Monday, February 20, 2012

No Noise - 1923


Country: United States
Director: Robert F. McGowan
Writers: Hal Roach (story), H.M. Walker (titles)
Stars: Charles A. Bachman, Joe Cobb and Jackie Condon
Release Date: 23 September 1923 (USA)
Production Co: Hal Roach Studios
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Chase | Human Skeleton | Our Gang | Hospital | X Ray Machine  |  Tonsillitis | X Ray | Skeleton | Scare | Castor Oil | Animate Skeleton | Hospital Visit | Skeleton Mask | Tonsils | Tonsillectomy | Children | Actor Shares First Name With Character
Genres: Comedy | Family | Short
"No Noise" is an interesting early silent Our Gang comedy involving the gang visiting Mickey Daniels in the hospital and running wild in said institution. The doctors try to scare them away and.....watch the results and laugh! Although a few of the gags are elaborate for a 1920's comedy (those involving the x-ray machine in particular), the naturalness and likability of the kids make this a winner, as is the case with most of the Gang/Rascals films. Some of the PC killjoys will shudder at seeing the doctors ham it up by scaring the kids while chasing them with saws, but most viewers to have enough sense to lighten up and see this for what it is, for entertainment purposes only and let the PC crowd gag on DVD's of the nauseating Care Bears and Barney the Dinosaur.
It may be surprising that the richly comic device of the Gang on the loose in a hospital was rarely repeated in later Gang/rascals comedies that most viewers are familiar with, but the syrup and Castor oil gag with Mickey Daneils and his nurse was remade with Dickie Moore in "Free Wheeling" (itself a remake of the silent "Tire Trouble" and "One Wild Ride"-Hal Roach and Bob McGowan were really big on self-referencing) and this episode was redone in the later MGM post Little Rascals Our Gang comedy "Men in Fright," with Alfalfa reprising Mickey Daniels' role. Like other early Gang films, it is a truly pleasant way to spend 20 minutes.

The Last of the Mohicans - 1920


Country: United States
Language: English (intertitles)
Directors: Clarence Brown, Maurice Tourneur
Writers: James Fenimore Cooper (novel), Robert Dillon (scenario)
Stars: Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford and Alan Roscoe
Release Date: 21 November 1920 (USA)
Also known as: Az utolsó mohikán (Hungary), Der letzte Mohikaner (Germany), El último Mohicano (Spain), Le dernier des Mohicans (France), O Último dos Mohicanos (Portugal), Ostatni Mohikanin (Poland)
Filming locations: Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA; Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Production Co: Maurice Tourneur Productions
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1995.
Plot Keywords: French | Rescue | Huron Indian | New York | Interracial Relationship  | Explosion | Siege | Native American Attack | Gunfire | Hatchet | Guide | Scout | Delaware Indian | Traitor | Massacre | Fort | Murder | Gunpowder | Pioneer Life | Falling From Height | Funeral | French Indian Wars | 1750s | Knifing | Mohican Indian | Deception | Sister | Informant | Fight | Based On Novel
Genres: Adventure | Drama
As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.

Going Straight - 1916


Country: USA
Language: English
Directors: Chester M. Franklin, Sidney Franklin
Writer: Bernard McConville
Stars: Norma Talmadge, Ralph Lewis and Ninon Fovieri
Release Date: 4 June 1916 (USA)
Also known as:  Corruption (undefined), Playmates (USA - working title), Uskollinen nainen (Finland)
Production Co: Fine Arts Film Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White (tinted)
Plot Keywords: Blackmail | Flashback | Safecracking | Rehabilitation
Taglines: Have we killed him?
Genres: Crime | Drama
A man and his wife both have criminal pasts, but have quit crime and are now respectable citizens. One day a member of their old gang shows up and threatens to expose them if they don't help him pull a heist.