Battling Butler (1926)

I hadn't seen Buster Keaton in more than five years. BB was actually his personal favorite and his second biggest box office hit, greatly eclipsing the same year's The General when they were new. (Perhaps people weren't ready for a Civil War comedy.) So why had I learned next to nothing about BB before?

The protagonist is not a butler, but he may well have one: Alfred Butler is a spoiled aristocrat, albeit sometimes ordered around by his father, who sends him to the wilderness to man up. There he meets someone identified only as "the mountain girl," who finds him annoying at first, but they quickly fall for each other. Alas, her father and brother won't approve a marriage to an apparent wimp, so Alfred's valet (yes, there with him) claims that Alfred is lightweight champion "Battling Butler," who happens to look similar in addition to having the same first and last names. The ruse works, but Alfred must actually travel to the training camp and then the arena, all the while trying to persuade his bride not to watch because she wouldn't like that side of him. To make matters worse, the real Battling Butler is none too fond of this imposter, especially after a mix-up of their similar-looking ladies....

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)

Since Netflix announced that DVD service will discontinue in September, I've decided to prioritize what's unlikely to stream. In this case, it also turned out to remind me what I won't miss about DVDs: Sometimes they freeze and skip. Thankfully, I didn't miss anything important.

In 1880s New York City, preadolescent Cedric (Mary Pickford!) has no idea who his dead father was until he becomes next in line for an earldom. He's not happy to have to leave his friends or his dream of becoming president, and he's been led to believe that British nobles are rotten. His grandfather (Claude Gillingwater) isn't happy either, because he hates Americans too much to greet Cedric's mother (also Mary Pickford!), who must live in a separate building he owns. Nevertheless, Cedric charms the old curmudgeon and his servants, enabling much-needed generosity to the poor in his domain. But there arises a question of whether someone else actually ranks ahead of Cedric and, if so, where he should live....

Spies (1928)

This was it: the last 1920s movie on my Netflix queue or list and thus probably the last silent. If it would become my last silent viewing ever, I was wise to choose one from a proven director, Fritz Lang.

Bank director Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) also leads a vast spy ring that meddles in international government affairs, seemingly just for the sake of wielding power. Knowing that one Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch, whose character name is never revealed) seeks to bring him down, he sends an agent of his own, Sonja (Gerda Maurus), to seduce and betray 326. The plan backfires when she falls for him for real. Of course, catching a mastermind still isn't easy....

Underworld (1927)

Since my last silent viewing was a year and a half ago, I decided to give this priority. It would also help me get a better sense of director Josef von Sternberg, having seen four of his movies before. This was the surprise hit that formed his comeback and advanced a bunch of other careers, and Luis Buñuel named it his favorite flick overall.

An erudite yet drunken ex-lawyer (Clive Brook) expresses recognition of "Bull" Weed (George Bancroft) as the latter leaves a nighttime bank robbery. Bull threatens him, but the drunk declares himself "a Rolls Royce of silence," thereafter going by "Rolls Royce." Intrigued, Bull gives him a custodial job at a seedy bar and becomes fonder of him when he stands up to bully and Bull rival "Buck" Mulligan (Fred Kohler). After that, Rolls becomes an urbane butler of sorts for Bull, keeping his own hands clean while helping with the criminal ideas, at least when it stands to spell bad news for Buck. But Bull comes to realize that he shouldn't leave his moll "Feathers" (Evelyn Brent) alone with Rolls for long. And he's not at all sure that Feathers or Rolls will be there for him if he gets caught....

Woman in the Moon (1929)

One of the most esteemed Fritz Lang movies is Metropolis, a rare silent sci-fi classic. Unfortunately, he didn't stick with the genre much (the Dr. Mabuse series is better described as fantasy in my book), but his wife, Thea von Harbou, had another sf story in her. It would not be a longer version of Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, because Lang prefers dark to fanciful.

IMDb says it runs 95 minutes, but that's only for the U.S. theater cut; the one I received runs 209 minutes. I suspect that the cut parts were mostly in the first half, before the journey to the moon even begins. That part is dominated by a question of who exactly will go. Old, largely discredited Professor Mannfeldt will, because it was his idea to search for gold in lunar mountains. Entrepreneur Helius, arguably the protagonist, is the first volunteer. His assistant and crush, Friede, won't brook his objections to her coming along, and her new fiance, fellow assistant Windegger, would hate to have them leave without him. Then there's Turner, a suave gangster (there's the Lang I know) who coerces his way into the mission so his gang can claim the gold. Only after launch do they learn of the sixth passenger, preteen stowaway Gustav, whose ideas of the moon and space come from magazines.

The Cameraman (1928)

Buster Keaton may be my favorite silent star. He doesn't attain as much pathos as Charlie Chaplin, but he sure knows comedy, often with impressive stunts, and projects more innocence than Harold Lloyd. I hadn't seen any of those giants since I started this blog, so it was time for another go.

Here Buster (identified only by the same nickname) has been barely making ends meet as a portrait photographer. One customer, Sally, catches his eye, and he learns that she's a secretary for MGM Newsreels. That makes him want a job there, but he has too little experience with the kind of cameras they use. Sally still finds him endearing enough to date and even slip an advance notice of a story to cover, but Buster has competition, both professional and romantic, in the form of a handsome jerk at the company.

Piccadilly (1929)

Funny how a film on the tail end of the silent era can feel somewhat timely, and I had no way of knowing from the description. In the first act, London night club dancer Vic (Cyril Ritchard) repeatedly ignores the express wish of dance partner Mabel (Gilda Gray) that he not kiss her arms and back, especially as they leave the stage. He labors under the apparent delusion that she secretly likes him—and insists she'd be nothing without him. Boss Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) notices and fires him before she even lodges a complaint. We never hear from Vic again. That said, it isn't strictly virtuous of Wilmot: He has his own designs on Mabel. But he's enough of a gentleman that she falls for him.

The real conflict begins when, alas, the Piccadilly Club's business suffers in Vic's wake. Looking for innovation, Wilmot recalls a dishwasher, Shosho (Anna May Wong), whom he caught dancing on the clock. He rehires her as a dancer, making it essentially the Shosho Show, if you will. It's not clear whether Mabel envies her first for her popularity with the crowds or for her popularity with Wilmot in another capacity, but as the tension heats up...well, I won't spoil it like the Netflix jacket does. Let's just say that silent films don't favor happy endings between whites and Asians.

7th Heaven (1927)/The River (1928)

Gosh, it had been 15 months since my last silent. That may explain why I decided to watch two at once. Netflix didn't even mention the second being on the same disc, probably because it's a sorely incomplete restoration, hence my lack of a separate review. More on that later.

In 7th Heaven, Chico (Charles Farrell), a sewer cleaner hoping for a better life, encounters someone worse off than himself and his buddies: Diane (Janet Gaynor), a broke young woman who needs to get away from her physically bullying drunk sister. At first, Chico shows Diane only baseline hospitality, but then he shields her from arrest by pretending to be her husband. She helps him keep up that charade to prevent his arrest by moving into his high-rise, the "heaven" of the title. He gradually grows as fond of her as she is of him, but before they can have a conventional wedding, World War I leads to an extremely immediate drafting. Chico promises to "visit" Diane, as if by telepathy, every morning at 11, but will there be miracles enough to protect this romance, especially in light of a more present suitor?

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....

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

I don't believe I'd ever seen a silent Swedish film before. Fittingly, it was Ingmar Bergman's favorite from an early age, though I couldn't have independently identified any sign of influence besides Grim Reaper imagery. Interestingly, TPC doesn't have a Grim Reaper in the sense we usually think of: The task of collecting dead souls (merely carrying them, not using the purely ceremonial scythe) falls to a new dead soul each year, namely whoever dies last in the year. Apparently, the legend makes no allowance for time zone differences.

As you can guess, this story includes the stroke of midnight, with chimes dutifully supplied in addition to a haunting score. Protagonist David, a homeless drunk, has been wary of the legend but injudiciously provokes his companions into a serious fight. Then he meets the titular carriage's retiring driver, Georges, whom he happened to have met shortly before his death. David reeeeally doesn't want to take over (is it that terrible a way to spend a year in the afterlife?), and we actually never see him take the reins or a soul in his hands. Georges forces him only to come along for information....

The Lost World (1925)

No, it wasn't the release of Jurassic World that prompted me to watch the first dinosaur feature film ever. The AFI Silver Theater celebrated the latter's 90th anniversary with a screening and live expert musical accompaniment -- probably the best reason to watch a silent in a theater. Of course, the ticket costs about the same as a 3D movie ticket, so I won't blame you for declining the opportunity. But at least the standing ovation afterward doesn't feel as silly as applause at a regular screening.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle briefly appears at the beginning (the credits say "by himself" rather than "as himself"). A fairly famous other Arthur, Hoyt, gets a supporting role, his brother Harry O. being the director. The other likely familiar face is Wallace Beery, as the improbably named Professor Challenger.

The Beloved Rogue (1927)

It had been a while since my last viewing of a silent film, and I wanted something on the short side. Since John Barrymore seems best remembered for his voice (in addition to being part of an acting dynasty), the thought of his pre-vocal work intrigued me. OK, I had seen Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but it didn't stay with me.

TBR is set in 15th-century Paris under Louis XI, with an All Fools Day parade early on. Sound familiar? There's a reason the studio reused much of the set of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Incidentally, the cast includes three actors who would go on to feature in Freaks, but none is a hunchback.

Broken Blossoms (1919)

I first heard of this silent as evidence that D.W. Griffith was not really a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer, just a storyteller who used whatever structure he found convenient. Coming four years after The Birth of a Nation, it has also gone by The Yellow Man and the Girl. Despite what you'd think, it tries for a positive depiction of a man from China and his feelings for a young white woman (Lillian Gish), while the main villain (Donald Crisp) is a white bigot. Sure, a white actor plays the protagonist, identified only as the Yellow Man, but he's more convincing than some cross-racial actors from much later decades and appears to mean no insult.

That said, there's not much of a romance. I thought I'd remembered reading that they got married, but no, not even close. The only line between them (as far as the intertitles tell us) is "What makes you so good to me, chinky?" Yeah, real sweet. The man shows clearer passion, which the narrator assures us is most "pure and holy." So...chaste? I wonder if Griffith even entertained the idea of letting them be happy together for long. I'd've given him major bonus points for that.

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.

Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922)

Yup, another foreign film right after the last, this one involving an allegedly more genuine brand of magic. Last Halloweeny pic I'll watch for some time, I warrant; Netflix just had a long wait on it.

It's only the second silent so-called "documentary" I've seen, after the reportedly dishonest Nanook of the North. (You can watch the William S. Burroughs-dubbed version from 1968 on the same disc if you hate reading intertitles or want to save time, but I prefer the powerful classical score to the quirky jazz. I don't think the later one uses helpful tinting either.) In truth, while this Swedish-Danish collaboration does start out looking like a presentation along the lines of An Inconvenient Truth, complete with rare first-person narration by the researcher, it soon goes on to reenactment with license a la "America's Most Wanted" and feels more like historical fiction. Which makes it no less enjoyable.