Lois Weber (director/writer)
Dal Clawson (cinematographer)
George W. Hill (cinematographer)
Hypocrites can`t handle the naked truth: "Truth is welcome if clothed in our ideas"
Carmine Gallone (director)
Domenico Grimaldi (cinematographer)
Nino Oxilia (writer)
Lyda Borelli (lead)
Cecyl Tryan (lead)
Fulvia Perini (lead)
Augusto Poggioli (lead)
Pina Menichelli (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
The frequent visual jumps and disconnects make it obvious that parts are missing from this fragmented restoration. As further evidence, one of the three character names listed in the opening credits (“Richard Ruggero”) - presumably a main character - doesn't appear in any subsequent title card. Yet, unlike Malombra [1917], there is no source material to refer to for clarification of the story. In fact, it's possible that even if all fragments existed and were correctly assembled, the result would still be confusing as the story lacks depth and solid construction. It feels less like a coherent story, more like a string of cliche hacks quickly thrown together merely to capitalize on a star's appeal (by crew who didn't even spare the time to name the characters!).
But who cares about story? We're here to see the diva flammin' in high fashion, twisted into sultry poses (even dancing!), with that dreamy gaze that wails her tragic fate of being too hip for this world that doesn't deserve her. Lyda in motion is all the story we need...
Charles Chaplin (director/lead/writer)
Harry Ensign (cinematographer)
Edna Purviance (lead)
Essanay (production)
Seemingly endless loop of the same type of slapstick that was done with much more enthusiasm in Chaplin's earlier Keystone reels with Mabel Normand.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
Richard V. Spencer (author/writer)
Clifford Smith (lead/writer)
Enid Markey (lead)
Luke McVane is some geek that moves so slow you wonder what kind of “horse” this cowboy is really on. Wearing his virginity on his sleeve, he goes starry-eyed over the town floozy when she hoochie coochies for a saloon full of drunken cowboys. When Garcia takes her as private property, Luke remembers Broncho Billy And The Greaser and jumps at his chance to score nookie points. But, unlike Broncho Billy, this square flips his roscoe once too often, so the town figures the strange mad dog needs to be put down, and he ends up a lamster. Suddenly the nerd's looking less hero, more antihero - and this sleepy little flick turns out to be better than expected.
Note:
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Robert Doran (cinematographer)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
Richard V. Spencer (writer)
Leona Hutton (lead)
Hart again plays an outlaw gone soft-headed for a dame - this time, a mere flirty waitress at the OK-but-nothing-special Restaurant, who's somehow rolling in cash of dubiously unexplained source. Other than that hilarious drunken one-two sucker punch, not much here to interest anyone who's not already Hart-core.
Francesca Bertini (director/lead/writer)
Gustavo Serena (director/lead/writer)
Salvatore Di Giacomo (author)
Luciano Albertini (lead)
Caesar (production)
Assunta has guy problems. Her ex can't accept that he's been dumped, so he still skulks around flashing sexy poses (that sometimes hit the mark with Assunta). Her fiance works out of town and is tormented by suspicions, jealousy, and violent impulses - yet she remains attached to him. Clearly trouble lurks, yet Assunta's responses to her troubles are not melodramatic but enigmatic - as if helplessly driven to a cursed destiny. In short, this one's for noir fans.
Charles Swickard (director)
Joseph H. August (cinematographer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
William S. Hart (lead)
Clara Williams (lead)
Jack Standing (lead)
Alfred Hollingsworth (lead)
Louise Glaum (lead)
Even though this again features Hart as an outlaw gone soft-headed for a dame, it immediately reveals itself as unique because it does not open with Hart's cowboy, and more than ten minutes go by before he finally appears. Instead, the film begins with detailed depiction of the story's primary movers, that the cowboy will find himself forced to deal with. A finely crafted Wild West Sodom and Gomorrah tale - despite its annoying pompous titles and their spoilers.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Reginald Barker (director)
Joseph August (cinematographer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
Bessie Love (lead)
Louise Glaum (lead)
Herschel Mayall (lead)
The title raised the excited hope of going beyond the usual stereotyping and slurs, instead delivering an explicit exposition of racial ideology - taking Birth Of A Nation out west. Unfortunately, this is just an incomplete reconstruction of a film considered lost until 2008. The introduction states that this version comes from an Argentine mid-1920s rerelease (dates within the film are given as 1923), with titles that “differ quite a bit from the original”. Most segments have not been digitally restored, and lost segments are replaced by photographs.
The original may have been more directly concerned with racial ideology, but here Cowboy's main conflict is with women: Cowboy is massively Madonna–whore complexed. This is immediately suggested in the very first scene, where Cowboy's sacred love for his distant mother is juxtaposed with images of him petting and kissing his bestial companion. Then after he deludes himself that a sleazy mining camp on the border is his ideal “town inhabited by men of iron heart”, and that his mother would love a girl he met in a bar there, he is of course vamped. But instead of dumping her, he takes her as his whore he loves to hate, as he does a No-More-Mister-Nice-Guy. Finally, he meets The Virgin Mary Jane and he again falls to his delusions as she cons him into believing his White Man's Duty is to give away his riches. He leaves behind his whore to return to his Brotherhood and replay the Heroic Defender role that first got him vamped, before riding off in the sunset to seek his next imagined Madonna to transform into an imagined whore. So goes the life of an iron-hearted Aryan.
Lois Weber (director/producer/writer)
Stephen S. Norton (cinematographer)
Allen G. Siegler (cinematographer)
Stella Wynne Herron (author)
Jane Addams (author)
Mary MacLaren (lead)
Harry Griffith (lead)
Mattie Witting (lead)
Jessie Arnold (lead)
William V. Mong (lead)
Lina Basquette (lead)
Phillips Smalley (producer)
Eva is a young woman who works in a variety store for a meager salary, solely supporting her two parents and three sisters - while her father lies in bed reading dime novels, smoking his pipe, and drinking pails of beer. As her only pair of shoes disintegrates from long use, so does her hopes, her respect for her father, and her resistance against a leering cabaret singer.
Bert Williams (director/lead/producer/writer)
Biograph (production)
Fired up to see the legendary comedy of Bert Williams, but only got an historical drama reenacting the racial aspect of the US criminal injustice system. Sad, sad, sad.
Lois Weber (director/lead/writer)
Phillips Smalley (director/lead/writer)
Allen G. Siegler (cinematographer)
James Oppenheim (author)
Maude George (lead)
Film is only partially preserved. What remains are shots that look thoughtfully constructed, weaved together into a film-within-film sermon - that I could not make any sense of. Guess that's the price I pay for flunking Sunday school...
Benjamin Christensen (director/lead/writer)
Johan Ankerstjerne (cinematographer)
Intertitle: "...A new clue...those words had an ominous sound to Mr. Wilken". Then, about 15 seconds later, the next intertitle: "...A new clue...those words seem to burn". And it painfully drags on like this, every scene taking twice the time needed (when half the scenes were not needed at all) in this 100-minute remake of the 6-minute "Physician Of The Castle" (1908), that simply adds 94 minutes of bloated backstory.
Marian E. Wong (director/lead/writer)
Featuring rich costumes and the conflict between tradition and modernism (a theme that, 10-20 years later, would become a staple of the Shanghai film industry), it's a pity so little remains of this.
Carmine Gallone (director)
Giovanni Grimaldi (cinematographer)
Antonio Fogazzaro (author)
Lyda Borelli (lead)
Amleto Novelli (lead)
Augusto Mastripietri (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
Marina di Malombra is the beautiful and sophisticated young niece of a count. She could be described in the terms used in a 1967 work : "dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe". Marina becomes convinced she is the reincarnation of a madwoman out for fatal revenge. Corrado Silla is a sensitive young man born into nobility, but now on the verge of poverty. He longs for fame in the world of arts and letters, but has failed. Marina taunts, scorns, then publicly humiliates him. Thus, Silla is ready to sign up as Marina's love slave, but his pride gets in the way. This is the love story of Marina and Silla. Lyda Borelli's spellbinding performance of Marina's metamorphosis, and Amleto Novelli's subtle portrayal of a man torn between his pride and his passion for (and fear of) a dominant woman, both captured with the right direction and photography, make this a classic.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Joseph H. August (cinematographer)
Lambert Hillyer (writer)
Margery Wilson (lead)
Yes, once again Hart plays a cowboy who is changed when he falls for a woman. But, from that point, this story rides off on a different trail. For starters, he's the big boss instead of an outlaw - a meanspirited bully. And, even though the cowboy sees only goodness in the woman, viewers may wonder what is really behind her amused looks and questionable judgment. In short, this stretches away from the predictable film fables, offering more of the depth and ambiguity encountered in everyday life.
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