Albert Capellani (director/writer)
Michel Carré (writer)
Emile Zola (author)
Alexandre Arquillière (lead)
Eugénie Nau (lead)
Jacques Grétillat (lead)
Catherine Fonteney (lead)
Pathé (production)
Adaptation of the novel 'L'Assommoir' (1877), by Émile Zola, that features a more natural acting style by refraining from histrionics until the finale - The Mother Of All Death Scenes.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Emmett C. Hall (writer)
Anthony O'Sullivan (lead)
Dell Henderson (lead)
Biograph (production)
Who could pass up a title like that? After all, over a century later ESPN was still relying on chink power to grab eyeballs with its “Chink in the Armor” headline for a Jeremy Lin story. Here, reknown Massa of ethnology D.W. Griffith spins a tale of a Noble Pagan who “though a saffron-skinned Pagan, his soul is white and real red blood pulsates his heart” the Moving Picture World synopsis tells us. The Moving Picture World review however was a bit less sentimental: “Perhaps if everyone could see such heroic self-sacrifice in a Chinaman as this one displayed, the aversion which most men feel toward them would disappear. It is doubtful, however, if such unselfishness and generosity abide in more than an occasional individual. The picture is not up to the Biograph standard...” - which already sets the bar quite low.
Mack Sennett (director/producer)
Ford Sterling (lead)
Keystone (production)
A parody that's light on comedy, but turns a number of stock devices on their heads in just eight minutes. Unlike the numerous intemperance stories that purport to show “What Drink Did” to “Les Victimes De L'alcoolisme”, i.e. happy families torn into misery, this begins with the alcoholic slacker's family already unhappy, though still intact. In “L'Assommoir” the laundress is first abandoned when her husband runs off with another woman, then rescued by The Good Guy. Here it is The Good Guy, instead of a woman, that is splitting the laundress from her husband - and comically sabotaging a race-to-the-rescue along the way. While other intemperance tales end tragically, here the family's miserable life simply goes on as before - an ending less dramatic, more realistic.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director/writer)
Lee Beggs (lead)
Blanche Cornwall (lead)
Solax (production)
While this is usually described as an immigrant's lessons in American treatment of women, it should also be described as an immigrant's lessons in American treatment of immigrants, as he becomes a target for bullying on the streets, in his home, and on his farm, before finally being hauled away and shackled into slavery: "Completely Americanized!". Of even greater concern than the film and its authoritarian message is how rarely this disturbing aspect of the film is noted in modern reviews - which raises the question: over 100 years later, is assimilation by violent force, humiliation, and degradation still the accepted method of "Making An American Citizen"?
Enrico Guazzoni (director/writer)
Eugenio Bava (cinematographer)
Alessandro Bona (cinematographer)
Henryk Sienkiewicz (author)
Gustavo Serena (lead)
Amleto Novelli (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
Maybe Rome wasn't built in a day, but it only took one night to burn it down (with the help of a few good men with torches), according to this elaborate tale of palace intrigue, divine intervention, and jungle fever in Nero's Rome.
Eleuterio Rodolfi (director)
Mario Caserini (writer)
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (author)
Fernanda Negri Pouget (lead)
Eugenia Tettoni Fior (lead)
Ubaldo Stefani (lead)
Antonio Grisanti (lead)
Società Anonima Ambrosio (production)
This version puts more focus on the dark deeds of the evil Egyptian high priest.
Ubaldo Maria Del Colle (director)
Giovanni Enrico Vidali (director)
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (author)
Cristina Ruspoli (lead)
Pasquali e C. (production)
Vay e Hubert (production)
This version adds characters, and adds variety to the settings (including animals and spectacular chariot races). Most interesting is the lively background action that adds a sense of ambiguous realism - is that a crap game? Wait - is he supposed to be a femboy? And why does that crazy dance come to the foreground, hiding the villain's attack on Jone?? Strange, but dazzling flick.
Enrico Guazzoni (director)
Alessandro Bona (cinematographer)
William Shakespeare (author)
Amleto Novelli (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
Initially lacks the striking imagery of other epics of this period, so doesn't seem to be worth the effort required to view this badly damaged print. But patience is somewhat rewarded when the glitz kicks in later on.
Baldassarre Negroni (director)
Giorgio Ricci (cinematographer)
Fernand Beissier (author)
Francesca Bertini (lead)
Leda Gys (lead)
Emilio Ghione (lead)
Celio (production)
The diva plays the Italian-comedy/French-pantomime stock male character with a cute pear butt. Performance is in “classical” style - cinema's euphemism for “deathly boring”.
Mack Sennett (director/lead)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Charles Chaplin (lead)
Chester Conklin (lead)
Edgar Kennedy (lead)
Keystone (production)
Unencumbered by story or intertitles, Mabel and Chaplin go freestyle in this nonstop brawl. Not the funniest, but the sheer energy of this intensely physical comedy threatens to transgress all laws of nature (For extra credit, watch in slow motion and count how many times Mabel and Chaplin leap up in sync).
Charles Giblyn (director)
Lon Chaney (lead)
A tragic tale of a cool porkpie cruelly condemned by fate to live as an outcast amongst the grotesque 10-gallon absurdities of "cow-boys" - that peculiar product of boy-bovine love.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Keystone (production)
Like an old country mule, this just plods along (obscured by poor print), until Al St. John enters. But he soon exits and story degenerates to a generic chase, with no laughs. Mere months later, this is remade as Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life. And five years later, in the Comique era, the fetch-the-fallen-from-the-well gag gets developed into grand absurdity in Love.
Broncho Billy Anderson (director/lead/writer)
Lee Willard (lead)
Marguerite Clayton (lead)
Essanay (production)
Broncho Billy weighs into the debate on multiculturalism. Definitely not starring Jerry Mathers as "The Greaser".
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Minta Durfee (lead)
Ed Brady (lead)
Edgar Kennedy (lead)
Mack Swain (lead)
Slim Summerville (lead)
Phyllis Allen (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Keystone 5-step Porch (location)
Keystone (production)
When Fats is dumped by his dame, everybody must pay by the pounding.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Helen Carlyle (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Joe Bordeaux (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Keystone 6-step Porch (location)
Keystone (production)
Little-known Helen Carlyle gives an animated Mabel-style performance in this aptly-titled fast-paced fun April Fool's Day flick, that also features a chase that looks like the inspiration for It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).
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.
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