WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[bdp]

I found the glimpses of Griffith's later 'minor' films fascinating, e.g.: One Exciting Night, Isn't Life Wonderful and The Sorrows of Satan.

Isn't Life Wonderful is pretty good - Lillian Gish considered it the only film Griffith made after she left him that was worthy of the man - but One Exciting Night is one deadly dull movie, and a lot longer than it needed to be. I've never seen The Sorrows of Satan but it looks fascinating to me.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Racket today. I'd read about it in Kevin Brownlow's Behind The Mask Of Innocence and was intrigued.

Starring Thomas Meighan as the cop determined to break a gangland boss played by Louis Wolheim. Louis Wolheim certainly looked the part. The film had a very contemprorary feel about it, it could easily be brought bang up to date and filmed today although not as well as in 1928.

It's certainly a brave film it points at a corrupt political world. I think I'm right in saying that this was a Howard Hughes production he had the benefit of a healthy bankroll and could thumb his nose a little at the censorship board.

The lovely Marie Prevost also stars in this film, such a bright light, a pity she didn't find her way in talkies.

I watched Snow White 1916 I watched this with my five year old daughter. The story veers away from her Disney version but is more like the story I grew up with. It's beautifully made. The ladies in waiting very so fairylike, it completely inhabited the fairytale world.

Marguerite Clark was so beautiful and played the part wonderfully well but the Wicked Queen eclipsed her.

I think I've just been glued to my TV also from the Treasures Set I watched The Invaders filmed in 1912 the first film to use Indians in Indian parts.

Gretchen the Greenhorn a delightful film starring Dorothy Gish, too few of her films survive. This was made by Fine Arts and supervised by Griffith. The set in this film is so realistic, it gives you the feeling of being there.

Now I've had more experience of watching silents I can see the techniques used and how well they are used. The lovely iris effects for one, the use of close ups and the tints.

Also in this film is a slim Eugene Pallette, you still can't miss him though.

[Gagman 66]

Kyle,

Two of my favorite later Griffith's are SALLY OF THE SAWDUST (1925), and BATTLE OF THE SEXES (1928) with it's All Star cast of characters.

I have a pretty poor copy of THE SORROWS OF SATAN. This is a bizarre film, where Satan comes to Earth and falls in love with a mortal woman. You can tell the actual print was pretty good, but the recording is at least a 4th or 5th generation one.

Alison,

I have a friend named Kate who is completely hung up on Louis Wolheim after seeing him in TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS! That's right I said Louis Wolheim, not William Boyd! She hasn't seen THE RACKET though yet. Certainly Nick Scarsi is no "Taxi Cab Pete O'Gaffney"! Marie Prevost steals several scenes in this picture, just as She did in THE GODLESS GIRL. I have some of her starring features, and I am convinced that Marie was among the funniest ladies around.

Kate also very much enjoyed THE MATING CALL, but oddly enough didn't say a great deal about Thomas Meighan?

I have seen both the 1916 version of SNOW WHITE, and GRETCHEN THE GREEN HORN, but not in quite awhile.

[charliechaplinfan]

Thomas Meighan is a good actor, reliable I would say. I like to watch him but he doesn't get the pulse racing so to speak.

Louis Wolheim, good character actor, I've seen two of his films now.

Didn't both of these actors die soon after sound arrived.

[Ann Harding]

I have a friend named Kate who is completely hung up on Louis Wolheim after seeing him in TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS!

I think Louis Wolheim was a mighty good actor. I liked the contrast between his rugged looks and sometimes the gentleness he offers in his portrayals. He reminds me of a French actor of the 30s who was a bit like him: Harry Baur. A big bear of a man, but able to give some incredibly rich and subtle performances. One just needs to look at All Quiet On the Western Front (1930). A real shame he died so young.

[bdp]

Kyle,
Two of my favorite later Griffith's are SALLY OF THE SAWDUST (1925), and BATTLE OF THE SEXES (1928) with it's All Star cast of characters.

I liked Sally of the Sawdust well enough, though I thought it was maybe twenty minutes longer than it needed to be, but I couldn't get into Battle of the Sexes at all. Don't know why.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just watched Red Dust I remember taping this off TV years ago. It's the first film I ever saw with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. It's many years since the tape snapped and it hasn;t been shown on British TV since. I've longed to watch it again for so many years. Mogambo doesn't hit the spot. A dear friend had it recorded off TV and sent it to me.

It's better than I remember. It's at the top of the racy precodes. The dialogue sizzles, Jean Harlow sizzles to as Vantine. Everyone sizzles as it's set in the jungle. Mary Astor gets all heated up over Clark Gable, Jean Harlow a 'show girl' who has left town for a while whilst the police forget is heated up about Gable. Gable is heated up over Mary Astor for a while and even fancies that he loves her but he gets an attack of the conscience and sends her back to her husband. He finds himself back in Vantine (Harlow's) arms. She truly is the one for him, she can take the heat and harshness of the jungle and she can wisecrack with Dennis (Gable) and understand him.

There isn't an attempt to cover up what Vantine's job has been in Shanghai or the fact that she has occupied Dennis bed. She even bathes nude in a barrel whilst Gable stands near by. It;s the best performance I've ever seen from Harlow. Sadly she lost her husband Paul Bern during the filming but insisted on carrying on with the filming. Gable's never looked sexier. He and Harlow were a grand team.

[Ann Harding]

Thanks so much for this review of Man's Castle, Fernando. As you may be aware, TCM just announced that on June 30th this Frank Borzage film will finally be shown on their network, so maybe many more of us will have a chance to see this movie.

I was just browsing through the TCM website and discovered that Man's Castle is no longer on the schedule....
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.jsp?s ... =EST&cid=N

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched an early talkie: The Canary Murder Case (1929) by Malcolm St Clair with William Powell, Louise Brooks, James Hall and Jean Arthur. This Paramount production has an all-mighty all-star cast. But, I have to admit I was a bit bored by the film. It's a murder mystery filmed like a static radio-play. Louise Brooks has a tiny part and when she talks she is never in close-up? (She was probably dubbed afterwards???) From this boring film, emerges the wonderful natural acting of William Powell as Philo Vance and Eugene Palette in a small part.
I have seen quite a few early talkies and this one is not among the best I have seen (Hallelujah, Bulldog Drummond, Applause, Laughter). Basically the film lacks some welcome humour which makes Bulldog Drummond so much more appealing. You can spot a very young Jean Arthur in a tiny part with her highly distinctive voice.
A missed opportunity!

[phil noir]

Louise Brooks has a tiny part and when she talks she is never in close-up? (She was probably dubbed afterwards???)

I seem to remember reading somewhere that she was dubbed in this film, by Margaret Livingston, if I recall, which is rather ironic, given that M.L. didn't exactly prosper in the talkies.

I recently watched Paramount on Parade (1930) and spotted Jean Arthur in two scenes: apart from her voice, she's hardly recognizable as the same person we know and love (at least I do!) from Mr Deeds and all her other great roles.

Amazing how some actors took to sound pictures with such ease - I completely agree about William Powell, who turns up as Philo Vance again in a skit in Paramount on Parade. The film is a real hodge podge, and he's one of the best things in it.

[Ann Harding]

Actually, Phil, I saw recently William Powell in an earlier talkie called Interference (1928). Believe it or not, it was even worse than The Canary Murder Case! Even, William Powell couldn't save it.... But you're right, Powell took to talkie as well as Colman.

[feaito]

I recently watched Paramount on Parade (1930) and spotted Jean Arthur in two scenes: apart from her voice, she's hardly recognizable as the same person we know and love (at least I do!) from Mr Deeds and all her other great roles.

Phil, I felt the very same as you when I saw Jean in the role of a spoiled socialite in "The Silver Horde" (1930). This lady has nothing to do with the actress who starred in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" or "The More the Merrier". It's like she had been "born again" around 1934-1935.

[Synnove]

I saw Marianne recently. It's a very fun movie, although being such an early talkie, it isn't the same quality as some of Marion Davies's films from just a year earlier. The over the top acting styles are of their time and take some getting used to. It's interesting that even when she is speaking with a French accent which might not be very accurate, and dressing up as a man, Marion Davies is still the most natural one among the actors. She is without pretention, and fun to watch. I loved her impersonation of Sarah Bernhardt. I have only seen clips from Sarah's silent performances, and heard audio recordings of her voice, and seen photos... put it all together, and I would say it was spot-on.

I loved the surrealness of the WWI soldiers playing the ukulele and breaking into song. Of course, it wasn't as if they were sitting in a trench, but that scene still had a Monty Python feel to it. And I loved the pre-code jokes surrounding Marion Davies dressing up as a man. That bit was very amusing indeed. Thank you Alison for sending me the TCM recording of this movie.

[feaito]

I saw Marianne recently. It's a very fun movie, although being such an early talkie, it isn't the same quality as some of Marion Davies's films from just a year earlier. The over the top acting styles are of their time and take some getting used to. It's interesting that even when she is speaking with a French accent which might not be very accurate, and dressing up as a man, Marion Davies is still the most natural one among the actors. She is without pretention, and fun to watch. I loved her impersonation of Sarah Bernhardt. I have only seen clips from Sarah's silent performances, and heard audio recordings of her voice, and seen photos... put it all together, and I would say it was spot-on.

I loved the surrealness of the WWI soldiers playing the ukulele and breaking into song. Of course, it wasn't as if they were sitting in a trench, but that scene still had a Monty Python feel to it. And I loved the pre-code jokes surrounding Marion Davies dressing up as a man. That bit was very amusing indeed. Thank you Alison for sending me the TCM recording of this movie.

I also saw it some time ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then I realized there was a Silent version of the same film, made the same year and also starring Marion Davies, but with a different cast. I wonder if it has ever been aired by TCM...

[MissGoddess]

For a change, I had the presence of mind to check the TCM schedule beforehand for today and saw that they were airing two little Warners pre-codes that I have never seen so I recorded them. Stranded (1935) and Housewife (1934) both offered pleasant surprises.

Besides both starring one of my crushes, George Brent, they also feature a character actor I never really paid attention to before, Robert Barrat.



What is remarkable is how different the two characters he played are to each other. In Stranded, Barrat is a big, hulking but well meaning Polish (?) construction worker with an accent more impenetrable than the steel he's rivetting (in the brand new Golden Gate Bridge Mr Brent is manfully trying to get built despite the interference of organized, criminal "agitators" and a distracting love life with social worker, Kay Fwancis). Barrat's face and form were vaguely familiar, I figured him as probably having played dozens of variations of ethnic working class or perhaps menacing criminal types and just never bothered to notice him much. Then I watch Housewife and he turns up as a sharp-eyed---and tongued---owner of a Chicago advertising agency. He's all American, all midwestern and all business. I had to tip my hat to him, because it's never a waste to recognize one of the many unsung trooper actors and actresses that managed to send in varicolored performances once in a while, in addition to the regular slew of solid and dependably familiar "types" they specialized in.

The other surprise was good old George. He doesn't often surprise me so I have to give him his kudos. In Stranded, he's in fine early 1930s form---meaning he still has some vim and vigor and actually shows that he was once a rather energetic presence, at least occasionally. Fine and dandy. But it was in Housewife that he transformed. It's really one of the least sympathetic roles imaginable: a boring, irritably self-absorbed little middle-class clerk who takes his wife for granted and whines about how he hates being "bothered with details". The script even refers to his "pot belly", ha! (Which is funny because they show him sans shirt and he looks pretty fit. ) Atypically, his character never becomes more likable, in fact he degenerates to the point when his WIFE, Ann Dvorak---the "really talented member of the family" according to appreciative client John Halliday, who's in love with her---gives him the push and idea to become a success on his own at last, he thanks her by cheating with Bette Davis. I won't give the ending away, let's just say it made me mad, but I have to credit George with being able to pull off king-sized mediocrity so convincingly. Honestly, it was like watching Walter Matthau---goodlooking.

Stranded (title strikes a VERY current note, doesn't it? Was TCMprogrammer thinking of AA?) is the better movie all around, as it's genuinely funny and quick moving, thanks to director Frank Borzage in workmanlike mode, and a script written by Delmer Daves based on a story by Frank "Spig" Wead (subject of Pappy's Wings of Eagles).

Finally I'll add that Stranded gave Kay Francis a chance to be badly dressed and earnestly---annoyingly---sincere about "building with people the way you build with steel" and Housewife offered Ann Dvorak a chance to be a nice, if naive homebody instead of homewrecker (Bette got to do that). Ruth Donnelly was by her side to provide the fresh air of common sense and awareness of "what time it is".