Walking Back - 1928 - USA

Walking Back - 1928 - 6/10

 
Whew, the unbridled energy of flaming youth, Jazz Age.
Drinking, dancing, gambling, prizefights, horse racing, reckless exuberance.
Desperate for a date with sizzling Patsy, Smoke Thatcher “borrows” a neighbor’s car.
Telling himself, “borrowing isn’t stealing.”
Thing is, Smoke is a middle class wannabee, limited budget, no connections.
The pace is furious, dialogue laced with 20’s slang, and then the gangsters.
Cecil B. DeMille’s salacious touches spray throughout.

The Wind - 1928 - USA

The Wind - 1928 - 6/10

 
Southern belle Letty arrives from Virginia into Texas prairie.
The homestead ain’t much and outside breezes are more like gales.
Winds blow and blow and blow.  (Being a Silent, one cannot experience how noisy this is.)
Worse for her, love struck menfolk start vying for her hand in marriage.
Prime Melodrama borders on hysterical and ham, seems more like theatre from the previous era.

Last Warning - 1928 - UK

Last Warning - 1928 - 6/10

 
During the climactic moment, the lead actor and owner is struck dead.
Curtain lowered, the audience confused, the police arrive.
Whereupon the body disappears, and is never found.
The building is now cursed, and lies dormant for years.
Until a new producer decides to revive the doomed play, “The Snare”.
Lively shocker is full bore Gothic, undermined by melodramatic, hammy acting.

The Mysterious Lady - 1928 - USA

The Mysterious Lady - 1928 - 6/10

 
Her mission: steal some plans off the Austrian officer.
Romance and lies.  If necessary, seduction.
Garbo excels as the femme fatale, ala Mata Hari.
Conrad Nagel fine as the dashing, smitten officer.
Being an espionage thriller, the pace is low key, despite the stakes.
Evocative lighting by candles, cigarette smoke.
For those who never understood the “fuss” about Garbo, she is lovely in this.

Zvenigora - 1928 - Soviet Union

Zvenigora - 1928 - 7/10
AKA - Звeнигopа

 
Sweeping tale of the old man who guards the Ukraine treasure.
Time from around 900 to 1900, after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The treasure, one gathers, lies in the soil itself.  The identity of Ukraine.
At one point, during the modern era, a performance occurs for a live audience.
The presenter has pledged to shoot himself after explaining the conflict between Ukraine and Bolshevikism.
A crowd of rich Europeans, maddened with bloodlust, disinterested in the East.
Film of inventive visuals and thorny ideas.

A Girl In Every Port - 1928 - USA

A Girl In Every Port - 1928 - 5/10

 
Once ashore, first mate Spike studies his black book for addresses of every waiting females.
Most have not been waiting.  Or they’ve been “tagged” by a rival seaman.
Of course, he will meet his competition – Bill – and after slugging it out, they become fast friends.
The innuendo and implications are steamy throughout, but the pace feels slow.
Victor McLaglen’s Spike is effervescent, larger-than-life, and buoyantly optimistic.
Most view this to see Louise Brooks, who arrives quite late.
She is given barely anything to do, aside from look attractive and tempt males, but oh, how she does both.

The Racket - 1928 - USA

The Racket - 1928 - 7/10

 
Silent mobster film, packed with bullets, steeped in cynicism.
Mob boss Scarsi (think Capone) is muscling in on a rival’s territory.
Despite a police presence, the downtown shootout is violent with a surprising amount of deaths.
Copper McQuigg, trying to arrest the criminals, is reassigned to an outlaying precinct.
By the mayor – per request by mob boss, Scarsi.
Louis Wolheim as Scarsi steals the film from star Thomas Meighan.
The notion that crime controls politicians would be whitewashed by the Production Code.

 
Marie Prevost fetching as a gold digging hussy.
On par with The Underworld (1927) this provided a template for hundreds of gangster flicks.

The Pace That Kills! - 1928 - USA

The Pace That Kills! - 1928 - 6/10

 
Ma sends Eddie off to the wicked big city to hunt for his older sister, gone a year now.
He lands a job at the department store and catches the eye of co-worker Fannie.
When Eddie complains of a headache, she has just the thing.  Headache powder.
One sniff and, Wowza, I’ve got lots of energy!
Fannie takes him to a high class nightclub, stiffens his drink with a splash from her thigh flask.
Later at the private party, she lights up a king sized smoke and gives him a big old drag.
By now, Eddie’s head is swirling so fast, he doesn’t realize Fannie is pulling the pickle into the petals.
My God, this creaky Silent is a lot of fun!
Of course, it’s a stern warning to all “country boys” about the sinful city, easy women, and drugs.
I’d be on the next bus in a heartbeat.
Remade as Cocaine Fiends (1935), this earlier version has better actors, higher production values, superior editing.

Verdun: Visions d'histoire - 1928 - France

Verdun: Visions d'histoire - 1928 - 7/10

 
Long (150 minutes) dramatization / reenactment of the historic battle for Verdun during World War I.
This is helped along with some stock footage, as well as maps, diagrams, and rough animation.
WWI had ended only a decade earlier, so original audiences would have been quite familiar with the history.
Tactics are shown for both German and French.  Victories are noted, as are defeats.
British troops are referenced, but they were busy at the Somme.
Yanks would not enter the war until 1917, a full year after Verdun.
For history buffs - especially war buffs - this is interesting throughout.
“French” companion to the BBC series, The Great War (1963).

West Of Zanzibar - 1928 - USA

West Of Zanzibar - 1928 - 8/10

A “friend" tells shocked husband that his wife is leaving with him.
When the husband protests, the friend pushes him off a balcony.  He falls and breaks his back.
Permanently paralyzed.
Later the wife returns, only to die, leaving hubby with an illegitimate daughter to raise.
The husband vows revenge against the man who stole his wife, and against the brat.
Eventually he tracks his rival to Zanzibar.  He plots revenge, using the daughter whom he had raised in a brothel.

 
One of the most sordid and unpleasant of all Silent films, Tod Browning's Zanzibar still packs a wallop.
Lon Chaney amazing as embittered man, consumed by vengeance.  Lionel Barrymore his slippery rival.
The opening, which I described above, takes about five minutes, and the plot moves like brushfire.
Ignore sappy ending which was likely pegged on to appease censors.
Wonderfully ugly film.

Abwege - 1928 - Germany

Abwege - 1928 - 7/10
AKA - The Devious Path

 
German silent, directed by Pabst.
Very much a precursor to Pandora’s Box and Diary Of A Lost Girl, this also explores moral shortcomings and the lifeless underbelly of the decadent Weimar.
Wife (Brigitte Helm), married to strait-laced fuss-bucket banker, deserts him one night to party with “more liberated” friends in hedonistic club.
Banker sits at home, window wide open, letting in blasts of freezing air, thinking of divorce options.
The club sequence, meanwhile, is a showstopper, and goes on for perhaps twenty minutes.

 
Pabst revels in the excitement, the loose morality, the sheer boredom, the drunken excesses, the hazy confusion.
Far better than most films I’ve watched, this gives a real feel to the jittery edge of Berlin before the street riots between Communists and Nazis.
Ending displayed the censor’s hand, unlike the bleak pit of Pabst’s next two films.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher - various - various

The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Short - 2004 - USA

 
Narrator goes to visit old friend, "Roger" Usher, then helps entomb recently deceased sister.
Truncated version is a mix of black n white sketches, animation and claymation.
The house resembles a condemned doll house, minimally furnished.
Piano score is spare and moody.
Curio, worth a look, though might be regarded as akin to a student project.

* * *

Zanik Domu Usheru - 1982 - Poland

 
Experimental Polish short in high contrast black and white.
Unseen narrator (Polish) tours the ruined Usher manor.
Creative stop motion photography indicates spreading decay or genuine weirdness.
No actors.  Rather, furniture moves on their own, Madeline's coffin slides to its end.
Point of view shifts from time to time, though my chief problem was reading subs instead of paying full attention to the hypnotic camera work.
Not overly surreal nor indecipherable as others have mentioned.

* * *

La Chute de la Maison Usher - 1928 - France

 
Full length, French retelling that tends to over linger and hold scenes too long.
Visuals are often quite arresting, and much of the camera work seems hand held
The spacious maison Usher is remarkable. albeit exceedingly drafty.
Music ranges from out of place Renaissance to discordant piano.
I enjoyed a lot of this, but the stagnant pace had me checking the time.

* * *

Short - 1928 - USA

 
Short, from near the end of the Silent era, highly Expressionistic.
Multiple exposures, distorted angles, brooding shadows, prism effects.
No intertitle cards, film creators assume viewer is familiar with Poe's story.
Madeline's clothes are elegant Art Deco attire.
This has been recently remastered and has a brief, spoken introduction.
Likely to rewatch this version again.

Pandora's Box - 1928 - Germany

Pandora's Box - 1928 - 9/10
AKA - Die Büchse der Pandora

 
Silent masterpiece directed by Pabst.
Louise Brooks mesmerizing as Lulu, the destroying angel.
Frank carnality, quite explicit for its time.
Men succumb to her charms, exploit her, blackmail her, ransom her.
Every encounter leaves the males worse.

 
First section, set in the hectic theatre world, brilliantly captures the frantic Weimar Republic era.
Narrative shifts from Berlin to the gambling boat to fog cloaked London.
Shocking in its day, film barely seen in the States.
Willful, self-destructive Brooks slipped into decades of oblivion soon afterward.

Alraune X 3 - Germany

Alraune - 1928 - 6/10
AKA - A Daughter Of Destiny

 
Silent version of Hanns Heinz Ewers’ mandrake tale stars Brigitte Helm.
The daughter of a prostitute and an executed criminal, she is the ward of an obsessive professor.
Around her is a litter of longing males, who leave her curiously uninterested.
Flawed film suffers broad over-acting and choppy narrative, perhaps from censored footage.
The movie swirls with nervous energy throughout, and will appeal to Weimar cinema buffs.
Musical score is classical medleys (predominately Mussorgsky and Debussy) with jazz combo tossed into nightclub scenes.

There are two earlier versions.
A 1919 one, directed by Curtiz, considered lost, and an extant 1918 which I have been unable to track down.
There are also two later versions.

********************

Alraune - 1930 - 6/10

 
Sound version of the 1928. Brigitte Helm reprises the lead, with new director and cast.
The “mandrake myth” is most pronounced in this, as are the scientific dabbler’s motivations and collaborators.
In this, the princess, desiring an heir, is the trial run.
Alraune, however, is the breakthrough, an artificial experiment brought to adult fruition.
Helm not only plays Alraune, but also Alma, the prostitute incubator.
During her turn singing a cabaret number, one can easily understand why she was Von Sternberg’s original choice for Lola Lola in Der Blaue Angel.
Typical of an early talkie, static camerawork seems rudimentary, the pace is dreary.
Both prints I viewed were nth generation soft, and overlaid with hard Danish subs.
Sound leaves much to be desired, but is passable.

********************

Alraune - 1952 - 6/10
AKA - Mandragore

 
The luminous Hildegard Knef stars as the bewitching siren.
She is at times childlike, other times maliciously cruel.
Heavy mortality among male admirers, nonetheless.
Camerawork is high Gothic, and the costumes and interiors evoke Douglas Sirk.
As with other versions, the mandrake root is referenced, but the fable, the magic, is underplayed.
Instead, the subcurrent is of eugenics, which would have been an unsettling taboo in post World War II.
The Klimt inspired set design is a highlight.

The House Of Shame - 1928 - USA

The House Of Shame - 1928 - 6/10

Over breakfast, the husband starts going over his wife’s clothing bills.
She pouts, he storms off to work.
At the office, hubby cooks the ledgers, pockets the cash.  Embezzler!
Gets on the phone to sweet stuff and sets up a rendezvous.  Only she’s not his wife.  Cheater!
That night at the party, menfolk start shooting billiards to see who slips off with whose wife.  Wife swapping!
When a uniformed cop appeared, hubster thinks he’s been caught, confesses his light fingered office antics to wifey, begs her to fix things with the boss.
“How dear?” -  - “I know!  How about, you let him lube your chassis?”  Now, daddy is hosting pimp my ride!
At the office, the lecherous boss states,  “I’m sure we can come to an arrangement, Mrs Baremore.”
Baremore!  Really?  Ha ha ha.  I kid you not.  Awesome!
End of Part 1.

 
El cheapo, trashy Silent boasts 6 Parts of melodrama, comedy, moralizing and sleaze.
Dirt track studio aspires with decent sets and lurid story that chugs along.
Later, one of my favorite scenes occurs where a gentleman hands his ladyfriend a bouquet.
She pulls out a rosebud, brushes it next to her cheek, then on her lips where she proceeds to kiss it, lick it, nibble it, then wrap her lips lightly around it.  All the while, smiling innocently at her date.
Is she offering what I think she’s offering?  How’d this get past the censor?  Maybe they were clueless.
Tempted to score this 87/10 for sheer outrageousness, and being PreCode before the Code existed.
Nevertheless, this is an overcooked turkey, with no sound (no music) and the print is battered.

Show People - 1928 - USA

Show People - 1928 - 7/10

Perhaps Marion Davies best, if not funniest, silent vehicle.
Georgia peach, Peggy, and her Pa, the Colonel, arrive in Hollywood to make her a star.
Since this is movie land, she becomes one in less than 30 minutes, vaulting from Mack Sennett escapades to high brow costumers. Losing her spark along the way.
The face she makes during this section is a satire of Gloria Swanson.
A boatload of cameos from bygone stars. Chaplin, Davies herself, King Vidor. The cafeteria sequence pans past Polly Moran, Louella Parsons, Estelle Taylor, Leatrice Joy, Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Norma Talmadge, Douglas Fairbanks, William S Hart, and a few others.
Openly gay William Haines played the love interest, much to the approval of Davies’ insanely jealous boyfriend, publisher William Hearst.

The Little Match Girl - 1928 - France

The Little Match Girl - 1928 - 6/10
AKA - La Petite Marchande d’Allumettes

Creative silent short from Jean Renoir of classic Hans Christian Andersen tale.
Young girl sets out during a bitter cold blizzard and attempts to sell matches to bustling pedestrians.
She peers into the window of the toy shop, and the glamorous - and warm - restaurant.
Catherine Hessling makes a good waif, in the best tradition of Mary Pickford.
Fantasy sequences are imaginative, and the props, clearly models, lend a fairy touch.