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Reviews
Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey (2022)
Splice Here is a fascinating documentary about the recent evolution of cinema, from a projectionist view: analog film to digital.
You can tell this feature documentary was created by a team of movie lovers Douglas Trumbull (2001: a space odyssey), Leonard Maltin (essential book author and film historian), Quentin Tarantino (game changing write, director), Rob Murphy star and director of this film. I especially like all the information about CINERAMA and that amazing process using a three-eyed camera to capture a 55 by 146 degree view (the same as the back of the human eyeball) and utilizing seven separate channel magnetic full coat, full range stereo sound both in 1952 before CinemaScope, VistaVision, NaturalVision 3-D, and decades before IMAX.
We get to go into the projection booths with people who, it seems, lived in them for most of their careers because they loved their jobs, films and wanted it done right. The were there when things went wrong and they fixed it... they were not busy elsewhere popping corn!
Highly Recommended.
Challengers (2024)
Great remake of THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926), Greta Garbo's silent masterpiece.
In the middle of watching this new smoking hot drama I realized I had seen similar characters in another love match. Trying to avoid spoilers I will first describe the 1926 love triangle starring John Gilbert, Greta Garbo and Lars Hanson; "Childhood friends are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other fiercely loves."
John Gilbert (the Tom Cruise of his day) was just coming off blockbuster THE BIG PARADE, a war film that played in some theaters for over a year!
Greta Garbo had made an international splash back in Sweden in THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING with her Swedish co-star Lars Hanson. But it was THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL, that film made her the top actress in the world and for many years after that.
It was said during the close-up and romantic filming of the "lighting of the cigarette scene," set in a dark garden at night that it was so obviously erotic and the stars so turned on that the director quietly cleared the set so the two stars who were visibly falling in love with each other were to be left completely alone so they could finish the scene off camera!
And at the ending of the silent film the two males are locked in mortal combat trying to kill each other and win exclusive right to the woman they both love until - Garbo trying to reach them on their sacred island falls through the ice! And as she dies, the two challengers stop fighting for some reason and realize their reason for fight is gone. THE END.
Cleaning Up (1925)
We just saw this hilarious short on THE SILENT COMEDY WATCH PARTY (3/17/2024 on YouTube.)
We just saw this hilarious short on THE SILENT COMEDY WATCH PARTY (3/17/2024 on YouTube.)
It was part of the 100th show/4 year anniversary of Ben Model (live piano accompanist) and film historian Steve Massa's silent short film comedy watch party which started the week the Covid pandemic shut down public gathering. The idea was to use humor as medicine, and it has worked.
This short film was preserved by the EYE Institute in Amsterdam and the Dutch intertitles were translated back to English for this world re-premiere.
The film plot is described in the summaries and I just want to add the comedy builds to a hilarious and disastrous conclusion!
The message is husbands appreciate your wives and wives don't leave your husbands alone to do the house work unless you have lots of insurance!
The Fires of Youth (1917)
Agood little drama along the lines of THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES.
Thanks, this is a good little drama along the lines of THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES where an out of touch rich man makes friends with a family thru an innocent child at play. Their friendship will lead to the business man spending time among his workers anonymously. As he discovers what damage his greed (low pay, unsafe working conditions) has done to his employees lives -- he's so hurt and guilty he almost takes his own life before being saved by a young woman who guesses the truth. AMany films made in this era were melodramas tackling social problems like factory worker conditions, child labor and profit and greed being more important than human life and health. Sweetly inspirational film.
Ich bin Sebastian Ott (1939)
This rare German crime film stars Willi Forst in a dual role.
I could hardly find anything about it on the web, but I think the following review is a good start, "Truly excellent and perhaps the most 'intellectual' film by Forst, a film that's almost a meditation on the relationship between reality and representation. That goes for many films by Forst, but seldom more explictly than here. Can we regard the 'bad' Willi as just a 'copy' of the 'good' Willi (which we most likely do when we watch the film)? Can the copy take the place of the original if noone can tell them apart? Especially as the 'bad' Willi is far closer to Forst's famous 'Bel ami' persona than his slightly 'anemic' art-historian brother.
In any case, Forst's performance in both roles is magnificent and equally convincing for both parts. And while the sets are certainly more small-scale than in other Forst films, the same care and attention has gone into them, and the scenes in which both Willis appear together are done flawlessly (I noticed one instant of back-projection, but even that was done very well).
Highly recommended, then. A 'small' film perhaps, but sometimes these come closer to the heart of a filmmaker's interests and concerns than the bigger and more famous productions (see P&P's "The small back room" for another example). Brilliant film, and probably not exhaustable in just one viewing."
Abschied (1930)
By halfway I was charmed by this opposite of GRAND HOTEL, Germany's Not-so-grand BOARDING HOUSE.
Abschied (1930) aka FAREWELL was the first sound film by UFA film studio and only the second film directed by the great Robert Siodmak; best known for The Killers (1946) & Criss Cross (1949) as well as the second film by the great writer Emeric Pressburger; known for The Red Shoes (1948), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) aka Stairway to Heaven and I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).
As far as sound films go, it is packed with lovely music from a pianist lodger who delights himself and listeners with brief jazz and popular song riffs. We also hear electric sweeper sounds, shouting, doors slamming, singing, humming, whistling and various conversations.
Like Grand Hotel there are fascinating characters with their own lives, intersections, hopes, dreams, passions and stories that are talked about. Yes, these people are poor and the Great Depresssion makes it hard to find any job, let alone a great job.
SPOILERS: Our central characters are boyfriend Winkler (Aribert Mog) and girlfriend Hella (Brigitte Horney), who are not only in love but hoping to save the money necessary to get married, some day. The seemingly small but soon to be momentous conflict is that Winkler was offered a wonderful job in another city, far away, at near triple the pay and he is leaving town tomorrow which he hasn't told Hella.
This crack in her trust of him causes her to channel her anger into wanting to make him jealous. So she tells him, fine she is going out for a good time and leaves! He does not know she has gone into debt to by a new dress that she cannot afford just to make him happy and she leaves to buy a matching hat hoping to impress him upon her return.
Meanwhile, after she has goes his anger boils over and he packs and leaves that night before she returns. He settles all his debts and heads to the train station. When Hella returns she is devastated to find him gone. He did not wait. He left no note. They don't have a chance to talk of their possible future.
The other neighbors in the boardinghouse all have opinions into what went wrong, or maybe how selfish Winkler was, how evil, he was no good etc.
One of the unemployed characters has the bad habit of stealing small items, cigarettes, aspirin, etc. When he searches Winkler's room, he finds a gold ring left on top of a dresser and pockets it. Later when he hears the others bashing his friend Winkler he finally interrupts with a story that Winkler had told him that he asked after Hella, he wished her well, in fact he gave this man a ring to give to Hella for him.
Everyone is stunned into silence and one-by-one they say they always knew Winkle was a good and loving man. Hope returns to all that it will somehow work out. They slowly drift away and Hella is left alone with the ring when she notices it is engraved, "Wear it forever, forget me never. Hella."
(My conclusion is, that this ring was one she had given him before and he took it off not wanting her any longer. On his last night she had went out without him. The relationship was forever over.)
BUT! The studio did not want a down beat ending as the director Siodmak did. So, a happier ending was filmed by the studio, without the director's help. In this final scene it's a year later and at a bar several of the neighbors talk how the couple had got married and moved away together and are happy planning their family. For me, both endings could work out. Life happens and we learn by our mistakes. This film got us inside a boardinghouse and exposed us to some interesting people sharing their lives.
Man braucht kein Geld (1931)
Here's a gift for those who care to unwrap it, a Frank Capra like comedy made in Germany in 1931.
Man braucht kein Geld (1931) Translated to "No Money Needed." Our film starts at a bank in the heart of the depression when the bank manager tells the teller (there are only the two of them left) they need a good idea to save their jobs and the community. The teller, he's busy opening the banks' safe, not to get any money but to get the only thing stored there, his lunch. The teller comes up with an idea! A once rich family in town with a beautiful daughter (Hedy Lamarr) is expecting a rich relative coming from America and if they can get him to invest in the bank, oil fields, town, etc.... it might start some hope in the destitute town. So a big welcome is planned by the family at the train station to greet their millionaire American Uncle. SPOILERS: But when he arrives, it turns out he spent everything he had to get to them and even left the U. S. owing money! Our teller thinks fast and comes up with a plan, if they act like the uncle is rich someone else might follow his lead. So the teller suggest they borrow a bunch of empty suitcases and check Uncle into the best suite at the biggest hotel. And here's the magic, they tip the bell hop using a $10 gold piece! (Yes it was all the money he had.) And the word gets out that if they have that kind of money to throw around... so everbody wants to sell Uncle something, but he's to busy to see anyone (and he's being kept from leaving. He's against the ruse.) Well not only do things start to turn around for the town, it's as if a title wave of cash floods back into the bank, into investments, into businesses, etc. The teller even suggest that he marry Lamarr's character just so it can look like he's family! Things go great for a while, but you know the truth has to catch up with them somehow.
So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht (1932)
A seemingly simple rom-com turns into a complicated comedy of misunderstandings and love.
SPOILERS: The two unemployed actors Paul (Willi Forst) and Max earn their living with a book cart and spend their days from morning to night in a café. Just like the recently unemployed office worker Mr. Körner, who hasn't yet had the heart to describe his new living situation to his wife and pretends to be in the office from the café.
In the hope of getting a theater engagement, Paul visits a placement agency every day. One day he manages to convince the theater director Schrader and get an engagement for the operetta Nights in Andalusia. What he doesn't know is that the director is relying on the financial support of the shoe manufacturer's son Hahnen Jr. Is required in order to be able to carry out the performance. Schrader orders Paul to the Hotel Astoria that evening, where the factory owner's son is staying and the business deal is to be completed.
The actress Lisa Brandes is also unemployed and supports herself as a peddler by selling Jo- Jos over water. This is how she comes across Mrs. Körner, who, out of pity, hires her as a maid, without knowing that her husband has lost his job in the meantime. However, this soon comes to light through a bet between Max and Mr. Körner, so that Ms. Körner has to fire Lisa again and at the same time laments the fact that she can no longer maintain her 8-room apartment and therefore has to give it up. At this moment, fate comes to the rescue, because due to a misunderstanding, two boarders ask at the door for free rooms. Lisa understands the new situation and allows the guests to enter without further ado. The idea of running a guesthouse is born, and Lisa decides to go to the Hotel Astoria in the evening to woo guests in the hotel lobby.
It succeeds. But not only the male hotel guests become aware of Lisa, but also Paul, who comes to the appointment with Director Schrader and Hahnen Jr. In the company of Max. Appeared in the hotel lobby. Because he doesn't dare to speak to Lisa directly, he plans a production to get Lisa's attention again. He announces that he will slap the next man who enters the hall under the pretext that he has insulted Lisa. It is Hahnen Jr. Who receives the slap in the face. A scandal that is immediately picked up by the press, but Hahnen's secretary Ewald manages to turn the incident around so that Hahnen Jr. Appears in the newspaper. I defended a lady and slapped a man.
Mr. Körner also reads this and sees a financial opportunity. He asks Lisa to contact the factory owner's son, but Lisa refuses. At that moment Paul rings the doorbell to collect Max's winnings. Lisa opens the door and recognizes him as the gentleman from the hotel lobby, who, based on the newspaper report, she now assumes is Hahnen Jr., the son of shoe manufacturers. A comedy of confusion ensues in which not only Paul pretends to be rich Hahnen Jr. To be, but also Lisa pretends to be a wealthy boarder.
After a night of drinking, however, everything unravels and there is a happy ending. Lisa, who through another misunderstanding managed to get the leather manufacturer Bornemann to sign a business deal with Hahnen Sr. Can use the commission earned to ensure the performance of the operetta Nights in Andalusia , in which Paul and she ultimately play the main roles and also a private couple will be. Recommended!
Gefahren der Brautzeit (1930)
Another possible title could be "Dangers of bridal season," I call it a charming love story.
SPOILERS: The film starts with the charming Willi Forst as a playboy having fun with ladies often cleverly getting out of a tight squeeze using sophisticated tactics. He has several lovers and several close calls with their husbands or boyfriends that is until he meets a woman he cannot forget, Marlene Dietrich. The two meet on a train journey, not knowing that his best friend is her fiancé. The film has a sexy feel that sneaks past the censors, but close-ups of legs were removed "for the prohibition of overstimulating the imagination." A version of the film has been reconstructed by the Deutsche Kinemathek, into which the censorship cuts have been reinserted. The "DANGERS OF THE BRIDAL TIME" (another possible title) consist of a train accident that forces a baron and a young girl, who was previously a stranger to him, to spend the night together. The next morning they are no longer strangers, but the young girl is off to her engagement party. With who? Oh well, with that baron's best friend from the night before. The baron, who is also supposed to take part in the celebration, but the bride, who wants to escape with him, and there's the friend who notices everything, now behaves noble, very noble. SPOILER: In his initial anger he shoots the Baron right in the heart, but he is so noble that he doesn't immediately fall over, but instead talks for a while about bad aim, and only then - finally alone - finds his unhappy end. Not without, by the way, faking suicide so that the friend and his bride don't have to blame each other. It has a high-comedy plot (Lubitsch would use it in ANGEL) with a low-rent denouement and a lot of Art Deco furniture.
Lotte Eisner, despite her personal antipathy towards Marlene (and her conviction that she had better legs), recognized in NIGHTS OF LOVE (another possible title) something flickering through all Marlene's late silent films: "a woman who materializes mysteriously and sadly in a railway compartment (she wrote), charming and alluring in her blend of mysterious behavior and strange passivity, her lovely face shadowed by a presentiment of tragedy." Eisner thought it was all the cameraman, not realizing the passivity was the performance. She might well have been describing Shanghai Lily. I recommend this title.
Bob and Don: A Love Story (2023)
We just saw this wonderful short on YouTube, a loving tribute to some funny best friends.
We have been fans of Bob Newhart (his records, stand-up, TV shows, personal appearances, etc.) all our lives but were surprised years ago to learn this sweet gentle comedian's best friend was the insult master Don Rickles! Rickles used to be on the late night talk shows and when he walked out the audience used to groan because they knew his acid wit and outrageous observations were going to tear everybody down... but after seeing Don thru Bob's eyes we too found the funny in his comedy. Turns out it's all an act and Rickles is sweet and warm-hearted in real life. This touching short is recommended.
Paths to Paradise (1925)
Excellent new Blu-Ray available (2023) of this very witty and funny jewel robbery comedy.
I love Raymond Griffith ever since I discovered him in Hands Up! Which played at Cinevent the annual film convention in Columbus Ohio. Since then I have been lucky enough to track down four or five titles and they are all enchanting. Thank you Ben Model for adding the perfect theater organ music accompaniment and thanks to the people Ben hired to do the digital restoration and to do the grading for their aid in cleaning up the image, which is stunning, sharp and with great greyscale. There are a couple scenes at night where the details would get lost if it were not for the delicate balance of black, white and grays. And thanks to Jesse Pierce for recreating the missing intertitle cards that now fill in the detail of the missing last reel. Run, don't walk to get your copy of this wonderful and smart comedy as soon as possible!
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The novel Doctor Zhivago, is an epic romance set in the breathtakingly beautiful but extremely harsh world of Russia around the time of World War I and the Soviet revolution.
The novel Doctor Zhivago, is an epic romance set in the breathtakingly beautiful but extremely harsh world of Russia around the time of World War I and the Soviet revolution.
It was written by Boris Pasternak who was born in Moscow in 1890 into an artistic family of Russian-Jewish heritage. His father was an acclaimed artist, and his mother a renowned concert pianist.
In their home they entertained famous friends like the composer Rachmaninoff and the writer Tolstoy.
Pasternak had a happy childhood, being brought up by prominent intellectuals in a cosmopolitan atmosphere. His work at a chemical factory in the Ural (your-UL) Mountains of Siberia during WWI was later used as material for his novel.
In 1917 he fell in love with a girl and wrote a collection of passionate poems that brought him international recognition. Pasternak cautiously tolerated the Russian revolution but was shocked with the brutality of communists' extremist.
During 1940s-50s Pasternak wrote his autobiographic novel Doctor Zhivago. A model for Lara in the novel was the poet's muse, a beautiful girl, a magazine editor he had an affair with.
When Pasternak completed Doctor Zhivago and tried to publish it, the authorities rejected it because of its negative depiction of Communist Russia. The manuscript was later secretly smuggled out of the Soviet Union and was first published in Italy in 1957.
Pasternak then won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. But Soviet authorities declared him a "traitor" and attacked him with a campaign of persecution. He died in poverty and exile in 1960.
The novel soon became a modern classic, translated into many languages. In 1988, after being banned in the USSR for three decades, Doctor Zhivago was finally published as a sign of changing times. In 1989 Pasternak's son accepted his father's Nobel Prize in Stockholm.
Winning out over several other producers Carlo Ponti bought the film rights to Doctor Zhivago from its Italian publisher in 1963.
At the time, David Lean was the only director who seemed capable of pulling off such a large-scale production. On the strength of his international success with Lawrence of Arabia, Ponti hired him and gave him complete artistic control.
It is the story of a doctor who is also an artist, a man who things happen to beyond his control. He is an admirable human being, of deep sensibility and romantic nature, who struggles against all odds to write of the beauty of life in his poems.
Zhivago is a pacifist who identifies with both sides, and he witnesses the exchange of the old oppression of the tsarist state for the new, much harsher yoke of the revolutionary super-state.
It's the story of a man whose wife loves him absolutely, especially his poetry. But war and revolution tear them apart and eventually he gets reunited with a beautiful young woman whose husband is consumed elsewhere by communism. This tenderness rekindles the poet's passion to write as if his love and life were about to end.
Director David Lean hired Robert Bolt who had co-written Lawrence of Arabia with him to take Pasternak's 704 page novel and cut down on the amount of characters with odd names and subplots.
Lean and Bolt lived together for two months working to focus the script. In the book you hear the poet's thoughts, but in the film, they decided to use what he saw to be poetry. They said it was their most difficult project, like "trying to straighten out cobwebs."
But as the adventure begins it is the story of three innocents flowering into adults. To explain Zhivago, Lara and Tonya (Zhivago's wife), we must see them grow into seasoned adult human beings.
The casting of Lara was difficult. Someone suggested a pretty blonde (Julie Christie), a relatively unknown actress they had just seen in the 1963 film Billy Liar, where she famously walks down a street swinging a purse... and all eyes were on her. So, Lean called his friend, director John Ford to ask what he thought of Christie who acted in his film Young Cassidy, which had yet to been released.
Ford was most enthusiastic saying, "She's great, the best young actress that has come into the business. No one in the past has shown so much talent at such an early age."
Julie Christie had a very different impression of herself. She thought they must be off their nuts but went along thinking it might be a nice vacation.
At a press conference announcing the cast before the start of shooting the excited newshounds sped past players like Omar Sharif (who was to play the reflective lead), Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger and Ralph Richardson and hovered around Geraldine Chaplin who was to play the doctor's wife. You see up until 1965 none of Charlie Chaplin's eleven children had appeared in a major film so it was a very big deal for the media.
The cinematographer was Freddie Young who was also part of Lean's team on LoA. Together they came up with clever things to bookend or segue the story. Both are used in the first streetcar scene, where Zhivago and Laura don't meet, but only touch when they back into each other. The director then cuts to the trolley's overhead arm sparking on the electric cable as symbolism. Many scenes dove tail small pieces of action into a form of visual poetry. In fact, Lean is quoted with having stolen many silent film techniques.
"I envy people who receive sudden flashes of genius, because I don't." Lean said. "I try to work out every possible way to do a scene and then choose the way that will surprise audiences."
It was hardly surprising that the atmosphere was marked with anxiety. Lean was directly responsible for a massive production with over 2,000 people working in front of and behind the camera, gradually going further and further over budget from 7 million to 15 million.
At one point they were another 3 million over budget and the producer dropped by to see what the holdup was. While he was waiting to see Lean they showed him some of the film they had shot. Afterwards, he then told Lean, "You carry on doing and let me look after the money."
Lean was such a perfectionist that once while filming a long shot of a train he asked his cameraman from which direction the sunlight was coming, and he realized the wrong way. So, Lean had the train sent back to the station which was an hour and a half away, to have it turned around, and then have it back up for an hour and a half to get the shot right.
There was no second unit footage. Lean directed every frame. Production lasted eleven months. When it finally ended, Omar Sharif said the cast wept and the director said I don't want it to end. He then began editing and hired Maurice Jarre to do the music based on some Russian balalaika theme. But after 5-6 unsuccessful attempts, Lean told Jarre to go off and spend a romantic weekend somewhere. Upon his return he wrote the haunting Lara's Theme, also known as Somewhere, My Love.
The film originally received some mixed reviews from critics. Well, let me assure you it gets better every time you see it. And instead of slow it becomes hypnotizing, instead of confusing you now understand each character's motivations. It has now become the director's most profitable film.
David Lean was a master director like Hitchcock and Ford and he could handle large crowds like D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. But he excels at showing the humanity of one person's story vs. All of life's challenges. As in the hot humid jungle of Bridge on the River Kwai, or Peter O'Toole baking and fighting in the endless dry deserts of Lawrence of Arabia. Well tonight you're going to experience the cold of communism in the snows of winter where romance blooms like a million daffodils.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Doctor Zhivago!
A Temperamental Wife (1919)
I enjoyed this silly rom-com at Cinecon 2022 in LA.
Short version with SPOILERS: Capricious Billie Billings determines to marry bashful bachelor Senator Newton of Nevada and succeeds. She discovers on her honeymoon that her husband's secretary "Smith" is actually a woman. When the senator refuses to heed his wife's demands to fire Smith, Billie flirts with a French count and runs away with him to a country inn. The count gets drunk and Billie insists on separate rooms. Billie's friend Dr. Wise arrives at the inn with Smith, her husband and twin children, and Senator Newton. Smith assuages Billie's jealousy and then leaves the senator and his wife alone. The reunited couple depart for a second honeymoon.
For light romantic comedy, silent film had few teams to equal star Constance Talmadge), writer Anita Loos, and her husband, director John Emerson. This picture was one of their several collaborations, and even though it isn't their best, it's still quite amusing.
Another point of view with SPOILERS: Billie Billings (Talmadge) is a willful young woman who dumps her fiancé because she catches him "comforting" his stenographer. She quickly finds a new beau, Senator Newton (Wyndham Standing), and gets him to marry her in spite of the fact that he is inordinately shy. But then she finds out he has a stenographer, too, and this causes a huge argument. Finally Billie tells Newton to choose between keeping his stenographer or his wife, and he chooses the stenographer. So she flounces off and finds yet another man, the Count Tosoff de Zoolac (Armand Kaliz). Billie and the Count run off to the Hicksville Inn, but Newton and his stenographer are hot on her trail. Things are resolved before Billie does anything rash -- it turns out that the stenographer has a husband and two kids, and there is nothing whatsoever going on between her and the boss. So Billie and Newton reunite for a second honeymoon.
Fool's Paradise (1921)
I caught this roller coaster plot at Cinecon 2022 in LA and enjoyed the bizarre twists.
Although this expensive drama was "suggested by" a short story, The Laurels and the Lady, by Leonard Merrick, one can't help but think filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille would not be satisfied until he made it completely his own.
SPOILERS: After returning from World War I, Arthur Phelps (Conrad Nagel) meets Poll Patchouli, a cantina girl (Dorothy Dalton), in a Mexican border town. She falls in love with him and it pains her to see that he has become infatuated with another dancer, Rosa Duchene (Mildred Harris) he met earlier at a WWI hospital where he was recuperating from mustard gas exposure. He's so in love he writes unpublishable poetry. Phelps is later blinded more severely by an exploding cigar and Poll impersonates Rosa so he will marry her. A surgeon eventually restores his sight, and when he sees that he has wed Poll, he angrily leaves her in search of Rosa. Phelps goes halfway around the world and finds Rosa in Siam, where she has won the admiration of Prince Talaat-Noi (John Davidson). She callously tosses her glove into a pit of alligators and bids the man who really loves her to fetch it. The Prince dives in and is injured; Phelps saves him from being eaten. Both men realize that Rosa is faithless, and Phelps returns home to Poll.
Pirates of the Skies (1939)
This B film is a mixed bag of drama, romance and crime film. Watched at Cinecon 2022 in LA
SHORT VERSION with SPOILERS: In this drama, a waitress leaves her husband after getting sick of being alone while her husband, a commercial pilot, plies his trade. To be near her, he quits his job and joins the state police air service. Unfortunately, he becomes mixed up in an interdepartmental rivalry between road-bound and airborne cops. Later it is the aerial cops that capture a ring of notorious jewel thieves. This causes his wife to respect him and his job and they are happily reunited.
LONGER VERSION with SPOILERS: Nick Conlan (Kent Taylor), a daredevil pilot, applies for a job in the State Air Police Force. Noted for his disregard of discipline, Nick is warned by Major Smith, the head of the field, that any infraction of the rules will be met with instant dismissal. After he is accepted as a member of the force, Nick visits the cafe hangout of the Sky Police, where he encounters Barbara Whitney (Rochelle Hudson), his estranged wife and a former stewardess now working as a waitress, who gives Nick the cold shoulder. Major Smith and Captain Higgins of the State Motor Police are stymied over a series of daring holdups that have been perpetrated in their sector. A band of clever crooks seem to have advance information on the movement of large payrolls, bank transfers and jewelry shipments. Attempts to arrest the gang have met with failure because they seem to vanish into the ground after each raid. The secret of their success lies in having access to two locations: the cafe where Barbara works is owned by Jerry Petri, who has installed microphones and tape recorders to record the conversation of the pilots, which he then sends by carrier pigeon to Dr. Amos Pettingill, the owner of a health spa and pigeon farm and the brains behind the operation. Posing as invalids, the robbers live on Pettingill's health farm, where they secretly fly after each holdup. Nick becomes suspicious of the doctor when, while disobeying orders, he has an engine problem and lands at the health farm, where he sees several cans of high-test gas. When he tries to inform the major, however, Nick is fired for disobedience and takes a job flying planes for millionaire sportsman Jim Wilson. Meanwhile, Barbara stumbles upon the secret recording room at the cafe and is taken prisoner by Petri. Nick, looking for Barbara at the cafe, discovers the pigeons and unravels the secret of the robberies. The major sends his crack pilot, Bill Lambert, in pursuit of the doctor's planes, and Nick follows in one of his employer's crafts. When Lambert is shot down, Nick calls headquarters and forces the crooks's plane down with a series of brilliant maneuvers. With the gang arrested, Nick is reinstated into the Sky Police, and Barbara reconciles with him.
Manhattan Moon (1935)
I saw this at Cinecon 2022 in LA and it had its moments but a little too contrived.
I believe this title was books to play at Cinecon because it was so rare. In fact there were no votes or comments on the IMDB. So I decided to post some notes for others who may never get the chance to see this scrace title. It turns out to be a little too contrived, but it has its moments. SPOILERS: Manhattan Moon is predicated on the notion that French songstress Yvonne (Dorothy Page) is so busy with her career that she has to hire a look-alike, Toots Malloy (also Dorothy Page) to take her place at social functions. While posing as Yvonne, Toots makes the acquaintance of the singer's boss, raffish but likeable self-made nightclub proprietor Dan Moore (Ricardo Cortez). As expected, Dan can't understand why the real Yvonne is so cool to his advances after the phony Yvonne was so receptive. By the time Dan has figured out who's who, he's fallen in love with Toots for herself rather than who she represents. The Universal Pictures typecasting system all but demanded that Henry Armetta and Luis Alberni appear in all of the studio's nightclub pictures; they do so here.
Star for a Night (1936)
What a sweet family drama this story turned out to be at Cinecon 2022 in LA.
Blind Mrs. Lind (Jane Darwell) comes to American to visit her three children whom she thinks are successful. SPOILERS: The film starts in Austria/Germany with three hungry young kids playing their musical instruments on the street for pennies, if they can get them. A man who feels sorry for them invites them to a going away party for a sweet blind lady who is finally going to America to see her children who moved there years earlier and have been paying her medical bills ever since. She proudly tells all her friends about her son owning his own car factory (he's actually a cab driver.) Her one daughter is a Broadway star, played by barely employed chorus girl Claire Trevor. And lovely Evelyn Venable plays another daughter who is not a concert pianist as she told her mother but sells sheet music in the five and dime store. It turns out the kids love their mother so much they have been sending her all the money they can for her medical expenses and they did not want to make her feel guilty about the sacrifices they have been making. Well mom wants to surprise the kids and she shows up the same day as her telegram announcing her arrival is delivered! This story sounds sentimental but it's so charming, funny and touching it works like It's A Wonderful Life! More spoilers: The children try to keep up the facade with the help of a friend's apartment and the loan of some nicer clothes, but Mom is still blind so she does not catch on yet. However, a doctor shows up at the request of the specialist from back home she had been seeing. Turns out this new doctor might be able to restore mom's eyesight if she gets an operation. Then the doctor falls for one of the daughters and offers to perform the operation for free! The kids think mom will be let down to see they are not as successful as they pretend to be... after the operation is successful mom sneaks back to the address where she used to send letters to her kids only to discover how they really had to live on a small budget. What does she do? She cooks them all dinner and waits for them to arrive to say thank you for all they have done and to accept whatever success they do have, without lying. Oh, by the way the chorus girl does accidently fill in for the star and get offered the lead. The taxi driver earns enough to buy his own cab and the sheet music salesgirl marries the doctor! If you've ever had a family or a mother, I think you too might love this film.
Daddy (1923)
I enjoyed this charming silent drama at Cinecon 2022 in LA.
SPOILERS: Believing her husband to be unfaithful, Helene Savelli takes her son, Jackie, to the Holdens' farm and dies shortly afterward. The Holdens keep Jackie, but he eventually goes to the city when the elderly couple lose their farm and retire to the poorhouse. Jackie next is befriended by Cesare Gallo, a sidewalk musician who was also the teacher of Paul Savelli--now a famous violinist. A chance meeting with Savelli by Jackie reunites him with Gallo just before the old man dies. Savelli takes Jackie home with him, happily discovers the boy to be his son, and restores the farm to the Holdens. The Star: John Leslie Coogan (October 26, 1914 - March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his film career as a child actor in silent films.
Charlie Chaplin's film classic The Kid (1921) made him one of the first child stars in the history of Hollywood. He later sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, the California Child Actors Bill, widely known as the Coogan Act. Coogan continued to act throughout his life, later earning renewed fame in middle age portraying Uncle Fester in the 1960s television series The Addams Family.
The Lady Escapes (1937)
Enjoyed seeing this zany screwball comedy at Cinecon 2022 in LA.
The short version: In this romantic comedy, a married couple, tired of constantly bickering, separate. The woman heads to France where she immediately gets involved with a suave playboy. This causes the husband to decide that he wants her back. He gets his chance after he finds out the lothario has another lover. In the end, the husband convinces the playboy to marry the lover. Meanwhile his wife returns to him. And about the star: Gloria Frances Stuart (born Gloria Stewart; July 4, 1910 - September 26, 2010) was an American actress, visual artist, and activist. She was known for her roles in Pre-Code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997), the highest-grossing film of all time at the time. Her performance in the film won her a Screen Actors Guild Award and earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture.
A native of Santa Monica, California, Stuart began acting while in high school. After attending the University of California, Berkeley, she embarked on a career in theater, performing in local productions and summer stock in Los Angeles and New York City. She signed a film contract with Universal Pictures in 1932, and acted in numerous films for the studio, including the horror films The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933), followed by roles in the Shirley Temple musicals Poor Little Rich Girl (1936) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). She also starred as Queen Anne in the musical comedy The Three Musketeers (1939).
Beginning in 1940, Stuart slowed her film career, instead performing in regional theater in New England. In 1945, following a tenure as a contract player for Twentieth Century Fox, Stuart abandoned her acting career and shifted to a career as an artist, working as a fine printer and making paintings, serigraphy, miniature books, Bonsai, and découpage for the next three decades. She produced numerous pieces during this period, many of which are part of collections in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stuart gradually returned to acting in the late 1970s, appearing in several bit parts, including in Richard Benjamin's My Favorite Year (1982) and Wildcats (1986). She made a prominent return to mainstream cinema when she was cast as the 100-year-old elder Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997), which earned her numerous accolades and renewed attention. Her final film performance was in Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty (2004). She died of respiratory failure on September 26, 2010, aged 100.
My Lips Betray (1933)
I saw this at Cinecon 2022 in Los Angeles, a charming Rom-Com.
Here is a plot description with SPOILERS: In the kingdom of Ruthania, as Lili Wieler (Lilian Havey) nervously dresses for a job singing at a cafe, which she has never done before, she is soon enthralled by a chauffeur touting the luxurious features of the huge Bing-Bang town car, which has been sold to the king. Her wisecracking landlady, Mama Watcheck (Maude Eburne), to whom she owes rent money, mildly rebukes her for placing love above financial security as she complains that Lili has refused the entreaties of a butcher and a baron. As the king's chauffeur Stigmat drives to the Volk's Garden, Lili struggles through a song for which she was unprepared. Her song is disrupted and Weininger (Herman Bing), the owner, fires her. Stigmat, who takes a liking to Lili, implies that she is the king's favorite singer and gives her a ride home. Rumors quickly spread about a romance between Lili and the king, and the next day, King Rupert (John Boles), who prefers composing love songs to being a monarch, learns of the rumors. The country is faced with a financial crisis, and although Rupert hopes that an expedition of geologists seeking to find oil in the plains of Malu will succeed, he reluctantly agrees to marry Princess Isabella of Moravia to balance the budget should the expedition fail. When Weininger brings gifts to convince Lili to come back to his cafe, Mama Watcheck, having heard the rumors, acts as her manager and calls the police to locate Lili, who is searching for work. The police escort her to the Volk's Garden, where she discovers that everyone thinks she is the king's mistress. Mama Watcheck talks her into singing again, and she is a big success. Afterwards, Rupert comes into her dressing room through a window, and after introducing himself as Captain von Linden, the man who wrote the song she just sang, he teaches her a new song. He flirts with her, calling the king a dull fellow with no flair, but although she is attracted, she resists him. However, after Rupert steals a kiss, he says he knows she loves him because her lips betray her. At night as she prepares for bed, Rupert again enters her room through her window and encourages her to be unfaithful to the king. Although she is falling in love with him, she tricks him into leaving and then locks him out. The next day, Rupert agrees to marry the princess to save the country, but orders Stigmat to bring Lili to the palace. As a crowd awaits the king's announcement that he has balanced the budget, Lili is taken to the king's bedroom, and when Rupert enters, she hides under the bed. He then finds her, and Lili, frightened and still unaware of his real identity, hugs him and confesses that she has never even seen the king. Rupert finally reveals that he is the king and says that he loves her and that he is willing to give up everything for her. She does not believe him, and they wrestle on the floor before he makes her say "uncle," whereupon he is able to kiss her. The Queen Mother interrupts them to report that because of the rumors, the princess has refused to marry Rupert and has run off to Paris with a tango dancer. Just then a telegram arrives stating that oil in great quantities has been found in Malu. Rupert, with Lili by his side, reads the message to the people and introduces Lili as the countess of Malu, his bride-to-be.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
OK, I just saw the 1 hour 57 minute show at home print at CINECON!
The source material for this was a 16mm print from the early 1930s made from the first negative with original titles. Collector Jon Mirsalis, a Lon Chaney expert knows of all the surviving material and the shorter versions that had been available up until now. That's why he recognized this is the most complete version to survive in the sharpest image with the richest details. Hopefully, Universal studios will make this version available on Bou-Ray soon so that others can enjoy this film where the plot and the story make the film even better. Now, I love the 1939 version with Charles Laughton and always thought the 1923 version flawed in that it did not make much sense. Now that I have seen the full length version, I understand the characters motivations more clearly, the plot now moves more quickly and there are no loose ends that go unresolved.
Max, der Zirkuskönig (1924)
I just saw this forgotten gem at Cinecon in LA, Labor Day Weekend 2022
Thanks to Serge Bromberg, and all who worked so hard to restore this film from eleven different film elements, nine different film archives or collectors. It is a charming comedy with lots of inventive gags. If you get a chance to see it do, it's a delightful charmer from the man who Charlie Chaplin said inspired him. In the intro we heard the story as to why it disappeared, because Max Linder commited suicide soon after it was finished for personal reasons. And no one wanted to be reminded of that tragedy so his films just dropped from theaters and the audiences memories. But he was a genius somewhere between Chaplin and Raymond Griffith. "In her 1983 documentary on Max Linder, The Man in the Silk Hat, Maud Linder says of Max Linder's rarely-found final feature film (made in Austria): "Nothing remains of this great film but a few stills and scraps of footage, unscreenable today". Fortunately, more of the film was later found."
Say It with Diamonds (1923)
Like most Carter DeHaven silent short comedies this one is a gem and holds up well!
SPOILERS: 2 reel comedy about a husband pawning his wife's wedding ring without her knowledge so he can make a quick stock investment. When news comes that his mother-in-law (the diamond expert) will arrive that night the husband who had asked the jeweler to switch an imitation stone panics. However the wife picked up the ring before the switch could be made and the husband thinking he's hiding the fake stone gives the ring to a street vendors monkey and claims thieft. Then the husband gets a call from the jeweler stating he never had time to make the switch and the diamond is real. Chase scene shenanigans of husband chasing monkey when his hat catches on fire and he spreads the flames around the neighborhood before he realizes it. Eventually he gets the ring back from the monkey's owner after he uses a stranger to knock him out. When his stocks come in he buys his mother-in-law a gift and his wife gets her original ring back, all is well. LS viewed 6/19/2017 on nitrate film.
The Forward Pass (1929)
I wish this LOST FILM could be found, no one has seen it in many decades!
I have not seen the film but in my research I found an opinion from a major New York newspaper's most famous critic who said, "Sport and love are linked at the psychological moment in "The Forward Pass." A love note followed by a kiss thrown by a pretty girl spurs on the Colfax quarterback to wrench victory at the last second from the battling Sanford team. Up to that time there were evidently quite a number of persons among the audience yesterday afternoon who believed that this might be the one gridiron game in which the favorite team was not successful. With all its shortcomings, its carefully laid plot with convenient coincidences, this film is quite a fair entertainment. It is pleasingly acted by the principals, who include Douglas Fairbanks Jr. And Loretta Young. So far as the suspense is concerned, that is a matter that tests with the onlooker. There were moments when not a few in the packed house laughed at hectic incidents, but as football is timely, the screen game itself was received with enthusiasm. Judging by some of the scenes, they had a beautiful California day for this contest, at which the radio announcer wore summery attire. There are scenes of the vast crowds at some game or other and now and again there are glimpses of the cheering for both Colfax and Sanford, those bitterest of bitter rivals. In the opening sequence there is also a football game, one in which the hero, Marty Reid (Mr. Fairbanks) is accused of being yellow. It is, however, through fumbling a pass that he meets the girl whom he embraces fondly in the final fadeout. The coach, Mr. Wilson, is eager to have Reid play in the game against Colfax, but the quarterback insists that he will never play again. His reasons are convincing. Wilson decides to appeal to Reid through Patricia Carlyle, who up to that time as known as the "college vamp." Reid is resentful of Patricia's flip remarks, but a perfumed lace handkerchief which he finds results in his being smitten with an incipient attack of love. At that time Patricia is rather fond of another student, but what she first only pretends she soon learns to mean in earnest. Patricia croons mockingly to Reid, but when she discovers why he is off his game in the great contest she is quite another girl, not only eager for Reid to do his share to win the match but also keen on winning him. Here again there are the turbulent and frisky freshmen who come in for rough treatment from the seniors. These same young men are made to play music find sing for the edification of the older students and the charming girls. Colfax, it might be mentioned, does not, apparently, pay much attention to books. In fact, no books are seen. It is an institution that excels in football, saxophonists and romance. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Gives a really good account of himself. Miss Young is both capable and attractive. Guin Williams furnishes amusement as a giant member of the team who prefers to be known as Honey, rather than by his given name of Cecil. Bert Rome also does well as the Colfax coach." NYTimes, Mordaunt Hall.
The Golden Fetter (1917)
Tinted print survives at the Library of Congress and it's good!
SPOILERS: Years of teaching school in Massachusettes has broken Faith Miller's health. On the advice of her doctor, she goes West to the mine in which she has bought a half interest from Henry Slade, an unscrupulous speculator. Her health improves, but Faith finds that her mine is worthless. The townspeople take pity on her and appoint her as the schoolmistress, but there are only two pupils: a half-witted boy and James Ralston, a young mining engineer who is suspected of train robbery. Ralston, accused because he was seen with some disreputable characters before the hold up, falls in love with Kate. However, when he shelters Edson and McGill, the robbers, because they nursed him back to health when he was ill, the sheriff is killed and Ralston is arrested for the murder and sentenced to be hanged. As Faith pleads for her sweetheart's life, a deathbed confession from Edson, the real murderer, prevents the hanging. All ends happily after Ralston salts the mine and dupes Slade into buying Faith's half interest, and Faith and Ralston agree to be interested only in each other.