Stella Maris (1918)

Originally posted to Facebook on 10/14/2016

Stella Maris was our first film from 1918, and our second (after 1917's Romance of the Redwoods) starring Mary Pickford. Pickford plays dual roles: Unity Blake -- a poor friendless orphan -- and Stella Maris -- a rich girl who is unable to walk. Both end up falling in love with John Risca, played by Conway Tearle (birth name: Frederick Levy), who is already married (though separated.) Both of Pickford’s characters are impossibly good-hearted, and the only true antagonist in the film is Risca’s wife, played by Marcia Manon. The plot has a few twists and turns, and veers between being overtly sentimental to surprisingly violent. The movie also finds time for a strange subplot about two dogs that don’t get along very well. Pickford playing dual roles was interesting, but seemed like more of a stunt than an essential element (though apparently a remake eight years later starring Mary Philbin adopted the same approach.) Certainly having a second actress play one of the roles wouldn’t have changed the film in any material way. The two characters were rarely on screen together, but on those occasions when that occurred, the double exposures -- or whatever methods were employed -- were basically seamless. Not surprising, I suppose, since George Melies was chopping people's heads off and throwing them across the room twenty years earlier. But it was interesting to see special effects used unobtrusively at this stage in film history.

The next film on the list, Shoulder Arms, is our second film from 1918, and also the second film we've seen starring Charlie Chaplin, following 1914’s Tillie’s Punctured Romance. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT

A Romance of the Redwoods (1917)

Originally posted to Facebook on 9/9/2016

A Romance of the Redwoods was our first film from 1917. As I mentioned last week, it’s the first one we’ve seen starring Mary Pickford, and the second one, after Carmen, that we’ve seen directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In another prominent role is Charles Ogle, who played Frankenstein’s monster in the sixteen minute 1910 version we saw earlier this year. This film is ostensibly a melodrama, but it has a strangely light tone not completely in sync with its plot. The initial contrivance that sets the film in motion is that Mary Pickford’s character, living in Boston, is orphaned, and decides to follow her uncle out to California. However, in the meantime her uncle has been killed by a group of Native Americans (or “Injuns” as one character calls them in a title card), and his identity assumed by a stagecoach robber played by Elliot Dexter. Since this movie is titled “A Romance of the Redwoods,” you can probably guess where this setup leads -- though the leads don’t have a particularly strong chemistry, and the romance is more announced than truly shown. But the plot has enough twists and turns along the way to keep it interesting, if not essential.

Next week we’ll watch our second film from 1917, Tillie Wakes Up, a sequel to Tillie’s Punctured Romance from 1914, minus Chaplin and Mabel Normand. Marie Dressler is still in it though, playing the title role. The link, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT