drednm

A dull ending to a lousy season. A sad ending to a great series.

The last season focused on too many annoying, unfunny characters. Monty was annoying. Sammy was annoying. The 2 cops were duller than dishwater. They even brought back the annoying Malcolm.

Tim Healy (Lesley) disappeared again. The dual characters played by Elsie Kelly went nowhere. Julian Moore-Cook was a dud.

Luckily they did give Tony Maudsley, Janine Duvitski, and Aiden Gillen some stuff to do. And Sherrie Hewson was a constant delight.

HIS GLORIOUS NIGHT is deadly dull as directed by Lionel Barrymore. This film is based on a play by Molnar with all the liveliness of a dictionary. After a decent opening that introduces the main characters and has John Gilbert as the dashing Captain Kovacs winning a horse race (obviously speeded up), it settles into a static, music-less, slog of talk.

Remember what Norma Desmond said. "So they opened their big mouths and out came talk, talk, talk!" She obviously saw this film. Basic plot has Gilbert as the dashing captain who is romancing a princess (Catherine Dale Owen). But the mother does not approve and so has a crony spill the beans that Gilbert is the son of a shoemaker. "You peasant!" she cries.

To get even Gilbert spreads a false rumor that he's actually a fraud and that he's really a notorious swindler posing as a Captain (apparently worse than being a peasant). Once the princess and mother (Nance O'Neil) get wind of this they are terrified of an embarrassing scandal. The mother tries to marry off the daughter to the limp Tyrrell Davis and it almost works. But Gilbert has the fun of calling their bluff and admitting that he's really just a peasant (not a swindler). Faced with Davis over Gilbert, Owen comes to her meager senses and humiliates herself by chasing after Gilbert.

This is shot with almost no camera movement. The actors sit around talking. On the sidelines are a humorous older count and his wife (Richard Carle, Eva Dennison) and the ambitious Americans (Hedda Hopper and her daughter Doris Hill). Gustav von Seyffertitiz plays the gossiping crony.

Gilbert's voice is fine, maybe a little sing-songy. It's the material that lacks. The film was a modest hit. There is an "I LOVE YOU bit a la Singin' in the Rain but it's said off camera while the lovers are in the bushes.

John Gilbert gets a pass; Lionel Barrymore gets a fail.

Edgar Jones directed and stars in this 2-reeler about a lumber camp bully (Carlton Brickert) who lures a mail-order bride (Evelyn Brent) to the wilds of Maine. He ditches his Indian girlfriend when Brent shows up but.....

Brent instantly dislikes him but he proceeds to set up a fake marriage. Jones comes to the rescue to save Brent from the bully but the spurned girlfriend decides to get rid of Brent so she can have Brickert back.

The finale takes place in the river rapids headed toward a waterfall.

Shot in Maine by Jones, the film was lost for over 100 years and was discovered in 2025.