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Reviews
Back Pay (1930)
Significant For Its Own Reasons
A reviewer has said "Back Pay is Griffith's only surviving talkie so it's impossible to tell if she was playing a part or if her voice was really her voice." I would like to answer that. In the late '70s I was at a film event that had King Vidor as a guest of honor (at least I think it was him, to the best of my memory). Mr. Vidor (or whoever it was) said that Corrine Griffith wasn't successful in talking films, "because she had a southern accent, and so it was good-bye Corrine!" That part I remember distinctly. This would indicate to me, that the voice in the film is really hers, and that is how she actually talked. As to the opening scene, I get the impression they have her singing "They Didn't Believe Me" in order to establish the period in which the story was supposed to be. That song was a huge hit during the teens and 1930 audiences certainly would have understood the time frame by that--since the clothes don't give anyone a clue. Finally I would like to say that no matter how good or bad the film is--any time we have a talking film of a silent star, it is priceless in the sense that we can know what they sound like. I think of how Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle made so many pictures together. Fatty made several shorts in the 1930s just before he died, so we can know what he sounded like. Mabel never did make any talkies, and so we don't know how she sounded. Now someone might say, "Well who cares how they sounded?" Well, I like to know what people sound like, don't you? I think that's just natural curiosity and it's nice when it can be satisfied.
Our Gang (1922)
What About "The Mischief Makers"?
I find it somewhat odd that no one has seen the old silent versions of "Our Gang," and that it is supposed to be lost except for fragments. In the 1960's there was a series for children called "The Mischief Makers." This was a syndicated series featuring the silent "Our Gang" movies with an added sound track of Wurlitzer organ music and child commentators who were a boy and a girl, "Bobby and Bonnie." I used to see it as a child on L.A.'s Channel 9 in about the years 1964-65. There is currently on U-Tube a clip of the animated opening and closing of the program produced by Gene Deitch in 1960. Now I have heard that some silent comedies that were put on TV as similar series in the '60's had mostly clips that were used and that the dastardly editors of the time would destroy the rest of the silent film. I hope this is not the case with Our Gang/The Mischief Makers. But I do remember the series and the characters well.
Panama Lady (1939)
Lucy Does Okay In Spite of Scene Stealer
First off, even though I saw the film some years ago, I can't forget Evelyn Brent's electric performance in a supporting role in which she manages to steal every scene from the star throughout the movie's first half. In fact, as I recall, Lucy just wisely keeps a low profile in her appearances with Ms. Brent, who is just too much to compete with. But finally her character takes a final exit. After that Lucy does come alive as the star and shines from then on, rising above the mediocre material of this B- film. And Lucy Recardo she is not!
What I like most is Lucy's line at the story's high-point: "I'm going to take just one more crack at making a gentleman out of you, and if that doesn't work, we're really in trouble!"
The Patsy (1928)
What's With the Music?
I am glad everybody that has reviewed the film so far has enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I did not. Not that there was anything wrong with the film itself. Far from it. The thing that spoiled it for me was the music! Some late silents had a musical score added to it, such as Joan Crawford's "Our Dancing Daughters/Modern Maidens" series. And a fun bouncing '20's score, to enhance the flapper theme of the film, it was! Evidently "The Patsy" had no such score attached. So naturally, for the sake of modern audiences, someone had to add one. But why the angst-riven post-modern dissonant cacophony for a film about a Roaring Twenties flapper??! It's as if they had dubbed "The Wizard of Oz" with Philip Glass!
As a matter of fact, a TCM special about the life and career of Marion Davies has a clip of "The Patsy" accompanied by a rollicking '20's recording of "There Ain't No Maybe In My Baby's Eyes," which complimented the fun of the film and Marion's antics perfectly. But no! The actual version TCM puts on screen moves the spirit of the Holocaust two decades ahead!! Why? Why? Why?
I think it's high time TCM stopped hiring these hack musicians that want to put their stamp and their personal statement on silent masterpieces that suit their own self-absorbed whims, and hire real composers that write for the film - instead of for themselves. Or else, just add actual recordings from the 1920's that would suit such films as did the TCM Marion Davies special.
Maybe I'm going overboard and being a bit provocative, but such disrespect for painstakingly restored masterpieces renders me apoplectic, and I think it should rile a few other fans as well. Someone tell TCM to STOP destroying beautiful silent films with stupid-sounding sound!!!!
Passion Flower (1930)
Interesting bit of history to it
I may be a nerd about history, but I have always wondered just how long it took for the jazz age of the '20's to wind down, and for the reality of the oncoming depression to settle in on the minds of the average American. A lot of the movies dated as of the year 1930 that I have seen on TCM have plots and situations that look as though the depression hasn't started yet. In some cases it seems like it's still the 1920's! And I am not talking musicals, either. In this movie, released December 6, 1930, the plot involves the depression, in the fact that Charles Bickford decides to accept Kay Francis' offer to work on her ranch because he has lost his job.
Meanwhile, Kay Johnson (the wife) and her landlady played by Zasu Pitts seem to be just waking up to it all as they discuss the state of the economy. Kay says how it has been "dreadful this year." And Zasu Pitts says, "Oh it's bad. I've been trying to collect rent and haven't had much luck." Later when Charles Bickford loses his job his boss tells him, "I may not have a job myself in a couple of weeks." So, perhaps in January 1930 no one noticed a depression yet, but by December 1930, everyone did. This is what I find interesting. Call me a nerd.
Song of Love (1929)
Not so bad in my opinion
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and my opinion of this film differs from the review above. I saw this film at the 2001 Cinecon exhibition and I thought the movie was FUN. Belle Baker was terrific in her "performance" pieces and it's a shame she didn't leave more of a legacy as did Fanny Brice, who I think performed in a similar vein. Of course the plot was thin and sappy, but this was true of most early movie musicals (and Broadway ones too). Eve Arden as a 1920's flapper vamp is hilarious, though unintentionally so. Same goes for the young Ralph Graves, Belle's obvious boy-toy, who is always calling her "Mama." One can't really blame him for stepping out with the younger woman who is about a generation younger than "Mama." I also enjoyed the fact that one gets to have a feel for vaudeville show sketches back then through this film, as well as its overall 1920's ambiance. So all in all is it a great film? No. But is it historic and entertaining? I think so.
The Bride Wore Red (1937)
What Joan Did
In about 1980 I saw this film at the UCLA Film Archives in a series presenting Dorothy Arzner directed films. There was a guest speaker at the event who was a personal friend of Arzner's. I don't remember her name, but she was introduced as, among other things, the writer for the script of "Craig's Wife" (1936; starring Rosalind Russell).
She said she was on the set for some of the shooting of "Bride Wore Red," and described how Joan Crawford was completely uncooperative with the director. Originally it was written for Luise Rainer but for some reason she was unavailable. "So they got Joan Crawford who wasn't anything like her," and was not suited for the film in this woman's opinion. While she was on the set she witnessed how Dorothy Arzner would gently make suggestions as to how to play a scene, "...and Joan would scream, 'You'll destroy me! You'll destroy me!' and she would run up to L.B. Mayer and he would say, 'There, there Joan, play it your way." So she did, "...and frankly, the film bombed. But when you have a star that is entirely uncooperative, you can't blame the director." I hope I have quoted this woman accurately. That is what has stuck in my memory. I am a big Crawford fan, but her flaws were apparently spectacular. I just thought it would be interesting to record this bit of info.
Kick In (1931)
Was Kick-In remade as a Shirley Temple vehicle?
As I would like to compare this movie to another one with what I believe is the same plot, this may or may not qualify as a spoiler. I hope this is sufficient warning, if need be.
Call me crazy and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I could swear this movie was remade three years later as a Shirley Temple vehicle! Baby Take A Bow by Fox has exactly the same plot as I recall, except that Clara's role has been made into a mother and is filled by Claire Trevor. All the other roles seem to be exactly the same in the two films as does the plot. The other differences are that this heavy melodrama is converted into a musical comedy and it is Shirley and her character that accounts for most of the change. I think it would be interesting to consider what it might be like if Clara had reprised her role and had played Shirley Temple's mother! Again, I may be totally off base, but I think the parallels as I saw it anyway, are worth noting.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
What people must have thought in 1915.
I thought it might interest others to know that my grandmother, who was the same age as Lillian Gish, saw Birth of a Nation in 1915. She said it was a wonderful film and she wished she could see it again sometime. I believe I may have even heard the comment more than once. The comment was made 50 some odd years after the movie came out.
The interesting thing is that she made no mention of racism, the Ku Klux Klan, or anything else like it. (At that time one could also find TBOAN listed in print as the first truly modern film and a breakthrough. Again, no mention was made of the film's offensive contents.) Now, my grandmother was no racist, at least by the standards of her time, was in full sympathy of the Civil Rights Movement and often said so. So why the silence on the racism of TBOAN?
I think that people like her that remembered such things as a movie they saw a half century earlier must have entirely forgotten what the film was about. And what did she think when she saw it in 1915? Well, my grandmother still lived in Canada at the time, was very worried about Irish independence, the First World War, etc. I would suppose that to her and people like her outside the South, they simply must have taken the material verbatim as fact without any question. Remember, at that time, regions and distances were much more isolated than today and the South would have been an exotic far-away land to most non-Southerners.
In addition, the book And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmeyer about post Civil- War society in Ohio, made the comment that while Northerners were passionate about liberating the slaves, that was the extent of it. What happened to them after was not a concern in general in the North. They'd done their job as far as they were concerned. So I conclude that the racism issue of the film was simply a non-issue to contemporary audiences, at least outside of the South. I am glad that we as a society have progressed beyond that.