A Christmas Accident (1912)

Run Time: 15 minutes. Studio: Edison. Director: Harold M. Shaw. Writers: Bannister Merwin, Annie Eliot Trumbull. Main Cast: Williams Wadsworth, Mrs. William Bechtel, Augustus Philips, Ida Williams, Enda Hammel.


Today if you mention the Edison studio to most film buffs, they will associate it with very early pre-D.W. Griffith cinema, with films such as The Kiss, Fred Ott's Sneeze, The Great Train Robbery. However the Edison studio was still making films at the same time D.W. Griffith was making his mark at Biograph studios. Under the influence of what Biograph and Griffith were doing, the Edison films were becoming increasingly more sophisticated. The studio adopted many of the film making innovations Griffith was pioneering and made some of their best films during this period. With this being December I feel it is a good time to look at a Christmas-themed short from Edison at this time.

In this short a kindly family lives next door to a seemingly grumpy old man named Mr. Gliton (William Wadsworth) and his wife (Mrs. William Blechtel). The family is poor but happy and looking forward to Christmas. Mr. Gliton doesn't seem too happy about the upcoming holiday and remains his grumpy self, even getting into arguments with the family. Mr. Gliton orders roast beef but it is accidently given to the family next door. Mr. Gliton yells at the family for taking his roast beef. Soon things get worse for the old man as his dog dies. Again this causes an argument between him and the family. With their lack of money the parents of the family are sad they can't get the children much for Christmas. All this ends up leading to a heartwarming finale that never fails to make me smile.

What may immediately strike those only familiar with Edison's pre-Griffith films is the pure narrative sophistication here. This film incorporates a lot of different plot elements and works them all towards a perfectly constructed ending. Despite this film being over 100 years old there is nothing here to date it. It remains just as charming as it was when it was first released. The story is so beautifully put together and completely timeless that the short feels as if it could have been made yesterday. There is nothing primitive in the filmmaking here. Every second of film is used to its full and best advantage. The heartwarming ending is just as effective and moving now as it was then and I am sure it will bring a smile or perhaps even a tear to your eye.


This film was directed by Harold M. Shaw, who had just begun his film career earlier in 1912 with an Edison short called The Governor. Though he got his start at Edison, he would spend very little of his career there as by late 1913, he was directing shorts for London Film Co. Christmas Accident wasn't the only Christmas film Shaw made as in 1914 he directed one of the many film versions of A Christmas Carol for London Film Co. Around 1915, African Film Productions was looking for American talent for better distribution to American and British audiences. AFP found two directors to bring over with Harold M. Shaw and Lorrimer Johnston. This lead to Shaw directing what some consider to be South Africa's first feature film Der Voortrekkers released in 1916. He followed this with two more South American features with The Rose of Rhosida (in 1917) and Thoroughbreds All (released in 1919). His film career would end in 1924 and he would pass away in 1926. Because of this he never made a talkie. Though his work is little remarked upon today, he was a consistently good director and his films are still delightful to anyone willing to watch them. William Wadsworth, who played Mr. Gliton was an extremely prolific actor, who spent most of his career making shorts for Edison. Mrs. William Bechtel (born as Jennie Cecilia Ahlstrom), who played Mrs. Gliton was also very prolific (though not as prolific as Wadsworth), and also spent most of her career making short films for Edison.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
https://thebioscope.net/2012/02/26/the-bioscope-guide-to-south-africa/


   

Caught in a Cabaret (1914)

Run Time: 30 minutes. Studio: Keystone Studios. Directors: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin. Writers: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin. Main Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Alice Davenport, Chester Conklin, Edgar Kennedy. Cinematographer: Frank D. Williams.







Some of you reading this blog may be familiar with a story about what happened during the making of the Keystone comedy short Mabel at the Wheel. This short was directed by Mabel Normand (who also starred in it) and featured Charlie Chaplin as the villain. Chaplin wanted to improvise his own comedy bits but Mabel reminded him she was the director and not him. This lead to a fight. Eventaully Chaplin went to Mack Sennett (the studio boss) and told him about what was happening. Sennett's answer was that Chaplin had to do as the director stated whenever being directed by someone else, but as well as those films he would now be able to direct some of his own films. With this Charlie went and finished the film Mabel's way. What is rather interesting is this never caused any riff between Chaplin and Normand. They were friends off set and would work together on set. In fact one of the best films either of them made for the Keystone studios was one they co-directed and wrote.

Charlie Chaplin made 36 films (35 shorts and 1 feature) for Keystone Studios, all released in the year 1914. These films for the most part do not have a great reputation among Charlie Chaplin fans. This was because Charlie Chaplin's sense of humor was quite different than the studio's. The studio specialized in films with an extremely fast pace, little story and lots of slapstick. While he did not need to take as much time as say Harry Langdon, Chaplin's films were at their best when he was allowed more time to take than the studio often allowed him to. There was also the fact that many of the Keystone film offered no motivation for characters to engage in slapstick. The fact a person was leaning over was good enough reason to kick their rear end or stab it with a pitchfork. Charlie Chaplin was really one of the first film artists to add motivation for slapstick humor and was at his best when the humor was properly motivated. I personally have a soft spot for these Keystone shorts. While I admit quite a few of them are not anywhere up to par with his later work, they are fascinating to a film buff like me. It is incredible to get to see an artist evolve his art as you can see in these early films. You can see mistakes being made and Chaplin learning from them.


This film may have a simple story but there seems to be more focus on the story than there is in other Keystone shorts of this era. The Tramp (played by Charlie Chaplin) is a waiter at a not too high class café, where drinking and suggestive dancing are the norm. However the Tramp meets Mabel (played by Mabel Normand), a beautiful and sophisticated high class woman. The Tramp realizes that he doesn't stand a chance with this woman however he gets an idea. He disguises himself as a Greek Ambassador. With this disguise he is able to go to a fancy garden party, hosted by her family.


With this film having a greater emphasis on story it also features more intertitles than the average Keystone short. Despite this though there is no lack of typical Keystone slapstick, including brick throwing, mallet to head action, and so forth. However with this film having more of a story the slapstick feels more motivated than usual and is actually pretty funny. It is fascinating today to see ideas done here in this early short that would later be employed in the later much renowned feature film, City Lights. In that film the Tramp would pretend to be a millionaire to impress a blind girl. This type of façade is also employed as a major story point here. However the big difference is in how the ideas are treated. In City Lights it is played for both comedy and drama. However here it is played only for comedy. There is little pity or empathy for the tramp Caught in Cabaret will try to get out of the audience. While these are probably just coincidences, they are still fascinating to see here and show the Tramp as more fully developed character than he was in most Keystone films. This film is a pure delight. The humor is pretty funny and the story does keep you interested from the beginning to the end. The performances are of course great and Charlie and Mabel have all of their usual charm. Along with our two main stars also of interest to today's film enthusiast is an early appearance by the great character actor Edgar Kennedy as the café owner. Kennedy would later be known as the master of the slow burn and appeared in numerous Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang shorts as well as his own series of short subjects. Probably his most famous role today is as the street vendor who gets the worst from Harpo and Chico Marx in Duck Soup. Here he is not playing the kind of role he would later be known for and it is fun to see him in a different type of role. He may here however go unrecognized by people watching the film today as he looked much different.      

Upon this film's release critics were very enthusiastic about how much they enjoyed the short. In a review in the New York Times Dramatic Mirror the reviewer wrote "...it is unwise to call this the funniest picture that has ever been produced but it comes mighty close to it". A reviewer in Bioscope wrote "Mr. Chaplin has a humor all his own, in which here he has the opportunity of indulging to the upmost, the result being amusing to the extreme". A reviewer for Moving Picture World was much more playful in his review stating "It caused so much laughter you couldn't hear what the actors was talking".


Resources UsedThe Films of Charlie Chaplin edited by Gerald D. Macdonald, Michael Conway and Mark Ricci
Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett by Simon Louvish
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/412541/Caught-In-A-Cabaret/


-Michael J. Ruhland

The Monster (1925)

Run Time: 86 minutes. Studio: MGM. Director: Roland West. Writer: Roland West. Based on a play by Crane Wilbur. Main Cast: Lon Chaney, Gerutrde Olmstead, Hallum Cooley, Johnny Arthur. Cinematographer: Hal Mohr.


It is October again and of course with Halloween, this is the perfect month to watch a scary movie. To me (and I am sure many other film enthusiasts) that means it is the perfect time to watch a Lon Chaney movie. While I like many of you love Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Unknown and many more of the most popular films he starred in, this month we are going to look at an often very overlooked movie starring The Man of a Thousand Faces. This is a horror-comedy called The Monster.

This movie was directed by Roland West. If some of you are not familiar with this name it may be because during his brief movie career (1916-1931). He only directed 12 films and over half of them are unfortunately currently lost films. Two of his movies however may be known by comic book buffs. These are The Bat and its sequel The Bat Whispers. Both of which played a part in inspiring the character of Batman. The Monster is the oldest of West's currently surviving films.


This movie was based off a stage play by Crane Wilbur. Crane Wilbur is quite a name himself in film history. My fellow short subject fans might know him for directing some 1930's Technicolor short subjects for Warner Brothers about the history of the USA. On the other hand horror movie buffs might know him for writing 1953's The House of Wax. My fellow country music fans on the other hand might be interested to know Crane Wilbur directed a 1951 film called Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, which inspired Johnny Cash to write his song Folsom Prison Blues.

As mentioned before this film stars Lon Chaney himself. One of the things that Chaney is best remembered for now is his understated and often subtle way of acting. This is often attributed to his parents being both deaf and mute and because of this he needed to learn to communicate through pantomime. However in this film he is anything but subtle. He is over the top and very exaggerated in his movements. Since the character he plays is anything but subtle it works very well here. Still this holds an interest to film enthusiasts to see such a beloved actor use such a different acting style.

As this film starts Johnny Goodlittle (played Johnny Arthur) fights over a beautiful girl named Betty (played by Gertrude Olmstead) with his rival Amos (played by Hallam Cooley). Johnny being an amateur detective decides to investigate a disappearance at an asylum. When he gets there however he learns that the evil Dr. Ziska (played by Lon Chaney) has taken over the place. Dr. Ziska kidnaps Amos and Betty. Johnny, Amos and Betty struggle to find a way out of the asylum alive as they learn just how sinister Dr. Ziska really is.

Though I would be lying if I said this movie ranks among one of Chaney's best films, this movie is still a sheer delight, especially for my fellow film buffs. The comedy while not consistently laugh out loud hilarious is often pretty funny. Scenes like the dance hall scene or Johnny being drunk certainty make me laugh. The characters are very likable and always fun to watch, and the acting is fantastic. However the best thing about this movie in my mind is its sense of atmosphere. As soon as you enter the asylum, there is a feeling of dread. You just know things are going to get worse. The lighting and cinematography are perfect here and really accentuate the idea of something not being quite right.

At time critics were not very fond of the movie's combination of comedy and horror. However this is what this movie's current fans loves about the film.


-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3040/The-Monster/

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

Run Time: 95 minutes. Studio: MGM. Director: Victor Sjöström. Writer: Victor Sjöström, Carey Wilson, Marian Ainslee. Based on a play by Leonid Andreyev. Main Cast: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Ford Sterling, Marc McDermott, Ruth King. Cinematographer: Milton Moore.



He Who Gets Slapped was a very important film in the history of movies. It was both the first movie to be released under the company name of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (or MGM for short). It is also the first movie for the studio headed by Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had received two titles at this time, first vice president and supervisor of production. Thalberg had previously worked at Universal which had made a lot of movies staring Lon Chaney. Because of this Thalberg brought Chaney over to star in this movie. Chaney would later remember his character in this film as one of his favorite characters he ever played.

Paul Beaumont (played by Lon Chaney) was once a very dedicated and brilliant scientist. However one day his assistant (played by Marc McDermott) claims Beaumont's ideas as his own and becomes the toast of the scientific community. To make matters worse he has also stolen the affections of Beaumont's wife. This causes the poor scientist to have a complete mental breakdown. He now sees life as nothing but a cruel joke. Because of this he joins a circus as a clown under the rather self-deprecating name "He Who Gets Slapped".  In this act no matter what he states it is swiftly answered with a slap to the face. At this circus he falls in love with a woman named Consuelo (played by Norma Shearer), who is love with Beazno (played by John Gilbert) a daredevil horseback rider at the circus.

This is a fantastic movie. The setting is hugely absorbing, the characters very well defined, the story engaging, and the performances fantastic. While the cruelty the world keeps dealing our main character could easily have come off as forced and mean spirited, it feels completely real here. This is because the characters and the setting are completely believable. While the main character is often an object of pity here, we feel much more for him as well. We admire who he was and what he had done before subjecting himself to the torture that became his life throughout this movie. This makes us feel all the more for him, and understand the tragedy of the story to a much greater extant. It is also worth noting that the fact that he is simply a pawn to the cruel hand of fate, is shown cinematically as a laughing clown spinning a globe. Not only is fate pilled up against him, but it is laughing at him as well. It is a clown with a cruel sense of humor that simply tortures our hero because it can. This is a brilliant image that sums up this film perfectly, without any dialogue but rather just the power of the cinematic medium. Overall this is just a fantastic movie that ever silent film fan needs to see.

The movie had a budget of $172,000 (and was shot in 37 days) and earned back $349,000. The film did very well with critics with a review in the New York Times even saying "For dramatic value and a faultless adaptation of a play, this is the finest production we have yet seen."

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Usedhttp://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/196/He-Who-Gets-Slapped/articles.html

Poor Papa (1928)

Run Time: 5 minutes. Studios: Universal Studios, Winkler Productions Director: Walt Disney. Writer: Walt Disney. Producers: Charles Mintz, George Winkler. Animators: Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harmon, Les Clark, Friz Freleng, Ben Clopton, Norman Blackburn, Rollin "Ham" Hamilton.







Now probably anyone who reads my blogs knows I am a huge fan of Walt Disney. I am not only in love with Walt's popular feature films, but also his obscure ones, his theatrical cartoon shorts, his TV programs, and of course Disneyland itself. Being a huge fan of Walt, it is only natural that I have a special fondness for his early work. This is not only because I get to watch him evolve as a filmmaker, but because I also get to see him work as an actual film director (something he would not do much in his later career). Now with all this it should come as no surprise, that I am one of the many devotees to the great character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (it is so cool I can say one of the many now as I couldn't before Disney regained the rights to the characters).

Before making his first Oswald cartoon, Walt Disney was making a series of shorts known as the Alice Comedies. This series was a reversal of what the Fleshchier Brothers had done with their Out of the Inkwell cartoons. In the Out of the Inkwell shorts, the animated Koko the Clown would enter into the real (live action) world. In the Alice Comedies a live action Alice, would enter an animated world. Walt had felt this series had run its course and wanted to make a fully animated series. For this series he created a rabbit known as Oswald.

Poor Papa was the first Oswald cartoon made but the 21st released. This was because Walt's distributors at the time (Universal and Charles Mintz) did not care much for the film. In one letter Mintz laid out four reasons for not liking the film. The first was that he felt the animation was too jerky, the second was that too much action was repeated, the third was he didn't like the character of Oswald because as he put it, "he has no outstanding trait", and lastly that the film just centered around gags with not enough story. Walt responded in another letter. He disagreed with the first point stating that maybe Mintz had watched the film at the wrong speed. On the third point he stated that Oswald was never supposed to have a recognizable trait, but rather his personality was meant to be stressed through his whole manner of acting. On the fourth point Walt said that he couldn't in the amount of time given for a one reel short film, make much of a detailed story and still make the audience laugh. Walt continued by stating that all the gags did in fact revolve around the storyline.

In this cartoon Oswald deals with a massive problem. The storks are constantly bringing him babies (a big problem for rabbits as you know) until it just becomes too much for poor Ozzie to handle. Oswald then decides he needs to take action.

Despite Mintz's objections this is an excellent cartoon. The humor is fast paced and quite funny. There are some imaginative ideas in the comedy such as Oswald's way of cleaning the young rabbits. The character animation here is fantastic and the characters really come to life through it. Even the small rabbits have slightly different personalities all displayed expertly through great animation. Though Oswald here is a bit of a different character than he would later become (he is definitely older and less energetic), he is still a great character that is very relatable and full of personality.

Resources Used

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit The Search For The Lost Disney Cartoons by David A. Bossert.

The Farmer's Wife (1928)

Run Time: 129 minutes. Studio: British International Pictures. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Writer: Eliot Stannard. Based on a play by Eden Phillpotts. Main Cast: Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker. Cinematographer: Jack E. Cox.


Good Evening. I feel it is safe to assume that at least some of the people who read my blogs are fans of Turner Classic Movies. I certainty am. In fact TCM makes up a huge portion of my TV watching time, and why not, it is a channel that shows movies with the pure respect they deserve, it gives you insight into the history of the movie, and the whole channel feels very welcoming. One thing this channel is doing this month is something I am very excited for. Every Wednesday and Friday of July TCM will be showing many Alfred Hicthcock movies and there will even be an online class accompanying it.

Like many film buffs I am a huge fan of Hitch. He has directed many movies that are highly deserving of the classic status they have received. Movies like Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds and North By Northwest are certainty great examples of the cinematic art form and no one loves these movies more than I do. However I also have a huge fondness for Hitch's early British movies too. Despite these not receiving the same amount of attention many of these are fantastic movies in their own right and my silent film of the month is no exception.

The Farmer's Wife is a very different movie for Alfred Hicthcock. In fact if you were to miss the opening credits, it would be very hard to tell that Hitch had anything to do with it. This movie is a nice sweet little romantic film, and a fairly straightforward adaption of Eden Phillpotts' play. With Alfred Hitchcock directing there are some brilliant little cinematic touches but nothing specifically Hitchcockian. At this time Alfred Hicthcock was not yet known as a suspense director. Even though Hitch had already directed a fantastic suspense movie with The Lodger, he was at this time directing a huge variety of different styles of movies. However looking at many of these films, shows that Hitch was not only a brilliant suspense director, but a great director of any type of movie.

Farmer Sweetland's (played by Jameson Thomas) wife has past away leaving him very lonely. He is looking for a new wife, but his attempts don't go very well. Helping him find a new wife is his housekeeper Minta (played by Lillian Hall-Davis), who has strong feelings for Sweetland that she keeps secret

This is a delightful movie. The characters are very well defined, likeable and relatable. Before becoming much of the all out comedy this movie will become as it goes along, this film gives you time to know each of these characters. This makes the comedy all the more effective and the movie feel all the more real. Speaking of the comedy, it is really good. Many of Sweetland's failed attempts to find a wife are very funny. Also helping to make this movie delightful is the visual filmmaking. One image that continuously is shown is that of an empty chair. Sometimes when Farmer Sweetland gets lonely he looks at the chair his wife used to sit in and sees it completely empty. This image tells us more than any words ever could. It makes us fully understand what the farmer is going through and puts us in his shoes. When he is looking for a new wife he sometimes imagines one of the women he wants to marry in the chair. However that image quickly fades away and all we see is the chair. Again these simple images show us more than we could ever be told in words and truly show the power of film as an art form. In fact when interviewed by François Truffaut years later Hitch said that this movie inspired him to make what he called "purely cinematic pictures" that would mostly center around visual story telling. Though Hitch did feel this movie still had too many intertitles.

One may notice the name of  Louie Pounds in the credits. This is in fact the only film she appeared in, though she was a huge star on stage and was especially popular in Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. She plays a delightful performance here as Widow Windeatt.

This movie plays on TCM on July 5th at 8:15 pm western time and 11:15pm eastern time.

Resources Usedhttp://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=650695%7C651448
The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia by Stephen Whitty.
Truffaut-Hitchcock by François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock

-Michael J. Ruhland

Snow White (1916)

.

Run Time: 63 minutes. Studio: Famous Players/Paramount. Director: J. Searle Dawley. Writer: Winthrop Ames. Based on a play by Winthrop Ames. and a book by The Brothers Grimm. Producer: H. Lyman Broening. Main Cast: Marguerite Clark, Dorothy G. Cumming, Creighton Hale, Lionel Braham, Alice Washburn. Cinematographer: H. Lyman Broening.

Anyone who reads my blogs knows that I am a huge Disney fan. Because of this often times when a classic fairy tale is brought up it is the Disney version that first comes to my mind. However these stories existed long before Walt touched them and they even had film adaptions before then. Some of these film adaptions even were huge influences on the Disney movies. One of the most clear example of this is the 1916 silent version of Snow White. Now some of my fellow Disney buffs may have heard of this movie. Walt Disney had in fact seen it as a teenager and legend goes that it inspired him to make his own film version of the classic fairy tale. Still this movie has more than that great story behind it. It is also a delightful film in its own right.

Though this film was obviously inspired by the Brothers Grimm's classic story, it had an even more direct and recent piece of source material. This was a 1912 play based off of the story. That play was written by Winthrop Ames, and starred Marguerite Clark, who also were the writer and star of this film adaption. So in many ways the point of this movie was simply to bring that stage play to the screen. Considering the differences between the stage and the silent cinema there naturally needed to be some changes made. The most obvious of these was to eliminate song numbers and very dialogue heavy scenes. However interestingly more scenes were added starring the Huntsman. These scenes revolved around him being locked in the tower as a prisoner. Also in adapting it for film, director J. Searle Dawley employed some more cinematic techniques. For instance in this version of the story the Witch (a separate character from the Queen) wants Snow White's heart to help with a potion to get herself her. When she is given a pig's heart instead her head grows pig's tails instead of hair. On stage the actress simply ducked off stage real quick and put on a head cap. Here the pig's tails appear to slowly fade in on her head, accomplished by a dissolve shot (Searle Dawley later remembered doing this on a set with crowded extras in 1916 made this a very difficult technical challenge).

The film interestingly begins with a brief prologue involving Santa Claus leaving a bunch of dolls at a little girl's house. This dolls become real people and then our story really begins. A Queen wants a beautiful child and gets one in Snow White (played by Marguerite Clark). However when this Queen passes away, the king remarries. The new Queen (played by Dorothy Cummings) is an evil and jealous woman who hates Snow White. When the King dies there is no one to protect Snow White from this evil woman. Snow White now has to work in rags as a maid, but this isn't all that is planned for her. The jealous Queen conspires with a witch (played by Alice Washburn) to get rid of Snow White. In return for helping the Queen, the Witch wants Snow White's heart. The Queen hires the huntsman (played by Lionel Braham) to take care of Snow White. However the huntsman can't do it, and gives the queen the heart of a pig instead. Snow White hides out at a house of dwarfs, who promise to help her, however they can. The Queen learning that the huntsman has failed her, decides to kill Snow White herself.

What really makes this film work is Marguerite Clark's performance as Snow White. In this era of such stars as Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, it was common for grown women to play the part of little girls. Though Clark turned 33, the year this film was released, she plays the part so well you completely believe she is about 10 or 12. There is just a great sense of innocence to this performance. This is best shown in the scene with the huntsman. She clings to the huntsman and is simply so excited to be with him. She acts like the two are going to play games with each other. When the huntsman says what they are really out there for she easily assumes that he is joking. In a lesser actress' hands this could have felt very forced but here it comes out naturally. Later when she goes into the dwarfs cottage she not wanting to impose knows that if she only takes small bites from each plate, they can't possibly be mad at her. Clark does that so delicately that it gives that small moment extra charm to it.

However if there is something this film is lacking in, it is a real sense of danger. While the Disney film wasn't intended for kids (in fact in Britain, it got an adults only rating because of how scary the witch is), the play this movie was based on and even to a certain extant this movie itself was aimed primarily at children. Because of this the villains don't feel as threating as the Queen in the Disney version (being aimed mostly at adults) could. While this silent film is quite good, this does result in the Disney movie being even better.      

While Walt Disney's film is easily the superior version, this little movie has such a sweet and simple charm to it will still delight today's modern audiences.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/snow-white-1916
The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney by Michael Barrier

Moran of the Lady Letty (1922)

Run Time: 71 minutes. Studio: Famous Players-Laskey Corporation. Director: George Melford. Writer: Monte M. Katterjohn. Based on a book by Frank Norris Producer: George Melford. Main Cast: Rudolph Valentino, Dorothy Dalton, Charles Brinley, Walter Long. Cinematographer: William Marshall.

A year earlier in 1921 (also the year of his breakthrough appearance in Rex Ingram's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), Rudolph Valentino had one of the biggest success of his career with The Sheik. This movie proved very popular especially with women. This was hugely due to his Latin lover persona. However the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (later Paramount Pictures) noticed this image did not have the same effect on most male movie goers. Instead men seemed to find this image a bit off putting. Because of this the studio decided to put him in a role that would appeal more to men in the audience. So Valentino was put into my silent film of the month, Moran of the Lady Letty, which was a much more adventure based film in order to get him a male audience as well. George Melford who had directed Valentino in The Sheik would also direct him here. George Melford might be a name that clasic horror movie buffs will recognize as he directed the famous Spanish language version of 1931's Dracula.

Melford had stated in interviews hinted that this movie would show Valentino in a very athletic and almost Douglas Fairbanksian light as he stated "find out what a husky, red-blooded chap he is." Melford also stated that "climbed to the very tip of the mast -- just for exercise. The hard-boiled crew of the ship gasped!" However it is impossible to say if that was actually true. One change was made however to make the role fit more into Valentino's Latin lover image. This was that writer Monte Katterjohn (who also worked on The Sheik) changed the main characters name from Russ Wilbur (the name in the book) to Ramon Laredo. An intertitle early in the film states "rich man's son spends the dash and fire inherited from his Spanish ancestors in leading cotillions."

As the story begins Moran (played by Dorothy Dalton) is happy living with her sea going father and she is love with the sea. Ramon (played by Rudolph Valentino) is however unhappy. He is rich, but his life is sheltered and he craves adventure. However all this changes when Ramon is shanghaied. The ship he is now aboard is ruled by a mean and hate filled captain (played by Walter Long (my fellow Laurel and Hardy fans will easily recognize him)). They run across a burning ship in trouble. The crew mostly just steals goods for them selves. However Ramon saves one of the sailors aboard that ship, more specifically Moran. Raman falls in love with Moran, but the lustful captain has his eyes on her, and Ramon must protect his new "mate".

This is an excellent film. The adventure filled climax is exciting to watch, and easily just as (and in many cases more) compelling than today's special effects filled action scenes. The chemistry between the two leads is fantastic and you really believe that these two grow to care for each other, even with their different backgrounds. The technical film making is also very well done. This film uses color tinting a lot, and extremely well. Color tinting is when the whole screen is tinted a certain color and it was used often in the silent era. While on the boat (except in the cabins) the screen is tinted blue, but the high society functions are tinted brown. This creates a great contrast and makes many of the more adventure filled scenes seem bigger and more exciting. Also the cutting between (slight spoilers ahead) Moran on the boat and Ramon at a fancy party towards the end is extremely effective as it lets us know that they are on each other's minds. The tinting also comes in handy here as it makes us see why the party is less appealing to Ramon. Also with dropping the Latin lover image I think this film is more accessible and enjoyable to many modern day audiences and all those who just don't like his Latin lover image, than most of Valentino's work is.

Despite his excellence in the lead role Valentino did not care for his role in this movie. He preferred playing more exotic types and felt a film like this hurt his Latin lover image. Because of this his later this same year he would play those type of characters again in Blood and Sand and The Young Rajah.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/497111/Moran-of-the-Lady-Letty/articles.html

The Big Show (1923)

Run Time: 17 minutes. Studio: Hal Roach Studios Director: Robert McGowan. Writers: Hal Roach, H.M. Walker . Producer: Hal Roach. Main Cast: Mickey Daneils, Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, Jack Davis, Allen "Farina" Haskins, Mary Koreman, Ernest Morrison, Richard Billings, Andy Samuel . Cinematographer: Len Powers.

Since I post a Silent Film of the Month article every 1st of the month, I feel it is only appropriate to post about a slapstick comedy short every April, in honor of April Fools Day. Last year I wrote about a classic Laurel and Hardy short, and this year I am writing about a classic Our Gang short. Who knows what I will post next year (Maybe Charlie Chaplin, maybe Harry Langdon, maybe Charley Chase, Maybe Buster Keaton, Maybe whoever else I feel like, I haven't decided about next year yet).

When one brings up Our Gang (or the Little Rascals), most people will think of Spanky, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat. However the team existed well before these characters. In fact the team was formed in 1922, back in the silent era. Since the series centered around kids actors and characters had to change (especially since the series ran until 1944). The group of kids from when The Big Show came out included Mickey Daniels, Joe Cobb, Jackie Cindon, Jack Davis, Allen "Farina" Haskins, Mary Koreman, Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, Richard "Mugsy" Billings, and Andy Samuel. This is in fact the first Our Gang short for Andy Samuel. Andy had previously worked as an extra in Charlie Chaplin's classic 1921 feature film The Kid. While working on that film he learned how to imitate Charlie Chaplin. The basis for this short came as an excuse to let him show off his impression of Chaplin.

The film begins with the gang wanting to look at the county fair for free. They are naturally chased out of the fair. Because of this the gang decides to put on their own carnival with rides, animals and movies.

For all my fellow movie buffs, the highlight of this film is their moving picture show. Joe has a nonworking moving picture camera and pretends to project the film, while other kids on stage do impressions of various movie stars. These impressions include Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and Harold Lloyd. The most elaborate of these is the Harold Lloyd impression. This sequence is a very elaborate redoing of various scenes from the 1922 feature Grandma's Boy only with kids as the actors. One gag is decidedly different though. In Grandma's Boy Harold is annoyed by cats and uses a statue of a dog to scare them off. However in this film the character is being annoyed by pigs, and holds a card that says "butcher" to scare them off. That feature film was done at the same studio as this one was and that may more than explain this. The Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks sequences are also based on certain films those actors starred in but are much less elaborate. The Charlie Chaplin sequence recalls Chaplin's classic 1918 film Shoulder Arms, while the Douglas Fairbanks sequence recalls his performance as D'Artagnan in the 1921 film version of The Three Musketeers. As stated before the Chaplin imitation was done by Andy Samuel. The Douglas Fairbanks impression was provided by Mickey Daniels. While it is not certain who played the imitation of Harold Lloyd, Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann (according to their book Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals) believe it was played by a child actor named Billy Lord. However this is still not certain.  

It has been stated that what makes Our Gang so great and beloved is that they have had the child hood we all wish we had. This is never more clear than it is in this film. After all who didn't as a kid want to create something like these kids created  here. What kid doesn't want to make their own movies, or work with wild animals, or simply have adventures like these kids do. Beyond all the great humor, this film is so charming because it is wish fulfillment for the child in all of us.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

Our Gang: The Life and Times of Our Gang by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann

  

Captain Salvation (1927).

Runtime: 87 minutes. Studio: MGM. Director: John S. Robertson. Writer: Jack Cunningham. Intertitles: John Colton. Producer: John S. Robertson. Main Cast: Lars Hanson, Marceline Day, Pauline Starke, Ernest Torrance. Cinematographer: William Daniels.

In many ways I consider the silent era the golden age of Christian films. While there are many great films with Christian messages released over the years the best ones seem to be from the silent era. These include such amazing films as Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Sparrows (ok it may not be your typical Christian film but it definitely has a Christian Message), King of Kings, Noah's Ark, the original Ten Commandments and this little hidden gem. As a Christian, myself I have a special fondness for the Christian films of the silent era.

This film's director was John S. Robertson. Robertson had begun his career in 1916 as both an actor and director however by 1918, he was directing and no longer acting. His directing career began by directing various comedy short for the Vitagraph studio. In 1917 he directed his first feature film Baby Mine. As a feature length director he would direct such movies as Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde (1920) and The Enchanted Cottage. His career would last until 1935.

The star of this film was Lars Hanson, a name that is probably not as well remembered as it should be. Hanson began his film career in his home country of Sweden, with a lost 1916 film called Dolken. However he would not catch the attention of American movie makers until costarring (with Greta Garbo) in 1924's The Saga of Gösta Berling. This film was a huge international success and it wasn't long until MGM wanted to work with Lars Hanson. By the time he stared in Captain Salvation, he had already been in two gigantic box office successes for the MGM studio, The Scarlett Letter and The Flesh in the Devil (where he would once again costar with Great Garbo). Here his costars would be Marceline Day, Pauline Starke and Ernest Torrance. Torrance was one of the silent screen's greatest tough guys appearing in such films like Peter Pan (1924), Steamboat Bill Jr., The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The King of Kings, Tol'able David, and The Ruggles of Red Gap. He most often played villains like he does here, and was an operatic baritone before his film career. Marceline Day had a great talent for comedy. She started at the Mack Sennett studio, where she even appeared in films that starred Harry Langdon. Though over the course of her career she would appear in more dramatic movies such as this one and London After Midnight (the infamous lost film with Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning), she would still do much comedy, including being the leading lady opposite Buster Keaton in The Cameraman. In the 1930's unfortunately her career would go downhill and she would appear mostly in B pictures including The Telegraph Trail (with John Wayne, who would obviously later graduate from B pictures). Pauline Starke began her career as an extra in 1916, even appearing in such big films as D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. However she would work her way up to being a leading lady. As a leading lady she would appear in such films as The Viking, Eyes of Youth, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1921) and Salvation Nell.  

The film's story centers on a young man named Anson Campbell (played by Lars Hansen), who is as a title tells us torn between two loves. These are his love of serving God and of the sea. One day he sees a woman (probably a prostitute, though never directly stated) named Bess Morgan (played by Pauline Starke) being treated very harshly in his town, because she is sinful. He helps her out and takes care of her, but this ends up ruining his life with the town folks, his girlfriend (played by Marceline Day) and seemingly his ministry. Distraught he joins up with a ship hoping to leave it all behind. However Bess is on the ship, and the captain (played by Ernest Torrance) is not exactly the nicest of fellows. However this leads him to learn all that god actually has in store for him.

This is a fantastic movie in many ways. The story is really engaging, the acting is great, the film looks great (hugely thanks to cinematographer William Daniels) and the whole movie is just charming. Also adding to the movies charm is John Coulton's extremely well written and intelligently thought out intertitles. As all silent film fans know, poorly written intertitles can take their toll on other wise great films, but well written ones can make a great movie even better. Don't think that because I'm Christian and am praising a Christian movie that it does not hold much for non-Christians, this film has more than enough to satisfy any fan of silent cinema.

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2878/Captain-Salvation/articles.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017735/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

-Michael J. Ruhland         

Cinderella (1922)

Runtime: 7 minutes. Studio: Laugh O Gram Studios. Director: Walt Disney. Writer: Walt Pfeiffer. Animators: Rudolph Ising, Hugh Harmon, Carmen Maxwell, Ub Iwerks, Lorey Tauge, Otto Walliman.

It is February the month of romance, and what romance story is better known than that of Cinderella (ok Romeo and Juliet, but I digress). The magic of this story was never a secret to filmmakers. This was true since the silent era. The earliest film version I can think of is the 1899 film Cendrillon directed by George Melies. Many many more would follow. Easily the most famous movie version is the 1950 animated Disney film. However that was not the first time Walt Disney's name was attached to a film version of Cinderella. In 1922 Walt directed a short cartoon simply titled Cinderella.

Walt Disney began his film career in 1919. At this time he worked for the Kanas City Film Ad Company, making animated commercials that would play in Kanas City movie theaters. Here he met and worked with Ub Iwerks. Ub Iwerks would be one of Walt's main animators on many of his silent films and later on many early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies cartoons. Ub would leave Walt to head his own cartoon studio. However when that didn't work out as planned Walt welcomed him back and Ub helped on the special effects for such films as Mary Poppins, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lady and the Tramp and yes the 1950 Disney film version of Cinderella (on a departure from Disney he also did special effects for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds). After this Walt went to did more ads (as well as animated inserts) for Newman's Theater. His success here lead him to start his own series of theatrical shorts called Laugh O Grams, of which Cinderella (1922) was part of.

The Laugh O Grams cartoons were modern day (okay... 1920's) comedic variations on classic fairytales. Unlike later fairytale films Walt would work on there was very little sentiment in these films, instead they went for pure comedy and often times they succeeded quite well.

The film follows the Cinderella story much the way we know it, except for taking place in modern day. A ball is thrown. Cinderella is told she can't go. Her fairy godmother shows up, and dresses her like a flapper and gives her a nice car, out of thin air, which her cat drives (okay maybe that's a little different). She falls in love with the prince, but has to leave before her flapper clothes turn into rags. The prince finds the shoe she left behind, and finds her using it. And they live happily ever after.

Since this film is a comedy, while the later Disney version is not, I'm am not going to compare them much because that would be pointless (besides this film is 7 minutes while the later film is 74). This film is not a consistently laugh out loud comedy, but it is still a very charming one. There are however some quite funny jokes. One involving a duck is so strange it cracks me up every time I watch this. A scene with the prince hunting is also pretty darn funny. Most of all though this film just has a great sense of energy that just makes it a joy to watch.

So this is not only a fascinating look into the early career of Walt Disney, but a very entertaining film in it's own right.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013014/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_23
http://www.jbkaufman.com/cutting-room-floor/silent-cinderella

Three's A Crowd (1927)

Runtime: 60 minutes. Studio: Harry Langdon Corporation. Director: Harry Langdon. Writers: Arthur Ripley, Robert Eddy, Harry Langdon, James Langdon, Harry McCoy. Producer: Harry Langdon. Main Cast: Harry Langdon, Glays McConnell, Cornelius Reef, Arthur Thalasso. Cinematographers: Frank Evans, Elign Lessley.

Perhaps no other silent film comes with such a bad reputation as Harry Langdon's Three's a Crowd. So is it strange to say I not only like this movie, but in fact love it.


A rumor that haunted Harry Langdon for a long time that exists even today is that Frank Capra created Harry's character and that Harry didn't understand his own character. This piece of fiction came from Capra's autobiography, The Name Above the Title. Oh boy there is so little truth in that claim. By the short film All Night Long the character was completely formed, and there were more than a few moments showing who the character would be in earlier films. However this was before Frank Capra ever worked on a Harry Langdon film. However since this is believed it is also believed the films that Harry directed himself after firing Frank Capra are completely awful. Frank Capra was definitely a brilliant film maker (How could the director of It's A Wonderful Life be any less?) and I am by no means saying he did not help make the films he directed and wrote for that stared Harry Langdon great, but he definitely gave himself too much credit when it comes to those movies. These films were not only unavailable for viewing, but what could be found were awful reviews, and the fact that they didn't do well at the box office. It should be remembered though that Buster Keaton's The General also did poorly both with critics and at the box office. Since the films were near impossible to find this understandably made them be written down as awful movies. Though now they are much easier to find, people still do not want to try them out because it has been believed for so long that these films are as bad as they are made out to be. Three's A Crowd marked Harry's debut as a director. He had fired Frank Capra, just before making this movie.

The story begins as Harry (played Harry Langdon) is dreaming of having a child of his very own. His boss (played by Arthur Thalasso) tries to get Harry to work, but Harry is letting his daydreams interfere with his work. When the boss's wife gets a love letter the boss assumes Harry wrote it. This leads Harry to escape. After escaping Harry meets a pregnant woman named Gladys (played by Gladys McConnell), freezing to death. Harry takes her in and decides to take care of the poor woman and her coming child. However the woman has a husband (played by Cornelius Keefe) who may return one day.

Much more footage was shot for Three's A Crowd than ended up in the film. The film was edited during a series of premieres, with the movie coming out shorter each time. These included scenes about Gladys before she meet Harry. There were also scenes added to the film. One of these scenes was a gag for the movie to end on. The ending was originally more serious and audiences didn't like this much, so a joke for an ending was made as a bit of a compromise.

The film received very poor reviews and did very poorly at the box office. Many critics were not fans of the dramatic moments especially. It has been said that Harry Langdon was not one to take negative criticism well. This might be why his next film The Chaser was much more pure comedy. However that film would be attacked for having too dark a sense of humor, and also perform poorly at the box office. After Three's a Crowd, Harry was no longer considered an equal to Chaplin as he had been before. His previous film Long Pants was also a flop and after just two critical and box office failures, he was now considered just another second rate, movie comedian.

However despite all this the film is downright fantastic and actually ranks as one of Harry's best films. There is more drama here than usual for Harry, but it all is very well done. However this does not get in the way of the film's comedy. The movie is very funny and scenes like Harry getting a face full of soot, hanging down from a rug and the great joke ending are pure tradition slapstick at it's best.
Additional the comedy and the drama never get in the way of each other. This is because since both the drama and the comedy are so closely tied into the story and characters, they both feel natural and welcome here. While this film is often criticized for being too slow (though Harry was the slowest paced of the silent film comics), I don't quite understand where this comes from. Very little is much slower than scenes that appeared in Harry's more popular films. The only scene I kind of understand is the start, but there is almost something captivatingly lovely about this slow beginning. This whole film as I stated earlier just fits together perfectly and that is why it is such a delight to watch.

To echo what luckily a few other film historians have said, I hope one day this movie gets completely revaluated, and is viewed as the great film it is.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Silent Films of Harry Langdon (1923-1928) by James L. Neibaur
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018484/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt