Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Big Idea - 1924


Country: United States
Language: English
Director: George Jeske
Stars: 'Snub' Pollard, Blanche Mehaffey and Glenn Tryon
Release Date: 13 January 1924 (USA)
Production Co: Hal Roach Studios
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Short | Comedy
Inventor Ignatius Pollard develops a new "Pavement Polisher" to clean the streets, but a demonstration of the device does not go as planned.
Until recently Snub Pollard was probably best known for popping up in brief excerpts in silent comedy compilations; his movies are mostly forgotten. Certainly the guy had a distinctive look, with his inverted Kaiser Wilhelm mustache and sleepy eyes, and the gags in those excerpts usually look appealingly surreal and cartoon-y. As the work of Harold Lloyd has become more readily available on DVD the past few years Pollard has re-emerged from obscurity as Harold's co-star in numerous comedies made between 1917 and 1920, generally enjoyable films in which Snub alternates as Harold's buddy or rival. But the biggest boost to Snub's own posthumously recovered renown as a silent comedy player is the inclusion of his terrific 1923 short It's a Gift in Kino's "Slapstick Encyclopedia" box set. This gem stands as Snub's finest hour, or his finest 15 minutes anyway, one of those perfectly satisfying gag-packed comedies that zips along happily and is funny every time you see it. Snub played an eccentric inventor who develops a gasoline substitute (if only he had!), lives in a household filled with Rube Goldberg-style contraptions, and drives a magnet-powered car that ultimately turns into a flying machine.
After making this charming film Snub starred in two-reel comedies for awhile, but returned to the one-reel format just before making The Big Idea. This film feels like something of a sequel to It's a Gift: once again, Snub is an inventor who has come up with a potentially important device, in this case "Pollard's Patent Pavement Polisher," basically a street cleaning vehicle the size of a small house. If you take one look at the thing and figure it'll go haywire in the finale, you win the Kewpie doll. Snub is assisted by a cross-eyed patent lawyer (played by George Rowe, the Roach Studio's answer to Ben Turpin) and also has a rival (Glenn Tryon) for the attention of the Mayor's daughter.

The Janitor - 1919


Country: United States
Language: English
Stars: Hank Mann, Madge Kirby and Merta Sterling
Release Date: November 1919 (USA)
Also known as: The Jazz Janitor (USA - alternative title)
Production Co: Hank Mann Comedies
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
A mild-mannered, well-meaning but bumbling janitor gets unwittingly involved in a battle between two opposing political groups, with each side trying to use him to destroy the other, and the secret police-who have already thrown him out of their office when he worked there--watching all of them.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Holdup of the Rocky Mountain Express - 1906


Country: United States
Language: English
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Release Date: 30 June 1906 (USA)
Production Co: American Mutoscope & Biograph
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Train Robbery | Railroad
Genres: Crime | Drama | Short | Western
An early film drama shot on an actual railroad line in Phoenicia, NY in the Catskills.

The Salmon Run - 1927


Country: United States
A Fox Varieties film from 1927 about salmon in the natural habitat.
To purchase a clean DVD or digital download of this film for personal home use or educational use contact us at questions@archivefarms.com.
To license footage from this film for commercial use visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Alaska - 1920s


Country: United States
A visit to Alaska in the 1920s.
To purchase a clean DVD or digital download of this film for personal home use or educational use contact us at questions@archivefarms.com.
To license footage from this film for commercial use visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com

Friday, August 3, 2012

Polo, eating clubs and ROTC - circa 1928


Country: United States
From the Princeton University Archives: This silent movie, possibly shot by an alumnus visiting with his wife and son, includes a polo match, shots of Prospect Street and the eating clubs (5:48), and an inspection of Princeton's ROTC Field Artillery Unit by Major General Hanson E. Ely on May 9, 1928 (07:24).

This film is discussed in the audiovisual blog of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which holds the archives of Princeton University. For more information or to comment on this film visit http://blogs.princeton.edu/reelmudd/2011/01/princetons-polo-team-and-rotc-fie... .

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Samson and Delilah - 1922


Country: United Kingdom
Release Date: 1922 (UK)
Director: Edwin J. Collins
Writer: Frank Miller
Stars: Valia and M.D. Waxman
Also known as: Sansón y Dalila (Venezuela)
Production Co: Master
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Old Testament | Based On Opera
Genres: Short
Connections
Edited into Tense Moments from Opera (1922)