SOLD FOR MARRIAGE – Lillian Gish
Sold for Marriage (1916)
Direction: Christy Cabanne
Screenplay: William E. Wing
Cast: Lillian Gish, Frank Bennett, Walter Long, Allan Sears, Pearl Elmore, Curt Rehfeld
Though all but completely forgotten today, Christy Cabanne (at times billed as William Christy Cabanne) was a respected name in the 1910s and 1920s. Among his credits are the1916 Douglas Fairbanks vehicle The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, considered by some Fairbanks’ best film of the 1910s; the highly successful 1925 actioner The Midshipman, which helped to seal Ramon Novarro’s stardom; and several key scenes in the mammoth 1925 version of Ben-Hur, also starring Novarro.
An apprentice to D. W. Griffith, Cabanne seems to have not only learned a good deal from the (now all but insufferable) Master, but [...]
by Andre Soares | March 24, 2009
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Tags: Arranged Marriages, Christy Cabanne, Classic Movies, D. W. Griffith, Film Reviews, Frank Bennett, Immigration, Lillian Gish, Ramon Novarro, Silent Films, Socially Conscious Movies, Sold for Marriage, Three-Star Movies, William E. Wing
THE ITALIAN d: Reginald Barker
The Italian (1915)
Direction: Reginald Barker
Screenplay: Thomas H. Ince and C. Gardner Sullivan
Cast: George Beban, Clara Williams, J. Frank Burke
George Beban (right) was a renowned stage and vaudeville star. Even though he never became a major film name, Beban appeared in nearly 20 films from the mid-1910s to the mid-1920s, almost invariably in the role of an Italian. His first feature film, in fact, was quite succinctly called The Italian.
Directed by the respected Reginald Barker (among whose credits is the 1916 William S. Hart vehicle The Aryan), The Italian depicts the plight of an Italian immigrant who arrives in the Land of Plenty only to find poverty, heartbreak, and death (no, not his own).
A not uncommon theme for the [...]
by Andre Soares | March 22, 2009
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Tags: C. Gardner Sullivan, Clara Williams, Classic Movies, Film Reviews, George Beban, Immigration, Reginald Barker, Silent Films, Socially Conscious Movies, The Italian, Thomas H. Ince
