mmipyle

"Little Church Around the Corner" (1923) stars Claire Windsor, Kenneth Harlan, Hobart Bosworth, Pauline Starke, Walter Long, and many others, and is a fine drama that puts faith before foolishness, selfishness, bullying, and other forms of evil and impending disaster that exists and shows it to have a far more palpable reality that can halt the consequences of all those other things. It is a show that got fascinating reviews when it was released in March of 1923. Many walked on the faith angle as something only the ten-twenth-thirt crowd - the rural audiences - would go for (Variety's critic Fred, but who also thought it a well realized piece of cinema!), while others raved about its drama and excitement. I found the film very exciting and extremely well done, though I'd agree that the first 20 to 30 minutes of the characters when they were youngsters - this exposition showing how the characterization of the grown adults was formed - was too long. The story ultimately is about mining. It was filmed in Omaha, Nebraska, and Hobart Bosworth is the owner of a mine that is becoming unsafe due to over mining without reinforcing the overlying earth superstructure. Of course, disaster is not only impending, but we know it will happen, and it does. Kenneth Harlan, now a full fledged minister, but still a product of the mines from childhood, becomes a bulwark presence for the community and ultimately is a saving grace for the miners of the disaster, too. I'll not give the other parts of the plot except to let you know that Claire Windsor is the love interest and Pauline Starke - as usual - a spark plug for standout acting in a rôle containing what some would call a miracle.

The print is from Grapevine, and it's partially tinted and in excellent condition. It runs 70 minutes, and here's where some interesting facts begin. Supposedly the film was released at somewhere around 6300 feet, or about 85 minutes. There was supposedly a cut down version that Warner Brothers made concurrently with the original release. For what reason no one seems to know. The original Variety critique may lend some vision to the situation, as the film was reviewed from a showing at the Strand Theater in NY, where it ran for 55 minutes! The critic, Fred, seems to complain and say, as a result, the print belonged in a ten-twent-thirt theater in the sticks where the faith angle would play much better. But what happened to the longer print? What's missing? Well, this Grapevine print runs, as I said, for 70 minutes, and though there could have been more in a couple of places, seems complete. So, it's a mystery unless someone can tell me more.

An excellent little more than an hour spent. I found the film very exciting in many areas, the acting superlative, the direction quite good by William A. Seiter, one of the Warner stalwarts of the thirties, the editing especially good during the mining scenes and rescue scenes. Hobart Bosworth stands out among the acting personnel, Claire Windsor, though top billed, fulfilling well a secondary part, Walter Long as the unprivileged, underprivileged bully who's a sorry soul from a lousy background, and Kenneth Harlan as the lead doing his typical journeyman job: he's never top notch, but he's never bad, just not the charismatic actor that could have played such a rôle, such as Wallace Reid (dying at that moment). Pauline Starke, playing a girl who's mute ('dumb' in the film), is wonderful to watch. She's always vibrant in any part she plays, and here she's easy to watch. You'll also see, as you do in film after film after film, Alec B. Francis. He seems to be in nearly anything I watch from the 20s. Recommended, but be aware that this is certainly dated, but is still an excellent film. You may find yourself wanting to watch "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) after watching this.

After nearly twenty years of sitting on a shelf in my closet, I finally pulled out "That Certain Thing" (1928) directed by Frank Capra and starring Viola Dana and Ralph Graves. Graves made 10 films with Capra, 5 shorts and 5 features, all between 1924-1931. This was Capra's first film with Harry Cohn and Columbia. You've no doubt heard about Capracorn - - - well, this is as corny as corn in August - - - but it plays. It's a tad ripe for today's audiences, and the beginning is a tad prosaic, but this one develops and develops and finally comes out of the grinder a 69 minute winner. Harry Cohn liked it and upped Capra's salary to $3000 per picture.

Wonderful character actor Burr McIntosh owns a hugely successful chain of restaurants that have one principle: carve the ham in the sandwiches THIN. We're led to believe that he's successful because of the shortcuts he, the old skinflint, takes. Well, his son, lazy and party drunk Ralph Graves, doesn't have to work and gets along just fine because of ol' dad. Meanwhile: Viola Dana, two kids, living with Ma in a dump and working as a cigar stand worker in a hotel, wants to meet and marry a millionaire. Well, the two of them meet; and they marry within six hours. Dad disinherits the son; Dana has to give back all the presents; goes home to Ma and the kids. Graves tries to work as a day laborer digging ditches, but gets fired. But while eating his lunch he sees something. The other workers have all just come from one of his father's restaurants and are complaining about the lousy food! Graves comes up with a box lunch plan. LOOK OUT, WORLD!

The story is pure corn, but it's sweet corn, and the rest is history. This film was obviously shot in 1927 because it was released 1 January 1928. In the next four years Graves and Capra and Jack Holt as a threesome would make "Submarine" ('28), Flight ('29), and "Dirigible" ('31). Capra had run into Barbara Stanwyck in the interim and in '30 they made "Ladies of Leisure". As I said, the rest not only is history, but legend.

"The Eternal Struggle" (1923) stars Earle Williams, Pat O'Malley, Renée Adorée, Barbara Lamarr, Wallace Beery, Josef Swickard, and others in a story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I must admit that I almost shudder whenever I see it's another one of...those. There's going to be snow and snow shoes and Mounties mounted or on a sled and treachery and treacherous this and that and this and that...

What I was extremely happy about was the fact that Joe Harvat has saved this film from oblivion and the doom of dust to dust. And he's done a really superb job! What's also really good is the fact that we have another Renée Adorée film, another Barbara Lamarr film, another Wallace Beery film, and we get to see silent star Earle Williams who was a pinnacle star at the beginning of feature films in his hey day and Pat O'Malley who seems to have been in half of the films of the silent era (but who's rarely even a footnote in film stories about the silent era today: not to be confused with J. Pat O'Malley, he still is credited with 450 films!!). As for Josef Swickard - - - I think of the last seven or eight silent films I've watched, he's a key character in most of them! Who'd a thunk it?

Let's begin by saying that this film is really of its day - - - the 20s. It's dated in that respect, but it's also a legacy because of that. So, here's what's up: after the first twenty or twenty-five minutes I was ready to turn this thing off. It not only got boring - really boring - but was getting repetitive to the point of - - - intense boredom. Then - - - suddenly the piece took off, as if I'd been on a tarmac waiting for the traffic to clear so I could take off. The film got going. Nay, it got ripping! It ripped and ripped and ripped. Suddenly we were in the water in a canoe on rapids - - - and I mean RAPIDS! This kept a-going for quite some time and I could hear David Drazin's piano really cranked up and keys a-flappin', and I was transported just as if I were in a theater in the silent days.

Not a great film, but if you stick it out to the end this will give you your popcorn's worth. Thanks, Joe! A good evening.