WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[Ann Harding]

AnnHarding -- Wow, that's some pic of Douglas Fairbanks in a thong! *wolf whistle* I love him too... and his little boy Doug Jr too. Flicker Alley's box set of Fairbanks Sr. films -- Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer -- is a terrific buy. Unfortunately it does not contain The Half-Breed, but I'm going to have to go searching for that one now. Er, what's the "CF"? Once you tell me, I'm sure I will slap my head and say "Of course!"

Sorry, I should have written it in full letters. CF= Cinémathèque Française (i.e. French cinematheque)

[charliechaplinfan]

I just can't see the likeness in that statue. The Lucky Star book is the top of my wish list. I think I need to watch Fritz Lang's Liliom again, perhaps I've been a little too harsh.

[pvitari]

Do you see it now? Not perfect but I see the resemblance.

[phil noir]

This week I watched two silents: one classic and one not so classic.

I don't know what I can say about The Crowd (1928) that the readers of this board won't already have thought for themselves. I found it really moving; James Murray's acting brought a tear to my eye. In view of what happened to him later, and how it echoed the experiences of his character in the film, watching it was poignant and quite uncanny. Eleanor Boardman was excellent too. I have a film annual from the time which talks about her 'serious girlishness'; it was a shame her career fizzled out a few years later. Some of the office scenes almost seemed to anticipate Billy Wilder's The Apartment.

The other film was Hitchcock's last silent, The Manxman (1929). Hmm. It was interesting. I couldn't honestly say I thought it was wonderful. It was a melodramatic love triangle set on the Isle of Man. The acting wasn't particularly good: Carl Brisson (from The Ring) and Anny Ondra (from Blackmail) were two points of the triangle. Especially in the early parts of the film, there were a lot of shots with the actors standing four-square to the camera. Looking just slightly off to the side, they then emoted almost directly at the viewer. It made the acting appear even more unsubtle than it already was. I could easily imagine watching it with an unsympathetic audience and them roaring with laughter.

There were a few nice visual touches - the husband realizes his wife has left him when he looks at the dinner table and sees only one place laid; there is then a dissolve to the table laid for two, and then back again for one, and a close up of his anguished face - but of the four Hitchcock silents I've seen (The Ring, Downhill, The Lodger), it was the least rewarding.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm sorry Pvitari, I still can't see it, the face on the statue looks a little thin to me, thanks for posting the still, you can never post too many for me. I do think it's lovely that he's honoured in such a way.

[pvitari]

Gotta love ebay! I went there and five minutes later I had bought an original copy of that 1963 Sports Illustrated issue with the Farrell article. There are three pictures with the article and I've scanned them in and posted them below. Just so you all know I don't watch anything but Charles Farrell movies -- even if I did watch The Red Dance last night and I really should post a pic of Dolores Del Rio making her way through the Russian Revolution swathed in furs; apparently the dancers at the "Moscow Theatre" made a mint! -- but anyway, within the past week I saw Crazy Heart and The White Ribbon in the theater, and on DVD (besides The Red Dance), The Music Man, Angel Face, Manslaughter (rewatch -- more Thomas Meighan and also Leatrice Joy) and tonight I'm planning to watch a new movie, Women in Trouble. Which does sound like some 1950s women in prison flick title, doesn't it? :) Tomorrow -- The Ghostwriter, the new Roman Polanski movie.

Herewith the photos. The third one is my favorite. :)

[knitwit45]

That top picture is how I remember 'Charlie' Farrell. As the dad in "My Little Margie". Didn't know he was a matinee idol until I landed on the SSO Island.

[jdb1]

That top picture is how I remember 'Charlie' Farrell. As the dad in "My Little Margie". Didn't know he was a matinee idol until I landed on the SSO Island.

Same here in part, since I did know he was in films in the past, but I didn't know he was any kind of star, and as a child I always confused the older Farrell with the older Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

[charliechaplinfan]

I love the second picture but am very glad you posted the other two. I've never seen a picture of the older Farrell, he looked like he aged well, like Cary Grant. Judging by the third photo he must have had a wicked sense of humour, don't know whether Virginia saw the funny side.

I watched Behind Office Doors, a pleasant precode with Mary Astor as a secretary who runs a printing company on behalf of her boss and arranges finance for a salesman to take over the company when her boss and founder of the company retires due to ill health. The salesman, played by Robert Ames is a bit of a cad and lad about town, never realises what he's got in Mary or that she loves him until she leaves his employ, forced out by his upperclass fiancee. A good performance by Mary Astor in this lesser known precode.

[silentscreen]

Farrell was a very distinguished looking older man. The ones that have really good genes always come out looking that way. Great photos!

[pvitari]

Farrell was in his early to mid-50s during the run of My Little Margie, and he was very distinguished looking -- in fact, he still looked a lot like his silent days self, but with white hair and the mustache.




Also, because he was so athletic, he stayed trim all his life. Janet Gaynor also was beautiful in her old age. There's a wonderful picture of her and her best friend Mary Martin in Mary's autobiography My Heart Belongs, and they are the cutest little petite seniors. :) Oh heck, I'll just scan it in -- here they are. Looking at this -- the hair, the clothing -- makes me think about visiting my grandparents in their retirement condo highrise on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach back in the 1970s. :)




Back to pre-Codes, I got through with the main attraction (Women in Trouble) early last night, so I then popped a Warner Archive disc into the player -- Son of the Gods, starring Richard Barthelmess. Has anyone seen this?

BIG SPOILERS

I am a Barthelmess fan and this was a film of his I hadn't seen, so I was thrilled when the Archive released it. It must be pretty obscure since it doesn't even get an entry in the new second edition of Leonard Maltin's Classic Film Guide. The story deals head-on with anti-Chinese prejudice, but wants to have its cake and eat it too -- the hero, Sam Lee (Barthelmess, without any prosthetic makeup) is an American-born Chinese, the son of a wealthy and much beloved father, but he "doesn't look Chinese" so people don't know he's Chinese unless he tells them or they hear about it from another source. (How someone can be Chinese but not look it is dealt with at the end of the story in ludicrous fashion.) Their reaction (especially by the women) is frequently one of revulsion, even horror, and after Alana, the heiress (Constance Bennett) with whom Sam has fallen in love publicly flogs him (this scene is devastating), he renounces the American side of himself. There are a number of scenes where Sam talks about the racism he has encountered and the movie does a really good job confronting these issues and also presenting a very positive portrayal of Chinese culture. But then comes the "have the cake and eat it too" part. Eventually Alana realizes she just can't live without Sam, no matter his race, and goes to him. Super happy ending because -- get this -- it turns out Sam is WHITE. We learn he was abandoned as an infant, and a policeman, who thought he might be Chinese, gave him to Sam's father to raise. Within a few years it was obvious the boy wasn't Chinese, so Sam's father moved to another city and continued to raise him as Chinese. So it's all OK, you out there in the audience, lily-white Alana's husband will be just as lily-white, even if he FEELS Chinese. (This reminds me of the ending of The Sheik, where we learn that Valentino isn't really an Arab, but a European adopted by Arabs.) As much as I enjoyed this movie, and Barthelmess' and Bennett's performances (she was born to play spoiled but playful heiresses) and the fact that it discussed issues of racism and prejudice openly, the ending really took the cherry OFF the top of this cake. Ah well. For its day, it was quite a daring film. But I kept wondering what would have happened if someone like Philip Ahn had played Sam.

[drednm]

I f I remember right, Mary Martin and Janet Gaynor were riding in a cab together when it was hit by another car. Both were badly injured.

[drednm]

I watched the 1920 film Sex, which starred Louise Glaum as a famous dancer who go through men like chewing gum. She steals William Conklin from poor Myrtle Stedman and then dumps him (after their divorce) for Irving Cummings whom she marries. A little girl Glaum is introducing to Broadway (Peggy Pearce, also known as Viola Barry but born Gladys Wilson) eventually steals Cummings from Glaum who has now gotten her comeuppance. The final scene aboard an ocean liner is quite good.

Glaum may have been the last of the vamp stars, displacing Theda Bara as the screen's #1 vamp. The vamps would soon give way to the onslaught of flappers. Glaum is quite good and her opening "spider dance" is certainly bizarre.

Despite the lurid title, this is basically a neat little drama and as big hit in 1920.

[charliechaplinfan]

He hadn't changed, just got some silver hair, from that picture I could recognise him. I've seen Janet Gaynor being interviewed, I think on the Hollywood documentary, she kept remarkably trim. Thanks for posting.

[pvitari]

I f I remember right, Mary Martin and Janet Gaynor were riding in a cab together when it was hit by another car. Both were badly injured.

'

This crash took place in 1984. I remember it very well on the news because I have been such a big Mary Martin fan since childhood. To this day I am enchanted by her Peter Pan.

Mary Martin, Janet Gaynor, Martin's publicist/good friend Ben Washer, and Janet Gaynor's husband Paul Gregory were all taking a cab together to go to dinner. They were hit broadside by a drunk driver running a red light. Ben Washer was killed outright. Paul Gregory had only light injuries. Mary Martin had serious injuries which resulted in a hospital stay of a few weeks and a year-long recuperation. The most seriously injured (besides Washer) was Janet Gaynor. She was in the hospital for four months, endured several surgeries in the two years following, and finally died of pneumonia that most likely was a result of all she had been through.

The drunk driver had only minor injuries.