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| Seeing the bright lights tonight... KB MC Michelle Facey |
A special Saturday in Kennington, an early start and an onslaughtof mostly unseen-by-me silent film in the company of the most informed audiencein London, some of the very best accompanists – familiar and new – programmers operatingon a global level, along with driven collectors and the silent-addicted whojust can’t say no to the possibility of unexpected glimpse of Oliver Hardy or adolly-reverse shot from a film made in 1910.
Not for Sale (1924) with Neil Brand, BFI 35mmprint
“You taught him nothing and now you’ve left him withnothing.”
Directed by W. P. Kellino and starring Mary Odette, IanHunter, Gladys Hamer and Mary Brough, this was Hunter’s screen debut. It is alwaysfascinating to see homegrown silent films on screen and to watch a discretere-write of history as more are revealed as not only competent but skilled andenjoyable – see East Lynne below! - and “charming” is not to damn this Britishcomedy with faint praise but to accurately reflect its infectious good humour,energy and sense of fun.
Hunter plays Martin Dering wayward son of the Earl ofRathbury (Edward O'Neill) who is half-heartedly engaged to Virginia Strangeways(Phyllis Lytton) who is, along with her ne’er-do-well brother Bertie (LionelleHoward), are the people he trusts most in the world as they are tied to himthrough loyalty to his money. Martin loans Bertie his £3,000 quarterlyallowance for some madcap scheme and, of course, doesn’t get it back… Don’tworry, says Martin, there’s plenty more where that came from… only this timethere isn’t as he’s cut off by Daddy and left with only a fiver a week on thecondition that he finds a job.
He chances upon a guest house in Bloomsbury Square run byAnnie Armstrong (Mary Odette) with the aid of a relative or two, including hercheeky brother John (a barnstorming performance from young Mickey Brantford).Their father has passed away leaving them his paintings as well as the housebut they struggle to make ends meet. Martin quickly impresses John with hisdebut at the dinner table, rebuffing the attentions of the other guests –played by the kinds of character actors you can only find in these kind of films…and enlists him into his anti-lodger society. There’s a secret sign: pull onyour nose, tug your earlobe and thumb to temple, waggle your fingers… it could catchon, slightly easier than The High Sign.
Will he succeed or will he fail? Refreshingly Annie may bethe one to show the men how life should be lived… (remembering that she’s alsojust got the vote at this point).
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| Mary Brough tries to see the funny side. |
James Searle Dawley, Forgotten Film Pioneer withJohn Sweeney 35mm and digital prints
“Unless one appreciates the beautiful things in life, hecannot be a successful director…”
This presentation by Dave Peabody, film-researcher by day,blues musician by night, looked at the career of James Searle Dawley, who hasbeen called `The First Professional Motion Picture Director’ and more of amajor figure than I’d ever assumed. Dawley was a contemporary of DW Griffith,born two years after him in 1877, who became the first person to be hiredsolely as a film director when Edward S. Porter recruited him for Edison. He’sprobably most famous for the 1910 version of Frankenstein (screened later inthe day) but, as Dave demonstrated, over his career of 56 features and 300shorts, was a crafter of innovative and enjoyable films.
We saw the Edison film Rescued from an Eagles Nest(1908) featuring Griffith as a woodsman recuing his baby (Jinnie Frazer) fromthe nest of a rather impressive bald eagle then the extraordinary Cupid’sPranks (1908) featuring in-camera split screen trickery with the eponymousdemi-God flying over Manhattan spreading the love. Then there was LaughingGas (1907) featuring Bertha Regustus extraordinarily energetic reaction toexposure to nitrous oxide; do not try this at home kids. There was thataudacious reverse dolly shot in The Song that Reached His Heart (1910)and another time-jarring moment with Eubie Blake’s astonishing piano playingfor Improvisation on Swanee River (1923), one of Lee DeForestspioneering optical sound on film productions directed by Dawley.
Apart from Eubie, we had John Sweeney accompanying the otherfilms and doing a might fine job as usual, from Cupid’s flying, historicalbattles and Snow White to gaseous hilarity he’s always your man. Talking ofwhich… it was time to get EPIC!
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| Bertha Regustus definitely gets the joke! |
The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) with John SweeneyBFI 35mm print
“The production is without question the most sensationaland spectacular artistic film ever conceived…”
Now then, this was one of two competing versions of thestory made in Italy during 1913 and I had assumed that this was the other asproduced by Ambrosio and directed by Eleuterio Rodolfi and Mario Caserini, butno, this was directed by Giovanni Enrico Vidali for Pasquali & Co. and was releasedjust four days after with the accompanying breathless blurb! As with the other film, it was based on Britishnovel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton published in 1834, which was itself inspired bythe painting The Last Day of Pompeii by the Russian painter KarlBriullov, handily displayed before the screening.
This was a 65-minute version compared with the 78-minuteversion of the Ambrosio film available on the Kino DVD and which has a slightlead on IMBD probably because it is more widely seen. It was a treat to viewthe competition and it’s perhaps a more immediate and kinetic film with asimpler story albeit one jumbled by a mix of lost materials and some intertitlesthat linger for just a few frames on screen. It also lacks the tints of the Ambrosiowhich features more extras but fewer lions and horses… probably!
Suzanne De Labroy is this film’s Nydia who is the faithfulblind slave who helps the young couple of Glaucus (Luigi Mele) and Jone(Cristina Ruspoli) escape the evil schemes of the high priest Arbaces (GiovanniEnrico Vidali multi-tasking) who has his eye on advancing the cause of theEgyptian gods as well as stealing Jone for himself.
As with the other version, this film represents the highpoint of tableaux films with static cameras capturing intricately choreographedaction capture on a large scale with those “100 lions and tigers, 300 peopleand 50 gladiators…” promised by the advertising. It is well played and mostenjoyable especially with John Sweeney’s dynamism and classical lines; if there’sone person you can trust to “play Pompeii erupting” it’s John! He raised theroof too.
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| The fifty gladiators in action |
Restored Laughter: Lubin Films, with Neil Brandand Sam Geoghegan scans of 35mm nitrate, digital & 16mm prints
Presented by Glenn Mitchell and Dave Glass this programmeexamined the legacy of the Lubin company and featured recent restorationssourced from private and other collections and also from the Cinema Museum’sown archives. The two shared their wealth of knowledge on the all too few filmsthat survive from the company set up and run by Siegmund Lubin, a German émigréwho initially specialised in “interpretations” of other films such as Méliès ATrip to the Moon and Edison’s Great Train Robbery.
Lubin films became more original and here were featuredearly turns from an impossibly young Alan Hale as well as some fella namedOliver Hardy who was especially impressive in a pleasing romantic comedy, ALucky Strike (1915) in which the cruel jokes are on him but he still getsthe girl and a fortune. We also saw The New Valet (1915) which featuredBillie Reeves, one of Chaplin and Laurel’s mentors at the Fred Karno’s companyand a man who refused to be moulded into a Charlie-wannabe, no matter how muchthe company would have wanted it.
Piano accompaniment came from Mr Neil Brand who relished theserare comedy grooves, and from the ten-year old grandson of the Bioscope’s Bob Geoghegan,Sam Geoghegan who won rapturous applause for his first live accompaniment and rightlyso, Sam was very fluent, calm under pressure and felt his way along the narrativeon screen; a very good job indeed!
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| Glenn Mitchell and Dave Glass |
East Lynne (1913) Restoration Premiere with ColinSell, 35mm nitrate scan
As Christopher Bird said in his introduction, East Lynne isnot a lost film as such but when quality is, as Kevin Brownlow says, the main thingarchive cinema has to sell itself to modern audiences, this film has certainlybeen missing in terms of the vibrancy, contrast and tasty tints we glimpsedtoday. Chris obtained an almost complete nitrate copy from a private collectorwhich, compared with the black and white copy held by the BFI is missing thefirst reel but comes with an extra three minutes and those higher quality tints. Togetherwith fellow Bioscoper Bob Geoghegan and the BFI the restoration work is ongoingand the hope is to present the finished item at this year’s Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone.
What we saw was a visual feast as it is with good use of depth-of-field,form, foliage (!) and texture by director Bert Haldane and his photographerOscar Bovill. Fritzi Kramer has been involved in reconstructing some of thefilm’s title cards and, as she said to Chris, melodramas like this have to bewatched in the spirit in which they were made and meant to be received – “lovingthe hokum, not taking it too seriously”. That said, there are some impressiveperformances from a very modern-looking cast led by Blanche Forsythe (who hasthe look of Annette Bening or is it just me?) as Lady Isobel, handsome FredPaul and the steadfast Archibald Carlyle and who-ever it was playing BarbaraHare, the sister of the man falsely accused of a murder committed by Isobel wouldbe paramour, Captain Levison as played with pantomime menace by Fred Morgan.
The film is well-made, even Rachel Lowe admired it as one ofthe better Brit-flicks of this period, and it stands up against most films ofthe year in what was a time of innovation as the industry stretched out wellahead of DW’s supposed game-changer in 1915. It’s interesting to compare therelatively naturalistic performances of these stage-trained British actors withthose from the more operatically spectacular Pompeii… Whoever it is plays MrDill, continues acting and reacting even as he is relegated to the backgroundin one scene whilst Mary Morton as the maid Joyce, is one of a number of strongsupporting actors, the less said about the two blonde and robotic man-servantsthe better though.
I like the nods to period politics when Carlyle goes upagainst the scheming Levison to become the local MP, there are signs callingfor the abolishment of the Window Tax and the Corn Tax (Corn Laws), as well asin support of Chartism which indicate that the evil one is a radical Whigwhilst the goodie is a Tory. For the sake of history, I should point out thatthe repeal of the Corn Laws was only a good thing whilst the Chartists stood apartfrom both main parties and were calling for things like a vote for all men over21, secret ballots and an end to property qualification for MPs, of their sixmain demands, all but one – annual elections – were achieved by 1919. I canwrite you an essay if you like! It is interesting that the baddie is on theside of these dangerous ideas though…
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| Blanche Forsythe and - booo! - Fred Morgan |
Oh, Willie, my child dead, dead, dead! and he never knewme, never called me mother!
Ellen Wood wrote East Lynne in 1961 and it wasfollowed by A Life’s Secret (serialised in 1862) which attacked what shesaw as unscrupulous Trade Unionists and caused a riot and threats to the stillanonymous author… She was the daughter of a glove manufacturer and later marriedanother industrialist; her books were sensationalist and hugely popular. EastLynne was adapted into a play - East Lynne. A Domestic Drama in a Prologueand Four Acts by T. A. Palmer in 1874 and it was on stage where the story becamea phenomena, almost guaranteeing success and the half-joking line “East Lynne’splaying next week”. It was also the source of much ridicule with Palmer’s lineduring Little Willie’s death scene, given birth to the term “dead and nevercalled me mother…”
Colin Sell, who must have heard Barry Cryer use that line atleast once or twice, played along in splendidly sensational fashion, in sympathywith and for the film and audience. A splendid job all round for this re-emergingBritish milestone.
He Who Gets Slapped (1924) was to follow but domesticresponsibilities led me homeward. It’s a fabulous film which I have writtenabout elsewhere on this sites near 1,000 posts. Many of those pieces have beenabout the Bioscope and hopefully many more will follow for, as today showedonce again, it’s hard to compete with the range and passion of this gatheringof like minds in Charlie’s old workhouse.
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| The Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848, just a few minutes down the road from the old Lambeth Workhouse which opened in 1873... |
