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| Cut my film? You amuse me... |
In world news, Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin campaigns for the leadership spot in the Soviet Union. And by "campaigns," I mean brutally kills anyone else with designs on the job. In the Summer Olympics in France, Johnny Weissmuller wins three gold medals, instantly qualifying him to be Tarzan. Because you remember what the last Tarzan looked like, right? This is also the year that brought us the founding of IBM and the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (now becoming a movie representing the new nadir of creativity in Hollywood).
In the film world, Walt Disney begins pumping out short films centered around a character called Alice. The Fleischer Brothers produce animated films with soundtracks and audience participation (leading directly to cross-dressing at midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show). MGM is born out of the merger of three other studios and Columbia Pictures gets its name (it was previously called the far less catchy CBC Film Sales Company).
One of the other big stories was the production of one of Erich von Stroheim's masterpieces, Greed. The film was originally ten hours long, but MGM demanded it be cut down to two hours. The director disavowed the film. I would love to report that this is the first use of Alan Smithee as a pseudonym, but that sadly does not occur until 1968. The unedited version is lost, though there is apparently a four hour version out there. Bottom line: MGM demands a cut of a film called Greed to make more money with no sense of irony.
So, what are we watching? Unfortunately, Greed is not available on DVD. Disney's short is on YouTube (yeah!) with Dutch subtitles (ugh). Netflix is streaming The Thief of Baghdad (featuring Douglas Fairbanks being roguish I imagine), Aelita, Queen of Mars (1st Russian sci-fi film ever? I am SO there!), Michael (a German drama) and The Gold Rush (by some guy named Chaplin... think he might be big some day). There's also America from D.W. Griffith (been some time since we checked in with him), The Iron Horse by John Ford (which is a must watch for me), and The Navigator (Buster Keaton!). So settle into your seats: we may be here a while.
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