"HIS NAUGHTY THOUGHT" (1917) Mack Sennett - Keystone. With Mack Swain, Bob Kortman, and the Cops.
- one-reel -
No detailed analysis it necessary, auraly, on the grand old Mack Swain
riots. This one is well up to standard, with a fine parade of gags both subtle and slapstick, and
the inevitable hectic chase climax. It's interesting to note that the villain, Bob Kortman, one
of Ince's earliest players, is still going strong as an extra at Paramount!
"THE MAD LOVER" (1914) This one has so far defied all attempts at identification - even Ted
- one-reel - Huff was unable to trace its origin or its rakers, and our date of 1914
is merely an approximation. An interesting oddity, our print is a condensation of a longer feature which may well have been quite poor. But at one-reel it moves
quickly for its defects to be too obvious, and remains an intriguing and diverting little
subject. In a straight dramatic role, Pearl White is very lovely and shows considerably more
restraint than she did in her later serial days.
"MR. SILENT HASKINS" (Released, Feb. 19, 1915) A Thomas H. Ince-Kay Boo production, written
- one-reel -
by C. Gardner Sullivan and directed by William S. Hart.
Starring William S. Hart as Lou Haskins; Rhea Mitchell as Priscilla
Miller; J. Barney Sherry as Jim Blake.
(This film was orginally announced for our March 16th program, but not shown). Our print, which
bears the title "His Royal Flush", is a one-reel condensation of a two-reeler originally titled
"Mr. Silent Haskins". After Hart split with Ince, it was given yet another title - "The Marked
Deck" -- and released through W-H Productions (S.A. Lynch Enterprises), the pirate outfit
sponsored by Triangle in an effort to ruin Hart. This they did by re-editing and re-titling older
Hart westerns and pushing them in the market as "now" films in direct competition with Hart's own
current and more elaborate productions. It is a very typical early Hart, with stress on an
accurate reconstruction of atmosphere, on meticulous characterisation and on a slow building of
tension, rather than on any straightforward western action. It was directed by Hart himself, and
contains one of his most typical shots - one where he and the villain glare at each other silently,
the camera panning slowly from the heavy's face to Hart's even sterner visage. (For further
information on Hart, see our notes on "Tumbleweeds" and "The Return of Draw Egan" of some months
ago).
"SHOULDER ARMS" (Released, October 20, 1918) Written and directed by Charles Chaplin for
- three reels - First National. Starring Charlie Chaplin, with Edna Purviance (the French
girl), Sidney Chaplin (the American sergeant and also the Kaiser), Henry
Bergman (German officer, and American bartender), Albert Austin (American
officer, German soldier), Tom Wilson (sergeant), Jack Wilson (Crown Prince).
"Shoulder Arms", as one of Chaplin's best films, deserves several pages of notes all to itself.
It is unfortunate that we cannot devote such space to it, but we recommend a careful perusal of
the chapter devoted to it in the Ted Huff's book on Chaplin. Quoting in part from this chapter ....
"Shouldder Arms" is an unusual mixture of realism and fantasy, flavored with Chaplin's
characteristic touches of slapstick, satire, irony and pathos ..... without any bombast, flag-
waving or stimulation of hatreds ... (it) although a comedy provides a truer picture of World
War One ... than more ambitious epics of the period. It is Everyman at war and, in the words of
Jean Cocteau, "It Moves like a drumroll". The picture influenced many other films. The
rail scene, with its genuine pathos, was borrowed direct in "The Big Parade". Technically too,
the picture was an advance over Chaplin's previous work .... there are advances in cutting,
double exposure by split screen, iris effects, etc. Five reels were planned, but the picture
was cut down to three". (Unquote)
It is certainly worth stressing that the three-reel print that we are showing is the most
complete print that we have ever seen, due largely to the fact that it has been laboriously
pieced together from two prints, one of them a toned original and the other a very good
dupe. Thus our print contains several scores usually missing from this infrequently shown classic.
- - - - - - - - - -
INTERMISSION
- - - - - - - - - -
(Second thoughts on "The Mad Lover". To the best of our knowledge, it is not
the Pathe film of the same title of 1917. Certainly it appears to be earlier.
If any members have any positive information, we'll be glad to hear it).
"MY BOY" (1921) A Sol Lesser production for First National, directed by Victor
Five reels Heerman and Albert Austin. Supervised by Jack Coogan sr.
Photographed by Glen McWilliams and Robert Martin
Editor: Irene Morra Titles: Max Abramson
Art Titles: Shirley Vance Martin
Original Story: Victor Heerman
Starring JACKIE COOGAN as The Boy; Claude Gillingwater as
The Captain; Mathilde Brundage as The Grandmother
Next to Rin Tin Tin, Jackie Coogan was one of the greatest phenomena of the silent era - and one of its biggest boxoffice attractions. This film, made immediately after his enormous success in "The Kid", proves - if nothing else - that Coogan didn't owe all his appeal and charm to Chaplin's handling. Here he is on his own, and what a little trouper he is - taking pathos, slapstick, impish mischief and song and dance in his stride. The film quite shamelessly copies the basic plot-line of "The Kid", but manages to be quite inventive in its comedy content. The sequences of Coogan employing devious tricky ruses to avoid a pursuing policeman are thoroughly delightful, and the whole film has a pleasing sentimentality which never once descends into mawkishness. (One shudders at the mere recollection of Lionel Barrymore and Margaret O'Brien doing similar things in the forties!)
Here Coogan, at five, is at his best and most appealing. As he grew older he continued to make many films of course se - for First National, Fox, Metro and Paramount but his appeal, not surprisingly, lessened steadily until he "retired" temporarily in the late twenties. A comeback via Paramount's "Tom Sawyer" in 1930 was short-lived. Marriage to Betty Grable, and in the late thirties, a role in a Tailspin Tommy opus ("Sky Patrol") preceded another disappearance. Currently, nearly 40 and quite bald, Coogan can be seen as a western heavy in "Outlaw Women" and as a mad scientist creating spider-women in "Mesa of Lost Women" (In the late 40's, he had also made two co-starring comedies with Jackie Cooper at Monogram).
English writer director Victor Heerman, one of the co-directors of "My Boy" and himself once a child actor, guided Coogan through later vehicles too. An unusually prolific director, Heerman bad entered the film industry with Kin color, and later directed for Sennett, Selznick, Famous Players and others, as well as turning out many scripts. Once of his biggest silent hits was "Rupert of Hentzau".
"MY BOY" is a fine origin toned print, and highly enjoyable light entertainment.
|
COMMITTEE OF THE FILM SOCIETY: Charles Turner Herman G. Weinberg; Robert G.
Youngson; Richard Kraft; Warren Rothenberger; William K. Everson (Prog. Notes & Enquiries)
|