August Blom (director)
Valdemar Psilander (lead)
Thyra Reimann (lead)
Ole Olsen [1863-1943] (producer)
Nordisk (production)
The original Danish title For aabent Tæppe is literally translated as “for open curtain”, which is a theater term meaning “with the curtain drawn or raised so the audience can see everything that is going on on stage”, i.e., showing the action behind the scenes.
.When a married couple performing as Shakespeare's troubled couple Othello and Desdemona start having marital troubles in their own lives, the actor finds himself as “Othello...on-stage and off”. An intriguing story idea, but the execution failed to live up to the promise.
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.
Nino Oxilia (director)
Giorgio Ricci (cinematographer)
Guglielmo Zorzi (writer)
Alberto Fassini (author)
Francesca Bertini (lead)
Angelo Gallina (lead)
André Habay (lead)
Fulvia Perini (lead)
Celio (production)
Essentially an aristocratic elaboration of Custody Of The Child (1909), aided by lush visuals, plus the emotional breadth and depth of the star's performance - and the diva dances!
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
May Emory (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Helen Carlyle (lead)
Slim Summerville (lead)
Keystone (production)
Keystone attempts a more fleshed out story, less reliant on gags and falls. Though not a screamer, Ford Sterling's masterful comic mugging keeps it from being a snoozer.
Cheung Wai-Man/Whitman Chant/張惠民 (director/lead)
Wu Su-Xin/White Rose Woo/吳素馨 (director/lead)
Tong Kim-Ding/湯劍廷 (cinematographer)
John Chow/周鵑紅 (writer)
Sun Ven-Chin/俊文沈 (lead/writer)
Han Lan-Gen/韓蘭根 (lead)
Lee Hong Hong/李紅紅 (lead)
Uniquely crafted tale, told largely in title cards rather than imagery, suggesting that the protagonist was a Cinderella-like victim of human cruelty, while at the same time making it clear that her negative psychological responses were at the root of her problems. Wonderful acting by the three most villainous characters, along with a surprisingly modern look of both the cinematography, and the lead couple (who co-directed!).
Y.C. Zai/謝雲卿 (director/lead)
S.M. Chow/周詩穆 (cinematographer)
P.H. Yuen/嚴秉衡 (cinematographer)
Lyton Wong/王乃東 (lead)
T.S. Tong/湯天繡 (lead)
Chen Yi-Tang/陳一堂 (lead)
Yang Ai-Zhen/楊愛真 (lead)
Wang Xie-Yan/王謝燕 (lead)
Cui Tian-Sheng/催天生 (lead)
Zhang Fu-Feng/張扶風 (lead)
Wu Yi-Xiao/吳一笑 (lead)
Great China Lilium/大中華百合影片 (production)
When a young wife's indiscreet extramarital affair is discovered, she and her husband find themselves pressured into a divorce that neither of them wants, but tensions aggravated by their families' class differences seem to compel. The shorter length and abrupt ending suggest that the final reel may be missing. A clumsy and heavy-handed plea for old-school righteousness, saved only by its lavish interior settings and a shot of mixed-up Chinese telegraph code.
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