Beau Geste 1926

Barban and Nicole continue their walk along the deck. They discuss the respective merits of English and French languages for expressing heroism and gallantry with dignity, and the expression of these qualities in movies, such as the 1926 American film Beau Geste, starring Ronald Coleman. Miguel Mota and Paul Tiessen: The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry: A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's "Tender is the Night

Beau Geste was directed by Herbert Brenon, stars Ronald Colman and Neil Hamilton, with support from Noah Beery (Sr.), Mary Brian, William Powell and Victor McLaglen. The plot concerns a valuable gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family.

Ronald Colman plays the title role in the first of several screen adaptations of Christopher Wren's tale of adventure in the foreign legion. Beau is the youngest of three brothers who fall into an ethical dilemma when their aunt resorts to stealing valuable jewelry from the family's collection to pay off her home. Beau takes the blame for the crime and, before he can be put in jail, flees the country, with his brothers John (Ralph Forbes) and Digby (Neil Hamilton) in tow. The Geste Brothers eventually join the French Foreign Legion, where they suffer under the tyrannical leadership of the cruel Sgt. Lejaune (Noah Beery Sr.). Unknown to Beau, Lejaune is in cahoots with men who want to capture the Geste Brothers and bring them to justice, but when Arab forces attack the Legion compound, the valiant Gestes fight with such bravery that even Lejaune is impressed with their selfless courage. It's said that Ronald Colman considered his performance in Beau Geste the finest work of his career; lip readers might get a chuckle out of some of Noah Beery Sr.'s non-subtitled dialogue, which today would have pushed the film into an R rating if it were audible. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide



A corking picture, but as a road show special not entirely surefire. The idea is that it will have to hold to just a few cities outside of New York to have a chance at $2. As a straight program leader it can't miss, although the running time of 129 minutes may keep it from equalling house records".

It's a "man's" picture, much more so than "The Big Parade." The story revolves around three brothers and their love for each other. And a great looking trio--Colman, Hamilton and Forbes. Beyond that the love interest is strictly secondary, practically nil. Which brings up the question as to how women are going to like it.Review from Variety, September 1, 1926

Read more on the the film at ERBzine and Stanford University

The best resource materials on the film can be found at Demonoid.me including contemporary magazine articles on the making of the film.

You can watch the film on You Tube:

Anatole Litvak's Mayerling 1936 film

Why did they have to call that other fatal palace in Trieste also the Miramar, where Carlotta went insane, and everyone who ever lived there from the Empress Elizabeth of Austria to the Archduke Ferdinand had met with a violent death? Under The Volcano

Lowry is referring to the misfortunes that befell the Hapsburg family. Jan Gabrial recalls that she and Malcolm saw Anatol Litvak's Mayerling (1936) in Mexico City before they returned to the Hotel Canada for a tender night [Inside the Volcano, 157 & 187]. The film became an emblem of their love. Lowry states that "La Tragedia de Mayerling" was playing in the town just as it had been nine years ago. (Letter to Cape).





The Mayerling Incident refers to the series of events leading to the apparent murder-suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera. Prince Rudolf was the only son of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, and therefore heir to his father as Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and King of Bohemia. Rudolf's mistress Mary was the daughter of Baron Albin Vetsera, a diplomat at the Austrian court. The couple's bodies were discovered at Mayerling, Rudolf's hunting lodge, in Lower Austria on January 30, 1889. Read more on Wikipedia



Mayerling is a 1936 French historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Seymour Nebenzal from a screenplay by Marcel Achard, Joseph Kessel and Irma von Cube, based on the novel Idol's End by Claude Anet. The film stars Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux with Jean-Louis Barrault, René Bergeron, Jean Davy, Jean Dax, Jean Debucourt and Gabrielle Dorziat. It is based on the real life story of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, his affair with the 17-year old Baroness Maria Vetsera and their tragic end at Mayerling.

Here are some clips from the movie:

The Magnet 1950

I have been meaning to feature The Magnet on the 19th Hole for sometime. I did feature it in a recent talk at my local library so I thought it was about time to do so here! The film is held with affection in New Brighton because many of the landmarks seen in the film have long gone or been drastically altered. The film also had importance for Malc as well:

The Goodhearts...after dinner they seek relaxation at their local cinema, the Bay, where there is an English film playing called The Magnet.

But as soon as they enter the cinema Tommy Goodheart thinks he has gone to the next world , is having a dream within a dream, or suffering from extraordinary hallucination.

For the scene before his eyes seems at first to be the very scene along the beach this afternoon, then he realises that the scene is taking place in New Brighton, his own birthplace, on the sands where he played as a boy. And the scene that is playing is that which deals with the exchange of the invisible watch!

Then there is a short description of the film which is continually interrupted -for Mary Goodheart-by Tommy saying “There’s the cathedral! That’s Seacombe pier! That’s New Brighton pier! There used to be a tower only they knocked it down. That’s the old prom – called that the Ham and Egg Parade. Birkenhead Ales, my God! That's the place where I saw the Lion-faced Lady. The tunnel had not quite been completed when I left England though it was already in use," etc Ghostkeeper

We can only assume from the description above that Lowry saw The Magnet mostly set in his birthplace sometime in the early 1950's in Vancouver at the Bay Theatre. What I find remarkable about the description is the impact it had on the "exiled" Malc - an "extraordinary hallucination." Did Lowry construct the 'Ghostkeeper' story after seeing the movie? I will return to answering that question in more detail elsewhere. One can only imagine the feelings generated in Lowry's mind seeing a film of his birthplace when he was thousands of miles away as well as many years since being there.









The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of the eponymous magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.

Johnny Brent (Fox), whilst off school in quarantine for scarlet fever, manages to con a younger boy out of a magnet by swapping it for an "invisible watch". However the little boy's nanny accuses him of stealing, which makes Johnny feel guilty: he runs away but then tries to get rid of the magnet, particularly after an older boy uses it to cheat at a pinball machine and the owner thinks Johnny is involved. He then meets an eccentric iron lung maker who is raising funds for the local hospital and gives him the magnet which is later auctioned for charity. The iron lung maker tells the story of the magnet at the various fund-raising events he attends, exaggerating wildly and portraying Johnny as everything from a Little Lord Fauntleroy to a ragged orphan from Dickens, all the while hoping that he can find him again. After he returns to school, Johnny sees the little boy's nanny and overhears her telling her friend about her budgerigar, which she says has died of a broken heart. Johnny, however, thinks she is talking about the little boy himself and becomes convinced that he is guilty of murder. He hides in the back of a van which takes him to Liverpool, where he conflicts with local boys, winning them over by convincing them he is on the run from the police. He saves the life of one of them when he falls through the floor of a disused pier. The injured boy ends up in the very iron lung for which the fund-raising has been all about and when Johnny visits him he sees the magnet mounted on it - and also bumps into the inventor, who is delighted to have found the little hero at last. Johnny is awarded the Civic Gold Medal, which he gives to the magnet's original owner, his conscience clear. Wikipedia

You can view the entire movie on Youtube:



The cinema Lowry refers to where he saw the film was the Bay Theatre 911 Denman Street, Vancouver (seen below). Constructed in 1938 and now a heritage site in Vancouver due to its poured in-place concrete walls and streamlined design features indicative of the “Art Moderne” style. Other notable features include the sculpted corner entrance and a prominent sign tower.



You can view related posts on my Postcards from Malc blog:

Liverpool Cathedral
Seacombe Ferry
New Brighton Pier
New Brighton Tower
New Brighton Promenade
Kingsway Tunnel

You can also view more still shots of the locations and what they look like now at Reel Streets.

Rene Clair - Les Deux Timides 1928 Part 2

I have been fixing many broken links on the blog over the last day or two. A few things have been lost but I have turned up some new material.

A few short clips from the movie which I featured as part of a series of posts on Cambridge Film Guild 1929-1930 Season:

The Scala Theatre, Birkenhead

"Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala -" Ultramarine

I have already posted about this line in Malc's Ultramarine under the title The Smells of Birkenhead and Liverpool. I now realise that I incorrectly stated the theatre Lowry was referring to was the cinema in Lime Street Liverpool. However, I now believe that he was referring to the former Scala Theatre in Birkenhead since the other 2 theatres he mentions are both in Birkenhead. What caused me to change my mind was finding a 1927 programme for the Scala in Birkenhead. The scene in Ultramarine is probably based on Lowry's youthful excursions to Birkenhead theatres with Tess Evans.



The Scala Theatre was originally called the Theatre Royal opening at 51/53 Argyle Street, Birkenhead on 31st October 1864. The theatre was altered after a fire in 1892, extensively modernised in 1905 and introduced cinema into the programmes in 1910.

Under pressure from cinema, the Theatre Royal closed in January 1921. The new proprietors Sol and Alfred Levy spent a fortune in converting the theatre to a modern picture house. James S. Bramwell was in charge of the reconstruction, Arnold Auerbach, a Liverpool artist, provided the designs and J.A. Milestone was in charge of building work.



The cinema had a well-proportioned hall, on the right hand side of which was the main stairway to the balcony and café. On the newel post (or central pillar) was an ornamental ruby red brazier balanced by two similar lights on opposite walls. Entrance to the stalls was via a screen of pillars and the main lounge hall. The latter was of a Neo Graeco influence and sported artistically-illuminated semi-archaic panels of black murals depicting Greek legends. Indeed the foyer had a temple-like atmosphere.

On passing into the auditorium the most noticeable feature was the proscenium. The projection equipment was somewhat a novel to the area with films being projected from behind the stage rather than from the front of the screen. This necessitated the screen being transparent to the film yet opaque in terms of the audience not being able to see either the projectionist or his equipment.



The brightly decorated stage set was set off by glowing blue background. The proscenium opening was flanked by two tall piers, colossal gilded masks and decorative, lacquered lanterns. Both the piers and the cross beam were adorned with painted figures. Ceiling lights compromised four sculptured figures standing on an illuminated sphere and holding lighted globes in their hands. Lighting was supplemented by jewel lamps of quaint design. The orchestra pit was deeply recessed below floor level.

At that time this was the only cinema in the town to have a café, which was a lofty room to the left of the main stairway. It was finished in crimson, black, gold and blue with large, red-framed wall decorations and richly coloured lights suspended from the ceiling. The décor f the ante-rooms and corridors was in harmony with that of the main building. The Silver Screens of Wirral: A History of Cinemas in Birkenhead and Bebington by P.A. Carson & C.R. Garner



The cinema re-opened on 25th April 1921 as the Scala Picture House. The cinema had daily matinees at 3.00pm and continuous performances from 6.30 to 10.30pm. In 1927, the licensee and manager was Cyril Levy, circle cost 1 shilling and 6 pence, the stalls 1 shilling and the upper circle 5 pence. The Scala was the first cinema in Bikenhead to show “talkies” in August 1929. In February 1930 the Scala was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and soon after closed for redecoration. The Scala finally closed on 6th February 1937 and was demolished to be replaced with a new cinema called the Savoy.

One of the interesting things which struck me when I obtained a programme for the Scala, dated November 14th 1927, was the contents of the programme which was a mixture of live performance and movies. Here is a break down of the programme for that week in 1927 which may have been similar to what Malc and Tess may have seen:

Gaumont Graphic
The Gaumont Graphic was a silent newsreel which was issued from 25 October 1910 to 29 December 1932. In November 1929, Gaumont launched a new sound newsreel, the Gaumont Sound News, and for the next three years the Graphic functioned as its silent counterpart for smaller cinemas which did not possess sound. After the demise of the Gaumont Graphic, the Gaumont Sound News continued until the launch of the Gaumont British News in 1934.

The initial editorial arrangements of the Gaumont Graphic are unknown, but from 1913 it was edited by Alec Braid. In 1915 Braid was replaced by Alexander Victor, but by the following year Victor had himself been replaced by Louis Behr, who remained in editorial control of the Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont Sound News until 1934.
British Universities Film & Video Council



You can find every surviving Gaumont Graphic clip by searching JISC MediaHub

Tony Hargreaves and Dorothy Dodd
Unfortunately, I cannot find anything on this act except what it says in the programme - in musical and character studies.

Talbot O'Farrell



I couldn't really find too much about Talbot O'Farrell even though he was very popular in the 20s and 30s and even made a film directed by Michael Powell called Born Lucky.

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Titles read: "Pathetone now has pleasure in presenting - The famous Variety, Screen & Radio Star Talbot O'FARRELL." London (probably Pathe Studio). Various shots of Talbot O'Farrell standing beside a piano in traditional 'Irishman' costume of a light-coloured top hat, dark double-breasted suit, light trousers and spats. He does a bit of patter about the silly titles of songs being sung nowadays. He then sings an Irish song called 'Little Green Heaven' (about Ireland, naturally). We see superimposed shots of the Irish countryside and the pretty colleen who is waiting for Talbot. British Pathe

Here is Talbot singing All that I want is in Ireland:

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Full titles read: "And now 'Pathetone' introduces another celebrated Artist on the screen - Talbot O'Farrell - the famous Variety Star." London, probably Pathe Studio. M/S of a man in tails sitting at a grand piano and playing. Variety star Talbot O'Farrell enters, looking very smart in a top hat and suit. He does a bit of patter and then sings an Irish comedy song, 'Casey's Charabanc', a jaunty song about various characters and events on a charabanc trip. At the end of the song he starts clapping, to encourage the cinema audience! He says he is going to sing a different kind of Irish song, one that he sang for Their Majesties the King and Queen at the Command Performance, called 'Come Back To Ireland And Me'. Talbot sings the sentimental song - an Irish Mother's lament.
British Pathe

Mismates
(1926) American
B&W : Seven reels / 2104 metres
Directed by Charles Brabin



Cast: Doris Kenyon [Judy Winslow], Warner Baxter [Ted Carroll], May Allison [Belle], Philo McCullough [Jim Winslow], Charles Murray [Black], Maude Turner Gordon [Mrs. Winslow], John Kolb [Watson], Cyril Ring [Helwig], Nancy Kelly [Jimsy], Betty Byrne

Distributed by First National Pictures, Incorporated. / Supervising producer Earl Hudson. Scenario by Sada Cowan, from a play by Myron C. Fagan. / Released 26 July 1926. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was released in Austria in 1927, and in Germany in 1928.

Drama.

Survival Status: (unknown)



Mismates was based on the Myron C. Fagan stage play of the same name. Doris Kenyon (above) plays a pretty young woman of modest means who doesn't know what she's in for when she marries wealthy Philo McCullough. The groom's over-protective mother not only refuses to recognize the marriage, but she also denies Kenyon access to the family home -- for five long years! McCullough's snooty relatives try to rid themselves of Kenyon by framing the girl for a crime she didn't commit. But our heroine escapes from jail to get the last laugh on her despicable in-laws. Halfway through the film, director Charles J. Brabin tries and fails to emulate Cecil B. DeMille with an extravagant society party, which makes about as much sense as the rest of picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi


I was interested to discover that the film's director was born in Liverpool:

Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies.

Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Company around 1908, first acting then writing then directing. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934.

Brabin wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara (seen below) in 1921, remaining married to her until her death from abdominal cancer in April 1955 and becoming one of the rare long-lasting Hollywood marriages. Wikipedia

Full filmography of Charles Brabin



I was fascinated while researching this post to discover a Liverpool born artist new to me - Arnold Auerbach 1898-1978:



This self-portrait was drawn on Auerbach's return to London from the continent at the age of twenty-four. It bears the impress of the late quattrocento, recalling portraits by Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. As a sort of 'coming of age' portrait 'it is a summation of his student days; an avowal of his powers as a draughtsman and an anticipation of the art world opening before him.' (Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Arnold Auerbach, 1998).

Auerbach was born in Liverpool to second-generation immigrants, his grandfather having come from Poland. In his Sculpture: a Brief History, one of a number of books on the subject, Auerbach wrote that drawing was the link, the common factor, between painting and sculpture. Having studied previously at the Liverpool School of Art, been invalided out of the army in 1918 two years after being drafted at the age of eighteen, he exhibited in 1919 at the Maddox Street Gallery and in 1921 at the Walker Art Gallery.

Through the 1920s Auerbach worked as an architectural sculptor on the interiors of art-deco buildings, including for the palace of the Nawab of Rampur in India. In the later 1920s and early 1930s his style changed from reflecting an awareness of ancient Egyptian stance, simplification and monumentality of form to experimentation with the broken forms, angularity and semi-abstract patterning of cubism. He later worked at the Beckenham Art School, the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Chelsea School of Art variously teaching architecture, sculpture, still life and portrait painting. Ill-health forced him to give up sculpture in the 1950s, by which time he had returned to naturalism. Invaluable Find.com

You can view some examples of his work at the Invaluable.com site.

Pare Lorentz's The River 1937

As for propaganda, good propaganda, I take it, is good art. (eg The River.) Letter to Gerald Noxon 21 September 1940

The River is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was written and directed by Pare Lorentz and, like Lorentz's earlier documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains, was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in 1990. Both films have notable scores by Virgil Thomson that are still heard as concert suites. The film was narrated by the American baritone Thomas Hardie Chalmers.

The two films were sponsored by the U.S. government and specifically the Resettlement Administration (RA) to raise awareness about the New Deal. The RA was folded into the Farm Security Administration in 1937, so The River was officially an FSA production.
Read more on Wikipedia

You can watch documentary on Internet Archive:

Karl Grune's Abdul The Damned 1935

Did you ever hear tell of one Karl Grune .... a few years back made Abdul the Damned in England, with Nils Asther? Letter to Gerald Noxon November 2nd 1940

Abdul the Damned is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart. It was made by British International Pictures. It set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War where the Sultan and the Young Turks battle for power. It is also known as Abdul Hamid.

Strong drama of a sinister Sultan tortured by fear of assassination, magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment.

Ostensibly, the picture's theme is the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid in an uprising hastened by his own misdeeds. With Fritz Kortner as Abdul, however, it has become substantially a character study - an intense psychologically sound portrait of a man terrorised by the repercussions of his own reign of terror!

With extraordinary subtlety and remarkable economy of expression, Kortner exposes the tortured mentality of a foolish despot whose weakness is revealed only too plainly in the atrocities with which he seeks to maintain his power and safeguard his person. Friendless, surrounded by enemies, respected by none, he brings about his own downfall and is pathetically glad of ignomious exile when it is offered to him at the end.

It would have been better for the picture as a whole if the director had abetted the star in making Abdul Hamid, the man, more important than the events revolving round him. Too much time is given, especially at the beginning, to the obscure and not very exciting plottings of Turkish political parties. And there is an unworthy subsidiary story of a Viennese dancer (Adrienne Ames), who is compelled by the unscrupulous Turkish Police Chief (Nils Asher) to enter the Sultan's harem in return for the life of her lover.

The acting honours are natuarally coniscated by the star - all of them - although Esmé Percy, as the Grand Eunuch, succeeds in turning in a notable supporting performance, and Nils Asher is theatrically effective as the Chief of Police.Film Weekly, September 20th, 1935

For an alternative view of the film - see here



You can obtain the film on DVD as a package with Chu Chin Chow.

Hangover Square 1945

..as with those novels or plays (The Children's Hour, Hangover Square, etc) which have been utterly transmogrified, but made into effective movies... Letter to Frank Taylor April/May 1950

Malc is arguing a case in his letter for the production of his transcript of Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night withstanding the issues of incest in the novel and how problems around difficult subjects have been overcome in other movies including Hangover Square.

Hangover Square (1945) is a film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the novel Hangover Square (1941) by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon who made a number of changes to the novel, including the transformation of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the story as a turn-of-the-century period piece.

In Victorian London (the date 1899 is shown in the opening scene), the police suspect that a composer who suffers from periods of amnesia may be a murderer.

The period setting creates a dark mood, especially in the key scene when Bone (portrayed by Laird Cregar), having strangled Netta (Linda Darnell) on Guy Fawkes Night, carries her wrapped body through streets filled with revelers and deposits it on top of the biggest bonfire.

The final scene shows Cregar as Bone, playing his piano concerto (composed by Bernard Herrmann), unmindful of the conflagration around him, as flames consume all.
Wikipedia



Hangover Square is a 1941 novel by English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962). Subtitled A tale of Darkest Earl's Court it is set in that area of London in 1939.

A black comedy, it is often cited as Hamilton's finest novel, exemplifying the author's concerns over social inequalities, the rise of Fascism and the hovering doom of World War II.



Set against the backdrop of the days preceding Britain declaring war on Germany, the main character is George Harvey Bone, a lonely borderline alcoholic who suffers from a split personality. He is obsessed with gaining the affections of Netta, a failed actress and one of George's circle of "friends" with whom he drinks. Netta is repelled by George but being greedy and manipulative, she and a mutual acquaintance, Peter, shamelessly exploit George's advances to extract from him money and drink.

George suffers from 'dead moods' in which he is convinced he must kill Netta for the way she treats him. Upon recovering from these interludes, he cannot remember them. However outside these he embarks on several adventures, trying in vain to win Netta's affections, including a 'romantic' trip to Brighton which goes horribly wrong (Netta brings Peter and a previously unknown man with whom she has sex in the hotel room next to George's).

Apart from being a source of money and alcohol, Netta's other reason for continuing to associate with George is because of Johnnie. He is one of George's long-time friends who works for a theatrical agent, and Netta hopes that through him she will get to meet Eddie Carstairs, a powerful figure in the theatre. However in a final reversal of fortune it is George, not Netta, who ends up attending a party amongst the theatrical great and good whilst Netta is cast aside by Eddie who (unlike George) has immediately seen her for the unpleasant person she is. George suddenly realises what it is like to be surrounded by 'kind' people who are interested in him as a person rather than what he can provide.

This potentially promising turn of events in George's life is, however, dashed, when he suddenly clicks into a dead mood and resumes his murder plans. He executes his murder of Netta (and also of Peter, whom the narrative describes as a 'Fascist' moments before he is murdered) before escaping to Maidenhead. Throughout the novel, Maidenhead represents for George a semi-mythical new beginning, and representing a picture of traditional Englishness in contrast to the seaminess of Earl's Court. However, in the closing pages of the novel the stark fallacy of that dream becomes apparent to George. It is the same as everywhere else. Now penniless, he gasses himself in a dingy Maidenhead boarding house. Wikipedia

Life Magazine 'A Round Table on the Movies' 27 June 1949

In 1950, Malc wanted to see his film script of Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night turned into a movie. Frank Taylor was keen to produce the movie which can be seen from the several letters written by Malc to Taylor.

In one letter dated 12 April 1950, Malc refers to an article in Life magazine about a conference on movies which included a round-table discussion involving Alistair Cooke who had been a contemporary of Malc's at Cambridge University.

You can read movie report in Life 27 June 1949.

Jean Epstein Finis Terrae Part 2

I have managed to find another clip of Epstein's wonderful movie Finis Terrae which I featured on the 19th Hole back in 2009 and still not available on DVD!



You can see a third clip on Wat.tv

Read a recent review of the film on Wonders in the Dark

De Mille's Male and Female 1919

Thanks awfully for the snap, GloriabetogoodnessBebedaniels-Swanson. I wish I could be a Thomas Meighan to you. But unfortunately my hair is untidy. My shoes always dirty. My face is a Z 15 model and above all - I am not Six Foot Two. Letter to Carol Brown 2nd June 1926

Malc's joke about gloria-be-to goodness, includes the names of the film stars Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels who along with Thomas Meighan starred in Cecil B. De Mille's film Male and Female 1919. Male and Female is famous for the scene pictured above when Gloria Swanson had to act with a lion. This amused me as there are countless references to lions in Malc's works which relate to Leo his star sign.



Male and Female is a 1919 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Its main themes are gender relations and social class. It is based on the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Crichton".


The film centers on the relationship between Lady Mary Loam (played by Gloria Swanson), a British aristocrat, and her butler, Crichton. Crichton fancies a romance with Mary, but she disdains him because of his lower social class. When the two and some others are shipwrecked on a desert island, they are left to fend for themselves in a state of nature. The aristocrats' abilities to survive are far worse than those of Crichton, and a role reversal ensues, with the butler becoming a king among the stranded group. Crichton and Mary are about to wed on the island when the group is rescued. Upon returning to Britain, Crichton chooses not to marry Mary; instead, he asks a maid, Tweeny (who had fancied Crichton throughout the film), to marry him, and the two move to the United States.



The film contains two famous scenes, indicative of de Mille's predilections as a filmmaker. An early scene depicts Gloria Swanson bathing in an elaborate setting, attended by two maids, lavishing her with rose-water and bath salts, silk dressing gown and luxurious towels. Toward the end of the film, a fantasy sequence about ancient Rome shows Swanson posed as Gabriel von Max's famous painting, "The Lion's Bride", which involved her being photographed with an actual lion.
Wikpedia Read more on Wikipedia

You can watch the whole movie below:

Pabst's Secrets of A Soul

Lowry mentions Pabst's Secrets of A Soul in his filmscript for Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night in a sequence where the character Dick Divers walks past cinemas on Broadway in New York where this film is showing.

Secrets of a Soul (German: Geheimnisse einer Seele) is a 1926 silent German drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.



Psychoanalysis was still a novelty to most people at the time this film was made. Pabst, who was very interested in Freud's writings, had the freedom to make any film he wanted after the major success of The Joyless Street. He decided to do a film about a neurosis. The result, the story of a man who seeks help for unwanted violent thoughts, is notable for its innovative techniques, while at the same time demonstrating a naiveté concerning its subject matter that gives it a permanently dated quality.

A professor (Werner Krauss) finds himself increasingly troubled by a murder that occurs in his neighborhood. At the same time he has learned of the return from abroad of a man who was a childhood friend both of him and his wife. After a strange intense nightmare, he begins to notice, to his horror, that the thought of murdering his wife comes frequently into his mind, and with more of a feeling of compulsion as time goes on. A chance meeting with a kindly psychoanalyst (Pawel Pawloff) leads to a long period of therapy, by which he eventually gains insight into the unconscious thoughts and motives that were causing his neurosis. He is cured, happily returning to the security of a loving marriage. Read more on Cine Scene.com

Rex Ingram's Mare Nostrum 1926

Lowry mentions Rex Ingram's Mare Nostrum in his filmscript for Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night in a sequence where the character Dick Divers walks past cinemas on Broadway in New York where this film is showing.

Mare Nostrum (1926) is a silent film set during World War I. It was the first production made in voluntary exile by Rex Ingram and starred his wife, Alice Terry, in the title role.



This novel by Blasco Ibáñez, written in 1917, was conceived during the First World War and, like the other two as part of this group, set in scenes of it.

In the films relating to it (to my knowledge) there are two movies, the first of 1926, directed by Rex Ingram (the director of The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse), starring Alice Terry Seen below with Rex Ingram) and Antonio Moreno, who also participated in other films of their works.



The other version dates from 1948 and is directed by Rafael Gil and performed by Maria Felix and Fernando Rey.

The plot of the novel is an apology for "Mare Nostrum" and the immense love that the author had it, tells the story of Ulises Ferragut, deep Mediterranean character: "The Mediterranean peoples were to Ferragut, the aristocracy of humanity, powerful weather had tempered man as anywhere else on the planet, giving it a dry strength and tough, tanned and bronzed by the sun and absorption of energy from the environment, his sailors went to the state of metal "

The novel begins with the children of Ferragut and his awakening to life and the desire to be a sailor, following the profession of his grandfather. This first chapter is a lesson in Greco-Roman mythology very interesting It tells, among others, the legend of "Peje Nicolao. In the night hours passed before the boats of his grandfather, Ulysses heard of "Peje Nicolao," a man-fish from the Strait of Messina, cited by Cervantes and other authors, who lived in the water remaining on the alms of the vessels. His uncle was a relative of "Peje Nicolao. Translated from Art e Y Libertad Read more

Flaherty's Moana (1926)

Lowry mentions Flaherty's Moana in his filmscript for Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night in a sequence where the character Dick Divers walks past cinemas on Broadway in New York where this film is showing.

Moana (1926) is a documentary film, the first docufiction in the history of cinema, directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North (1922). Moana was filmed in Samoa in the villages of Safune on the island of Savai'i. The name of the lead male character, moana means 'ocean' in the Samoan language.

In making the film, Flaherty lived with his wife and children in Samoa for more than a year. Flaherty arrived in Samoa in April 1923 and stayed until December 1924, with the film being completed in December 1925.



Savai’i, a Samoan island. Near the village of Safune, Moana pulls taro root from the ground and peels it while his betrothed Fa’angase bundles leaves, his mother Tu’ungaita carries mulberry sticks and his younger brother Pe’a helps them. Setting off for the village, they set a trap for wild boar, the forest’s only dangerous animal, which they subsequently capture. Moana, Fa’angase, and Pe’a go spear-fishing, along with Moana’s older brother Leupenga. Back in the village, Tu’ungaita makes back-cloth for a lavalava, a native dress. Pe’a binds his feet together and climbs a tree for coconuts, then starts a fire with coconut shells on the beach to cook a “robber-crab”. The group wrestle with a giant turtle and load it into their canoe; Fa’angase eats live fish. In the village. Tu’ungaita prepares a meal. Moana is anointed with oil before performing the siva dance with Fa’angase. Preparations are made for Moana’s tattooing by the tufunga (tattooer) and the villagers, and then the ceremony takes place. The village chief drinks kava and the dancing continues. In their hut, Moana’s father Tama and Tu’ungaita watch Pe’a sleeping; outside, Moana and Fa’angase perform their lively dance of betrothal. Read more on Jonathan Rosenbaum.com



Postcript

I was asked to post some more images from the film by a reader - here we go:





I have also managed to find an advert for the film showing on Broadway:

The Flesh and The Devil

Lowry mentions Clarence Brown's The Flesh and The Devil in his filmscript for Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night in a sequence where the character Dick Divers walks past cinemas on Broadway in New York where this film is showing.