The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918)

Amazing animation

Directed by Winsor McCay


The Sinking of the Lusitania is another animated short from the great Winsor McCay.  I had previously reviewed Little Nemo and Gertie, the Dinosaur.  However, this one is a little different.  McCay endeavored to create an animated documentary of the sinking of the Lusitania by German U-boats.  In 1918, there were no visual images of this galvanizing event for the American public to see.  His original goal was to create a piece of propaganda to support the war effort.  Of course, by the time this was released in 1918, the war was over.

As with other McCay shorts, it begins with the artist himself, but here, instead of betting his friends he can produce a cartoon, the film shows him researching the details around the tragedy.  Then we see the first images of the moving sea, already foreboding with the sun casting a harsh light across the ocean as a barely perceptible periscope appears, then vanishes.

From here on, McCay intersperses title cards detailing the historical record of the sinking with his animated dramatization.  The animation is truly remarkable and McCay shows a filmmaker's eye in presenting the events.  It's the details that make this special.  The silhouetted German U-boat as its occupants see the Lusitania.  The reaction of the fish as the torpedo approaches.  The way the smoke from the ship's chimneys begin to fluctuate as though the boat itself was gasping for air after the first torpedo hit.

Modern audiences will be reminded again of James Cameron's Titanic (which got name checked in my review of The Little American).  I have to think Cameron was at least inspired by some of the images here, particularly the way the life boats lower to the ocean and the images of bodies plummeting off the ship's stern.  Odd that my last two films feature Titanic-like scenes the same week we lost the great Gloria Stuart.

All in all, another amazing effort from McCay.  As the film says, it took over 25,000 drawings to create this impressive, but short (less than 10 minutes) movie.  Highly recommend.

Watched on YouTube
Photo from Filmsite.org

Random fact: The film includes two torpedo hits from the German sub. While this was believed to be true at the time, it was since shown that only one torpedo hit the boat.

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1918: The Year that Ultimately Leads Us to Bugs Bunny

We've reached 1918 and I'm almost through my first decade of film watching  The big, notable piece of film history for me?  Four brothers (Jack, Albert, Harry and Samuel) open their own movie studio.  Their last name?  Warner.  That's right, this year was the birth of the studio that would bring the world The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire, Rebel without a Cause, Dirty Harry, and Jonah Hex (they can't all be winners).

Now, amongst other things, I am a huge fan of the Warner Bros. cartoons.  I love Bugs, Daffy, Taz and especially Road runner and Wile E. Coyote ("super-genius").  The rest of my family loves Disney; for me, it's all about Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.  One of my favorite quotes: "If you want to smile, watch Disney.  If you want to laugh, watch Warner Bros."  

In movie news, Stella Maris is the highest grossing film and features Mary Pickford in two roles.  Can't wait to see that.  This year also features the first movie version of Tarzan and you know I will be checking that out.  


As far as availability of movies go, things are definitely improving.  I had to research the various films available on NetFlix to pick them (rather than being forced to go with the only ones available).  My plan is to watch Stella Maris, Broken Blossoms (a D.W. Griffith film), The Blue Bird and Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley through NetFlix.  I'm also going to try to catch a Charles Chaplin and a Buster Keaton flick.  And of course, Tarzan.  I'm sure there will be some other surprises along the way.  As it's shaping up, I may be spending some more time in 1918 than in any other year to date.

I'll leave you with my favorite Bugs moment from 1957 What's Opera, Doc? performed with a live orchestra:




Photo from JohnThrasher.net

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The Little American (1917)

Incredible imagery from DeMille

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Starring Mary Pickford, Jack Holt, Raymond Hatton
Produced by Mary Pickford Company

Our last movie of 1917 is DeMille's The Little American, a melodrama set against the backdrop of World War I.  Angela Moore (played by Pickford), a young woman literally born on the Fourth of July, is wooed by two suitors, one French and one German.  When war breaks out, the men return to their native lands to serve their countries.  Angela is soon called to her ancestral home in France to care for a sick aunt.  On the way, her boat is torpedoed by a German submarine, but she survives to reach France and find both of her suitors.  Who will she pick?  And will they survive the war?

Okay, this is melodrama and propaganda.  Angela carries a miniature American flag in her dress and is constantly waving it in the face of her aggressors.  She is literally caught between both sides of the war, but there is no mystery as to the filmmakers' sentiments.  The Germans are barbarous and French are gallant.  If you are an American and choosing a side, there really is no choice.

There are some set pieces here that are remarkable.  When the ship carrying Angela is torpedoed in an episode evocative of the Lusitania's fate, the interior of the boat pitches and begins filling with water in an incredible effect.  Later, as the life rafts are lowered and people plummet into the icy waters, the lighting only heightens the tension and dread.  There are moments here that are clearly evoked by James Cameron almost 90 years later in Titanic.

This being a melodrama, Angela's French suitor conveniently ends up in her home in France and plants a hidden phone for communicating German military positions.  Moments later, the French retreat and the Germans establish their headquarters in the same mansion.  Of course, the Germans include Angela's other would-be boyfriend Karl Von Austreim (played by Jack Holt).  He recognizes her as he is attempting to rape her.  Seriously.

Over the course of the rest of the film, the Germans make despicable decisions with Holt in the background overacting his mental anguish.  He disagrees with the choices, but is powerless to go against his superior officers. However, when Angela's life is threatened, the film becomes unconventional.  Karl sides with Angela and the two are about to be shot, when the French save the day (thanks to Angela's intelligence efforts).

The two then wander through a bombed out town, complete with a barely standing church and the striking image of the crucifix.  When the church falls to one last bomb, Jesus remains standing with his arms outstretched above him, no longer on the cross.  It's a powerful moment, particularly given the propagandist nature of the film.

DeMille is clearly hitting his stride as a director here. The film is amazingly cinematic and visually exciting.It's the closest thing I have seen to a modern day action film, with the sinking of the luxury liner, the Germans chasing Angela through the house and the bombing scenes at the end.

The one issue (besides the overacting by the male leads) in this movie I had was the music that the DVD company included with the movie.  It feels like they just bought a CD of silent film music and walked out of the room.  The music almost never conveys a mood that matches what is happening on the screen.

The Little American is a good film, held back by some slow patches and some acting that, while typical of the silent era, is very distracting.  Mary Pickford, in a very different role from our previous film, is fantastic throughout. She is understated, yet passionate.  She does a fantastic job of standing in the U.S. in its struggle to choose a side, while entering World War I.

Watched on DVD through NetFlix
Photo from The Oscar Site

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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)

Rebecca exercising her lack of patience

Directed by Marshall Neilan
Starring Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Helen Jerome Eddy
Produced by Mary Pickford Company

Time for Mary Pickford in a classic children's movie.   Sunnybrook Farm is failing and Rebecca's mother sends her to stay with her two stern aunts.  Rebecca (Mary Pickford) has a series of adventures in the town of Riverboro, selling soap, reciting poetry at her school and putting on a circus.  During each of the episodes in her life, she encounters new people and everyone involves learns something in the process.  Can Rebecca find love and get the better of Minnie Smellie?

If you are a modern film viewer, you have seen this before.  Rebecca is Pollyanna.  She's Annie.  She's Heidi.  She's that girl that through her precociousness one ups her rivals, teaches life lessons to passerbys and melts the heart of the most jaded elders. 

The revelation for me in this film was Mary Pickford.  She is a brilliant actress in this movie, wearing every emotion on her incredibly expressive face.  When she arrives at her aunts' house, she is confused and nervous, then deeply saddened, then finding the humor in her situation, all in the span of moments.  There's never a title card.  It's simply there in her cries, her arched eyebrows, her smile.

Rebecca's approach to life earns her the eye and affections of Adam Ladd (Eugene O'Brien) in a romance that proves to be... creepy.  Even though Pickford is 25, she plays a 17-year-old and looks the part.  O'Brien is clearly much older and it's unsettling to watch the two pine for each other throughout the film.It requires a three year leap forward at the end of the film to bring this plot thread to a resolution.


Overall, the film itself is well shot. Marshall Neilan uses close-ups and editing to effectively convey the story.  He also uses some unusual camera angles that definitely take advantage of his expressive lead.  In one moment in particular, Rebecca starts interacting with a photo of her dead grandmother and the camera angle shifts to a perspective that gives the audience a great peek into Rebecca's mind.  It's a small detail, but one I appreciated.  On the other hand, toward the end of the film, there are some scenes shot at night that include quick cuts that rendered the action nearly incomprehensible.

I was previously unfamiliar with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but I did enjoy this film for what it was.  Movies like Annie and Pollyanna are not amongst my favorites, but I can appreciate them for what they are.  The story will be very familiar to viewers and the resolution is a little too pat (there's never really a transition from stern to loving in the aunts; it just happens).  Still, it is well shot and Mary Pickford is great in the title role.  Even if you just watch a couple of the vignettes from Rebecca's life, it's worth it to see the biggest actress of the time working her magic.

Watched on YouTube (78 minutes in seven parts)
Photo from Virtual Learning Connections

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A Modern Day Chaplin

Apparently Charlie Chaplin was drunk for all of his films.  Because this guy has all of his moves.

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The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, A Prehistoric Tragedy (1917)

An early King Kong screen test?

Directed by Willis H. O'Brien
Produced by The Edison Company


The Dinosaur and the Missing Link is a short animated film that follows the efforts of three prehistoric would-be suitors of Miss Araminta Rockface. As The Duke and Stonejaw Steve fight for her affections, the "unassuming hero" Theophilus Ivoryhead swoops in to sweep her off her feet.  But when the evil Missing Link steals the evening's dinner, they all are called upon to hunt for more.  Can they work together to put food on their primitive table?  And what do the Missing Link and a dinosaur have to say about that?

Willis O'Brien!  So excited to find this. O'Brien is best known for animating the 1933 version of King Kong, amongst my favorite films of all time.  This is very short film by the master animator, but you can see a lot of Kong in O'Brien's Missing Link, particularly as he scales a tree.  The stop-motion animation is amazing and unlike anything I have watched since starting my journey through the century.

And the animation has to be great.  Because the story is very slight.  The tale is meant to be funny, but at its best, is barely smile worthy.  When Ivoryhead takes credit at the end for the Missing Link's death, you see the set up of the moment a mile away.

Still this is definitely worthwhile if only for seeing the incredible early animation work of O'Brien.  And it's less than seven minutes so it should be easy to catch.

Watched on YouTube
Photo from Silent Movie Monsters

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Easy Street (1917)

The Tramp may be in over his head

Directed by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell
Produced by Lone Star Corporation

The tramp is resting outside of a mission when he is drawn in by the beautiful music of the congregation.  He decides to reform from his criminal ways and sees an opening on the local police force.  His first assignment? Easy Street, a lawless slum in a constant state of brawling.  Can the diminutive tramp bring order to the chaos and win the hand of the pretty reformer?

Easy Street is my favorite Chaplin film yet.  First, it has a great plot.  Watching the tramp move from would-be criminal to reformed citizen to police officer provides some great comedic moments, but also some unsentimental social commentary.  There are small touches throughout.  Charlie sheepishly returning the collection plate he was about to steal.  Catching a poor, hungry woman stealing food and, rather than arrest her, stealing more for her.  Pinning his badge to the overworked father.  There is also a surprisingly unflinching look at a character's drug use as well as moments of domestic violence.

The centerpiece of the movie rests on the antagonism between Chaplin's policeman and Campbell's bully.  There is an amazing long take (complete with a tracking shot) of the tramp's arrival on Easy Street, the bully's threatening attitude toward him and the criminal's ultimate comeuppance.  Just when the seriousness and grittiness of a moment becomes too much, a lamp post bends as though made of rubber and the audience can laugh and smile again.  The movie does an amazing job of balancing these various themes and moods.

I also loved Campbell's scene in the police station.  He was presented as a menacing figure before that, but when he breaks out of his handcuffs and begins tearing through the station, he becomes a force of nature. It's preposterous and funny, but it also communicates a real sense of the danger Charlie faces later.

While it may have been nice to see a more expansive setting, the small confines of Easy Street help us track all of the action in the last third of the film.  Chaplin is being chased by Campbell throughout the block and we always have a sense of where the characters are and where the exits may be. The chase is very inventive and, as with many Chaplin films, like something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon come to life.

Chaplin's progression from vagabound to respected hero is my favorite of his tales to date.  I love watching his growth as an artist and can't wait to get to the features later in his career.  I recommend this one (and it's only 24 minutes which is the length of a sitcom sans commercials).

Watched on NetFlix Watch Instantly
Photo from Clown Ministry

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Blockbuster: A Requiem

Today, the news broke that Blockbuster was entering bankruptcy.  The word came as an anti-climax of sorts; there's been an inevitability to this for some time.

I'm sure there will be plenty of analysis now that the shoe has finally dropped.  For me, this is a sad day.

There are two major influences on my movie sensibilities.  The first was my mother.  The second was my employment at Blockbuster.

I'll save a discussion of the former for later.  As for the chain store's influence on me, I worked in the mid-1990s as an employee and manager at the chain as I went to graduate school.  The store acted as my own personal film history school and I had a dozen or more teachers.  Employees and customers would engage in passionate debates about the state of horror movies or which Dracula was best.

The "instructor" who stood out most in my head is Bob.  Bob was unique in a store full of videotapes in that he had a laserdisc player.  For those unfamiliar with these, imagine getting a DVD the size of record and you can picture a laserdisc.  Our store was the only one in the area that stocked laserdiscs and so we had a more informed clientele.

Bob was an employee, but his respect for you was predicated upon your knowledge of movies.  When I first started working there, we discussed Godzilla movies and I gushed about Mothra.  Needless to say, we got along famously.

When I started working there, I thought I knew movies.  Bob quickly schooled me.  He found out I liked Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects and Seven, so he gave me a copy of Glengarry Glen Ross.  He was incredulous that I had never seen Taxi Driver, Citizen Kane or Raging Bull and helped me correct these  oversights.  He introduced me to foreign films like the supremely bizarre but incredibly awesome Aguirre, the Wrath of God.  People think Nicolas Cage does crazy well?  Check out Klaus Kinski in that movie.

If Bob was the dean of our little institution, there were plenty of associate professors.  I remember Matt shoving a copy of Shallow Grave into my hands and insisting I watch it.  That of course was an early film by Danny Boyle who would win an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.  Another employee told me if I loved Evil Dead, I had to watch Dead Alive.  That director would move on to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  My colleagues brought me in on the ground floor of some of the best talent the film industry has produced in the last twenty years.

Anyone who reads my posts here knows I use NetFlix.  Why?  They have a better selection than any Blockbuster I could walk into (particularly when you are looking at 1915 movies).  However, Blockbuster maintains two advantages over NetFlix that are undervalued.  The first is instant gratification.  Yes, RedBox has this, plus convenience.  But I cannot go to my grocery store and rent Ghostbusters from a kiosk.  I can go to a Blockbuster and pick up a classic like that.

The other advantage of Blockbuster is what I experienced above: conversation, dialogue, tradition.  People don't strike up a conversation about what's worth watching at a RedBox.  The reviews and comments on NetFlix are not dialogue.  I am who I am as a film goer because of those experiences.  And the last real chance for people to get those experiences went bankrupt today.

Blockbuster will emerge, but will never be the familiar face we recognize.  It will ape NetFlix online and copy RedBox kiosks.  It will continue on life support because the studios don't want to pull the plug on the patient.  Better to have it limp along as a competitor than have RedBox and NetFlix as the only games in town.

Yes, I realize the chain store is a dinosaur.  Yes, I get that 99 percent of people renting a movie are content with the RedBox new release or the two day waiting period from NetFlix.  And, I understand (and long for) the day when streaming into our homes is the rule, not the exception.

Still, I need to exercise a moment of regret at yet another blow against the idea that movies are communal experiences, meant to be shared and discussed.  The very existence of this blog can trace its existence back to an idea that is now literally bankrupt.

And with that, I'll sign off and see what's in my NetFlix Watch Instantly queue.

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The Butcher Boy (1917)

Fatty Arbuckle + Buster Keaton = Awesome

Directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Josephine Stevens
Produced by Comique Film Company

The Butcher Boy chronicles the romantic rivalry between Fatty and Slim for the love of Amanda, daughter of the general store manager.  The movie starts in the general store and follows Fatty, the butcher boy, through his interactions with customers.  When the manager gets angry and sends his daughter away to boarding school, Fatty and Slim hatch their own plans to find their love.  But men are not permitted beyond the gates of the boarding school.  What will Fatty do?

This is Buster Keaton's first movie and he is hysterical in his small piece of screen time.  He plays a customer buying a bucket of molasses.  When Fatty asks for payment, Buster explains the money is in the bottom of the molasses-filled bucket.  Fatty pours the molasses into Buster's hat and retrieves the money.  Buster then finds the hat stuck to his head and his feet stuck to the floor.  While the description may sound ponderous, the execution is funny and both actors do an amazing job of wringing every drop of laughter out of the set up.

The main plot however follows Fatty's amorous gaze at Amanda. There is some great physical humor as Fatty nonchalantly tosses knives and meat that land with precision.  Arbuckle is a large, but agile presence in the film, vaulting counters and flying about on ladders.  I loved the general store sequence.

Once the action moves to the boarding school, we get Fatty and slim in drag.  There is a lot of manic energy to these scenes and they are certainly amusing, but they are not funny and, by the end, the gags become repetitive.

On the whole, I'd recommend The Butcher Boy (particularly the first half).  Keaton's scene is very funny and there is a food fight that is visually captivating (it involves flour).  Keaton is a bit player in the second half, but he like the other actors spend their screen time racing around without much else to do.

Watched on YouTube
Photo from Silent Era

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1917: A Comedy Legend Debuts

Buster Keaton: Member of my shame list

Leaving behind 1916 (which I really had fun with) and moving on. And a lot is happening in the world in 1917. The U.S. is pulled into World War I and Hollywood supports the effort by having its biggest stars attend Liberty Bond rallies. T.E. Lawrence (aka, Lawrence of Arabia) led Arab forces against the Turkish army, which becomes important to film fans much later.

In terms of film, not as much was happening in 1917. However, a comedy star gets his first film credit as a bit player in Fatty Arbuckle's The Butcher Boy. Buster Keaton is often mentioned in the same breath as Charlie Chaplin and, while he's not the headliner here, this is the film that put him on the path to stardom. Keaton is another one on my personal shame list. I know I have seen clips of Keaton (notably from 1926's The General), but I have not seen an entire movie featuring the actor.

In other film news, Cleopatra starring Theda Bara was the top grossing movie of the year and Chaplin joined Mary Pickford in the million dollar contract club. Director John Ford made his first western The Tornado (which is unfortunately considered a lost film). For Superman fans, Max Fleischer invents rotoscoping, which turned live action movements into cartoons. Fleischer is most known (to me anyway) for his amazing cartoons starring the Man of Steel. And the Lincoln Motion Picture Company becomes the first African American owned studio.

So what are we watching? Definitely, The Butcher Boy. And Easy Street, featuring Chaplin. There's not a lot that excites me beyond that. The Little American, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Mary Pickford is available through Netflix. I'll also try to track down Tom Sawyer.

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King Lear (1916)

King Lear, pre-madness

Directed by Ernest C. Warde
Starring Frederick Warde, Lorraine Huling, Wayne Arey, J.H. Gilmour
Produced by Thanhouser Film Corporation

My final film of 1916 is an adaptation of the classic William Shakespeare tale.  King Lear (Frederick Warde) is divvying up his kingdom amongst his three daughters, but in his vanity, cannot differentiate the empty flattery of his eldest daughters from the actual, but less flowery professions of love from his youngest daughter, Cordelia.  She is banished and marries the French king, while her sisters, Goneril and Regan, take pleasure in ignoring their now powerless and crazed father. The ensuing struggle for control amongst the sisters threatens their property, title and family.  Will any of them survive?

I had high hopes for King Lear.  Ran, Akira Kurosawa's samurai adaptation of the tale, is one of my favorite movies of all time.  I love how Shakespeare's tragedies place the flaws of his characters and their respective worlds on a collision course with an inevitable result.  King Lear as a written work is amongst my favorites.

This, sadly, is not a very good movie.

It's a mediocre retelling with all of the requisite characters and situations present, but without any passion or even coherence through much of the film.  In its own way, it suffers from the same problems that impacted 1911's L'Inferno.  Because the film is silent, but so much of the power of the story is in Shakespeare's prose, you spend much of the movie watching a character's lips move, followed by ten seconds of reading dialogue. This does not make for captivating film making.

It's a shame too because I like Warde in the title role.  Visually, he does a great job of showing the viewer Lear's arc from pompous king to mad wanderer.  At points, it's over the top, but he is touched by madness, so some scenery chewing seems in order.

The rest of the cast is okay.  Honestly, many characters looked similar to one another, so it became hard to track who was who from one scene to the next.

As far as production values, King Lear provides a mixed bag. The actual camera set ups and editing are well done.  The sets themselves are very good.  You never get the sense of scale that you see in Griffith's Intolerance, but it's not necessary here.  However, for some reason all of the characters are dressed like extras in a Nativity play.  And the sword fights are awful.  When characters start dueling, there's no sense of any danger.  It's more like a couple of kids in a high school production on the first day of rehearsal.

One final note relates to Televista's DVD copy of this movie.  The structure of the film (interchangeable actors' lips moving for ten seconds, title card displaying what was just said for ten seconds, repeat) is boring enough. Can we not have the most monotonous, repetitive soundtrack ever playing in the background?  I mean, would inserting a bridge somewhere in one of these songs kill you?  All the music did was highlight the mundane nature of the entire production.

I guess the lesson here is this: making a silent Shakespearean film is a near impossible task. If you show characters reciting dialogue no can hear except through title cards, it's really boring.  You almost have to focus on the plot and jettison the dialogue, but that's the very thing that makes it Shakespeare. At 64 minutes, I'm not recommending this one to anyone.  Go out and rent Ran instead.

Watched on DVD through NetFlix
Photo from Thanhouser Company

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The Classic Silent Film... Star Wars?

Apparently George Lucas was merely adapting some old silent films.  Who knew?

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Keeping a List of Theaters Showing Classic Films

Blobfest, Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville

Anyone following the blog knows I am doing a lot of my classic film viewing on my computer screen so far (with the occasional DVD or NetFlix Watch Instantly sprinkled in).  This is hardly the ideal way to experience these films.

So I had two choices: a) invest in a time machine so I could see Chaplin in his heyday, or b) start figuring out where you can see classics on the big screen today.

I started compiling a list of Pennsylvania theaters for my own reference. Then I realized Maryland, New Jersey and New York are places I occasionally visit, so a list of those would be handy.  So I started searching.  And finding a list proved tricky.

So I am compiling my own.  I've added a page devoted to theaters showing classic films.  This will likely be a perpetual work in progress, but I can use some help in identifying theaters.  If anyone sees omissions, please send them along with a website and I'll be glad to add them.

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Police (1916)

The Tramp get the better of a policeman

Directed by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Wesley Ruggles, James T. Kelly
Produced by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company

Police follows the misadventures of our lovable tramp (Chaplin) after he is released from prison.  A preacher offers to help the tramp go straight, but the fraudulent minister really just wants to pickpocket our hero.  The tramp is refused access to a flophouse because he cannot pay, finds and quickly loses a job in a kitchen and runs into an old cellmate asking him to help with a burglary.  Does the tramp return to a life of crime?  Or can he stay on the straight and narrow?

Okay, it's yet another short from Chaplin.  What can I say?  I am really enjoying his early work.  I was not previously familiar with him except for some random clips, so I am really coming to appreciate Chaplin as a storyteller.  Police actually was filmed and released prior to The Floorwalker

This is darker than any of his previous work as Chaplin's tramp is clearly a victim of both circumstance and several characters in the film, but he is also a criminal (just released from prison and pulled back into a life of crime).  The short is most assuredly a comedy, but also provides a social commentary on the conditions and treatment of the poor.  When the tramp finally agrees to participate in the robbery, the viewer does feel like he is out of options.

The comedy is amusing, but not laugh-out-loud funny.  The funniest moments for me were smaller moments: Chaplin using the preacher's beard to dab the tears away, the brief attempt to steal a piano by carrying it under one arm.  Much of Chaplin's stay in the flophouse and the robbery attempt also made me smile, but was not hysterical.

Police continues to establish Chaplin's tramp as a loveable loser. He's Bugs Bunny in a world of Elmer Fudds.  He gets challenged and tempted, but always ends up on the right side of events.  And he makes you smile along the way.

Watched on YouTube: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 (mislabeled).  NOTE: Part 1 is a documentary that I did not watch.
Photo from The British Film Institute

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The Floorwalker (1916)

The Little Tramp is temporarily caught

Directed by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Eric Campbell, Lloyd Bacon, Edna Purviance
Produced by Lone Star Studio

Time to return to Charlie Chaplin again for another short.  The Floorwalker follows two storylines until they converge in the middle of the film.  First, we meet the floorwalker (a sort of security guard without the badge) at a department store who conspires with the manager to steal from their employer.  Then, we follow Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character as he creates havoc on the sales floor.  When the floorwalker and the the tramp get in trouble, both notice they bear a passing resemblance to each other.  Maybe if they switch places...

The Floorwalker is Chaplin's first film under his new contract (discussed here).  There's more confidence in the execution here then in his previous shorts as the camera doesn't focus on Chaplin for long stretches of the film.  There's more plot here than in his previous work.  The execution of some of the comic set pieces made me smile, but I can't say I laughed much in this one. 

The funniest moments involve Chaplin and an escalator. He is repeatedly getting knocked onto the moving stairway with impeccable timing to great comic effect.  I particularly like a sequence later in the film where the tramp is chased by Eric Campbell's manager in the wrong direction down the stairs.  Both actors pull off what could have been a meh moment with a great sense of fun.

Less successful is a mirror scene between Chaplin and his doppelganger.  They attempt to imitate each others movements, but never quite pull off the timing.  The fact that the actors are noticeably different sizes doesn't help.

All in all, I enjoyed this one. I know I have not gotten to the Chaplin classics yet, so I'm looking forward to how he grows in the medium.  Definitely worth a watch (and is less than 20 minutes).

Watched on YouTube as Part 1 and Part 2
Photo from Seattle International Film Festival

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Following Up on Early Racism in Hollywood

I recently wrote about my thoughts on Birth of a Nation and how I found it impossible to appreciate its technical merits due to the argument it made in favor of a racist society.  Here's another blogger's take and another on the issue which I think provides a nice contrast with my own conclusions.

Both essentially argue that the racist portrayals in older films are a sign of the times and that the modern audience should appreciate them as an artifact of history and not expect their removal in the way some feel cigarettes should be removed.

I appreciate the arguments and struggle with them myself.  I came out at the other end of this argument. I do not want these movies edited, but presuming that viewers today are primarily interested in entertainment or of finding a filmmaker's perspective, I think it's a lot to ask them to put up with the racist content.  Of course, my primary experience has been overt (Birth), though I have also encountered and commented on it in The Cheat and A Natural Born Gambler.

I think the Immortal Ephemera blog post gets it right.  I'm going to comment on it if I see it and it sticks with me.  I'm certainly going to point it out when it stands between me and my enjoyment of a film.  I'm obviously a couple of decades away from Union Depot, China Seas or The Toy Wife in my own project.  I'll be interested to see how I react to race in those and other films as I move through the decades.

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Intolerance (1916)

This was a set.  Seriously.

Directed by D.W. Griffith
Starring Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, F.A. Turner
Produced by Triangle Film Corporation

Intolerance is Griffith's follow-up to his hugely successful (but incredibly racist) epic Birth of a Nation.  Intolerance weaves a narrative from four different stories throughout history: modern day America, ancient Babylon, 18th century France and the time of Christ. The connecting thread of the tales is the impact intolerant people can have on the good and the just, literally upending entire civilizations.

Let's start with the great.  Babylon is one of the most impressive sets I have seen.  Ever.  The scale and scope of the city, populated by hundreds of extras, is massive and Griffith brings the camera back to show you the scale.  The story is engaging with enough plot and characters to fill an entire film.  An unladylike young girl is saved from a forced marriage by the prince of the city.  She returns the favor by fighting for him when the armies of Cyrus attempt to breach the city walls. The battle is gorgeous and includes massive siege towers and a flame-throwing cart that had to have resulted in many injuries amongst the extras.

The marvel of these scenes is their scale.  Griffith appreciated the massive canvas film could provide and built sets that were 100 feet tall.  He was among the first to mount his camera on a crane and, during a feast scene, slowly brings the camera from atop the city down to the steps where revelers are dancing.  During every moment in Babylon you get this tremendous sense of the scope of the place which makes the ending more unfathomable.

However, the most enthralling tale in the movie is the modern day story.  A mill owner, in order to finance his sister's charity, cuts the wages of his workers who then strike.  There is a street fight between the mill owner's men and the workers that ends with the death of the boy's father and the displacement of the workers to find a new life in the city. 

The boy falls into a life of crime, but changes his ways when he meets and marries "the dear one."  However, the boy cannot so easily leave his past behind and is framed for murder.  The story ultimately leads to a thrilling chase as the dear one races a train to convince the Governor to spare her husband.

Griffith again proves his mastery of the medium during this final action sequence.  He gets his camera into places no one else is even thinking about at the time.  The way he tracks the car as it chases down the locomotive while cutting back to the husband's walk to the gallows creates a palpable tension.

Unfortunately, the other two stories do not fare as well.  The French tale feels like its walking the same ground as the other stories with less spectacle and action.  And Jesus only appears to punctuate the mood in other stories.  For example, as the boy is facing the executioner, we cut to Jesus carrying his cross.  Griffith is not interested in giving us a telling of the New Testament; he's interested in Jesus as an exclamation point on his other stories.

You see this dozens of times.  Just this.

The worst aspect of the film is a fifth story Griffith sprinkles throughout and that is the image of his most famous actress Lillian Gish as a mother slowly rocking a cradle.  It is a moment of innocence before intolerance infects the human condition.  It is also pretension injected into what could have been one of the greatest movies ever.  And Griffith constantly returns to this image between and in the middle of scenes.  We get it.  Please move on.

For Griffith, Intolerance was a commercial failure.  In his attempt to attack the critics of Birth of a Nation, he produced a film I feel surpassed his earlier work in every way.  It's a shame the public at the time did not reward the artistic achievement the movie represents.

At over three hours, it is hard to recommend people sit through this one.  I would love to watch the Babylon and modern day stories on their own as I think these would hold up very well even today.

Watched on Netflix Watch Instantly
Photos from (what is this?) and 1001 movies you must see before you die

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