Review of Benjamin Christensen Series at PFA
ChaneyFan
I've just finished seeing the last of the silents in the Benjamin Christensen
series going on at Pacific Film Archive. I have never been a big Christensen
fan. I considered HAXAN to be a rare exception, and DEVIL'S CIRCUS and MOCKERY
to be more typical (and truly awful). Boy was I wrong! Brief reviews follow.
(Note: Since I had previously seen the three titles mentioned above, I did not
see them again and don't comment on them below.)
THE MYSTERIOUS X (1913, Denmark) with Benjamin Christensen, Karen Sandberg,
Otto Reinwald, Fritz Lamprecht. A mysterious man named Spinelli has been
making advances towards the wife of a naval officer (played by Christensen) who
has rebuffed his advances; however, due to a misunderstanding, the officer
believes his wife to be unfaithful. Spinelli is in fact a spy, and manages to
open sealed military orders in the husband's possession. When it becomes
apparent that the information has been leaked to the enemy, the officer's
papers are searched, the sealed orders are found opened, and the officer is
charged with treason. It is up to his wife to find the real spy and clear his
name (as well as her stained reputation) before her husband is shot at sunrise.
If this had been a 1919 film, I would have called it a slick little actioner,
a bit similar in tone and pacing to THE FALSE FACES. However, for a 1913 film
it is astonishing, and is even more amazing in that it is Christensen's
directorial debut. It has fascinating camera work and extremely effective use
of dark lighting (in some cases almost *no* lighting) and shadows, about 10
years before Murnau started doing it. In one scene, the officer's son gets up
in the middle of the night to find his father. We only see him in silhouette
by moonlight as he gets dressed. In another scene, the spy is trapped in a
dark secret passage where rats begin running all over him in a truly creepy
sequence. The climactic race to the rescue has very effective use of
cross-cutting. Really a nice little picture. Not a great film, but
considering the year it is jaw-dropping in its sophistication. Print quality
was good, but not great. (35mm print from the Danish Film Institute, with
Danish intertitles)
NIGHT OF REVENGE (1915, Denmark; this was the English release version retitled
"Blind Justice") with Benjamin Christensen (billed as "Ben Christie"), Karen
Sandberg, Peter Fjelstrup, and Charles Wilken. A man wrongfully convicted of
murder escapes on his way to prison and flees with his infant son. He breaks
into a house of a wealthy family looking for milk for the child and a young
woman promises to help him. Instead, she is convinced by her father to betray
the man and she reluctantly agrees. On his capture, the convict vows to return
some day and "tie a rope around her neck." The woman is so tormented by her
betrayal that she adopts the man's infant son and raises him as her own. Years
later, the convict is released from prison, a broken man suffering from
amnesia, but when his memory suddenly returns he makes a bee-line for the
woman's home where he intends to strangle her. This was an equally impressive
early silent, perhaps even more so than THE MYSTERIOUS X because Christensen
had a much larger budget; in fact, this was the most expensive Danish film of
its time. Christensen's acting is also superb as the dull-witted convict who
alternates between pitiful innocent man and crazed killer. As with MYSTERIOUS
X, Christensen slowly builds a very atmospheric film, only to switch into a
heart-pounding race-to-save-a-life climax. An exceptionally stylish and mature
silent, and for 1915 it's positively unreal. The print was multi-tinted and
the early scenes where he escapes in the snow at night (tinted a very deep
blue) were a knockout. (35mm print from the Danish Film Institute, but with
English intertitles as this was an American release print)
SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1929, First National) with Thelma Todd, Creighton
Hale, and Sheldon Lewis. All I can say is WOW! Imagine a cross between THE
CAT AND THE CANARY and THE GAME, done by someone on amphetamines and LSD and
you'll get the idea of what we're talking about here. Creighton Hale is
engaged to Thelma Todd (which in itself is a pretty astounding piece of
fantasy), but longs to go to Africa so he can have a real adventure. On the
way home from a party, he and Thelma are kidnaped and taken to a strange house
with more weird characters than the bar scene in STAR WARS. Among the lunatics
running around are a dwarf who pops out of walls and says things like "Beware
of the man with crutches," a crazed gorilla, a half-wolf man (who looks just
like Bela Lugosi in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS), several beautiful women who brandish
guns and shoot people at will, a team of dancing chorus girls, a bunch of men
in black KKK hoods, and just about every other goofball character you can think
of. The two leads are propelled from room to room in a frenetic (and
incomprehensible) series of sequences that defy both description and logic. In
one scene, a beautiful young woman is stripped naked to be whipped. You see
this only at the level of her knees and below. First the dwarf walks by, then
the man with the crutches, then for good measure a pair of gorilla feet pass
by. This all leads to the climactic scene where Hale must walk the 7 steps to
Satan...stepping on the wrong step means death! Stunning art direction, a
script that could only have come from an insane person, and over-the-top acting
by the entire cast. Oh yes, and Thelma looks absolutely SEN-sational! Films
like THE CAT AND THE CANARY and THE BAT will wither and die by comparison next
to this one. An unbelievable film experience, probably one of the 10 most
incredible films (sound or silent) I have ever seen. This is the only survivor
of the four First National films Christensen directed, and the loss of the
other 3 (THE HAWK'S NEST, THE HAUNTED HOUSE, THE HOUSE OF HORROR) is tragic. I
understand Dick May at Warner Bros. Classics is desperately trying to get a
print of this from the Italian archive, but has so far had no luck. If he
does, this might make a showing at Cinecon or maybe even on TCM. The print was
obviously from a well-worn preprint, but was still quite watchable. Although
released as a part-talkie, this ran way too fast at 24 fps, so PFA cranked it
down to 20 fps and it looked great. All I can say is, UN-believable and a
must-see film! (35mm print from Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, Milan with
Danish intertitles)
HIS WIFE, THE UNKNOWN (1923, Germany) with Lil Dagover, Willy Fritsch, Karl
Platen. This is the only surviving film from Christensen's German period.
After a poor box-office showing by HAXAN, Christensen decided to make a
strictly commercial picture...and I don't know what he was smoking when he came
up with this concept. A truly strange picture that can best be described as a
cross between RANDOM HARVEST and MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE, directed by Cecil B.
DeMille on steroids. The film begins as a fairly grim melodrama, with a man
(Willy Fritsch, the star of Lang's SPIES) who has returned from the war and is
now blind. Through several plot twists too complicated to explain, a Red Cross
worker (Lil Dagover, looking about 15 pounds too chunky, but still sexy) takes
care of him, they fall in love, marry, and have a child. Then about 35 min
into the film, the man goes to America where a surgeon restores his sight, and
the film lurches into the most over-the-top farce imaginable. He returns home,
but mistakes a young, pretty girl at the dock for his wife, which sends his
wife off in a tizzy, worried now that he will no longer love her when he sees
her as she really is. What follows is about an hour of bizarre predicaments
that culminate with the wife taking a job as nanny for their baby, the husband
begins to paint her in the nude, and he gradually falls in love with her all
over again, unaware that she is his wife. (I mean, they conceived a child
together? Is this a bit hard to swallow?) But can he leave his wife for this
new woman he loves? Very similar to the DeMille marital comedies of the early
20's, which obviously served as the inspiration for this, but Christensen
definitely pumped a lot more energy into the concept than DeMille ever did.
The 35mm print was stunning quality. (35mm print from the Danish Film
Institute, with Danish intertitles)
I've got to complete rethink my opinion of Christensen. These four films, plus
the marvelous HAXAN, suggest that he is one of the most under-rated directors
of the silent era. It's tragic that he is primarily known only for MOCKERY,
DEVIL'S CIRCUS, and the bad HAXAN cut, WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES when there
are wonderful films like these around.
===============================
Jon Mirsalis
e-mail: Chan...@aol.com
Lon Chaney Home Page: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan
Jon's Film Sites: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan/jonfilm.htm
Lloyd Fonvielle
> REVIEW OF BENJAMIN CHRISTENSEN SERIES . . .
Thanks for these reviews -- they certainly whet the appetite.
greta de groat
really liked them!
The Devil's Circus has a fairly unlikely plotline, not that that's very unusual,
and Norma Shearer's character is unbelievably dumb at first. It involves a naive
country girl who comes to the city to join the circus, reforming a con man along
the way, but falling victim to the lecherous lion tamer and his jealous girlfriend,
and it has a strong religious subplot that got a little old. But for the most part
we got caught up in it, and found it quite suspensefully directed and well acted
(Shearer's fall, despite the obvious technical fakery, was pretty scary), and it
held our interest to the end (though i did have to suppress a chuckle at the last
shot--oh no, not a miracle cure too!). Charles Emmett Mack grew on us, and Carmel
Myers looked great.
Mockery had an offbeat role for Chaney as a very stupid Russian peasant (at one
point the word IDIOT is superimposed on the screen over his face as Emily Fitzroy
yells at him), but he always is a pleasure to watch as a performer. He agrees to
accompany a disguised aristocratic woman during the Russian Revolution, and is
whipped and scarred by revolutionaries. She rewards him with a job, but not the
friendship she promised, and, disgruntled, he finds himself listening to the fat
revolutionary wannabe in the kitchen. Barbara Bedford is quite an interesting
actress, but Ricardo Cortez didn't have much to do, and Charles Puffy (alias Karl
Huszar, Karl Huszar-Puffy, and Karoly Huszar) had a meaty role. It's definitely
not a horror film, it's more of a character study, and we found it an interesting
curiosity.
Do wish we could have come Sunday--a cross between Random Harvest and Mighty Like a
Moose isn't something you see every day!
greta
sh...@my-deja.com
> The Devil's Circus has a fairly unlikely plotline, not that that's
> very unusual, and Norma Shearer's character is unbelievably dumb at
> first.
This reminds me of "After Midnight," in which Norma gets mugged and
falls in love with the mugger.
--Shush--
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Derek Boothroyd
> and we really liked them!
I agree with you about The Devil's Circus & Mockery. I enjoyed both of
them, especially The Devil's Circus. It is perhaps melodramatic and
old fashioned but that didn't bother me. (The only thing that detracted
from it for me was that there were two people right behind be who couldn't
keep from laughing.)
>[Mockery] is definitely not a horror film, it's more of a character study,
> and we found it an interesting curiosity.
I also found it well worth seeing. I was very glad I decided not to let
Jon's description of them ('truly awful') in his earlier post keep me
from going to see them.
>
>Do wish we could have come Sunday--a cross between Random Harvest and
> Mighty Like a Moose isn't something you see every day!
The Sunday films were both fun, especially Seven Footprints to Satan.
Jon's description is very good and I enjoyed it almost as much as he did.
I also liked His Wife, the Unknown although I felt that the ending was
perhaps a little slow.
I haven't seen any mention of it so far in a.m.s so I might as well
mention, on a rather unrelated subject of interest to those in the Bay
Area, that the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto is showing Murnau's Sunrise
& Tabu in its autumn program. Sunrise is playing this week Wed Oct 27 -
Fri Oct 29 at 7:30 with the Riesenfeld synchronized score, on a double
bill with Morocco (1930). Tabu will play Dec 18 - Dec 21 with the
original synchronized score, twice daily, on a double bill with The
Nun's Story (1959).
Derek Boothroyd
GaryP11111
incredible films (sound or silent) I have ever seen. This is the only survivor
of the four First National films Christensen directed, and the loss of the
other 3 (THE HAWK'S NEST, THE HAUNTED HOUSE, THE HOUSE OF HORROR) is tragic. I
understand Dick May at Warner Bros. Classics is desperately trying to get a
print of this from the Italian archive, but has so far had no luck. If he
does, this might make a showing at Cinecon or maybe even on TCM. The print was
obviously from a well-worn preprint, but was still quite watchable. Although
released as a part-talkie, this ran way too fast at 24 fps, so PFA cranked it
down to 20 fps and it looked great. All I can say is, UN-believable and a
must-see film! (35mm print from Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, Milan with
Danish intertitles)>>
So, Jon . . . I take it you liked it?
I've managed thus far to see only a very poor print with Italian intertitles.
Nevertheless, SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN is an astonishing film. Once Creighton
Hale (playing a more enthusiastic, traditional hero than the skittish,
reluctant hero he played in THE CAT AND THE CANARY) and Thelma Todd are brought
to the mansion against their will, the viewer (as Jon stated) is treated to a
menagerie of grotesques (an apeman, dwarf, ape, dogman, hag, an oriental
villain played by the wonderful Sojin; hooded cultists, assorted henchmen and
fiends; and the hooded mastermind who happens to go by the name Satan) popping
out of secret panels, from behind doors, from hidden passageways, from inside
cupboards and caskets and even from behind a bed. Imperiled women burst from
behind doors and are subdued and recaptured by gunmen. Mysterious shadows
haunt walls and doorways. Each weird encounter segues into the next, sometimes
at breakneck speeds. The onslaught of weirdness, compounded by Hale's
incomprehension, imparts a surreal, dreamlike state to the proceedings. There
are some nice lighting efects, too. I recall one particular shot in which the
lighting projected a filigree or spiderweb-like pattern of shadows throughout
the interior of a large, ornate room. Set design also deserves praise,
especially the bat-winged throne room where our hero encounters Satan and his
infamous seven steps (along with harem girls, eunuchs and disciples in evening
clothes). The throne room is actually a diabolical high stakes game room
resembling a macabre TV game show complete with a scoreboard. SEVEN FOOTPRINTS
TO SATAN is a lot of fun, with occasionally manic pacing, deft camera work,
skillfull lighting and the largest collection of creeps this side of the House
of Frankenstein.
I still wonder what happened to the scheduled showing of SEVEN FOOTPRINTS on
TCM in 1996 (I think). It was withdrawn from the schedule at airtime. Later,
TCM announced that the print quality wasn't up to their broadcast standards.
They promised to do some restoration work and to re-schedule the film six
months (?!) later. It has yet to appear. I kinda suspect that TCM did not
actually have a print of the film. Man, I'd love to see a decent print of
SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN.