DVD: Kidnapped -- March 9, 2019

Moving Picture World, 29-September-1917

Moving Picture World, 29-September-1917

Fritzi, the proprietor of the wonderful blog Movies Silently, is now a DVD producer.  For her first production, she had a brilliant idea which requires a little bit of explanation.

Moving Picture World, 03-March-1917

On 11-February-1917, inventor Thomas Edison turned 70 years old.  He received a testimonial banquet from his employees in West Orange, New Jersey.  The article's history is not entirely accurate.  I highlighted some of the text of the article.  

"Trade Honors Edison, Its Creator, on Natal Day

"First Real 'Feature' Made and Modern Conquest Subject

"Shown at Testimonial Banquet to 'Father of Pictures'

"A SHOWING of the first great 'feature' motion picture ever produced was one of the striking features of a testimonial banquet that was tendered to Thomas A. Edison, in honor of his seventieth birthday, at Orange, N. J., by the employees of the Edison Affiliated Industries. The banquet to (the - JT) famous inventor, who devised the first motion picture camera as well as the first machine designed to project moving pictures on a screen, was given by the various divisions of the vast Edison industries, for the purpose of emphasizing the high regard in which Mr. Edison is held by those who are engaged in the production of the various devices that owe their existence to his rare genius and unremitting toil. The Edison studios of Bedford Park, N. Y., were strongly represented at the banquet and contributed largely to the entertainment that followed the dinner.

"The affair was of decided interest to the motion picture world not only because of the showing of the historic first 'feature' production, but because it marked the first public showing of Edison Conquest Pictures, new productions that have been made on lines laid down by Mr. Edison, and that represent his conception of ideal motion pictures. The contrast between the first actual photoplay ever produced and the new productions of the Edison studios was highly impressive.

"The first feature production that ever was made, the picture that was shown last night, was 'The Great Train Robbery,' a photoplay that will be remembered by many of the pioneers in the film industry, and the forerunner of all Western thrillers. It was released November 30, 1903, and it marked a decided advance in the evolution of the silent drama. It was the first story with a definite plot to be produced as well as the first production to reach the length of one-reel. Previous to that time, only short subjects, ranging in length from twenty-five to three hundred feet, had been made. 'The Great Train Robbery' was approximately seven hundred and fifty feet in length, a stupendous production for that era.

"The popularity of the production is indicated by the fact that estimates show that it made approximately $400,000 for the Edison Company, a record that few productions have approached.

"Four of the new Edison Conquest pictures, including a production of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Kidnapped,' were included in the program. Motion picture authorities present were authority for statements that the new pictures are going to make a big advance in motion picture production.

"Among the figures of prominence in the film world who were present were. W. W. Hodkinson, who will direct the distribution of Conquest Pictures; George Kleine, of the Kleine-Edison-Selig-Essanay, through which a series of five-reel Edison master-pictures are being released, and L. W. McChesney, manager of the Thomas A. Edison,. Inc., studios.

"The divisions that united in giving the testimonial banquet to Mr. Edison were: The Motion Picture Division, of Bedford Park; the Musical Phonograph Division, the Storage Battery Division, the Dictating Machine Division, of Orange; the Primary Battery Division, of Bloomfield, N. J., and the Chemical Manufacturing Division, of Silver Lake, N. J."

Motion Picture News, 24-March-1917

Thomas Edison, or his ghostwriter, said:
"We have all heard a great deal during the past few years about the growing demand for better films for motion picture patrons of all ages. I have felt from the very start that little would be accomplished toward meeting this demand seriously until some responsible producer thought more of the future good of the business than the present gain. I have assumed the investment necessary to produce a better grade of clean and wholesome films with full confidence that the American people will support 'EDISON CONQUEST PICTURES' so that they may ultimately produce a fair return on their original cost. These pictures are free from all features which have made the motion picture objectionable to many people and may be viewed by the entire family.

"THEY ARE NOW READY."

The idea behind Conquest Pictures, made by the Edison Company and distributed by K-E-S-E (Kleine-Edison-Selig-Essanay) was to provide theaters with a complete package, a feature film and a set of short subjects.  The Conquest idea was not Edison's, but was conceived by George Kleine (The "K" in K-E-S-E).

Motion Picture News, 24-March-1917

The Conquest slogan was "The Open Road to Romance and Knowledge."  I'd like to know what a barefoot boy with a bindle has to do with conquest.

Moving Picture World, 29-September-1917

Conquest Program No. 9 was a package made up of a five-reel feature adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's popular adventure novel Kidnapped and four short subjects, a scenic view of Provincetown, Massachusetts, a silhouette version of "Little Red Riding Hood," a microscopic view of pond life, and "Friends, Romans and Leo," a one-reel comedy.

Fritzi had the idea of recreating the program.  All five movies still exist, against great odds, and she was able to assemble them into a new package on a DVD-R.  Maestro Ben Model provided a suitable piano accompaniment for each element. Fritzi raised money for the production through a Kickstarter campaign.

The full title is Kidnapped: A Complete 1917 Night at the Movies.  I find it interesting that no one seems to have thought of doing a complete program like this.  I suppose the poor survival rates of silent films makes it difficult to put together a group like this.

Moving Picture World, 06-October-1917

"The program is about the average quality of Conquest programs."

'Friends, Romans and Leo" was a comedy about a slave, played by Raymond McKee, who saved the Roman Emperor from a moneylender and won the hand of the Emperor's daughter.  It had many anachronistic jokes. The lion was funny. Alan Crosland directed.

"Little Red Riding Hood" was an adaption of the fairy tale done in silhouette.  When I hear of a silhouette film, I think of Lotte Reiniger's animated movies, but this film was done with live action. I noticed that in close shots, we could see some of the features of the actors.

Moving Picture World, 13-October-1917

"Quaint Provincetown" had some interesting views of life in a town inhabited by fishermen and artists.  It had no narrative flow.

Moving Picture World, 06-October-1917

"Microscopic Pond Life" was well photographed and nearly as exciting as you might expect.

The feature, Kidnapped, moves swiftly through the events of Stevenson's novel.  Raymond McKee was too old to play David Balfour, but he was fun to watch.  Joseph Burke played David's Uncle Ebeneezer in an over-the-top way, which was appropriate for the part.  Robert Cain was suitably colorful as Alan Breck.  The settings were frequently beautiful.  Alan Crosland directed.  So Raymond McKee and Alan Crosland were involved in this movie and "Friends, Romans and Leo."

Kidnapped: A Complete 1917 Night at the Movies is worth seeing and it makes a nice companion to the Kino box set Edison - The Invention of the Movies: 1891-1918.  I recommend it highly.

You can order it from Amazon.

I should take this opportunity to mention that Fritzi has also created a podcast which is worth a visit:
http://moviessilently.com/2019/02/26/the-first-movies-silently-podcast/

DVD -- Remembering Playland -- May 18, 2013

Our dvd player broke a while back, so we just got our first blu-ray player.  I have started to watch our backlog of dvds.  The first one I watched was Remembering Playland At the Beach. There were interviews with two people who worked at Playland and several people who visited.  I especially enjoyed the section on the Fun House.  I had forgotten the giant clown faces inside.  I remember the diving bell popping up and splashing water.  I remember that there were two dark rides, and that each had its partisans.  I want to visit Playland-Not-At-the-Beach. 

Treasures 5: The West #3 -- January 19, 2012

One of my Christmas presents was the fifth Treasures From the American Film Archives, The West.

Disc three starts with The Lady of the Dugout, which stars and was produced by former bank and train robber Al Jennings, allegedly based on true events in his life.  Jennings, who once shared a prison cell with O. Henry, was known for telling stretchers, so I wouldn't accept the movie as a documentary, but it does have a very realistic feel to it.  The only parts that didn't feel real were the Mojave Desert standing in for Oklahoma and Tehachapi with its huge mountains representing a Texas town.  Jennings and his brother Frank were good, understated performers.

The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaw was made in 1915 by a group of lawmen as a response to and earlier, now lost, Al Jennings movie.  Marshal Bill Tilghman and two others produced the movie and appeared in it, along with other peace officers and at least one real bandit, Arkansas Tom Jones.  Tilghman and his partners felt that other movies glamorized bad men.  This one, which unfortunately exists only in parts, takes a different approach.  It includes bits about the original Wild Bunch and Cattle Annie and Little Breeches.  I liked the subtitle "Outlaws do what they do because they are what they are."  That would be a good line for a film noir.  The image above is an ad from the 09-June-1920 Tulsa Daily World, announcing a showing of The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws (an alternate title) with a personal appearance by Marshal Bill Tilghman. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version.

"The Girl Ranchers" is a 1914 Nestor one-reeler, which was distributed by Universal.  It was silly, but fun.

"Legal Advice" was a 1916 Selig Polyscope one-reeler written by, produced by, directed by and starring Tom Mix.  It may have been the first entire Mix Selig movie that I have seen.  It was a funny story about a pretty female lawyer who came to a western town.  My wife enjoyed the powerful wind blowing through the interiors.  The lawyer had to hold down her dress during one scene.  The end was disturbing.

Womanhandled was a 1925 Paramount feature, directed by Woody van Dyke and starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston.  It was a comedy, making fun of western movie cliches.  The movie includes scenes shot on location in Central Park and Houston, Texas.  The scenes by the Houston train depot include lots of streetcars.  Richard Dix was actually funny in this movie.

"Beauty Spots in America: Castle Hot Springs, Arizona" is a 1916 Essanay split reel which shows life around the elegant resort.

"The Romance of Water" is a 1931 one-reeler produced by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to justify their stealing water from the Owens Valley.  It doesn't mention the water war and the dynamiting of the acqueduct.

"A New Miracle in the Desert" is an item from a Hearst Metrotone newsreel which tells about the Colorado River acqueduct, which allowed Los Angeles to steal water that it didn't even need.

"The West in Promotional Travelogues" is a group of excerpts from various travel movies, including Edison's 1898 "Sunset Limited," a view of the Georgetown Loop, and tours in Yosemite and Yellowstone.

I enjoyed the whole set.  I'm grateful to my family for the gift.  I recommend it highly.

Disc one: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-1-january-11-2012.html

Disc two: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-2-january-12-2012.html

Treasures 5: The West #2 -- January 12, 2012

One of my Christmas presents was the fifth Treasures From the American Film Archives, The West.

Disc two starts with "Over Silent Paths: A Story of the American Desert," a 1910 one-reeler directed by DW Griffith for the American Biograph Company.  A wanderer in the California desert accidentally kills a prospector while robbing him.  The wanderer runs away, overcome by grief.  The prospector's daughter finds her father.  She buries him and swears vengeance over his grave.  As she drives their wagon towards town, San Fernando, she finds the wanderer lying unconscious.  She gives him water and takes him to town.  She reports the murder to the sheriff.  Rather quickly, this being a one-reeler, the daughter and the wanderer become attracted to each other.  There is a brief romantic scene by Mission San Fernando Rey de España. When the Wanderer proposes marriage, he pulls out a sack of gold. The daughter recognizes the sack as her father's. She pretends to accept his proposal, but snatches the pistol from his belt and marches him to the sheriff. Griffith could fit a lot of story into 16 minutes.

"Life on the Circle Ranch in California" was shot in 1912 in Santa Monica.  It is a documentary of ranch life, but the commentary by Donald W Reeves is careful to point out where scenes are staged, like the setting up of the camp and the fiesta after the roundup.  He is sarcastic about the scenes where people who are not cowboys try to brand a calf.

"Broncho Billy and the Schoolmistress" is a 1912 Essanay produced during the company's stay in San Rafael.  A new school marm arrives in town and all the men are interested, including Gilbert M Anderson, Broncho Billy, Augustus Carney, who played Alkali Ike in the Snakeville comedy series, and a character named Jack.  Men warn the new teacher not to go out at night to visit her students, but she pulls out a revolver and shows it to them.  They think it is too small.  The men decide for some reason to scare her by faking a robbery and they persuade Broncho Billy to be the robber.  Jack shoots him and then things are confusing and then Broncho Billy marries the teacher.  The image above shows "Broncho Bill" and Alkali Ike. It is from the 13-November-1911 Chicago Day Book.

"How the Cowboy Makes His Lariat" is part of a 1917 movie in which wild west show star Pedro León demonstrates collecting horse hair, twisting it into rope, and making a cinch.  He does not make a lariat in the surviving footage.

"Mexican Filibusters: An Incident in the Recent Uprising" is a 1911 Kalem film about Mexican Americans who are smuggling arms to revolutionaries in Mexico.  The smugglers are the heroes and the female smuggler saves the day.  There are some nice railroad scenes.

"The Better Man" is a 1912 Vitagraph one-reeler, shot in Santa Monica, about a no-good father who leaves the house to gamble while his daughter is dangerously ill.  A Mexican American horse thief breaks into the house and demands food.  The mother wants him to go for a doctor.  He tries to ignore her, but the daughter takes his hand and the mother points to an image of Mary and Jesus.  The father leaves the saloon and sees a wanted poster for the thief.  He decides to collect the reward.  The thief runs towards town and the father tries to catch him, but falls over a cliff.  The thief winds up on the father's horse.  He gets the doctor and they ride back towards the house.  The ride is intercut with the father running towards the house.  The doctor treats the little girl and the father tries to capture the thief.  The mother tells the father to let him go.  This was the other movie we raised money to preserve in the 2010 For the Love of Film Blogathon (http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-do-we-need-to-preserve-films-brief.html).  

"Ammunition Smuggling on the Mexican Border" is a unique three-reeler produced in Texas in 1914 by a former sheriff, Eugene Buck.  It tells the true story of the capture of Buck and a deputy, Candelario Ortiz, by gun runners.  Ortiz is killed by the smugglers as two posses search for them.  There are two commentaries.  One, by Martin Marks, explains the background of the movie and speculates that Buck may have made the movie to tell his side of the story because he was the star witness in the trial of the surviving smugglers, who included an American IWW member.  The other commentary talks about the musical accompaniment.  My favorite line:  "It doesn't matter where the music comes from, it matters where it is going."

"Lake Tahoe, Land of the Sky," is a 1914 documentary by Essanay.  I enjoyed seeing the steamboat and the train arriving at Truckee in a snowstorm.

Mantrap is a 1926 feature starring Clara Bow and directed by Victor Fleming.   It was a wonderful comedy.

"The Golden West" is an excerpt from a 1938 film by an unidentified amateur.  It was shot in Kodachrome and it documents a trip to Los Angeles, probably from Pennsylvania.  It shows many freakish sites, including a gas station built around a Fokker F32 airliner with rotating propellers.

I'll do Disc Three another day.

Disc One: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-1-january-11-2012.html

Disc Three: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-3-january-19-2012.html

DVD: The Miracle Rider #2 -- October 11, 2011

A few more thoughts after yesterdays post: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2011/10/dvd-miracle-rider-october-10-2011.html

One of Zaroff's henchmen was played by Tom London, who may have appeared in more movies than anyone else, from the mid-Teens to the early 1960s.  Another was Charles "Blackie" King, who was always worth watching.

I enjoyed the credits and introduction for each episode.  There was a stirring classical theme, whose name I can never remember.  There was a tracking shot of Tom and Tony Jr riding hell for leather, followed by a tracking shot along a rocky hillside that underlay most of the credits.  Underneath the cast of characters, there was a Native American crouching, then standing and scanning the horizon, then invoking the gods, then squatting, then standing.

The general treatment of Native Americans?  So-so.  Bob Kortman, whom I loved in Laurel and Hardy movies, played Long Boat, who wanted to be chief.  He worked secretly for Zaroff.  Tom Morgan was his great rival.  I liked the way Long Boat kept calling Tom "My brother" with a great sneer.

I lost count of how many times Zaroff said he was going to be "the most powerful man in the world."  I liked the wireless telephones he used to communicate with Long Boat and his cowboy henchmen.  He used what looked like a text terminal to communicate wirelessly with a buyer in Europe.

I first saw this serial on Channel 20's Old Sourdough or Worst of Hollywood.  I managed to stay awake late enough each Friday night to see all 15 chapters.  I had read William K Everson's disparaging comments on the movie.  I didn't agree with him.

DVD: The Miracle Rider -- October 10, 2011

Tom Mix was the biggest cowboy star in silent movies.  He made a series of talkies for Universal, but the Depression prevented other studios from paying his vast salary.  In 1935, Nat Levine of Mascot Studio paid Mix $40,000 to work for four weeks.  This was half the budget of The Miracle Rider, a15 chapter serial. Mix needed the money to subsidize his circus.  This turned out to be his last movie.  I was surprised to learn that it was Mascot's only 15 chapter serial.  I had thought that 15 was the standard length after producers settled on a standard and before they went to 12 as a cheaper standard.

The first episode of The Miracle Rider, "The Vanishing Indian,"  was almost feature length.   It used an animated map to show "Indian Territory" shrinking and the United States growing over the years.  Some of the dates on the map were questionable.  Scenes showed Daniel Boone, then Davy Crockett, then Buffalo Bill Cody, then Sam Morgan trying to get European Americans to stop intruding on the territory of Native Americans.  Who was Sam Morgan?  He was the father of Tom Morgan, Tom Mix's character.

Sam Morgan was trying to defend the reservation of the Ravenhead tribe when he was murdered by a group of men who wanted to squat on their land.  Young Tom promises to join the Texas Rangers and carry on his work.  Twenty years later, Tom has aged considerably.  His hair is dyed black and his teeth are false, but he is still a heroic figure.  I only noticed one scene where he performed with is old mugging humor, when he stopped two kids from stealing a pie and then tried to steal it himself.  The Ravenhead regard Tom as a brother and give him the name "Miracle Rider."

A mysterious flying object, called the Thunderbird by the Ravenhead begins attacking their village.  It turns out to be a "rocket powered glider" controlled by Zaroff, who is secretly mining X-92, a super explosive, from the Ravenhead reservation.  I was sad to see the open cockpit monoplane Thunderbird crash in chapter 2.  Zaroff is played by Charles Middleton, about whom I still have bad dreams from Flash Gordon and Laurel and Hardy movies.  Later in the movie, Zaroff's scientist discovers a way to turn X-92 into a powerful fuel that can replace gasoline.  Image if a Native American tribe controlled all of this country's energy supplies.

Some of the cliffhangers were different compared to what later became standard in Universals.  In one, the chapter ends with a bunch of cowboys holding their guns on Tom.  There are no shots fired.  In the next chapter, Tom's horse, Tony Jr, blows a car horn and allows Tom to escape.  There are some very clear cheaters, chapters ending with Tom falling to his doom or getting shot.  The next chapters begin differently.

Tom Mix was still a convincing hero.  I didn't care that he had trouble with his lines.  He sounded like a real person.

DVD: Gaumont Treasures -- February 8,

It took me a while to get through it but I recently finished watching the three discs of Gaumont Treasures. Gaumont and Pathé are the oldest surviving motion picture production companies in the world. Taking pride in its heritage, Gaumont sponsored the restoration of several of its historic pre-World War One movies. I have heard that this box is a subset of a larger set issued in Europe.

The first disc features movies directed by Alice Guy from 1897 to 1907. She was head of production for the company. There are more movies on the disc than I could count, ranging from actualities and one of the many serpentine dances recorded by different companies in 1897, to single-scene comic bits and vaudeville turns, to 1905 sound-on-disc Chronophones to a 1906 33 minute life of Christ, to developed dramatic stories. Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché and moved to America, where she directed for Gaumont, then started her own company, Solax.

I noticed on this disc that the menu by year did not include all of the movies for a given year. I had to refer to back of the box and go to the alphabetical index to find many movies.

The second disc features movies directed by artistic director Louis Feuillade. I'm grateful for a short documentary, which finally allowed me to learn how to pronounce his family name. The movies include short comedy sketches, fantasies, historic tragedies, from his series "Le film esthétique", and modern-day soap operas, from his series "La Vie telle qu'elle est (Life As It Is)". There is only one series comedy, "Bout de Zan Steals an Elephant", but it is a good one. My family enjoyed it very much. Most of the longer movies are made up from a series of scenes each done in a single shot, but the staging keeps them interesting.

The third disc features movies directed by Feuillade's successor as artistic director, Leonce Perret. I had heard of Perret as a comedian and had often read about The Child of Paris, but I had never seen his work. The disc has a short documentary and only two movies directed by Perret, the featurette "Le Mystere des roches de Kador" and the feature L'Enfant de Paris. Perret wrote, directed, and played the villain in Kador, in which a psychologist tries to cure a demented woman by making a movie that reenacts the event that traumatized her. The Child of Paris is the most complex film in the whole set. The action moves from Paris to Nice and includes many beautiful exterior. Both movies features wonderful lighting effects. I hope to see more of his work.

In general, the music was appropriate and enjoyable. Sometimes it felt repetitious, and I often became aware of themes that were used to accompany more than one movie.

The set is worth the money and the time.

DVD: Lost Keaton -- September 10, 2010

After Buster Keaton left MGM, where he had been stifled in a series of movies that started out pretty good (The Cameraman, Spite Marriage) and wound up pretty bad (The Passionate Plumber, What! No Beer?), he signed up with Earle W Hammons' Educational Pictures, which had produced hundreds of short comedies over the years.

Educational gave Buster minuscule budgets but plenty of room to breathe. from 1934 to 1937, he made 16 two-reel comedies which I have been reading about for years, but had never seen till now. Most of the references were disparaging, but I still wanted to see the movies. They turned out to be enjoyable, far better than his Columbia shorts. These movies reminded me of Roscoe Arbuckle's Comique shorts, which featured Buster.

Two of the films, "Palooka from Paducah" and "Love Nest on Wheels," were hillbilly stories which featured members of the Keaton family. "Palooka" had his mother Myra, his sister Louise, and his dad, Joe. Joe had trouble with the dialogue. Myra and Louise had deadpans as firm as Buster. Myra was smoking a pipe, as she did in real life. "Love Nest" had Myra, Louise, and Buster's little brother, Harry, who had once been known as "Jingles."

Charles Lamont directed most of the movies, and he seemed to know how to stay out of Buster's way and let him work. Mack Sennett directed "The Timid Young Man," but I didn't see anything of his style except for a shot of Lona Andre posing in a bathing suit.

"One Run Elmer" had a baseball game that included many of the tricks he used in charity games. "Tars and Stripes" was shot on location on a naval base in San Diego. "Grand Slam Opera" was my favorite, including lots of dancing and a broom fight straight from the Three Keatons in vaudeville.

DVD: Harry Langdon: Lost and Found -- March 24, 2010

I finally finished watching a wonderful DVD set, The Harry Langdon Collection: Lost and Found, from Allday Entertainment and Lobster Films.

The first three disks feature his Sennett films, the surviving shorts and the restored feature His First Flame. I had seen "Saturday Afternoon" many many times, but I had seen only one or two of the others. Extras include the surviving fragment of one of his Sol Lesser shorts and some of his Sennett films which had been butchered for television presentation.

The fourth disk has a couple of his talkies, a special short he did for Roach to introduce him to exhibitors, a soundie, and home movies.

I feel I know Harry Langdon better now.

DVD: American Slapstick Volume II #3 -- January 25, 2010

Allday Entertainment has issued American Slapstick, Volume II, a three-cd collection of slapstick movies, mostly silents, and mostly shorts. Some of the movies are recovered from 9.5mm prints. Others are new reconstructions from multiple sources. All the silents have enjoyable scores, either created new for this set or assembled from contemporary recordings.

Disc Three has three sections: Hearts and Havoc, Ladies, and Talkies.

Hearts and Havoc groups two shorts with love themes. "Be Reasonable" is a Billy Bevan short, typical of Sennett's 1920s shorts, with lots of special effects. Bevan was funny despite all the craziness. "Call the Wagon" was the first Neal Burns movie I had seen. It was fun and didn't drag.

The Ladies section has some shorts starring women who are not remembered as well as they should be. "Cinderella Cinders" starred Alice Howell, whom I have seen before. My daughter liked her frizzy hair. Alice and her leading man did a good drunk act. "A Hash House Fraud" was a Keystone starring Louise Fazenda. It was funny, and it included an appearance by the Kops. "Faro Nell" was an early talkie, also starring Louise Fazenda. The melodramatic style reminded me of "The Fatal Glass of Beer." My daughter loved her voice.

The Talkie section was weak. "Playboy Number One" starred Willie Howard. I had read about Willie and his brother Eugene in vaudeville, but had never seen him. He put on a wild French accent. My daughter thought his interactions with a blonde he chased sounded like Pepe LePew. It wasn't very funny. "Hollywood Runaround" starred Monte Collins, whom I had seen in Buster Keaton's Columbia shorts. He was a boob who was chosen to run for mayor of Hollywood against a candidate backed by the mob. It was funny.

I'm glad I got the set. I'll be watching it again. Now I have to find Volume One.

DVD: American Slapstick Volume II #2 -- January 24, 2010

Allday Entertainment has issued American Slapstick, Volume II, a three-cd collection of slapstick movies, mostly silents, and mostly shorts. Some of the movies are recovered from 9.5mm prints. Others are new reconstructions from multiple sources. All the silents have enjoyable scores, either created new for this set or assembled from contemporary recordings.

Disc Two has two sections: Chaplin Without Chaplin and Sydney Chaplin.

The Chaplin Without Chaplin section starts with cartoons done by Otto Messmer for the Pat Sullivan Studio. A brief clip from "Felix in Hollywood" shows Felix imitating Chaplin, then running into him. A longer excerpt from "Charley at the Beach" shows Chaplin running through some standard beach gags. Messmer's animated Chaplin captured some of the feeling of the real thing. "Out West" shows Charley in a frontier town, then riding out to rescue the beautiful maiden who was captured by the Indians. This one merited a warning about stereotypes. It also dragged. "The Hobo" was the first complete Billy West movie I have seen. My daughter agreed that he looked like Chaplin. The movie made me appreciate how well-structured Charley's movies are. Oliver Hardy and Leo White appeared. A selection from "Oh Shoot!" showed Bobby Dunn looking somewhat like Charley, but not acting much like him. It reminded me of a Larry Semon movie. I liked the Mule.

The Sydney Chaplin section began with two Keystone Gussle movies, "Caught in a Park" and "Gussle's Wayward Path." Gussle reminded me of a character Michael Palin might do in a Monty Python sketch. The family felt that Sydney was copying all of Charlie's mannerisms. My daughter was not happy about Gussle hanging up the little dog. Those films were followed by the feature "Charley's Aunt." This seemed like a standard version of the play, although Sydney was more acrobatic than most Aunties. This was the only feature in the set.

I enjoyed Disc Two.

DVD: American Slapstick Volume II #1 -- January 23, 2010

Allday Entertainment has issued American Slapstick, Volume II, a three-cd collection of slapstick movies, mostly silents, and mostly shorts. Some of the movies are recovered from 9.5mm prints. Others are new reconstructions from multiple sources. All the silents have enjoyable scores, either created new for this set or assembled from contemporary recordings.

Disc One has three sections: Harold Lloyd, Hal Roach's B team, and movies from the Educational (hah) Studio.

The Harold Lloyd section starts with a fragment of "Luke Joins the Navy," which was the longest piece of a Lonesome Luke movie that I have ever seen. There wasn't much to it, although part of it takes place on a battleship (I think). It was more vigorous than funny. I had never been able to tell from stills, but I could see from the movie how Lloyd was imitating Chaplin. My daughter couldn't see it.

"By the Sad Sea Waves" was a complete movie with the "Glass Character." It was vigorous and funny, with a miniature train gag at the end.

"Bliss," "Hey There," and "Don't Shove" were one-reelers which showed Harold gradually developing his acting and his gagging. "Hey There" was set in a movie studio. Bebe Daniels was cute in all of them, and there was a beautiful closeup of her smiling at the skating rink in "Don't Shove."

The B-team section started with "Dodge Your Debts", which is the only Gaylord Lloyd film I have ever seen. I have no idea why it was set in England. It wasn't very funny.

"Whirl of the West" and "The Dippy Dentist" are Snub Pollard and Marie Mosquini movies which I enjoyed. The dentist movie had a strong Prohibition element.

"Shiver and Shake" and "Post No Bills" are the only Jimmy Parrott (brother of Charley Chase) movies I have ever seen. "Post No Bills" was absurdly funny.

The Educational section started with "A Fresh Start," a Lige Conley/Jimmy Adams short. My wife liked the music and the reactions of the characters. It got pretty silly by the time the lions entered from the zoo next to the hotel. Some of the scenes with the leading lady were risque.

"Kid Speed" was a Larry Semon film. I'm partial to old racing cars, and Oliver Hardy was good. I saw the standard Semon mud pits.

"Jonah Jones" and "Breezing Along" were Lloyd Hamilton films. I had not seen much of his work outside of the Youngson compilations. He was very expressive.

Disc One was a very good start.

DVD: Harry Langdon -- May 23, 2009

I watched Kino's DVD with two Harry Langdon features which I had never seen before. The picture quality was very sharp, except where the only surviving material suffered from nitrate decomposition. I have always liked the grey scales in late silents.

I remember reading Walter Kerr's comments about both movies. We're lucky to be able to see the movies on DVD nowadays. He might have had some different throughts.

Three's a Crowd was not a standard comedy. There were some absurdist elements and some things that were just strange. I was sorry that the montage with the doll was so deteriorated. I watched it a second time with the commentary. The commentator is a strong Langdon defender. He didn't refer much to events in the movie. He mostly talked about Landon's financial issues and how Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd also made movies that were not great financial successes in the same year. Contrary to comments I have read, I only saw one set of shots that didn't match, when the father went to shake Langdon's hand at the end.

The Chaser was more conventional, but it had its moments. It reminded me of "Saturday Afternoon." I liked the tracking shots from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room and back. The car running away down the hill looked very much like a 1920s Sennett effect.

The DVD made me appreciate these movies. Now I want to go back and see his other silent features.

Today we had a quiet day. I got my poppy at Safeway. I told the lady she was brave to be standing out in the cold and wind.

DVD: Georges Méliès First Wizard of Cinema -- September 6, 2008

I finished watching Flicker Alley's (http://www.flickeralley.com/) 5-dvd set Georges Méliès First Wizard of Cinema. This is a remarkable collection of more than 170 movies, ranging from "Une Partie de cartes", Star Film catalog #1 from 1896 to his last, "Le Voyage de la famille Bourrichon" from 1913. The shortest complete film, "La Vengeance du gâte-sauce" from 1900 is 33 seconds. The longest is "A la conquête du pôle" from 1912, which is 30 minutes and 22 seconds.

I had worried that watching so many Méliès movies in a relatively short time would give me indigestion, but I never felt sated. I enjoyed observing patterns over time, like the cakewalk step that turned up in 1903's "Le Cake-walk infernal" and many other movies in the same period.

I saw many examples of Méliès' performing abilities. I was sad on disk four when I realized that I had not seen him appear for a while. It was nice on the last disk when I saw him in "Les Illusions fantaisistes", which looked back to his earliest trick films. This was followed two films later by "A la conquête du pôle", where he has the leading role, and even something close to a closeup. I first read about this film in a library book when I was in grammar school. I had seen the schene with the monster before, but never the whole movie.

The picture quality varied greatly, but is understandable because many movies only survive in one print. The musical scores varied but most were appropriate. The one for "Le Tonnerre de Jupiter" was very funny.

The menu for "A la conquête du pôle" offerred a choice of German or translated English, but both options give the German. I was happy to see that the Flicker Alley site offers the translations.

Michael Brooke has embarked on a brave project to write a blog entry about each movie on the dvd. As I write this, he is taking a breather; I look forward to more entries: http://filmjournal.net/melies/

DVD: Houdini the Movie Star #2 -- June 21, 2008

I had the opportunity to watch another movie on Kino's set Houdini the Movie Star. The Man From Beyond was another title that I have always admired. The plot is less admirable. The movie starts with a brief, confusing statement about reincarnation. Then it shows two survivors of an Artic expedition trying to reach civilization. François Duval, "a half breed", is about to abandon Doctor Gilbert Trent when he spots a sailing ship trapped in the ice.

The scenes where they explore the long-trapped ship has a good spooky atmosphere. Duval discovers a man frozen in ice and starts to chip away. I was afraid Duval was looking for food.

The movie uses a fairly complex set of flashbacks, switching between the Artic and civilization or upstate New York. The ice man, Houdini, is shown from about the shoulders up. The doctor tells Duval "Get those wet things off his legs." He hands Duval a scarf and says "Wrap this around him." Duval bends down for a moment and drops a pile of wet clothes. At that moment, the ice man, Houdini, awakens and runs up on deck. He is wearing a bulky breechclout.

The doctor, for some reason, decides not to tell Houdini that he has been frozen for 100 years and brings him back to civilization or upstate New York. A subtitle seems to suggest that he has amnesia. He doesn't seem to be confused about riding in an automobile. He does remember the leading lady, who seems to be the reincarnation of his 1820 love. I feel ungentlemanly to mention it, but the leading lady is not attractive.

There is only one escape. Houdini is thrown into an insane asylum. The keepers wrap him in sheets and put him under a cold shower. One keeper remarks that this was a dark ages trick that the authorities would not allow any more. I wonder what group insisted on that. They make a good use of a flashback: the keepers look in the room and Houdini is gone. He later explains to the leading lady how he escaped from the sheets, used them to climb the wall and kick out the window, then let himself down the outside wall.

Bits of the movie are obviously missing. Nita Naldi hardly has anything to do. There are some shots that appear to be out of place. I enjoyed the piano score by Jon Mirsalis.

The remote for the dvd player needs new batteries, so I couldn't watch any of the extras.

It has been very hot.

DVD: Houdini the Movie Star #1 -- May 27, 2008

While I was home sick, I took advantage of the opportunity to watch the first film on Kino's set Houdini the Movie Star. I have wanted to see The Master Mystery, a serial, for many years. I probably first read about it in a biography of Harry Houdini. At some point I realized that I didn't have the manual dexterity for sleight of hand, so I became interested in escapology. That led me to read everything I could find about Houdini. Since I was also interested in silent movies, I paid attention to the many references to his film career.

I thought The Master Mystery sounded particularly interesting because of the robot which it featured. The movie was made in 1919, before Čapek coined the term robot. It was called Q, the Automaton. Its gang was called the Emissaries of the Automaton. Great name.

The plot makes no more sense than that of any other movie serial. It may have been a little harder to follow because about one hour of the footage is missing. A few observations:

-- I like the image. The automation looks like a Muppet automaton. My daughter thought the acutal robot was cheesy looking. I liked the way he walked, especially the way he moved his arms. If the movie had been release in the 1980s, someone would have created a dance called "The Automaton".

-- In two different episodes, the people with Houdini used him as a battering ram to break down a door. I've never seen that done outside of a cartoon. They did not use his head.

-- The subtitles used a wonderful font. Whenever a lowercase "g" appeared on the bottom line, it had a huge, curling tail.

-- The images on some of the art titles were funny. I liked the view of the cave with eyes looking out from the dark.

-- One of the titles which explains a missing part of the movie says that Houdini used his "escapist" skills to get out of a trap. Wrong word, I think.

-- The tinting was appropriate.

-- The books always said Houdini was stiff. I think he was restrained, but not stiff. Some of the actors were considerably less restrained, especially Doctor Q.

-- It was unusual to see a serial where no cliffhanger involved an automobile or an airplane. The cliffhangers focused on Houdini getting restrained (ropes, chains, barbed wire, a strangling machine) and getting loose.

-- I don't think I have ever seen another fiction movie that mentioned Madagascar so many times.

Sydney Pollack died. I enjoyed Three Days of the Condor. I was surprised to discover that I haven't seen very many of his other movies.

DVD: The Feel of the Rope -- April 27, 2008

The Feel of the Rope tells the story of San Francisco's cable cars. That story has been told in more books and videos than anyone can count, but Nick Tomizawa's The Feel of the Rope takes a unique perspective. Like many other videos, it shows the cars climbing the hills, talks about the technology, and illustrates the history with well-chosen old photos. But this dvd is special because it concentrates on the men and women of the Cable Car Division. These dedicated people talk about what they do to keep the system working and how they interact with the public and with each other in their daily work. The video makes it clear that this is an unusually devoted family of people who give their best efforts to make the cable cars safe and available for the many people who want to ride them.
The quality of the video images and the sound is excellent. I enjoyed the use of classical music in the score, especially in an opening montage showing closeups of the various interview subjects. These were faces with a lot of character.
My whole family enjoyed it.
Order it here.

DVD: The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- March 24, 2008

The "Ultimate Edition" includes two DVDs with the best print I have ever seen of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a brief clip of Lon Chaney in plainclothes showing someone around the cathedral set, the surviving reel of "Alas and Alack," a 1915 Cleo Madison short where Chaney played a hunchback and a fisherman, a set of 3-D production stills taken on the sets, and two pairs of red-green 3-D glasses. I enjoyed Michael Blake's commentary. He is a makeup artist and obviously a Chaney fan. I was bothered by the way he pronounced "Phoebus" and "Gringoire."

The sharp print made it easier to appreciate the Paris set and the costumes.

DVD: Discovering Cinema -- January 1, 2008

This boxed set from Flicker Alley (http://www.flickeralley.com/) includes two French-made documentaries, "Learning to Talk" and "Movies Dream in color, and a broad selection of extras that illustrate attempts to create sound films and color films. Each documentary and set of extras is organized into three streams that ran in parallel. For sound films, they were live sound, sound on disk, and sound on film. For color films, they were applied color (hand-painting, stenciling, tinting and toning), additive color, and subtractive color. I think this was an excellent choice. The talking heads, mostly dubbed, were informative. I noticed that most of them had Italian family names, but spoke fluent French. The documentaries could not go into depth in the time allowed, but they explained the various processes clearly and included many excellent examples.


The extras were almost better than the documentaries. The sound examples included an excerpt from a strange 1920 movie called "The Chamber Mystery." Most of the time the characters spoke in balloons that popped up on the screen, but a few lines of dialogue were on conventional subtitles. Two movies showed unidentified actors miming to Caruso records. The synchronization was excellent. I was happy to see Edison's 1913 "Nursery Favorites," which I have been anxious to see since I read Walter Kerr's The Silent Clowns. It was not as bad as I expected. The Queen of the Fairies did not sound like Barry White. The last sound extra was the only part-talkie short subject I have ever seen, an episode of Universal's "The Collegians". I didn't see how they decided when the talking should stop and the subtitles should start.


The sound on disk extras reminded me of when I made Super 8 movies in high school. I had a hard time persuading my friends that we could not make talkies by recording the sound on my cassette player.


The color extras included some Lumiere films that had been hand-colored. The contrast between the jumping color of those films and the later stencilled films was clear. There was an eleven-minute Kinemacolor film showing the dedication of the campanile in Venice. Ironically, only a few shots showed the campanile. I was impressed that the many shots taken from a boat did not seem to show fringing. Another film was a test of the Lumicolor process, which was an adaption of Lumiere's Autochrome, using particles of brewer's yeast instead of rice grains. It was a bit grainy, but the colors were good. The restored version of "La Cucaracha," the first live action production in three-color Technicolor, was pretty to look at, but fast-moving characters looked smeared. This may have been because of problems in transferring the video from PAL.


I wanted to recreate Kinemacolor in Super 8, but I could never figure out how to get the filter wheel to synchronize.


My thanks to Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films and the many others who created this set. I recommend it highly.