Star Vehicles - 1918-19
"THE BUSHER" (Thomas Ince, 1919, Paramount release); Directed by Jerry Storm;
photographed by Chester Lyons; art director, C. Tracy Hoag;
starring CHARLES RAY with Colleen Moore, Jack (John) Gilbert, Otto Hoffman.
5 reels.
Made when Charlie Ray (whose screen personality we discussed at some length
in our notes for "Sweet Adeline" a year or so ago) was at the height of his
popularity, "The Busher" gave audiences what they wanted in a Ray picture
with not too many surprises in terms of plot, but some departure from
formula in the character of Ray himself. For once his small-town-boy isn't
non-aggressive to a point in near-infantilism, and his pleasant bashfulness
is agreeably restrained. Since he "proves himself" early in the proceedings
(usually it was a last-minute matter in most Ray vehicles), the raison-d'être
this time is to have the hero become a conceited boor, and redeem himself.
It gives added depth to the Ray character, and helps to keep the plot a
little more consistently on the move than were those of "The Clod-Hopper"
and "The Pinch-Hitter". On the whole, it stacks up as one of the better
Ray pictures, and despite its baseball background, it is still elements of
rural romance and comedy that predominate. Photographically it is quite
lovely, with some really charmingly composed scenes. The backgrounds, being
so obviously the real thing, have a great deal of interest too, with their
authentic advertisements in the baseball park, and in streets, drug-stores
etc. There is some occasional slight animation in the titles which warrants
a mention too. Nobody has too much to do apart from Ray, but Colleen Moore
makes a thoroughly pleasing heroine, and John Gilbert plays well as the
flashy hick Beau Brummel who is Ray's rival for Colleen's hand.
Incidentally, slight essays in Americana like this one - films with no
dominating themes, and more by-play than sustained scenes, are particularly
troublesome to score, and I apologise in advance for a score which I know
does not recapture the spirit of the original score. Surprisingly however,
Mendelssohn does pay off in the least likely place! The print is a lovely
toned original, and appears to be quite complete.
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"THE FORBIDDEN CITY" (Selznick-Select, 1918) Produced by the Norma Talmadge
Film Corporation; directed by Sidney Franklin;
scenario by Mary Murillo from a story by George Scarborough; 5 reels.
Starring NORMA TALMADGE with Thomas Meighan, Reed Hamilton, E, A. Warren,
Rogers Lytton, Charles Fang.
Early Norma Talmadge vehicles are scarce these days, and "The Forbidden
City" is one of the better of her earlier ones - though of course lacking
the more sumptuous production values of her much bigger films of the 20's.
While it is easy to understand the popularity of Talmadge's films -- films
of strong emotional content which had their parallel in such talkies as
Garbo's "Camille", Bette Davis' "Dark Victory" and Greer Garson's "Random
Harvest" - it is a little difficult today to understand the tremendous
popularity of Norma Talmadge herself. To me at least, neither her
personality nor her acting capabilities survive the years half as well as
those of her sister Constance -- even admitting that comparison is a trifle
difficult because of their completely different fields. (Along with Dorothy
Gish, Constance Talmadge was one of the most accomplished silent screen
comediennes). Nevertheless, what Davis and Stanwyck were to tear-jerkers
(and I don't use that term in a derogatory sense) of the thirties and
forties, so was Norma Talmadge to the equivalent films of the 20's --
but in a much wider sense, both in her concentration on that type of
film, and in the enormous following she attracted. Since I must admit
to being most familiar with the beginning and the end of her career, and
to have seen comparatively little of her work from her peak period,
possibly it is unjust of me to generalise in such a critical fashion.
In any event, "The Forbidden City" is a slight but stylish essay into
"Madame Butterfly" territory. The Plot is straightforward in the extreme,
but the whole production is nicely mounted, with some extremely good
lighting and camerawork, and handsome sets. Norma Talmadge has a dual
role, although her makeup in the second role (she plays both mother and
daughter) is often not flattering, and although playing an 18-year old,
she actually looks a good deal older than she had as the mother!
Incidentally, in this second role she has one classic subtitle: taunted
by a Chinese girl for having no ancestors, she retorts with fire and
spirit - "I American - I no need ancestors!"
In its issue of January 1919, "Photoplay" commented favorably on the
picture's physical mountings, and considered that "as a thing of beauty"
it was far superior to most of Miss Talmadge's recent pictures, though
somewhat below their standard dramatically. It also noted the film's
successful attempts to spotlight Miss Talmadge's beauty via some really
first-class close-ups. Most interesting of all however, was the blatant
and unwitting racism of one of its criticisms. At one point in the story,
a Chinese guard fights another guard in order to help the heroine escape.
Condemning the barroom brawl technique as being completely unlikely,
"Photoplay" went on to say:
"Your Oriental moves more subtly and certainly ... an
overturned flower-pot, the plunge of a knife, slowly strangling fingers -
and the outward course of events flow so serenely that even passers-by
cannot tell murder has been done".
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MYSTERY ITEM!
At the end of the program, we intend to run a very short piece of film
which we hope someone in the audience can identify for us. It looks
German. The players look German. It seems to indicate a post-Caligari
production. Other than that, we know nothing. It runs but a few minutes,
and looks fascinating if it turns out to be something of importance,
we'll try to trace it back to its source and see if the other 14¼ reels
are lying around waiting re-discovery too!
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Next program - this Friday, April 24, room 9-D - HAROLD LLOYD in
Preston Sturges' MAD WEDNESDAY; TOM MIX, Mickey Rooney, Stuart Holmes
and James Kirkwood in "MY PAL THE KING" (1932)
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Program Notes & Enquiries: Wm.K. Everson, Hotel Bradford, 210 W. 70th St., NYC
Committee of the society: Edward Gorey, Sandra Everson,Chas.Shibuk,Dorothy
Lovell.
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