Reactions to Balladeer’s Blog’s reviews of silent movies have been positive enough that I’d like to offer a quick take on a few multi-part documentary series on the subject. Both were from British Film Historian Kevin Brownlow, who did a better job of depicting the Age of Silent Movies than any Americans ever did.
Brownlow secured interviews with as many survivors of the era as possible, given their VERY advanced age. These are only a few of Brownlow’s documentaries, he also did a series on European Silent Films as well, plus several restored versions of silent classics. I plan to cover more of those in the future.
BUSTER KEATON: A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW (1987)
PART ONE – From Vaudeville to Movies: Brownlow and his colleagues scoured the best available footage remaining from Buster Keaton’s silent comedies. (For newbies to silent film history I’ll mention that countless movies from that period are lost forever due to decomposition prior to efforts to preserve them.)
Excellent selections of still photos are also featured, along with brief excerpts of interviews with stars, directors and others who worked with Keaton decades earlier.
This opening installment sets the pattern – the emphasis is on footage of Buster’s silent comedy classics accompanying the narration. Keaton’s career as a child performer in vaudeville is covered, followed by his drift into silent comedy shorts, at first backing up his mentor and longtime friend Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle.
Buster’s genius shone through and he was soon heading up his own unit writing and directing his comedy shorts and later features. In addition, the Great Stone Face did his own stunts, thus suffering many injuries over the years. Continue reading
Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at the films of a silent movie star. This time I’m reviewing some of the films featuring trained animal star Teddy the Great Dane aka Teddy the Dog aka Keystone Teddy. From 1915 to 1924 Teddy starred or otherwise appeared in silent shorts as well as feature-length movies. 
TEDDY AT THE THROTTLE (1917) – This Mack Sennett short at Keystone Studios was one of two films in which Teddy actually got his name in the title. In this light-hearted affair the Great Dane plays the pet of THE Gloria Swanson. 
Beery’s villain character is embezzling money from the romantic leads Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon. Teddy, the REAL star, is cute and lively, plus he bravely saves Gloria’s life in the end when Beery ties her to railroad tracks after his villainy is exposed.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) – Lon Chaney Senior’s makeup and performance as the title character were envelope-pushing for 1925 audiences. To me this is the ULTIMATE silent horror film. It may sound odd, but in my opinion this movie is the very best cinematic adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel. 
THE MASTER MYSTERY (1918-1919) – The first film footage of Harry Houdini performing his stage act dates to 1907, but it wasn’t until this 15-part serial that he hit the big screen in a series of adventures. Chapter One of The Master Mystery debuted on November 18th, 1918 and starred Houdini as a federal agent named Quentin Locke. 
Every cliffhanger ending for the chapters of the serials involves a deathtrap which Houdini escapes from at the start of the following installment. 
Born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, OH on July 29th, 1885, Theda Bara was the first monumental “man-eating”, femme fatale sex symbol in American cinema. Theda chose – or was assigned – her screen name because it was an anagram for “Arab Death” but the supposed appeal of that has always eluded me. 
A FOOL THERE WAS (1915) – Theda Bara embodied “the Vamp” character as surely as Douglas Fairbanks would later embody the swashbuckler. In this film based on Rudyard Kipling’s 1876 poem The Vampire, Bara portrayed a metaphorical vampire whose erotic appeal drove men wild. 
This film had a Dialogue Board with Bara’s character saying “Kiss me, my fool” to her latest male victim, a line which was mistakenly quoted as “Kiss me, you fool” for decades. Because this movie was made before the 1930 Hays Code, Theda’s seductive and spiteful character was allowed to go unpunished for her actions in the storyline. 
THE MAN FROM PAINTED POST (1917) – Here is another Douglas Fairbanks movie from the years before he became the film world’s premier swashbuckler. Unlike the pure comedy of Fairbanks’ 
THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920) – Douglas Fairbanks digs into his comedic AND acrobatic skills in this first screen adaptation of Johnston McCully’s masked hero of 1820s California (The Curse of Capistrano had just been published the year before and Fairbanks bought the film rights for United Artists.) 
Excellent fight choreography, heroic opposition to tyranny and the rousing, marathon chase and fight scene near the film’s finale make The Mark of Zorro an absolute must-see for anyone curious about silent movies. Nearly every frame of the film is a portrait.
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog may remember that I’m a Silent Movie geek. Last time around I took a look at the magnificent film poster for Douglas Fairbanks’ Thief of Bagdad. This time around it’s posters for one of my favorite underrated Fairbanks flicks, Don Q: Son of Zorro. 
ONCE (1973) – Written and directed by Morton Heilig, Once is a 100 minute experimental film with no dialogue, just pantomime performances by the lone three actors. Chris Mitchum of all people portrays Creation, Jim Malinda plays Destruction and Marta Kristen co-stars as Humanity. Some may describe the movie as a Biblical parable but actually it reflects concepts from Zoroastrianism, Iroquois myths and other belief systems in addition to Christianity and Judaism. 
THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005) – The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced this terrific – but decidedly niche – horror film based on Lovecraft’s tale The Call of Cthulhu from 1928. 
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog may remember that I’m a silent film geek so I fell in love with this movie immediately. The Lovecraft Historical Society players threw themselves into this labor of love, terrifically adapting the broad over-acting, dialogue boards and cinematic grammar of the Silent Age.
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