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His death caused riots in the streets......

Young made one silent film. Lombard, Arthur and Loy were not major stars in silents. Nor was Harlow. By the time Davies retired, her fellow-A-list stars like Pickford, Swanson, Moore, Corinne Griffith, the Gish sisters, the Talmadge sisters, Mae Murray, Bow, Bessie Love, Dressler, Louise Brooks, were all gone. Yes Gish and Swanson re-emerged but they didn't sustain starring roles in early talkies. Joan Crawford had an amazing career, possibly the longest sustained starring career of her time. But Davies was a star long before Crawford came on the scene. Norma Shearer appeared as an EXTRA in Davies' THE RESTLESS SEX (1920), which I think is a terrific film.

Davies would be a great choice. TCM has access to plenty of her films. She was a star in nearly 4 dozen films from 1917 to 1937, was never anything less than a star in her films, and was a much better actress than her reputation would suggest. She'd be a great discovery for a lot of people. Her silent films generally have superb production values (thanks to Hearst) are are a visual treat. Davies starred in costume dramas, romantic dramas, comedies, and musicals. She was also one of the great beauties of her time. Of all the major silent star actresses, only Crawford, Garbo, and Shearer lasted longer in starring roles, but Davies was a star long before any of them.

My limited DVD release of Marion Davies' The Bride's Play was in early August 2016 with Ben Model's release of When Knighthood Was in Flower coming later this year.

Project finished and DVDs out to supporters..... Terrific film.

Yet another reason to never see it.

Never even heard of that one. It must have, thankfully, died with an air time.

Thanks. I think part of the problem is that we're seeing WAY MORE remakes as well as sequels, prequels, animated versions, etc than in the old days.

I suppose there ARE some films for which remakes make sense. But the idea that every generation needs its own version of something like A Star Is Born makes no sense. As noted here, there were a lot of remakes of silent films in the 30s, adding sound. OK that makes sense. There's a huge difference between say the silent version of The Merry Widow, which starred John Gilbert and Mae Murray, and the 1934 musical version starring Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier. In other cases, an old B&W film was remade to add color or update musical style as in Good News, updating the 1930 version in 1947 or to take advantage of wide screen as in the 1959 Ben-Hur, which updated the 1925 silent version. In the 1930s, quite a few of the Shirley Temple films were treacly remakes of silent Mary Pickford vehicles. The upshot here was that by casting a child and (basically) aiming the films at kids, they obscured the the great Pickford's achievements in silent films that were aimed at adults. In some cases, as the censorship codes relaxed, a remake of something like Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour made sense since the 1961 remake starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn could tell Hellman's real story and rumored lesbianism in a way the 1936 These Three starring Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon could not even mention. In the long run, remakes are almost as old as filmmaking. Even silent films remade their own silent stories. Pickford made Tess of the Storm Country in 1914 and again in 1922. Gloria Swanson's 1927 film The Love of Sunya was a remake of the 1919 Eyes of Youth, which had starred Clara Kimball Young.

Probably with Halle Berry

You can bet the remake of Murder on the Orient Express will be a PC casting delight with CGI train effects.

Beware remakes! This weekend's Ben-Hur was a huge CGI bomb yet on the horizon are a remake of the 1974 hit Murder on the Orient Express, a superstar murder mystery based on an Agatha Christie work and starring Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman (an Oscar win), Lauren Bacall, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, John Gielgud, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Widmark, Rachel Roberts, Michael York, Wendy Hiller, and Martin Balsam. Ben Affleck just announced a remake of Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, a 1957 starrer for Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, and Elsa Lanchester, which had a TV movie remake in 1982 starring Diana Rigg, Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, and Beau Bridges. Hell, there's even a 2016 British TV movie coming up, a re-do of the classic TV series Are You Being Served? (which also spun off a 1977 feature film) with Sherrie Hewson as Mrs. Slocombe. Can anyone really replace Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Frank Thornton and the rest of the beloved cast members?

Is it true she shortened her surname from GAGOLA?

At some point they were going to switch the roles just to make the story original! I think that's when Will Smith was attached to play the Gaynor/Garland/Streisand role. Thankfully, that "original" take on the story got ****canned.

It stinks already......

Yolanda certainly exists. I bought a copy from the Belgian film archive. The intertitles are in French and Dutch but the video quality is very good for an unrestored film. Mammoth castle sets and good story. Marion Davies is, of course, gorgeous in another dual role. I believe the only American archive to own a copy is MoMA and it has Czech intertitles. The film has never been seen in this country since its 1924 debut.

San Francisco is a good example of "getting it wrong." Terrific film offered great performances from Jeanette MacDonald and Clark Gable. The film was nominated for best film. Gable and MacDonald got zilch. Spencer Tracy, in a supporting role, gets a best-actor nomination. Go figure. MacDonald was one of the biggest box office stars in the second half of the 1930s and scored big hits in films like Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, New Moon and never got a nomination. She was MGM's biggest female star and still got nothing.

Why malign a classic car?

I am fine with the "Top 5" wins for It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs. Louise Fletcher's role in Cuckoo's Nest was definitely a supporting role. Sunset Boulevard is probably my first choice for a "should have won" film, followed by Gone with the Wind, The Best Years of Our Lives, Annie Hall, The Thin Man, Singin' in the Rain, Casablanca, Vertigo, Dodsworth, and San Francisco. Sexism has tended to weigh heavily is past Oscar races with MANY more best film.best actor nominee combos and then best film/best actress. There are many more best actress nominations where the film was not even nominated than those of best actor nominees. Even during the Golden Era, the films of Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, etc were often seen as "women's pictures" and didn't make the cut.

I've had a "working copy" of this excellent documentary for several years. Hopefully Tom Hamilton has found someone to distribute the DVD/BLU in UK as well as US. Leslie Howard certainly deserves to be remembered. It's a shame his daughter, Leslie Ruth Howard, didn't live to see its release. She plays a small part (a nurse) in Spitfire (1942), the last film he appeared in. I look forward to seeing the final version of this doc.

Who reads reviews?

Doesn't sound like him at ALL...... My guess is it's another Farrow yarn. But I'd rather watch one of his movies than guess about this kind of crap.... That said, still waiting for Farrow's Mommie Dearest book on growing up with her famous actress mom and director dad.....

Plus it's Farrow's brother who is or was in jail, convicted of child molestation. If he wasn't around when the kid was supposedly molested, then it's a case of Farrow's denial and projection and just plain nutty revenge against WA. Nothing in her adult life evinces much assurance or normalcy, from her affairs to her needy compulsion to surround herself with children, whom WA seems to have avoided to the point on not even living with Farrow.

Radio Days is indeed just about perfect. It tends to be ignored because Woody Allen isn't in it and because it's not a star vehicle. But there are great performances in it: Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Julie Kavner, the wonderful Gina DeAngelis (sometimes DeAngeles), and little gems from Richard Portnow, Michael Tucker, Danny Aiello, Tony Roberts, Renee Lippin, Diane Keaton, Kitty Carlisle, Josh Mostel, and Seth Green. Larry David plays the Communist neighbor. And look fast for William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, Mercedes Ruehl, and Kenneth Mars. And bravo to the music. Just wonderful.

For my money, one of Allen's funniest bits is the extended Blanche DuBois scene in Sleeper, which may be his all-round funniest film. It lacks the bittersweet quality of his best films, but it's funny. Bittersweet is something lacking in nearly ALL films of the last 20 years ... unless it's a cartoon. Says a lot about current filmmakers. As for Blue Jasmine ... Brilliant casting of Cate Blanchett. Whether Woody has any real say in casting, I have no idea, but his strong roles for women and the casting of top talents like Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow (before she went nuts), Cate Blanchett, Judy Davis, Gena Rowlands, Anjelica Huston, Geraldine Page, Elaine Stritch, Dianne Wiest, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz ... have led to some very memorable films.