The title Midnight Madness might conjure images of frothy, sophisticated high comedy, but the Cecil B. DeMille production is part of a cycle of city-woman-in-the-wilderness films released in the late silent era. Of Paramount’s The Canadian (1926) and Mantrap (1926), DeMille Pictures’ White … [Read more...] about Midnight Madness
Metropolis
The stunning resurrection of Fritz Lang’s futuristic fable Metropolis to its epic original cut, a version believed forever lost, began in a modest Buenos Aires cinema museum in the spring of 2008, when a rusted film can turned out to contain a 16mm negative of the entire 150-minute silent film. The … [Read more...] about Metropolis
The Merry Widow
When MGM producer Irving Thalberg agreed to give The Merry Widow to director Erich von Stroheim, he knew the director’s famed extravagance and continental experience would serve the rich, frothy story well. He made one stipulation: that both the Maxim’s nightclub and waltz scenes were to be retained … [Read more...] about The Merry Widow
Master of the House
Those in the audience expecting a difficult film by a gloomy Scandinavian director are bound to be disappointed by Carl Th. Dreyer’s Master of the House. This deft tale of domestic tyranny and subsequent insurgency is characterized by wry humor and bell-like clarity. From its exquisite attention to … [Read more...] about Master of the House
The Mark of Zorro
“Suddenly he whirled the captain forward, darted into the darkness, and started toward his horse with the whole pack at his heels and pistol flashes splitting the blackness of night …. His laughter came back to them on the stiffening breeze that blew in from the distant sea.” This description of the … [Read more...] about The Mark of Zorro
Marie Dressler
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Patsy at SFSFF 2013 Marie Dressler had perhaps the most unexpected stardom in all of movie history. At the apex of her popularity during the Great Depression, she was well past 60 and overweight and described her careworn and … [Read more...] about Marie Dressler
Marguerite Clark: The Biggest and Littlest Lady in the Movies
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Snow White at Silent Winter 2013 “Her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as blood, and her hair as black as ebony....” These words from “Little Snow White” (“Sneewittchen” in German), a story from Grimms’ collected fairy … [Read more...] about Marguerite Clark: The Biggest and Littlest Lady in the Movies
Mare Nostrum
Dublin-born director Rex Ingram had his biggest success with 1921’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel, which made a star of Valentino, saved the Metro company from bankruptcy, and earned the director the undying gratitude of the head of Metro, Marcus Loew. … [Read more...] about Mare Nostrum