THE RAVEN – Henry B. Walthall – d: Charles Brabin
The Raven (1915)
Direction: Charles Brabin
Screenplay: Charles Brabin; from George Cochran Hazelton’s novel and play The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Warda Howard
Starring Henry B. Walthall, The Raven is an Essanay feature depicting the life of Edgar Allan Poe, starting with his childhood and going all the way to his marriage to his cousin (played by the little-known Warda Howard).
Charles Brabin’s direction is uneven: At some points it’s stagy and rudimentary; at other points, Brabin creates some remarkably striking and eerie visual effects, including a bravura scene for Walthall in which he descends further and further into madness following the death of his wife. Brabin visualizes this with a barrage [...]
by James Bazen | November 2, 2009
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Tags: Charles Brabin, Cinesation 2009, Classic Movies, Edgar Allan Poe, Film Reviews, George Cochran Hazelton, Henry B. Walthall, Silent Films, The Raven
Griffith Masterworks 2: WAY DOWN EAST, THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE
It may not have been terribly original of Kino to include in their 2005 Griffith Masterworks boxed set the only four D. W. Griffith features that most people could name (let alone claim to have seen), but it would have been downright perverse to pass over The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, and Orphans of the Storm (the fifth and sixth discs were made up of several Biograph shorts).
With their second set, Griffith Masterworks 2, released this month, Kino has selected some genuine curiosities; each of the five films on offer here has novelty value in addition to being the work of cinema’s first genius.
Way Down East (1920), the first film [...]
by Dan Erdman | December 21, 2008
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Tags: Classic Movies, D. W. Griffith, DVDs, Edgar Allan Poe, Kino International, Lillian Gish, Silent Films, The Avenging Conscience, Way Down East
