Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)

After viewing lots of movies from the past year or so, I decided to go way back again, to one of the last years in which silents were not retro. This is actually the less advertised second half of a Lon Chaney collection disc featuring The Ace of Hearts, even though TAoH is significantly less popular. While both are short enough that I could have watched them together in one evening, I didn't feel like it.

I'm not sure whether LCL is set in the "present"; it feels even earlier to me. In it, Italian brothers Tito (Chaney) and Simon serve as a clown duo in a circus when they discover an abandoned girl toddler. Simon initially wants nothing to do with raising her, saying, "Women bring bad luck," but Tito sways him by calling her Simonetta. After a time skip, she is played by then-aptly named 15-year-old Loretta Young...and old enough to change both brothers' minds: Simon returns to his grumpy superstition, and Tito has gone from fatherly love to a crush. Also crushing on her is Count Luigi Ravelli. Both have nervous breakdowns -- Tito crying and Luigi laughing -- when they believe that Simonetta won't have them. They happen to meet at the same doctor's office and feel that a friendship will do them good...at least until the rivalry intensifies....

Tell It to the Marines (1926)

I had the good fortune of buying this DVD for $1 from Potomac Video (R.I.P.) instead of paying $3 to watch via Amazon or Google Play. Netflix still doesn't offer enough silents, altho I learned of this one from a documentary accompanying a silent I did get via Netflix. You see, it stands out for showing Lon Chaney's ability to play characters without freakiness or even makeup -- in this case, a sergeant with a hard edge but also a heart. Maybe that's why he liked it best of all his films.