Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines: Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature, a social phenomenon; how it was reviewed, audience reception.
Scott Lord on Silent Film
Gendered spectatorship notwithstanding, in a way, the girl coming down the stairs is symbolic of the lost film itself, the unattainable She, idealized beauty antiquated (albeit it being the beginning of Modernism), with the film detective catching a glimpse of the extratextural discourse of periodicals and publicity stills concerning Lost Films, Found Magazines
It may be that the recent histoiography of the earliest adaptations of the plays of Ibsen to the screen can be seen as "transnational film adaptations", the effect of Hollywood upon an international film market before and after the First World War in a competetive emergence of directorial systems, including the vying screenwriting techniques of Griffith and Ince. Author Eirk Frsvold Hanssen writes that in 1918 there were twenty eight silent film adaptations of the plays of Henrik Ibsen, of which only nine still exist today, the others presumed lost, with no surviving copies, the version directed by George Nichols "employing montage techniques of the emerging classical Hollywood style". Scholar Mark Sandberg looks at the "difficulties of transposing a densely verbal naturalist drama to the visual regime of silent film", invluding the "evocation of the unsaid underneath all that is said". Sandberg continues to describe Griffith's adaptations as "pantomime" and "paratext".
Thanhouser began producing one reel adaptations of literature and in 1911 filmed three plays written by Norwegain playwright Henrik Ibsen: "Pillars of Society" (Samfundets stotter), starring Julia M. Taylor, "Lady of the Sea" (Fruen fra havnet, Theodore Morsten) starring Marguerite Snow and "A Doll's House" (Ettdukkenhjem).
Lubin that year filmed a two reel version of Ibsen's "Sins of the Father" (Genggarare), directed by William Baumann. The Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company followed suit during 1915 with a five reel version of "Peer Gynt" (Apfel, Walsh) starring Myrtle Stedman, Mary Ruebens and Mary Ruby.
The Thanhauser film "Lady of the Sea" from 1917 that film historians will find is not a lost film but rather one abandoned by actress Valda Valkyrien before changing studios. Born Baroness De Witz, Valkyrien made five films for Thanhouser between 1915-1917.
Charles Bryant in 1922 directed a seven reel adaptation of "A Doll's House, photographed by Charles van Enger. Swedish Silent FilmD.W. GriffithD.W. Griffith
THe periodical Motography announced in its November 23, 1912 issue that Thanhauser would release the three reel film "The Star of Bethlehem" one month later, on December 24, as its Christmas feature of that year. It describes the film and its costumes as being a spectacle film for its time period, which is early for the genre. The film gives an account of the prophet Micah and the "signs and portents" of the Old Testament continuing untill the Nativity. A month later, when the company advertised the film as being on the same marquee as its "Romeo and Juliet", it promoted the films as belonging "an Easter programme", prompting exhibitioners to view it. The periodical The Cinema News and Property Gazzette explore the film belonging to a new genre during January 1913, "Of the making of films the stories of which are based upon Scripture there appears to be no end. There are some who would taboo this kind of picture, but for our own part, so long as we habe companies like Thanhauser, we care not how greatly this kind of film increases and multiplies. Reverence is the keynote..." silent filmsilent film
Actress Alice Terry starred with Rudolph Valentino in the 1921 film "The Conquering Power" (five-seven reels) directed by Rex Ingram for Metro Pictures Corporation.
Silent Film
Once thought to be lost, without any surviving copies of the film, not all eight reels of the film "The Village Blacksmith" have been recovered, the print that now exists being incomplete.
Within the world of Lost Films, Found Magazines, the film "The Courtship of poem titles and Miles Standish (Frederick M. Sullivan, 1923) is lost, but there are pages of full page advertisemens of Charles Ray and Enid Bennett in the periodical The Film Daily from the year of its first run.
Seven reels in length, "The Wreck of the Hesperus", from 1927, is also a lost film. Directed Elmer Clifton, it was produced by Cecil B. de Mille and starred Virginia Bradford.
The two silent film bersion of "The Village Blacksmith" have been mention as being among more than ten adaptations derived from the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Jan Christopher Hoak, in his paper American Literature and Silent Film, "All of these films capitalized on the well known poem titles and on certain plot elements from Longfellow. without however intending a faithful adaptation. The same could be said for John Greenleaf Whittier, whose civil war ballad 'Barbara Frietche' was filmed in 1908, 1915 and 1924."
It is of no consequence, but we drove past the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house in Massachusetts this morning, in a taxi on the way to lunch. There is a nearby house that has a plaque that reads "Longfellow Beach"-if, straining, I read it correctly- that is still a complete mystery to me when driving by, but it is mere curiousity.
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John Barrymore portrayed the titular character in "Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman" directed by George Irving in 1917. Starring in the film with Barrymore were actresses Evelyn Brent and Christine Mayo.
John BarrymoreJohn Barrymore
John Griffith Wray directed actresses Madge Bellamy and Vola Vale in "Soul of the Beast" (five reels) under the supervision of Thomas H. Ince.Actress Madge Bellamy during 1924 had starred in the film "No More Women" (Lloyd Ingraham, six reels).
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Mary PickfordMary Pickford is listed as having co-scrpited the film "Daddy Long Legs" (seven reels) with Agnes C. Johnston. It was diected by Marshall Neilsen.
Mary Pickford
Actress Marion Leonard co-starred with D.W. Griffith and his wife Linda Arvidson during 1908 in the film "At the Crossroads of Life" (one reels) directed by Wallace McCutheon Jr. D.W. Griffith directed her in "Over Silent Paths" (one reel) in 1910. Mack Sennet appears in the film.
D.W.GriffithD.W. GriffithBiograph Film Company
Actress Francelia Billington starred in numerous shorts, notably during 1913 and 1914 before appearing in "The Sands of Sacrifice" (five reels) directed by Edward Sloman during 1917 for the American Film Company.
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Swashbuckler Douglas Fairanks searching the high seas for adventure found an uncredited cameo appearance from real life romance Mary Pickford when paired with actress Billie Dove in "The Black Pirate" during 1926;it can also be noted that she was Dove's stand-in for the kissing parts with Fairbanks. Silent FilmDouglas Fairbanks
The Silent mystery "Secrets of the Night" (seven reels) was directed in 1924 by Herbert Blanche. The film stars actresses Madge Bellamy, Zazu Pitts and Rosemary Theby. Silent Film
Author Richard Dyer MacCann, in his volume The Silent Screen, explained, "Stroheim's first three films were about attempted seduction...Furthermore, the death of the character played by Stroheim himself in Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922) seemed to add tension amd seriousness to the atmosphere of petty eroticism."
Starring in "Blind Husbands" (eight reels) with director Eric Von Stroheim were actresses Ruby Kendrick, Fay Holderness and Francella Billington. Eric Von Strohiem coscripted the film's photoplay with writer Lillian Ducey.
British Silent Film
Author Mark A Vieira, in Silent Prototypes, the first chapter of his volume Hollywood Horror, includes John Barrymore as titular Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde as being a portrayl that was the first Hollywood silent horror film, but only as an atypical exception, his crediting The Phantom of the Opera with beginning the genre outright. "No studio wanted to alienate a public satiated with adventure, melodrama and romance. Even mysteries had did not ensure a box office success."
Directed by John S. Robertson, the photoplay was scripted by Clara Beranger and photographed by Roy F. Overrbaugh. Actresses Martha Mansfield and Nita Naldi star with John Barrymore in the film.
Silent FilmJohn Barrymore
The Edison Company released its last film as a studio, "The Unbeliever" (Alan Crosland, six reels) in 1918. The periodical Motion Picture News seems to have been kept in the dark that it would be the swan song of the studion, claiming that the Edison Company viewed the film as their "greatest contribution to the screen". "The Unbeliever" starred Margueritte Courot, Kate Lester and Eric von Stroheim.
Not incidentally, the term "one sheet" used to describe the standard size of movie posters began with the Edison photoplay; it was a size of approximately 27 inches by 41 inches often included a synopsis of the plotline of the film.
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The photographer of the film was Hendrik Sartov. When seen by Norwegian director Tancred Ibsen, "Orphans of the Storm" was one of the films included in is decision to go to Hollywood, albeit none of the scripts he wrote while there were realized.
William Everson, in his volume American Silent Film, perhaps sees the significance of "Orphans of the Storm" lying perhaps in tits improtance to us more than as a steppingstone for D.W. Griffith. He writes, "While it did well, Orphans of the Storm was not the box-office blockbuster that Griffith expected and needed badly. Because it was neither a financial landmark nor an aesthetic advance over his previous films, it is usually dismissed by historians (even the few responsible one's) as representing 'Griffith in Decline'." Everson reports that after the premiere, which he spoke at and which was attended by Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Griffith cut "the more harrowing scenes" from the film, including close-ups of vermin crawling over Dorothy Gish and shots from the execution scene. And yet, Everson is certainly correct that the film showcases the directorial skills of D.W. Griffith. Everson continues, "The detail shots in battle scenes (troops moving into formation, close ups of pistols being loaded and and fixed) gave them a documentary quality which mde them explicable as well as ezciting." D.W. Griffith
The photographer to the film “One Exciting Night” was Hendrik Sartov.
After having directed Carol Dempster in “One Exciting Night” (Eleven reels), D.W. Griffith, by then having become a producer for United Artists, followed in 1922 by directing Dempster in the film “The White Rose” (twelve reels) with actress Mae Marsh.
"She was nice and she was sweet, say many to explain the phenomenon...The reason can only be found in by relating the star to the social and cultural background of the time...Only the American civilization, a civilization materially in advance of the rest of the world could have produced Mary Pickford. We must try to realize the impact of Mary Pickford's appaearance and acting upon the consciousness of the world's population as it existed around 1909."
It is certain that the beginnings of the star system had made Mary Pickford an attractive commodity by 1918 when we had reluctantly taken part in the continuance of an unexpected war- the quote may point to the historical context and extratextural discourse that is a dynamic of that star system. A starsystem that has been called "a culture of celebrity", the silent film era has kept some of its first impressions as long lasting, albeit some were fleeting, authors often making comparisions between fixed points in the firmament, especially when introducing the newest foreign arrival, in as much as an actress was now considered "Sweden's Mary Pickford", or when there was a common theme between Gish, Pickford and Mae Marsh. Although far from the earliest example of film criticism, the quote is from a volume titled The Film Answers Back, an historical appreciation of the cinema. Authored by E.W. + M.M. Robson, it was published in 1939. Oddly, the review of the films of the actress begins to address, not gendered spectatorship, but her femininity within the expectations drawn by a woman on the screen and how it related to being a Suffragete. Notwithstanding, it was that Mary Pickford by then was sought after and Parmount Press Books from 1917 describe her having sold Liberty Bonds as a result of a request from United States Secretary McAdoo, her wearing the insignia of an honarary colonel. The pressbooks announced, "Famous Artcraft Star Stops All Film Activities When Call Comes To Help Country and Flag by Selling Liberty Bonds".
Prior to the short 100% American, Mary Pickford released the full legnth feature film "Johanna Enlists", adapted by Frances Marion from the short story The Mobilizing of Johanna, published in 1917.
Returning to the year the film was made and to contrast the on screen images with the extratextural discourse of the off screen lives of actresses, Mary Pickford and Linda A. Griffith during 1918 were given back to back bylines in the periodical Film Fun. The article written by Mary Pickford was a look toward the future of filmmaking, and thereby necessarily lending an assessmeMnt of the time period and historical context, her praising the work of Cecil B. DeMille. In turn, Linda A Griffith followed in the same issue and neglected entirely the gendered spectatorship that would view the talented Mary Pickford. She rather discusses Mary Pickford's salary with the claim that her husband, D.W. Griffith, saw her as being underpaid. Griffith's wife subtitled part of her 1918 article with "Adequate Payment for Good Work". There is almost an objective correlative, or perhaps a suspension of disbelief, in our agreement to walk into the theater and enter fictional worlds that the director's wife acknowledges, neglecting those fictional scenarios, while bringing us a real life Mary Pickford, who in fact later returned to sell bonds for the Defence Department during 1953.
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The volume “Valentino As I Knew Him” was quickly published in 1926 by S.George Ullman and the A.L.Burt Company. Ullmangives an account of his reminisces of Rudolph Valentino and his conversations with him. “The priest came at my summons and was alone with the dying man for some time...Rudy forced a smile so wan that it belied his brave words and said, ‘I’ll be alright’...’Don’t pull down the blinds! I feel fine. I want the sunlight to greet me.’...These were the last intelligible words he ever spoke.”
The periodical Film Daily during August 1926 quoted actress Mae Murray as having said, "Valentino's greatest quality was a deep sincerity underlying an enormous strength of character." It quoted Lon Chaney as having said, "I don't know when a piece of news so affected me as Valentino's death." John Gilbert was to say, "The death of Valentino is a terrific loss to the screen." Director Clarence Brown said, "Valentino's death is the biggest loss the screen has ever had." Actress Alice Terry gave a heartffelt, "As one who played with Valentino in his first two successes, 'The Four Horsemen' and 'The Conquering Power', his loss to me is a very keen one personally."
Silent Film Rudolph ValentinoRudolph ValentinoRudolph Valentino
