WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[drednm]

I watched the 1916 Snow White, a fanciful version of the fairy tale starring Marguerite Clark. The costume and set decorations were surprisngly good. Dorothy Cumming played the old queen, Creighton Hale was the prince. Richard Barthelmess played the pie man. Clark, a rival of Mary Pickford's at the box office, was quite pretty and very good.

[JackFavell]

I've always thought Marguerite Clark was very pretty, but I've never seen one of her movies, just pictures in books.

[pvitari]

I watched the 1916 Snow White, a fanciful version of the fairy tale starring Marguerite Clark. The costume and set decorations were surprisngly good. Dorothy Cumming played the old queen, Creighton Hale was the prince. Richard Barthelmess played the pie man. Clark, a rival of Mary Pickford's at the box office, was quite pretty and very good.

OOOH! Where can I get this?

[MichiganJ]

OOOH! Where can I get this?

It's included in the first collection of Treasures From the American Film Archives re-released as the Encore Edition. Everything in the collection is pretty great and this charming version of Snow White actually influenced a future animator…named Walt Disney.

Link to Amazon:


What the set includes:
http://digitalsilents.com/Digital_Silen ... hives.html

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Big House yesterday, I wasn't as taken as I thought I would be, probably because of the time of year and constant interruptions. I'm not a big Beery fan, an interesting film made at the beginning of Robert Montgomery's career, Chester Morris was the standout performer for me. Perhaps I need to watch again when life calms down.

[pvitari]

Oh, LOL, I have that box set... but I never got around to watching all of it. I'll be pulling it off the shelf very soon, then! ;)

[drednm]

I'm not sure what exists of Marguerite Clark's films. She retired in 1921 (I think). She was very pretty and seemed to be a decent actress. She was 33 when she played Snow White (born in 1883).

[MichiganJ]

I'm not sure what exists of Marguerite Clark's films.

Grapevine has Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1919).

[feaito]

I saw a sweet little film: Borzage's "The Circle" (1925) based upon a Maugham play, whose adaptation to the screen I'm not sure it was 100% faithful to the source...It mixes drama with comedy in a strange way. A married Upper Class woman-Lady Catherine (a very young Joan Crawford) elopes with her husband's best friend, leaving her infant son behind....35 years pass and her son is about to face the same situation....when Lady Catherine and her second husband return to visit her first husband and her son, who's grown up to be a stuffy character (Creighton Hale....not the type of man who captures the fancy or matches the romantic dreams of young wife -Eleanor Boardman-lovely- who's fallen for dashing Malcolm Mcgregor)...A kind of British Drawing Comedy-Drama....with some touching moments (especially when the older Lady Catherine looks at her picture when she was 35 years younger and her second husband tells her she looks just the same after all these years). Incredibly adult and "civilzed" reactions towards rather unpleasant situations (adultery). The acting of the older actors (Alec B. Francis, Eugenie Besserier and George Fawcett) is especially good and Boradman's too. A fine Borzage film!!

[drednm]

My review of The The Circle:

THE CIRLCE is a charming little film, full of humor and ironies.

Based on a play by Somerset Maugham, THE CIRCLE is a handsome film directed by Frank Borzage. The film opens in the 1890s as Lady Catherine is about to leave her husband (and son) and run off with her lover. The scene dissolves to 30 years later where young Elizabeth (pretty Eleanor Boardman) is facing the same decision: dull husband (Creighton Hale) or dashing lover (Malcolm McGregor). To make matters worse, Lady Catherine has been invited (along with husband) to visit! As Boardman and company get ready for their guests we get several shots of Lady Catherine and husband motoring toward the country estate. The shots are from the back. So it's a slight shock when Lady Catherine breezes into the house and goes up to McGregor, thinking he's her son. Lady Catherine (superbly played by Eugenie Besserer) is seen to be a rather silly middle-aged dowager wearing too much makeup.

As the story progresses, Boardman starts to learn a lesson in romantic folly from the fading older woman who constantly gazes at an old photograph of herself (it's actually a photo of 20-year-old Joan Crawford who also plays the young Lady Catherine… one of about a half dozen films she appeared in in 1925).

Co-stars include Alec B. Francis, George Fawcett, and Eulalie Jensen.

[charliechaplinfan]

Virtue is a 1932 film starring Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien, it's very definetly a precode as the film opens with Carole being sent back home from New York after being picked up for prostitution. She doesn't go home and comes back to New York, skips out on paying a taxi fare to Pat O'Brien but then finds him later and makes amends. He finds her a job at the taxi firm, falls in love with her and marries her, one the wedding night they come home to find a policeman waiting to escort her back home, she is allowed to stay after the cop sees her wedding certificate but the seed has been sown. She's a good wife and honest but lends $200 of her husband's cash to a friend who needs it for an operation only to find that she has been scammed. When trying to get her money back she's followed by her husband who thinks she's on the game again, a murder insues and complications before everything is settled.

[feaito]

It's indeed a charming little film Ed, I'm glad I had the opportunity to watch it.

[drednm]

I watched the 1929 Paris Bound, based on a play be Philip Barry and starring Ann Harding in her film debut and Fredric March. They play a loving couple who claim their love will never be tainted by others. March's parents caused a scandal in their set when she divorced him after his affair. They argue at the wedding that the woman was foolish and cost them both their home because of her divorce actions.

With that set up we see March and Harding through their first happy years of marriage. They are devoted but very modern. When business takes March to Paris, he goes alone. They believe a "break" is good for their marriage and she has her work with Richard (Leslie Fenton) on a ballet score. But into this bliss creeps the jealous Noel (Carmelita Geraghty) who has never gotten over losing March to Harding. She sees in the society news that March has gone to Europe alone and she chases after him.

After Harding learns of this, she decides to have an affair with Fenton but March returns home. Will they break up? Will they be able to patch things up?

Harding is just wonderful in her first film. She's quite natural and at ease. March is also very good. Together they avoid the stagey acting and over pronunciation that mars other early talkies. Fenton and Geraghty are also good. Ilka Chase takes honors among the supporting cast (also in her film debut). Co-stars include George Irving, Hallam Cooley, Charlotte Walker, Juliette Crosby, and Rose Tapley.

[feaito]

Thanks to Christine's recommendation I bought the DVD which includes three of Russian director Evgeni Bauer's Silent films made before 1917 and the Russian Revolution. I saw "Twilight of a Woman's Soul" (1913), a truly amazing film, well ahead of its time. It has a wonderful score by Laura Rossi and it tells the dramatic story of a woman from the nobility who faces a sad destiny (in love) due to a rogue's doing....Very adult, well acted, with some beautiful cinematography...I was absolutely impressed.