Three's a Crowd (USA, 1927)

This film is a good example on why Harry Langdon is considered by many critics to be at the same artistic level of the “three masters of silent comedy”, which are Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. With imaginative, creative gags and an ability to really make people feel sympathetic in a plot whose pathos is universal, it is hard to resist Langdon’s charm and comedic competence. 

Langdon is a lonely lad who lives in a poor neighborhood. We can quickly see how innocent Langdon is and that he truly lives in a chaotic world, whose rules he cannot understand. He is not really a bad person and he tries to do his best to handle the chaos around him, but he is always a victim of circumstances he cannot control. At the same time the audience realizes Langdon is exploited by his boss, but his contact with his boss, who is married and has a son, makes Langdon understand that a family life could be something very fulfilling. The wife of his boss takes pity on Langdon and treats him gently, but unfortunately it was enough for his boss to feel jealous and think he was flirting with his wife. Some misunderstandings occur and Langdon found himself in hot water. 

After a while, time passed, winter came and it started to snow heavily. In another unidentified place, we could see a man waking up, looking troubled and he found a note on a chair. If was his pregnant wife who had left him (the audience was led to understand it was due to alcoholism, gambling or something like that) and recommended her husband to return to his father’s house and recover and that if he managed to do it, she would forgive him and give him a second chance. The audience can feel instantly that both husband and wife loved each other deeply and it was only the husband’s momentary troubles that separated the couple. 

After walking in the middle of all snow, the woman feels ill and Langdon gets to bring her to his house while she was fainted and took care of her. After realizing she was pregnant and the baby would soon be born, he called a doctor and the neighborhood’s women to handle her delivery. Langdon waited on his doorstep until the baby was born and the baby was healthy and everything went well. After everyone congratulated him on the baby’s birth, Langdon could finally experience how wonderful it was to have his own family. He knew very well that the woman had a husband and that the guy might be looking for his family, but deep inside Langdon wished ardently that the husband forget about his wife and son, so he could have them both as his own family. 

A while after the baby is born, the woman is bedridden and Langdon takes care of them both, also working hard to financially support both mother and baby. Langdon is shown to be really awkward to take care of the baby, as he had no experience whatsoever, but he could also compensate it with much love and dedication to his new adopted family. One day, Landgon decides to go to the fortune teller to check if the husband would ever return and pick up his wife and son. After the fortune teller assuring him that the husband would step out and never return, Langdon felt confident and secure that his new family would never be taken away from him, even though he was still afraid. 

Meanwhile, the husband got desperate that his wife had left him and he really did as she requested in her letter. He returned to his father’s house and was doing good, we can really see he was looking much better. And, after his recovery, he started a made hunting for his wife and son and he hired private detectives to assist him. 

After a while, Langdon’s worst nightmare happened and the husband returned to look for his family. At first, the husband seemed puzzled, but after realizing his wife and son were so kindly taken care of and that Langdon helped his family right at the moment they needed it the most, the husband felt really touched and he showed his utmost gratitude and appreciation for Langdon. His wife was also very grateful. But then the pathos takes place again, after the couple said they would be really happen to see Langdon again, they left Langdon’s house in a blink of eyes and Langdon found himself as alone as he was at the beginning of the film. And both woman and son disappeared from his life as unexpectedly as they had entered.
Langdon is devastated and returned to the fortune teller to confront him, but the fortune teller’s store was closed. Langdon thought about throwing a stone and break the window as an act of revenge, but he was not really a bad man and gave up. But, for the first time, destiny was on Langdon’s side. After he gave up, throwing the stone away, it ended up hitting a heavy object, which clashed right into the fortune teller’s story, destroying it completely. This is the final message of the film, that revenge is useless and that whatever that must happen to a person, either good and bad, can smoothly happen without anyone’s interference. 

Four Sons (USA, 1928)

This film follows the same production and plot values of films like, The Big Parade (USA, 1925), among others. WW1 is shown irrespective of politics, focused on the impact of war in the lives of ordinary citizens, who for the first time in life have the deal with events completely beyond their control changing their future forever.

Without falling into melodrama, this film has a smooth, pleasant pace, quite familiar to modern-day audiences.  The fluid camera movement makes it looks like we are following those characters in real life. The film is so moving because it deals with facts with which most people can identify themselves quite easily, like the importance of having a harmonious family. 

Fox studios had recently hired prestigious German director F.W. Murnau. His influence can be observed in some scenes, for example, in the village, mobilized camera and mailman which is like the doorman in The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924).

The setting is Germany in the beginning of XX century and a widowed mother raising her four adult sons. The view of German lifestyle at that film is somehow stereotyped, as we can see even by the clothes of the village dwellers.  The Bavarian wearing their typical clothes everywhere all the time.

Then the war started. At first, the bothers are shown going to war in a rather romanticized way, as brave men who were fighting for the country and ideals and they left in a rather optimistic mood, saying they would be back in three months. At least, that was the atmosphere before the real horrors or death and suffering began. Three of those brothers fight for Germany, but the one of brothers had immigrated to the United States, being on the opposite side of his three other brothers. 

At first, the brother who immigrate to the USA had a calm life together with the family he formed there, after all the United States was neutral at first. But time passed and two of the brothers were unfortunately killed in action, which brought a huge grief to the mother. In addition to it, the life of the mother and her surviving son worsened terribly when they started being bullied by government authorities and things became hell after it was found out that her another surviving son is in America.

Finally, the last surviving brother in German soil is called to go to the army. At that point, the horrors of war were already undeniable. 

The mother eventually found her happiness again, after much struggle, when she managed to reunite in the United States with her surviving son, daughter in law and grandson. Things were not easy to her when she arrived, she was scared and sore, but after the entire family gathered together the wounds started to heal. Of course that to reach this happy end it was required a plenty of coincidences that we could only see in films. 

At the end we realize that it does not matter in which side of the war people are involved, the suffering and hardship affects everyone, family ties struggle and trauma is huge even in people who did not go to the front directly. 

Cleopatra (USA,1912)

Actress Helen Gardner started her career in the legitimate stage on early XX century and she had been making films for some years before being in Cleopatra (her career in cinema seems to have begun around 1910 in Vitagraph studios) and she was one of first American actresses to have her own production company. Although the studio did not last many years, it was a real pioneer landmark. Gardner also had the distinction of being one of very first “vamps” of Hollywood, even before Theda Bara (which would soon surface, after the hit in a Fool There Was, produced in 1915) and Louise Glaum. Although virtually forgotten, even compared with the other aforementioned vamps, Gardner has her own place in history of cinema.

One of first feature-length films of Hollywood, we can observe that this film had aged not too long after it was launched in 1912. The acting was mostly stagy (specially by actress Helen Gardner, in the main role of Cleopatra, who gestured wildly throughout the film), with broad gestures and exaggerated drama, typical of plays up to early XX century. The so-called naturalistic acting (embodied by actresses Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, etc) would soon become the norm in cinema and the stage melodrama would soon become outdated. The use of camera was also rather static, which helps to give the audiences the feeling of a stage play.  

The sceneries are also typical of the stage and the film had a plenty of intertitles. Although the ill-fated love story of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony was already known in literature and arts in general before the invention of the cinema, it is still not very clear how much known those characters were in popular culture. Historical accuracy fails in some points of the film, both in characterization of landscapes and in the reproduction of details of the story. For instance, the landscape represented in this film does not look very much like a sight we would expect to see in an Ancient semi-desertic place. And in a scene even a poodle (yes, a poodle dog) could be spotted for some seconds, although it does seem such dogs have ever been common either in Rome or Egypt. But the audience must not pay too much attention to those points. Sure, it does give some involuntary humor to a film that it is supposed to be dramatic, but epic films of this magnitude were not still a commonplace in early cinema, so there was not a standard of production values to be followed. That would soon come in Hollywood with D.W. Griffith, though. 

Hangman's House (USA, 1928)

This film, despite its overt melodrama acting, also has some gothic elements, especially in the scenery, which is a type of thing that could be found in films by Ingmar Bergman decades later. The way the main characters express love and grief is through a stationary, stagy acting that was already out of fashion at late silent era. 

An army man (Citizen Hogan), who was actually an Irish patriot serving in Algeria, asks for a leave of absence so he can return home in Ireland because he had to kill a man despite the fact he was wanted by the law there due to his patriot activities. The reasons of Hogan’s return were not disclosed at the beginning of the film and would only be known a while later.

In Ireland, a hangman is about to pass away and is having huge crisis of conscience due to the people he sent to death. The flames on the fireplace of his living room can be taken as a symbolism of his life that was about to be over. 

His daughter loved a man dearly (Dermot McDermot) and he wanted to marry her. However, her father preferred that she married John D’arcy, a man of dishonest character, but with money and good social position. She detested D’arcy but eventually married him out of respect for her father’s wish. Dermot was devastated when he heard the sad news. Her father died a short time after the marriage. D’arcy started to drink and being completely nasty with his wife and she openly avoided him.

Meanwhile, a mysterious man showed up in town. It was the same army man showed in the beginning of the film and he was looking for John D’arcy.  They both had clearly met before, and whenever D’arcy put his eyes on that man he seemed to be really afraid and uneasy. In fact, D’arcy had already been married with the army man’s sister, but D’arcy had left his sister and she died right afterwards. This is why Citizen Hogan wanted revenge. 

D’arcy showed more and more signals of mental instability as time passed. Eventually, Citizen Hogan finally managed to confront D’arcy at his own house and it is suggested a duel. A fire started at the mansion and it attracts the attention of the entire neighborhood. Dermot McDermot and Citizen Hogan managed to leave the place on time, but D’arcy got trapped and is killed in the fire.

Hogan returned to the desert right afterwards, after having created a good friendship with Dermot. And both Demont and the hangman’s daughter could finally become together without anyone else’s interference, as she was now a widow.

The psychological profile, as well as reasons behind their attitudes could have been a bit deeper in this film. But this film has a good camera use, good sceneries and acting and a gloomy atmosphere that built up suspense well. The mansion and furniture had some interesting gothic touches, which is not something common to be seen in a dramatic film. Although not a particularly innovative film, it is convincing and well-acted. And it is also noteworthy for having shown John Wayne in his first recognizable role in films. As a uncreadited extra, he was a spectator in the horse racing who was so excited with the race that he ended up hitting the fence in front of him. 

Just Pals (USA, 1920)

With naturalistic acting of children, similar to what the audiences would see years later in Our Gang films, this film deals with the theme of friendship that crosses social statuses and social rules. Behind the Western scenery there is a rather universal plot. The tender relationship between a boy and an adult man would also be brilliantly shown in another famous film, launched by Charlie Chaplin on the following year, The Kid (USA, 1921).

A recurrent character is classic westerns is of the rude cowboy with a heart of gold and strong sense of ethics and loyalty despite the lack of a formal education and such character is also shown in this film. A kid who was not liked by the adults of his place because he was considered too indisciplined. A man (Bim), who was as marginalized at the town as the boy, develop a solid friendship after Bim defended the boy of being beaten up. At first, they were just colleagues who got along well regardless of the difference of age. Time passes, the mutual affection between them develop until it becomes a virtually fatherly connection, especially after the boy risked his life in a moving train so he could get a uniform, as Bim would only be offered a job as a porter if he had a uniform. So, the boy tried to get a uniform to Bim.

Their mutual bonds of affection have deeply positive effects on both Bim and boy. Bim managed to persuade the boy to attend the school and Bim realized he had to be more responsible and find a job so he could provide for the boy. But the boy got injured after falling off the train in an attempt to get the uniform. Bim got desolated and took the boy the house of the city’s doctor. The doctor and his wife tried to separate Bim from the boy by saying to Bim that he should cut off contact with the boy and afterwards by telling to the boy that Bim had abandoned him. 

A dishonest accountant persuaded the town’s elementary school teacher to deliver him the school’s fund to compensate a loss he had while making business and claimed he would return her the money as soon as the school needed it. The school suddenly needed the funds, the teacher asked the accountant to return the money, but he did not do it. In desperation and afraid of having her reputation misjudged, the teacher attempted suicide by drowning herself in the local river, but she survived. Bim took the blame of the money deviation to protect the teacher’s reputation. He did it out of love, as it had been previously shown in the film that he loved her, but he was embarrassed of saying it to her, as he was the bum of the town and not socially respected.

A gang of robbers threatened to rob the city, Bim tried to stop the criminals from doing so but he was misjudged as a member of the gang by the town’s sheriff. There was an attempted lynching of Bim and chaos happened. He is about to be hanged on a tree by furious dwellers of the city, but the boy appeared on the scene and told the adults that the man who really planned to robbery of the town was inside of the school. While the lynching was taking place, the crooked accountant showed up at the school and demanded the teacher to hide him and that he was running away from the city and the teacher had to go with him.  

The boy’s plead took the desired effect. Bim is released and the furious mob enters the school in time to find the accountant fighting with the teacher. The accountant tried to run away, but he is caught by the police and the money of the school’s fund was with him. The teacher was very touched by the sacrifice Bim made for her sake and both him and the boy became the heroes of the town. Bim was almost separated from the boy again when a man arrived in town saying he was the boy’s father, but it turned out his son was actually another kid.

After a while, after enjoying respectability for a while, both Bim and the boy arrive at the school, in socially accepted clothing and looking a bit awkward. It is clear from the beginning that Bim wanted to ask the teacher if she would date him and she apparently gladly accepted it. And the film ended happily, with Bim keeping the boy, both of them leading straight lives, and Bim also had the girl he had always loved.

Show People (USA, 1928)

Hollywood making fun of itself, already a magical place at late 1920s, full of stars and lively parties, this film even included the cameos of real Hollywood stars as themselves, like Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and John Gilbert. This film also shows the traps of fame and pride and how fast things could change to the best or the worst. A delicious comedy, with impeccable comedy timing, showing that MGM was not only good with dramas and epic movies, but also with comedies.

Marion Davies became infamous by her long-term relationship with millionaire William Randolph Hearst and by the negative impact It had over her career. But, in reality, Davies had an innate talent as a comedian and in the few films where she could show such talents she never disappointed the audiences. Ironically, the film shows the dichotomy between drama x comedy and that some people thought that dramatic films and plays were superior to comedies, specially slapstick comedies.  The irony is that it was exactly the opinion Hearst had about Davies career, which would be unworthy of her dignity to act in comedies, and Hearst’s interference in her films did more harm than good to Davies in the long run.

A colonel from Georgia takes his young daughter (Peggy Pepper) to Hollywood in the hopes of showing the studios she is a good actress. Peggy gets immediately enchanted with Hollywood and upon her arrival she bumps into John Gilbert on the street. Yes, the man himself, already a mega star and famous all over the world. She seemed to be a rather naïve girl, not used with the bright lights of the big city and unaware of how competitive things were in Hollywood but she would soon realize it.

Peggy is befriended by a guy (Billy Boone) who helped her get into films in a small studio by acting in slapstick comedies. At first, Peggy was not happy with that because she expected to be into high-class dramatic films rather than in custard pie, physical comedies. But it turned out that her comedic talents were acknowledged and the audiences really liked Peggy’s films.

After a while, Peggy is “discovered” by a bigger studio, where she could act in the high-class dramas she had always dreamed about making.  At first, she hesitated to leave Billy behind, but, as time passed, she was induced by her new leading man to acquire a completely new personality and hanged out with new friends, ignoring Billy.  Meanwhile, Billy was still struggling in the same way he did before. Billy even tried to see Peggy, but she did not care very much. As her career progressed, she even pretended she did not know Billy.

Eventually, Peggy became so full of herself that her behavior even started interfering with her work in films, especially because she started to act like a royalty member rather than an actress who owed obedience to her bosses and had responsibilities to handle. And Billy would not let Peggy forgetting him easily, especially after knowing she was about to marry her new leading man. He tried to make Peggy come to her senses, but there was a fight involving a custard pie. The clash eventually had a good result and Peggy started to see things in a more reasonable way. She cancelled her convenience marriage and recommended Billy for a role in one of her films and, even more importantly, she was finally grateful for everything Billy had done for her in the old days. Then, they both realized their old good connection and love flourished between Peggy and Billy again. 

Atlantis (Denmark, 1913)

A typical 1910s melodrama, with provides some of greatest imageries of early cinema and reveals the high quality of Danish films of the decade, including the special effects. Denmark had a quite vibrant production of films prior to WW1, and the most famous actors of this generation were Asta Nielsen and Valdemar Psilander (By the way, both of them were NOT part of the cast of this film). 

It is impossible not to compare the plot of this film with the infamous sinking of the Titanic in the previous year. Although the film is slow-paced, the plot has a plenty of action all along. Showing the calm days of Danish aristocracy prior to WW1, the acting is very stagy, even stationary compared with the naturalistic acting that had started been adopted by Hollywood, this film also has a touch of modernity. It shows Angèle, the wife of Dr. Friedrich Kammacher, a scientist (a bacteriologist), suffering from mental disease. All those scientific matters being still new and highly researched back to 1910s, an echo of XIX century progressist ideas that had science in high esteem. We can also see by the professions of main characters and scenery that the film is portraying lives of members upper classes.

Dr. Kammacher had the disappointment of having his research papers rejected by the academy and when Angéle is finally brought to a mental hospital, her husband kissed his children goodbye and decided to go on a journey in other to recover. When he arrived in Berlin he met a erotic dancer called Ingigerd, and got immediately fascinated by her. After hearing she was going to the United States, he left his past life behind and followed her on board the ocean liner “Atlantis”. Things were going fine until it happened a shipwreck. A drifting lifeboat with the people who survived the tragedy was rescued and they were taken aboard another ship. Ingigerd was one of survivors. They all eventually managed to arrive in New York and this part of film included some very beautiful takes of New York, which provides a lovely glimpse of how the landscape of the city looked like back to the 1910s.

Dr. Friedrich Kammacher also survived the shipwreck and was welcomed by his friends in NYC and he got together with Ingigerd there. However, time passes and their relationship has problems, mostly because  Dr. Friedrich Kammacher is annoyed by Ingigerd’s artistic career and her personality, and they become estranged. Disheartened and suffering from depression since the shipwreck happened, he goes to a distant cabin in the mountains. Perhaps, considering nowadays’ medicine, Dr. Kammacher might even had post traumatic syndrome due to the shock of the tragic event. Dr. Kammacher got very ill while in the cabin after knowing his wife had passed away, but he is taken care of and cured. He has an affair with Miss Burns, who even promised Dr. Friedrich Kammacher to be a good mother for his children, and they both return to Denmark in order to reunite with Kammacher’s family and start a new life.

Although many people consider the shipwreck scenes the highlight of the film, this is not really fair. Atlantis has some of most beautiful imagery shown in a silent film, the elegant wardrobe of the cast is also a noteworthy aspect, together with the scenery.  The landscape scenes are breathtaking and the using of coloring was brief, but very proper. It is also interesting to see the mix of modernity in the approached subjects (science, medicine, arts) and an acting that would soon become old fashioned. 

The Wedding March (USA, 1928)

Eric von Stroheim does earn his reputation as a director. Despite the lavish production of his films, the narrative is quite often fluid and smooth, without tiring the audiences. Even the background music gives an impression to the audiences that they are indulging in a ballet dancing, where the characters are always portrayed with all their human faults, but with a pinch of sarcasm and humor too.

At the same time, he deals with love in a romantic way, but not forgetting about realism. Another noteworthy point of Stroheim’s films is that they always look modern, no matter if the setting is in a distant era. This is probably because the audiences can still relate to the feelings portrayed on screen and also due to beautiful wardrobe and scenery, that are still a feast for the eyes and stood up the test of time very well.

As an Austrian, Stroheim wanted to show the end of nobility days and of gentleman values in Vienna, all of those things coming to a brutal end with the beginning of WW1.

The setting of this film is Vienna, 1914 in the eve of WW1. Stroheim also takes part in this film as an actor, where he plays the role of Nikki, a noble man in financial crisis due to his spendthrift and the solution for him to recover financial power is marrying a rich woman for her money. He is willing to do so, but things change a little after the Corpus Christi procession, an important religious and military celebration. The nobleman meets a girl (Mitzi) in the middle of the crowd and it was love at first sight, even though the woman had a quite obnoxious fiancé, a butcher called Schani.

Unfortunately, there is an accident with Mitzi and the nobleman visits her at the hospital.  Later, they meet again in the restaurant where she works as a harpist. Love flourishes, but Schani is threatening towards Nikki all along, which scares Mitzi and, in exchange for Nikki’s safety, she ends up leaving him and the two lovers move on to their previous love commitments, Nikki marries a rich woman and Mitzi and Schani remain committed.

After the two lovers having enjoyed bliss and fulfillment through true love, their happiness is disrupted by social obligations, a situation quite similar to the disruption of happiness in dear old Austria before the horrors of WW1 reached the country. An entire lifestyle was lost forever, but the memory of the happy days would remain forever in the hearts of those who lived it.

Ingeborg Holm (Sweden, 1913)

Failmaker Victor Seastrom was still completely unknown in Hollywood back to 1913, but when he finally reached fame in the United States in the 1920s he already had a solid cinematic career in his native Sweden and made films good enough to still be appreciated by nowadays’ audiences, as this film shows. 

Making a good use of Swedish countryside landscapes and portraying family life of 1910s, this film is the witness of a lifestyle that has been gone for a long time, even in Scandinavian countries. Manual labor might have been strenous, but the bigger families seemed more united and life simpler. Or perhaps it is just modern audiences romanticizing the lives of Northern Europe peasants, but it is quite interesting to see how they lived, considering how urbanized most of the world has become. 

At that era, in many countries, the passing of the husband/father of the family represented a big social and financial loss to the family, specially if the wife was left with small children to be raised. 

Ingeborg Holm lived a happy and prosperous life with her husband and children, but it all comes to a end when her husband gets sick and passes away with what looks like tuberculosis, a rather deadly disease at that era. 

She tried to keep the grocery market, but the business eventually bankrupted. She was broke, ended up under poverty relief and separated from her children, who were taken to foster parents.

Unfortunately one of Ingeborg’s children gets ill and needs to undergo a operation and she run away from the shelter where she lived to see her child. After a while, the policemen managed to find Ingeborg and arrest her. The toll of all suffering of being widow and without her kids took a huge toll on Ingeborg and she was permanently mentally impaired. 

Fifteen years pass and it shows one of Ingeborg’s children visiting her after spending some time at the sea. Her mental health did not really progress and she could not even recognize her grown up son at first. After a while, he explained to his mother who he was and Ingeborg realized it was her son. 

The transition of time between the time when Ingeborg got hopelessly mentally impaired and the visit of her adult son was a little bit abrupt, though. And it could have been shown what happened with the other Ingebor’g kids. What about the sick kid? Was the operation successful or did the kid pass away? It was not mentioned and perhaps it would help the time transition being a bit more natural. 

Although the acting of main actors was a bit over the top and stagey, considering the naturalistic Hollywoodian-like acting, which would soon become the standard in cinema, the film stood well the test of time. It showed a fairly realistic situation in the society of the era, rural life was also still relatively common. The camera work was nice and the imagery of film was very pleasant to the eyes, good lighting and characterization too.

The Big Parade (USA,1925)

There are not enough words to write about a such film. Its theme is more alive than ever, although it portrays a war back to an era when going to the war still had a somewhat romantic aura of dying for a cause in the name of your country. Although the horrors of WW2 could not even be predicted back then, WW1 brought enough tragedies and disrupted millions of lives. 

Some of the best war films show the lives of unknown people, their dreams, ambitions, their normal pace of life being completely engulfed in a war and changed forever. Common people, whose names are not in history books, but who borne most of toll of war. Families separated, love stories brutally interrupted, entire youths torn apart forever for reasons that were completely out of their control. People who either perished or had to carry on despite a huge amount of pain. It’s impossible not feeling overwhelmed. 

Back to late 1920s, the biggest Hollywood studios were already big and gave a plenty of examples of the sophistication that could be achieved with a high investment in both technology and human skills. John Gilbert and Renee Adoree provided beautiful pieces of acting without ever being over the top or stereotypical. Adoree is always a pleasant screen presence, showing lots of feelings in a restrained way, but really convincing, a type of acting that could resemble Lillian Gish in her heyday. 

This film can perhaps be considered the best work of John Gilbert on screen. Although he is perhaps more famous today for his films with Greta Garbo (where he also worked quite well, by the way), the character Gilbert played in The Big Parade was full of complexities and dramatic nuances that gave him full room to show off his passionate, energetic, emotional acting. And Gilbert really did not disappoint. A complex role, which he ran smoothly, in such realistic way that he could say we are seeing a friend or a relative right in front of us, as if the audience was just taking a look at a situation from real life portrayed in a documentary. 

Without focusing too much whether war was something justifiable or not, the film portrays the influence of facts out of ordinary people’s control into their lives. Although the plot could be quite sad there is a good balance between light comedy, fine irony, romance and drama. Although it is not uncommon to portray on screen the maturity of a young and careless young man into adulthood by suffering the horrors of war, this film shows it under a nice perspective. James Apperson (John Gilbert) not only endures terrible moments at war, but he also had a good time with his friends, found out true love in the arms of a French girl (Melisande, played by actress Renee Adoree), even though they both couldn’t speak each other’s language, for instance. 

The end might have been relatively happy, but until a balance is accomplished, it is portrayed how much James struggled to handle the death and suffering of his friends, but also his own physical wounds. The lives of everyone involved in war, either directly or indirectly, was changed forever. Love might have been unexpectedly found, but the mental scars would have to be handled. 

The “war to end all wars” turned out to be, both on screen and in real life, much more tragic and longer than expected. And many other wars would come. The Big Parade has the distinction of being the first great pacifist war film in the United States, even prior to famous All Quiet on the Western Front (USA,1930). Something that also unites both Adoree and Gilbert is not only the fact that this film brought them to stardom, but also that both of them would die young not too long after this film was released. It was also the first noteworthy picture of filmmaker King Vidor, who would have a successful directorial career ahead of him. 

City Girl (USA, 1930)

German filmmaker F. W. Murnau made a very good work in this film showing the clash between two worlds. Urbanization was already a undeniable reality in many countries of Northern hemisphere back to 1920s, including the United States. Although farms still existed in America and kept their original country lifestyle, the existence of big cities around them could no longer be denied. The stereotypes of innocence related to the countryside and excitement around city life are also challenged. At the same time, Murnau managed to keep his typical romantic style of showing two lonely souls falling in love despite all chaos, poverty and uncertainty around them.

Lem is a relatively naive son of a farmer from Minnesota, who went to Chicago in order to try to sell the wheat crop of his father’s farm for the best price possible. He met a sweet waitress in the big city called Kate and decided to marry her and take her to the farm with him. But things would not be easy. 

In addition to arrive back home as a married man, Lem could not sell the wheat for a good price and he ended up losing money. That was disastrous news to his father, as his family desperately needed the money of that transaction. They were facing financial difficulties in the farm and struggled to make ends meet. The timing of this film was also interesting, considering it was made at around the time of The Wall Street Crash of 1929. 

When Lem arrived back home with Kate, she was accepted and welcomed by his mother and sister, but not by his father. In addition of having his authority challenged by a marriage he had no idea about, he also resented Lem about the low price of wheat and instinctively blamed Lem’s bad transaction to his marriage with Kate. 

In addition to have a hard time to handling her dictatorial, even physically abusive father in law, Kate also had a problem to adjust to the lifestyle of a farm. Things went from bad to worse when she became a object of curiosity of other men of the country and one of them even made some advancements towards her. It led to a misunderstanding of Lem’s father thinking it was Kate who was encouraging those advancements. Even Lem started having doubts about his wife’s faithfulness. One night, after a particularly heated arguments, Kate decides to leave Lem. Lem got to find her and bring her back home, but not without running the risk of being involved in a huge tragedy.

A particularly interesting thing is that Kate’s difficulties in handling her marriage did not come from out of the countryside, but they all came from that apparently calm and idyllic environment. The country could also be a threatening environment, where people could no longer be trusted and safety could not be taken for granted.

Although the plot of this film is related to the loss of overall excitement in American society at the end of so-called roaring twenties, this film stood well the test of time. It shows with accuracy the difficulties of a recently-married couple in adjusting to each other and circumstances around them. In addition to lots of love, it is required a sense of commitment, faith in your partner’s character and responsibility in dealing with that relationship in the context of both family and labor routine. Actor Charles Farrell’s acting as Lem was pretty convincing as a simple, hard-working man with a heart of gold. 

The Voice of Conscience (USA,1912)

The Thanhouser studios had a very nice output of drama films, but the studio unfortunately lasted only a bit over one decade. It was found prior to 1910, which puts this studio among one of the first cinema studios founded in the United States. 

A young orphaned girl is romantically interested in her guardian, who was a friend of her father. As the girl’s father was dying, he left his daughter to be taken care of by his friend, who took the orphaned girl to the home of his own mother. Time passed, the girl became part of the family and ended up having feelings for her guardian, although he had no idea about it. 

However, guests came from the city, another girl showed up, the orphaned girl’s guardian got a intense interest in the visiting girl and the orphan girl was jealous. 

After a car accident where both girls were injured and shared the same hospital room, the orphan found herself alone with the other girl and a bottle of medicine. After acting impulsively, she tried to kill the other girl with the medicine. The doctor witnessed everything and allowed the orphan to think she had killed the girl, so she could learn a lesson. 

Time passed and the orphaned grieved immensely, but after a while she realized that the visiting girl was still alive. Not without having regretted deeply the attempted murder of her rival. 

Although this film has some stagy acting and overacting at its climax, it remains a beautiful, delicate film.

The biggest irony of this film is that actress Florence La Badie (1888-1917), one of main stars of the studio, who played the visiting girl, ended up dying in a car accident in real life with 29 years old at the peak of her fame and her death was openly mourned by her fans. Perhaps, it was this precocious death which made La Badie being nearly forgotten by subsequent generations even though she was a highly popular star in her own era. 

Some noticeable trends of films made in the first years of the XX century

The so-called silent era officially spanned from 1895 to 1927, even though those dates are still controversial, from the first films being shown by Lumière brothers, Thomas Edison, etc. until the release of The Jazz Singer (USA, 1927), which is considered the first talkie. Let’s just not focus on other landmarks and use those dates to delimit the silent era.

Many people claim they cannot understand silent films properly. Nevertheless, films made at the end of silent era (after the main American studios like Universal, Fox, Paramount, etc were founded) are easier to understand, as narrative structures were already consolidated. Films like The Big Parade (USA, 1925), Ben Hur (USA, 1925), Wings (USA, 1927), Sunrise (USA, 1927), Metropolis (Germany, 1927) and so on and so forth, can be much more technologically advanced than we can expect. In other words, their stories are told according to standards that can be comparable with modern films.

However, when we see the films produced in first years of silent era, until around 1915, when D.W. Griffith revolutionized film making with the highly controversial The Birth of a Nation (USA, 1915), we realize they are much more difficult to understand. It happens for some reasons, one of them is that it took a while until cinema got to develop its own “language” and “grammar,” so films were really connected to popular forms of culture, such as vaudeville, circus, magic, fair attractions, magic lantern, which were very popular ways people had fun in the end of XIX century, beginning of XX century. Such representations were opposed to more classic forms of art, such as literature and painting, theatre, etc.

Therefore, it really comes as no surprise that in those first years films were not shown in places where they were the only attraction, they shared the same space as other types of mass distraction, such as vaudevilles and burlesque shows. Mass media was advancing, so, for instance, newspapers had been much more common since XIX century already, news were spread more easily, novels were being read by more people and in many countries urbanization was advancing, which represented a small revolution in the typical peasant life. So, films were a result of all those changes brought about by industrialization and technology. In other words, a completely new world opened up for people and they felt deeply insecure at first.

Sensationalism also started being more widespread, especially because it did help sell more newspapers (some things don’t ever change, huh?). but it was not only that. The grotesque sensationalism was not only connected with economic exploitation, but it was also a way of people representing their feeling of vulnerability and insecurity in this new urban environment.

Thus, many references of early films can be seen in elements of popular culture like current jokes, news, songs, famous plays, novels, etc. So, the audience somehow already knew the plot. Some films that represent this trend are Uncle Tom’s Cabin (USA, 1903); Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (USA, 1905); The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (USA, 1905), etc.

Everyday life was shown in many short films since the first short films were shot by Lumière (for example:  Démolition d’un mur (1896), among others) and Edison. An aspect of private life that was particularly highlighted was public spaces, as in films like The Great Train Robbery (1903) and Romance of the Rail (1903). One might say those very early silents are hard to understand by nowadays’ standards, but we must keep in mind that cinema has evolved very fast, particularly in its first 3 decades.

Something that can be easily noticed in those films is that life at that time compared with the one we have nowadays clearly revolved around manual labor, both to men and women.

This can be easily noticed, in slapstick films in general, such as Mabel Normand’s films by Keystone Studios. She was a rather athletic actress, who did most of her own stunts, which was not uncommon in early Hollywood and already in 1910ies we can see a long list of daredevil stars who did so. At that time not even domestic duties were a piece of cake. Many women used entire days to simply wash their clothes, for example. We also may not forget that in countries like the United States, in the first years of cinema, especially until 1915, when feature films established themselves, most of the audience of those short films were laborers and immigrants, the ones who were more involved with that manual labor.

Those events were not only related to rural life and habits, but also to news and urban life. An example of technology being readily shown in films is that trains were commonplace throughout the silent era, from Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (1896) to standard Hollywood productions like The General (1926). After all, cinema itself was a result of fast industrialization that started in the Northern Hemisphere as of middle XIX century, so it is natural that it portrays the wonders of recent inventions.

Let’s take a look at one of Normand’s films and briefly analyze some factors. In the short film A Dash Through the Clouds (1912), Normand in the beginning of the film enters an airplane that is rather fragile for nowaday’s standards.

Those films were somehow important for women’s rights, especially because women were commonly depicted as brave and intelligent enough to be out of trouble due to their own ingenuity, rather than being rescued by a protective man. An example of this new type of heroine can be seen in the serial The Hazards of Helen, released between 1914 and 1917. Even though in other films women were still portrayed as fragile little creatures who fainted at every little difficulty, we can consider it good progress towards acknowledging women could be as skilled and strong as men. Evidence of that is the featured image of this article. Despite being usually shown as a Victorian beauty, a little girl, always kind and fragile, Actress Mary Pickford (1892-1979) in real life was a real pioneer and responsible for many aspects of film making and the first female superstar Hollywood ever produced. But that is another story.

Some Comments About the Silent Era

The so-called silent era officially spanned from 1895 to 1927, even though those dates are still controversial, from the first films being shown by Lumière brothers until the release of The Jazz Singer, which is considered the first talkie. Let’s just not focus on other landmarks and use those dates to delimit the silent era.

Many people claim they cannot understand silent films properly. I mean, films made at the end of silent era, after the main American studios like Universal, Fox, Paramount, etc were founded are easier to understand, as narrative structures were already consolidated. Films like The Big Parade (USA, 1925), Ben Hur (USA, 1925), Wings (USA, 1927), Sunrise (USA, 1927), Metropolis (Germany, 1927) and so on and so forth can be much more technologically advanced than we can expect. In other words, their stories are told according to standards that can be comparable with modern films.

However, when we see the films produced on first years of silent era, until around 1915, when D.W. Griffith revolutionized film making with the highly controversial The Birth of a Nation (USA, 1915), we realize they are much more difficult to understand. It happens for some reasons, one of them is that it took a while until cinema got to develop its own “language” and “grammar”, so films were really connected to popular forms of culture, such as vaudeville, circus, magic, fair attractions, magic lantern, which were very popular ways people had fun in the end of XIX century, beginning of XX century. Such representations were opposed to more classic forms of art, such as literature and painting, theatre, etc.

Therefore, it really comes as no surprise that in those first years films were not shown in places where they were the only attraction, they shared the same space as other types of mass distraction, such as vaudevilles and burlesque shows. Mass media was advancing, so, for instance, newspapers had been much more common since XIX century already, news were spread more easily, novels were being read by more people and in many countries urbanization was advancing, which represented a small revolution in the typical peasant life. So, films were a result of all those changes brought about by industrialization and technology. In other words, a completely new world opened up for people and they felt deeply insecure at first.

Sensationalism also started being more widespread, specially because it did help selling more newspapers (Some things don’t ever change, huh?). But it was not only that. The grotesque sensationalism was not only connected with economic exploitation, but it was also a way of people representing their feeling of vulnerability and insecurity in this new urban environment. 

Thus, many references of early films can be seen in elements of popular culture like current jokes, news, songs, famous plays, novels, etc. So, the audience somehow already knew the plot. Some films that represent this trend are Uncle Tom’s Cabin (USA, 1903), Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (USA, 1905), The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (USA, 1905), etc. 

Everyday life was shown in many short films since the first short films were shot by Lumière (for example:  Démolition d'un mur (1896), among others) and Edison. An aspect of private life that was particularly highlighted were public spaces, as in films like Great Train Robbery (1903) and Romance of the Rail (1903). One might say those very early silents are hard to understand by nowadays' standards, but we must keep in mind that cinema has evolved very fast, particularly in their first 3 decades.

Something that can be easily noticed in those films is that life at that time compared with the one we have nowadays clearly revolved around manual labor, both to men and women.

This can be easily noticed, in slapstick films in general, such as Mabel Normand’s films by Keystone Studios. She was a rather athletic actress, who did most of her own stunts, which was not uncommon in early Hollywood and already in 1910ies we can see a long list of daredevil stars who did so. At that time not even domestic duties were a piece of cake. Many women used entire days to simply wash their clothes, for example. We also may not forget that in countries like the United States, in the first years of cinema, specially until 1915, when feature films established themselves, most of the audience of those short films were laborers and immigrants, the ones who were more involved with those manual labor.

Those events were not only related to rural life and habits, but also to news and urban life. An example of technology being readily shown in films is that trains were a commonplace throughout the silent era, from Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (1896) to standard Hollywood production, like The General (1926). After all, cinema itself was a result of fast industrialization that started in Northern Hemisphere as of middle XIX century, so it is natural it portrays the wonders of recent invents.

Let’s take a look at one of her films and briefly analyze some factors. In the short film A Dash Through the Clouds (1912) Mabel in the beginning of film enters an airplane that is rather fragile for nowaday’s standards.

Those films were somehow important for women’s rights, specially because women were commonly depicted as brave and intelligent enough to be out of trouble due to their own ingenuity, rather than being rescued by a protective man. Na example of this new type of heroine can be seen in the serial The Hazards of Helen released between 1914 and 1917. Even though in other films women were still portrayed as fragile little creatures who fainted at every little difficulty, we can consider it a good progress towards acknowledging women could be as skilled and strong as men. An evidence of that is the featured image of this article. Despite being usually shown as a Victorian beauty, a little girl, always kind and fragile, Mary Pickford in the real life was a real pioneer and was responsible for many aspects of film making and the first female super star Hollywood ever produced. But that is another story.

The Parson's Widow (Sweden, 1920)

If not all that glitters is gold, not everything that looks ugly is really hideous.
The film starts with a invocation to nature and the bucolic life of the countryside of a Scandinavian spot. The countrymen wore those typical peasant clothes and lived in typical landscapes of forests, lots of spaces of untouched nature and rivers.
A new parson must be elected in a village in 17th century Norway. Sofren was applying for the vacant post after having struggled hardship for years. His sweetheart Mari had remained faithfully by his side and waited for him during his years of difficulties. Mari’s father will not allow Sofren to marry her until Sofren is truly a parson. Sofren’s two rivals to the post had the utmost faith that they would win based on their beautiful clothes and education they received in Copenhagen, which implied that those fellows had a more sophisticated background than Sofren’s. Anyway, the competition was fierce, specially because the education did not prevent Sofren’s opponents from being either too boring or too ridiculous and the congregation did not find their sermons particularly interesting.
The congregation had appointed five wise and trusted men to decide who would be chosen as the new parson and Sofren was chosen. But there was a problem, which was the fact that according to the laws of the parish, Sofren was supposed to get married to Dame Margerete, who was the widow of last parson and much older than him. And Dame Margerte insisted on her right to be married. To make things worse, Sofren had heard she might be a witch and it would be the fourth time that Dame Margerete was marrying in such circumstances. She was not marrying due to sentimental reasons, but merely because it was her only way to keep the house and managing it, as she felt she was too old to leave the household she got so attached to.
Sofren and Mari decided it would be better if he married the widow, so he could become parson and when the widow died he would marry Mari. Meanwhile, Mari would live with them pretending to be Sofren’s sister and help with the house tasks. Sofren also tried to be “the master of the house” and give the orders there, but unfortunately to him the widow made it really clear that he would not be in charge of the household matters.
Time passed, Dame Margerete had not died yet and Sofren did not have any close contact with Mari, specially because the widow (who was now Sofren’s wife) had both her eyes on his whereabouts.
But one day Mari unexpectedly had a domestic fall and seriously hurt her leg. More time passed and Sofren grew fond of Dame Margerete because she had taken care of Mari day and night with lots of care. Surprisingly, Dame Margerete implied she knew that Sofren and Mari were not siblings and she also told them that she lived in similar circumstances with her first husband before they both got married.
Finally, the widow passed away, Mari and Sofren eventually got to marry and the memory of Dame Margerete was fondly kept in their minds for a long time afterwards. A sentimental end to a film that is a mix of comedy, folklore (specially in the dancing scenes), romance and drama. A romanticized view of peasantry life. Good use of landscapes and photography in a subtle humor frame, different from the marks slapstick x situational comedies, which were so much used in Hollywood at that time. The jokes are not necessarily meant to make the audiences laugh but to highlight that people could be more sneaky than they looked like at first. The most funny moments were provided by Sofren and his wide range of reactions throughout the film (sadness, happiness, gratitude, despair, etc)

The Water Nymph (USA,1912)

This early film by Keystone studios is more famous for its historical context than its rather simple plot and it is amazing how much history this split reel can have (A “split reel” was a film shorter than a one reeler, which means it lasted less than 11 minutes). It portrays a era when the leisure options of working class and middle class citizens were changing and it was still relatively new to go to the beach to swim. Bathing suits were also a new phenomena and still a bit frowned upon. So, seeing Mabel in a trampoline, jumping on the water in such relaxed way was something really groundbreaking because many women have just started to enjoy their free time this way.
Mack Sennett already directed and acted in comedies in his prior studio, Biograph, the same studio that gave D. W. Griffith to the world. But in Keystone studios, Sennett got to put his own style in the comedies, with characters making broad gestures, showing lives of working class citizens in a fast pace, lots of physical gags and risky stunts, without the melodrama touch of his films at Biograph studios.
Another interesting characteristic of the output of Keystone studios was making fun of well-established social institutions, specially authorities (the Keystone cops being the most famous example of it) and romantic relationships, like marriages, for instance. The latter would be even more deeply spoofed in situational comedies of 1920s of both Keystone studios and other ones.
Mack and Mabel were sweehearts, but Mabel had not met Mack’s parents yet. Thus, Mack had the idea of playing a trick on his flirtatious father by asking Mabel to vamp him (which would mean to seduce him in nowadays’ terms) while everyone was on the beach in a sunny day.
Nevertheless, one of intertitles implies that Mack’s father was not exactly a faithful husband (“Mack’s Papa, a faithful husband when locked in at home”) and he predictably got too carried away with Mabel until the moment Mack tells him she is his own girlfriend.
Another noteworthy thing are the dexterous stunts of Mabel Normand in the trampoline and how skilled she was as a swimmer. This film is a really precious witness of a society whose urbanization was happening really fast for the era’s standards and of the new world of entertainment and delight that was being opened to people beyond the borders of the countryside. Without mentioning that this film could have been the inspiration for the famous Sennett’s Bathing Beauties, that would be released by the studio some years later. 

For Better - But Worse (USA,1915)

A typical film by Keystone studio with misunderstandings, chases, the Keystone cops, flirting, a park and physical gags, but it is as hilarious nowadays as it was 100 years ago. Although the Keystone studios was active for 21 years (from 1912 to 1933) with a wide range of comedies, from one reelers to feature length films and from rough slapstick to situational comedies, this studio became more famous for its output in 1910ies, which usually included the aforementioned elements. 

The police chief had a beautiful daughter and one day, when he said good bye to her and went to work, we could see that in a nearby house a woman ordered her husband to walk their dog. We could see that the woman was rather bossy and that the husband was not exactly happy in his household. 

However, the daughter of the police chief had a sweetheart, who left her a note asking her to meet him in the park. The neighbor walked his dog in the park and got enchanted by the girl and, even though he was married, he tried to be too close to the girl. Her sweetheart arrived, saw that the unknown man was making advances towards his girlfriend and kicked the stranger out. 

However, the married neighbor did not give up and he hired some tough guys to help him kidnap the girl by putting her in a big bag and run away with her (the gag of kidnapping a girl by throwing her in a big bag would be subsequently repeated in other films by this studio, such as The Grab Bag Bride, shot in 1917, among others). For this purpose, the neighbor left a note in the girl’s house asking him to meet him in the park, pretending it was her boyfriend who left it there.

But the neighbor’s wife found out there was something wrong and went outside looking for her husband and the tough guys approached her, thinking she was the girl and ended up kidnapping the wife by mistake. The girl’s boyfriend saw the kidnapping and he thought it was his girlfriend who had been the victim and he called the police (in this case, the Keystone cops). The girl arrived at the place and, after witnessing all mess, she thought her boyfriend was in danger and a chase involving nearly all characters of the film started. 

There was the expected happy ending, with the Keystone cops catching the criminals and causing lots of destruction during the chase. The chase was noteworthy for having involved as many means of transportation as possible, which is a cool historical witness of the modernization of transport in the 1910s, when horses shared the outdoors space with cars and streetcars. 

When the chase was over, the married neighbor realized he had kidnapped his own wife by mistake and fainted because he knew there would be serious trouble to him both in and out of home. The girl and her boyfriend were happily reunited and her father to admit that her boyfriend was a brave young man and approve of their relationship.

This film may seem predictable for nowadays’ audiences, but its gags were full of action, innovative and funny for its era and still retain their charm, mostly for the competence of the comedians and the freshness of seeing all those physical gags being performed without stuntmen, grounded on the physical skills of the actors engaging in gags that still relied on improvisation and intuition. This created films with universal appeal, which could be understood by nearly everyone, regardless of culture and it explains why those films are still so funny nowadays. 

The Curtain Pole (USA,1909)

In addition to be a valuable historical witness of a era gone a long time ago, when cars were still rather new, hats were commonly worn by both men and women, etc this film is also famous for having placed together two people, who were then working for a studio which would become a integral part of history of cinema, D.W.Griffith, Mack Sennett and Biograph studios. Although they both started their cinematic careers in the same studio and were even friends in real life, their careers would turn completely different ways only some years later. 

One of few common points among both Griffith and Sennett is that both of them gave up acting in favor of directing, Griffith having remained a director throughout his career and Sennett having given up firstly acting, then directing during his first years with Keystone studios, to focus only on being a studio mogul, with he was until his studio was closed in 1933. 

It is definitively unusual to realize that Griffith directed a slapstick comedy with such simplistic plot, but we must have in mind that Griffith was still at the very beginning of his career as a director, after previously been a actor. His first directorial experience was in Biograph studios, after having briefly been a actor there. At this same studio, Mack Sennett began his career before founding the Keystone Studios in 1912. 

Sennett (who is barely recognizable due to a fake mustache and a disguise) is in a party in a upper class residence (the very opposite to sceneries of his subsequent comedies with Keystone studios, which usually portrayed the reality of working class citizens) and inadvertently breaks the curtain pole of the owner of the house. He volunteers to buy a new one, but ended up tripping and hitting everyone on the street with the pole on his way back to the house were he was, which caused Sennett to be chased by nearly everyone he upset. 

Against all odds, Sennett managed to return to the house, but the pole had already been replaced. The final scene shows him chewing the curtain pole out of frustration.

It is impossible not to see the similarity with 1910s films by Keystone studios, whose one of main characteristics were the fast-paced chases. Who could guess that a film with uneventful gags, broad gestures and no psychological deepening of characters could be a sample of history if cinema? Although not a particularly funny film, it is still very worthy of being watched by nowadays’ audiences. 

Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs (USA,1918)

Back to a time when flirting on the beach was not something common yet and women in bathing suits was a new phenomena. The style of girls on the beach had a close resemblance to the Bathing Beauties of Mack Sennett studios, which signals a spoofing of the rival studio by Larry Semon, of Vitagraph Studios. The style of this film is very different from usual films by Semon, which were usually very cartoom-like (Semon used to be a cartoonist in real life) and with expensive special effects. It is also uncommon to see a studio spoofing each other. 

In this film, we see a mix of usual 1910s gags, like people running and falling on water from a pier together with more uncommon gags, like the one where Semon flirted with a woman by holding her hand behind na unbrella and all that the audiences could see were shades of the hands, among other interesting stuff. The pace is also slower than those of traditional slapstick comedies, even when total chaos happened. 

It is also noteworthy to see that the initial gag of a guy hidden on the sand with a “monocle” was also used in other 1920s shorts, specially by comedian Billy Bevan, with quite funny effects. The gags were also innovative for its era, making the most of sunny beaches, beautiful girls and flirty guys. 

Another remarkable thing is the insensitive jokes on both black and chubby people, back to a era when being politically correct was not a habit. The gag towards the black woman and how offended Semon was upon realizing he was flirting with her and her answer in a intertitle with a clearly substandard English is even disturbing for nowadays’ standards. 

The plot itself is very simple and it revolved about Semon trying to impress the father of his sweetheart by staging a fake robbery, but unfortunately a real crime happened and he had to solve this problem. 

This cute, weird comedy provides lots of fun and it is the witness of the culture of a era when attending the beach to swim and getting a tan was slowly becoming more common and how it could still be daring for some people. A lifestyle that was gone a long time ago, but quite enjoyable anyway.

Fatty's Reckless Fling (USA,1915)

During his first years with Keystone studios, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle often played the roles of helpless men, who could not control themselves and acted like grown up children. His comedic style also lacked the sophistication it would acquire later in 1910s upon his pairing with Buster Keaton. So, Arbuckle’s films during his stay at the studio employed lots of physical gags, knockabout slapstick around ordinary plots. However, he proved to be very popular among audiences since the beginning of his career on early 1910s until a scandal pematurely ended it in 1921. 

Henpecked husbands were a common theme in silent comedies and had their heyday in situational comedies of 1920s, although they have been around in previous decades. Arbuckle himself often played this sort of role. Another common element were misunderstandings, usually around socially inadequate behaviors and etiquette. 

This film have all aforementioned elements, plus actors with broad, exaggerated gestures. Arbuckle is a henpecked husband by a wife who is domineering, to the point of being rude. Apparently, whenever his wife left him alone he found himself in trouble and, after being caught in a poker game, Arbuckle was locked at home by his wife while she was away.  

Arbuckle found a way to leave his apartment. Meanwhile, another neighbor left his house and said good bye to his wife. Unfortunately, the poker players were interrupted by the police and a fight ensued, which gave room to some really silly gags, including typical shots of smoke on actor’s buttocks and messy scenery. 

As Arbuckle did not manage to return to his apartment, he found shelter in the neighbor’s house and it made people think he was romantically involved with the wife of his neighbor. This conflict provided the funniest gags of the film, specially one with a bed coming and going between both apartments. 

Although this film is not very funny, its plot is easy to follow and it provides a precious historical witness of typical slapstick comedies of 1910s and it has a plenty of action for a film of one reel (around 11 minutes). 

Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (USA,1925)

Although many people associate Mack Sennett with 1910s slapstick comedies with frantic pace, damsels in distress, awkward cops, custard pies, villains with bizarre fake mustaches, etc. his studio always managed to adjust well to changing tastes of audiences, different comedic styles and even new technologies. 

In the 1920s, Mack Sennett studios (which was also known as Keystone studios in the first years of its foundation back to the previous decade) made situational comedies (with slower pace, less focus on physical gags and more realistic situations than the so-called slapstick comedies). 

Sennett also made very original comedies back to 1920s, specially with actors like Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, etc. with a mix of slow and fast paces, witty intertitles, frequent explosions, cartoon-like special effects, objects that sometimes seemed to have a life of their own and nearly bizarre subject matters. A plenty of those films were directed by del Lord, who would later become known for his work with The Three Stooges. This film has all aforementioned characteristics. 

Burbank Watts is a inventor who tried “to get power for autos from the hot air wasted on radio speeches”. Do not worry if it does not make sense to you. This statement is not supposed to make much sense anyway. Just keep in mind that this new technology meant that cars would work without gasoline. Actually, the technology worked a bit too well, as cars started to move all by themselves, sometimes even without drivers in. 

Other characters of the film, among others, are Hiram Case, who was his helper, and did not seem to be very skilled. Winnie Watts was the inventor’s daughter.

It is also noteworthy that this new technology upset the oil merchant of the town and, to make things worse, he was also interested in the inventor’s daughter. The oil merchant tried to prevent this new technology from taking off, but the inventor’s assistant did not allow any sabotage to occur. As a bonus, the love of the inventor’s daughter went to his assistant and the oil merchant ended up being arrested

A particularly funny gag in this film with a car out of gas really reminded of ones made by Hal Roach studios to films of Snub Pollard (It’s a Gift, USA/1923) and Laurel & Hardy (Two Tars, USA/1928). This cute, weird comedy has its moments of fun, lots of creativity and it is still funny and amusing, even to nowadays’ audiences.

Roughest Africa (USA, 1923)

Another film by English actor Stan Laurel before his successful regular pairing with Oliver Hardy. Laurel had been in films for around 10 years before he started working with Hardy, mostly in films that did not stand out both in quality or humor. Perhaps, were not for the Laurel & Hardy duo, if those comedians kept on working on their own, they could ran the risk of not having their proper place in the history of cinema.

Despite having a kinda original plot for a situational comedy, the material of this film has average quality and does not provide much laughter. It is a politically incorrect film for nowadays’ standards because the characters are supposed to hunt animals, including a scene where Laurel tries to shoot a elephant. Although the animal was not hurt, such scene would be of bad taste for current standards. The scene where the elephant swallows a gun is also far from pleasant.

The film remains interesting, as it spoofs  travelogues that showed “exotic” parts of the world, their native populations, wildlife, landscapes, etc, often with a imperialist tone. Such documentaries were into fashion in the first decades of XX century.

Some pioneers are in Africa, although they really lack the bravery they were supposed to have. The scenery and natives look terribly fake already on first sight. The natives, for instance, were white acctors in black face, with make up that was far from sophisticated even to its own era. 

The pioneers face unfriendly natives and wild animals. Not surprisingly, they really lack any hunting skill whatsoever and it is apparently easier to them to shoot each other than to shoot a animal. 

Still talking about animals, it is not hard for nowadays’ audiences realize that neither bears nor Asian elephants are native species of Africa and even the fauna around the actors sometimes look really like the fauna of Northern America. A mistake that would not really go unnoticed in a current film. 

The interaction between people and animals in the jungle and the attempt of pioneers to film the animals provide the input to the gags of this film. The plot became old with time, but this film retains some historical value of an era when hunting animals to death was considered an accomplishment and socially acceptable.

Should Sailors Marry? (USA,1925)

The diminutive Australian-born comedian Clyde Cook was one of many comedians who ended up being forgotten as time passed, although he was quite popular in his era and had a long career that spanned even to talkies. His heyday was on Hal Roach studios in the 1920s. He was known by his acrobatic skills, which unfortunately were not always portrayed in his films. His films were not quit original or funny and were often a bit below average, specially in comparison with the work of more famous comedians like Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon, etc., which can partially explain why Clyde Cook’s popularity did not endure for too long. 

In this film, Cook portrays a physically fragile sailor, who had some savings and corresponded with a woman who he was about to meet with the intention to marry her.

What the sailor did not know is that this woman paid alimony to her first husband and intended to remarry in an attempt to take money from him, so she could still pay the alimony to her ex. So, she had a plan with her ex husband to make the sailor remain married to her for as long as possible, so her ex would have a guaranteed source of income. The help of her ex husband would prove valuable because, after all, he could use his physical skills as a wrestler to physically threaten the sailor. 

When both the woman and the sailor met, things turned out to be a nightmare to the latter. The woman was not as beautiful as she claimed she was and was rather tough. To make things worse, he moved to her house and was introduced to her two children, who were quite misbehaved and, to add insult to injury, her first husband still lived at home. 

After a while, the woman found out that her new husband (the sailor) had lost all his savings and she decided to make him work in a hazardous job. To make the most of his labor, she purchased a insurance policy, which would pay her in case an accident happened to her husband. So, both the woman and her ex wrestling husband make up a plan to kill the sailor at work. But the plan backfired and he escaped both the marriage and the accident with his life.

This film is interesting due to a participation of Oliver Hardy as a doctor who was examining the sailor, prior to his pairing with Oliver Hardy. Hardy’s scene was among the funniest of the film. Although the gags were not very funny, the final gags outdoors, when the sailor was fighting for his life were pretty ingenious for both camera use and special effects. 

Dog Shy (USA,1926)

Charley Chase was a talented American comedian, who started his career in films in the 1910s and had his heyday in situational comedies of Hal Roach studios in 1920s, both as a actor and director, where he worked in many successful films. During his association with Hal Roach studios he kept the screen persona of a guy with realistic appearance and body language in detriment of knockabout slapstick. 

This film has a relatively straightforward plot for a situational comedy. Chase plays the role of a man who has been afraid of dogs since early childhood and while running away from a dog on the street he ended up entering a telephone booth. Right before he entered there was another man in the booth, who left in order to get another nickel to drop in and continue to talk to a girl. Chase picked up the phone and talked to the girl on the other side of line and found out she was being forced by her parents to marry a nobleman. The nobleman was that guy inside the booth before Chase arrived. 

Chase wanted to help the girl to avoid the arranged marriage, but he did not have time to find out more about her, like her address, etc. because the call was interrupted by her mother.

Then, Chase is chased by a dog again and by complete chance he ended up at the girl’s house. Due to a misunderstanding, he also found himself with a recommendation letter to apply for a job in that house as a butler. At first, Chase is not interested in the job, but when he saw the guy from the telephone booth entering the house he connected the dots. He recognized the guy as being the nobleman, realized he was at the girl’s house and accepted to be the butler of her family. 

The nobleman proved to be very popular among all girls in a social gathering at the house. After some problems to find his girl among all other girls, Chase started doing his tasks as a butler. His first duty was to give The Duke a bath. Duke was the dog of the house, but he thought he was supposed to bath the nobleman instead. This misunderstanding created some of funniest scenes of the film, specially because the girl’s mother told the butler that if Duke was hard to handle, he could use force with him, if necessary. 

So, the nobleman was almost forced to take a bath, but Chase eventually found the right Duke and he had to bath the dog despite his fear of dogs. But it would not be the end of the problems.

The nobleman was actually a crook, who wanted to steal the house’s safe, the girl’s father wanted to get rid of the dog and Chase and the girl wanted to elope. So, all of them would do those things at midnight and they would howl like a dog as a signal and their respective accomplices would howl back. 

Of course that all those people howling at the same time and all those overlapped facts caused a major chaos, but it was all for the best. The crook ended up being caught, nothing was stolen and Chase was considered a hero by the girl’s family, which made things quite easy for them to marry. Eloping was no longer necessary.

Although this film is not particularly funny (except, perhaps, for the bathing scenes), it is still entertaining enough, with a realistic pacing and gentle humor. Sometimes Charley Chase gesticulates a little too much, but it was nothing in comparison with the broad, exaggerated gestures of actors of slapstick comedies. It is also interesting to see that Chase did speak most of the time during the film and it is even possible the audience do a plenty of lip reading. 

Just Rambling Along (USA,1918)

Although this film is rather simple and not particularly innovative, it has a big historic value. It is a example of one of first films Stan Laurel made for Hal Roach before being paired with Oliver Hardy and reaching international fame. It was in Hal Roach studios where Laurel and Hardy started working together in the 1920s and where many of their films were made. 

This film is also noteworthy because it shows actress Clarine E. Seymour in a comedy. She became famous for her association with dramas by director D.W. Griffith, which also gave her a chance to work with famous actors like Robert Harron and Lillian Gish. Her career seemed to be promising, but we will never know how it would develop because she died at only 21 years old in 1920. Seymour’s most famous film is probably True Heart Susie, by Griffith, which was made in 1919. 

This film shows a amoral character, played by Stan Laurel, who has some resemblance with Chaplin in both body language and for being a kind of society’s outcast. After a fight with a kid about who would take a wallet that was found on the sidewalk, Laurel followed a beautiful woman into a restaurant and started to flirt with her. Actually, many men followed the woman and it seems she had flirted with them on purpose in order to attract clients to the restaurant. 

However, to go to the restaurant Laurel supposed to have money to pay for the food. Apparently, he was previously known to employees of the place and not welcome there. Laurel solved his financial problem by stealing the money from a kid on the street. The woman was not really flattered with Laurel’s advancements and ignored him completely, but he did not give up. In addition to flirt with the woman, Laurel also did all he could to get as much food as possible without paying and his plan worked well at first. 

But when the bill finally arrived, Laurel did not have enough money to pay for it and he ran away from the restaurant. Unfortunately, on his way out, he bumped into a cop who has been called by the kid whose money he had stolen before entering the restaurant. In an attempt to hide from the cop, he returned to the restaurant and the employees took revenge on Laurel by beating him up. 

Wicked Darling (The) - Tod Browning - 1919

Tartuffe (Herr Tartüff) - F.W. Murnau - 1925

L'homme du large - Marcel L'Herbier - 1920

Le Bled - Jean Renoir - 1929

La souriante Madame Beudet - Germaine Dulac - 1923

For Better, For Worse - Cecil B. DeMille - 1919

Down to Earth - John Emerson - 1917

Die Augen der Mumie Ma (The Eyes of the Mummy) - Ernst Lubitsch - 1918

Am Rande der Welt - Karl Grune -1927

A tolonc (The Undesirable) - Michael Curtiz (as Kertész Mihály) - 1915

Max Takes a Bath (France,1910)

Max Linder, the pioneer of French comedy, managed to develop a quite simple plot, keeping his subtle, naturalistic acting without broad gestures or loosing the typical dignity of his character, who was merely a normal man who suddenly found himself in trouble. Although his character was by no means rich, he was a honest citizens with morals. 

In this film Max had problems with nervous twitching, went to the doctor and was prescribed a cold bath every day for one month, as the first intertitle says. An interesting detail in this initial scene is the beautiful chair where Max sits in, which is worthy paying attention. He is also shown as having some tics, but never in a goofy way. He was a rather serious man, who was trying to treat his health problem. 

However, Max did not have a bathtub at home. He solved this problem by buying a ornate bathtub, but problems started as soon as he left the store and did not find anyone who would take the bathtub home to him. Thus, the only solution was to bring it home on his own back, which took Max lots of physical effort. 

Problems seemed solved when Max got to take the bathtub to his apartment, but it was only the beginning of all trouble because he had not previously realized there was no tap in his home. The closest tap available was in the nearby corridor. So, he thought he could go outside and fill the tub with one jar of water at a time.

Realizing it would take too long, he decided to bring the bathtub to the corridor and take a bath there, but it was when all problems escalated. Obviously, neighbors did not like to see Max wetting the corridor and washing himself in public and the police was called.

He was taken to the police department together with the bathtub, a discussion happened and Max got to run away in the middle of the chaos and, again, he left together with his bathtub. A chase takes place and even a dog was involved. 

Then, one of the most interesting moments of the film is when Max climbs the building while he was still in the bathtub. It is pretty obvious that the scenery was actually painted on the floor. Although the camera was apparently suspended, the drawings on the floor are too obvious to pass undetected. But it was a pretty ingenious special effect for 1910. Max got to enter his building by the roof and got rid of his chasers by hitting them with the bathtub and this is how the film ends. Considering this film is a one reeler (lasting around 11 minutes, sometimes even slightly less), the sudden ends were a consequence of time constraints and not necessarily a result of bad quality of the film. 

Although this short comedy was not particularly innovative (even the painted scenery was relatively common in films up to 1910) it is entertaining enough and is very historically valuable because it gives a example of how very early comedies were made.