The Sawmill - 1922 - USA

The Sawmill - 1922 - 6/10

 
The Boss is having a hard time keeping Dumb-Bell in line.
Matters worsen when the Owner arrives with his daughter.
Chases, fisticuffs, and chaotic mayhem ensue – for no real reason.
With a plot thinner than tissue paper, this is all stunts and gags.
The gags are slapstick, while the stunts must have been jaw-dropping a hundred years ago.
Wild short, set in the woods, spotlights forgotten clown Larry Semon and nemesis, Oliver Hardy.

Cocaine - 1922 - UK

Cocaine - 1922 - 5/10

As ever was, if one climbs high enough into the cocaine distribution web, one finds Number One to be a man of wealth and prominence.
With an increasingly reckless daughter, who requires a steady hand to tame her.
Oh!  Number Two, an oily sort, wants her.  Good enough.

 
Preachy melodrama with Jazz dancing and the temptations of moral turpitude.
The image I saw was pretty fair, the intertitles battered and too brief.
Most versions, you will have to provide your own musical score.

Dr Mabuse, The Gambler - 1922 - Germany

Dr Mabuse, The Gambler - 1922 - 8/10
AKA - Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler

 
One of cinema’s earliest, and finest criminal masterminds.
Master stock market manipulator, card sharp, swindler.
Mabuse rules a band of weaklings, drug addicts, and thugs through force of will and ruthless discipline.
Lengthy, quite lengthy at 4 hours, it can be enjoyed over several evenings since it is broken regularly into acts.
Interiors are 20's Deco, while exteriors are an Expressionistic rats maze of narrow back lanes and secret gambling dens.
Tempo, which gallops ahead during the first half, relaxes in the second when Mabuse, the epitome of calculated control, tilts to obsession and megalomania.
The entire mood and tone is steeped in the exuberance and decadence of Weimar Berlin.  That, and ennui, sheer boredom of living in an accelerated life.
Metropolis and M enjoy greater acclaim, but this has always been my preferred Lang.
Rudolf Klein-Rogge delivers a bravura, unforgettable performance as the diabolical Mabuse.

The Man From Beyond - 1922 - USA

The Man From Beyond - 1922 - 5/10

 
Harry Houdini silent.
Legendary escape artist made a number of films, but this was not his best.
Houdini, discovered in an Arctic shipwreck is chopped out of a huge chuck of ice.
After thawing, he revives, and it turns out he has been there since 1820.  100 years.
In no time flat, he finds a female who resembles his long lost flame.
Plot detours into reincarnation territory, one of Houdini's obsessions.
A cliff hanging sequence (literally) and swim near the top of Niagara Falls are highlights.