Works, By Duration: 61-90 minutes (55)

Total: 462 works

La secta de los misteriosos

A gang steals two halves of an ancient necklace, that legend claims holds the key to hidden treasures. One half is stolen from a countess, whose young daughter interrupts the theft and is kidnapped. The police are called in, and Detective Hernandez and his assistant go on the trail of the gang. Along the way, the ancient legend of the necklace - centered on a love affair between a Moor queen and a Christian count - is presented on screen.

Restoration of films previously considered lost is always a blessing. But when they start with a lengthy lament of the difficulties of the restoration (and the hacks to work around them), expectations have to be toned down. Originally produced in Barcelona as a 3-episode Spanish-language serial (clearly inspired by the Fantômas and Les Vampire serials), but more than half of that footage is lost. This version is a reduction of the serial into a feature film for German-language viewers. Gaps are filled by text from the original scenario - in Spanish. So expect a rough ride: choppy action with frequent jump cuts, action replaced by stills and text, and titles switching between German and Spanish (here held together with English subtitles from machine translation).

The reward for hanging in there is an earnest female-tied-to-the-train-tracks scene - to counter the claim that such scenes were already outdated and obsolete before the silent fim era (see The Bioscope: Tied to the tracks).

Her Sister's Rival/A Life for a Life (Жизнь за жизнь)

If the menace of a melodrama's villain is measured by the satisfaction the viewer feels when the villain is rewarded with the censor-mandated final come-uppance, then this one's a bit of a kitten - because he's consistently sweet to the lovers he dogs, and never less than polite to his other victims. So he seems not so much menacing as confused: less a Villainous Twit (VT), more a Twit-With-Issues Twit (TWIT). Moreover, none of the relations lead to open conflict - no sibling rivalry, no rebellious youth, no duels - just stylish poses from the star. Yet all the characters are guilty of some degree of villainy (or stupidity) so it's rather unfair that he has to take all the weight. So the final satisfaction is mainly that this silly melodrama is over.

The Round-Up

The standard legend states that Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's comedy career effectively ended with the scandal of his arrest and trials. This film serves to set the record straight: Arbuckle's comedy career ended when he walked away from Comique, his own company where he had complete creative control (and the fat man always got the girl!), and signed up for The Big Paper offered in exchange for putting his star name and face on this torturously stupid trash. Although it doesn't even pretend to be a comedy, the few moments of Arbuckle attempting to add humor all fall flat. Yet without any cowboy star, its masquerade as a western was doomed from the start. So all we get is utterly contrived maudlin melodrama worse than the kind Arbuckle hilariously parodied in Out West (1918), and lame attempts at hick cowpoke humor.

But also starring Wallace Beery as The Greaser, in a portrayal so menacing it threatens to leap off the screen (perhaps fueled by his own lust for the Big Paper given to a lesser actor?). Yet the film, in its relentless striving for rock-bottom, even found a way to undo Beery's good work.

Sure, this flick pulled in The Big Paper way back in the day, but now it looks terribly dated - even when compared to contemporary and older movies - while Comique still shines bright.