Originally posted to Facebook on 11/27/2018
The Toll Gate is the last film of our chronological detour before we return, next week, to 1929. It's our sixth film from 1920, and the second time we've seen William S. Hart in a starring role, after 1916's Hell's Hinges. We've also previously seen Anna Q. Nilsson, the female lead, in 1915's Regeneration. Lambert Hillyer directed (and wrote) this film, as well as over a hundred more, mostly westerns, from the teens up through the late forties, and then moved on to television in the fifties.
Hart plays Black Deering, the leader of a group of bandits, who is betrayed by a member of his gang after deciding to go straight. While on the run, he comes upon Nilsson, who lives alone with her insufferably adorable son. As in Hell's Hinges, Hart is supposedly an anti-hero, but his misdeeds are mostly mentioned in passing, or presented with some kind of mitigation. His heroism on the other hand is shown on-screen, or in the form of unsolicited praise from other characters. (The most cringe-inducing example of this occurs when he is told, "They may call you Black Deering, but, by God, you're white.") The film distinguishes itself from a generic western due to an intermittent grittiness and Hart's screen presence, but the characters are mainly archetypes, and have very little life beyond what the plot demands. We haven't really seen what I would consider a solid western as yet (unless you count The Wind) though that may just be due to our particular selection of films.
Next week we return to the main chronological through-line, and see our second film from 1929 -- Asphalt, directed by Joe May, and starring Gustav Fröhlich, whom we previously saw in 1927's Metropolis. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Showing posts with label William S. Hart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William S. Hart. Show all posts
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Show People (1928)
Originally posted to Facebook on 7/27/2018
Show People was our third film from 1928. It was directed by King Vidor, and starred Marion Davies and William Haines, all of whom we've seen before during this project -- Marion Davies in 1922's When Knighthood was in Flower and 1927's The Red Mill, William Haines in 1926's Tell It to the Marines, and King Vidor as the director of 1925's The Big Parade.
This was another film with a Movietone soundtrack, signaling the incipient end of the silent era, and the kids were impressed that, for the first time, we heard the MGM lion roar. ("Whoa!" they said.) Until recently I had actually believed that the point of the MGM lion -- and its roar -- was to signal to audiences that they were watching a sound film -- but we've seen the lion roaring silently on films dating back a few years, so obviously that was incorrect.
Show People is a Hollywood movie about Hollywood, similar in some ways to 1923's The Extra Girl, but its humor is broader than that film, which is especially notable when you remember that a long sequence in the earlier film involved Mabel Normand not being able to tell the difference between a dog dressed up as a lion and a real lion. Marion Davies in this case plays the newcomer to Hollywood, and is eventually helped out by William Haines, who is a slapstick comedian at a minor studio. Haines, as we saw a few months ago, held his own against Lon Chaney in Tell It to the Marines, perhaps surprisingly. But he does less well up against Marion Davies in this picture. She is clearly the star of the film, and gives her normal charismatic performance, though she is a bit less charming and more self-centered than in previous films. In fact, the major arc of the film follows her rise up the Hollywood ladder, forgetting her friends along the way. But she is obnoxious not only on the way up, but also when she rights things at the end. Haines also is fairly obnoxious in his role, and never quite shows his character's core of seriousness as he did in Tell It to the Marines.
Neither The Extra Girl nor this film was intended as a brutal satire of Hollywood exactly, but this film has a little more of an insider feel than the earlier one, which gives it that much less bite. It reminded me of the phenomenon of celebrities who have been mocked on Saturday Night Live showing up in person, to signal that the mockery is all in good fun -- whether or not that is (or should be) the case. And there are a number of celebrity cameos throughout the movie, playing themselves, including William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, and John Gilbert. Some show up only briefly in a single shot, but some, like Charlie Chaplin, are mentioned by name, and actually have a short scene with the lead characters. The Extra Girl had a few celebrity cameos as well, but nothing close to the star power of this film.
I think I would have preferred if this film had taken a stronger approach in one direction or another -- either to have been funnier, or to have had less two-dimensional characters, or to have been more scathing about Hollywood. But it was entertaining, and it was certainly interesting to see the impression Hollywood had or wanted to create for itself at this point in its history.
Next week we move on to The Crowd, our fourth film from 1928, which was also directed by King Vidor. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
Show People was our third film from 1928. It was directed by King Vidor, and starred Marion Davies and William Haines, all of whom we've seen before during this project -- Marion Davies in 1922's When Knighthood was in Flower and 1927's The Red Mill, William Haines in 1926's Tell It to the Marines, and King Vidor as the director of 1925's The Big Parade.
This was another film with a Movietone soundtrack, signaling the incipient end of the silent era, and the kids were impressed that, for the first time, we heard the MGM lion roar. ("Whoa!" they said.) Until recently I had actually believed that the point of the MGM lion -- and its roar -- was to signal to audiences that they were watching a sound film -- but we've seen the lion roaring silently on films dating back a few years, so obviously that was incorrect.
Show People is a Hollywood movie about Hollywood, similar in some ways to 1923's The Extra Girl, but its humor is broader than that film, which is especially notable when you remember that a long sequence in the earlier film involved Mabel Normand not being able to tell the difference between a dog dressed up as a lion and a real lion. Marion Davies in this case plays the newcomer to Hollywood, and is eventually helped out by William Haines, who is a slapstick comedian at a minor studio. Haines, as we saw a few months ago, held his own against Lon Chaney in Tell It to the Marines, perhaps surprisingly. But he does less well up against Marion Davies in this picture. She is clearly the star of the film, and gives her normal charismatic performance, though she is a bit less charming and more self-centered than in previous films. In fact, the major arc of the film follows her rise up the Hollywood ladder, forgetting her friends along the way. But she is obnoxious not only on the way up, but also when she rights things at the end. Haines also is fairly obnoxious in his role, and never quite shows his character's core of seriousness as he did in Tell It to the Marines.
Neither The Extra Girl nor this film was intended as a brutal satire of Hollywood exactly, but this film has a little more of an insider feel than the earlier one, which gives it that much less bite. It reminded me of the phenomenon of celebrities who have been mocked on Saturday Night Live showing up in person, to signal that the mockery is all in good fun -- whether or not that is (or should be) the case. And there are a number of celebrity cameos throughout the movie, playing themselves, including William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, and John Gilbert. Some show up only briefly in a single shot, but some, like Charlie Chaplin, are mentioned by name, and actually have a short scene with the lead characters. The Extra Girl had a few celebrity cameos as well, but nothing close to the star power of this film.
I think I would have preferred if this film had taken a stronger approach in one direction or another -- either to have been funnier, or to have had less two-dimensional characters, or to have been more scathing about Hollywood. But it was entertaining, and it was certainly interesting to see the impression Hollywood had or wanted to create for itself at this point in its history.
Next week we move on to The Crowd, our fourth film from 1928, which was also directed by King Vidor. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
Hell's Hinges (1916)
Originally posted to Facebook on 7/22/2018
This week we jumped a decade back from 1927 to 1916's Hell's Hinges, which I wanted to see before we got too far removed from the silent era. This was our sixth film from 1916 -- having watched the fifth a year and a half earlier. It was the first film we've seen starring William S. Hart, who was a prolific actor during this period, making eight other features in 1916 alone, and continuing that pace throughout the teens. The majority are lost, but enough survive to get a decent idea of his work.
The film concerns a young Reverend named Robert Henley, played by Jack Standing, and his sister, played by Clara Williams, who journey west to set up a ministry. It is immediately established that Henley is a womanizer, and not up to the task of being a community's moral leader. They arrive at Hell's Hinges, a semi-lawless western town, which nevertheless has a contingent of church-goers who welcome their arrival. "Blaze" Tracy, played by Hart, is not one of them, nor is "Silk" Miller, played by Alfred Hollingsworth, who is charmingly described as "Mingling the oily craftiness of a Mexican with the deadly treachery of a rattler." It was at this point that our hopes for the film began to dim. The film's arc is that Hart becomes attracted to and/or inspired by Clara Williams' character, and begins to mend his ways -- though her role is a bit underdeveloped as the catalyst for his change, and his attraction to her seems to be more about what she represents, rather than her specifically. Her attraction to him, if it truly exists, is even less well motivated.
I had expected skipping back to 1916 to be more of a regression than it actually was. The acting was a little broader, and the film was definitely shot and framed a lot more statically than some of the films we've been seeing recently, but the story was still competently and economically told -- notwithstanding the flaws discussed above. The screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan, who had previously, with Thomas Ince, written 1915's The Italian, which also featured Clara Williams. It was interesting to see Hart for the first time, and to see how he fit perfectly into the tradition of the taciturn western hero -- a clear antecedent to, for instance, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood -- though in some ways he is more extreme than either of them. His character was also surprisingly morally ambiguous for a western hero, though his previous sins are referred to non-specifically rather than detailed.
Next week, we move on to 1928, with Show People, our third film from that year. It stars Marion Davies and William Haines, and is directed by King Vidor, all of whom we've seen previously during this project. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
This week we jumped a decade back from 1927 to 1916's Hell's Hinges, which I wanted to see before we got too far removed from the silent era. This was our sixth film from 1916 -- having watched the fifth a year and a half earlier. It was the first film we've seen starring William S. Hart, who was a prolific actor during this period, making eight other features in 1916 alone, and continuing that pace throughout the teens. The majority are lost, but enough survive to get a decent idea of his work.
The film concerns a young Reverend named Robert Henley, played by Jack Standing, and his sister, played by Clara Williams, who journey west to set up a ministry. It is immediately established that Henley is a womanizer, and not up to the task of being a community's moral leader. They arrive at Hell's Hinges, a semi-lawless western town, which nevertheless has a contingent of church-goers who welcome their arrival. "Blaze" Tracy, played by Hart, is not one of them, nor is "Silk" Miller, played by Alfred Hollingsworth, who is charmingly described as "Mingling the oily craftiness of a Mexican with the deadly treachery of a rattler." It was at this point that our hopes for the film began to dim. The film's arc is that Hart becomes attracted to and/or inspired by Clara Williams' character, and begins to mend his ways -- though her role is a bit underdeveloped as the catalyst for his change, and his attraction to her seems to be more about what she represents, rather than her specifically. Her attraction to him, if it truly exists, is even less well motivated.
I had expected skipping back to 1916 to be more of a regression than it actually was. The acting was a little broader, and the film was definitely shot and framed a lot more statically than some of the films we've been seeing recently, but the story was still competently and economically told -- notwithstanding the flaws discussed above. The screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan, who had previously, with Thomas Ince, written 1915's The Italian, which also featured Clara Williams. It was interesting to see Hart for the first time, and to see how he fit perfectly into the tradition of the taciturn western hero -- a clear antecedent to, for instance, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood -- though in some ways he is more extreme than either of them. His character was also surprisingly morally ambiguous for a western hero, though his previous sins are referred to non-specifically rather than detailed.
Next week, we move on to 1928, with Show People, our third film from that year. It stars Marion Davies and William Haines, and is directed by King Vidor, all of whom we've seen previously during this project. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)