seen - 1920s
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IMDb
pretty dull, not funny. The story goes Keaton did this just so he could star in a feature length film but wasn't allowed any say on the content, story, his acting or character. therefore there's none of the genius of his physic or visual comedy. Lost attention so not sure of the plot something about a rich man's lazy son, a mine, a love interest and the stock exchange. zzzz

Another over-rated (8.2? come on, really?) Swanson & Demille film overvoted by Sunset Boulevard fans and the christians are probably helping this one too. Plot is about a girl who chooses an able bodied man after promising to marry a crippled friend who has helped her financially to go to finishing school. When the man she runs off with is killed in a New York tunneling accident while she's carrying her child she considers suicide before reluctantly going back to the cripple but can he forgive her. The ending is a horrid miracles will happen if you pray type thing. Yuk

pretty poor, not much plot, ropey acting. A preacher man (a sky pilot), comes to a small western town to do some converting but the locals don't want to know. After having a fight with one of the local hard men they make up and become ranchers tegether and fall for a girl, theres some baddie cattle rustlers along the way. Another crippling being cured after some hard praying. Some of the scenery was nice but over-all dull, dull, dull for a western. Highish score probably from God-botherers. - ETA another thging was WTF happened at the end, they set fire the church then in return set fire to their bar then cuts to them getting married and a happy ever after ending. Huh what happened about the fires?

Only 30 mins available. One of the master of "Mountain films" first attempts. For sure it looks very pretty and must of seemed spectacular to the public who had never seen people skiing before, rather like the modern day extreme snowboarding films like Art Of Flight". however without any narration or reference to modern eyes it all gets a bit boring after 10 mins, there's some brief possibility of excitement when someone falls down a crevasse and you think there might be a lengthy attempt to rescue him (or her , you can't tell) but a few seconds later some skis appear and he climbs out. Some slow motion sections & backwards running footage of people going over jumps makes it a little more arty but not enough to stop me fast-forwarding. Interesting as Arnold Fanck's first but apart from that too dull without inter-titles or some attempt to make it into a documentary.

pt 2 of Seastroms adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf novel Jerusalem 1 "pt 21 was sons of Ingmar and here we have daughter of Ingmar, the film picks up a few years after Sons of Ingmer, Little Ingmar has now become big ingmar as he and Brita had a son, who is now about 10, and a daughter, Karin, who is now a young woman, Brita died during the inter some years ago and big Imgmar still morns her. A man asks big Ingmar if he can marry his daughter but he worries that the man's father is an alcoholic and it might be a family trait.

Both involve a wedding proposal, the bride being unhappy with the choice of groom and rejecting him only to regret her decision later.

I enjoyed Sons Of ingmar [pt1) and the first half of this with seastrom back felt like an extension of that but after he died I lost intest a bit. Maybe as the print for pt2 wasn't as good you couldn't see the detailed acting as well so I didn't have empathy with the new characters. 6.7/10

The story of an orphaned girl brought up by the Storlein family. Young Anne (Asta Nielsen) is brought as an infant to the Storlein farm by her mother, who has been traveling and is in need of a rest. The two are turned away at the door, and the mother takes her young daughter to the barn to sleep. The farmhand Jon discovers them in the morning but the mother has not made it through the night, so young Anne is taken in and raised by the family. She is a rambunctious little girl, always getting her younger (step) brother into trouble. Finally mother Storlein has had enough, and lets slip that she never should have taken Anne in. Young Anne goes to Jon and learns the truth of her arrival at the farm. Years pass, and she and her younger step-brother are now smitten. But Jon, the farmhand who found her in the barn all those years ago is also in love with Anne. Anne will be betrayed by one and saved from a life in prison by the other, and in the end will find true happiness in a new land.

An absolutely mint restoration with suitable score added. As it's 1920's Nordic art-house it's no surprise that the plot moves quite slowly. It's power is in the quality of the acting and the Norwegian scenery, you're not going to enjoy it if you see a blurry bleached dirty copy. Is it a good film or just poor to average film made good by the high quality of the print & score. I think it's good but not exceptional. Acting for 1920 particularly good and the plot is slow but interesting.

There are some plot problems too, the potential romance between Jon & Anne is rather paedoish, they do touch on this when Anne says she thinks of him as a father figure. The ages between Jon & Holdor don't add up - Jon knew Anne from when she was a baby & she is older than Holdor yet later on Holdor & Jon seem similar ages.

Ending was disappointing, all too quick and with no emotion and with the moral doginerss of their relationship, the whole Anne & Holdor friendship/romance which had been the main theme through the film just seems to get forgotten about at the end. Shame - was good up to then 7.0/10

The Affairs Of Anatol

Another Demille / Swanson film, hopefully the last of these passably enjoyable but overrated films. A newly married woman's husband has a habit of falling for womens sob stories and being made a sucker by them, much to swanson's displeasure. DeMille gets to have an extra 3 leading ladies to vie with Swanson, it's broken up into the 3 separate stories of the women so seems a bit disjointed rather like 3 short films put together. Nice print, gorgeous coloured inter-titles, loved Bebe Daniels (as Satan Synne) octopus cape/ gown/ cloak. Some good lines - "all men worship the same religion - the golden calf" - Swanson's character as she sticks her leg out preparing to put on a new pair of , presumably, tanned stockings.

"He Who Would Sup With The Devil Must Have A Golden Spoon" - Satan Synnes entry sign

Shattered - The first example of the german film genre of Kammerspielfilm which where intimate stories of working class life. Here a track inspector & his family live near the railway. A supervisor telegrams to say he is coming to stay with them for a few days but upon his arrival he rapes the inspectors daughter, the mother finds out and so distraught she fwonders outside into a snow storm and is found frozen to death by her husband. after being rejected by the superviser the daughter tells her father he raped her and he stangles the man. when the next train comes through he tells the officials on board he has comitted a murder. Nice acting but the lack of inter-titles meant the plot was hard to follow so i lost interest which made it even harder to keep track. Good but could of been a classic if better titles and full length. 6/10

The Professor dispenses the wisdom of the ages and does not make a living wage. The sons of the rich and powerful are students lacking any motivation. The next door neighbor of the Professor, businessman Olsen, has money and lots of food, while the Griggs have hardly any. Both Peter Olsen and Reverend Gates are taken by the beauty of young Amelia Griggs. When rich son Phil West falls for Amelia Griggs and befriends the poor Reverend Gates, he finally sees the difference in his life and theirs and tries to do something to change that.

The Blot - Lois Webber

A spolt young man falls for the daughter of his teaher, he romances her and only then realizes how poor shge is and how spoiled him and his rich friends are. the poor family are envious of the food they see being prepared by their neighbours. Theres a love triangle, and something about shoe repairs. the son persudes his trustee dad to pay the teacher more and we gert some politics about hoew disgracefiul it is that teachers are paid so little (A blot on our counciouss). Acting decent enogh, OK but nothing memorable. 6.6/10

A crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in the same building he does in one of the city's poor neighborhoods. She, however, is in love with a wealthy, handsome young man. Desperate to win her love, he begins to intercept love letters they send to each other and replaces them with his own messages, which each thinks is from the other. His plan seems to be succeeding, but then something happens that bring tragic results to them all.

A woman who works as a maid waits for a letter from her lover, unbeknownst to her the crippled (war wound) mailman harbours romantic feelings for her. Hints of German expressionism in the sets. the acting is great and although it's a slow paced film that never moves from one building and it's exterior the film is quite gripping. the bespoke score adds to it's watchability. Excellent 7.5/10 1001

The Suram Fortress - some interesting imagery in the first 2 mins meant hoping there might be a slight hint of the beauty of the 1980s version but it was short lived. the plot was hard to follow as it kept jumping forward in time so new actors were playing people. ok but not essential. no score so watched with the new sote lp

Not the best of the early 20's silent epics but still great. Despite there being some sections lost, the connecting inter-titles and photos mean the plot is still easy to follow, combined with usual silent era standards of extras numbering in the thousands and some sensationally sized and decorated sets this is worth tracking down. Bad points, it's not very intellectual or emotional, the acting is rather pantomime-ish & the new score, too my ears, was rather too raucous and not delicate enough in the quieter moments, better than lots of other scores though so a minor quibble. Plot is about a love triangle between a Pharaoh, a slave girl he falls for and makes his queen and a slave she was in love with before he was arrested. war breaks out between Ethiopia & Egypt when the Pharaoh, rejects the Ethiopian kings offer of his daughters hand in marriage only to to take the slave girl instead.

wanted to liker it, a british movie. but costumes look like they came from a fancy dress shop where they had a surplus of comedy scotsman outfits, beards and wigs laughable in places, castle obviously made of wood or card, actors didn't look very scottish, actresses too made up and pretty to be believable as living in stone huts in the glens, acting - lots of arm waving in the 1910s style. plot a bit dull. Scotish (if indeed it was filmed in Scotland) scenery nice. One for Scots only. 6/10