Silent Hunter 5 Update 1.2 With Crack-vitality
Napoleon Hauck
"Seventh Heaven" (also referred to as "7th Heaven"), directed by Frank Borzage and based on the play by AustinStrong, tells the story of Chico (Charles Farrell), the Parisian sewer worker-turned-street cleaner, and hiswife Diane (Janet Gaynor), who are separated during World War I, yet whose love manages to keep them connected."Seventh Heaven" was initially released as a silent film but proved so popular with audiences that it wasre-released with a synchronized soundtrack later that same year. The popularity of the film resulted in itbecoming one of the most commercially successful silent films as well as one of the first films to be nominatedfor a Best Picture Academy Award. Janet Gaynor, Frank Borzage, and Benjamin Glazer won Oscars for their work onthe film, specifically awards for Best Actress, Best Directing (Dramatic Picture), and Best Writing(Adaptation), respectively. "Seventh Heaven" also marked the first time often-paired stars Janet Gaynor andCharles Farrell worked together.
Expandedessay by Aubrey Solomon (PDF, 694KB)
Billy Wilder is purported to have hung a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" Here, thatLubitsch touch seems to hover over each scene, lending a lightness to even the most nefarious of deeds. One ofthe opening shots in the movie shows Baxter as one of a vast horde of wage slaves, working in a room where thedesks line up in parallel rows almost to the vanishing point. This shot is quoted from King Vidor's silent film"The Crowd" (1928), which is also about a faceless employee in a heartless corporation. Cubicles would have comeas revolutionary progress in this world. By the time he made this film, Wilder had become a master at a kind ofsardonic, satiric comedy that had sadness at its center. Wilder was fresh off the enormous hit "Some Like itHot," his first collaboration with Lemmon, and with "The Apartment" Lemmon showed that he could move from lightcomedian to tragic everyman. This movie was the summation of what Wilder had done to date, and the keytransition in Lemmon's career. It was also a key film for Shirley MacLaine, who had been around for five yearsin light comedies, but here emerged as a serious actress who would flower in the 1960s.
Expandedessay by Kyle Westphal (PDF, 428KB)
"Battle of the Century" is a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short comedy (2 reels, ca. 20 minutes) unseen in itsentirety since its original release. The comic bits include a renowned pie-fighting sequence where the principleof "reciprocal destruction" escalates to epic proportions. "Battle" offers a stark illustration of the detectivework (and luck) required to locate and preserve films from the silent era. Only excerpts from reel two of thefilm had survived for many years. Critic Leonard Maltin discovered a mostly complete nitrate copy of reel one atthe Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s. Then in 2015, film collector and silent film accompanist Jon Mirsalislocated a complete version of reel two as part of a film collection he purchased from the Estate of GordonBerkow. The film still lacks brief scenes from reel one, but the film is now almost complete, comprisingelements from MoMA, the Library of Congress, UCLA and other sources. It was restored by the UCLA Film andTelevision Archive in conjunction with Jeff Joseph/SabuCat. The nearly complete film was preserved from one reelof 35mm nitrate print, one reel of a 35mm acetate dupe negative and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory Services:The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Cineaste Restoration/Thad Komorowksi,Point 360/Joe Alloy. Special Thanks: Jon Mirsalis, Paramount Pictures Archives, Richard W. Bann, Ray Faiola,David Gerstein.
Adapted from General Lew Wallace's popular novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" published in 1880, this epicfeatured one of the most exciting spectacles in silent film: the chariot race that was shot with 40 cameras on aCircus Maximus set costing a staggering (for the day) $300,000. In addition to the grandeur of the chariotscene, a number of sequences shot in Technicolor also contributed to the epic status of "Ben-Hur," which wasdirected by Fred Niblo and starred Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala. While thefilm did not initially recoup its investment, it did help to establish its studio, MGM, as one of the majorplayers in the industry.
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This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the RomanEmpire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- thebreathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925.Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notableperformances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with"Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars,including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was broughtin to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported tohave cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.
Expanded essayby Gabriel Miller (PDF, 499KB)
As gifted in their repartee as they were in their physical antics, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were the perfectteam for the transition from silent film comedy to sound. Their legendary career spanned from 1921 to 1951 andincluded more than 100 films. This two-reeler finds the duo attempting to sell Christmas trees in sunnyCalifornia. Their run-in with an unsatisfied customer (played by James Finlayson) lays the groundwork for aslapstick melee eventually involving a dismantled car, a wrecked house and an exploding cigar. The film wasproduced by the team's long-time collaborator, Hal Roach, the king of no-holds-barred comedy.
Expandedessay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 308KB)
One of the first films to deglamorize war with its startling realism, "The Big Parade" became the largestgrossing film of the silent era. From a story by Laurence Stallings, director King Vidor crafted what "New YorkTimes" critic Mordaunt Hall called "an eloquent pictorial epic." The film, which Hall said displayed "all theartistry of which the camera is capable," depicts a privileged young man (John Gilbert) who goes to war seekingadventure and finds camaraderie, love, humility and maturity amid the horrors of war. Along the way he befriendstwo amiable doughboys (Karl Dane and Tom O'Brien) and falls for a beautiful French farm girl (RenéeAdorée). Vidor tempered the film's serious subject matter with a kind of simple, light humor that flowsnaturally from new friendships and new loves. A five-time nominee for Best Director, Vidor was eventuallyrecognized by the Academy in 1979 with an honorary lifetime achievement award. Both stars continued to reignuntil the transition to talking pictures, which neither Gilbert nor Adorée weathered successfully. Theircareers plummeted and both died prematurely.
Most associated with epics such as "Intolerance" and "The Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith also helmed smallerfilms that struck a chord with silent era audiences. "Broken Blossoms," Griffith's first title for his newlyformed United Artists, is one example. Set in the slums of London, it concerns an abused 15-year-old girl, Lucy,portrayed by Lillian Gish and the former missionary turned shopkeeper Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) whorescues her from her brutal father. More than a tender but chaste love story, "Broken Blossoms" entreatsaudiences to denounce racism and poverty.
Expanded essay by EdGonzalez (PDF, 495KB)
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This film marked the last of Buster Keaton's silent comedy classics. Here Keaton is an aspiring newsreelcameraman out to win the heart of studio secretary Marceline Day. Ostensibly directed by Edward Sedgwick, thefilm is all Keaton and includes some of the best treatises on the techniques and psychology of shooting motionpictures. Keaton is at his most deft in responding to the most outrageous situations with matter-of-factnaturalism and wearing his great stone face. A seamless, ingenious blend of comedy and pathos, featuringcountless creative gags involving fantastical double exposures, swimming pool changing rooms, and an organgrinder's monkey.
Before he became known as the king of spectacle, Cecil B. DeMille honed his craft on a series of silentmelodramas like this story about a woman embezzler (Fannie Ward), her husband (Jack Dean), and the Faustianbargain she enters into with a mysterious Burmese businessman, played by Sessue Hayakawa. Employing some of thesilent era's most potent plot twists and elaborate production design, "The Cheat" has endured thanks toHayakawa's performance, a subtle yet menacing mix which made him a cinema star.
A fascinating example of the daringly unexpected topics and scope showcased by the best regional, independentfilmmaking during the silent era, "Daughter of Dawn" features an all-Native-American cast of Comanches andKiowas. Although it offers a fictional love-story narrative, the film presents a priceless record ofNative-American customs, traditions and artifacts of the time. The Oklahoma Historical Society recentlyrediscovered and restored this film with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Alfred Ames, the president of the Machias Lumber Company in Washington County, Maine, purchased a 16mm movingpicture camera in 1929 and with the help of a friend, Dr. Howard Kane, meticulously recorded the labor ofwoodsmen and horses. They created this 30-minute silent film to document his workers in all facets of the lumberindustry from sawing down trees to running logs down rivers. Ames not only documented his family business, buthe also created a cinematic record of the lumber industry.
Expandedessay by Karan Sheldon (PDF, 466KB)