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, among them 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;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
Directed by Robert G. Vignola for Cosmopolitan Productions, "Beauty's Worth" (seven reels) showcases Marion Davies starring with actresses June Eldvige and Lydia Yeamans. Marion Davies had also appeared under the direction of Robert G. Vignola during 1922 in the film "Young Diana" (seven reels). The film is presumed to be lost, there being no surviving copies at present. The comedy "Adam and Eva" from 1923, in which Marion Davies again starred for director Robert G Vignola, is also presumed lost with no surviving copies existing.
Author Robert Hamilton Ball explains that due to the world being at war, there were no film adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare filmed during 1915 and that those filmed during 1916 were stricly American. This may or may not be a matter of course, but there having had been being no film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays during 1918 as well, Ball sees The Great War as having inhibited them. Actor Frederick B. Warde had previously starred in the film " "Richard III" (Keane, five reels) during 1913. Actress Lorraine Huling starred with him as Cordelia in the film "King Lear" (five reels).
The Taming of the ShrewSilent Film
The caption to the review of "A Girl's Folly" (five reels) in the periodical Wid's Films and Film Folk during March 1917 read "Bad Moral and Tells Secrets, But Will Get Money." It elaborated further with "Very interesting, but tells studio secrets, which is dangerous," if that too can be deciphered by a modern audience sauntering through the cannon of silent films left remaining that have not yet deteriorated over time. The periodical then went so far as to, half-heartedly or not, suggest that "exhibitors", theater owners, should "protest" the film's having divulged what were "backstage secrets". The periodical admittedly was looking for the exploitation of silent films but it takes a historian's glance to decided if there was a sensationalism on which the reviewer may have counted during an extratextural discourse. It continued to question "purely from the viewpoint of whether you can get money with it" and conceded, "The thread of the story is quite slender and has a very questionable moral as presented, but the introduction of scenes showing clearly activity about a film studio is sure to prove exceptionally interisting to any film fan." It offerred the theater owner consolation, "Since the producer has already gone and 'done it', I presume you might as well go ahead and get the money with this, because it would be impossible to eliminate the back-stage scenes and have a picture left."
The photoplay was cowritten with director Maurice Tourneaur by Frances Marion and starred actresses Doris Kenyon, Robert Warwick and June Eldvidge. Frances Marion that year also wrote the photplays to
to the films Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Poor Little Rich Girl both starring Mary Pickford. Actress Doris Kenyon appeared on screen in the films of Alice Guy Blanche, in 1916 in the film "The Queen's Waif" and in 1917 in "The Empress". During 1917 Robert Warwick and Doris Kenyon also starred together in "The Man Who Forgot" (Emile Chautard). The film is presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies existing. Silent FilmSilent Film
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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While noting that "The Son of the Shiek" (seven reels) was Rudolph Valentino's last film, author William K. Everson opines that it was his best. "It was lush, genuinely erotic and direct in key confrontations- but by 1926 there had been such a change in movie morals that nobody was offended by it, and in any event, its tasteful tongue-in-cheek approach disarmed any serious criticism." It may also be that by now the film is only the material of fanstasy to modern audiences analyzing its diegetic images for keys to female spectatorship and the look. Actress Vilma Banky had appeared with Rudolph Valentino during 1925 in the film "The Eagle" (Clarence Brown).
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Douglas Fairbanks the following year continued his series of films in which he starred as an adventure protagonist, each film seeming to be a story in a different historical period and a different geographical country. In addition to its being a costume drama, author William K. Everson saw "The Muskateers" (Fred Niblo, 1921, twelve reels) as being indicative of the influence of D.W. Griffith with its cornocopia of intertiles and various intersecting subplots. Starring in the film with Douglas Fairbanks are actresses Barbara Del La Marr and Margueritte Del La Motte.
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
Now directing for the Reliance Motion Picture and Majestic Motion Picture Corporation, D.W. Griffith had expanded his running length to six reels by 1914 with the film "Home Sweet Home", starring actresses Lillian Gish, Doroth Gish and Mae Marsh. Silent FilmD.W. Griffith
George L. Melford is credited with having directed Edith Taliaferrer in "Young Romance" (five reels). The photoplay was written by William C. de Mille.
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The book Pictorial Beauty on the Screen, written by Victor Oscar Freeburg in 1923, was dedicated to James Cruze, director of the silent film 'The Covered Wagon' (ten reels). The introduction to the volume was written by silent film director Rex Ingram. Ingram notes that the silent film "must be composed of certain pictorial qualifications such as form, composition and a proper distribution of light and shade." Film poetry began with the silent film, despite any rennaisance in the nineteen seventies.
Allan Eyles notes that "The Covered Wagon" (Cruze, 1923), made in the United States at a time when film criticism was giving more than a cursoy glance to the work of Swedish silent film director Victor Seastrom who had only just then arrived in America with Mauritz Stiller to bring a close to the Golden Age of SWEDISH Silent, was remarkable for its depicting the relationships of the characters within narrative to the enviornment in which the story takes place, its plotline built around the interaction of its three primary characters.
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Claimed to have been a "sensation" by writers of the period, "Black Oxen" (eight reels) was directed by Frank Lloyd, who co-wrote the script with Mary O'Hara as an adaptation of a then recent, then controversial novel by Gertrude Atherton. Atherton took the title from a phrase from poet William Butler Yeats. The film stars actresses Corinne Griffith and Clara Bow.
Screenland magazine reviewed the film during November of 1923. "The passing years are like black oxen, wrote Gertrude Atherton, plodding on relentlessly. The heroine of 'Black Oxen' is a famous beauty who successfully renews her youth, thereby creating a new world for herself, far from her old loves and dreams."
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Directed by Sidney Franklin for First National Pictures, "Her Sister From Paris" (seven reels) paired Ronald Colman with actress Constance Talmadge.
Silent Film Constance Talmadge
Directed by Sidney Franklin for First National Pictures, "Her Night of Romance" (eight reels) paired Ronald Colman with actress Constance Talmadge.
Silent FilmConstance Talmadge
Author Paul Rotha, in his volume The Film Till Now, seems to have begun a retrospective on the work of film director Dimitri Buchowetski, "Of other European directors who have had their fling in Hollywood, Dimitri Buchowetski has not been successful." He apparently lacks the need to include Buchowetski having been taken of the set of the Greta Garbo film "Love", much like Mauritz Stiller had been taken of the set of the Greta Garbo film "The Temptress", and continues to asses other unsuccesul directors by merely listing them.
The review of "The Swan" (six reels) in the periodical "Film Daily" from 1925 predates Rotha, "Tinselled Production That Glitters With The Best Art Directors Can Give and the Best Buchowtski Direction" It noted the film's direction by Buchowetski as having been "excellant", claiming "his unusual skill is displayed throughout." Buchowetski wrote and directed the film. His cameraman was Alvynn Wycoff.
Silent FilmVictor SjostromThe Grand Duchess and the Waiter
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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Actress Theda Bara appeared with Dale Fuller and Eileen Percy during 1925 in "The Unchastened Woman" (seven reels) directed by James Young. Most of the films of Theda Bara are presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies, there being less than half a dozen films out of the fourty in which she appeared that presently can be screened. Silent FilmSilent FilmSilent FilmSilent Film
"The Love Expert" (six reels) was directed in 1920 by David Kirkland, who appears onscreen in the film with Constance Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge. The photoplay was written by John Emerson and Anita Loos. Silent Film
Directed by William Desmond Taylor and coscripted by Frances Marion with Rupert Hughs as an adaptation of his story "The Mobilization of Johanna", the film "Johanna Enlists" (five reels) was photographed by Charles Rosher, whose daughter Joan Marsh appears in the film. Silent Film Silent Film
In her autobiography entitled "Screen Acting", it is invigorating that actress Mae Marsh remains steadfast to her subject- just that, the silent film actress in front of the camera acting, perhaps more so than Lillian Gish in her autobiography. As part of the integrated instances autobiographical reminiscence sprinkled sparingingly within, Marse briefly casts a fond, but brief cursory glance at some of her films, "Yet no pictures I will ever make will be dearer to me than say...... The Escape, Hoo Doo Ann, The Wharf Rat, ect...".
The films "Hoo Doo Ann" (five reels) and "The Wharf Rat" (five reels) were both filmed during 1916 for Triangle Films, the former with a photoplay by producer D. W. Griffith, the later with a photoplay by Anita Loos. Mae Marsh that year also starred in "Wild Girl of the Sierras" (five reels) scripted by Anita Loos and co-starred with Robert Harron in "The Marriage of Molly-O" [D.W. Griffith) and "Child of the Paris Streets" (Lloyd Ingraham). Mae Marsh appears prominently with Robert Harron in the 1916 film "Intolerance" directed by D. W. Griffith, the titles of which were written by Anita Loos.
Silent Film D.W. Griffith
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
During 1916, director John Emerson coscripted the film "His Picture in the Papers" (five reels) with Anita Loos. Produced by the Fine Ats Film Company with Triangle Sudios, the film starred Douglas Fairbanks and Rene Boucicicault. Eric Von Stroheim appears on screen in the film.
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