who sells his dances and possibly more. While he dances we see a middle-aged age woman (Violet Farebrother) sitting at a table. She can't take her eyes off him. She arranges for an introduction. He babbles away, telling her his sad story while her eyes frankly devour him. Amazing sequence. But as morning dawns and the blinds are raised, Novello finally see this tawdry world of drunks and dissolutes and once again goes out into the cruel world to Marseilles.

Sick and broke, Novello is saved by a pair of sailors and put on a ship back to England after they find a returned letter. Do they think there will be a reward? During the voyage, Novello hallucinates and relives his past accounts with all the horrid women in his life. This is a beautifully done scene. Finally he arrives home.

I cannot think of another film from this era where the male is the societal victim and who, through nobility, suffers as he descends to the depths at the hands of women. Novello is actually playing a twist on the many Ruth Chatterton roles where she follows this sort of journey to find redemption and/or death. Along with The Lodger, this may be Ivor Novello's best film performance.

As for Hitchcock, there are many great scenes here and lots of symbolism as Novellos is seen on escalators and elevators going down, down, DOWN.

[Ann Harding]

I also liked Downhill very much. I think it owes a lot to Ivor Novello too. He was the author of the original story with Constance Collier. I am planning to go to see a tinted print soon at the CF (hopefully, it will be good!) rather than the B&W sold on DVD.

On Friday, I went to see another Hitchcock silent, The Ring (1927) with Carl Brisson and Lilian Hall-Davis. It's a love-triangle story between two boxers and the wife of one them. Carl Brisson is funfair boxer who catches the eye of boxing manager. He is hired to trained his champion (Ian Hunter). But the latter is in love with his wife (L. Hall-Davis). The story was told in a very straightforward fashion with some clever touches here and there, like the bracelet given to Lilian Hall-Davis by the champion which increases Brisson's jealousy. Alas, the print I saw was a terrible 16mm dupe with French titles. The film was accompanied by a pianist who did a fairly good job. Not a major Hitchcock silent, but well done.

[drednm]

I watched Laughter, a 1930 film starring Nancy Carroll and Fredric March. Many comments and reviews state this film as a forerunner of the 30s screwball comedy. Yes there were some screwball elements, such as the silly sequence when the stars, caught in the rain, break into a house and on bear rugs while their clothes dry. There's also a terrific scene when March is playing piano when the butler (Leonard Carey) tries to correct him. They end up playing duets! There's also a nice party scene where Eric Blore shows up in an angel costume. Another standout scene is when the daughter (Diane Ellis) starts to jazz dance and is joined by Carroll while Frank Morgan sourly looks on.

Still, I don't see this film as a comedy, let alone a screwball comedy. Carroll (she's very good) plays a former show girl who marries Morgan for his money. His daughter is only a little younger than Carroll. The daughter is a little wild; Carroll is a lot bored. She has everything in her life but "laughter." When she takes up with March, we know the marriage is doomed. So does everyone else.

Morgan's character hasn't an ounce of humor in him. There's also a tragic starving artist type (Glenn Anders) who gets involved with Ellis. It's with this character that any shred of comedy drains from the picture as doom settles over the storyline.

This is still a very good film with solid work from its stars.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday, I went to see a German silent picture at the CF.

(Lupu Pick in a screen test for Gance's Napoléon)

Napoleon auf St. Helena (Napoleon in St Helena, 1929) by Lupu Pick with Werner Krauss, Albert Bassermann and Philippe Hériat

Napoleon (W. Krauss) is sent to the Island of St. Helena with his last supporters. A new governor is appointed, Hudson Lowe (A. Bassermann) and will endeavour to make his life as difficult as possible...

Gance had written six screenplays covering the life of Napoléon from his childhood until his death. He only managed to film the first part. Later, in 1928, he sold the 6th script to Lupu Pick who made this film. Ironically, Lupu Pick had made a screen test for Gance's Napoléon but lost out to Albert Dieudonné. This German picture cannot be compared with Gance's lyrical masterpiece. It's rather solid, stagey and static. That said, the actors' performances manage to convey rather well the atmosphere surrounding Napoleon in Longwood House. On this windswept island lost in the Southern Atlantic, the little court tries to go on with its usual ceremonial. Everybody dresses up for dinner; the ladies put on their best dresses and jewelery while rats are running under the furniture. A heavy and melancholic Werner Krauss plays the fallen emperor who tries desperately to keep up appearances faced with his last enemy: Hudson Lowe. The paranoid governor is played with great skill by Albert Bassermann. Keeping a stiff upper lip at all time, he forbids any correspondance and even bars the doctor from visiting Napoleon as he lay ill in bed. He becomes a prisoner inside Longwood House, an old farmhouse with a musty smell and full of rats. Only a handful of followers remain faithful to him. Among them, General Bertrand played by Philippe Hériat (who was Salicetti, one of Bonaparte's worst enemies in Gance's Napoléon). The two ladies of the house (the wives of the two generals) are still bickering a bit like they would do at court. In the last part, the number of followers dwindle as Napoleon is dying. Krauss managed to be moving as he hugs the bust of his son knowing he will never see him again. Overall all the actors are doing a very good job in their respective parts. Nearly all the film was shot in studios with only a few location shot at St. Helena itself (without the actors). There a certain abuse of 'historical quotes' for the title cards, but it adds to the atmosphere. Overall, it's certainly not a great picture in terms of film making, but as a re-creation of history, it's quite enjoyable. The print I saw was very good: sharp and contrasted.

[Ann Harding]

I've been watching quite a lot silents recently.

Manolescu (1929, V. Tourjansky) is a German silent with Ivan Mosjoukine, Brigitte Helm and Dita Parlo. It's the story of George Manolescu (I. Mosjoukine) who falls for femme fatale Cleo (B. Helm) after meeting her on a train to Monte-Carlo. He becomes a forger, a crook and a thief to satisfy her grand life style. He is rescued to honesty by pure Jeanette (D. Parlo). I saw a terribly bad print of the film which didn't allow any insight into Carl Hoffmann's cinematography (probably superb). The storyline is far more contrived than the Mosjoukine's films in France. It follows a series of clichés. Nevertheless, there seems to be a kind of smouldering quality to this thief story with Helm glowing as the bad girl. It's probably among the best later films of Mosjoukine, though his first French period (1919-1927) remains the best.

Hungarian Rhapsodie (1928, H. Schwarz) is a delightful operetta style story in the plains of Hungary. Willy Frisch plays a impoverished officer in love with Marika (Dita Parlo) until his head is turned by the flirtatious wife of a General (Lil Dagover). Hanns Schwarz was decidely a really good director. After loving Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna (1929), I enjoyed enormously this lovely picture. Dita Parlo is wonderful and so is Lil Dagover. Great cinematography by Carl Hoffmann. A must see.

I saw the two restorations of Mary Pickford pictures. The Hoodlum (1919, S. Franklin) is showcase for Mary's instinct for comedy. The spoiled heiress living on 5th Avenue ends up in the lower East Side with her father. The restoration is gorgeous (sharp, tinted) and so is the score. The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917, M. Tourneur) was also in bad need of a restoration. The result is wonderful and allows to fully appreciate L. Andriot & J. van den Broek's great cinematography. This is a very good Tourneur picture.

I also revisited The Cat and the Canary (1927, P. Leni). I had mixed feelings about the film before. It's beautiful visually with some wonderful expressionist shadows but I have some difficulties with the comedy aspects. I find it a little laboured. Laura La Plante and Creighton Hale are just not quite as engrossing as they should be.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Four Sons directed by John Ford, some good moments such as the scenes utilising Murnau's Sunrise set doubling as New York worked really well, the scenes in the trenches, were eerie and powerful. The earlier scenes with the mother were a little too stilted and unnatural for me and it detracted from the story and some of the interplay with the townsfolk held up the narrative. The best scenes for me is when mother gets to Ellis Island and is trying to find her son. Still a good silent film.

[Gagman 66]

Allison,

To me FOUR SONS is a Masterpiece One of the great films of the late 20's. At least in America. But it is crippled without the original Movie-tone scoring track by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack. You can't tear away the beautiful "Little Mother" theme, but Fox stupidly did. The impact of the devastating "Dying Soldier" sequence is dealt a crucial blow, because Chris Caliendo new score fails to strike the right emotional cord here. After TCM ran this last May without the vintage Movie-tone track, I posted a couple scenes with Rapee'-Pollack music in-tact on TCM CFU. The difference is staggering. Take a look at these links and see.

http://fan.tcm.com/_Mother-Bernle-Cupbo ... 66470.html


http://fan.tcm.com/_The-9th-Of-November ... 66470.html

[charliechaplinfan]

It wasn't the music for me Jeffrey, it was the story, just too heavy on the mothering sweetness. Nevertheless it is a good film but personally I wouldn't rate it in my top twenty of late silent movies.

I've just watched the original Maltese Falcon, at first I thought how is Ricardo Cortez going to measure up to Bogie, he doesn't, his character is different, more smarmy and a user of all women in his life who seem to fall at his feet, including Una Merkel, Thelma Todd and Bebe Daniels in the Mary Astor role. The story isn't as confusing and because this is a precode the relationship between the two stars is fully realised. A great precode but watching it makes me realise what a good job was done on the remake, albeit hands tied by the production code, the second film is grittier, the criminals rougher and more dangerous and Bogie, far more dangerous and charismatic.

[intothenitrate]

I watched that one recently too, CCF. It's not bad, but it plays like a "programmer." Did you notice the nudes and other pictures of women on Spade's office walls? Hilarious! I must say too that Dwight Frye is pretty chilling in his role as Wilmer.

[charliechaplinfan]

Oh yes, I did, it added to the precode feeling and also added to the feeling that Spade had a total disregard for women and their feelings, I was also at a bit of a loss to know why these women fell at his feet, he might have been a silent heart throb but he leaves me slightly cold and the way the character is written didn't make him any more attractive.