Pordenone 2009: THE MERRY WIDOW
Mae Murray shows her legs in The Merry Widow
At The Bioscope: Pordenone Film Festival Day I
"The main event, though, is the Erich Von Stroheim version of The Merry Widow (USA 1925), introduced by Leatrice Joy Fountain and featuring a new orchestral score by Maud Nelissen. The film itself is almost a checklist of Von’s obsessions; militaria, aristocrats at play, wedding processions, grotesques, fetishes and matters of honour; how close it all is to the source material I’m not qualified to say, but it’s a superior piece of froth; the score, using Lehar lightly but effectively matched it to perfection. And every new film I see John Gilbert in, my perception of him changes; [...]
by Andre Soares | October 18, 2009
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Tags: Classic Movies, Erich von Stroheim, Film Festivals, John Gilbert, Mae Murray, Pordenone Film Festival, Silent Films, The Merry Widow
Thomas Meighan, THE LOST SQUADRON at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Via Thomas Gladysz’s article in the Los Angeles Examiner:
The Edison Theatre at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in the Northern California town of Fremont has been screening silent films and early talkies for quite some time. As Gladysz explains in his article, that area was home to the western studios of the Chicago-based Essanay film company, among whose stars at one point were Gloria Swanson; Charles Chaplin; matinee idol Francis X. Bushman (best remembered for his villain in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur); and company co-owner Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson (the "ay" in Essanay; the "ess" was George K. Spoor), the first cowboy star.
The Niles Essanay Museum’s line-up for the rest of April [...]
by Andre Soares | April 15, 2009
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Tags: Broncho Billy Anderson, Classic Movies, Conrad in Quest of His Youth, Erich von Stroheim, Essanay, Frank Borzage, George Archainbaud, Joel McCrea, Kathlyn Williams, Margaret Loomis, Mary Astor, Mildred Harris, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Richard Dix, Shorts, Silent Films, The Lost Squadron, Thomas Gladysz, Thomas H. Ince, Thomas Meighan, William C. de Mille, William Desmond Taylor
Best Films – 1937
Robert Taylor, Greta Garbo in Camille
FILM
The Awful Truth
d, scr: Leo McCarey
Camille
d: George Cukor; scr: Frances Marion, James Hilton, Zoe Akins
The Hurricane
d: John Ford; scr: Dudley Nichols, Oliver H. P. Garrett
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
d: Richard Boleslawski; scr: Leon Gordon, Samson Raphaelson, Monckton Hoffe
Lost Horizon
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
Night Must Fall
d: Richard Thorpe; scr: John Van Druten
Les Perles de la couronne / Pearls of the Crown
d: Sacha Guitry, Christian-Jacque; scr: Sacha Guitry
The Prisoner of Zenda
d: John Cromwell; scr: Wells Root, John G. Balderstone, Donald Ogden Stewart
Quality Street
d: George Stevens; scr: Mortimer Offner, Allan Scott
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
d: David Hand; scr: Ted Sears, Richard Creedon and others
A Star Is Born
d: William A. Wellman; scr: Dorothy Parker, [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: A Star Is Born, Alan Campbell, Alan Mowbray, Alfred Newman, Alice Brady, Allan Scott, Anthony Veiller, Arletty, Bert Glennon, Best Films, Brian Aherne, Camille, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Christian-Jacque, Claire Trevor, Classic Movies, Colin Clive, Conquest, Constance Bennett, Cora Witherspoon, Dame May Whitty, David Hand, David Miller, Dead End, Dmitri Tiomkin, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dorothy Parker, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Dudley Nichols, Eddie Moran, Edward Ward, Eric Hatch, Erich von Stroheim, Ermete Zacconi, Ernest Vajda, Etienne Girardot, Eve Arden, Frances Marion, Frank Borzage, Frank Capra, Fredric March, George Cukor, George Stevens, Ginger Rogers, Grand Illusion, Gregg Toland, Gregory La Cava, Greta Garbo, Henry Daniell, Herbert Stothart, History Is Made at Night, Irene Dunne, Jack Jevne, James Hilton, James Whale, James Wong Howe, Janet Gaynor, Jean Gabin, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Crawford, Joel McCrea, John Barrymore, John Cromwell, John Ford, John G. Balderstone, John Van Druten, Joseph Walker, Karl Freund, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Harrison, La Grande illusion, Lawrence Hazard, Leo McCarey, Leon Gordon, Les Perles de la couronne, Lillian Hellman, Lost Horizon, Lucille Ball, Luise Rainer, Mannequin, Maria Ouspenskaya, May Robson, Maytime, Merle Tottenham, Monckton Hoffe, Morrie Ryskind, Mortimer Offner, Neil Fitzgerald, Nelson Eddy, Night Must Fall, Noel Langley, Norman Z. McLeod, Oliver H. P. Garrett, Oliver T. Marsh, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Parnell, Pearls of the Crown, Penny Wisdom, Pierre Fresnay, Quality Street, Ray June, Richard Boleslawski, Richard Creedon, Richard Thorpe, Robert Carson, Robert Montgomery, Robert Riskin, Robert Taylor, Robert Z. Leonard, Ronald Colman, Roy Webb, Sacha Guitry, Samson Raphaelson, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Stage Door, Sylvia Sidney, Ted Sears, The Awful Truth, The Good Earth, The Great Garrick, The Hurricane, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, The Old Mill, The Prisoner of Zenda, Topper, True Confession, Wells Root, Wilfred Jackson, William A. Wellman, William H. Daniels, William Powell, William Wyler, Zoe Akins
Best Films – 1928
Evelyn Brent, Emil Jannings in The Last Command
FILM
The Crowd
d: King Vidor; scr: King Vidor, James V. A. Weaver; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
The Docks of New York
d: Josef von Sternberg; scr: Jules Furthman; titles: Julian Johnson
The Last Command
d: Josef von Sternberg; scr: John F. Goodrich; titles: Herman J. Mankiewicz
Sadie Thompson
d & scr: Raoul Walsh; titles: C. Gardner Sullivan
Street Angel
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Marion Orth, Philip Klein & Henry Roberts Symonds; titles: H. H. Caldwell & Katherine Hilliker
The Wind
d: Victor Sjöström; scr: Frances Marion
L’Argent by Marcel L’Herbier
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L’Argent
d: Marcel L’Herbier; scr: Marcel L’Herbier & Arthur Bernède
The Patsy
d: King Vidor; scr: Agnes Christine Johnson; titles: Ralph Spence
Show People
d: King Vidor; scr: Laurence Stallings & Agnes Christine Johnson; titles: Ralph [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: A Woman of Affairs, Agnes Christine Johnson, Bert Glennon, Best Films, Brigitte Helm, Carl Hoffman, Clarence Brown, Classic Movies, Drums of Love, Eleanor Boardman, Emil Jannings, Erich von Stroheim, Forbidden Hours, Frank Borzage, Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Harold Rosson, Harry Carey, Janet Gaynor, Josef von Sternberg, Jules Furthman, King Vidor, L'Argent, Lars Hanson, Laurence Stallings, Lillian Gish, Marcel L'Herbier, Marion Davies, Olga Baclanova, Phyllis Haver, Pierre Alcover, Ramon Novarro, Raoul Walsh, Sadie Thompson, Sally O'Neil, Show People, Silent Films, Storm over Asia, Street Angel, The Cardboard Lover, The Crowd, The Docks of New York, The Last Command, The Patsy, The Trail of '98, The Wedding March, The Wind, Victor Sjöström
Best Films – 1925
Ramon Novarro and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
FILM
Ben-Hur
d: Fred Niblo (assisted by Christy Cabanne, Alfred L. Raboch, B. Reeves Eason); scr: Carey Wilson, Bess Meredyth, June Mathis; titles: Katherine Hilliker, H. H. Caldwell
The Big Parade
d: King Vidor; scr: Laurence Stallings, Harry Behn; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
Her Sister from Paris
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Hans Kräly
Lady Windermere’s Fan
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Julien Josephson; titles: Maude Fulton, Erik Yorke
The Merry Widow
d: Erich von Stroheim; scr: Benjamin Glazer, Erich von Stroheim; titles: Marian Ainslee
Battleship Potemkin
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Bronenosets Potyomkin / Battleship Potemkin
d: Sergei Eisenstein; scr: Nina Agadzhanova, Sergei Eisenstein; titles: Nikolai Aseyev, Sergei Tretyakov
Renée Adorée, John Gilbert in The Big Parade
ACTOR
John Gilbert
The Big Parade
Constance Talmadge, Ronald [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: Alice Joyce, Belle Bennett, Ben-Hur, Best Films, Betty Bronson, Charles Van Enger, Classic Movies, Constance Talmadge, Eleanor Boardman, Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch, Fred Niblo, Hal Mohr, Hans Kraly, Her Sister from Paris, Irene Rich, John Arnold, John Gilbert, Joseph W. Farnham, Julien Josephson, Karl Struss, King Vidor, Lady of the Night, Lady Windermere's Fan, Lois Moran, Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, May McAvoy, Norma Shearer, Ramon Novarro, Renée Adorée, Ronald Colman, Sidney Franklin, Silent Films, Stella Dallas, The Big Parade, The Merry Widow
Best Films – 1924
Erich von Stroheim’s masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made, Greed remains a powerful indictment against the deadly sin of the title. Based on Frank Norris‘ McTeague, the film revolves around the misdeeds of a California dentist (Gibson Gowland, center), his miserly wife (ZaSu Pitts, left), and her former lover (Jean Hersholt, not in the above picture), all of whom sacrifice their selves to the all-powerful God of Dollar Bills. Stroheim’s initial cut had 47 reels, though eventually Greed was pared down to 10 reels (approximately 2h15m). That is all that is known to survive from the original film. But in spite of the drastic cuts, many of Stroheim’s magnificently perverted excesses are very much [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: Best Films, Classic Movies, Conrad Veidt, Douglas Fairbanks, Eleanor Boardman, Emil Jannings, Enid Bennett, Erich von Stroheim, George Hackathorne, Gibson Gowland, Greed, He Who Gets Slapped, Laura La Plante, Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Richard Barthelmess, Silent Films, The Enchanted Cottage, The Last Laugh, The Sea Hawk, The Thief of Bagdad, The Turmoil, Victor Sjöström, ZaSu Pitts
HOLLYWOOD DREAMS MADE REAL: IRVING THALBERG AND THE RISE OF M-G-M – Q&A with Mark Vieira
Author and photographer Mark A. Vieira (right), who’s been a friend for a number of years, has recently written no less than two books on Irving G. Thalberg, the young MGM mogul whose high-quality productions earned him both a reputation as Hollywood’s "Boy Wonder" and a special place in Oscar history as the name attached to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Memorial Award given to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” Thalberg even inspired a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, the unfinished The Last Tycoon.
Now, Mark’s two books may cover the same ground in terms of subject matter, but they’re radically different in terms of approach to same:
Hollywood [...]
by Andre Soares | February 12, 2009
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Tags: Books, Clark Gable, Classic Movies, Erich von Stroheim, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Hurrell, Greed, Greta Garbo, Harry N. Abrams, Hollywood Dreams Made Real, Interviews, Irving G. Thalberg Award, Irving Thalberg, Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Mark Vieira, Norma Shearer, Producers, Rasputin and the Empress, The Good Earth, The Last Tycoon, The Merry Widow, University of California Press
Fay Wray
Fay Wray, best remembered as King Kong’s highly vocal love interest in the 1933 interspecies-romance classic, died in New York City on August 8, 2004. She would have turned 97 on September 15.
Besides King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the Canadian-born Wray (Sept. 15, 1907, in Cardston, Alberta) also screamed and/or fainted in several other motion pictures of the 1930s, including Schoedsack and Irving Pichel’s first-rate thriller The Most Dangerous Game / The Hounds of Zaroff (1932), opposite Joel McCrea and mad hunter Leslie Banks, and a couple of two-strip Technicolor horror films directed by Michael Curtiz, Doctor X (1932) and The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), both starring Lionel Atwill. [...]
by Andre Soares | September 1, 2004
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Tags: Classic Movies, Erich von Stroheim, Fay Wray, John Monk Saunders, King Kong, Robert Riskin, The Affairs of Cellini, The Mystery of the Wax Museum, The Wedding March
Best Films – 1943
Set in a 17th-century Danish village, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterful Vredens dag / Day of Wrath is a stark, but deeply felt indictment against religious fanaticism and intolerance. Moving performances by ingénue Lisbeth Modin and accused witch Anna Svierkier add a touch of humanity to the horrors shown on screen. It is not a coincidence that Vredens Dag was made in 1943, a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation. The parallels — and the interconnectedness — between political and religious control are made quite clear in this harrowing masterwork.
FILM
Northern Pursuit
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Frank Gruber, Alvah Bessie
This Land Is Mine
d: Jean Renoir; scr: Dudley Nichols
Vredens dag / Day of Wrath
d: Carl Theodor Dreyer; scr: Carl Dreyer, [...]
by Andre Soares | August 31, 2004
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Tags: Akim Tamiroff, Alvah Bessie, Anna Svierkier, Arthur C. Miller, Best Films, Busby Berkeley, Carl Andersson, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Carmen Miranda, Charles Coburn, Charles Laughton, Charles Van Enger, Classic Movies, Curt Siodmak, Dame May Whitty, Dashiell Hammett, Day of Wrath, Dudley Nichols, Edward Cronjager, Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch, Five Graves to Cairo, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Frank Gruber, Gary Cooper, Gene Tierney, George Seaton, Greer Garson, Harry Stradling, Heaven Can Wait, Helmut Dantine, Henry King, Herbert Selpin, Herbert Stothart, Herman Shumlin, I Walked with a Zombie, Ingrid Bergman, J. Carroll Naish, Jacques Tourneur, Jean Arthur, Jean Renoir, Jennifer Jones, Joel McCrea, John F. Seitz, Joseph A. Valentine, Joseph Ruttenberg, Katina Paxinou, Kim Hunter, L'Eternel Retour, Laird Cregar, Lassie Come Home, Lisbeth Modin, Madame Curie, Max Steiner, Northern Pursuit, Patricia Collinge, Paul Lukas, Raoul Walsh, Rex Ingram (actor), Roger Hubert, Sahara, Samson Raphaelson, Shadow of a Doubt, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, So Proudly We Hail, Teresa Wright, The Eternal Return, The Gang's All Here, The Human Comedy, The Lady Takes a Chance, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Seventh Victim, The Song of Bernadette, This Land Is Mine, Titanic, Una O'Connor, Veronica Lake, Vredens Dag, Walter Bullock, Watch on the Rhine, Werner Klingler
