Monday, October 31, 2011

Bathing at Atlantic City - 1901


Country: USA
Release Date: August 1901 (USA)
Filming Locations: Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1
Genres: Documentary | Short
A panoramic view taken from Young's Pier, showing the boardwalk, the auditorium pier, new steel pier, beach and bathing. Without an exception the only film on the market showing at least 50,000 people. This great mass of humanity proves the undying popularity of this world-famous seaside resort. A photographic gem.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Race For Ties - 1929



Country: Canada
Intertitle language: English
Running time: 56 min 13 sec
Description: Drama of competition between a small-time lumberman and a large lumbering company.
"A Race for Ties (at 1,600 feet of 16mm film) is authoritatively stated to be the first feature-length movie made in Canada entirely by amateurs."

Get 'Em young -1926


Country: USA
Language: English
Directors: Fred Guiol, Stan Laurel
Writers: Stan Laurel; James Parrott; H.M. Walker (titles); Hal Yates
Stars: Stan Laurel, Harry Myers and Eugenia Gilbert
Release Date: 31 October 1926 (USA)
Production Co: Hal Roach Studios
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Short | Comedy
This is the movie that got Stan Laurel out from behind the camera permanently at Roach. He was supposed to direct this movie and Oliver Hardy was supposed to play the role of the butler, but fell ill -- and so Laurel took the role himself.
This was one of the 'All Star' pictures that Roach was making at this time, taking a slightly out-of-luck movie star and surrounding him or her with several of Roach's comics. Theda Bara starred in a couple, Lionel Barrymore did at least one and this time the marquee value is provided by Harry Myers, who had starred in a popular version of A CONNECTICUTT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT a couple of years earlier, but is now best remembered for playing the millionaire in Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS.
Stan steals the show, although his technique is still a little crude here, taking some nice falls and doing an interesting drag bit. Worth the time of any L&H fan.
In Montreal, 9 January 1927, at the Laurier Palace theatre, 78 people died during a showing of this film. A fire broke out in the projection room, and was quickly under control, but the audience, consisting mostly of children, panicked and stampeded towards the exits; those in the gallery became trapped in the stairwell, and the 78 died of being crushed. 77 of the dead were 16 years old or younger.
Oliver Hardy was originally cast as Summers, the butler, in this short film, but had to be replaced before filming by Stan Laurel. Hardy had been injured in a cooking accident (which also forced his removal from the cast of the Mabel Normand movie Raggedy Rose, already in production at the time of the accident) and was still recovering when filming for 'Get 'em Young' began.

Il Ladro Invisibile - 1909


Country: Italy
Language: Italian

Un chien andalou - 1929



Country: France
Language: French (intertitles)
Release Date: 6 June 1929 (France)
Director: Luis Buñuel
Writers: Salvador Dalí (scenario), Luis Buñuel (scenario)
Stars: Pierre Batcheff and Simone Mareuil
Also known as: Un perro andaluz Argentina / Chile / Spain
Den andalusiske hund Denmark / Norway (imdb display title)
Un Chien Andalou UK / USA
Андалузский пёс Russia
Andalúziai kutya Hungary (imdb display title)
Andalousianos skylos Greece (imdb display title)
Andalusialainen koira Finland
Andaluský pes Czech Republic
Den andalusiska Hunden Sweden
Een Andalusische hond Netherlands (informal literal title)
Ein andalusischer Hund Germany
Pies andaluzyjski Poland
Um Cão Andaluz Portugal
Un cane andaluso Italy
Filming Locations:
Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France; Paris, France; Studios de Billancourt - 50 Quai du Point du Jour, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France (studio); Ursuline Studios, Paris, France
Runtime: 16 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Donkey | Ant | Moon | Piano | Severed Hand |
Genres: Short | Fantasy
In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open--juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye--to grab the audience's attention. The French phrase "ants in the palms," (which means that someone is "itching" to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he's itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes.
A cow's eye was used in the scene where the woman's eye is slit. The priest being dragged with the piano is Salvador Dalí. In 1960, a soundtrack was added to this film at the direction of Luis Buñuel. He used the same music which was played (using phonograph records) at the 1929 screenings - extracts from "Liebestod" from Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and two Argentinian tangos. At the Paris premiere, Luis Buñuel hid behind the screen with stones in his pockets for fear of being attacked by the confused audience. Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies". The movie contains several references to Federico García Lorca (who was in love with Salvador Dalí) and other writers of that time. The rotting donkeys are a reference to the novel "Platero y yo" by Juan Ramón Jiménez, which Luis Buñuel and Dalí hated. Luis Buñuel told Salvador Dalí about a dream in which a cloud sliced the moon in half "like a razor blade slicing through an eye". Dalí responded that he'd dreamed about a hand crawling with ants. Out of these two dreams this film was born. During the bicycle scene, the woman who is sitting on a chair, reading, throws the book aside. The image it shows when it lays open is a reproduction of a painting by Vermeer. Vermeer was a Dutch painter greatly admired by Salvador Dalí, and whom Dalí referenced often in his own paintings. After editing the film, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí didn't know what to do with it. An acquaintance introduced Buñuel to Man Ray, who had just finished Les mystères du château de Dé and was looking for a second film to complete the program. The two movies premiered together at the Studio des Ursulines.
Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider. With a running length of 16 minutes, this is the shortest film listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the book series edited by Steven Jay Schneider.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Motion Picture Magazine - May 1914


Click here to read the magazine on line

Motion Picture Magazine - July 1914


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - November 1914


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - December 1914


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - April 1916


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - September 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - October 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - November 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - May 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - March 1916


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - June 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - July 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - January 1916


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - February 1916


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - December 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - August 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - April 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - January 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Friday, October 28, 2011

Photoplay Magazine - March 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Photoplay Magazine - February 1915


Click here to read the magazine on line

Battle in the Clouds -1909


Country: United Kingdom
Director: Walter R. Booth
Writer: Walter R. Booth (screenplay)
Release Date: 29 December 1909 (USA)
Genres: Short | Fantasy | Sci-Fi
Also Known as: Der Luftkrieg der Zukunft Germany; The Aerial Torpedo UK (reissue title); The Battle in the Clouds USA; The Battle of the Clouds UK (alternative title)
Production Co: Urban Trading Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
An inventor uses a wireless controlled flying torpedo to destroy enemy airships. This is a cracking little film from the pioneering days of cinema (just over a decade after the Lumiéres). It's not exactly science fiction, more a vision of what-might-be given the technology of the day. So we have fleets of airships bombing civilian targets, and an armoured car/tank firing ground-to-air missiles in an effort to destroy them.
Our hero has developed what we would now call a drone: a pilot-less aircraft capable of locking on to a target. He has proposed to the love of his life but her father turns him away. The girl's home is destroyed in the air-raid. Our hero rescues her and her father from the wreckage then returns to destroy the raiders with his new technology. He gets the girl, of course, but I'm not sure whether father was dead and out of the way or just willing to have a brilliant inventor for a son-in-law.
Of course the special effects are primitive but the shot of a burning church is still a distant ancestor of the destruction of the Empire State Building by Roland Emmerich. You can see the film at www.freemoviescinema.com. Have a look. It's worth a few minutes of your time.
Continuity: The burning fuse of one of the explosions near the armored car can be seen on the ground, before we see the streak that is supposed to be the aerial bomb hitting the ground.

An Interrupted Elopement - 1912


Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 15 August 1912 (USA)
Filming Locations: New York, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company
Director: Mack Sennett
Writer: S. Walter Bunting
Stars: Edward Dillon, Mabel Normand and William J. Butler
Genres: Short | Comedy
Runtime: 8 min (16 fps)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

Course à la saucisse - 1907


Country: France
Director: Alice Guy
Genres: Short
Also known as: The Race for the Sausage
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
The film consists of some sort of poodle or poodle-mix stealing a long, long coil of sausages from the butcher shop (though it looks more like a rope). Suddenly, everyone in town is chasing the dog--almost like the people in "The Gingerbread Man" story from our youth. This makes the film unusual for an early Gaumont film, as the scenes change a lot during the course of the film. Not surprisingly for the era, the camera is totally stationary and inter-cutting is used extensively--not a roving camera lens.
It's all very slapstick and frantic. All in all, it's a bit overacted but quite fun--sort of like a French version of a Keystone comedy.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Trip To Mars - 1910


Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Ashley Miller
Release Date: 18 February 1910 (USA)
Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company
By mixing two powders, a scientist invents a product which has the power to free from the law of gravity. First, the container in which the powder was thrown takes of. He then renews the experience with a chair: same result. Finally the scientist tries his invention on himself. He then escapes gravity and goes sailing up into the clouds...

Les Résultats du Féminisme -1906


Country: France
Release Date: 1906 (France)
Director: Alice Guy
Also known as: The Consequences of Feminism
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Plot Keywords:
Futurism | Cross Dressing | Effeminacy | Flirting | Hatbox | Gender Roles | Seduction | Mason
This film is a tongue-in-cheek look at what COULD happen if women begin assuming male roles. Throughout the film, the men are very effeminate--wearing flowers in their hair, behaving as if they were gay and doing the housework. It's an interesting juxtaposition. What's also interesting is how the ladies respond. In a scene in a bar, the ladies make sexist advances at men who enter and they sit around drinking, smoking and carousing!

La Possession de l'enfant - 1909


Country: France
Release Date: 26 July 1909 (France)
Also known as: Custody of the Child
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Director: Louis Feuillade
Stars: Renée Carl, Christiane Mandelys and Maurice Vinot
This Louis Feuillade film begins with a man gaining custody of his son. Why the mother loses custody is unknown, but the father is shown as rather cold and unforgiving. The child, though raised in luxury, is miserable and lonely. Later, the father takes the child to his mother's house and seems to forget the kid there! Soon, the mother takes the child home to raise herself. The father has a change of mind and looks for the kid. When he and the police find him with the mother, all is forgiven and the family becomes one once again.
Overall, the story is very, very simplistic and not especially believable. However, for 1909, this is exactly the sort of morality play that was typical and this film is a decent one from this period despite its shortcomings.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

High School Field Exercises, Missouri Commision - 1904


Country: USA
Release Date: May 1904 (USA)
Filming Locations: St. Joseph, Missouri, USA
Production Co: American Mutoscope & Biograph
Genres: Documentary | Short
Mr. A. E. Weed placed his camera beside a high school playing field and then clearly instructed the teachers to get as many pupils as possible to perform some form of field sport within the view of the camera. We see young boys jumping a rather low high jump, young boys shot putting, young boys lurking in the background with a javelin.

Kindergarten Ball Game - 1904


Country: USA
Production Co: American Mutoscope & Biograph
Genres: Documentary | Short

Asia in America, St. Louis Exposition - 1904


Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 1904 (USA)
Director: A.E. Weed
Also Known As: Asia in America, St. Louis Exposition
Production Co: American Mutoscope & Biograph
Genres: Documentary | Short
A parade by denizens of one of the Oriental Concessions, The Pike, St. Louis.

104th Street Curve, New York, Elevated Railway - 1899


Country: USA
Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA
Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company
Plot Keywords: Number In Title
Genres: Documentary | Short
"Taken from the front platform of a special train run backward over this celebrated S curve. Not only are the passing trains and crowded platforms of great interest, but the view of uptown New York is an excellent one, showing acre upon acre of roofs, towers, steeples and towering apartment houses. As the 'special' slows up at 92nd street, a Harlem express dashes by, the engineer leaning out of his cab, and waving a good-bye." Written by Edison Catalog

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Comedy Capers


Country: USA
Comedy Capers was a TV series produced in the USA in early 60ies, which aired some short films, both silent and talkies. This program was aired in many countries worldwide, one of then was Brazil. Therefore the video above has the audio and credits dubbed in Portuguese. Anyway, my intention here was to pay a homage to all great comic actors of silent era.


Comedy Capers, also known in Brazil as “Reis do Riso” was a TV serie composed of a package of sequences of short movies of the so-called “silent era” produced by Mack Sennett e Hal Roach within 20ies and 40ies.


They were produced and distributed by National Telepix, which in 1960 had already reissued with a narration series like “Our Gang” by Hal Roach and released under the title “Mischief Makers”.


One year later, in 1961, the same film producer started again to transform short films by Sennett and Hal Roach under the denomination “Comedy Capers” in two reels called "Christie comedy", that were divided in 108 episodes of approximately 12 minutes each one, in 16 mm films in black and white, that were distributed to many TV channels worldwide.


The opening song of the serie was published by National Telepix (BMI), as well as the closing theme “Comedy Capers End Title” also known as “End Theme That´s All, neighbors”, both with music by Jack Saunders and lyrics by Phyllis Brandell together with Jack Saunders.


The sequences were starred by famous comic artists like Snub Pollard, Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Harry Langdon, The Keystone Cops, Laurel & Hardy, among others. Some data found suggest that the series was originally presented in syndicated, in the United states this same year. In Brazil it was found information by some authors that this series was presented by Rede Globo de Televisão in the 70ies, under the name “Reis do Riso”.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Lourdes, Procession, I - 1897


The brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (1864-1948) are credited with the development of the Cinématographe (1895), an elegant and technically simple projection device that revolutionized the early motion picture industry. In contrast to Thomas Edison’s Kinetograph, which was heavy and difficult to move, the Cinématographe was a light, portable device that brought the camera (weighing just over seven kilograms) out of doors. The Lumières sent crews around the world to record a wide array of scenes and images. These films were shown to audiences which were amazed to see moving action projected on an inert screen. The Lumière company catalog grew to include some 1,200 titles, all of which were available for purchase, and which were shown worldwide. Many of the standards adopted by the film industry, including the 35-millimeter film width and the 16-frame-per-second exposure rate, were those established by the Lumières. This set of short films captures scenes from Lourdes, France. The first film shows people exiting the Basilica of the Rosary, a famous pilgrimage church and shrine. The other films portray the transportation of the sick and a religious procession.

Lourdes, Leaving the Church of the Rosary - 1897


The brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (1864-1948) are credited with the development of the Cinématographe (1895), an elegant and technically simple projection device that revolutionized the early motion picture industry. In contrast to Thomas Edison’s Kinetograph, which was heavy and difficult to move, the Cinématographe was a light, portable device that brought the camera (weighing just over seven kilograms) out of doors. The Lumières sent crews around the world to record a wide array of scenes and images. These films were shown to audiences which were amazed to see moving action projected on an inert screen. The Lumière company catalog grew to include some 1,200 titles, all of which were available for purchase, and which were shown worldwide. Many of the standards adopted by the film industry, including the 35-millimeter film width and the 16-frame-per-second exposure rate, were those established by the Lumières. This set of short films captures scenes from Lourdes, France. The first film shows people exiting the Basilica of the Rosary, a famous pilgrimage church and shrine. The other films portray the transportation of the sick and a religious procession.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Katchem Kate - 1912


Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Mack Sennett
Writer: Dell Henderson
Stars: Mabel Normand, Fred Mace and Jack Pickford
Release Date: 13 June 1912 (USA)
Filming Locations: California, USA
Genres: Comedy | Short
Production Co: Biograph Company
Runtime: 11 min (16 fps)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White

Le lit à roulettes -1907


Country: France
Director: Alice Guy
Also known as: The Rolling Bed
Genres: Short
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
It can be noticed that quite a few films that were apparently directed by Alice Guy (at least according to a DVD released by Kino) are listed on IMDb as having been directed by Louis Feuillade. This film is one of these seemingly misidentified films.
It appears that a guy has been thrown out of his apartment. So, he rolls his bed onto the street and tries to sleep. However, the crowd of people who see him shove the bed down a flight of steps and it begins rolling all over town. It's all very slapstick and is quite similar to some of the Keystone films in America.

Le bonnet à poil - 1907


Country: France
Director: Alice Guy
Genres: Short
Also known as: The Fur Hat
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
This is one of several films on a DVD of Alice Guy's films that was recently released by Kino that IMDb claims was directed by Louis Feuillade. My assumption is that Kino is correct here, as they already recently corrected one of Guy's films to show that she, and not Feuillade, was the director.
The film looks to be set around the early part of the 19th century. A maid asks a soldier in for a bit to eat. However, soon her mistress comes and so the maid hides the man--apparently she was not to have brought him there. However, the plume from his hat sticks up from the hiding place and the mistress (in a funny bit) discovers him--and falls into the cabinet with him. In the meantime, her husband arrives with some OTHER woman and begins making advances towards her--at which point the wife pops out with the soldier and a lot of finger pointing results.

Le piano irrésistible - 1907


Country: France
Also known as: The Irresistible Piano (USA)
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Genres: Short
Director: Alice Guy
A guy is seen moving into an apartment. Soon he begins playing the piano and bothering everyone with the noise. His neighbors, one by one, begin to dance to the tune and can't stop. Eventually, many of them make their way to the apartment to try to make him stop playing, but when the get closer, they cannot stop themselves from dancing. When he eventually tires and tries to stop, the folks force him to continue.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Le frotteur - 1907


Country: France
Director: Alice Guy
Genres: Short
Also known as: The Cleaning Man
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Some nutty guy comes to an apartment and asks if he can earn money cleaning the floors. The owner agrees and lickety-split, the nutter begins tossing about the furniture and breaking things. The neighbors below are appalled--as their ceiling is shaking and falling down on them due to the cleaner's antics. Soon the cops arrive to find that the floor is so slick that everyone keeps slipping and sliding--so much that they end up crashing into the apartment below! Crazy stuff--and a lot of fun to watch.

La Glu - 1907


Country: France
Also Known As: The Glue
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Genres: Short | Comedy
Director: Alice Guy
Although IMDb lists this as a film by Louis Feuillade it is actually one of Alice Guy's - and very good it is too. As with quite a few of these early comedies, the film focuses on the pranks of a mischievous boy, this one in possession of a large pot of glue that offers limitless opportunities for pranks. It's not long before the dignity of adults is disintegrated when they find their feet stuck to steps or their posteriors to bicycle seats. Some of the scenes are genuinely funny, and although the film is fairly primitive by modern standards, it shows a good deal of sophistication for the era in which it was made and offers a good example of how far cinema had progressed not only in the twelve years since its inception, but also in the previous couple of years.

Madame a des envies - 1907


Country: France
Language: French
Release Date: 21 December 1907 (USA)
Also Known As: Madame's Cravings
Production Co: Pathé Frères
Genres: Comedy | Short
Plot keywords: Lollipop, Pregnancy, Sexual Imagery, Phallus, Pregnant Woman, Kinky
Director: Alice Guy
The film is about the irresistible cravings of a pregnant woman which drive her to steal sweets from a child, booze from a cafe customer, a pipe from a baker (she obviously hadn't heard about how it stunts baby's growth), and even scraps from a beggar, much to the distress - and physical discomfort - of her long-suffering husband.

Shooting the chutes_ Luna Park_ Coney Island - 1903


Country: USA
Filmed July 3, 1903.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.
Cameraman, G. W. ''Billy'' Bitzer
The ride known as Shoot the Chutes was first introduced in 1895 by inventor Captain Paul Boynton at Sea Lion Park, the first enclosed outdoor amusement park in Coney Island. He billed it as ''the King of All Amusements.'' In 1902 he sold the park to a couple of young sharps, Fred Thompson and Elmer ''Skip'' Dundy. One year later the new gates opened and Luna Park was in operation.
The success of Luna Park would allow Thompson to build and open the 'Hippodrome Theatre' in Manhattan two years later. (see video of ''Panorama from the Times Building, New York'' for a view of the building)
According to historian Woody Register, Boynton was inspired by ''watching boys skipping stones across a pond,'' and the idea was born.
Recommended reading:
The Kid of Coney Island / Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusement - Woody Register

Smilin' Through -1922


Country: USA
Release Date: 13 February 1922 (USA)
Also Known As: Smiling Through
Production Co: Norma Talmadge Film Corporation
Plot Keywords: Based On Play
Genres: Drama
Director: Sidney Franklin
Writers: Jane Cowl play "Smiling Through" (as Alan Langdon Martin)
James Ashmore Creelman adaptation
Sidney Franklin (adaptation) (as Sidney A. Franklin)
Jane Murfin play "Smiling Through" (as Alan Langdon Martin)
Stars: Norma Talmadge, Wyndham Standing and Harrison Ford
Here Norma Talmadge plays the Irish girl who wants to wed the son of the man who killed her uncle's fiancee on their wedding night. Family feuds battle true love. Copies of this film exist in two archives: the Library of Congress and the Nederlands Filmmuseum.

Une héroïne de quatre ans - 1907


Country: France
Directors: Louis Feuillade, Alice Guy
Genres: Short
Also known as: A Four-Year-Old Hero
Production Co: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
This is a typically well-produced little film from Alice Guy, the pioneering French woman. It follows a little four-year-old girl who skips away when her nursemaid falls asleep on a bench in the park. The little girl helps the police apprehend a couple of muggers, prevents a blind man from falling into a canal and a trio of drunks from being obliterated by a train at a level crossing before finding a helpful policeman to take her home much to the relief of her parents and nursemaid.
The film is particularly well edited, with sequential shots clearly showing the girl and her nursemaid leaving the lounge of the girl's parents, leaving the house and walking to the park. It's the sort of sequence that we take for granted today, but back then many filmmakers would probably have considered a couple of those shots superfluous. This one's worth a look.

Wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth - 1923


Silent video footage of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) (1923).
Prince Albert initially proposed to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1921, but she turned him down, due to misgivings about royal life. When he declared he would marry no other, his mother, Queen Mary, visited Glamis to see for herself the girl who had stolen her son's heart. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but nevertheless refused to interfere. After the third proposal Elizabeth finally agreed to marry Albert: their engagement was announced in January 1923.
The Duke and Duchess of York had two children, Elizabeth (who would succeed her father as Elizabeth II), born 21 April 1926 and Margaret, born 21 August 1930.

The Villain Foiled - 1911


Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 31 August 1911 (USA)
Production Co: Biograph Company
Plot Keywords: Alcohol | Fiance | Suitor
Genres: Short | Comedy
Directors: Henry Lehrman, Mack Sennett
Stars: Edward Dillon, Blanche Sweet and Joseph Graybill

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Baron - 1911


Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 31 August 1911 (USA)
Filming Locations: Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA
Production Co: Biograph Company
Genres: Comedy | Short
Director: Mack Sennett
Writer: Edwin August
Stars: Dell Henderson, Mabel Normand and Joseph Graybill
If you want to understand how you joke with yourself (which is the centerpiece of being) you need to understand how film comedy works. And for that you have to experience the inventors: Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle. And deeper yet, the inventor of the inventors, Sennett. He is that ghost behind the babbling ghosts in your soul.
This is one of Sennett's apprentice films from the period where he was directing... one every week. They aren't remembered fondly. This is the first I've seen from this period as they are hard to find, and he didn't write it.
Nonetheless, there are several comic twists in this seven minute story, twisted cleanly. No sign yet of the frantic.

A Roman Orgy - 1911


Country: France
Release Date: 24 November 1911 (France)
Also Known As: L'orgie romaine (Original French title)
Director: Louis Feuillade
Stars: Jean Aymé, Louise Lagrange and Luitz-Morat
Plot Keywords: Lion | Roman Empire | Assassination
Genres: Drama | Short
Production Co:
Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont
Elagabalus was married as many as five times, lavished favors on courtiers popularly assumed to have been his homosexual lovers, and was reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. His reputed behavior infuriated the Praetorian Guard, the Senate and the common people alike.(Wikipedia)
Feuillade could have chosen a more famous emperor ,for this obscure one -who also despised Roman religion- looks like Nero or Caligula. It's Rome 218 AD,folks ,and the decadent emperor is having a good time with male and female courtiers taking part of an orgy.The emperor and the ladies' costumes seem more oriental than Roman.
First sequence:looks like a fashion show .
Second sequence: the grooming of the emperor: although the emperor seems to enjoy the ladies who keep him company ,he looks himself more like a woman .alas !someone scratches the emperor !"you deserve to die" ;in spite of the people who implore him ,he is delivered to the lions.
Third sequence :the lions pit;people have a wonderful time watching the lions' meal;De Mille will show the same sadism when he films his "sign of the cross"
Fourth sequence:the orgy (at last for that's what the audience was waiting for)binge,pagan dances and flowers showering down:lovely.No sleeping around.Alas ,the lions spoil the party.
Fifth sequence:the assassination:the courtesans decide to put an end to this shameful reign.Down on his knees,the king tries to save his life ,crying for mercy;contrast between the effeminate sovereign and the virile brutal guards .
Thus died Elagabalus.

Anita Garibaldi - 1910


Country: Italy
Release Date: September 1910 (Italy)
Production Co: Società Italiana Cines
Director: Mario Caserini
Stars: Maria Caserini
The film is basically a succession of tableaux-like scenes – with the appropriate tinting for added effect – detailing some of the key events (usually involving crowd scenes and including even some military action) that marked these turbulent times. However, it must now be viewed with sympathy as direction resorts to incessant gesticulating from virtually the entire cast (something which the Italians would, in any case, become renowned for) – punctuated by only a handful of generic intertitles – to tell the tale!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Social Secretary (The) - John Emerson - 1916

Vortex (The) - Adrian Brunel - 1928

Visages d'enfants - Jacques Feyder - 1925

Twilight of a woman's Soul - Evgenii Bauer - 1913

Tol'able David - Henry King - 1921

Stage Struck - Allan Dwan - 1925

Snow White - J. Searle Dawley - 1916

Safety Curtain (The) - Sidney Franklin - 1918

Riddle Gawne - William S. Hart - 1918

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Marshall Neilan - 1917

Primitive Lover (The) - Sidney Franklin - 1922

Page of Madness (A) - Teinosuke Kinugasa - 1926

Kiss for Cinderella (A) - Herbert Brenon - 1925

It - Clarence G. Badger - 1927

Hoodlum (The) - Sidney Franklin - 1919

Girl's Folly (A) - Maurice Tourneur - 1917

Free to Love - Frank O'Connor - 1925

Fighting Coward - James Cruze - 1924

Feel my Pulse - Gregory LaCava - 1928