The Light in the Dark - 1922

Country: United States
Director: Clarence Brown
Writers: Clarence Brown, William Dudley Pelley
Stars: Hope Hampton, E.K. Lincoln and Lon Chaney
Release Date: 3 September 1922 (USA)
Also known as: The Light of Faith (undefined)
Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA
Production Co: Hope Hampton Productions, Vitagraph Company of América
Runtime: 33 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Holy Grail | Small Town | Partially Lost Film | Criminal
Genres: Short | Crime | Drama | Romance
A young girl is struck and seriously injured by a wealthy society matron's car. The woman brings the girl back to her house. Later, a hardened thief is told by the girl of a goblet, that could be the Holy Grail, which has healing powers and could help her. The thief, touched by her predicament, sets out to steal the goblet and bring it to her.
Trivia
This film was presumed lost until September 2003 when a near-complete print was discovered among a cache of 35mm nitrate film prints being stored in the garage of a former theater projectionist.
A 70-minute reconstruction was produced by the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House.

Butter Fingers - 1925

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Director: Del Lord

Writers: Jefferson Moffitt (scenario), Felix Adler (titles), Al Giebler (titles)

Stars: Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde and Ruth Taylor

Release Date: 30 August 1925 (USA)

Production Co: Mack Sennett Comedies

Runtime: 16 min

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

This short film was part of a DVD set called "Reel Baseball" and it consists of many silent baseball films. This review is based on Disc 2--a rather enjoyable collection of surprisingly good films with excellent musical scores from Kino.

The plot involves Billy being the star pitcher for the Bees and with his amazing pitching, there is no way the evil New York team can win. This New York team is not identified as the Giants, but the uniforms appear identical. The coach of New York realizes the only way to win is to cheat and he uses his evil wife to try to trap Billy into throwing the game.

Connections

Featured in Sports on the Silver Screen (1997) 

Love's Prisoner - 1919

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: John Francis Dillon

Writers: E. Magnus Ingleton (screenplay), E. Magnus Ingleton (story)

Stars: Olive Thomas, Joe King and William V. Mong

Release Date: 8 June 1919 (USA)

Production Co: Triangle Film Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Crime | Drama

A young lady, who "hates the law" rises from the tenements to society. Financial reverses lead her to commit a series of burglaries as "The Bird". She becomes involved with the detective investigating the burglaries. After she confesses and pays for her crimes, they marry. 

Manhandled - 1924

Country: United States

Director: Allan Dwan

Writers: Julian Johnson (titles), Arthur Stringer (story), Sidney R. Kent (story), Frank Tuttle (screenplay - as Frank W. Tuttle)

Stars: Gloria Swanson, Tom Moore and Lilyan Tashman

Release Date: 22 July 1924 (USA)

Also known as: Escravizada (Portugal), Juguete del placer (Spain), Tricheuse (France)

Filming Locations: Paramount Studios, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Society | Beautiful Woman

Genres: Drama | Comedy

When her boyfriend, Jimmy, forgets a date, Tessie McGuire, a department store clerk, attends a party at the studio of Robert Brandt where she makes a hit with impersonations...

This rarely shown film is a delightful surprise, still fresh and amusing after 80 years. MANHANDLED is a saucy little comedy which concerns the struggles of an ambitious working girl in New York. The biggest surprise is the identity of the leading lady: it isn't Colleen Moore or Clara Bow, who made careers out of doing this sort of thing, but Gloria Swanson, who in 1924 was best known for playing patrician beauties in high-class soap operas. Gloria is surprisingly believable here in the unlikely role of Tessie McGuire, a lowly clerk in a department store, who commutes on the subway, lives in an apartment the size of a tool-shed, and struggles to make ends meet. What's more, Swanson is genuinely funny! I've seen a few of the two-reel comedies she made for Mack Sennett early in her career, but in those shorts she was usually relegated to playing straight woman (or Damsel in Distress) while the male clowns were entrusted with the gags. In MANHANDLED, however, Swanson is the star comedian, and her comic abilities are given free reign in scene after scene. I was fortunate enough to see this movie at Film Forum in NYC, where it was greeted with waves of laughter throughout; a passerby outside might've assumed we were watching Harold Lloyd.

The story is introduced with a wordy but intriguing title card: "The world lets a girl think that its pleasures and luxuries may be hers without cost—that's chivalry. But if she claims them on this basis, it sends her a bill in full, with no discount—that's reality." Based on that intro alone a viewer might expect the sort of light comedy of manners Swanson had been making for director Cecil B. DeMille a few years earlier (the moralistic prose certainly smacks of DeMille) but the opening scenes make it clear that we're in for something earthier and more fun. Tessie McGuire is a gum-chewing gal who wears a silly hat adorned with fake fruit—the kind of hat Gloria Swanson, legendary clothes-horse, wouldn't have been caught dead wearing in reality, but somehow she doesn't come off as patronizing in this role. Within a few moments we adjust and accept her as a hard-working clerk from Thorndyke's department store, weary and footsore after a long day's shift on the job. Leaving the store our bleary-eyed heroine heads for the subway, and the sequence which follows is a classic: the petite Tessie is shoved every which way as she crams herself into the train, squeezes uncomfortably between two large men, and even gets hoisted into the air, accidentally, as she attempts to retrieve the contents of her dropped purse. Adding insult to injury, a gross-looking guy winks at her, and she can't even get out easily when the train reaches her station, as mobs of incoming commuters repeatedly force her back in. This sequence scored a particular hit at the recent Film Forum screening, earning big laughs from New Yorkers who still deal with this stuff every day!

The subway scene is deservedly famous, but the movie is just getting started. We learn that Tessie has a boyfriend named Jimmy (Tom Moore), a garage mechanic who is convinced that his car-related invention will make a fortune, enabling them to get married and live well. Tessie is supportive, but frustrated that Jim's heavy work schedule doesn't allow them much time together. When circumstances permit her to go to a swanky party with a girlfriend, she goes, and this is where things really take off. Tessie scores a hit with the swells, although it's clear (in another comic highlight) that she's baffled by the pretentious party chat flying back and forth. Guests include a number of wealthy and powerful people along with prominent artists and performers; among the latter is real-life Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington, who dances with her stage partner Brooke Johns. Tessie— who has had a drink or two —performs her own version of the dance, loses her drawers, and takes a tumble, but somehow charms a handsome artist (Ian Keith) who engages her as a model and then dresses her in a wacky pseudo-Asian outfit that looks like a parody of Betty Blythe's Queen of Sheba. When the modeling gig doesn't work out, Tessie is engaged by the owner of a Park Avenue salon who hires her to pose as an exiled Russian countess and lend his establishment a touch of exotic class. Tessie's new employer is portrayed by Frank Morgan, already playing roués at age 34, and looking very much as he would throughout his entire career. (At the screening I attended I overheard a young woman exclaim: "Wow, the Wizard of Oz as an old lech!") Tessie's new job is certainly a step up from the department store, but her disguise is threatened when she is confronted by an actual Russian exile; her escape from exposure is ingenious and amusing.

As Tessie's strange career lurches along she comes into conflict with Jimmy, and unfortunately the story takes a brief sentimental turn towards the end, but I think it goes without saying that romantic comedies like this one always end happily once the misunderstandings are ironed out. MANHANDLED is not a plot-driven film, and a simple scene-by-scene description of what happens in it really doesn't do it justice. This movie is driven by Gloria Swanson's beautifully calibrated performance: it's her priceless facial expressions as she's chewed-out by her boss at the department store, her tipsy maneuvering at the party, her Pola Negri send-up when she masquerades as a Russian countess. She's terrific, and seeing this film makes me wish she'd appeared in more comedies, and that this one could be more readily accessible for modern viewers. Swanson could do a lot more than play crazy Norma Desmond, and this film is ample and highly enjoyable proof of that.

Connections

Featured in The Age of Ballyhoo (1973) shows scenes and gloria also talks about it.

Hollywood (1980). Hollywood: Swanson and Valentino (1980) - film clip shown.

The Clown and the Alchemist - 1900

Country: United States

Release Date: November 1900 (USA)

Filming Locations: Vitagraph Studios - 15th Street & Locust Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Plot Keywords: Clown | Magic | Apparition | Magician

Genres: Comedy | Fantasy | Short

Although we are led to believe that the ancient alchemists were all powerful, this picture somewhat reverses the order of things. The clown plays some wonderful pranks on the old professor. He appears in numerous startling positions, using his club with great effect and always escaping punishment. At last the alchemist brings his magic power into use, and calling two hooded assistants, orders a large cauldron brought in. The climax, by which the clown finally disposes of the alchemist, is startling in the extreme.   

Hockey Match on the Ice - 1898

Country: United States

Director: William Heise

Release Date: February 1898 (USA)

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Sport

"The skaters dart to and fro, swinging their hockeys and trying to hit the disc toward the goal."

Astor Battery on Parade - 1899

Country: United States

Release Date: January 1899 (USA)

Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company

Plot Keywords: Spanish American War

Genres: Short

The Astor Battery became famous after the Spanish-American war and these young men are on display in this Edison short, which was shot on Saturday, January 21, 1899. We see a parade cross Broadway onto Union Square with the mounted police, the band and then the Astor Battery. The footage of this short is still in very good condition, which adds a lot considering how little footage is available of these men. Needless to say the real entertainment comes from seeing these real life men and as a history lesson this film is quite important.