Made early in Douglas Fairbanks’s film career, The Good Bad Man is the fifth of his 12 feature-length films made for the Fine Arts division of the Triangle Film Corporation, and the second of ten collaborations between Fairbanks and director Allan Dwan. It is also among his earliest films to explore … [Read more...] about The Good Bad Man
The Golden Clown
Alone in the center ring, a white-faced clown sings. Rather than making the crowd laugh, he draws tears. This trope is as familiar today as it was in cinema’s earliest days, when the circus and the cinema were more closely linked. According to Italian scholar Carlo Piccardi, “In its first decade the … [Read more...] about The Golden Clown
The Gold Rush
After the public disappointment of A Woman of Paris (1923), a dramatic film in which Chaplin appears only briefly, he was anxious to begin work on his first comedy to be distributed by United Artists. Chaplin was determined to top the phenomenal success of The Kid. By any measure, he succeeded. The … [Read more...] about The Gold Rush
The Godless Girl
The films of Cecil B. DeMille offer a spectacle of extremes. Success was never more opulent than in a DeMille film, nor was poverty more grinding. Reared on Bible stories and the romance sagas that appealed to his preacher/playwright father, DeMille’s films relied on a pattern of sex, sin, damnation … [Read more...] about The Godless Girl
The Goddess
Made at a time of great changes in the Chinese film industry, political turbulence in China, and personal turmoil in the life of its star, The Goddess (Shennü) was dismissed as decadent by Chinese scholars during the Cultural Revolution. But these circumstances only served to fuel the film’s … [Read more...] about The Goddess
Go West
Go West was an unusual film for Buster Keaton. With its portrayal of a down-and-out wanderer who becomes a reluctant hero, Go West could have been a vehicle for Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. While the film wasn’t one of Keaton’s personal favorites, it was praised by critics and did well at the box … [Read more...] about Go West
Girls Will Be Boys
This program contains the following two films: I DON'T WANT TO BE A MAN Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Germany, 1918 Cast Ossi Oswalda, Kurt Götz, Ferry Sikla, Margarete Kupfer, and Victor Janson Production Produktions-AG Union Print Source George Eastman Museum WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING … [Read more...] about Girls Will Be Boys
The Girl with the Hatbox
Today, Russian cinema of the 1920s is best remembered for its epic and revolutionary themes, socialist propaganda, and avant-garde experimentation. Boris Barnet’s The Girl with the Hatbox, however, is a charming example of the era’s popular entertainment. The film is a lighthearted romantic comedy … [Read more...] about The Girl with the Hatbox