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.
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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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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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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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
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
Victor Fleming, who appeared onscreen in the film as himself, directd Douglas Fairbanks with actress Kathleen Clifford in the film ""When the Clouds Roll BY" (six reels) during 1919 from a photoplay written by Thomas J Geraghty. Fleming had began as a cinematographer for director Alan Dwan. Victor Flemming the following year directed Douglas Fairbanks in the film "The Mollycoddle". Silent Film
Robert M. Baker coscripted the 1916 film "Flirting with Fate" (five reels)with director Christy Cabanne for the Fine Arts Film Company. Actress Dorothy Haydel appears with Douglas Fairbanks in the film.
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Directed by Irving Cummings, "Broken Hearts of Broadway" (seven reels) starred actresses Colleen Moore, Alice Lake and Kate Brice.
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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
Eric von Stroheim costarred with actresses Miss Dupont, Dale Fuller and Maude George during 1922 in the film "Foolish Wives" (fourteen reels), which he directed and co-scripted with Marion Ainslee and Walter Anthony.
Author William K EVerson sees the film's plot as "vitrually an extension" of Von Strohiem's earlier film "Blind Husbands"
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
