THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE
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Germany
A poor student sells his reflection to a shady old man in exchange for
money and status.
Although essentially primitive in terms of both
style and content, this drama (based on a story by Poe) has aged rather
well purely as a showcase for several photogenic exteriors, beautifully
decorated interiors, and an array of stunning architecture. Furthermore,
you can't go wrong with a movie where the hero arranges his first date
with a countess at a pretty cemetery. And the closing shot is genuinely
eerie.
dir: Stellan Rye, Paul Wegener
pd: Robert A. Dietrich, Klaus Richter
cast: Paul Wegener, John Gottowt, Grete Berger, Lynda
Salmonova
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TRAFFIC IN SOULS
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USA
Maybe the first exploitation picture ever made, this
heated exposé of white slavery rings was shot in secret at a cost of
$7,500 and ended up grossing half a million. The second half is essentially a more involved repeat of
the first, but it's faster-moving than most early
silent pieces, features a healthy dose of cross-cutting as well as several bits
which have dated badly enough to earn an honest laugh. Among the early
victims are a couple of Swedish immigrant sisters who come to New York
dressed in national costume and sporting matching blond plaits (and they
get kidnapped the minute they land). Another highlight is an intertitle
which reads "That night, Mary secured her father's invention for
intensifying sound waves and recording dictagraph sounds on a phonographic
record."
dir: George Loane Tucker
cast: Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, William H. Turner, Matt
Moore, William Welsh, Millie Liston, Irene Wallace
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