BACKSTAIRS
***½
Germany
A postman is secretly in love with a maid, who loves another man.
A 'chamber piece' born from the
same movement as the year's rather more impressive "Shattered". This one is also completely stripped of
intertitles but, although certainly competent, it's not terribly
compelling up until its well-mounted climax.
dir: Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni
cast: Henny Porten, William Dieterle, Fritz Kortner
THE BLOT
****
USA
The family of an underpaid professor is struggling to get by, while their
immigrant neighbours flaunt their wealth.
Probably the main reason this early social drama has survived is the
fact that its director had a vagina. Thankfully, she was also a talented,
intelligent filmmaker that recognized the dramatic tension in everyday
social set-ups. She coaxes naturalistic performances out of her actors and
perceptively builds on small character details, even if she does
occasionally vilify the immigrants purely for being rich labourers. Then she
explodes into full-on shameless didacticism for the film's final reel, but
it's healthier to just ignore these last few minutes and appreciate what
went on beforehand.
dir: Lois Weber
wr: Marion Orth, Lois Weber
cast: Philip Hubbard, Margaret McWade, Louis Calhern, Claire Windsor
THE KID
*****
LEAVES
FROM SATAN'S BOOK
****
Denmark
A shameless aping of D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916), but
without the cross-cutting or the dramatic grip.
The four stories told in this, one of Carl Theodor Dreyer's
early pictures, are examples of the kind of turgidity that once stood for
prestige but today merely passes for turgidity. One is about Jesus and
Judas, one is about the Spanish Inquisition, one is about Marie Antoinette
and the French Revolution, and one is about those evil Reds invading
Finland.
It's right-wing Christian doctrine but rendered so sterile by
age as to be perfectly harmless. So it's okay for you to enjoy the often
astonishingly pretty imagery. Dreyer does lovely things with chiaroscuro
and backlighting. The whites have an ethereal glow. He occasionally resort
to tinting, which is a misstep because it mutes the visual contrast, but
it doesn't last long enough at any one time to bother you very much.
dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
ph: George Schnéevoigt
cast: Helge Nissen, Halvard Hoff, Jacob Texiere, Hallander
Helleman, Ebon Strandin, Johannes Meyer, Tenna Kraft, Clara Pontoppidan,
Carlo Wieth
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DER MÜDE TOD
****
Germany
A young woman tries to save her lover from Death, who tries to demonstrate
to her, through three stories set in exotic locales, that she is
powerless.
A flamboyant, primitive extravaganza with elaborate sets and crude
special effects, very openly patterned after D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance"
(1916). It never cashes in on the eeriness it initially develops and
the three exotic sub-stories can be quite comfortably written off as
distractions - and pretty silly ones, at that. But it does entertain, and
much of it is striking to look at.
dir: Fritz Lang
ph: Bruno Mondi, Erich Nitzschman, Harrman Saalfrank, Bruno
Timm, Fritz Arno Wagner
ad: Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig, Harmann Warm
cast: Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Bernhard Goetzke
SHATTERED
****½
Germany
The quiet, isolated life of a railroad track-worker living with his wife
and daughter, is shattered by the arrival of a railroad inspector.
A superbly paced example of the brief 'kammerspiel' (or, if you prefer,
chamber play) movement that makes you wish the same year's "Backstairs"
wasn't more or less the only other surviving one. The focus rests squarely
on human psychology and behaviour and although the performances are far
from naturalistic, they're quite impressive.
dir: Lupu Pick
wr: Carl Mayer, Lupu Pick
cast: Werner Krauss, Edith Posca, Hermine Straßmann-Witt, Paul Otto
TOL'ABLE DAVID
**½
USA
The idyllic life of an Appalachian family is threatened by the arrival of
three bandits.
Admirers of this backwoods variation on the David and Goliath story
included the great Vsevolod Pudovkin. It's not necessarily easy to
understand why.
dir: Henry King
cast: Richard Barthelmess, Gladys Hulette, Ernest Torrence, Warner
Richmond
TOO WISE WIVES
**½
USA
A well-off housewife worries that she'll lose her husband to his old
flame.
One of the lesser Lois Weber productions of the year. Despite the
director's trademark attention to detail, her focus on the otherwise
neglected female perspective and her insistence on naturalistic
performances, both the characters and situations in this picture are
ultimately just petty.
dir: Lois Weber
cast: Claire Windsor, Louis Calhern, Mona Lisa, Phillips Smalley
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