Foolish Wives (USA,1922)

Director Eric von Stroheim, despite making long and extravagant films – often having as scenery lands far away – he could also provide fluid, light-hearted plots with touches of humor. He was a competent director, who particularly excelled in fairy tale -like plots with touches of comedy, as in this film.

Stroheim could often have problems with the studios due to overbudgeting and excessively long films and it was not different here. The original printing lasted around eight hours and it was cut by the studio to a more conventional format and it shrank even more throughout the years. Despite having made a name for himself as a skilled director, his multiple clashes with studios made him as of early 1930ies end up being an actor in other people’s films. He did have some noteworthy roles, such as, for instance in Sunset Boulevard (USA, 1950) though. 

In a mansion by the sea in Monte Carlo (according to the first intertitle: “The Villa Amorosa – secluded yet within easy reach of Monte Carlo -leased for the season by three members of the Russian aristocracy”) it lives a man who socially identifies himself as His Excellency Captain Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin -but who is merely a poor scoundrel  who seduced and manipulated women in order to obtain financial advantages from them – (a role played by Stroheim himself) is a member of former Russian nobility who is in the habit of seducing rich women in order to obtain financial advantages. He has the assistance of his two “cousins”; "Princess" Vera Petchnikoff and "Her Highness" Olga Petchnikof (both of them partners in crime and possibly his lovers too).

The three of them have an lavish and idle lifestyle, which even included caviar as breakfast, as it can be seen in a scene in the beginning of the film. Stroheim has reportedly requested the studio to purchase real caviar for the sake of realism on camera. Indeed, the breakfast scene – with a table full of sophisticated food in a huge mansion and with a maid to serve them -gives the audiences a good idea of the level of luxury of the “family”. 

Then the group receive the visit of Cesare Ventucci, who supply the group with counterfeit bills which would be passed in the Cassino. Ventucci has a daughter with special necessities called Marietta who he raised by himself after his wife passed away and it becomes clear to the audience that Count Karamzin was developing an interest for the girl.

Being a compulsive womanizer, the count also made advances (and even marriage promises) to Maruschka, the maid. This part of the film ends up irreversibly impacting the film later on.

One day the count heard about the arrival on board of the U.S. Cruiser “Salem” of the Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States and his wife, called Helen Hughes. She was a naïve woman, younger than her husband (she was 21 years old, while he was 41 years old). Although Mr. Hughes realized that the count was flirting with his wife and was never away for too long, the count got to easily enchant her with his charm and extroverted personality. Furthermore, the friendship with those distinguished foreigners would give the group more social legitimacy and nobody would suspect that they never belonged to the Russian nobility after all. 

And this association with the fake nobility members would end up involving Mr. Hughes in some rather embarrassing situations. For instance: 

A. The Count was in the habit of going out with Helen Hughes together with his “cousins”. One day, they went to the countryside and the Count walked alone with Mrs. Hughes while one of his cousins was on the table waiting for their return. However, it suddenly started to rain torrentially and the Count and Mrs. Hughes ended up being stranded in a more isolated place, just the two of them, leaving the “cousin” behind. 

This “cousin” called Mr. Hughes and told him that his wife was safe with them at the Hotel des Reves and, due to the heavy rain, she would not be able to return home that night. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hughes was fainted in a scary-looking house being taken care of by the Count and an older woman. The count told Mrs. Hughes that her foot needed rest and that the rain prevented them from returning home that night. 

B. Once the Count told Mrs. Hughes that he urgently needed money, as he had a life or death matter to solve and asked her to meet him in a building at night.  Maruschka, seeing that the Count was did not really care about her and that his marriage promise was not true, ended up setting the building on fire. Both the Count and Mrs. Hughes are trapped and the firefighters were called. The Count jumped in order to save himself, leaving Mrs. Hughes behind. She eventually got to jump too and was looked after by her husband, who saw the Count’s letter asking money for his wife and realized she was being the victim of a scam. 

The Count ended up being rejected by the local high society due to the ensuing scandal and he subsequently tried to seduce Marietta, but her father sees it and ends up murdering the Count and throwing his body on the sewage. His “cousins” were arrested afterwards and the Hughes couple continued with their marriage without further problems.

Sherlock Jr. (USA,1924)

Buster Keaton is famous for his masterpieces The General (USA, 1926) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (USA, 1928), but this cute little gem is within the same level of aforementioned films and one of most elaborate Keaton works in terms of special effects.

With a highly relatable plot of a boy in a humble existence who wished to have a more successful life, naturalistic acting with touches of romanticism (mixed with a plenty of physical gags, typical of Keaton’s work) this charming little comedy has stood well the test of time and could delight modern-day audiences without difficulty. After all, cinema always has the power of transforming lives and make people’s dreams come true.

Buster Keaton works as a projectionist who studies to be a detective too. He operates the projector in a small town movie theater and also does the cleaning. His working routine is shown in the beginning of the film, which provides a good glimpse of what 1920s movie theaters looked like. As the said in one of initial intertitles of the film “ (…) While employed as a moving picture operator in a small town theater he was also studying to be a detective”. Keaton did not always manage to multitask his profession and his studies, but he had good intentions and did the best he could.

Keaton is also in love with a pretty girl, but he has an evil rival for her affections. None of them is particularly wealthy and could not afford giving her expensive gifts, for instance. One day both suitors visit the girl in her house and suddenly her father had his pocket watch stolen. Keaton volunteers to find out who had stolen it, but he isn’t particularly skilled as a detective yet and, to make things worse, his rival gets to put the pawn ticket of the watch in his pocket. Keaton ended up being accused of the crime and is kicked out of the house of his sweetheart. 

Buster Keaton was well-known for making his own stunts, many of them quite hair-raising and risky, and he did not care if it was dangerous or not. He seldom got hurt, but this time he had hurt himself very badly - and without even knowing it. While making this film, Keaton suffered at least two accidents, one of those became very spoken about by Buster Keaton scholars. In a scene Keaton followed closely the other suitor right after being kicked out of his sweetheart’s house until both of them embark a train and -for offscreen reasons -this scene became famous. It is in this scene where the most serious accident occurred. While on top of the train he was struck by the flow of water from a water tower. The force of the water was far greater than he had anticipated, which caused him to fall off the rope straight on the train track. He got to finish this scene, which was a chase, then interrupted the filming briefly and was back to work some days later. Around eleven years later, during a routine checkup, Keaton was told by a doctor that he had broken his neck in the past based on a x ray which showed a callus had had grown over the fracture on his neck. The second accident was during a bicycle chase scene displayed close to the end of the film, which was less serious than the first accident mentioned above.

What makes Sherlock Junior a special film is that it is a film within a film with many incredible gags and techniques. The whole show begins when Keaton fall asleep as a projectionist while showing a film in the movie theater. This film within the film is called “Hearts and Pearls”. Inside his dream, as a projectionist, Keaton tries to enter the “Hearts and Pearls” film that was being shown on screen, but he was kicked off by one of the actors. Subsequently, Keaton manages to enter the screen and becomes part of the film “Hearts and Pearls” and in this film inside the film the famous detective Sherlock Jr. (Keaton himself) is called to solve a crime. The pearls had been stolen in the house of a wealthy family and the real criminals prepared a trap for Sherlock Jr. -who was called “the crime-crushing criminologist” according to one of intertitles -but the trap did not work out and the detective left the house free from any harm and solved the crime right afterwards.

Meanwhile, the girl went to the pawn brokers carrying her father’s watch and asked the salesman to describe the man who had pawned that watch. He had described her other suitor and at that moment the suitor was coincidently passing by the store and the salesman had confirmed it was that guy who had pawned the watch.

When Keaton awakened and found out that his Sherlock Junior adventure had been just a dream, the girl was in his workplace to tell him that her father had committed a serious mistake and that he found out Keaton was innocent and did not steal the watch. Then, the film “Hearts and Pearls” was still being shown on screen and while talking to the girl he realized that his life had finally got similar to the plot of the film and this time he was not dreaming. It was true, his dreams had started to come true.

The plot is easy to understand and very human. After all, many people have already dreamed with social recognition and success while performing their ordinary duties. The romanticism between Keaton and the girl is similar to 1920s Harold Lloyd’s comedies and by this time the narrative style was well-established in Hollywood, not too different from the narratives from modern-day films.

The Merry Widow (USA, 1925)

Director Eric von Stroheim has a larger than life reputation to this day, due to his multiple clashes with studios about budget and artistic freedom and even his tense relationships with some actors in the set. But this film, being one of his biggest successes, both financially and among audiences, proved that Stroheim could also excel in more mainstream films with well-established actors.
This film is an entertaining musical, starring the heartthrob John Gilbert (at the height of his fame and delivering a fine, passionate performance) and Mae Murray (an actress with good comedy and dancing skills, who was formerly in the Ziegfeld Follies).

This film had a careful production by MGM, which was already one of most prestigious studios of the era. The scenery is grandiose and the pace is quite relaxed, almost a fairy tale. Erick von Stroheim took time to introduce the characters. There is clever use of visuals and images, as Stroheim was almost literary when it came to attention to details of the plot.
John Gilbert played Prince Danilo Petrovich, a womanizer. His cousin, Crown Prince Mirko is also a womanizer and they both often competed for affections of the same women, although Mirko lacked the charm and elegance of Danilo and deep inside he was envious of it. Mae Murray was Sally O'Hara, a dancer (a role that fit perfectly the dancing qualifications she had in real life). Both Danilo and Mirko got attracted to Sally, as well as wealthy Baron Sadoja (the Baron turned out to be a feet fetishist and that gave room to some quite funny scenes). Sally chose Danilo as her sweetheart and they both fell in love with each other and Danilo wanted to marry Sally.

However, king Nikita forbade Danilo to marry her because she was a plebeian and a dancer and a prince was supposed to have the duty of marrying a proper woman to his dignity due to loyalty to his kingdom. Therefore, Danilo ended up leaving Sally at the altar because he could not bear the pressure of his family.

After such disappointment, Sally accepted marrying older Baron Sadoja, who had conveniently passed away at the wedding night. Sally inherited Sadoja's estate as well as the title of Baroness.
One year later, both Danilo and Sally meet in Paris. They both started dancing in the ballroom and talked about the past. The point is that Crown Prince Mirko was also in Paris and it became clear to Sally that Mirko showed interest in her only because of her money and she suspected that Danilo's affection for her was not sincere either.

Danilo challenged Mirko for a duel, even though Sally begged him to give up this idea. It seemed Danilo had died in the duel, but he only got wounded. Meanwhile, King Nikita passed away and Mirko inherited the throne, but it would not last because he was assassinated right afterwards. The second in the succession line was Danilo, who became king and was finally free to marry Sally, which he did without hesitation. 

Mary Pickford (1892 - 1979) - Vida e Obra

Nascida Gladys Smith em 08 de abril de 1892 no Canadá, ela tinha dois irmãos mais novos, Lotti e Jack. Seu pai morreu quando Mary tinha cerca de 05 anos de idade, deixando sua mãe, Charlotte, sozinha com três filhos para criar. 

A mãe tentou várias profissões para sustentar os filhos, até montar uma pensão em sua casa. Certo dia, Charlotte alugou um dos quartos para um senhor que se identificou como ator e ele disse que sua companhia de teatro estava precisando de crianças para atuar em suas peças. Ao ver que o ambiente da companhia de teatro era bom, Charlotte aceitou que seus filhos trabalhassem como atores. Afinal de contas, o dinheiro era altamente necessário. 

Nessa época, a família era tão pobre que Charlotte chegou a cogitar dar Mary para que uma família abastada a criasse. Porém, quando Mary descobriu, ela chorou muito e isso fez com que Charlotte desistisse.

Na virada do século XIX para o XX, Mary entra para a carreira teatral, a qual foi bem sucedida. Isso fez com que ela estreasse na Broadway por meio da companhia de David Belasco aos 15 anos de idade. Essa era uma das companhias de teatro mais famosas dos Estados Unidos na época. 

Mas, mesmo na Broadway e fazendo parte de um grupo tão famoso, o trabalho era sazonal. Em 1909, após Mary ficar meses sem trabalho, Charlotte mandou Mary buscar trabalho em estúdios de cinema. Nessa época, o teatro ainda era considerado socialmente mal visto, mas a reputação do cinema era ainda pior. Nos Estados Unidos do começo do século XX, os cinemas (também chamados Nickelodeons) eram uma diversão extremamente barata e frequentados em sua maioria por pessoas extremamente pobres e imigrantes. Mary, sendo uma atriz da Broadway, também considerava o cinema abaixo da sua dignidade de atriz, mas ela não podia contrariar as ordens da mãe. 

Assim, nesse mesmo ano de 1909, Mary conseguiu emprego nos estúdios Biograph, de Nova York, que era dirigido pelo famoso diretor D.W. Griffith. Mary fez sucesso com seus filmes em pouco tempo. Ela foi uma das primeiras atrizes do cinema americano a adotar um estilo mais naturalista de atuar, em oposição a linguagem teatral de gestos mais exagerados. Devido a divergências artísticas e criativas, ela frequentemente discutia com Griffith, apesar de ter feito muito sucesso em seus filmes. 

Foi também nos estúdios Biograph onde ela conheceu seu primeiro marido, o ator irlandês Owen Moore. Charlotte não aprovou esse casamento. O casal não teve filhos e o casamento fracassou devido ao alcoolismo de Moore e ao fato de Mary ser uma atriz muito mais bem sucedida do que ele. 

Depois de alguns anos, Mary se transferiu para o Famous Players, studio, de propriedade de Adolph Zukor. E nesse período, Mary fez um sucesso estrondoso e em meados da década de 1910, ela passou a ter sua própria unidade de produção dentro do estúdio, onde ela trabalhava com total liberdade artística e compartilhando os lucros dos filmes com o estúdio principal. O controle criativo desses filmes era compartilhado entre Mary e o próprio Zukor. 

Parte do sucesso de Mary se devia ao fato de que ela era a personificação da mulher ideal. Virtuosa, honesta, corajosa para lutar pelos seus ideais. Era a filha que todos os pais queriam ter e como todas as mulheres gostariam de ser. Mary trouxe respeitabilidade para o cinema. Ela nunca era vista fumando ou bebendo em público e fazia muitas campanhas publicitárias

Ainda na década de 1910, Mary conheceu o ator Douglas Fairbanks (que já tinha uma carreira bem estabelecida na Broadway) justamente quando seu casamento estava na pior fase. O problema é que tanto Mary quanto Douglas eram casados com outras pessoas e um divórcio poderia acabar com a carreira de ambos. Afinal de contas, atores dependiam de sua popularidade junto ao público. 

Durante a Primeira Guerra Mundial, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin e outras personalidades populares na época, viajaram pelos Estados Unidos vendendo bônus de guerra e seus discursos atraíam multidões, conforme pode ser confirmado por filmagens desses eventos que sobrevivem até hoje. Essa era também uma desculpa perfeita para que Mary e Douglas pudessem estar juntos em público. 

No começo de 1919, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin e D.W. Griffith fundaram a United Artists, uma companhia de distribuição de filmes a fim de lutar contra uma fusão dos grandes estúdios, destinada a baixar os salários dos atores e de todo o pessoal envolvido na produção cinematográfica Hollywoodiana. Esse era um negócio de alto risco, pois apesar de todos os quatro serem artistas com muito talento para os negócios, nenhum deles nunca havia administrado uma empresa de grande porte antes. Mas tudo deu certo. 

Em 1920 Mary e Douglas se divorciaram de seus antigos cônjuges e se casaram. A reação do público foi surpreendente porque, ao invés de o casamento deles ter causado um escândalo, isso na verdade aumentou a popularidade de ambos. Ainda sobrevivem as filmagens da lua de mel de Mary e Douglas na Europa, onde eles arrastaram multidões de fãs estrangeiros, a ponto de isso ter até atrapalhado a privacidade da viagem deles. 

Ambos permaneceram casados até 1936. A mansão do casal, apelidada de “Pickfair”, se tornou lendária por suas festas, frequentadas até por políticos e membros da realeza. 

Douglas Fairbanks atingiu o estrelato com seus filmes de capa e espada na década de 1920. Mas o começo da era do cinema falado representou o fim da popularidade dos dois atores, que se aposentaram do cinema no começo da década de 1930. Essa época foi ainda mais difícil para Mary, por conta do falecimento de sua mãe e dois irmãos mais novos em um espaço de poucos anos. O divórcio de Faibanks, por conta de uma traição dele, também foi um golpe duro. 

Mary continuou muito rica ao longo de toda a vida e se casou com seu terceiro e último marido (o ator Charles "Buddy" Rogers) em 1937. Além de ter criado sua sobrinha (filha de Lottie, a única família de sangue que lhe restou) ela sempre manteve uma ótima relação com o filho de Douglas Fairbanks, que mais tarde viria a se tornar ator sob o nome de Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Mais tarde, Mary também adotou mais duas crianças. 

Após sua aposentadoria do cinema, Mary levou uma vida discreta e longe dos holofotes. Sempre se mostrou educada e humilde em suas entrevistas, apoiando instituições de caridade e fazendo doações. Mary faleceu em 1979, aos 87 anos de idade. 

The Gusher (USA,1913)

Exaggerated gestures, fake mustaches, simple plots, one-reelers (films that lasted around 11 minutes), actors falling on their butts, scenes with lots of smoke, and actresses performing their own stunts were a commonplace in films produced in the first years of Keystone studios. 

The studio was founded the previous year and we can see a relatively small number of studio regulars in comparison with subsequent years. Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling (among others, like Fred Mace, Mack Sennett himself and Roscoe `Fatty` Arbuckle as of 1913) had worked in Keystone studios since the beginning and were quite popular among audiences.

The Gusher is a story about a young Mabel Normand who has two suitors (Ford Sterling and Charles Inslee) and has to choose one of them (Ford Sterling). As revenge, the rejected suitor made up a plan to sell bad land of an oil field to Mabel`s sweetheart. Sterling ended up actually buying the land, only to listen right afterwards that it was not a real oil well. He was devastated (which only increased his overacting) and, to make matters worse, Sterling even caught the rejected suitor (Charles Inslee) trying to seduce Normand. 

However, in the middle of all despair, the field started to actually produce oil and Sterling became wealthy enough to marry Mabel. The rejected suitor set fire to the field while the wedding was being held. A man told Sterling about it in the middle of the celebration and chaos ensued when everyone present at the wedding (including the bride and groom) went to the field on fire. The Keystone Cops were called to solve the situation, even though they were not very smart themselves, as we all know. We can see it by the fact that the cops kept repeatedly falling on the ground without any apparent reason. 

It turned out that Sterling himself got to find the rejected suitor and punish him. But the field was still on fire at the end of the film and no one had even attempted to control it, not even the firefighters were called. 

The end was weak and left audiences in the dark about some very crucial points. For instance: Did Sterling got to recover his oil field and keep on earning money with it? It is also not known if the rejected suitor was arrested and it seemed that he got to leave the scene of crime, despite being caught by Sterling. It is a one-reeler, but the plot could have been better developed without even adding extra time to the film or only adding a few minutes more. 

Something different added in this film was an oil field. It seems that the plot could have been merely an excuse to use the stock footage of an oil field on fire, but the different setting gives a touch of originality to the film anyway.

It is worth paying attention not only to the technology of the 1910ies, but also to the glimpse of both female and male fashion that this film provides. 

A Muddy Romance (USA, 1913)

In the first few years of Keystone studios (founded in 1912), many of their films were one-reelers with quite simple storylines. Other studios produced similar comedies, both in the USA and abroad. Short films were still the most common length of films, as feature-length films were still at the very beginning. Films like Cabiria (Italy, 1914) and The Birth of a Nation (USA, 1915) –some of the films that would help to consolidate feature length films as more popular – were yet to be produced. 

In a landscape that looked remarkably rural, Ford Sterling –with his typically exaggerated gestures and mannerisms - was by a window, flirting with Mabel Normand, who was in another window. However, there was another man interested in Mabel (“a persistent suitor”) and he came to her house to visit her. Sterling did not really seem pleased when he realized there was a competitor for Mabel`s affection. 

Sterling also came to visit Mabel, but the other suitor was still there and both men clashed. Sterling tried to attack the other guy, but ended up hitting Mabel with dirt instead. At this point, both men fought and Mabel tried to intervene and therefore she fell out of the window. The three of them threw things at each other. 

A clergyman arrived at Mabel`s house in the middle of all chaos. It seems to have come to marry Mabel and the other suitor. Then, Mabel, the other suitor and the clergyman leave in a boat while Sterling tries to shoot them as he saw the boat departing. 

The Keystone cops were called to try to settle the mess. The cops started shooting too and embarked on another boat and one of cops fell on the river and a short time later they got stuck in the mud. Sterling attempted to stop the boat from leaving by throwing mud on the river. 

More cops came to the scene with hoses and even a cannon. The hoses were useful to take their colleagues out of mud. Unfortunately Mabel fell in the mud right afterwards, but immediately the clergyman and her other suitor helped her out of the mud. And the three of them were eventually taken out of the muddy river. Meanwhile, Sterling was into trouble, as he was caught throwing dirt on the river. 

Such simple one-reelers were very popular in the era and working-class audiences could easily relate to situations being shown. Keystone films were a hit since the beginning and its actors became successful comedians. As time passed, the studio produced feature-length films (the first one being Tillie`s Punctured Romance in 1914, with Mabel Normand, Marie Dressler and newcomer Charlie Chaplin in the cast).  And Keystone studios became famous for discovering young comedians who would undeniably leave their mark in cinema history. For instance, young Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin worked there in the 1910s. The studio was closed in 1933, already at the era of talkies. 

His Wedding Night (USA,1917)

This film (together with Coney Island, released in that same year) can show to modern audiences how daily life was like back to the 1910s, which sort of items could be sold in a drugstore, for instance (Including beverages), purchasing habits of people, etc.

It has two stars, Keaton was in the beginning of his career at the time and had immediately shown his competence, but he was not yet a star on his own right. He had not yet consolidated his world-famous stone face character. However, it would not take long until Keaton achieved prominence. Roscoe `Fatty’ Arbuckle was a mega star at the time and his comedies were full of physical gags.

In this film, Arbuckle worked as a clerk in a drugstore. Both he and St. John loved the same girl (Alice). Alice`s father ended up giving her hand to Arbuckle. St John got angry and planned a revenge. Meanwhile, Keaton showed up to deliver a wedding dress to Alice and ended up dressing it to show her how it looked like. St John and his accomplices ended up kidnapping Keaton by mistake, there was a huge mess but the expected happy end came.

Although still playing the role of a grown up baby, sometimes with silly facial expressions, we can see the evolution of acting of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle compared with his films at Keystone studios only some years before. His gestures were more self-contained, gags more elaborate and scenery was modern. Furthermore, there was a troupe of comedians who worked with him and they formed a rather uniform and experienced team.

Of course, that there was still lots of physical humor, especially when his real-life nephew, Al St. John, came to the scene. Nevertheless, it is actually an accomplishment, considering the good physical abilities, not only of Arbuckle himself (who was reportedly even very flexible and an excellent dancer in real life), but also of St. John and Buster Keaton. All those actors excelled in physical humor and that is one of things that made them so popular among audiences back then.

Some stereotypes of slapstick comedies are present here, like rather unromantic arguments among couples, ethnically insensitive jokes, food being thrown, people being thrown as well, etc. However, situations themselves were a bit closer to reality than typically slapstick comedies. 

In the end of film, the actors could show his skills to physically demanding scenes even better. Unfortunately Arbuckle`s career would be virtually over four years later due to a huge scandal. Buster Keaton would enjoy lots of fame in the 1920s and his output stands out to this day. Unfortunately Keaton`s career would fall into obscurity for some decades as of 1930s, but he lived long enough to regain his popularity and further recognition to his work. Al St John would find steady work in westerns for some decades and made a smooth transition to talkies. Even though he was not immensely popular, he got to reinvent himself and remained in films for a very long time.