Bombs! - 1916

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Frank Griffin

Stars: Charles Murray, Louise Fazenda and Mary Thurman

Release Date: 8 October 1916 (USA)

Also known as: Bombs and Blunders (USA - working title), Bombs and Brides (USA - alternative title)

Production Co: Keystone Film Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

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.

The Truth About the North Pole - 1912

Country: Unites States
Film made by Dr. Frederick Cook to substantiate his claim as discoverer of the North Pole and document his treatment by opponents.

The Invaders - 1912

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Writer: C. Gardner Sullivan (scenario - uncredited)

Stars: Francis Ford (Colonel James Bryson), Ethel Grandin (Colonel Bryson's Daughter) and Ann Little (Sky Star)

Release Date: 29 November 1912 (USA)

Production Co: Kay-Bee Pictures

Runtime: 41 min (2004 National Film Preservation Foundation print)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Surveyor | Treaty | U.S. Army | Attack | Cheyenne Tribe  | Stagecoach | Ambush | Engagement | Broken Pact | Smoke Signal | Fire | Hostage | Death | Rescue | Railroad | Battle | Cavalry | Native American Chief | Massacre | Telegraph | Military Officer | Telescope | Land Rights | Native American | Romantic Rivalry | Marriage Proposal | Sioux Tribe | Gunfire | American Indian | Father Daughter Relationship

Genres: Western

The U.S. Army and the Indians sign a peace treaty. However, a group of surveyors trespass on the Indians' land and violate the treaty. The army refuses to listen to the Indians' complaints, and the surveyors are killed by the Indians. A vicious Indian war ensues, culminating in an Indian attack on an army fort.

Trivia

One of the films in the 3-disk boxed DVD set called "More Treasures from American Film Archives (2004)", compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation from 5 American film archives. This film is preserved by the Library of Congress (from the AFI/Blackhawk collection), has a running time of 41 minutes and an added piano score.  

Rapsodia Satanica - 1920

Country: Italy

Director: Nino Oxilia

Writers: Alberto Fassini (screenplay), Alberto Fassini (story), Fausto Maria Martini (poem)

Stars: Lyda Borelli (Contessa Alba d'Oltrevita), Andrea Habay (Tristano) and Ugo Bazzini (Mephisto)

Release Date: 1915 (Italy)

Also known as:  Rapsódia Satânica (Portugal), Rapsodia satánica (Spain), Rhapsodie des Satans (Germany), Rhapsodie satanique (France), Satan's Rhapsody (USA)

Production Co: Società Italiana Cines

Runtime: 40 min  | Germany: 45 min (restored)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White  | Color (hand-colored)

Plot Keywords: Aging | Color Tint | Deal With The Devil

Genres: Short | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Rapsodia Satanica (1915) was the last film directed by Nino Oxilia and is undoubtedly one of the finest achievements of the early Italian cinema. In it, Oxilia spins a variation on the Faust myth, embodied here by the diva Lyda Borelli. Typical of extravagant D'Annunzian aestheticism at its height, Rapsodia Satanica was one of the summits of what was later called the "tail coat film." Diametrically opposed to the "cinema of reality" practiced by Serena, Martoglio and others, "tail coat films" set their melodramatic stories in the salons and villas of the upper middle class and the aristocracy, deploying narrative structures contrived to showcase their actors and especially its actresses. This had the effect of accentuating their physical presence and turning them into stars - probably the first stars in movie history. The success of the "dive" contributed to the development of motion picture grammar in its special use of the close-up.