I have been a fan of silent movies for many years and am happy to be living in a time where a renewed interest in silent films is growing every day. New titles are being discovered at a remarkable rate and festivals in the U. S. and Europe are drawing larger and more enthusiastic crowds. This year several high quality restorations of a number of films have been or are going to be released. These include titles with Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford along with a long awaited personal favorite, the 1924 OLD IRONSIDES.
Along with the Flicker Alley and the Kino releases comes this offering from newcomer Movies Silently headed up by silent film blogger Fritzi Kramer (check out her website), composer Ben Model, and Christopher Bird. They used a Kickstarter campaign with over 300 contributors to bring a complete 1917 program back to contemporary audiences via DVD/Blu-Ray. The program consists of four short films and a short feature based on Robert Louis Stevenson's KIDNAPPED. All were produced in the waning days of the Edison Studio and were released under the Conquest Pictures banner. The four shorts are FRIENDS, ROMANS & LEO - a broad comedy set in Ancient Rome, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD - a silhouette film of the famous fairy tale, QUAINT PROVINCETOWN - an actuality about the town and the fisherman there, and MICROSCOPIC POND LIFE which has groundbreaking photography of the titular creatures.
KIDNAPPED was directed by Alan Crosland who started with the Edison Studio and who wound up directing THE JAZZ SINGER for Warner Brothers which brought about the end of the Silent Era. Crosland, who died in 1936, is a forgotten director today. He was capable of working in a variety of genres. KIDNAPPED was an early swashbuckler that takes advantage of several outdoor locations. The winter scenes were reportedly shot in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. These are contrasted with the obvious studio interiors which looked liked those of a decade earlier. The performances are old fashioned but solid, the action robust, and the pace quite decent. All in all it makes for engaging viewing especially for silent movie lovers.
So hats off to Movies Silently for bringing us this trip back in time. The 16mm prints from the Library of Congress look remarkably good thanks to tweaking from Christopher Bird and Ben Model's piano accompaniment enhances the viewing experience. I have a fondness for movies made on the East Coast before the 1920s when Hollywood took over. I have Kino's EDISON set and now this collection. Someday I hope to have a restored version of the 1910 Edison FRANKENSTEIN and speed corrected versions of the 1910 CHRISTMAS CAROL and 1905 NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (both in Kino's CHRISTMAS PAST set). Then I will truly be a happy camper...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.
