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The Finishing Touch (1932)
Funny comedy from Hal Roach personnel working at Universal
THE FINISHING TOUCH (1932) was a two-reel comedy short made by a bunch of Hal Roach refugees after they were all fired from the Roach lot in a cost-cutting measure during the Depression. Even the director George Stevens and producer Warren Doane were from Roach. Skeets Gallagher lives in an apartment with his wife and mother-in-law. His wife has prepared a cake to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary, but he has totally forgotten about it. After an argument, she and her mother leave for the train station to ride to Reno, Nevada and get a divorce. Skeets doesn't have enough money for a train ticket to stop them, so he sub-lets the apartment to Bert Roach. He misses the last train to Reno and comes home to find a wild party with lots of women and bootleg liquor at his former apartment. He throws the bunch out, but Yola d'Avril is accidentally knocked out and she falls behind the couch, hidden. His wife has a change of heart and returns home, so Skeets must hastily cleanup the place. Meanwhile two dim-witted policemen, Fred Kelsey and Tiny Sanford arrive due to the noise complaints. Skeets has a lot of explaining to do... This is a funny short from start to finish made by the best in the business.
Remember the Night (1939)
Sweet romantic comedy for Christmas and New Year's
A great feel-good movie for Christmas time and New Year's, Remember the Night stars Barbara Stanwyck as Lee Leander, a an unemployed woman who makes a living as a shoplifter. Caught a few days before Christmas, she has a quick trial in court. Prosecutor John Sargent, Fred McMurray, feels his case slipping away, as the looks on the jury's faces seem to indicate that they would feel bad about making her spend Christmas in jail. Her defense attorney spins a wild tale about her being hypnotized by the beautiful jewels that she stole. McMurray sees an opening and requests that the court hear from an expert hypnotist, who is out of town until January. Stanwyck has to wait in jail over Christmas.
Sargent feels badly about that, and pays a bail bondsman to get her out of jail. The bail bondsman delivers her to Sargent's apartment, since she has no where to go. She is initially indignant, as she thinks Sargent wants sex in repayment, but he is a nice guy and takes her out for a Christmas dinner. During dinner and dancing, they discover that they are from small towns in Indiana that are near each other. Lee hasn't been home since she ran away as a teenager, so Sargent offers to driver her to her mother's for Christmas.
The reunion doesn't go so well, so Lee travels to Sargent's mother's house with him and experiences a loving Christmas with him. Perennial movie mother Beulah Bondi loves Lee at first sight, but is slightly concerned after Sargent tells her that Lee will be prosecuted for shoplifting after Christmas. She can already tell that Sargent is falling in love with Lee.
This movie is definitely sentimental, but has just enough laughs to keep the film fun and not maudlin. An early scene where the couple are hauled into a country judge's office for accidentally driving through a farmer's fence may seem goofy, but it also shows that Sargent is already willing to bend the law to keep himself and Lee from paying a ticket. This also forces the couple to go through Canada on their return trip. Lee could easily skip returning to the United States and prosecution, but she doesn't want to get Sargent into trouble at his job.
The only sour note in the film is that Fred "Snowflake" Toons plays Rufus, Sargent's butler/servant. He acts like a dim-wit, but does provide needed food when they are stuck and starving on their trip. This was Preston Sturges' last screenplay before getting the chance to write and direct in The Great McGinty. Apparently Sturges was frustrated by director Mitchell Leisen's changes to his script. The costumes by Edith Head are lovely. Even Stanwyck's 1908 wedding dress that she wars to the hick barn dance looks incredible
This is really a bare-bones disc. There isn't even a menu. After the copyright notice we get the Universal logo and the film starts playing. The BluRay disc does have optional English subtitles, despite what another reviewer claims. The picture quality is very sharp and the sound is a very nice two-channel mono soundtrack. There are 12 chapters, but no menu for chapter stops.
The Woman in the Window (2021)
A riff off of Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW that doesn't build suspense
The Woman in the Window (2019/2021) is a "new" Netflix film that was actually made a couple of years ago. With a stellar cast like Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman, you would think that this would be a good movie, but it is a disappointment.
First of all, the novel that it is based on is a rip-off of Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). And the film's director shows Adam's character watching clips from Rear Window, Laura, and Spellbound in a nod to those films, but she doesn't actually get any clues from the plots of those films. The story concerns Amy Adams, who has agoraphobia, and is afraid to leave her giant house in Manhattan. (It must cost a fortune.) She has no visible means of support except for renting her basement to a male tenant who may or may not be creepy. She thinks her neighbors across the street are abusing their teenage son and later witnesses the stabbing of the neighbor's wife. Or does she? Adam's character is taking pills for depression and drinking wine when she should not be. She seems to be having hallucinations.
The director likes to scare us with loud sounds at unexpected times. But the story missed one important thing about suspense. In all of Hitchcock's film, we knew who the bad guy was, and it was very clear when the protagonist was in danger. In this film, characters lie about what happened and we are not sure if what Amy Adams (and we) saw was an hallucination. Adams character goes from wanting to commit suicide to fighting for her life in about 10 minutes. It doesn't create suspense, and we really don't care what happens to her.
The Helpless Helper (1927)
Not for the faint of heart
Al has a reputation for terrible films. This wasn't terrible, but it was close. Al's father, Professor Rockenrye has discovered a gasoline substitute. He can drop it on a toy train or wind up toy, and the train will start running and the toy will start moving. Al's girl Rose is at his house and opens the door when Al's rival arrives. The big lug is there to whisk her away and marry her. Stupid Al gives the rival a drink of the formula, causing the rival to spit fire. Al then spills all of the remaining formula, ruining the Professor's hope of fame and fortune.
That night Al shows up at Rose's house and whisks her away with the rival giving chase in his car. There aren't any gags in the chase though, so we are thankful when this short if finally over.
I'll admit that I laughed once during this short, but it was due to the supporting players. As a comedian, Al Joy is terrible. His character is not likable at all. His character barely does anything at all, especially anything funny. We never see his character think his way out of a desperate situation. He's kind of like Harry Langdon without the gags or personality. You want to see the bad guy beat up Al because Al is so annoying. That's no way to make a comedy. In Al's defense, director Joseph Richmond seems to have directed five Al Joy comedies and nothing else, so there may be more blame to go around. This survives in a beautifully sharp print because presumably, few theaters showed it.
Plans and Pajamas (1917)
Typical crazy Larry Semon comedy
PLANS AND PAJAMAS (1917), an alliterative title like many of Larry Semon's films, was a fun short. Larry is walking by a building when a well-dressed rich man approaches him and offers him money to steal some plans from the building. When Larry peers into the window, he sees that the building is a boarding school for young women. To make the film quite bizarre, Semon also plays the mean headmistress, which means that he is wearing an old-fashioned dress and a wig. The young women don't think much of headmistress Larry, and throw pillows and jump from bed to bed when he/she is not around. Larry #1 breaks into the office and steals the plans, but makes too much noise. Armed guards are alerted, and there is a wild chase. Meanwhile Larry #2 has taken off his/her wig and gone to sleep. This allows Larry #1 to break into the bedroom and disguise himself as the headmistress. He finally is able to escape the building and there is a frantic car chase as all the girls (in their pajamas) chase after him. He finally delivers the "plans" to the rich man, but his reward is a big surprise. Like every other Semon comedy, there are so many gags that at least half of them have to be funny.
Penrod and Sam (1923)
Charming film about boyhood in the 1920s
Film buffs know William Beaudine from the cheapie schlock that he directed in the sound era and television, but he was quite a talented director in the 1920s. PENROD AND SAM (1923) was the first of three versions of Booth Tarkington's novel; the other two being filmed with sound in the 1930s. Hal Roach's Our Gang series had started a year before this series, and this film has a similar feel. Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson from this film later made it into the Roach gang.
The child actors in this film are all perfect, with Ben Alexander (later of DRAGNET) as Penrod. Buddy Messenger plays the mean bully Rodney Bitts, and his sister Gertrude plays the only girl that is friends with the kids. Except for their tattered clothing which shows that the two African-American kids are poorer than the others, the two black kids are presented as just regular kids and are not stereotyped at all. Rockliffe Fellowes and Gladys Brockwell were stars in the teens. Here they play two loving parents who don't always understand Penrod. Mary Philbin has a small part as Penrod's sister, and Gareth Hughes is her embarrassed boyfriend. Both would go on to much bigger roles. Cameo the dog is an important character in this film, and she has the most heart-breaking scene. (She would repeat her role in the remake.)
Penrod and Sam are two best friends who have their own clubhouse on the vacant lot next to Penrod's house. They get into all kinds of trouble getting back at the local bully Rodney Bitts (Buddy Messinger). They also tease prissy Georgie Bassett (Newton Hall) because his mother dresses him in coordinating outfits and because Georgie doesn't like to get dirty. Rodney's mean father insists that his son be let into the gang, while Georgie's mother pleads that he be let in also. The kids create an awful initiation for Georgie, but the parents stop it before he is treated too badly. (And note that after this Georgie does become a member of the gang.)
The bully Rodney won't be nice to anybody in the gang and cannot be accepted into it. His rich father (William V. Mong) buys the lot next door from Penrod's father. Penrod realizes that Buddy and his father have taken his dog and his clubhouse from him. He and his friends must act to reclaim their clubhouse and their fun. While there are sentimental scenes in the film, there is plenty of comedy and the film holds up perfectly nearly a hundred years later.
Adventure's End (1937)
Rare but disappointing John Wayne sailing adventure
ADVENTURE'S END (1937) is a very rare John Wayne film from the period before STAGECOACH (1939) before he was a major star. It is not "bad", but it is not a good film either. It was a Trem Carr production for Universal, so you know that the budget was pretty small. Still, for a movie that takes place almost entirely onboard a ship in the ocean, we see very few scenes actually shot on the water.
Wayne character is named "Duke" Slade (of course) and he's a pearl diver in the South Pacific or Caribbean (it's never really explained.). The local natives don't like him searching for pearls in their territory, so he decides that he will jump on a sailing schooner and work for his passage to New Bedford, Massachusetts. This does allow Wayne to spend most of the movie shirtless, so presumably his fans will be happy about that. His co-diver and companion is the teenage Kalo, who talks with an annoying Cockney accent, "Guvnor!". He is played by African-American actor Paul White. Kalo spends the entire movie blabbing to one character what another character is about to do, making the first character upset and forcing them to do something. If he had never boarded the ship it would have been a short and worry-free voyage.
Montague Love is unrecognizable as the ship's captain. He is dying and is worried that his ship will fall into the hands of his daughter's boyfriend, first mate Rand Husk (Moroni Olsen). Rand is at least twenty years older than her, and a bit indecisive. Seaman Blackie (Maurice Black) is stirring up a mutiny, as he wants to stay and search for pearls, which are much easier than hunting whales. Black easily gives the only convincing performance in the film. The captain's daughter Mary (Diana Gibson) is beautiful, but she really gives a wooden performance. The script doesn't help her though, as she is basically the prize (along with the ship) that most of the other characters fight over. The captain forces his daughter to marry Duke Wayne, I mean Duke Slade, to protect their family's ownership of the vessel, so it's a foregone conclusion a third of the way through the film that they will fall in love anyway by the end of the film. There is a lot of fighting and arguing, but you know how this film ends without me telling you.
The Rivals (1923)
Excellent slapstick comedy from a little-known comedy team.
THE RIVALS (1923) features the comedy team of Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn. I searched in the Media Digital History websites for reviews of this hilarious film, but could only find one in The Film Daily that called it "fairly amusing". Summerville and Dunn are Roman soldiers who fight a duel. Bobby Dunn is at a great disadvantage because Slim is so tall and his arms are so long. Their swordplay ends with one very funny bizarre gag, but I won't spoil it here. The camera pulls back, and we see that they are in a movie studio making a film. The director is not very happy that they ruined the scene AND the leading lady. Leaving the set, both guys hot-foot it over to their girlfriends' house, as they are both in love with the lovely Esther Ralston (in a very early role). After delaying each other as much as possible, they both make it into her bedroom. Her father is not about to let them romance his daughter, so it is a three-way struggle to see who wins the beautiful Esther. This film was packed full of inventive gags and is guaranteed to make you laugh. Sadly, this may be the only surviving short where Dunn and Summerville were teamed together.
A Summer to Remember (2018)
A Boring Travelogue
I hope that the cast and crew had fun making this Hallmark movie, because it wasn't much fun watching it. The scenery in Fiji looked beautiful. The story was the most basic paint-by-numbers that you will ever see on the Hallmark Channel. Catherine Bell and Cameron Mathison are easy on the eyes, and John Prasida and Sarah Thamin seem to be sweet.
The story was terrible. There was no conflict at all. Paul O'Brien's character is written poorly as a rival for Catherine's affections. We don't see why Catherine overworks in her ER doctor job, or why she is so attracted to working at working as a doctor in Fiji. And Fiji is such a paradise, apparently only surfers need medical attention. There isn't even the Hallmark standard misunderstanding that splits up the couple near the climax.
This is a great film to have on while folding laundry or cleaning house. You can enjoy the beautiful scenery and ignore the insipid story-line.
Dragonfly Squadron (1953)
Average Korean War film finally available in 3D
It's 1950, and the U.S. Air Force is worried about the North Koreans overrunning Seoul and parts of South Korea. John Hodiak is an Air Force Major who has to train the local South Korean pilots ASAP before the war might break out. The U.S is not yet in the war, as they are waiting for United Nations approval of military action. To complicate matters for Hodiak, his ex-flame Barbara Britton is on base. Things are a bit awkward as when she and Hodiak were together she thought that her husband, doctor Bruce Bennett, was dead in Vietnam, but he turned up alive a few months later.
This is a low budget film by Allied Artists. The first half is mostly talk and most of the action doesn't happen until the last half. There are a few flaws in the screenplay, for example main character Hodiak doesn't have much to do in the climax. Also, the Korean pilots are barely shown, although the main story is about training them. It would have been much more interesting if we had gotten to know them. Most of the supporting characters don't have much to do, but it is nice to see actors like Chuck Connors and Fess Parker in small roles.
The film has been lovingly restored by the 3D Archive and looks great even in 2D. It is an interesting look at the Korean War that was released a few months after the war ended. If you like war films or 3D films, don't miss it, but don't expect a classic.
The Bedroom Window (1924)
A fun mystery that will keep you guessing
THE BEDROOM WINDOW (1924) was a very fun Paramount mystery from William de Mille. Ricardo Cortez is irate that May McAvoy's father has forbid him to see her again. He storms over to her house and demands to see the father. Unfortunately, the father has just been murdered, and Cortez picks up the murder weapon, a gun. There is no other exit from the room, except for an open window. There is a sheer drop from the window, and it is several stories high, so there is no way that the murderer could have escaped that way. The police come and immediately haul Cortez into jail.
Luckily, McAvoy's aunt (in-law) Ethel Wales is a mystery writer, who's pen name is "Rufus Rome". She has writer's block, and solving a real mystery is just what she needs. She has to untangle two love triangles, embezzled money, and even meets an attractive older man who is a suspect and a mystery fan. This mystery film is really well done, because there are several times that the audience will think that they have it figured out, and there is no squeaky-clean character that is revealed as the murderer at the end. Ethel Wales is a hoot as the amateur detective.
Ignore the late F Gwynplaine MacIntyre's review on the IMDb for this film. He obviously didn't see the movie and tried to judge it from contemporary reviews, because he gets several plot points wrong in his review.
Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath (1928)
A very funny silent movie farce
LADIES NIGHT IN A Turkish BATH (1928) proves that you don't have to have a major comedian in a film to make a funny comedy. Jack Mulhall and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (a dead-ringer for former President George W. Bush) are two construction workers who work on a high-rise building. Jack starts frequenting the "Ma and Pa" lunch-box stand, and his banter with very pretty Dorothy Mackaill is wonderful. Her parents, Jimmy Finlayson and Sylvia Ashton, decide to sell the business and move "uptown" to nicer digs. Their new neighbor immediately takes a shine to Dorothy. Jack and Dorothy get engaged, but they fight frequently over the neighbor's attentions to her.
Dorothy's mother decides to go on a diet, and we all know that when Momma goes on a diet that everybody goes on a diet. This makes hubby Finlayson (and the dog) miserable, as there is nothing good to eat. Fin gets his wife a giant wedding anniversary cake, but of course she can't eat it, so they quarrel.
The men head out to a "gentleman's club" to see a "hoochie coochie" dancer (i.e. stripper), while the ladies retire to a Turkish bath to relax and forget about the insensitive men in their life. The men's club gets raided by the police, so Fin and Mulhall climb in a window of the building next door, which is of course the Turkish bath and is full of naked women wrapped in towels. What follows is a hilarious climax.
The recent UCLA restoration looks very sharp. I saw this at at Cinecon with a large audience that roared with laughter throughout.
Vanity Fair (1911)
Early Nickelodeon Special
This three-reel film was a "special" in 1911, as most films at the time were just one-reel or 10-15 minutes. Just about every actor working at Vitagraph, even comedian John Bunny, appeared in it. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, so the film is unusual that Vitagraph spent a lot of money on costumes to make it look convincing.
For viewers unfamiliar with the "Vanity Fair" story, viewing my be tough slogging. A thousand-page novel was condensed down into a 30-minute silent film. Basically, it is the story of Becky Sharp, an amoral woman who uses men to get what she wants, which is usually money. After she has used them, they die or rot in jail while she pursues another man.
Another problem with the film is that the star, Helen Gardner, seems a little old for the lead part. Because the story is so compressed, we don't really she why she is so attractive to men. A man basically walks into a room and is immediately smitten with her, which is not very convincing.
If you are a fan of early Nickelodeon films, then definitely give this film a look. However, the average viewer will be baffled by the story of this film.
Sensation Seekers (1927)
Billie Dove as a disillusioned young woman
Sensation Seekers (1927) was one of Lois Weber's final directorial efforts, and her last for Universal. Billie Dove is a rich, young adult who is alienated from her parents. Her mother rarely leaves the house, and her father never comes home, as he has a mistress. Billie's character enjoys partying with her friends, until she is arrested in a raid on a speakeasy, and has to spend some time in jail. Raymond Bloomer plays a new minister in town, and he bails Billie out of jail, and tries to help her get her life straightened out.
Miss Dove really turns in a great performance here. She is trapped in a town where the "good Christian" townsfolk judge her (and the new minister), and her friends don't really care about her either. She's also torn because she is attracted to the minister, yet she has no interest in being a preacher's wife. Of course the minister is attracted to her also (who wouldn't be!), and this puts his career in jeopardy. Bloomer is also conflicted, but his performance isn't in the same league as Billie's.
When it looks like all is lost, Dove agrees to run off with her former boyfriend on a yacht and get married, but it is sunk in a terrible storm and Billie and the boyfriend are abandoned by the yacht's crew. Miss Dove is pounded by thousands of gallons of water in the terrific climax -- proving that she wasn't just an good-looking actress that wore a lot of pretty clothes. I've only seen a few of her films, but this is definitely one of her best performances.
On Dangerous Ground (1917)
World War I propaganda piece
This film, a World War I propaganda film, was filmed at the World (Brady) studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. An American doctor (Carlyle Blackwell) is visiting Germany when the Germany army conscripts all soldiers to go to war. He travels to Belgium, a country the Germany has invaded. There he meets a Belgian girl (Gail Kane) who poses as his wife. She is a Belgian spy and has stolen the German attack plans. They are captured bye the German army, but try to make a harrowing escape. The first ridiculous plot point was that the German's knew that their plans had been compromised by the woman spy, yet it was still vitally important that she get them to the allied army anyway, even though it took her several days to sneak them out of the country. The Germans could have easily changed their plans in the days after their theft. An even more stupid plot device had a German officer letting the woman spy go after he discovers that she is the supposed wife of the doctor, who is shown saving the officer from drowning in a flashback. At least the Huns were not shown killing babies or raping Belgian women, like in some propaganda films.
Versus Sledge Hammers (1915)
One of the few surviving Snakeville comedies
This Essanay "Snakeville" comedy was recently restored from a 16mm print discovered by Chris Snowden and a partial 35mm print from the George Eastman House. The comedy in this short is about as subtle as a sledgehammer (pun intended), but there are some good gags. A count shows up in Snakeville to deliver a letter telling matronly Margaret Joslin that she has inherited a lot of money, so of course he wants to romance and marry her. Cross-eyed Ben Turpin has a couple of great gags. When the Count's hat is stuck over his head, due to a sledge-hammer, Turpin pours some gasoline on the hat and sets it on fire. That really doesn't work, much to the Count's displeasure. Later, Turpin is trying to sneak out of a second-story hotel room. He ties his bed-sheet rope to a dresser drawer, but his weight pulls the drawer out of the dresser and he tumbles down to the ground. This is no classic, but a fascinating rare Snakeville comedy.
Man, Woman and Wife (1929)
Interesting late Universal silent
This film is a late Universal silent with the original Movietone score. Universal junked almost all of their silents as worthless, but this one was saved because it had an accompanying music track and was probably thought to be a sound film. Norman Kerry, in his least annoying role that I seen him play, is a wealthy newly-wed who is called off to war almost immediately after his marriage to sweet Marian Nixon. He had another female admirer, Pauline Stark, but he was not romantically interested in her. We next see him after the war as a drunken bum on the street. Ms. Starke, now a kept-woman, finds him and we discover that he deserted his regiment and everyone believes that he died in the war. She nurses him back to normal because she loves him. He's still in love with his wife though, who has remarried. And when the gangster who pays for Starke's apartment finds out all of this, he starts blackmailing Kerry. The rerecorded Movietone score was very nice and the photography was beautiful for this film.
Babes and Boobs (1918)
Funny, even for a Larry Semon comedy
This is the best Larry Semon comedy that I've seen. He sticks to the basic situation of mixed-up babies and delivers a genuinely funny comedy. In most of his shorts there are so many explosions and sticky goo thrown everywhere that the gags don't serve the plot, but that is not the case in this film. Larry is a new father charged with watching has baby carriage while his wife goes shopping in a store. He spies a pretty nursemaid on a bench tending to an identical baby carriage. Meanwhile, a black lady with yet another identical baby carriage parks it at the front of the store also. Throw in some baby kidnappers and there are plenty of funny misunderstandings for the whole reel. And yes the title has a completely different meaning today.
Branding Broadway (1918)
Nice non-western with William S. Hart
This is a nicely-tinted William S. Hart film has been blown up from 16mm to 35mm. Hart is run out of a Western town on a rail because of his constant bar-room brawls. He takes a job in New York as a "baby-sitter" for a rich, spoiled young man (Arthur Shirley) who is constantly drinking and getting into barroom brawls. The boy has written some incriminating love letters to old flame Seena Owen, and Hart is tasked with retrieving the letters. Owen runs a pancake restaurant in New York, and Hart instantly is smitten with her, while eating many, many pancakes. He believes that Owen loves Shirley, and literally forces Shirley to propose to her. This is where Hart's Victorian values fail him with modern audiences, because who would want to marry someone who was literally hog-tied, kidnapped, and forced to propose at gunpoint?
While New York Sleeps (1920)
Three exciting, unpredictable crime stories
This film consists of three stories of crime in New York City featuring the same actors in different roles each time. These gritty stories about working class people were directed by Charles Brabin, better known as Theda Bara's husband. The criminals weren't just greedy in these films, they were downright shifty and clever. Since it is an early (1920) feature with a lot of violence, the acting is not as naturalistic as it would be later in the 1920s. All three stories are O'Henry-type stories with a twist at the end.
In the first story, Estelle Taylor's husband leaves her and the baby at home when called in late to work. A bum sneaks into her house, but he's not any old burglar. He's her deceased, convict first husband, who wasn't really killed in a train wreck. While he is threatening her, another burglar sneaks in, expecting to break into the safe. In the commotion, one of the characters is killed, and the other two make an interesting pact.
In the second story, a rich man (Marc McDermott) meets a fancy lady (Taylor again) at the Ziegfeld Follies. They see each other for a while, until she discovers that the man is married. She begs the man to get a divorce and marry her, but he refuses. She kills herself with a gun. McDermott is distraught, and a man comes into the scene and is really upset because he is Taylor's husband. The story has a couple of surprising twists, but I won't give away the amusing ending.
In the final, longest story, Estelle Taylor is an orphaned woman who loses her job at a sewing sweatshop. Her other job is to take care of a quadriplegic man (McDermott again). The man's son loves her, and she marries him just to have someone support her. An organized gang pulls a silk theft at the docks where Taylor's husband is the guard. He is able to free himself enough to call the police. The police catch all but one of the crooks, who swims away and makes it to Taylor's and McDermott's apartment. Taylor is attracted to the criminal, and she nurses him back to health in the attic of the apartment. A couple of weeks later, Taylor's husband catches her talking to the criminal, precipitating a violent ending. The "hook" of the story is that McDermott's character sees everything, but cannot speak or move. The only way that he can communicate with his son or the police is to move and blink his eyes. The last two stories are very suspenseful, and this film is a must-see for silent film fans.
Trail of the Vigilantes (1940)
One of the best comic westerns
If you like westerns you must absolutely get this film if it ever gets released on DVD. It's a comic western with plenty of exciting western action. Two actors who rarely made westerns, Franchot Tone and Broderick Crawford, star as an eastern U.S. Marchall and a good-old boy cowboy respectively, who have to deal with organized cattle rustlers. The Cattlemen's Protective Organization is actually rustling cattle from ranchers who won't join the organization. Peggy Moran is a rancher's daughter who aggressively pursues her man, Franchot, although today we'd consider her a stalker. Andy Devine and Mischa Auer are the comedy relief, in a film that needs no relief because everyone has great comic scenes.
Crazy to Act (1927)
Routine Sennett slapstick comedy
Movies about making "bad" movies rarely entertain, and this film is no exception. The mistakes made when making a poor movie may seem funny to filmmakers, but they just seem like a bad movie to the general public.
This film is worth watching once though, because it contains a rare appearance by Oliver Hardy in a Mack Sennett film. Babe Hardy was soon to be teamed with Stan Laurel and comedy stardom followed. He was working for Hal Roach at the time, and Roach loaned him to Sennett for this one film. This film also has interesting scenes of movie-making practices from the 1920s. The most interesting scenes are a "chase" on Sennett's big revolving stage where many comic chases were filmed. The viewer gets to see how the giant contraption worked, and director worked in a few gags with it.
The silly plot concerns a silly girl, Mildred June, who agrees to marry Hardy's character Gordon Bagley as long as he finances her movie debut and makes her a movie star. The director spends way too much time on the kissing scenes, making Mildred fall for the bland hero Arthur Young (Matty Kemp). The cameraman makes many mistakes, like cranking too fast so that the action appears in slow motion, and tilting the camera so that the beach is a steep slope. Except for the "behind-the-scenes" views of silent-film movie-making, this is a forgettable comedy short.
A Girl's Folly (1917)
Fascinating behind-the-scenes look at film-making
This film is available from David Shepard and Kino on the Before Hollywood There Was Fort Lee, NJ, although that is a shortened version with just the "behind-the-scenes movie sections. I'm not sure if Blackhawk Films only had a film print of these parts, or they edited out the other scenes. The original Blackhawk version was retitled A Movie Romance. The complete feature does survive, but the preprint for this version had some nitrate decomposition, and a couple of sections looked bad, so that may be why Blackhawk's version was edited.
Directed by Maurice Tourneur, the film has Tourneur playing himself, or more likely a caricature of himself. Supposedly, director Emile Chautard and future director Joseph von Sternberg also can be spotted.
Country lass Mary (Doris Kenyon) longs for a romantic man to sweep her off her feet. She dreams of a troubadour that will woo her, but is constantly interrupted by the only available local boy, Johnny Applebloom.
Meanwhile, a film company from New York (actually New Jersey) is filming a western in the countryside. Mary sees an Indian (in full headdress) and raises an alarm -- spoiling a scene that the movie company is filming. She is immediately attracted to the dashing film star Kenneth Driscoll (Robert Warwick). He encourages her to leave her home and try to become an actress in the big city.
When she arrives at the studio, she discovers that everything about the movies is fake. The doors and walls are just flats that are hastily assembled for the set. That lanky walk of the western hero or the happy skip of the heroine are just acting too. The sets are on a big revolving stage, so the angle of the sun can even be manipulated. The black attendant at the studio signs all the movie stars' "autographed" photos. The signs on the wall say "Positively No Smoking", but everybody smokes anyway. Even the titles of the film (which are illustrated nicely) emphasize everything fake about the movie-making life.
Movie star Driscoll is just as disenchanted with the ho-hum of everyday film-making. He makes a temporary split from girlfriend Vivian (June Elvidge) to pursue this "exciting" country girl. His plans are dashed when Mary's screen-test is a stinker. We don't get to see the actual film, but only the audience's pained reactions to it.
Mary is devastated, but she doesn't want to admit to everyone back home that she was a failure, so she continues to see Driscoll and we she has lunch with him in the studio cafeteria along with other extras dressed as policemen, soldiers, cowboys, etc.
Mary decides to stay with Driscoll. At a party with their movie "friends", she agrees to marry him although there is not much love between them. Surprisingly, her mother appears, with a cake especially for Mary's birthday. This causes Mary to re-evaluate her future.
This film has all kinds of fascinating scenes of studios, movie sets, dressing rooms, editing rooms, etc. If you've always wondered what went on behind the scenes when a silent film was being made, this movie peeks behind the curtain.
Man from Cheyenne (1942)
Interesting B-western
I have to admit that I have not seen a lot of Roy Rogers westerns because they were made for kids and they have small budgets. I was pleasantly surprised to watch this film and find that adults can have fun with it too.
In Wyoming, a modern-day (1941) gang is rustling a lot of cattle. We are immediately shown that a woman is in charge of the gang of rustlers. Roy's character grew up in the area and the U.S. government hires him to investigate the thefts. The shady lady running the gang has all the local ranchers fooled, as they think she is too sweet to be stealing cattle. The story is very good for about two-thirds of the film, as Roy is even considered a suspect in the cattle thefts. Unfortunately, the ending is marred by a ridiculous shootout between Rogers and many bad guys who have his house surrounded.
It is interesting that Roy also needs help from side-kick "Gabby" Hayes and comic-relief Sally Payne to get to the bottom of things. Of course Roy and The Sons of the Pioneers manage to sing a couple of songs too. Roy rides his horse Trigger throughout the film, but the horse is not mentioned by name or listed in the credits. Look for future TV-star Gale Storm as Roy's girlfriend.
If you watch this film in the spirit of a B-western, you won't be disappointed.
Should Husbands Pay? (1926)
Yes, they will pay dearly
The answer in this wild Hal Roach comedy directed by Stan Laurel is "YES". Tyler Brooke is a married flirt in trouble with the law, and Jimmy Finlayson is his friend who swears to an angry judge that he will stop Brooke's flirting. As soon as they make their way home, they lose their pants in a similar situation to Laruel & Hardy's WE FAW DOWN. Pursued by newspaper photographers, they accidentally knock over Anita Garvin for more incriminating pictures. As soon as they get home, the newspaper has already printed the innocent-but-incriminating photos (!), and their wives are out for blood. Anita Garvin shows up to complain, and then her husband, the judge! I have yet to see Tyler Brooke funny in any film, but the rest of the cast makes this a funny two-reeler.