THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
***
USA
The deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame saves a Gypsy princess from
hanging.
It's unfortunate that Hollywood didn't think to start importing the
Germans a bit earlier. This lavish adaptation of the Victor Hugo
novel could have benefited greatly from direction by someone with the
slightest modicum of visual flair. In the hands of someone like Murnau or
even Lang, it could have become a masterpiece to rival its own masterful 1939
remake (which in turn went on to render it completely unmemorable). Many
however, do remember Lon Chaney's heavily made-up Quasimodo, whose
grotesque gesturing is far less horrific than the rest of the cast's
overwrought grimacing.
dir:
Wallace Worsley
cast: Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Ernest Torrence, Tully
Marshall, Norman Kerry
OUR HOSPITALITY
****½
PARIS QUI DORT
***½
France
A watchman on the Eiffel Tower wakes up one morning to find himself the
only person mobile in all of Paris.
Clair's first feature is an entertaining piece of surrealism that
doesn't take its captivating premise very many places beyond where's predictable. Much
of it though, is beautiful to look at.
wr/dir/ed: René Clair
ph: Maurice Desfassiaux, Paul Guichard
cast: Henri Rollan, Martinelli, Albert Préjean, Madeleine
Rodrigue, Myla Seller
SAFETY LAST!
****
USA
A store clerk pretends he's a lot richer when his small town girlfriend
arrives unannounced.
Harold Lloyd's most famous comedy. This is where he climbs the side of a high-rise
building in a nerve-wracking final sequence, which actually takes up half
the film and includes the iconic image of Lloyd hanging off the hand of a
clock.
dir: Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strothers
SALOME
***
USA
If Nazimova ever boasted a striking
appeal that made her notorious, you wouldn't know it from this picture.
It's a kitsch-fest, high on diva worship, piles of glitter and an array of
buff-yet-delicate male servants with decorated nipples. Objectively
speaking, it's an abomination and very possibly the worst film ever made
(forget Ed Wood). But at the same time, it's very very funny in a way that
no other film could hope to replicate. "The Dance of the Seven
Veils" is arguably the highlight.
dir: Charles Bryant
cast: Alla Nazimova, Rose Dione, Mitchell Lewis, Nigel De
Brulier, Earl Schenck
|
LA SOURIANTE
MADAME BEUDET
****½
France
Regularly touted as the first feminist film, Germain Dulac's domestic
drama was also one of first to take in a woman's point of view. Through
various primitive trick effects (slow motion, superimposition etc.), it
depicts Madame Beudet's dreams, fantasies and neuroses as she experiences
them subjectively. Its enduring value however, doesn't lie in any insight
it offers into the oppressed woman's state of mind - since it doesn't,
really - but in the delicate, evocative beauty of its images.
dir: Germaine Dulac
ph: Maurice Forster, Paul Parguel
cast: Germaine Dermoz, Alexandre Arquillière, Jean d'Yd,
Yvette Grisier, Madeleine Guitty, Raoul Paoli
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS
**
USA
The Biblical tale is followed by a modern-day parable about two brothers,
one of whom is staunchly Bible-abiding, and the other not at all.
Beyond a common quotient of fundamentalist dogma, there is no real connection between
the two stories. The parting of the sea is still impressive, but that
takes care of itself within minutes. The sanctimony on the other goes for
a full two hours. It's an example of Hollywood beating you over the head in a manner even more
dubious and far less artful than any piece of Soviet propaganda.
dir:
Cecil B. DeMille
cast: Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Estelle Taylor,
Richard Dix, Rod La Rocque, Edythe Chapman, Leatrice Joy, Nita Naldi
THE THREE AGES
***
USA
An ineffectual hero vies for a girl's affections in The Stone Age, the
Roman Empire and the modern age.
One of Keaton's lesser vehicles, in this one he wants to parody Griffith's
"Intolerance"
(1916) and is so pleased with his initial concept that he doesn't notice how quickly it leads to repetitiveness. The jokes are
never funny enough to warrant repeating.
dir:
Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline
cast: Buster Keaton, Wallace Beery, Margaret Leahy, Joe Roberts
A WOMAN OF PARIS
***
USA
After a failed attempt to elope, a country girl moves to Paris and becomes
a kept woman.
For his first venture into straight drama, Chaplin chose this unadventurously plotted women's
tearjerker and stayed
almost exclusively behind the camera (he's unrecognisable in a brief
unbilled cameo as a railway porter). His handling of it though, is
restrained in a way that wasn't typical of cinema in this period
and certainly not typical of Chaplin himself. The performances are excellent.
wr/dir:
Charles Chaplin
cast: Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Carl Miller, Lydia
Knott
|