WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

I saw Marion Davies in the 1927 "Quality Street" and she's superb as Phoebe Strossel; she's a gifted comedienne, but also excels in the more dramatic sequences. Helen Jerome Eddy as her sister is good and so is Kate Price as their maid; Conrad Nagel seem livelier than usual in the role of Dr. Valentine Brown. The film is not quite identical to Stevens' version, which is good. Marion Davies has really been one of the great discoveries upon getting her films from TCM, she really deserves a reappraisal of her career and to be discovered by new generations...a grand talent indeed.

[feaito]

I rewatched "Freaks" (1932) with my kid sister -she was eager to see it. This film does not lose its impact and for me the best ending of the ones extant is the scene with Baclanova as the duck woman and then fade out. It's most disturbing that way I think. A landmark movie.

[feaito]

Yesterday I saw "The Love of Jeanne Ney" (1927) a German film masterfully directed by G.W. Pabst with superb performances by Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning (whom I had seen previously in the excellent "A Cottage in Dartmoor" (1929)), Brigitte Helm and Fritz Rasp. The film starts in the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution were Jéhanne lives with her father, who is a spy and is killed when he's discovered. Jéhanne goes to Paris to live with her uncle and her ethereal, blind cousin (Brigitte Helm in a touching performance). Uno Henning plays Jéhanne's love interest and Rasp an utterly despicable character. Beautifully filmed with an air of nostalgia; intriguing, absorbing, surprising, with natural performances. I loved this multilayered Silent.

"The Criminal Code" (1930) Thanks to TCM and my friends from around the world I've discovered "lost" talents like Phillips Holmes, a sensitive performer who well could've been the "Montgomery Clift" of his day. In this film he portrays a naive young man convicted for manslaughter. This prison drama -directed by Howard Hawks- was released the same year than Hill's "The Big House" and it compares favorably with it; it's gritty, realistic and absorbing, with its depiction of the hard life within the prison gates...Boris Karloff gives a notable performance as one of the inmates and Walter Huston is excellent, as usual, as the D.A. and later the Prison Warden. A must-see.

[feaito]

I watched an interesting Silent film with Clara Bow titled "Parisian Love" (1925) with Donald Keith and Lou Tellegen. Clara is an Apache from the bas-fonds in love with ex-lawyer student gone-wrong Donald Keith, who's rescued from his outcast life by Lou Tellegen. Entertaining drama directed by Louis Gasnier, which displays Clara's dramatic skills and allure as a wild girl madly in love with her boy, who ends marrying an older man in revenge.

[feaito]

I watched an interesting 1922 film titled "Down to the Sea in Ships" in which Clara Bow had one of her first film roles. Here she plays the tomboyish orphaned grandaughter of an eminent whaling quaker. The film is interesting for its realistic depiction and scenes of whaling and to take a look at a 17 year old Clara Bow, before she was turned into one of Hollywood's most famous sexpots.

I re-watched later "Night after Night" (1932) a very good precoder which has been dismissed for decades as the film in which Mae West made her debut and that she stole from its star George Raft. Well it's much more than that. First of all, Mae is in rare form, because she'd not yet become the stereotyped, "desirable" icon of her subsequent starring vehicles; here she's more natural and true-to life and her scenes are indeed funny. Raft (who's very good) is a gangster who owns a speakeasy who longs for things that money can't buy: going up the social ladder, education, prestige, class, a classy society lady whom he admires at a distance (lovely Constance Cummings), etc. In order to achieve that he hires a teacher (Alison Skipworth wonderful, she's a s good as Mae West) who tries to teaches him the right way of speaking, the manners, mores and ways of the upper classes...BTW, Skipworth and West are a hoot together (their hangover scene is a gem!). West is a friendly ex-flame of Raft, but talented Wynne Gibson is the very vulgar, jealous, dangerous, violent moll who can't accept Raft's neglect. Roscoe Karns is great as his loyal sidekick. A young Louis Calhern plays Cummings' rich suitor. In all a very pleasent, entertaining and very well acted movie, unjustly neglected and overlooked for decades, and merely dismissed as "Mae West's first picture".

[feaito]

It seems that lately I've been the only one watching Silents and PreCodes

Today I re-watched Warner's lavish, censored, butchered and amusing "Madame Du Barry" (1934) with beautiful Dolores Del Río as the wanton Countess -just remembered that this was the title of the English (dubbed) version of Visconti's "Senso"). The actress wears some amazing Orry-Kelly designs and does a good job as the notorious courtesan, but the film is almost stolen by Reginald Owen's engaging performance as a mischievous Louis XV. The film is a tongue-in-cheek period comedy and not a historical drama (it's loosely based on fact).

One of the last Pre Codes, it created quite a stir when released and was condmned by the Legion of Decency. There is a scene in a brothel; Du Barry's nakedness is suggested; her sexy feet are displayed after making love with a "client"; Louis XVI is shown looking at some salacious drawings; Albertina Rasch dancers dance with translucid gowns, etc.

The movie looks more MGM than WB, which must have spent a lot of money in it. Sadly, censorship affects the film's continuity and plot.

Anita Louise is pretty and sweetly "spoiled" as the young Marie Antoinette (this actress excelled in period stuff...she later acted in Warner's 1935 "A Midsummer's Night Dream", "Anthony Adverse" and "The Sisters" with Bette Davis, she "went again" to the XVIIIth Century France, this time to impersonate Marie Antoinette's doomed best friend, "La Princesse de Lamballe", in the sumptuous 1938 Shearer vehicle; and yet again, I remember her fondly in the highly enjoyable 1940's frolic "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest", opposite Cornel Wilde).

The rest of the supporting cast is uniformly very good, especially the players who impersonate the Dauphin (the future Louis XVI) and the Duke of Richelieu. And those three daughters of the King ("Mesdames"), are a joy to behold!

A Picture that deserves being watched.

[feaito]

I saw the amusing 1933 film, "The Keyhole" (1933) about a married society woman (Kay Francis) who's being blackmailed by her ex-husband and dancing partner (Monroe Owsley- with a lot of make-up). She's married to an important older businessman (Henry Kolker-very fine) and finds help in her witty sister-in-law (Helen Ware-superb). She goes to Havana by ship (to try to get rid of Owsley) and her husband hires a dashing private detective (George Brent) to follow her and try to make love to her (to test her fidelity). Enter Brent's funny sidekick (Allen Jenkins) and his "socialite" shipboard conquest (Glenda Farrell, a two-timing dame who prenteds to be an heiress...)

It's amazing how entertaining this short WB Precoders are! Kay Francis is the embodimient of cool, elegance and independence. Her persona is so modern, so contemporary...her acting so natural. I'm becoming a big admirer of her talents. Brent is just OK. Kolker and Ware fare much better.

[MichiganJ]

It seems that lately I've been the only one watching Silents and PreCodes

The Cinesation writeup is nearly all silents and pre-codes.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Half Naked Truth directed by Gregory Cava and starring Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy and Euguene Pallette, sadly despite Eugene Pallette who usually warms up the dullest of movies it was mostly a misfire for me, the nudist camp provided some smiles but there are far better comedies from this period. Lee Tracy comes across as hard boiled with no redeeming features and Lupe Velez, a gold digger. Frank Morgan (no impressario could be that dumb) bless him gave his best even though he must have had misgivings about his character.

[feaito]

It seems that lately I've been the only one watching Silents and PreCodes

The Cinesation writeup is nearly all silents and pre-codes.

Thanks Kevin, I'll check it

[Rita Hayworth]

Saw "The General" starring Buster Keaton for the 2nd or 3rd time this year! This is my favorite Keaton movie! He such a joy to watch.

I just love the ending of this enduring film! I found a 4 minute You Tube of it!
[youtube][/youtube]

Great Movie Everyone!

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Conquerors with Ann Harding, Richard Dix and Edna May Oliver, covering American history from the civil war until the Wall Street crash following a couple's relationship from city to the West and back again watching the trials and tribulations of their family. Ann Harding has a lovely screen presence and is well matched by Richard Dix, I wish she had been given more precodes with stronger storylines, with strong women's roles and had stayed in films longer. An interesting movie from the period.

[knitwit45]

this was on the Buster thread, Chris posted it. In case anyone missed it, it is a really wonderful short, one of his last films, and I am now a true believer!


http://www.nfb.ca/film/railrodder/