goldensilents
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Posts posted by goldensilents
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Great images of fun Pola, thanks for posting, whistling.
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I would be pleased if they even put a small box set out with one or two silents like *The Patsy* and *The Red Mill* and then the rest sound films like *Marianne* (which is better than the silent version, imo) which they easily could transfer to disc with no problems whatsoever. Just put *something* out! If they did it for Chaney and Garbo and Keaton they can easily do it for Marion Davies. Like you say, the first two silents are ready to go with scores and the sound films just need to be transferred. Get something out and build the interest in her (which would happen naturally once people got the chance to see her - what's not to love?) and then later put out another set when more silents are ready to go.
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There are tons of silent stars underrepresented on DVD, but I know what you mean. For a star as wonderful as Marion Davies, a beauty who was also a comediene as well as a great actress, it really is just plain STUPID that TCM hasn't put out a box set for her films, silents and sounds.
I still have a slim hope that TCM might pull *Little Old New York* out of mothballs in 35mm and have someone score it. The fellow who did *The Patsy* score did a fine job for them; why not use him again?
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I found it odd that Robert O. didn't challenge John Landis when he said that. He just sat there expressionless. He could have countered with, "Oh no, we've had whole days devoted to Buster Keaton." They've shown practically everything BUT *Seven Chances*. LOL!
I even remember making a comment years ago, "Oh TCM will never show *The Paleface* because it isn't politically correct about Indians" and then TCM made a liar out of me by eventually showing *The Paleface*. haha!
You just never know with TCM. Maybe they'll even surprise me someday and broadcast *Seven Chances*.
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She looked too tall for him, accentuated by the almost floor length dress she was wearing for part of the picture.
When you compare their chemistry to the chemistry he had with Sybil Seely or Marceline Day or Ruth Dwyer it's just night and day.
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I switched to the fifth inning of Slumber Time.
zzzzzzzzzz ...........
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Thanks for posting this.
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It must be due to what John Landis said to Robert O. before *The Navigator* started -- they don't have the rights to show something like *Seven Chances*. Too bad, I say. I think people would love that film, it's a great crowd pleaser. Buster re-appraised it later in life whenever he heard the crowd's reaction to the film, which was overwhelmingly positive. When he first made it apparently he wasn't too fond of it.
I got to the point on *The Navigator* tonight where he is in the sea suit underwater and then I conked out totally. I woke up again and saw Fatty and Mabel. *The Navigator* has some really funny bits in the beginning but somehow it loses something along the way. If I were going to pinpoint the reason why it loses my interest I would probably have to point in Kathryn McGuire's direction. I didn't think she had any chemistry with Buster.
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I have no problems with RI's score at all. This isn't one of my favorite Buster's anyway. I remember being rather bored by it. It's been a few years since I've watched it though, maybe I'll give it another go tonight.
*Seven Chances* will always be my favorite Buster film and RI's soundtrack for that is tons of fun. Nothing else can compete in my affections.
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The story doesn't appeal, it doesn't matter how good the print or the music is, it just doesn't do anything for me. Most horror films don't. I'd much rather watch something romantic or inspirational. If the foundation doesn't appeal then the frills won't capture my interest.
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I wish I liked the movie enough so that I could splurge on the better restoration, but I've never been able to warm to Nosferatu. Just not my cuppa tea, I guess.
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I think I heard there's going to be a new score? Hope so! (and if so, hope it's good!)
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John Landis is Guest Programmer tonight and has picked 3 silents. Good for him! Silents in prime time. What a concept!
8:00pm Navigator, The (1924)
In this silent film, two members of the idle rich have to move fast when they're stranded on an abandoned luxury liner.
Cast: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom, Noble Johnson Dir: Buster Keaton BW-60 mins, TV-G
9:15pm Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day (1915)
In this silent short, a henpecked husband's innocent friendship with a married woman leads to chaos.
Cast: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Alice Davenport, Harry McCoy, Mabel Normand Dir: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle BW-13 mins, TV-G
10:45pm He Did and He Didn't (1916)
In this silent short, when a doctor eats too much, he dreams that his wife is unfaithful.
Cast: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Joe Bordeaux, Jimmy Bryant Dir: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle BW-21 mins, TV-G
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>How hard is it to transfer from PAL to NTSC?
Very easy. You can re-encode the film via your computer via software, or you can use DVD Shrink and rip the PAL movie to your computer, burn a new copy on disc, take it to your handy dandy region free recorder / player, pluck it in, have that region free recorder attached to another DVD recorder and hit Play / Record.
With both though you tend to lose some image quality. It's the nature of the beast.
Who in the world put City Lights music to the French version of Lonesome? While watching the film all I kept visualizing was Charlie and Virginia, not Barbara and Glenn. LOL!!!!
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Wow, would fellow soldiers actually do that to one another so their brother in arms could get shot by the enemy? Or is it just an old superstition?
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I just took a glance before crashing for the night. It looks like the same version they always show.
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Yes I'm sure I'll get *Floating Weeds* after I am done with this collection. People have been recommending that film to me for years.
I've already seen *I Was Born, But* ... but it was several years ago and I don't remember a lot of details so I will be watching again. I'll probably watch *Tokyo Chorus* first though.
So far the Japanese films that have blown me away the most are the sound films *Twenty-Four Eyes* (1954) and *The Burmese Harp* (1956) which TCM aired in the primetime 8pm slot a few weeks ago. I loved both these films so much that I bought the paperback translations to read as well.
I posted about *The Burmese Harp* in the Foreign Films category here on TCM but no one responded. I found it shocking that no one else was as profoundly moved by the film as I was, certainly not enough to even post a "yes, wasn't it great!" in the thread. It's probably one of the three top anti-war films I've ever seen. Looking at that empty thread I have to wonder if anyone out there bothered to watch!
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Speaking for myself I adored that score for Beau Brummel and if your score for The Mockery is just as fine you will have no problems whatsoever gaining even more new fans.
I remember when it premiered I was watching and listening and at the same time typing on my message board "wow this score is gorgeous!".
Good luck with it. After being in the desert so long with TCM, waiting for some new premieres, we finally have something good to look forward to.
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Maybe you can do some of your detective work and find out.
I remember having a fleeting thought, when I first heard about the Murnau-Borzage box set in the works, if they would bother to include whatever is left for The Nth Commandment. Guess not.
I do remember that I was touched by Colleen's role because it was more serious than her usual comedy pieces. I also remember I thought the male actor who played her (rather morose) husband -- can't remember his name - was excellent.
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The print I saw had title cards that lasted long enough to read and it was ok but not outstanding.
I liked it well enough but I think I expected to like it much more because of all the hype over it for so many years. The best thing about it was Mae Marsh. She is such a doll.
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Jeffrey, *The Nth Commandment* (not the Ninth Commandment) survives, but is incomplete and in poor condition. I have it somewhere in my thousands and thousands of discs, don't ask me where anymore! lol! The main scene I remember from it is a great roller skating scene, which made a big impression on me because it had tracking shots on the rink that were really cool and fast, from different angles. My parents met roller skating and I grew up roller skating with my siblings and cousins every weekend so any film that features roller skating is interesting to me. Other than that I don't remember much about it.
Hmm, I checked and lo and behold I wrote a review for the film way back five years ago on the IMDb. I had totally forgotten about it. Here's my review:
Early Frank Borzage gem, 18 April 2004
Although the print I saw of this film was deteriorated from age, one could easily see the gem hiding underneath the rough, in this silent feature directed by the sentimental Frank Borzage. Colleen Moore stars as Sarah, a store clerk being wooed by two men, one a serious fellow who really loves her, with an illness (we are to assume TB, though it is not stated), and another one a flighty Broadway producer who is just after Colleen for one thing. The people in the story all "talk" via the title cards in Brooklyn accents and it is very realistic for that time period and that area of New York. Colleen decides to marry the serious fellow, but the marriage is strained from lack of finances due to his ill health, and the Broadway producer comes back into the picture to try and woo her away from the husband. A typical triangle love story, but made special by the delightful performance of Colleen Moore, one of my favorite silent stars.
A particularly notable scene takes place near the beginning at a roller skating rink, with many people going fast, doing turns and carousing around having fun. Great camera shots and suspense, as Colleen is eventually whisked away from the man she loves, and he is ridiculed by falling down, over and over and over again, as the people whiz past him.
I enjoyed the film, but I wish people had taken much more care of these silent treasures over the years and not allowed them to deteriorate so badly. It really is a shame.
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I promise this is my last review of the night! I'm done watching movies for the day! LOL!
This next one was the highlight of my viewing marathon today. Tonight I watched Yasujiro Ozu's *Passing Fancy* a 1933 Japanese silent starring Takeshi Sakamoto, Nobuko Fushimi, Den Obinata, and Tomio Aoki.
*What an intense but delightful silent, I was engrossed for all 100 minutes!* It's in the new Ozu DVD collection and was the first film I watched from this set. The piano score was by Donald Sosin, but this time he didn't play the music with Japanese musical themes and structure, like he did for *The Peach Girl*, but relied more on ragtime and jazz music as well as some classical. It took a bit of getting used to, to hear more western music with an Oriental film, but after awhile I adjusted. After all, the Japanese sound film *Twenty-Four Eyes* had a soundtrack that was composed of western folk tunes! Besides, *Passing Fancy* is mostly a comedy; how do you write funny Japanese music for 100 minutes?
------- spoilers --------
The story is about a widower and his young son living in poverty. They are close to a few people, a male friend of the widower, a woman who owns a little restaurant, a male barber, and a newcomer to their circle, a lovely young girl who has lost her job at the silk factory and who is befriended by the widower and restaurant owner and given a job as a cook and waitress. There is a subtle love triangle going on and one of the men treats the new young girl pretty carelessly and insensitively. The more he neglects her the more she seems to love him!
The widower, played by Takeshi Sakamoto, is the main focus of the story, however. He can't read and he's often drunk, yet his son does well in school despite their poverty and lack of social status. The widower often seems jealous of his own son. One day he gives him money and the boy goes out and stuffs himself with sweets and almost dies from enteritis. The father realizes he might lose his son.
Through the stressful situation of the boy's illness the love triangle is finally resolved and the father realizes how much he loves his son.
I am really warming to Japanese films these days. They are often so much deeper emotionally than American films. This one is unforgettable. A real keeper. Mere words can't do it justice. You have to see it.
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I'm on a roll here because I am fighting bronchitis and can't do anything but rest. So I'm watching movie after movie. I hope I'm not boring people with my reviews.
The latest silent I just finished watching is 1924's *The White Sin* starring Madge Bellamy and John Bowers. This must have come from some PD company like Grapevine because it had a warped canned soundtrack and the print quality was mediocre. But at least I got to see another Madge film, though this plot was kind of ludicrous.
===== spoilers ======
Madge is an orphan living with a mean aunt. She takes a chance to leave her small farming town when she gets hired to take the place of a maid who was fired by a rich woman. Madge gets on a train with her new employer and on the way she is seduced by a playboy. She goes on his yacht and succumbs to his charms. He arranges a fake wedding which she believes is legit.
Months later she is pregnant but the scoundrel has apparently died. After having the baby she is completely broke and goes to the scoundrel's family and begs them to take care of her and her baby. They seem to have good hearts and take her in. They introduce her to the scoundrel's brother, played by John Bowers, who is the good sheep of the family, though wounded in the war. Madge and John hit it off and fall in love. Then, wonder of wonders, a telegram arrives! The scoundrel brother is not dead! He's on his way home! Oh wow! Such happy news! (not).
Madge and John have to put their feelings aside when the scoundrel brother returns. His ex-girlfriend is jealous and threatens to reveal to Madge that the marriage between her and the scoundrel was fake. Fate intervenes and a fire breaks out in the house. Madge and the baby are stuck in an upstairs bedroom as the flames and smoke rise. For the first time in his rotten life the scoundrel does something honorable and tries to save Madge and the baby. He dies trying. Then John Bowers rescues them. Cut to several months later and a garden scene where Madge, John and the baby are all happy together. The End.
No wonder Madge was itching for better roles for most of her career. This vehicle was really a waste of her talents (not to mention John Bowers').
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I have a very nice vintage still in my collection from Bluebeard's 8th Wife. I do believe it is lost, more's the pity.
Little Old New York(1923)
in Silent
Posted
Well if it's elevator music, Jeffrey, it's FUN elevator music.
I must admit when I heard the first few musical phrases for *The Patsy* I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh no, we're in for it now", but that score has really grown on me and now I can't imagine any other score for it but that one. It just wouldn't be the same movie to me. He wrote funny music but he also wrote a very lovely romantic tune that popped up a few times -- like when they are on the floor looking at the map of his development -- and I'm a sucker for a romantic melody.