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439,502 | 1,617,546 | 416,320 | 7 | Film Noir | I'm always glad to see a new Woody Allen film and this is no exception . Here he returns to the dark , chaotic world he investigated in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS - - his best straight drama , I believe - - and which he explored comically in BULLETS OVER Broadway - - his best comedy and you may disagree with both choices ... |
438,840 | 1,617,546 | 27,995 | 7 | Very Pleasant Little Comedy-Drama | Jake Cohen has spent thirty-five years , starting as a peddler , building up a big department store . He suddenly realizes his sons can run the business perfectly efficiently without him , his youngest son is in love with an Anglo-Irish girl ( Oy ! ) and his beloved wife dies . Feeling useless , he takes a long walk th... |
438,377 | 1,617,546 | 150,352 | 7 | Another Good One From Tashlin | After Tashlin accepted Columbia's offer to head their cartoon department , he brought his Termite Terrace Sensibilities to the place and turned out a mixed bag of cartoons - - some brilliant like THE FOX AND THE GRAPES and some merely very good , like this one about a big bulldog who steals a cocker spaniel's dog licen... |
438,961 | 1,617,546 | 8,458 | 7 | The Edge of the World | Star Pickford and director Tourneur - - along with his two favorite cameramen and assistant Clarence Brown doing the editing - - bring great beauty and intelligence to this story of poor , isolated Scottish Islanders - - the same territory that Michael Powell would stake twenty years later for his first great success .... |
439,171 | 1,617,546 | 245,735 | 7 | Don't bolt for the door ! | Another of the excellent and underappreciated Sid Smith-James Parrott series that enlivened short comedies at the beginning of the 1920s . Here , Smith is the eponymous ' auto nut ' and Parrott is a crooked lawyer - - gosh , they had them around then , too ! - - who hires cripples to be thrown under Smith's car for qui... |
438,365 | 1,617,546 | 274,506 | 7 | Putting It Together | Alice Guy - - she is usually called Alice Guy-Blaché , even though her career pre - and post-dated her marriage to Herbert Blaché - - was , arguably , the first movie director , even if no one thought to call it that for a dozen years after she first took the job . She came to the US about 1910 to open an American bran... |
439,249 | 1,617,546 | 24,109 | 7 | Why Do They All Take The Night Boat To Albany ? | Sharp little programmer that answers the question posed by Al Jolson . Everyone in this cast turns in a top-notch comedic performance , even Warren Hymer as the dim-witted life guard and Berton Churchill as Zasu Pitts ' boss . The jokes are punctuated by enough well-acted moments of tenderness to make the whole thing b... |
438,404 | 1,617,546 | 222,036 | 7 | Form shape and movement | One of the astonishing things about the works of the Lumiere brothers is not simply that they are among the first motion pictures , but that they are well-composed motion pictures . Consider this picture of people on a moving sidewalk at the World's Fair of 1900 in Paris . Were some contemporary of the Lumieres to atte... |
439,233 | 1,617,546 | 31,917 | 7 | Maddening von Sternberg | Typical Wallace Beery feature rendered weird and beautiful by von Sternberg direction . Although only Beery gives a good performance - - slower and much more introspective than his usual Long John Silver of this era - - the von Sternberg visual touches - - the odd camera angle that brings out the lines on Beery's face ... |
439,052 | 1,617,546 | 303,271 | 7 | The World is About To End . Should I Mow the Lawn ? | This short subject , which starts off with a picture of a mushroom cloud arising from a nuclear explosion , is produced by " The National Clean Up - Paint Up - Fix Up Bureau " - - with of course , the cooperation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration . In an era when they exposed soldiers to atom bombs to study e... |
439,278 | 1,617,546 | 144,549 | 7 | Not Chaplin | Despite the remarks of the other commenter on this movie , I see no resemblance to the Chaplin film of the same name except for the title . This is not a comedy about how Ko-ko hides his pay envelope from his wife , but how Ko-ko wants to get paid like everyone else at the office . " Only people who work get paid " say... |
439,013 | 1,617,546 | 224,240 | 7 | Religious FIlms | Having invented the trick film and the stag film ( with the same year's APRES LE BAL ) , Melies also pioneered the religious film , with this account of the temptation of St . Anthony , using the same sort of camera tricks he was using for his magic works . But I wonder : what was the placement order of his catalogue ?... |
438,466 | 1,617,546 | 128,813 | 7 | The world is ending . How can we profit from it ? | This Danish feature about a comet that destroys northwest Europe , leaving only a single man and a woman who meet in a church , is beautifully photographed , with many lovely shots and a fluid camera . Of course , the capitalists try to make extra money out of the panic , and of course the lower classes - - as exemplif... |
438,757 | 1,617,546 | 24,288 | 7 | One Year Before The Creation of the World | Robert Montgomery is great in this comedy of manners . It should have been a screwball comedy , and if it had been released eighteen months later , it would have been , but there was no such genre at that time ; even a year later , IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was considered a screwball comedy instead of a romantic one . But ... |
439,116 | 1,617,546 | 248,057 | 7 | Syd , Not Charlie | This film , while it has its moments of excellent comedy , . is mostly interesting because it stars Chaplin : Sydney Chaplin , that is , Charlie's half-brother . Although his outfit is very different from Charlie's tramp costume , I fancy I can see a lot of resemblance in their movement and timing : hardly surprising ,... |
439,272 | 1,617,546 | 225,813 | 7 | The Chase Comedy | By 1907 , the chase comedy was already well established and we would , in the next few years , see people chasing monkeys , pumpkins and runaway horses in films from all countries , until the Keystones simultaneously immortalized and rendered the chase trite . SPOILER HERE : However if you think that you are about to s... |
438,415 | 1,617,546 | 248,018 | 7 | Forgotten Comics | This is a lesser but still very amusing short from Charley Chase's peak period : an ex-girlfriend of Charley's moves into his building with a new husband , and neither Charley's wife nor the new husband are happy with the situation . Modern viewers might be confused by some of the 1920s dialogue ( " I haven't seen you ... |
439,240 | 1,617,546 | 2,910 | 7 | Beautiful compositions | Although there have been several comments on this and the other films on the CIVIL WAR FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA DVD - - which also includes two other Thomas Ince films , the celebrated THE COWARD and the lesser-known THE DRUMMER OF THE EIGHTH , I would like to bring up a point about the beauty of Ince's films . First , ... |
439,213 | 1,617,546 | 152,152 | 7 | It's the Smart Writing , Stupid | What Mike Maltese , long Termite Terrace's best writer , was doing working for Walter Lantz for one movie , I have no idea - - he may have been feuding with hated producer Selzer , because he spent two or three years bouncing hither and yon until he settled in with Hanna-Barbera - - but this mild satire of rock-and-rol... |
438,724 | 1,617,546 | 777,973 | 7 | With Ghosts | Walter Catlett is suffering from a potentially fatal case of hiccoughs - - caused by an annoying young man who wishes to marry his daughter - - and his doctors prescribe for him rest in a place as quiet as a tomb : a haunted house . Although this movie is not particularly outstanding , this one-reel short subject still... |
438,680 | 1,617,546 | 224,317 | 7 | Un Soldat S'Arrose | As Melies ramped up production to compete with Gaumont and Pathe , he added to his bread and butter - - which were the amazing trick and magic films he is still remembered for - - into the occasional slapstick . Here , he produces a superior effort , that still stands up today , thanks to his sense of story , timing an... |
438,664 | 1,617,546 | 1,118 | 7 | Little Mary Is a Frump | This D . W . Griffith feature - - for 1910 , this 13-minute movie ranks as a feature - - manages to combine most of what Griffith had learned of film-making by the point , except for his handling of crowd scenes . Mary Pickford and company are excellent in this melodrama with comic overtones , from the ironic title - -... |
439,167 | 1,617,546 | 18,435 | 7 | Boxing Romance | Blithe-hearted Billy Smith must save the day by staying four rounds with tank boxer Slugger Sampson , even with crooked , sap-wielding promoter Jimmy Durfee trying to lay him out , in order to get the money to pay for the Widow Lucian's eye operation , and so win the heart of her daughter , Tena . Got it ? No , this mo... |
439,398 | 1,617,546 | 25,328 | 7 | The Little King | One of half a dozen movie cartoon's based on Soglow's " Little King " panel comic strip . These are among the best cartoons that Van Beuren turned out . Soglow did the writing and the simple black & white drawing that was in favor at Van Beuren matches Soglow's style and the strip was silent , which works well . Unhapp... |
438,648 | 1,617,546 | 150,631 | 7 | The Red-Headed Chicken | Jack Hannah , still relaxing and on the run from Disney - - he was one of the union sympathizers exiled to the Disney shorts department following the strike , where he directed the best of the Goofy shorts in the ' 40s and 50s - - turns out a Woody Woodpecker that , despite its minimalistic line work and animation , st... |
439,313 | 1,617,546 | 44,940 | 7 | Erratic but Well Meaning | This early Stanley Kramer production is well-cast , with fine performances by Millard Mitchell , a typical bit of interesting overplaying by Gilbert Roland and some good work by the rest of the supporting cast , including Byron Foulger and Henry Morgan . But although the early scenes are nicely done in an appropriate s... |
438,652 | 1,617,546 | 34,164 | 7 | Sacrifice | This is a pretty good PRC cheapie about how Marjorie Reynolds is about to marry her boss , a lawyer about to become an Assistant District Attorney , when her old boyfriend shows up after four years in prison , ready to collect her and the loot from the job he went to prison for , a job done with Marjorie's brother . It... |
438,624 | 1,617,546 | 20,872 | 7 | Nice Work if You Can Get It | Although his early sound shorts are not among his best work , this Charley Chase short from 1930 is carried along not only by Charley being goofily in love , but by his co-star , June Marlowe , now best remembered from her work as June Crabtree , the teacher in the best of the early sound OUR GANG shorts . Here , in he... |
439,341 | 1,617,546 | 12,017 | 7 | Starts Fast | Johnny Hines , a popular light leading man of the early 20s , starts as Burn ' Em Up Barnes - - even his parents call him Burn ' Em Up ' , so I suppose odd baptismal names were popular back then - - in this racing car comedy , a popular genre of the era ( Wallace Reid starred in a series of them for Paramount ) . The s... |
439,298 | 1,617,546 | 3,215 | 7 | Horsing Around | This lively Keystone farce from 1913 is cast in the standard mode : it's a triangle caused by the fact that Mabel and Roscoe love each other , but her father likes another boy . A rather sissified young man . So Roscoe and Mabel pretend that Mabel has drowned and while everyone tries to rescue Mabel , the pair sneaks o... |
438,563 | 1,617,546 | 40,085 | 7 | And alias and alias | Harry Beaumont , MGM's ace B director leads Wallace Beery in a broader than usual comedy performance as the ex-con comes into a lot of money legitimately and tries to go straight . The comedy arrives as Beery coyly tries to impress Dorothy Patrick , who is impersonating his lost daughter and she tries to find his sourc... |
439,277 | 1,617,546 | 34,269 | 7 | A Fine Western Comedy from George Marshall | Other reviewers have spoken of the pleasures of seeing William Holden and Glenn Ford at age 23 , both so young as to be almost unrecognizable ; and Claire Trevor , too and Edgar Buchanan as a dentist - - he was one in real life , before he turned to acting . But I think a lot of credit is due to the director , George M... |
439,071 | 1,617,546 | 1,245,104 | 7 | Tricks Are For Everyone | As any fan of Pixar's animated films know , when they send a new feature out , they include a short cartoon with it . PRESTO is the film that precedes WALL-E and it is a silent picture . A good part of the publicity surrounding WALL-E is that it is largely a silent film . But PRESTO is wholly one , concerning a stage m... |
438,858 | 1,617,546 | 18,566 | 7 | Her Grandmother's Eyes | Director Alan Crosland and star John Barrymore attempt to recapture the the success of their previous effort , THE BELOVED ROGUE , with this story of debauchery and all-conquering love in the ancien regime , from the novel MANON LESCAUT . It was a popular story , made into a couple of ballets and an opera by Puccini . ... |
439,322 | 1,617,546 | 5,590 | 7 | A well told tale | THE KNIGHT OF THE TRAIL is an early William S . Hart picture , in which all the usual elements of his pictures are present . Sparse , filled with excellent , underplayed acting - - Frank Borzage , who went on to become a great director , plays the villain here - - and a straightforward story line , this is an excellent... |
438,556 | 1,617,546 | 473,399 | 7 | A Pete Smith Specialty | Without Pete Smith's sarcastic , nasal narration , this would be an OK short subject about Charles C . Peterson , demonstrating some lovely tricks on a billiards table . . . . . including some useful instruction for beginners on how to put some English and backspin on the ball . But with Pete Smith's narration , as wel... |
439,172 | 1,617,546 | 293,833 | 7 | Doo Wah Diddy | This short subject showcases Phil Harris and his easy-going charm , as he helps out a friend when he's mistaken for a male escort . Harris sings ' But It's the Woman Who Pays " and " That's What I like About the South . " Hm . I hope I punctuated that last sentence correctly . |
438,407 | 1,617,546 | 16,471 | 7 | Tod Browning Burlesque | This amusing scattergun burlesque of Tod Browning's crime dramas , such as WHITE TIGER comes off well enough but may be a bit obscure to people who have not seen such works . Charley takes the place of Raymond Griffith in top hat and tails ; Katherine Grant takes the Priscilla Dean role and Bull Montana even manages to... |
439,447 | 1,617,546 | 11,848 | 7 | The Queen of Comedy rules | Petite , graceful Mabel Normand stars as gawky , clumsy Maymee Ladd , a beaten down shopgirl who is told that she is possessed by the spirit of a Spanish temptress ( " That will be five dollars , please " ) and goes in search of love and adventure . A star vehicle , pure and simple , it showcases Mabel's talents quite ... |
438,592 | 1,617,546 | 1,207 | 7 | A Mack Sennett Comedy | When we think of D . W . Griffith , we think of his epic features ; or perhaps we think of the short melodramas . We don't think about the comedies he directed , and this is puzzling to me . Even his unhappiest dramas had their touches of humor . In the four hundred or so films that Griffith directed for Biograph , he ... |
438,356 | 1,617,546 | 34,220 | 7 | Looking Like Yourself | This typical farce plot - - easygoing George gets his hair marcelled and looks exactly like a South American opera singer , also played by George - - does not sound like Mr . Formby's usual métier , but he shows himself capable of carrying out the minor exigencies of the role , while singing a few nice songs , a typica... |
439,304 | 1,617,546 | 31,667 | 7 | Loyalty | This is one of Keaton's better Columbia shorts . Buster and his brother , played by Monty Collins , enlist to fight in the Civil War . But Buster has enlisted in the Confederate Army and Monty has joined the Union Army . However , before they can start their own civil war , in march Union and Confederate troops , and t... |
438,741 | 1,617,546 | 49,037 | 7 | Amusing Novelty | I've enjoyed some pretty strange musical novelty acts over the years , from the South Minneapolis Bassoon Quartet to Peter Schickele's annual presentation of P . D . Q . Bach , but this short about an all-harmonica orchestra , is a pip ! Dozens of harmonicas from tiny ones that a baby could swallow through triplex mons... |
439,025 | 1,617,546 | 1,371 | 7 | Oh , the Moon Shines Bright | Griffith had an affinity for RAMONA , having appeared in two stage versions of the novel and having hectored his bosses into paying a hundred dollars for screen rights - - this two-reeler was advertised as the most expensive picture ever made . It falls into the class of Griffith films in which he expresses sympathy fo... |
439,257 | 1,617,546 | 781,473 | 7 | South of the Border | Snub stars in a better-than-usual effort - - which I credit largely to some funny titles and the direction of Charley Chase - - as a spy sent out to rescue Marie Mosquini - - looking even more fetching than usual in a mantilla - - in a South American country where earthquakes happen every few minutes : the cameraman ji... |
439,207 | 1,617,546 | 150,885 | 7 | Michael Maltese | In hiding from Edward Selzer at Warners , I suppose , Michael Maltese wrote about three and a half cartoons for Walter Lantz , doing a better job than most of the scripts that Lantz worked with in this period . Here , he takes the one about Bugs - - or , in some iterations , Tweety - - freezing out in the cold and Gran... |
439,211 | 1,617,546 | 142,295 | 7 | A Rainy Day | Oswald is out on the street in a good mood , but a rainstorm drives him into a Five & Dime store , where he finds songs , jokes and a bride . This is a fine Oswald the Lucky Rabbit . Except for the musical number " I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and ten Cent Store " , it is a silent cartoon , performed with go... |
439,156 | 1,617,546 | 20,616 | 7 | Radical Propaganda | Radical propaganda film by Hochbaum shows alternating shots of the rich and poor , along with titles talking about loss of jobs and profits . A short meant to preach to the choir , the point has been made much more effectively - - say , the opening sequence of MY MAN GODFREY . |
438,647 | 1,617,546 | 27,469 | 7 | Jeam Hersholt , the Danish Doctor | Jean Hersholt tackles the role of a country doctor , a role that would eventually metamorphose into Dr . Christian , a series that would occupy him for the rest of his life in a B movie series , on radio , and even in one episode of a television series , cut short by his untimely death . Here , directed by Henry King -... |
438,924 | 1,617,546 | 16,806 | 7 | Comics as real actors | Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen were the leading pair of ' Fat and Skinny ' comedians in the movie world until Laurel and Hardy came along . While their characters never shed their movie-comic trappings - - ill fitting costumes , weird mustaches and bad hats - - they remained enormously popular and continued making f... |
438,427 | 1,617,546 | 44,795 | 7 | Adios , Kid | Charles Starrett ends his acting career , having spent seven years as ' the Durango Kid ' , one of the regulars on the Top Ten Western Stars list , with this fairly interestingly set up courtroom drama . Here he is on trial for murder and the events are shown in flashback . . . . an interesting story-telling technique ... |
438,959 | 1,617,546 | 25,515 | 7 | Superior B Picture | Veteran director Reginald Barker - - whose career included several superior William S . Hart Westerns and Thomas Ince's landmark CIVILIZATION - - directed this near the end of his career and he tells the story with a fluid camera and many visual grace notes . Unhappily , the dialogue is not up to the camerawork , but t... |
439,155 | 1,617,546 | 275,998 | 7 | Stagy | Beautiful translation of Jean Renoir's script is hampered a bit by its stage confines and acting levels , but manages to be exciting nonetheless because of its situations . Leslie Caron manages to overcome the need to be heard in the back of the theater in the title role , but the other actors fail to overcome the limi... |
439,415 | 1,617,546 | 5,316 | 7 | Generosity : a Director's Virtue | This Keystone ensemble comedy from 1915 owes most of its real comedic value to a fairly realistic - - well , realistic for Keystone - - handling of the situation - - except for the 60-shooters that the House Detective wields . At Keystone bullets never do more than produce a trail of smoke and cause people to jump and ... |
439,109 | 1,617,546 | 5,315 | 7 | Unpretentious , silly and fun | All right . It's not ON THE WATERFRONT . It is , however , several minutes of fast-paced , good-natured humor . The first half is a series of jokes that Arbuckle would elaborate on in ROUGH HOUSE three years down the road . The second half is a warmup for TEDDY AT THE THROTTLE , complete with Keystone Kops and the famo... |
438,688 | 1,617,546 | 121,771 | 7 | In the Oz-one Layer | Another in the under-remarked and fairly good " Willy Whopper " that Ub Iwerks turned out between Disney stints . Willy goes to the dentist and , while under gas , dreams he has been lifted like a toy balloon into a rather Oz-like outer space . Lots of images reappear in Bob Clampett's and Chuck Jones ' more fantastic ... |
438,499 | 1,617,546 | 1,439 | 7 | Well , They Hired The Money | A slow-paced and terrifying film from D . W . Griffith , this film , like A CORNER IN WHEAT and ONE IS BUSINESS , THE OTHER CRIME , concerns itself with the depredations of the rich upon the poor . Griffith offers no solution but tells his story with scenes and titles that , in the hands of a lesser director , could be... |
438,364 | 1,617,546 | 142,088 | 7 | The Country and the Story | Andre Antoine filmed his silent version of Daudet's work with the sense of awe at the beauty of the city of Arles and the countryside surrounding it that you would expect if you have already seen his LA TERRE . He also slides us into the story in an ingenious manner : here is the a picture of Daudet who wrote it , and ... |
439,026 | 1,617,546 | 15,956 | 7 | All at Sea | A lesser but still funny Charley Chase short from his peak period . All not as tightly plotted as MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE , it has its amusing moments as Charley and his family - - his wife , Katherine Grant , his useless brother-in-law , Oliver Hardy , and a child they picked up on the dock while losing their daughter tak... |
439,019 | 1,617,546 | 473,169 | 7 | Dog and Pony Show | Poodles Hanneford was a circus clown , best known for his equestrian act . When the Weiss brothers decided to try him out for the movies in the waning days of silent comedy , they settled , in this short , on a circus background . And when this short is about circus gags , it is very good . Mr . Hanneford may remind th... |
438,479 | 1,617,546 | 471,294 | 7 | Are They Looking at the Camera or Us ? | Mitchell and Kenyon made a nice living for a dozen years by being called in to take moving pictures of events around Birmingham and Manchester , which were then exhibited at tent shows . This is not a pan shot , but a traveling shot - - never mind . The current nomenclature wasn't in use then . We see the palings hidin... |
439,281 | 1,617,546 | 14,057 | 7 | Spooks and Splats | Max and Koko get mixed up with a live action gypsy fortune teller and then caught up with ghosts and monsters in this , as usual , delightful OUT OF THE INKWELL offering . Dave Fleischer always packed his cartoons with lots of gags and I think I see a lot of Melies-style gags - - surprising , since Melies hadn't made a... |
438,383 | 1,617,546 | 783,849 | 7 | The Politeness of Kings | Promptitude , so goes the saying , is the politeness of kings and this short film by Ozon covers that subject , a comedy of manners . As a New Yorker , I am often told by people from outside the City , that New Yorkers have no manners . This , of course is a falsehood . In New York , the assumption is that that people ... |
438,928 | 1,617,546 | 10,181 | 7 | Long con vs . Short Con | This is a very funny little comedy . Bebe and Bud are running a spiritualist racket and take a break . Bebe sees Harold and Snub running the ' gold ring ' con : Snub shows up , looking for his valuable ring , and then after he's gone , Harold shows up , produces a ring and sells it to a mark . Bebe observes this , reco... |
438,711 | 1,617,546 | 33,970 | 7 | Silent Movies | A Chaplinesque Officer Pooch is ordered to rescue a kitten caught atop a telephone pole . He is not awfully successful . This was the last non-Tom & Jerry movie that Hanna and Barbera made for 15 years and it shows the same love of silent film comedy that their other MGM cartoons do . Officer Pooch is Chaplin down to h... |
439,001 | 1,617,546 | 36,841 | 7 | Aesop's Fables | Director Chuck Jones and his best writer , Michael Maltese , produce a typically sardonic , funny and undeniably accurate cartoon version of Aesop's fable of the lion and the mouse , in which the mouse - - definitely a cousin of Hubie from the Hubie and Bertie cartoons - - cons the rather stupid lion into releasing him... |
438,763 | 1,617,546 | 123,895 | 7 | Show Biz | Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen were the leading pair of ' Fat and Skinny ' comedians in the movie world until Laurel and Hardy came along . While their characters never shed their movie-comic trappings - - ill fitting costumes , weird mustaches and bad hats - - they remained enormously popular and continued making f... |
439,076 | 1,617,546 | 17,082 | 7 | Evelyn Brent | Well , it's a movie with Louise Brooks , so we're supposed to talk about Louise Brooks . She plays a major supporting role as Evelyn Brent's sister , lifting the money from the dance fund for a flyer on the horses and , like most of her roles in this period , sleepwalks through the part , at least until she gets to the... |
438,616 | 1,617,546 | 211,928 | 7 | Who's First With First Films | A sketch artist dressed as a clown does a ' lightning sketch ' stage act in which he draws a woman's bust . . . . and then takes the bust and places into on a table . He then draws arms and adds them , until an entire woman is revealed . It's a Melies film , is it not ? Fans of early films have seen various Melies piec... |
439,248 | 1,617,546 | 21,418 | 7 | Cabin Fever | Well-acted , believable triangle as caddish Paul Cavanagh and honorable William Boyd - - no , the other one - - almost come to blows over Lupe Velez , while he food in the snow-stranded cabin is on the verge of giving out . And who could blame them ? Will they kill each other or will the storm do it for them ? Early wr... |
439,004 | 1,617,546 | 473,992 | 7 | Glad to See You ! | After he dropped out as a Chaplin imitator , Billy West floundered a lot . He continued to make very funny comedies - - this is one of them - - but he lacked much of a personality . In this one , we have a perfectly timed series of gags about what happens when the very popular Bill returns to town . Who he is and what ... |
438,785 | 1,617,546 | 222,943 | 7 | Magic Show | One of Melies ' movie versions of magic shows : in this one he turns fires into women in spangly dresses - - one yellow and one blue in the hand-tinted version I saw - - and then turns them back into a fire . Although this lacks either the elaborate background and miniature work of his well-known pieces from this perio... |
438,894 | 1,617,546 | 21,500 | 7 | Not a Singing Cowboy | . . . . But a surprisingly good off-kilter Wester as the hero bails out a show of jazz chorines and helps them put on a show . There are some fairly good musical interludes , including the surprisingly sweet " Underneath Montana Skies " and Slim Summerville is in his usual reliable form as comedy relief . |
439,394 | 1,617,546 | 270,325 | 7 | Away , Dull Care | Before Larry Semon's movies became repetitive , increasingly bloated efforts that starred him and only him , he turned out some very nice slapstick with a large crew of comedians who got some good screen time and gags , and featuring some very good cinematography . This is one of those efforts , featuring a loving litt... |
438,687 | 1,617,546 | 46,171 | 7 | Superior McKimson | A strong script and excellent voice work by Sheldon Leonard make this a cartoon worth seeing . Part of the short-lived " Dodsworth " series - - I've only seen two of them - - about a fat , lazy cat that keeps suckering a mewing kitten into doing his work for him , Dodsworth somehow turns into a dead ringer for Rodney D... |
439,445 | 1,617,546 | 145,731 | 7 | Disney Influence | One of David Hand's Animaland cartoons , long believed lost , THE CUCKOO plays like a short version of a cross between the " Pink Elephants On Parade " number from Dumbo and some of the darker sequences of PINOCCHIO . This is hardly surprising , as Hand was a Disney alumnus who was brought to England to build a cartoon... |
438,807 | 1,617,546 | 6,102 | 7 | The Pride of the Firm | Ernst Lubitsch , later one of the great directors of the cinema , started out in films as a ' Jewish Comedian . ' However , this movie is not a farce , but the story of how a clumsy young man from the sticks - - when we first see him , he is a window dresser in a dry goods shop who breaks the window - - through push an... |
438,595 | 1,617,546 | 229,309 | 7 | Competition | A superior two-reeler from the Kalem Company . Although Kalem was a popular studio in the first couple of decades of the 20th century , it fell apart , as did most of the Patents Trust companies in the late teens . Certainly , this effort is worthwhile . Good acting , good composition - - unlike Griffith's work , which... |
439,359 | 1,617,546 | 23,444 | 7 | Putting Something in the Skins | After one attempt to replicate Laurel & Hardy's success by doing a female Laurel & Hardy team ( FEED ' EM AND WEEP ) , Roach waited a few years and tried again with Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd and hit pay dirt . There is nothing in the least Laurel & Hardyish about the teaming of these two women , except for the warm fr... |
439,448 | 1,617,546 | 19,101 | 7 | Looking for quiet in the talkies | Mack Sennet's first sound film is a hilarious little short . The first half has Johnny Burke trying to propose to Daphne Burke on the telephone while construction workers , boat whistles and a saxophonist across the alley - - played by Vernon Dent - - makes it impossible to hear himself think . The second half , takes ... |
439,492 | 1,617,546 | 277,839 | 7 | Max's Turn in the Barrel | Before the rise of Charlie Chaplin , the world's favorite film comic was a man whom Chaplin called ' The Professor ' , Pathe's Max Linder . In hundreds of short comedies through the Teens , Max played a Parisian boulevardier , usually in search of love , and , despite obstacles , largely successful . Not , however , in... |
438,864 | 1,617,546 | 6,115 | 7 | If you looked at the Allday ' American Slapstick ' DVD . . . . | . . . . and paid attention to the written and spoken commentary , then if you are not terribly familiar with the people involved , you may taken on board a few false ideas : 1 : Syd introduced brother Charlie to Fred Karno and thus produced one of the greatest talents in the movies . Uh , not quite . In fact , Charlie ... |
439,096 | 1,617,546 | 764,909 | 7 | You can always trust a policeman | Although the Internet Movie Database lists this as a Feuillade film , the new collection from Gaumont claims this is a piece by Alice Guy . It's difficult to tell who was in charge , since a year before Miss Guy , he first film director in history , was doing a series of phonoscenes with a still camera and no cuts , an... |
438,646 | 1,617,546 | 1,701 | 7 | Without Aid | Although Griffith is best remembered for the racism of BIRTH OF A NATION , his pleas in his works were not intended primarily as statements of the superiority of races , but as pleas for people to be left alone to solve their own problems . In such works as BROKEN BLOSSOMS , INTOLERANCE and , yes , even BIRTH OF A NATI... |
439,005 | 1,617,546 | 48,251 | 7 | The Greatest Terror | Friz Freleng started out his career in Kansas City with Walt Disney , about by the time he died almost three quarters of a century later , he had done almost everything in the field , including directing several Oscar-winning shorts . Yet , despite this , he never achieved the respect accorded directors like Chuck Jone... |
438,500 | 1,617,546 | 1,724 | 7 | A Big Show in Ten Minutes | It is astonishing to look at this ten-minute western and see a love triangle , an Indian attack , people crawling through the dessert in search of water , the cavalry to the rescue - - enough story , fact , for two John Ford westerns and one Douglas Sirk weeper , performed in ten minutes , with some photography that , ... |
439,107 | 1,617,546 | 9,434 | 7 | A new style | After a couple of years of Lonesome Luke , Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach decided to try a new character , the " Glasses " character that Lloyd always referred to as " The Boy . " Dressed in a straw boater , glasses and an ascot tie - - the Ascot would disappear about 1922 - - the character , like Douglas Fairbanks ' scree... |
439,210 | 1,617,546 | 133,745 | 7 | Dependable | This is another strong entry in the always dependable ' Joe Doakes ' series of shorts that Benchley wrote and starred in for MGM and occasionally Paramount in the 1930s and 1940s . They took two forms : in the first , Benchley would lecture confusedly on some subject that his character would seem to know nothing about ... |
439,328 | 1,617,546 | 26,813 | 7 | Imagination | Although I usually don't like the Harman-Ising cartoons from MGM - - the combination of high production values made possible by their large budgets and inanely saccharine plots is very off-putting to me - - this one works : it puts you immediately into the imagination of a child to see her toys come alive in a simple p... |
438,758 | 1,617,546 | 16,974 | 7 | And Points Between | A typical late silent Sennet programmer starring Billy Bevan and Vernon Dent , each moving to California with his wife and finding their greatest obstacles in their ways to be each other . Bevan was one of the now-forgotten silent screen comedians with a large mustache and no hesitation in doing something stupid , like... |
438,428 | 1,617,546 | 11,651 | 7 | A New Contract | When Chaplin , Fairbanks , Pickford and Griffith were setting up United Artists in 1919 , William S . Hart almost went along with them . But Paramount offered him a brand new contract , and he stayed with them . . . . . and found the studio sabotaging him almost from the beginning of the new contract . He wanted to get... |
438,525 | 1,617,546 | 7,873 | 7 | Cures for Hypochondria | Another amusing social comedy in the Fairbanks corpus as he reforms a bunch of hypochondriacs - - including the woman he loves - - by stranding them on an island and making them take exercise before breakfast . Script by Fairbanks and Anita Loos . It's also the movie debut of character actor Gustav von Seyffertitz . |
438,508 | 1,617,546 | 19,209 | 7 | Pushing Leather | Reginald Denny first came to the attention of the movies in the ' Leather Pushers ' series of shorts about a young boxer and his associates and this story of a young boxer who is comically corrupted by New York night life and a young woman down on her luck is handled in a very amusing and telling manner by director Fre... |
438,713 | 1,617,546 | 350,290 | 7 | Eat Hearty ! | Chaz Chase - - not to be confused with Charley Chase - - eats a variety of interesting items , including a lot of cardboard . Absolutely bizarre : this sort of act , which used to prosper in vaudeville , wound up going into the carnivals after vaudeville died . Apparently the diet agreed with Mr . Chase , since he was ... |
438,386 | 1,617,546 | 23,932 | 8 | Strong Performances | The strong cast - - including Spanky McFarland away from the Hal Roach studio - - really shines in this well-mannered , but definitely Pre-code drama . Richard Dix ha rarely been better as a man slowly unraveling in prison , but Una Merkel is terrific in a straight role . |
438,992 | 1,617,546 | 4,465 | 8 | The Silent Serial You Must See | If you have to see only one silent serial , then this is the one you have to see . Not because it is clearly the best one - - although it's a lot of fun , there are others , such as Feuillade's LES VAMPIRES with as good or even better claims - - but simply because it is a ripsnorting bunch of fun , and , more important... |
438,501 | 1,617,546 | 2,303 | 8 | The Sea Chase | Griffith loved to shoot along the shoreline and on the water . His settings , always so lifelike , take on a poetic quality along the shore , and the sight of the motorboat knifing through the water to rescue Blanche Sweet , with its beautiful wake . . . . . in any case , in this short , Griffith managed to combine his... |
439,113 | 1,617,546 | 17,585 | 8 | Fast and funny | A fast and funny picture from Raymond Griffith , the top-hatted comic whiz of the mid-twenties , one of the few silent stars whose careers actually was wrecked by a bad voice - - he could only speak in a whisper - - and whose pictures have largely vanished due to the malign neglect of his studio . This time he's the co... |
438,376 | 1,617,546 | 1,404,376 | 8 | Caught and Released into the Theaters | One of the late Pete Smith Specials from MGM , this features a lot of newsreel footage of various unlikely events , such as buildings being blown up , concrete blocks intended for construction purposes accidentally being dropped into the water and , best for for my taste , various ungainly early attempts at building he... |
438,458 | 1,617,546 | 118,744 | 8 | Joseph H . Lewis Redux | This stands out as a camp classic of the Joseph H . Lewis variety : there's even a threatening gadget , in this case a steam cabinet . Don't go into this expecting a deep movie and you'll have a lot of fun with the deliberately over-the-top characterizations |
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