L'Odissea - 1911

Country: Italy

Language: Italian

Directors: Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, Adolfo Padovan

Writer: Homer

Stars: Giuseppe de Liguoro, Ubaldo Maria Del Colle and Eugenia Tettoni Fior

Release Date: February 1912 (USA)

Also known as: De dwaalwegen van Odysseus (Netherlands - informal literal title); Die Irrfahrten des Odysseus (Germany); Homer's Odyssey (USA); L'odissea di Omero (Italy - alternative title); L'odyssée (Switzerland - French title); L'odyssée d'Homère (France);

Odisea de Homero (Spain); Odyssee (Austria); Odysseian harharetket (Finland)

Production Co: Milano Film

Sound Mix: Silent

Taglines: Homer's Odissey appeals to every one. It's a story of love, death, passion and destruction. The greatest epic poem the world has ever had. It has lived for centuries, the film will too.

Color: Black and White

Genres: Drama | Adventure | Fantasy

One of hundreds of movies produced by Milano films, L'Odissea is good enough to let us know why Italy was one of the world's top film producers before WWI. At a time in which most films ran for about 10-12 minutes, this half an hour film (part of it is said to be missing, so its length could be even longer) is quite an accomplishment.

The Oddysey is told to every last detail: from the departure from Ithaca to the adventures involving the cyclops Polyphemus, the sirens, the monster Scylla, the nymph Calypso, Nausicaa and her father Alcinous, the return of Ulysses and his fight against the suitors disguised as a beggar. The style is a little old-fashioned (anything prior to The Birth of a Nation could be considered as such) but the intertitles guide us very well throughout the entire movie (contrary to others in which we can easily get lost, take L'assommoir (1909) as an example). The special effects are good enough: Polyphemus is huge compared to Ulysses and his crew, and Scylla is quite impressive for a 1910 monster. 

Arizona Days - 1928

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: J.P. McGowan

Writers: Brysis Coleman (story), Mack V. Wright (adaptation)

Stars: Bob Custer, Peggy Montgomery and J.P. McGowan

Release Date: 1 August 1928 (USA)

Also known as: Kakourgoi kata liston (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)

Production Co: El Dorado Productions

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Undercover Agent | Rustling | Dude | Arizona | B Movie  | Branding Iron | B Western | Rancher | Held At Gunpoint | Anger | Poverty Row Film | Rustler | Gay Character | Henchman | Father Daughter Relationship | Cattleman | Cattle | Cattle Drive | Chases On Horseback | Chewing Tobacco | Spitting | Deceit | Cattleman Association | Sheriff | Falling Off Horse | Gunfire | Sweating | State In Title | Bandana | Englishman | Stock Footage | Cigarette Smoking | Public Domain | Gang Member | Low Budget Film | Gang Leader | Ranch

Genres: Action | Western

To stop the rustling of Hicks, Martin turns to the Cattlemen's Association. They send undercover agent Drexel who sets a trap for the gang. But Drexel's partner Van Wiley, posing as a dude, lets their identity become known putting them in jeopardy.  

A Bird's a Bird - 1915

Country: USA

Director: Edwin Frazee

Writer: Edwin Frazee

Stars: Chester Conklin (Mr. Walrus) , Minta Durfee (Walrus' wife) and Hank Mann (A Foreigner), Al St. John (Pa), Slim Summerville (Mr. Spegle)

Release Date: 8 February 1915 (USA)

Production Co: Keystone Film Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy 

The False Faces - 1919

Country: USA

Director: Irvin Willat

Writers: Louis Joseph Vance (novel), Irvin Willat

Stars: Henry B. Walthall, Mary Anderson and Lon Chaney

Release Date: 16 February 1919 (USA)

Production Co: Paramount Pictures

Runtime: USA: 70 min  | 76 min (DVD)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Lone Wolf | Based On Novel

Genres: Drama

During World War I, a professional thief known as The Lone Wolf is assigned to steal a cylinder with important information from behind the German lines and bring it to Allied intelligence headquarters. However, German agents set out to stop him, headed by the man who was responsible for the death of the thief's sister.

The story for "The False Faces" is taken from a novel by Louis Joseph Vance based on a character he created called 'The Lone Wolf'. Films about WW1 made during WW1 are interesting. The opening stages of Irvin Willat's "The False Faces" hark forward six & eleven years to the battle sequences in "The Big Parade" & "All's Quiet on the Western Front" respectively. Indeed both King Vidor & Lewis Milestone must've viewed portions of this film. 1919 was a break out year for Lon Chaney with "The Wicked Darling", "Victory", and the hugely successful "The Miracle Man". "The False Faces" is Chaney's first film of 1919 so it was probably made while WW1 was still going on(before November 11 1918). The film actually stars Henry B. Walthall as a Sidney Reilly type spy, 'The Lone Wolf'. Quite possibly a double agent. The movie is a potpurri of a spy cheating officials and officials cheating the spy. Director Willat has scenes that occur on board a real passenger liner and later in a submarine. Amazing that Willat could obtain the use of a sub for his film. Chaney plays a man called Ekstrom in several disguises & whom 'The Lone Wolf' harbors a personal vengeance against. Ekstrom is a German w/spiked helmet, an officer on an ocean liner, a sub captain and a shaven adventurer in drawing room back on shore. An actress called Mary Anderson plays the sole female character in this film. A popular and pretty actress in the silents, she's all but forgotten today. Irving Willat's brother, Edwin Willat, is the cinematographer. The print of this film survives generally in good condition but some of the intertitles are so blacked out that they can't be read. Grapevine video actually replaced key titles so to hold the viewer to the story. The latter part of the film tends to get melodramatic. But the highlight scenes are on a real passenger liner(makes some think of the Titanic & Lusitania) and a real submarine with scenes that hark forward to 'Destination Tokyo' and 'Das Boot'. Most films about WW1 made during WW1 tend to be propaganda or over the top grotesque comedies aimed at Germans. This movie is a little bit of both but alas one of the more tamer films compared to others.

Joyless Street - 1925

Country: Germany

Language: German

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers: Hugo Bettauer (novel), F.H. Lyon (translator), Willy Haas (scenario- uncredited)

Stars: Asta Nielsen, Greta Garbo and Agnes Esterhazy 

Also known as: Die freudlose Gasse (Germany - original title); Bag glædernes maske (Denmark); Bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); Bak gledens maske (Norway); Den glädjelösa gatan (Sweden); Den gledesløse gaten (Norway -alternative title); Dromos horis hara (Greece - festival title); Iloton katu (Finland); Joyless Street (UK); La calle sin alegría: bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); La rue sans joie (France); La via senza gioia (Italy); Rua Sem Sol (Portugal); Rua das Lágrimas (Brazil); Ta dramata eis tous oikous anohis (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); The Joyless Street (USA); The Street of Sorrow (USA); Ulica bez radosti (Yugoslavia - literal title - Serbian title); Viennese Love (Canada - English title); Zatracona ulica (Poland)

Production Co: Sofar-Film

Runtime: 125 min  | France: 94 min (1981 restored version)  | Germany: 175 min (1998 restored version at Berlin Film Festival, 16 fps)  | Spain: 109 min  | Belgium: 115 min (copy with English titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)  | Germany: 148 min (1998 restored version at Arte/ZDF, 19 fps)  | 142 min (1998 restored version on DVD, 20 fps)  | Germany: 151 min (2009 DVD, 19 fps)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Trivia

The dark-haired woman waiting in the butcher shop line who is often mistaken for Marlene Dietrich is actually Hertha von Walther. She had a much larger role in the original uncut version of the film. She can also be seen as the lab assistant in Geheimnisse einer Seele with Werner Krauss.

Plot Keywords: Money | Food | Slum | Secretary | Depression  | Brothel | Necklace | American Red Cross | Nightclub | Creditor | Lawyer | Self Pity | Fired From The Job | Fur Coat | Murder | Post World War One | Poverty | Hunger | Sister Sister Relationship | Despair | Pain | Husband Wife Relationship | Anguish | Prostitute | Lodger | Street Life | Prostitution | Coat | Vienna Austria | Inflation | Arrest | Neighbor | Threadbare Coat | Misery | Father Daughter Relationship | Poor | Based On Novel

Genres: Drama

Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid's clients is arrested. He was with her, and had her necklace, because he needed some money for his own stock exchange deals. The same deal brings poverty to ex-government official Rumfort, his daughter Greta, who also has lost her job, tries to get some money to get food. She rents a room of the flat she, her young sister and her father are living in to an American Red Cross official, who pays $60 rent, but the money is taken by some of her father's creditors. But their neighbour, shop owner Mrs Greifer knows how to "help", she and Mrs. Merkel are running a nightclub with a brothel... 

Robinson Kruse - 1927

Country: Sweden

Director: M.A. Wethrell

Producer: Magnus Cedergren

Production Company: Bandbreddsnöje

Audio/Visual: nosound, blank and white

Language: Swedish

Keywords: robinson,kruse,crosoe

Strike - 1925

Country: Soviet Union
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Writers: Sergei M. Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov
Stars: Grigori Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh and Mikhail Gomorov
Also known as: Stachka (Soviet Union - original title); A Greve (Brazil / Portugal); La grève Belgium (French title) / Canada (French title); La huelga (Argentina / Spain); Стачка (Soviet Union - Russian title); Gapitsva (Soviet Union - Georgian title); Grev (Turkey - Turkish title); I apergia (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Lakko (Finland); Sciopero (Italy); Strajk (Poland); Streik (Germany); Strejke (Denmark);
Strejken (Sweden); Strike (International - English title); Sztrájk (Hungary)
Production Co: Goskino, Proletkult
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
The earliest Russian-Soviet film included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
Plot Keywords: Strike | Factory | Spy | Working | Police  |  Public Domain | Tsarist Russia | Anti Capitalism | Water | Society | Experimental Film | Capitalist | Massacre | Infanticide | Violence | Unrest | Demonstration | Class Struggle | Breaking The Fourth Wall | Army vs Civilians | Turmoil | Cult Director | Working Class Family | Labor Movement | Capitalism | Class Society | Social Discontent | Dead Child | Suicide | Labour | One Word Title | Working Class
Genres: Drama
In Russia's factory region during Czarist rule, there's restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there's excitement in workers' households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers.