The Pillory Scene From "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" (Lon Chaney, 1923) (video)

Quasimodo (Lon Chaney), the deaf bell-ringer at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris...

...has been convicted of a crime for which he is innocent.

His sentence is to be tied to the public pillory and whipped.

Will no one take pity on him?



Quasimodo: Lon Chaney
Esmeralda: Patsy Ruth Miller

I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!
 

The Pillory Scene From "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" (Lon Chaney, 1923) (video)

First Screen Frankenstein: Edison's 1910 "Frankenstein" (video)

Thomas Edison's film studio released the first screen adaptation of "Frankenstein" in 1910.

The Monster was played by Charles Ogle.

A young scientist named Frankenstein creates life in his laboratory.
But his "perfect being" turns out to be a hideous creature.

Frankenstein's impure thoughts are to blame.

Frankenstein rejects his creation, but it is insanely devoted to him...
...and jealous of Frankenstein's bride-to-be, Elizabeth.

Finally, Frankenstein's pure love for Elizabeth causes the Monster to fade away.

The film was lost for many years.  A rediscovered print became widely seen in the 1970s.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Music by Uniq

First Screen Frankenstein: Edison's 1910 "Frankenstein" (video)

Three Extras Killed Filming "Noah's Ark" (1928) (video)

During the key flood sequence, safety was ignored in favor of spectacle.

Extras were not warned of the severity of the water that would engulf them.
These included a young Marion "Duke" Morrison (John Wayne).

While the stars were doing their closeups...
...the unwary extras were being deluged by deadly torrents of water.

Their fear is real as they scramble for their lives.

Several extras were seriously injured.
Three of them were killed. 

 

Originally posted on 8/31/18
I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Three Extras Killed Filming "Noah's Ark" (1928) (video)

DADDY-LONG-LEGS (1919) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/12/21

 

Currently rewatching: My favorite Mary Pickford movie and one of my favorite silent films ever, DADDY-LONG-LEGS (1919), which I haven't seen since it was on PBS back in the 80s.

Mary is radiant and utterly disarming in this classic film that's filled with laughs and pathos.

As usual, Mary's fascinating facial expressions and physical acting are a delight and her slight stature enables her to play the plucky orphan character from pre-teen to young woman. 

 

The story maintains a light tone most of the time despite some dark elements, such as Mary's character, Jerusha Abbott, being abandoned in a trash can as an infant and winding up in an orphange run by a cruel woman and her spiteful toady.

"Judy", as the children call her, is a rambunctious rebel and full of mischief, which Mary Pickford plays to the hilt. 

We see her in lots of frantic action of this nature (the sequence in which she and a younger boy inadvertently get drunk is particularly funny) until the years pass and Judy, now a young woman, is sponsored by a mysterious benefactor--whom she knows only as "Daddy-Long-Legs"--and sent to college.

 

Mary handles the transition between pre-teen and young lady flawlessly, as two different upper-class boys vie for her affection while her benefactor, "John Smith", remains in the background.

In addition to struggling with romantic matters, she also must deal with the prejudice her classmates and acquaintances have for her "common" status. 

While much of the story leans toward sentiment, it never becomes maudlin or descends into bathos even when Judy serves as a surrogate mother for a terminally-ill orphan.

 

 
All of the story elements are deftly interwoven and augmented by cleverly-written and rather witty intertitles and art. Direction, cinematography, and performances are uniformly fine.

I got a used copy of this rare DVD which, thank goodness, is in very good condition and features a great print of the film.

It even has a good musical score that was written for it and performed by a chamber orchestra.

This title along with TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY and SPARROWS are my favorite Mary Pickford films. DADDY-LONG-LEGS in particular is one of the most delightfully entertaining silent films I've ever seen.

DADDY-LONG-LEGS (1919) -- Movie Review by Porfle

THE JAZZ SINGER -- Blu-Ray/DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 1/15/13

 

It wasn't really the first time the movies had talked.  But when Warner Brothers released "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, it was the first such film to become a commercial sensation, thus heralding the ultimate demise of the silent era.

Warner Home Video's 3-disc set THE JAZZ SINGER gives film buffs and novices alike the opportunity to view the original classic in all its pristine glory, with a practically flawless print and a robust soundtrack taken from the original recording discs once used to accompany the film when projected.  This Blu-Ray presentation also comes with two DVDs containing a wealth of extras that reflect the diligent work of various film preservationists.

As for the film itelf, it's the story of a young jazz singer named Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson) whose rigidly conservative father disowns him because he refuses to become a cantor in the synagogue.  Despite five generations of Rabinowitzes being cantors, Jakie would rather sing songs like "Toot Toot Tootsie" and "Dirty Face, Dirty Hands" under the name "Jack Robin" than to serenade the faithful, which will eventually drive his father to his deathbed as his heartbroken mother looks on in anguish.

When Jakie meets and falls in love with Broadway star Mary Dale (a sparkling May McAvoy), she recommends him for the lead role in a Broadway revue that promises to propel him to stardom.  But the night of his debut coincides with the services for the Day of Atonement, in which Jakie must perform as cantor lest his father die of disappointment.  It's the classic dilemma, plunging both Jakie and the viewer into a world of heartrending melodrama.

It may be difficult to understand now, but at the time Al Jolson was considered the world's greatest entertainer.  Indeed, he's earnest and engaging when performing even though his material seems incredibly corny and even maudlin nowadays.  While the majority of THE JAZZ SINGER is silent, Jolson's performance numbers are done with sound, including his ad-libbed patter between songs.  His famous quote "Wait a minute, wait a minute...you ain't heard nothin' yet!" is the line that first introduced most viewers to the world of talking cinema. 

Later, when the banished Jakie comes home to visit his beloved mother, he serenades her at the piano as Jolson ad-libs up a storm between lyrics.  His extensive dialogue here is what most impressed initial viewers and critics who found this synchonization of picture and sound to be irresistibly exciting.  Jolson's performing style continues to carry the film to new heights in the final Broadway sequence, in which he makes cinematic history belting out his heart-on-the-sleeve rendition of "Mammy" on bended knee.

While his use of minstrel-style blackface continues to be a sticking point for many viewers--Warner Brothers leads off the lengthy enclosed booklet with a disclaimer about "ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society" and is careful to feature a white-faced Jolson on the DVD cover--Jolson himself doesn't stress the usual stereotype while in the makeup and uses it mainly to get into character for his sentimental songs.  How tolerable one finds this is up to the individual viewer.

Storywise, THE JAZZ SINGER mixes the lighthearted jazz scenes and the warm, stereotypically Jewish humor with strong somber overtones that are reflected by the lovely theme music by Louis Silvers (overture and exit music are included here and are a treat).  Director Alan Crosland's lean, efficient work is augmented by some priceless opening shots of New York's lower east side.  

Swedish actor Warner Oland, who would become famous for his portrayal of Chinese detective Charlie Chan, makes an impression as Jakie's unyielding father, the quintessential old fogey, while Eugenie Besserer is Jakie's long-suffering mother Sara.  Otto Lederer adds to the Jewish-related humor as neighborhood kibitzer Moisha Yudelson. 

But it's Jolson who makes THE JAZZ SINGER as fun and involving as it is, despite being about as creaky and over-the-top sentimental as a story can be.  (Critics of the time thought so, too.)  While his performing style takes some getting used to, he's unfailingly charming and enthusiastic every second he's on the screen, giving his all during every musical number and applying himself diligently in his acting requirements as well.  It makes one wonder just how effective he must have been while interacting with a live audience.  

Disc One contains not only the film itself but also a wonderfully informative commentary by film historians Ron Hutchinson and Vince Giordano.  A 1926 Vitaphone short, "The Plantation Act", features Jolson in blackface in a performance that prompted the Warners to cast him as "The Jazz Singer" over George Jessel, who had made the role his own on stage and expected to be a shoo-in for the screen version. 

Also included are the short, "An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee", the Tex Avery cartoon "I Love to Singa", the shorts "Hollywood Handicap" and "A Day at Santa Anita", a 1947 Lux Radio Theater broadcast featuring Jolson, and the film's trailer.

Disc Two begins with a feature-length documentary, "The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk" and two rare Technicolor excerpts from the lost film "Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929).  Also included are the following WB studio shorts: "Finding His Voice" (1929 animated cartoon produced by Max Fleischer), "The Voice That Thrilled the World", "Okay for Sound" (1946), "When Talkies Were Young" (1955), and "The Voice from the Screen", a 1926 demonstration film which explains the new technology in incredibly boring fashion.

Disc Three offers over three and a half hours of vaudeville stars in musical, dramatic, and comedy performance shorts, many of which have been newly restored by film archivists and historians.  They run the gamut from the hilarious verbal comedy of Shaw and Lee in "The Beau Brummels" and Burns and Allen in "Lambchops" to the song stylings of Baby Rose Marie ("The Child Wonder") and the music of Dick Rich and his Melodious Monarchs.  Most of these shorts are in fine condition, but some have been pieced together from existing footage.

Some may find THE JAZZ SINGER a bit of a chore to sit through.  I myself was a little bored now and then upon first viewing, but I found that it really started to grow on me after watching it for the second or third time.  It's best to pretend that you're sitting in the audience for a crowded, anticipation-charged showing in 1927, and witnessing firsthand the triumphant advent of sound as a blackfaced Jewish guy belting out "Mammy" rings the death knell for silent cinema.

THE JAZZ SINGER -- Blu-Ray/DVD review by porfle

WAGON TRACKS (1919) -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 1/21/17

 

I love silent movies.  They represent over thirty years of great, and not-so-great, filmmaking which is at times either utterly astounding or deeply moving, and often both. 

The form itself is fascinating, reliant almost entirely on the visual, inviting the audience to become fully involved and immersed, interpreting the action and meaning rather than simply being passive spectators. 

And it's all right there for the film fan to rediscover--at least, the relatively small percentage of it that survives, the rest sadly having been lost over the years. 

I love westerns too, so when I saw that producer Thomas H. Ince and star William S. Hart's 1919 sagebrush saga WAGON TRACKS was being released on Blu-ray and DVD by Olive Films, my interest was, to put it mildly, piqued. 

I'd never seen any of Hart's films, but I knew that he was born in 1864 during the Civil War and grew up in honest-to-goodness western times, a friend of Wyatt Earp and "Bat" Masterson, and a believer in making his western films as authentic and true to life as possible. 

Indeed, in 1919 what we know as the Old West still existed to a large extent, and to make a film about it then was to have access to an amazing degree of first-hand authenticity and realism which drew not from history books but from the memories and experiences of those involved.

In WAGON TRACKS as in his other films, Hart eschews the glamorized, stylized, and somewhat prettified image of the west that would eventually become the norm.  His character, desert scout "Buckskin" Hamilton, is rough and unsophisticated, but with a strong sense of decency and a simple code of behavior that is honest and straightforward. 

We pick up the story as he travels East through the desert to meet his younger brother Billy (Leo Pierson), a recent medical school graduate, at the Missouri River.  But Billy is killed by crooked gambler Washburn (Robert McKim) and his toady Merton (Lloyd Bacon) before their riverboat docks, and Washburn blames the shooting on his own sister Jane (Jane Novak), claiming that Billy had tried to molest her.

In her confusion, Jane goes along with the story, but the heartbroken Buckskin refuses to believe it. As fate would have it, he becomes leader of the wagon train that will carry the Washburns west.  During the trip, which is fraught with hardship (Indian attacks, water shortages, etc.), Buckskin discovers the truth behind Billy's death and sets out to get not revenge, but justice.

The story meanders a bit at times and there isn't the frenetic action and suspense we would come to expect from the typical matinee western.  Hart, with his long, homely face and soulful eyes, prefers to explore the feelings of the characters--the frontiersman's grief and yearning for closure in his brother's death, Jane's nagging guilt and despair, the daily uncertainties of the homesteaders, and the desperation of the two villains when forced to face up to their crime.

Hart and director Lambert Hillyer (DRACULA'S DAUGHTER) indulge in melodrama only when Buckskin is faced with the grief of his brother's death, and even here Hart's stage training enables him to express sincere emotion.  Elsewhere, the exaggerated acting styles of the cast are a valid means of expression in silent film acting although for modern audiences it may take a bit of getting used to.  

As for the locations, costumes, and other production elements, they're as authentic as it gets.  What we see isn't a simulation of the Old West, but the real thing.  The wagon train scenes aren't as grand as those in Raoul Walsh's 1930 epic THE BIG TRAIL, but they're immensely satisfying nonetheless.  Cinematography (tinted to denote bright sunlight or night) is fine.

The DVD from Olive Films is in 1.33:1 aspect ratio with stereo sound.  The original score is written and performed on piano by Andrew Earle Simpson and retains the flavor of the silent era.  Intertitles are nicely illustrated. While containing the usual occasional flaws for a film of this age, the picture quality for the most part is outstanding.  No extras.

An encounter with Indians that goes from friendly to hostile due to an unfortunate culture clash sets up the film's resolution, which some might consider anti-climactic since it doesn't involve gunplay or ruthless revenge.  William S. Hart's character is a man of deep feeling and integrity, which WAGON TRACKS portrays with understatement and maturity.  This is a film for lovers of silent cinema and early westerns to savor. 

Buy it from Olive Films

WAGON TRACKS (1919) -- DVD Review by Porfle

A POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Currently watching: Mary Pickford in A POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1917). 

 

Mary is at her best here, as the tiny (5'1") actress plays a sweetly rambunctious 11-year-old girl (Mary was actually 25) who craves love and attention while her wealthy parents have no time for her and household staff abuse her. 

 

Highlights include Mary inviting some street urchins in for a mud fight in the greenhouse, and a disastrous playdate with a snooty, spoiled rich girl. 

 

 

 

Very well made with a realistic setting that looks like an actual mansion, sharp direction and photography, and nice special effects and color tinting during the climactic dream sequence as Mary's character fights for life after an accidental "sleep medicine" overdose. 

 

She imagines herself on a fairyland quest for happiness that resembles "The Wizard of Oz", with three people from her real life--a plumber, an organ grinder, and a sympathetic servant--as her fantasy companions. 

 

 

 

The sequence contains some very surreal touches, some of which even have a David Lynch quality.

 

The print used for the Alpha Video DVD is of very good quality for a film made in 1917. A POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL is essential viewing for Mary Pickford fans.

 

A POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL -- Movie Review by Porfle