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
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."
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