WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

Keaton as Kringelein (sp?).... that IS interesting.... it could have been really amazing. I wonder....oh, there are times when I wish I could have two versions of a film to compare to, because I really would like to see how Keaton would have done that role, and yet, I am not ready to give up on Lionel's version.... This is one of the few what ifs I would really like to have seen.

The last time I watched The General, I was struck as I always am, by the sheer beauty and scope of the film. It occurred to me that this film was made within one or two years of Ford's The Iron Horse and I wondered if Buster was influenced by Ford, or Cruze, who directed The Covered Wagon. I assume that he had the idea to parody the epic films, but I still wonder how much he gleaned from the directors themselves. I think Keaton's mise en scene certainly rivals some of the best directors of all time - add to that the amazing stunts, Keaton's incredible bravery, and his attention to period detail, and that makes this the best of all silent comedies. Well, maybe tied with City Lights and The Kid, on my list, anyway.

[movieman1957]

My favorite gag in "The General" is when he and his lady are on the train and they are feeding a split rail fence in the engine and she picks up a piece with a hole in it and throws it away because it is defective. (It doesn't work telling it.)

[JackFavell]

The real gag is that all the trouble Keaton goes to to get the girl, and the girl is dumber than a stump.....

I mean that in the best way possible.

[drednm]

Yes but Keaton really needed a stump!

[charliechaplinfan]

Why do I feel like watching Keaton movies back to back? To watch Keaton is to marvel at what a technical genius and superstunt man he was. Before I became educated in silent comedy I always thought it was Lloyd who took the biggest risks of all and although Lloyd took some really big risks I think the craziest and most inspired of the two was Buster.

[MichiganJ]

The General is a fictionalized version of a real event that happened during the Civil War. About two-dozen Union soldiers seized a Confederate train somewhere near Atlanta. While attempting to bring it back into Union territory, they brought down communications, wrecked tracks and destroyed bridges. They were captured before they were able to cross Union lines and were hanged as traitors.

Keaton, who had a fascination with trains (see Our Hospitality) read or heard of the story, and he and his writers saw the potential for a comedy.

Think of the film's structure; each half has it's own chase scene involving a train. The plot and most, if not all of the gags are character driven, and there are lengthy portions of the film devoid of comedy entirely.

(FYI--Kino has it scheduled for a Blu-ray release on 11-10)

[Gagman 66]

After suffering through much of that Club Foot Orchestra music a week ago when Richard Lewis was guest host on TCM and in Prime0time, if it's OK with John, here are three clips of Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JUNIOR with the rarely heard Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks Orchestra score. Unfortunately, this superior version of the film has never been released on DVD or shown on TCM before. Neither Kino or TCM currently has the rights. Giordano's great work seems to have fallen by the way side? It's my understanding that Kino was interested in the score, but they were not able to come to terms?


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[JackFavell]

Thanks, gagman. Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks are great! I love hearing them, especially when paired with Keaton.

[feaito]

Watched a first-rate Warner Programmer: "Lady Killer" (1933) in which Jimmy Cagney shines as a con-man turned into a movie star. We get another landmark scene in which Mr. Cagney treats very roughly lovely Mae Carke, but this time she deserves it all the way! She plays a tart. Maggie Lindsay is the another lady in the cast and she's a doll in this one; a good-natured, down-to-earth movie star. The starring trio works perfectly under Roy del Ruth's professional direction. Douglass Drumbille plays a no-good guy. We even get to see Jimmy dressed in period early 1800s costumes. Great entertainment.

The extras included on the DVD Edition of the movie are very interesting: a short starring Jane Froman and Georges Metaxa titled "Kissing Time" and short-feature in which we get to see footage of Louise Glaum, Bobby Vernon and Gloria Swanson, Charles Ray and Dorothy Dalton.

[JackFavell]

I love the idea that Mae Clarke not only got a grapefruit in the kisser, but also got dragged by the hair across the floor.... what a trouper!

I have a crush on Georges Metaxa.

[feaito]

The scene is really impressive Wendy. It was very realistically done, so I bet Mae's scalp must have suffered quite a bit after doing it.

When I saw Metaxa I immediately remembered his role in the Astaire-Rogers' vehicle "Swing Time", my favorite film of the famous couple, in which he plays Ginger's suitor. He has a brief filmography. I've always wanted to see "Secrets of a Secretary", one of his first films, in which Claudette Colbert and Hebert Marshall star.

[JackFavell]

I think of Swing Time too.... Metaxa is just so great as the smug bandleader. He and Alexander D'arcy (Armand Duvalle in The Awful Truth) are two of my favorite actors who never really made it. They were both suave, good looking actors with talent, and they each had a certain something special that makes you notice them. Too often they were relegated to small roles.

[feaito]

Interesting opinion Wendy.

I watched "Rogue of Rio Grande" (1930) an awful Poverty Row Western with José Bohr as the outlaw "El Malo", hamming it all the way. José Bohr lived in Chile for many years and was a prominent director, producer and actor in many important Chilean movies of the 1940s and 1950s. His way of delivering the dialogue and stressing the "Spanglish" is so artificial as to become unnerving. Raymond Hatton does not fare much better as his sidekick repeating "Qué bueno" (That's Good) all the time, even if it made no sense. The best thing was to watch a very young, very slim, black-haired, beautiful Myrna Loy as Carmita. Carmelita Geraghty also appears as a woman of doubtful morals. Very poor, stilted early talkie.

On the other hand, I saw the 7th chapter of Hollywood "The Autocrats" which analyzes the careers of De Mille and Von Stroheim. Excellent!

[charliechaplinfan]

Nearly as visually stunning as Sunrise, I watched Julien Duvivier's Au Bonheur des Dames, and it is easily now one of my top ten favorite silent films. It stars the beautiful Dita Parlo (of The Grand Illusion fame) in a story based on the Zola novel.

Essentially, the plot is similar to You've Got Mail, with Parlo's uncle owning a small fabric store being muscled out of business by the mega-department store across the street. Parlo gets a job as a model at the department store, and soon she's romantically involved with the department store's owner. There's plenty of tragedy and--ala The Last Laugh--a tacked on happy ending that nearly undermines everything preceding it. (Apparently, the ending is Zola's, but the politics are quite confusing, although his message that "serving progress is the right thing to do" (never mind the cost), comes through loud and clear.

So why is this such a great film? Visually it's remarkable. Each shot, each frame is just beautiful. Duvivier moves his camera (a lot), but always to the benefit of the story telling. He also uses close-ups very well (and plenty of Parlo), which work great in a sequence in the models' dressing room where conversations take place with mirrored reflections, allowing us to understand the spacial relationships between the participants (which is important, as a "cat fight" soon breaks out).

Apparently filmed at an actual large department store in Paris, Duvivier either steals shots of actual shoppers or has the best direction of extras in a silent film. And there are a few interesting matte shots, some of which don't actually "line up", which is a forgivable "flaw", in one of France's final, and brilliant, silent films.

I had to see this one again, I loved it so much first time. I agree with all you say, especially the ending, it doesn't fit, almost as though it was only decided at the very end that they were meant for one another and progress was the way forward, which was a confusing message as the film has spent most of the narrative showing what damage the big department store was doing to the ordinary store keeper. Duvivier was being faithful to Zola who's story was set in the 1880's, the ending perhaps became a little confused in the translation to modern day. Another thing that would have worked a little better in the ending for me at least was the casting of Pierre de Guingand as Mouvet, a younger more dashing man may have swung the plot easier.

These are but minor gripes, the film is marvellous in it's entirety, fabulous scenes in the department store and with the extras and homely scenes with the little family in the store across the street.

[drednm]

I watched to new release of Sappho starring Pola Negri... The story was so-so but the restoration and tinting were super.

Has anyone seen this?