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Ramon Novarro III: Anita Page, Murder, Life As a Gay Man

Anita Page, Ramon Novarro in The Flying Fleet

Ramon Novarro: Allan Ellenberger Interview II
Ramon Novarro and Anita Page. Do you believe he actually asked her hand in marriage as she claimed later in life?
I do, and the main reason is that I knew Anita Page and interviewed her extensively for over a year before her health really began to decline. At that point, she would have short-term memory loss due to a stroke, which made interviewing her more difficult. That, and the image that she presented to the world in some ways made her appear unreliable. All I know is that I was able to prove most of the stories she told me with secondary [...]

Ramon Novarro II: Best Films, Rex Ingram

Jeanette MacDonald, Ramon Novarro in The Cat and the Fiddle. Photo: Courtesy Matias Bombal Collection.

Ramon Novarro: Allan Ellenberger Interview I
How would you describe Ramon Novarro the actor?
Novarro was a first-rate actor – maybe not an Olivier, but a good solid actor. Even in bad films such as Laughing Boy (1934), he had his moments. He was excellent in dramatic roles such as the aviator Alexis Rosanoff opposite Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931), or as the rapist-suitor of Myrna Loy in The Barbarian (1933). He excelled in light comedic moments, especially in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and in several of his musicals including The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) and The [...]

Ramon Novarro: Q&A with Author Allan Ellenberger

I first contacted author Allan Ellenberger shortly before the publication of his book on Old Hollywood star Ramon Novarro, as at the time I was working on my own Novarro bio. Instead of treating me like a pesky rival, Allan generously shared the information he’d amassed throughout about a decade of research — and for that I was very thankful.
We’ve since become good friends (but Allan, you need to buy me pizza more often), so I’m glad to report that his Ramon Novarro (McFarland, 1999) is now available in paperback at online bookstores. In his carefully researched book (I’ve read it about four or five times), Allan discusses Ramon Novarro’s life and career from his early beginnings in [...]

Best Films – 1935

Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Clark Gable in China Seas
FILM
Alice Adams
d: George Stevens; scr: Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner
China Seas
d: Tay Garnett; scr: Jules Furthman, James K. McGuinness
The Gay Deception
d: William Wyler; scr: Stephen Avery, Don Hartman
A Tale of Two Cities
d: Jack Conway; scr: W. P. Lipscomb, S. N. Behrman
The Whole Town’s Talking
d: John Ford; scr: Jo Swerling, Robert Riskin
 

Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones in A Night at the Opera
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Broadway Melody of 1936
d: Roy Del Ruth; scr: Jack McGowan, Sid Silvers
Lives of a Bengal Lancer
d: Henry Hathaway; scr: Waldemar Young, John L. Balderston, Achmed Abdullah
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
d: Max Reinhardt, William Dieterle; scr: Charles Kenyon, Mary C. McCall Jr.
A Night at the Opera
d: Sam [...]

Best Films – 1934

Norma Shearer in The Barretts of Wimpole Street
FILM
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart
The Count of Monte Cristo
d: Rowland V. Lee; scr: Philip Dunne, Dan Totheroh, Rowland V. Lee
The Gay Divorcee
d: Mark Sandrich; scr: George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost, Edward Kaufman
Hide-out
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich
The Merry Widow
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Samson Raphaelson, Ernest Vajda
 

Fredric March, Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday
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Broadway Bill
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
Death Takes a Holiday
d: Mitchell Leisen; scr: Maxwell Anderson, Gladys Lehman
Gold
d: Karl Hartl; scr: Rolf E. Vanloo
Here Comes the Navy
d: Lloyd Bacon; scr: Earl Baldwin, Ben Markson
Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna
d: Willi Forst; scr: [...]

Best Films – 1933

Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
FILM
Baby Face
d: Alfred E. Green; scr: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola
The Barbarian
d: Sam Wood; scr: Anita Loos, Elmer Harris
Dinner at 8
d: George Cukor; scr: Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Donald Ogden Stewart
Gold Diggers of 1933
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour, David Boehm, Ben Markson
I’m No Angel
d: Wesley Ruggles; scr: Mae West
The Kennel Murder Case
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Robert Presnell, Robert N. Lee, Peter Milne
King Kong
d: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper; scr: James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose
The Mystery of the Wax Museum
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Don Mullaly, Carl Erickson
Queen Christina
d: Rouben Mamoulian; scr: H. M. Harwood, S. N. Behrman
 

Nils Asther, Barbara Stanwyck in The Bitter Tea of [...]

Best Films – 1931

Willi Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Congress Dances
FILM
À nous la liberté / Liberty for Us
d, scr: René Clair
City Streets
d: Rouben Mamoulian; scr: Max Marcin, Oliver H. P. Garrett, Dashiell Hammett
Daybreak
d: Jacques Feyder; scr: Ruth Cummings, Cyril Hume, Zelda Sears
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
d: Rouben Mamoulian; scr: Samuel Hoffenstein, Percy Heath
Five Star Final
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: Robert Lord, Byron Morgan
Der Kongreß tanzt / Congress Dances
d: Erik Charell; scr: Norbert Falk, Robert Liebmann
The Maltese Falcon / Dangerous Female
d: Roy del Ruth; scr: Maude Fulton, Lucien Hubbard, Brown Holmes
The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford
d: Sam Wood; scr: Charles MacArthur
The Public Enemy
d: William A. Wellman; scr: Kubec F. Glasmon, [...]

Best Films – 1930

Made at the dawn of the sound era, All Quiet on the Western Front remains the best war film ever made. Despite some brave (and not so brave) attempts by other filmmakers ever since, no other motion picture I’ve seen has captured the horrors of war with the honesty and the poignancy of Lewis Milestone’s rendition of Erich Maria Remarque’s pacifist novel. Lew Ayres plays the young, idealistic soldier who soon discovers that war has nothing to do with either honor or glory.
 
FILM
All Quiet on the Western Front
d: Lewis Milestone; scr: Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews, George Abbott
The Bishop Murder Case
d: Nick Grindé, David Burton; scr: Lenore J. Coffee
Going Wild
d: William [...]

Best Films – 1929

Alexandra Schmidt in Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness
FILM
Eternal Love
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Hans Kräly; titles: H. H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Hans Kräly, Claudine West
The Love Parade
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Ernest Vajda, Guy Bolton
Lucky Star
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Sonya Levien; dialogue: John Hunter Booth; titles: H. H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker
Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück / Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness
d: Piel Jutzi; scr: Willy Döll, Jan Fethke
On With the Show
d: Alan Crosland; scr: Robert Lord
The Pagan
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Dorothy Farnum; titles: John Howard Lawson
The River
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Philip Klein, Dwight Cummings
The Thirteenth Chair
d: Tod Browning; scr: Elliott Clawson
 
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The Divine Lady
d: Frank Lloyd; scr: Forrest Halsey, Agnes [...]

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 [...]

Best Films – 1927

Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
FILM
Breakfast at Sunrise
d: Malcolm St. Clair; scr: Fred De Gresac, Gladys Unger
The Enemy
d: Fred Niblo; scr: Willis Goldbeck, Agnes Christine Johnston; titles: John Colton
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Hans Kräly; titles: Marion Ainslee, Ruth Cummings
The Unknown
d: Tod Browning; scr: Waldemar Young; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
The Valley of the Giants
d: Charles Brabin; scr: Gordon Rigby
 

George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor in Sunrise
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The Cat and the Canary
d: Paul Leni; scr: Alfred A. Cohn, Robert F. Hill; titles: Walter Anthony
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Love of Jeanne Ney
d: G. W. Pabst; scr: [...]

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 [...]

Best Films – 1923

I must admit that I’m not a fan of Charles Chaplin’s comedies. Heresies aside, I did very much enjoy Chaplin’s dramatic A Woman of Paris, an attempt to turn his frequent leading lady Edna Purviance into a star. The film was a box-office success (despite rumors to the contrary), but Purviance’s career never took off. That is unfortunate, as she gives a moving performance in this tale of lost love and single motherhood. She is with Carl Miller in the photo. Things are obviously not going very well for the couple, but Purviance is surely suffering in style.
 
FILM
Cameo Kirby
d: John Ford; scr: Robert N. Lee
Scaramouche
d: Rex Ingram; scr: Willis Goldbeck
The White Rose
d, scr: D. W. Griffith
A Woman of Paris
d, scr: [...]

Best Films – 1922

Ok, so Max Schreck (literally, Max Fright) was not romantic leading man material, but he did quite well for himself as the creepiest vampire of them all, Nosferatu. Those who think of director F. W. Murnau as the creator of film poetry in pictures such as Sunrise and Tabu should realize that Murnau was equally adept at creating sheer horror. No other vampire movie I’ve seen is as eerie as Nosferatu the Vampire. Max Schreck’s ratman-like presence, of course, is an enormous help.
 
FILM
Monte Cristo
d: Emmett J. Flynn; scr: Bernard McConville
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu the Vampire
d: F. W. Murnau; scr: Henrik Galeen
The Prisoner of Zenda
d: Rex Ingram; scr: Mary O’Hara
 
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Back Pay
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Frances [...]

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 [...]

CELEBRITIES IN THE 1930 CENSUS: Q&A with Author Allan R. Ellenberger

As it says on the cover, Allan R. Ellenberger’s Celebrities in the 1930 Census (McFarland, 2008, US$49.95) is a compilation of household data — as collected by 1930 census takers — of more than 2,000 "U.S. actors, musicians, scientists, athletes, writers, politicians and other public figures." (The woman in the photo is aviatrix Amelia Earhart.)
The book, of course, doesn’t offer any saucy insights into the lives of those people. Instead, it’s a straightforward amalgam of un-dramatic — but important — information for researchers. (Though non-researchers may find the myriad listings addictive as well.)
For instance, when I wrote the Ramon Novarro (above right) biography Beyond Paradise, I didn’t have access to the 1930 census, which became part of the public record [...]

Phil Hall’s Top 50 Lost Films of All Time

At Film Threat, Phil Hall lists the "Top 50 Lost Films of All Time."
According to Hall, "among the missing movies are the world’s first feature film [The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), right], the first Technicolor feature [The Gulf Between (1917)], the first animated feature in both the silent and sound eras [El Apastol (1917) and Peludópolis (1931), respectively], the first werewolf movie [The Werewolf (1913)], the first appearance by Dracula [Drakula halála (1923)], the first kaiju film [King Kong Appears in Edo (1938)], and movies created by Charlie Chaplin [A Woman of the Sea (1926), directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Chaplin], Orson Welles [the 40-minute Too Much Johnson (1938)], Woody Allen [the alternate version of [...]

Rex Ingram Remembered

Since it’s still Jan. 15 in large chunks of the Pacific Ocean, I have enough time to briefly mention film director Rex Ingram (top right), whose birth — as Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock — took place in Dublin exactly 113 years ago. (Some sources claim Ingram was born in 1892, but in Rex Ingram: Master of the Silent Cinema author Liam O’Leary clearly states that 1893 is the right date.)
While writing Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, I often became more intrigued with two of the story’s top supporting players than with the biographical subject himself. One was Novarro’s lover in the mid-1920s, columnist Herbert Howe, quite likely the wittiest writer to ever cover the Hollywood scene. [...]

BEYOND PARADISE: THE LIFE OF RAMON NOVARRO

Ramon Novarro was the first Latin-American performer to become a Hollywood superstar. Born Ramón Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, Novarro arrived in Hollywood in 1916 as a refugee from the civil wars that rocked Mexico in the early 20th century.
A few years later, the young Mexican made a name for himself following the 1922 release of Rex Ingram’s period adventure-romance The Prisoner of Zenda. The handsome and wildly eccentric Ingram was Metro Pictures’ foremost director and the man who had helped to turn Rudolph Valentino into a star in the 1921 blockbuster The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the aftermath of an acrimonious split with Valentino, Ingram did his utmost to transform the inexperienced Ramón Samaniego into [...]

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