WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh! Is that THELMA RITTER???!! I LOVE it.

Yes, it was Man of Two Worlds. You caught me! I didn't see the whole movie, it was on while I was doing other things around the house. I just watched the ending closely, but I did get it recorded.

Perhaps it's that I have recently seen movies with real native peoples in them (ugh! Don't ask me the names of them, they were all on TCM recently, but I have a memory for these titles like a sieve), filmed beautifully in comparison to this one. The last one I saw was really wonderful, part silent, part talkie, and with a big strapping fellow as the lead, and the whole thing was wonderful. Lederer, though a really great actor, was forced into some dialogue and an accent that bothered me. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely think Lederer can do no wrong, so it isn't him, it was the writing. I felt that the parts I saw were very forced and stodgy, with less nuance than I had seen from the earlier films. And to me the plot contrivances were silly. Perhaps I need to go back and actually watch the movie all the way through?

[moira finnie]

If you recorded Man of Two Worlds, I would go back and view it again (if you can stand it). I was bopping around trying to do other stuff, but Lederer and J. Farrell MacDonald, who somehow escaped playing a bartender or a police desk sergeant for once, pulled me into the story. Maybe it was just me, but I thought that despite dramatic limitations and earnest attempts to replicate Greenland, the movie could be seen as a critique of Western anthropological attitudes toward anyone outside the centers of power. I'll try to whip up a few more comments later, though I have to go run several pressing errands now.

[JackFavell]

You are probably right. I'll give it another look see. I was really confused by J Farrell....he was no discernible "type" in this film!

I wish I could remember the name of that previous film I saw...I'll have to go looking for it.

[JackFavell]

OK, here's an idea of how bad a memory I have....the movie I saw that I liked so much was called Eskimo (1933). Yes, it was that simple.

It starred Mala, who was just great, and it was directed by Woody Van Dyke.

[Papermoon]

I watched The Yellow Ticketfor the fisrt time, I've been wanting to see it for quite some time. I enjoyed it, Lionel Barrymore is a hoot as a sleazeball Russian baron.

[Rita Hayworth]

I watched The Yellow Ticketfor the fisrt time, I've been wanting to see it for quite some time. I enjoyed it, Lionel Barrymore is a hoot as a sleazeball Russian baron.

I like that movie too ... It's been awhile for the last time I've seen it. Lionel Barrymore is another favorite of mine.

[MichiganJ]

I watched American Aristocracy (1916), an early Fairbanks comedy that is also a pretty pointed social satire. Lots of acrobats and Doug even gets to fly a hydroplane!
Nobody had more fun making movies than Doug Fairbanks.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Underworld and The Last Command over the last couple of days, both starring Evelyn Brent, both directed by Josef Von Sternberg. For me Brent looks a little like a brunette Dietrich, she's granted lots of closeups, lots of chances to be sultry in the first film and sultry and invoke the feelings of the Russian peasant. Evelyn Brent has some remarkable moments on film but in other scenes is allowed to overact. These early Sternberg films have strong male leads in them unlike some of his later work, George Bancroft and Clive Brook in the first albeit it with a love triangle with Brent that forces action forward but The Last Command is Emil Jannings film, my favorite Jannings films because he invokes such emotions as pity and pride as the Russian general giving one of the great silent performances from a man who at times for me can easily ham his roles up a little too much. The Last Command for me is one of the best of the later silents.

[feaito]

On monday I revisited "Bombshell" (1933), an excellent -& loud- comedy with Jean Harlow -my wife complained while I was watching it, about the verbiage of the characters and the loudness of it all- whose best moments feature the incomparable Jean in this story inspired by Clara Bow's life.

Ivan Lebedeff was born to play the Marquis....he's so right! Likewise, Frank Morgan, Isabel Jewell, Una Merkel, Ted Healy, Louise Beavers (hilarious!!) are superb. Lee Tracy is outstandingly obnoxious as Space Hanlon...What a pain in the ****!!! Hated him on sight...

I liked Pat O'Brien as the director inspired by Vic Fleming and I do not agree with some reviews I read which found his performance lacking....Franchot Tone is perfect as the blue-blood American heir, and having seen this film before ***spoilers**** to me now it was totally apparent that he was acting "a part" within a film, along with C. Aubrey Smith and Mary Forbes as his parents...thus, it's credible that they were hired by Space Hanlon, because the "impersonation" wasn't that perfect...in fact when Tone's character makes love to Harlow using such florid dialogue, it sounds unreal....my wife commented on it (not having paid attention to the film's plot) and I told her that he was a hired actor pretending to be in love with Lola Burns.

A grand comedy.

[intothenitrate]

You summed that film up perfectly. It's anything but restful. The histrionics are cranked up so high, you wonder at points if they could possibly go any higher. And those damned dogs!

There's a blogger who's been mentioned on this site--can't remember her name at the moment--who loves Lee Tracy for precisely the kind of role he plays in this film. I must be overly sensitive because he makes me cringe--obvious artistry notwithstanding.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs (1928) with Conrad Veidt. Universal wanted to produce another big-budget historical film following The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. But, unlike these two which were directed by two mediocre directors (W. Worsley and R. Julian), TMWL has a great German director, Paul Leni, at the helm plus a brilliant cinematographer with Gilbert Warrenton. Laemmle had wanted Lon Chaney for the title role. But, by 1927, he was under contract at MGM and unavailable. He then hired the great German actor Conrad Veidt. This is inspired casting. Veidt, wearing an impossible make-up created by Jack Pierce providing him a fixed grin, manages to be moving and tragic. I loved his scene with luscious Olga Baclanova. It's no wonder the censors were up in arms! Olga sizzles as she tries very hard to seduce poor Gwynplaine. The young blind girl played by Mary Philbin is rather dull in comparison. But, there is a host of great character actors to marvel at such as Josephine Crowell as Queen Ann (She was Catherine de Medicis in Intolerance) and Cesare Gravina with his google eyes. It's a shame the studio insisted on a happy end, totally out of place after such a narrative. Nevertheless, the film is full of atmosphere, has a great cinematography with mobile camera movements and provides many satisfying moments.

[JackFavell]

Mary Philbin has never really caught my attention, I think perhaps she is the least engaging heroine of the silent era, to my way of thinking, very dull and flat. On the other hand, Baclanova was a revelation in this movie. And of course, Veidt and the production itself are superb.

[feaito]

You summed that film up perfectly. It's anything but restful. The histrionics are cranked up so high, you wonder at points if they could possibly go any higher. And those damned dogs!

There's a blogger who's been mentioned on this site--can't remember her name at the moment--who loves Lee Tracy for precisely the kind of role he plays in this film. I must be overly sensitive because he makes me cringe--obvious artistry notwithstanding.

Thanks intothenitrate, but my wife on the other hand did love the dogs

I agree with you Re. Lee Tracy, notwithstanding his talent, I dislike the type of vulgar and loud characters he played.

On the other hand, again, notwithstanding Jean Harlow's huge talent for comedy and the great Pre-Codes in which she starred, I wish she would have played more characters like the one she played in "Wife Vs. Secretary" (1936); more restrained, feminine, quiet and calmed...less a cartoon and more a human being.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched Doomsday (1928, R.V. Lee) with Florence Vidor and Gary Cooper. The message of the film is just pure male chauvinism, so much so, that I was amazed such a film could have been made in 1928! Just imagine, Florence Vidor -always dressed immaculately in lovely silky dresses- seems doomed to be the perfect scrubbing housewife. First, she marries nasty and rich Lawrence Grant. She lives a life of luxury deprived of any love. Realising her mistake, she goes back to her penniless farmer aka Gary Cooper. She then accepts the hard labour and humiliations in order to reconquer him. Hmmm... Even by 20s' standards, it feels dated. The shining star of the film is Florence Vidor. Cooper is only in a supporting role. He is very lean and boyish. His attitudes shows a young performer still learning. Nevertheless, the film contains a nice scene where Florence and Gary are kissing in a haystack. Rowland V. Lee was a good director. But this is not one of his best films.

[charliechaplinfan]

That's the scene I remember mostly vividly, them kissing in the haystack, along with Cooper's good looks and the chauvanistic story. It is Florence Vidor's film, she's simply delightful in it.

I watched La Chienne yesterday, in French but helped heaps by the fact I've seen Scarlet Street, I really enjoyed it, I think Renoir is a master at atomosphere especially when Simon commits the murder and the scene on the bed, showing the blood, is that unusual in cinema at the time, it just seemed so, it seemed quite graphic without really showing anything at all. A great movie, let's hope someone releases it with English subtitles so I can get all the subtleties. I'm glad to have caught it at all though.