Desert Nights with John Gilbert and Mary Nolan: Enjoyable Sahara-set adventure – which happened to be Gilbert’s last silent film – dares to ask the age-old philosophical question, “Is there honor among thieves?” John Gilbert late silent adventure ‘Desert Nights’ asks a question for the…
-
-
The Doll with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig. Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring “the German Mary Pickford” has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy Seven Chances. ‘The Doll’: San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the…
-
“Amazing Tales from the Archives”: Pioneering female documentarian Aloha Wanderwell Baker remembered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival – along with the largely forgotten sound-on-cylinder technology and the Jean Desmet Collection. ‘Amazing Tales from the Archives’: San Francisco Silent Film Festival & the ‘sound-on-cylinder’…
-
Boom! movie with Elizabeth Taylor: Critically panned box office disaster featuring memorable headwear and situations. ‘Boom!’ movie: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton critical & box office bomb reappraised as ‘cult classic’ fare If you’ve never seen Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s 1968 vanity production Boom!,…
-
Swampland race relations in Chloe, Love Is Calling You: Desired by two handsome white men, is Olive Borden black or white? Swampland race relations: Bizarre ‘Chloe Love Is Calling You’ mixes reactionary ideas & voodoo Whenever I watch a film such as the swampland-set 1934…
-
Women’s suffrage movie Mothers of Men: Dorothy Davenport becomes a judge and later State Governor in socially conscious thriller about U.S. women’s voting rights. Are females too emotional to be objective? Women’s suffrage movie ‘Mothers of Men’: Will women’s right to vote lead to the…
-
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried: Paul Richter as the tragic dragon-slaying hero of medieval Germanic mythology – with a bit from Homer’s Iliad thrown in. ‘Die Nibelungen’: Enthralling silent classic despite complex plot and countless characters Based on the medieval epic poem Nibelungenlied, itself inspired by the…
-
‘The Beast with a Million Eyes’: Roger Corman Beats Alfred Hitchcock with Nature vs. Humans Thriller
The Beast with a Million Eyes: Hardly truth in advertising as Roger Corman’s micro-budget sci-fi thriller is no “monster movie.” ‘The Beast with a Million Eyes’: Alien invasion movie predates Alfred Hitchcock classic Despite the confusing voice-over introduction, David Kramarsky’s[1] The Beast with a Million…
-
Sight and Sound: Directed by Marcel L’Herbier, L’Inhumaine features Jaque Catelain and Georgette Leblanc in a great-looking (Fernand Léger sets) mix of science-fiction and sex melodrama. Marcel L’Herbier silent ‘L’Inhumaine’: Sight and sound integration For me, the real jewel in the crown of the San Francisco Silent Film…
-
‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ with Tony Randall delivering a ‘bravura performance’: Things are not as they seem. ‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ movie: ‘Things are not as they seem’ Director George Pal’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao surprises on multiple levels: its witty screenplay…
-
Humoresque: Joan Crawford and John Garfield experience a complicated love affair. ‘Humoresque’ 1946: Saved by Joan Crawford Directed by Jean Negulesco from a screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold (loosely based on a Fannie Hurst short story), Humoresque always frustrates me because its first…
-
African-American film ‘Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Club Field Day’ with Williams (in blackface) and Odessa Warren Grey: Early 20th century rarity.* Rare, early 20th-century African-American film among San Francisco Silent Film Festival highlights Directed by Edwin Middleton and T. Hayes Hunter, the Biograph Company’s Lime…
-
Autumn Crocus movie adaptation with Ivor Novello and Fay Compton: Summertime precursor. Ivor Novello last movie: ‘Autumn Crocus’ Can a naive, plain-looking, spinster school teacher ever find real love in faraway places? This was a question asked by Shirley Booth in Arthur Laurents’ 1952 stage…
-
Charles Chaplin in ‘A Film Johnnie’ (1914). ‘A Night at the Cinema in 1914’: From The Great War to Charles Chaplin and Pearl White Imagine, if you will, that you can go back one hundred years in time, when people were enjoying a new and…
-
‘Midnight Madness’ Movie Mis-Title + Gender Roles & Social Hypocrisy + Landmark Chinese Movie: SFSFF
Midnight Madness movie with Clive Brook and Jacqueline Logan. ‘Midnight Madness’ movie lacks both ‘midnight’ & ‘madness’ Screened at the 2014 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Midnight Madness has a very curious title: there is no “midnight” or “madness” to be found in the film.…
-
The Canadian with Thomas Meighan. ‘The Canadian’: Thomas Meighan faces adversities in The Land of Promise Thomas Meighan is The Star of William Beaudine’s The Canadian (1926), which screened at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The credits feature his name far above everyone…