De Luxe Annie (1918) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - Silent crime melodrama. Julie and Walter Kendal (Norma Talmadge and Frank Mills) - she a sweetheart, wife and mother - he, a man interested in theories on crime, the causes and effects. Walter believes that a sudden shock can lead a person to a life of crime - his theory is about to be tested. One night he sets out to track a couple of baddies known as De Luxe Annie and Jimmy (Eugene O'Brien), who like to pull con games such as the "Old Badger" game and "De Luxe Book" game, on innocent victims. Walter undercover, arrives pretending he's interested in purchasing a deluxe edition of a classic book from Annie - the con underway, as Jimmy shows up pretending to be an angry husband wondering why a man is alone in the apartment with his wife; Jimmy asks for hush money to keep it out of the papers. Meanwhile, Julie at home has a nightmare her man is in trouble - so she heads over to help him, ends up knocked out from a fight with the bad people, then out into the night with amnesia - no memory of her past! Next thing you know she's cleaning rooms at a lodging house and happens to be cleaning up Jimmy's room, where she tries to steal a pile of dough and a watch - but he arrives to catch her holding his goods, and deciding she'd make a good little partner for his schemes, he recruits her to join forces with him to pull the De Luxe book game. So Julie heads into a life of crime, but still has vague notions in her head of a different past - she pinches a brooch she feels should be hers (and it was!), and in an action-packed finale Jimmie and Julie escape via ice skates to keep the hounds from tracking their scent, ending up at her own, forgotten house. Meanwhile hubby Walter has become aware that his wife has no clue who she is, and is pulling crimes - and he seeks to help her get the operation she needs to restore her memory.

Review - This is a worthwhile watch, a very melodramatic plot-line typical of the time period this film was made. There was some interesting photography and editing I noticed - one interesting shot I'm remembering is the superimposed image of Talmadge as Julie in one corner while she is having her nightmare. The print had some nitrate decomposition during one reel. Norma Talmadge, in this film, kept reminding me of current day actress Natalie Portman - very similar look. She does a very good job in her part in this film, I thought. AFTER NOTE: Okay - I recently saw the British film "Easy Virtue (2008)" and one of the actresses in this, Charlotte Riley, really did look exactly like Norma Talmadge - and now that I think of it, she was in the recent Brit version of Wuthering Heights, which I saw about a month before Cinecon 45 - it was her that I was reminded of while watching "De Luxe Annie". Rating - 8/10 stars

Turn to the Right (1922) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - In a country town, Joe (Jack Mulhall) loves Elsie (Alice Terry) - but Elsie's father, Deacon Tillinger, doesn't approve of him and basically says he will horsewhip the young fellow if he comes around to see her. So Joe heads for the big city to seek his fortune. Soon involved in gambling on the horse races, he's actually been successful in saving up $2,000 in winnings! Joe decides to put all his winnings on a sure bet - "Firefly" at 10 to 1 - and, hey, Firefly wins. Unfortunately, a bad man has stolen 2,000 bucks from his own father's wallet and when the money is found missing, the blame is wrongly put on Joe who had oddly just placed a bet for the same amount. Joe not only loses his winnings, but is sent to the slammer for a year. Soon wearing stripes, he makes two prison buddies - Mugsy and Gilly - and doesn't let his family back home know what has become of him. Meanwhile, back home the greedy Deacon (he believes a "sucker is born every minute and the country is the place to find them") has convinced Joe's kindly old mother that it would be best for her to sell her peach farm to him and move into a shack. Joe and his two pals, all newly released from prison, end up back in town just in time to help get the property out of the clutches of the old cretin, and help make the farm a success - by using the peaches to make a fab jam! Muggsie and Gilly seem charmed by the town, especially when a couple of cute young gals spark an interest in them, and they decide to become "honest Joe's" as they all follow wise Mama's advise "just believe, and it will happen" - and it does!

Review - A rather charming, melodramatic silent film with touches of humor throughout - directed by Rex Ingram; the film is nicely photographed in a pretty rural locale complete with peach groves. I can't say Jack Mulhall is one of my favorite actors from the silent era, but thought he was actually appropriately cast in this particular role and did a nice job with the part (though, gosh darn, he's just lacking in the good looks department in my eyes). - - By the way, that man sure can pick the horses for a country boy! A pleasant, entertaining film. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1915) Film Review - Mary Pickford

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Sir Oliver, the richest and unhappiest man in the world, has been informed by his doctors that he is hopelessly not long for this world. Spunky slum girl "Glad" (Mary Pickford) is the poorest and happiest orphan in London - checkered cap "Dandy" is her beau, who has plans to go on a robbery with a couple of mates. But Glad tells him she won't marry him unless he takes the honest route in life, and at the last minute he drops out of the scheme. The crime is committed and a murder occurs in the process - his two "pals" pin the blame on Dandy, who now must seek proof that he didn't even participate in the crime. Meanwhile, Mr. Oliver is saved by young Glad, who has encountered him as he's just about to end it all in the river.

Review - A melodramatic silent film that is sentimental and quite entertaining - Mary looks lovely and completely lights up the screen the minute she comes skipping on in her first scene. The film, as screened at Cinecon 45, had Swedish intertitles and a live translation was done as the film was going on, which was done very well (though the voice-out-loud does sort of take away the dream-like quality I like about silent films, when I'm not reading the title cards myself). The print as screened was tinted and looked good (though a touch too green in some scenes?!). The mood of the story, and especially the style of the dialogue, is so reminiscent of "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (a book I am pretty familiar with) that while I was watching the film I kept thinking - this must have been written by the same writer as "A Little Princess", everything Mary's character says (via title cards) is so similar to the main character in that novel. Sure enough - when the film ended I looked it up, and The Dawn of a Tomorrow was, indeed, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary Pickford, is perhaps, my most favorite silent actress - it was really not possible for me to not enjoy this. A treat to see this rare film. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Good Time Charley (1927) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - A ham actor named Charley (Warner Oland) thinks of himself as the next "Booth" but his theatrical troupe know him as "Good Time Charley". Hartwell (Montagu Love), the manager of the troupe, spends his free time hitting on Charley's attractive actress wife. One day, while Charley is on-stage, Hartwell's pursuit of her causes her to fall off a scaffolding and be killed. Poor Charley widowed - all he has now is his acting and his little 3-year old daughter Rosita. Cut to fifteen years later, Rosita (Helene Costello) is a star attraction in the show - a dancing and tumbling beauty. Bad man Hartwell has a grown son, described as a chip "of" the old block, who loves her. Hartwell, now a famous Broadway producer, hires Rosita to star in his show and she's soon a hit on Broadway. He refuses to take Charley into the show too - until he's forced to hire him in order to keep his star Rosita from quitting. After Rosita elopes with the son - Charley, thought of as "an old fossil", is kicked out right before his Opening Night debut. Oh dear! - things just go from bad to worse for him when, while forced to perform in rundown theaters to earn a living, he gets an illness and becomes blind. Out-of-work, but with a pal helping him out and money being saved towards a $1,000 operation that will cure him, he is visited by Rosita who has been pressed to ask her dad for money by her bum husband. Charley keeps his blindness and jobless status a secret from his daughter (he even goes so far as to tell her he is a huge success on Broadway) - and actually gives her his savings of 800 bucks, willing to sacrifice for her sake. And things just go downhill from there - for both Rosita and Charley too, until he ends up in an old actors home where Rosita is performing/helping out and the truth is finally revealed.

Review - An excellent silent melodrama, directed by Michael Curtiz - screened at Cinecon 45 with a very nice-looking print. The film includes some interesting photography and editing - notable in my memory is a tracking shot showing the different faces in the audience in close-ups as they watch Charley perform on stage near the beginning of the film. Also, Rosita's rehearsals for her Broadway debut are shown in an interesting montage of overlapping photography. The stand out, and what really makes this film such a good one, is the performance of Warner Oland as Charley, memorable and moving - he's just terrific, his eyes so expressive. Now, I have to say, I kept wondering why his character keeps insisting on keeping the daughter in the dark about his many problems - can't see why he doesn't just tell her about it from the start. Oh well, I guess that would have sort of nipped the plot in the bud. A quality film, well worth seeing - perhaps my favorite film screened at Cinecon 45. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Paid to Love (1927) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - When the king of a small European nation needs a loan for his country, he seeks help from the Americans. A banker arrives from America to approve the loan and immediately bonds with the King over his shirt (King: "Why the hell don't you fix your shirt?" Loan Man: "How the hell can I?"). The banker feels that in order to approve the loan they need to make the royal family more popular - which could be accomplished if the Crown Prince were to get engaged. A problem: the oh so handsome Prince (George O'Brien) is supposedly shy and has a one-track mind - automobiles! Feeling that "two old fools are better than one", the King and the Banker head to Paris to try and find a female to seduce the prince and get his motor going for the ladies. The two end up in this Apache Dance Club in Montmarte, where ultra-bored nightclub Apache dancers put on an act for tour buses that stop and fill the club with Americans seeking a glimpse of the wild side of Paris - fights, knifing's, etc., are all faked for the benefit of the suckers. The two men find a prospect - Dolores (Virginia Valli), one tough chick sporting a bullet hairdo and small, sharp knife tucked in her garter. They offer her 50,000 francs if she succeeds in seducing the unsuspecting Crown Prince, then send her on her way to pull her wiles on him - but on arrival she oddly faints through the door of his house during a rainstorm, then wakes up to find herself in his bed with ALL her clothes removed and drying (hmm, is he really as shy as they say?!). She is unaware of his identity and because he's one of those European royals who likes to go about wearing a uniform, she believes him to be a soldier in the King's Guard. When she heads out to find her mark, Prince Eric (William Powell), playboy cousin of the Crown Prince, gets his cousin out of the way so that he can seduce Dolores - and she mistakenly believes that the man she begins to romance is the Crown Prince. She begins to discover what a creep Prince Eric is, while at the same time the actual Crown Prince IS interested and they start to fall in love - the rub, how can they allow a commoner like her to actually marry a royal?!

Review - Directed by Howard Hawks, I thought this sophisticated silent romantic-comedy was quite good. Entertaining, with a good touch of humor throughout - love a scene where Powell is peeling a banana while secretly watching Valli undress - yeah, priceless. Enjoyed the Apache Club scene too - amusing, fun stuff. George O'Brien is oh so fit and good looking - not completely my usual type, but wooo - he *is* cute. My one complaint would be that I would have liked to have seen him given a lot more to do in this film, his part is sort of bland and - not enough screen time! After watching this film I was thinking that it really deserves a DVD release, it certainly has many worthwhile qualities to it. NOTE: the Imdb and other sources list Virginia Valli's character name as Gaby, but I remember Dolores and that is what my notes say too. To try and confirm this I did find more than one online source that had the name as Dolores, so I'm going with that for this review. Rating - 9/10 stars

He Fell in Love with His Wife (1916) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - Silent melodrama about married women Alida (Florence Rockwell) who leads a dull life sitting at home reading magazines and playing the harp - until - one fateful day when who should arrive at the front door, but her husband's wife of ten years (a real battle axe, I must say) and little girl. Bigamy! After her husband shoots the first wife's brother who is trying to strong arm him back to her, Alida escapes into the cold, dark night and ends up in the "poor house". The proprietor of this place has a buddy, James Holcroft (Forrest Stanley), who is a widower trying to run his farm on his own and is having trouble with a string of bad housekeepers. One is a slovenly, lazy old woman who can't cook and is caught throwing a dinner party for her relatives while Holcroft is supposed to be out of town. Another is a middle-aged blab who sits there rambling on to him while her tween-age daughter Jane does all the work. Alida is given a break and asked to become Holcroft's new housekeeper - but she worries that the neighbors will gossip when they see an attractive, younger female attending to his needs. So - and remember, this is 1916, so perhaps this isn't as strange a concept as it seems - she agrees to marry him, in name only, to hold back the gossip (the neighbors end up causing some trouble anyway!). Meanwhile Alida proves herself a great cook and housekeeper - and hey, she's kind of pretty and he's lonely and not bad looking either - they seem like they could be a match! And so - he starts to fall in love with his wife, and she with him. But trouble comes in the form of Alida's first hubby, who returns widowed and tries to force Alida to come back to him - with threats to kill her new man if she doesn't.

Review - Directed by William Desmond Taylor - partly known for his still unsolved murder in 1922. This film is a nicely done, entertaining step back into 1916 - a time period I love to see captured on film - the clothes, the furnishings, the past and it's charms. It is extremely melodramatic (especially the hand to the head, painful reaction Alida has when she finds out her man is a bigamist!), typical of films made in the teen era. I had to say something about the odd, memorable young actress who plays Jane - the character comes back later in the film to work in the house with Alida and actually proves a help in making our couple "a couple". The actress is extremely thin and wiry with large, awkward hands, and almost dizzy - like she's going to fall over (don't know if this was real, or meant to be a comic touch to the film). Near the end she gives a knowing look right into the camera - interesting. I really enjoyed this one (some cute cats in this movie, by the way). Rating - 8.5 to 9/10 stars

Trial Marriage (1929) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - - Silent romp about Connie (Sally Eilers), a flirtatious young beauty who, though engaged to Oliver (Norman Kerry) - her 13th fiance - is the Scarlett O'Hara of the flapper era as she comes on to all the men at the party, and as they surround her for a dance gushes "I can't dance with all of you - so I'll dance *for* all of you", then proceeds to dance the Black Bottom in wild fashion. Her cousin Grace (Thelma Todd) has meanwhile arrived with a catch draped on her arms - one handsome doctor known as "Thor" (okay, his look is a bit heavy on the lipstick, but hey, it's the silent era). The four go on a country picnic and Connie steals Thor - they then agree to a "trial marriage": if either of them is unhappy in six months, they will divorce and be friends (and Grace then turns to boring Oliver for her romance). Into the marriage and Connie is bored 'cause her man's a success as a doctor and keeps getting called on emergencies leaving her home alone (hmm, perhaps she needs a hobby). While the doctor's out, Connie heads next door to a big charity party where she's recruited to boost up profits by dancing in a tent marked "Men Only" - she becomes the star attraction in front of the drooling male audience until - mad Thor arrives and finds out what she's up to. He gets a divorce - but doesn't know that she's pregnant! Well, the four oddly switch partners - Thor marries Grace, Connie marries Oliver - and Thor is kept in the dark about his young son, who he later meets and wishes were his own - yet believes the boy is the son of rival Oliver. Nothing seems to work out for this bunch romantically and eventually the inevitable happens - guess.

Review - An entertaining, fun late silent romantic comedy. Good-looking tinted print, lots of cute outfits to look at on the females. Thelma Todd looks great in this film, she really sparkles - both the ladies do, actually. Jason Robards Sr., who plays Thor, is a stud (yes, I like men who look like that - slim and pale). SPOILERS AHEAD - - Something that made me wonder - in the end, when Thor is introduced to the child as his dad, wouldn't this have been rather traumatic for a young boy who has for several years (his whole young life) believed a different man to be his father?! Yet the whole thing is played as a happy ending - a happy family reunited at last. Cute film. Rating - 8/10 stars

Sherlock Holmes (1922) Film Review - Barrymore

Plot Summary - Silent drama starring John Barrymore (print from the collection of the George Eastman House). In England, on a country lane, we meet the future detective Sherlock Holmes (Barrymore) who is writing his observations in a little book (which includes his list called "my limitations": chemistry - profound; politics - rotten; boxing - splendid, etc. - hehe). Holmes encounters an attractive young lady, Alice (Carol Dempster), and becomes lovestruck - she is to figure into his story years later. As for now, Holmes is brought in by his pal Dr. Watson (who says Holmes is "a marvel at digging out things") to help at Cambridge, where young Prince Alexis has been accused by Scotland Yard of stealing "the Athletic Funds" - though the Prince proclaims his innocence. Holmes arrives and easily finds the real criminal, who ends up being a pawn of one powerful-minded, but evil and cold-blooded old cretin named Moriarty who lurks in the mysterious London quarter of Limehouse. Tragedy suddenly forces the Prince to return to his country as Crown Prince and give up his fiance, who, by an odd coincidence, is the sister of Holmes' memorable "Alice". Well - after meeting up with Moriarty, Holmes decides to make it his life's work to rid the world of that menace. Years pass and Holmes now resides at 221 Baker Street where he helps solve mysteries. His newest case involves his nemesis Moriarty, who is after some letters he wants to use to blackmail Prince Alexis. And who should have the letters but one Alice (Holmes still can't forget her) - he's on the case and still smitten!!

Review - Well, this is an okay film - I found John Barrymore to do a decent job as Sherlock Holmes, and liked the London setting which included snippets of real city footage from the era. I did find the film a bit too "talkie" and kind of muddled at times (particularly the end part), perhaps too many characters, too many inter-titles? The film features a lot of familiar faces from the silent/pre-code film era including Roland Young as Watson, Hedda Hopper, Louis Wolheim, and William Powell. The DVD I saw was from Kino and features a reasonable looking black and white print - pretty good contrast, some washing out in places (barely), a little bit of speckling in places. The score is nicely done organ music by composer Ben Model. Okay - the poor description of this film, totally inaccurate, on the Netflix envelope just makes me laugh - ridiculous! Where do they get these - inaccurate SO often. Rating - 6.5 to 7/10 stars

The Black Cyclone (1925) Film Review - Rex the Wonder Horse

Plot Summary - Another silent adventure-western/animal movie starring the beautiful black stallion, Rex the Wonder Horse. POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE AND THERE - - In the wild lands where wild horses run lives a frisky little colt named Rex. Poor young Rex loses his mother early on, and must learn to grow up on his own, alone and lonely. Rex is soon grown and so begins a love story for him when he meets the white horse "Lady". Inseparable, the two of them, until trouble comes in the form of horse hunters looking to capture the best of the wild horses - and kill the worst (what jerks!). The two horses get caught in a stampede of wild horses trying to escape these men, and manage to make their own escape via a narrow ledge and into the hills, but they end up right in the secret retreat of an infamous crazy-eyed stallion known as "The Killer"! The Killer fights Rex and captures Lady for himself - - and meanwhile, in a nearby town called Pangle, cowboy Big Jim Lawson (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is busy sparking with Jane Logan, a woman who has rejected the evil Joe Pangle: cattle thief, bully, and killer who now wants to get even with her: by killing Big Jim! A gunfight between the two men outside her ranch leaves Big Jim to run into hiding in the hills or face the wrath of Pangle's gang. Around this same time, our poor Rex has become trapped in quicksand - but luckily Jim is soon nearby to save his life. Now Rex attempts to seek Jim's help in rescuing Lady, but Jim seems to be kind of empty headed as to what this horse is after. Soon Rex helps out both Lady and Jim when wild animals lurk to kill (dangerous area that!).

Review - A cute, entertaining horse film. Rex the Wonder Horse is quite the horse!! The outdoor locations and scenery are nicely photographed and used to best show off the horses and the action - looks like they sort of cut in some of the same filmed scenes of the horses (and other stuff) several times (I kept thinking - that looks like the same shot they showed before!). The DVD of this film, from Televista, I will describe as pretty much like the other Rex movie I reviewed last week (decent enough looking print - I've seen far worse! - with some deterioration here and there; old-fashioned, sometimes catchy music score) - - (as to the name of this film - in a couple of scenes a man calls our black horse "black cyclone"). Rating - 7/10 stars

The King of the Wild Horses (1924) Silent Film Review

Plot Summary - Hal Roach Presents - - Silent action western starring Rex the Wonder Horse as "The Black", king of the wild horses - he must fight to stay leader, and must also contend with that dreadful menace: man - his constant pursuer. In the far west, just north of the Mexican border, there's a Rancho where lives an older ill man and his two grown kids, Boyd (Charley Chase, billed as Charles Parrott) and Mary (Edna Murphy). Mary is being pursued by one Billy Blair (Leon Bary), cowboy, who seems to have something else he likes to pursue way more than Mary - he's determined to capture "The Black". Chase between man and horse, as Billy goes in relentless pursuit - trusty rope in hand - after the Black, through high-up rocky crevices and rugged crags - but our wild horse is just too smart (and nimble!). But then - a wild fire has horsie surrounded and Billy Blair helps save him - pals!! Meanwhile, back at the Rancho, the ranch foreman is a bad man who has been forcing son Boyd, who has become heavily in his debt, to steal from his own father to pay him back. Fast "Black" and Billy help save the day when bad man and Boyd head out one evening for one last "job".

Review - A pleasant little horse opera, titles by Roach Studios H.M. "Beanie" Walker. Rocky western landscape and pretty wild horses, beauties one and all, are nicely photographed - our Rex the Wonder Horse is a superstar! Some night scenes oddly look like bright daylight (!) - - a river rescue finale is well done. The DVD from Televista features a decent enough looking print (I've seen far worse!) with some deterioration here and there (and rolling in a few spots), but for the most part looked fairly good - - the music score is sort of sweet and old-fashioned, even catchy in places. Cute little silent, perhaps best if you like animal films. Rex the Wonder Horse was a 16 hands Morgan Stallion, according to the Wikipedia article on him - he's a beautiful animal. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

The White Sister (1923) Film Review - Lillian Gish

Plot Summary - Silent soap opera/tearjerker starring the great Lillian Gish. In Italy, in a great palace which dominates the city (along with Mt. Vesuvius) lives saintly Donna Angela (Gish) and her evil half-sister The Marchesa. While spending time in the fairy-like palace gardens, Angela dances to gypsy music and meets up with her love, the dashing Captain Giovanni Severini (Ronald Colman), over the garden walls. Soon Giovanni proclaims he is going to ask Angela's father for her hand in marriage - but unknown to Angela, her father has made arrangements to marry off Angela to the son of a Count, thus uniting two of Italy's oldest (and richest, I guess) families. POSSIBLE SPOILERS - -Plans are seriously altered though, when the father is seriously injured while "riding to hounds", and dies. The evil sister secretly burns the will (yeah, she's a bad one), so she is declared sole heir to the entire estate based on lack of a will. She then proceeds to kick her little sister out of the palace, proclaiming her own love for Giovanni and her personal hatred for Angela. Angela moves into a small house with her governess, and soon receives news that Giovanni is being sent by the War Department on an expedition to Africa. Sad news comes that the group he was leading were all massacred in the desert by Arabs. Poor, poor Angela is taken to the hospital of the White Sisters, in complete shock at her lost love who she was to marry on the day of his return. In his memory, she decides to help the world and become a nun aka "white sister". More soap to come! And what about that side plot - the older brother/professor of Giovanni is up at his observatory studying the volcano?!

Review - Okay, this was a good one - more melodrama and tears packed into one movie than you might ever desire - Lillian Gish is absolutely fantastic in this film. A long, involving silent film that I found very entertaining and nicely photographed. The scene where Lillian as Angela takes her final vows to become a nun is beautifully done. This film, as screened on TCM, featured a quite nice orchestral score done by Garth Neustadter. The film was tinted in some scenes, and looked reasonably good except for some scenes with a bit of decomposition. For Gish fans (like me!) this is a can't miss. Rating - 10/10 stars

Peter Pan (1924) Film Review - Betty Bronson

Plot Summary - "A Fairy Play". Silent fantasy based on the play by J.M. Barrie. The story begins in the Darling nursery, where nurse Nana gets the three Darling children - Wendy (Mary Brian), John, and Michael - ready for bed. Nana happens to be a big dog (the family can't keep a regular servant 'cause the father is such a "fidget"). The children tucked into bed, when who should arrive at their bedroom window, which happens to be two flights up, but a moving ball of light and a boy who is looking for his shadow - Peter Pan (Betty Bronson) and his fairy friend Tinker Bell aka "Tink". Peter Pan is a little boy (played by a young woman) who doesn't want to be a man - he wants to stay a little boy and have fun forever, and so he does! Wendy and Peter become friends and he agrees to teach the three children to fly if she will go with him to the Never Never Land to be mother and tell stories to Peter and the Lost Boys. And fly they do (with the help of a little fairy dust), off to the Land full of mermaids and Redskins and pirates, arriving in the Make-Believe Forest where jealous Tink prompts the boys to shoot Wendy with an arrow. Wendy lives though, the boys build her a house, and the whole bunch engage in some fantasy play as Wendy pretends she's their mother. Meanwhile, evil and ugly Captain Hook (Ernest Torrence) holds a grudge on Peter Pan who apparently cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a crocodile. The pirates soon attack Peter, Wendy, and the lost boys, while back home the children's mom grieves and longs for the return of her own lost kids.

Review - This is an engaging fantasy, full of charm. The special effects done in this are done well enough for the time this film was made - especially the scenes featuring tiny Tinker Bell. Okay, so Nana is played by a man in a very fake looking dog suit (not to mention the other creatures in this, like the crocodile) - but I think that's all part of the fun, really. Betty Bronson is perhaps the most delightful Peter Pan ever - she's perky, she's cute, she dances and flies with oh so much charm. All the children do a great job in this film, and Anna May Wong appears much too briefly as the Indian girl, Tiger Lily. (Our Gang alert: Winston and Weston Doty, twins in very early Our Gang shorts, appear in this film.) The version I have of this is a Kino video tape, it includes a nice looking, mainly sepia tinted print and a really terrific orchestral score, composed by Philip Carli, which is a fine match to the feel of this story. Okay, I like this quote from the film - "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys" - right on, Peter Pan! Do you believe in fairies - I think I do?! Tehehe Rating - 10/10 stars

Just Pals (1920) Film Review - John Ford directed

Plot Summary - Silent romance/adventure tale set in a small town on the border between Wyoming and Nebraska. Handsome but poorly dressed Bim (Buck Jones) is called by some the "town bum" - he's rather lazy, won't work, and is described as the "idol of the youths, bane of the elders" in this village. Bim loves from afar the pretty village school teacher, Mary (Helen Fergusun) - but he has a rival in the form of smartly dressed town cashier, Harvey. When Bim defends a poor runaway "hobo" boy who has been thrown off the train, Mary takes her first notice of Bim. Bim befriends the boy, Bill, and soon Bim has a new sidekick - Bim and Bill are pals! The town bitties make sure little Bill is sent to school and Bim wants to get a job so he can meet his new obligations towards raising the boy - he's told if he can get a uniform he can be a porter. Troubles for Bim, Bill, and Mary too are soon to come. Mary's main man Harvey pushes her into loaning him the school's "memorial fund" (creep), the boy is hurt after a fall from a moving train trying to get Bim that uniform (and ends up under the care of a shady doctor and his wife who seek a reward for the boy, and much to the kid's distress, dress him up in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit!), and Bim gets mixed up with some desperadoes who want to rob the town safe.

Review - Directed by John Ford (Jack Ford in the credits of this), the DVD I saw of this is part of the Ford at Fox Collection and featured a nice looking black and white print and well done orchestral score composed by Jonathan and Alexander Kaplan that I thought fit the flavor of this film very well. I enjoyed the interaction of the characters in the film, especially the "two peas in a pod" relationship between Bim and the boy I thought was very well done (the young actor who plays Bill does a nice, engaging job here) - but I did think the story kind of broke down in the big action sequences in the later part of the film, which were a bit rambling and moving too fast. Nicely photographed with lots of outdoor scenes and tree shaded small town sidewalks. Why is the town bum named, of all things, "Bim" I was thinking (hehe). Entertaining enough for it's under an hour length. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

The Last Laugh (1924) Film Review - Der Letzte Mann

Plot Summary - German silent film, directed by F.W. Murnau. Starring Emil Jannings as a declining doorman at a fancy, bustling hotel - - in his brass buttoned uniform and cap, his lavish mustache well attended, he struts as proud as a peacock home from work each day. But seen as aging and frail after being observed exhausted after carrying a heavy trunk, he is reassigned - as lowly attendant in the men's washroom! Alone in the quiet, lower level washroom while all above is well-heeled clientele in lively hotel atmosphere, our man takes this demotion very, very hard. He even steals his old uniform and goes home wearing it, not wanting his family - in the midst of his daughter's wedding - to know the truth. When the wife brings food for him as a surprise the next day, she screams in horror (an interesting shot!) and soon his whole neighborhood of gossips has found out the truth. Devastating. POSSIBLE SPOILER: A happy ending gives a much needed anecdote to all this depression, I must say.

Review - The photographic style of this film is very interesting to look at - it is filmed without any intertitles, with the exception of a couple of letters and writing on a cake, so the story is almost completely told visually. There are interesting shots of the rainy streets seen through the large hotel revolving door, and a few imagination/dream sequences. The film is somewhat depressing, I must say, as our lead man is mainly seen looking deeply saddened and sort of on his last legs. The version I saw was on Kino DVD, the German restored version with a very nice sounding orchestral score and fab looking black and white print. Rating - 10/10 stars

Traffic in Souls (1913) Film Review

Plot Summary - "Den of Iniquity". Early silent melodrama about two sisters who each get mixed up with a gang of infamous white slave traffickers. Mary's the head of the family while her wheelchair-bound father, "the invalid inventor", is busy tinkering with stuff. Reliable Mary (Jane Gail) works at a local candy store along with her little sister (Ethel Grandin), a young beauty. Successful businessman William Trubus has been recently appointed to head a citizen's league to help clear the city of the infamous "traffic in souls", and meanwhile he's busy listening in on a dictagraph to an adjoining office during a meeting of these infamous outlaws, a rather large group that includes look-outs, go-betweens, even women. Hmmm, well it seems Trubus is actually in league with them, "the money handler" - wonder how this will affect his daughter's approaching engagement to the "greatest society catch of the season"?! So this group of bad guys are busy doing their stuff - you know, luring poor, naive young women into their hideout and forcing them into prostitution including Swedish emigrants right off the boat, a newly arrived and lost "country girl", they even drug and kidnap Mary's little sister. Mary and her fiance, a good-looking cop, come up with a plan to save little sis and get the evidence to convict these people - and the father's latest invention comes in handy to help them get the goods. Luckily Mary is a recent hire in Trubus' office, so that makes things a bit easier!

Review - I enjoyed this film as I always do for films made in the early teens - I just love that time period (all sorts of ladies hats and men's straw hats to look at in this one). This film has a lot of glimpses of the real-life world of 1913 as it has many on-location scenes shot in NYC streets and trolley cars, with lots of nearby bystanders gawking at the camera. Like many films from this time, it is full of lots and lots and lots of highly melodramatic scenes. I thought this film was actually quite well done considering it's early year; nice tracking shot near the end panning across each criminal's face behind bars. The DVD from Flicker Alley features a nice quality black and white print and well done piano score by Philip Carli. It includes the Edison short "The Call of the City (1915)" in which a young woman struggling to find work and a young novelist who is writing a story on slum life meet over a crime and make some snap decisions in regards to marrying a person you actually *barely* know. Cute. Rating - 8/10 stars for film; 8/10 for short

A Throw of Dice (1929) Film Review

Plot Summary - "A Romance of India", epic silent film from India about a love triangle between two kings and a beautiful young woman. King Sohat and cousin King Ranjit are on a tiger hunt - but they enjoy gambling more than hunting, so stop to play a game of dice. Evil King Sohat has meanwhile plotted to have the other king murdered so that, quote, "his kingdom will be mine". So while back on the hunt, King Ranjit is hit with a poisoned arrow, but is then taken to be saved by a nearby healer (who, coincidentally, was once Ranjit's teacher, but sought solitude in the jungle because of the king's addiction to gambling). The healer has a very beautiful daughter named Sunita, and King Sohat longs to have her. The healing ends up a success and Ranjit is soon back on his feet (much to the other king's distress) and in love with Sunita himself (what did you expect?!). A romance develops between Ranjit and the girl, but her father refuses to allow his daughter to marry him as he knows he is a "gambler". The two lovers run off together anyway, but meanwhile King Sohat continues his wicked ways by setting Ranjit up for a murder and later getting Ranjit to join him in the ultimate dice game, in which Sohat attempts to use a pair of trick dice to win all.

Review - A melodramatic and gorgeously atmospheric silent film, full of exotic locales and the lavish costumes of India, plus palaces, snake charmers, fire eaters, rides on the backs of elephants and camels, and alluring Indian dancing girls. The story is entertaining and moves fast. The Kino DVD of this features a terrific looking black and white print, so clear parts seemed like they were filmed yesterday. The orchestral score, composed by Nitin Sawhney, is rather magnificent for the most part, I must say. I thought the majority of the music enhanced the film quite well, and is nice enough to listen to that I think I could enjoy it even when not watching the film! A touch of Bollywood, silent film style. Rating - 8/10 stars

Kid Boots (1926) Film Review - Clara Bow, Eddie Cantor

Plot Summary - Silent film comedy starring Eddie Cantor as Samuel "Kid" Boots, tailor who tries to sell a suit to a big, bad-tempered lug named "Big Boyle" looking to buy a "one-button golf suit". Boyle ends up with a hanger in his back and ill-fitting plus-fours, causing him to give chase to Kid Boots, who hides in the car trunk of handsome Tom Sterling (Lawrence Gray), about to inherit a three million dollar fortune. Saved from Boyle, Boots and Tom are now "pals", especially after Boots becomes Tom's witness in his upcoming divorce case, after the soon-to-be ex-wife/gold digger and her sleaze-bag lawyer try to make it look like Tom was alone with her in his rooms. Tom and Boots vanish to a mountain resort to wait the two days until the trial, Tom is new golf instructor there and quickly falls for the attractive daughter (Billie Dove) of the hotel owner. Boots has a romance of his own - with Big Boyle's "girl", cute and flirtatious Clara (Clara Bow) - often seen sporting her 20s swim outfit - who likes Boots 'cause she thinks he's "reliable". Wife and lawyer show up, the wife is instructed to "vamp" Kid Boots the witness, causing Clara to get jealous. More misunderstandings when Boots takes Tom's place in his room for the night, after the wife takes the suite next door. The ending is a real cliffhanger - literally.

Review - This is a cute film, a light romantic comedy - only about 60 minutes long. It includes some amusing comic sight gags - especially one in which Cantor uses one of his arms to make it appear like he is having tea with another woman (to make Clara jealous, after she teases him) - some of the comedy is told via the title cards. Eddie Cantor reminded me a bit of Buster Keaton in this, but with his own style too. Even though sort of goofy looking, Cantor has chemistry with Clara Bow and they seem to make a good couple - well, Clara Bow seems to have chemistry with everyone! Favorite Clara Bow is very appealing in this, as usual. The DVD I saw of this is from the Eddie Cantor Appreciation Society and features a decent looking print and nice, snappy, retro style piano score done by Arthur Seigel. Rating - 7/10 stars

The Blackbird (1926) Film Review - Lon Chaney

Plot Summary - Silent film melodrama/love triangle, directed by Tod Browning. In foggy London's Limehouse district, full of painted ladies and seedy characters, we meet thief Dan Tate (Lon Chaney), aka "The Blackbird", as he sneaks into his hideout at the local mission ("Come Ye and Rest"), up through a trapdoor and in through the back of a closet. Dan secretly leads a double life as he plays an elaborate ruse posing as "The Bishop", his kindly (obviously twin - though never stated) brother who runs the mission - a deformed cripple who goes about on crutches and is beloved by all of Limehouse. Dan goes to see the show at a local Limehouse music hall one evening, where a monocled, well-dressed swell known as "West End Bertie" (Owen Moore) arrives "going slumming" with friends from the fashionable set. Dan and Bertie soon both have a lustful eye on the charming, pretty French girl, Fifi (Renee Adoree), who performs a rather delightful puppet act using her own face as part of her French maid female puppet. Dan actually meets Fifi by sending her a gift backstage - um, a pistol. When Fifi admires a woman's "diamond collar", he secretly has in mind to steal it for her - but turns out his rival Bertie is a notorious crook who gets his men to rob his own circle of friends of their jewelry, including the diamond collar. The two men agree to split the take half and half, as Dan points out that since the crime was committed in Limehouse, he and his men will be suspected by the "coppers". But soon Bertie takes Fifi out and gives her some bejeweled rings, thus winning her over for himself. Jealous Dan schemes to break the two of them apart, and he gets in more trouble with the law - but gets some help from his ex-wife who still carries the torch for him.

Review - This is a nicely done, albeit rather strange silent film, showcasing Lon Chaney's talent for distorting his body when playing a man with a deformity - not to mention his range at playing different character types, both a good man and a bad man. I always love the charmer Renee Adoree - now for some reason her character, though portrayed as sweet and innocent, doesn't seem all that put out when she finds out her man's a crook, but then he is kind of cute. Now I don't know if I'd put so much trust in him when he claims he's giving up his old ways for love - what happens when the seven-year itch comes in their relationship and he gets itchy fingers for some new jewelry to steal? Lon Chaney is one of my favorite silent era actors, and though I wouldn't say this is one of my most favorite of his films, it's still pretty good. The film, as shown on TCM, featured a nice orchestral score done by Robert Israel. One thing I wonder about - how come no one in town wonders why they never see The Blackbird and The Bishop at the same time, especially considering they both supposedly have a room at the mission?! Rating - 8/10 stars

The Italian (1915) Film Review

Plot Summary - Silent film about an Italian immigrant couple and their struggle in America. The film begins in Old Italy, where singing gondolier Beppo romances his pretty sweetheart Annette in a rather idyllic, happy peasant village. Annette's father gives Beppo one year to have the funds to make a home for his daughter or she will have to marry an aged and rich local merchant who has asked the dad for her hand in marriage. So - Beppo sails for America, and Annette waits for the day he can send for her, which hopefully will be before she's forced to marry the rich old man she doesn't love, he's a ringer for an Italian "Colonel Sanders". In the slums of New York's Lower East Side, Beppo sets up a bootblack stand and has a bit of luck when a man gives him some cash hoping Beppo will coax his Italian friends to vote for his "candidate". Annette is sent the money and sails to America to join him. From marriage to the birth of a son to a terrible heat wave which threatens their baby's life to bad men who beat and rob Beppo and other hardships - life just keeps getting tougher and tougher for these two!

Review - Melodramatic and tragic, this film is an interesting watch that really benefits from all the well done outdoor photography done in this. Lovely scenes of sunny Italy and the village where they live, full of vineyards and a pretty old monastery and our couple, silhouetted against the sky at sunset - and scenes done in the New York City slums with streets full of immigrants, laundry lines, and a horse-drawn ice wagon. The camerawork is quite advanced for it's time, the cinematography really well done with close-ups, zooms, and wonderful lighting. The DVD of this is from Flicker Alley and features a really terrific looking print with mainly a light sepia tinting, the images in a few of the scenes looked so good it looked like the film could have been shot yesterday - only a few short segments seemed to be taken from a 16mm print. The orchestral score that accompanies the film, done by the Mont Alto Orchestra, is excellent and a good match for the film's story. The DVD included two Edison shorts that both featured some interesting on-location scenes - "Police Force, New York City (1910)" and "McQuade of the Traffic Squad (1915)" (this short looked liked it was photographed yesterday too, the print was so clear). Rating - 9/10 stars

The Soul of the Beast (1923) Film Review

Plot Summary - Oddball silent film about a girl and her elephant. At the Hamm's Mammoth Circus, orphaned beauty Ruth (Madge Bellamy) performs riding atop her best pal's head, Oscar the Elephant. She flirts with him (yeah, you heard right) - he's stuck on her. One day the circus owner, "mean and stingy" Hamm (who happens to be Ruth's step-father and only married her mom to get ahold of the circus), forces Ruth to perform inside a cage as the "Wild Girl" after the original performer quits. A huge storm starts to bring down the tents and Oscar must come to her rescue as she's left trapped inside the cage. Ruth and Oscar run away together to live in the nearby Canadian woods, but she gets separated from her elephant ending up at this village tavern full of lumberjacks where she ends up working. She doesn't seem too worried about where her lost elephant is (luckily bright Oscar, left tramping about the woods, is in search for her) as she flirts with lovestruck, ga-ga new boyfriend Paul (Cullen Landis) - he's supposed to be lame, but I didn't really see that. Paul has a creepy cretin (Noah Beery) after him for some money he feels Paul owes him - that guy gets up to some really awful stuff to get at poor Paul. Meanwhile, the circus owner wants his runaway "meal ticket" back as he's on the chase to locate Ruth.

Review - This is an unusual, somewhat weird, and melodramatic adventure story, with a small touch of comedy and not one, but two different evil villains. There are some behind-the-scenes glimpses of the circus near the beginning of the film which seem to feature every cliche in the book as far as the performers are concerned - we see the fat lady, bearded lady, thin man, a man fighting a bear, and the three ring "Big Top" where the main show performs. A little annoying is the French-Canadian characters who are made to speak in rather silly broken-English via the title cards. The elephant is quite the actor and steals more than a few scenes in this - particularly amusing is a scene where he steals (and drinks) this man's beers through the tavern window. The DVD of this I watched is from Grapevine Video and features an okay print - it's a bit fuzzy and the faces are somewhat washed out is the main problem with the image, but I've seen far worse. The DVD includes an orchestral score that is not the perfect match for this story and kind of annoying, though was okay through a couple of the scenes. Rating - 7 to 8/10 stars