The Eagle (1925) **

Rudolph Valentino was an attractive man with an aura of sophistication.  While Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd ruled comedy in the silent film era, Valentino, along with John Gilbert, reigned supreme when it came to dramatic romantic heroes.  I have only seen a few of his films, but from what I’ve watched of his work, Valentino excelled at looking good while not doing that much.  Now, I don’t mean that as a jab—quite the opposite, actually.  Many silent era actors and actresses had a bad habit of over-emoting and over-using facial gestures and hand movements. Valentino, at least in The Eagle (1925), avoids such behaviors.  Yes, the overall plot is ridiculous, but at least the acting was not (except James A. Marcus—he was bad).

Vladimir Dubrovsky (Valentino) is a lieutenant in the Russian Imperial Guard. His daring rescue of a runaway carriage and the Czarina’s (Louise Dresser) prized horse places him in the path of Catherine II.  Obviously hot to trot, even while wearing an unflattering military uniform, the Czarina wants Vladimir as her new conquest.  When he rebuffs her advances the Czarina puts a bounty out on his head. This, in turn, causes him to return home just in time to find his father (Spottiswoode Aitken) broke and dying.  The Dubrovsky estate has been stolen by a cowardly heel named Kyrilla Troekouroff (Marcus).  Vladimir takes an oath of vengeance and begins wearing a black mask and calling himself the Black Eagle—yes, if this sounds a bit like Zorro, it is, but there is no Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. 

What is unusual about The Eagle is that although there is romantic drama, it is a comedy at heart.  Valentino was not really known for his comedic skills, but in this picture he gets to showcase his natural comedic abilities.  He not only plays a man riding the Russian countryside wearing a black mask, but he also impersonates a French tutor in order to get close to Kyrilla’s daughter, Mascha (Vilma Banky), whom he finds quite beautiful.  The film turns into a bit of a farce once Mascha figures out who her tutor really is, which affords Valentino an opportunity to use that twinkle in his eye for more than seducing women. 

Stylistically The Eagle is remembered for a tracking shot of a banquet table full of guests and food.  Director Clarence Brown was one of the few silent directors who had an enormously successful career in the talkies.  He had an eye for naturalism, and it shows with how he handles his actors in this movie.  He obviously knew how to work with “personalities” because he often found himself directing not only Hollywood stars like Valentino, but Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford as well.

While the ending of The Eagle is completely absurd, overall it is an entertaining movie.  Valentino and Banky have nice chemistry—neither one seems to dominate the other and the play well together. Marcus is a bit of a ham, but his character was worth a laugh or two.  And, poor Dresser gets to play an aging Czarina who would rather have people shot than be rejected sexually.  So, even though the story is ridiculous, at least the movie is full of delightful characters.

 

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) **

What is the price of fame? According to this 1925 silent classic staring Lon Chaney a deal with the devil…no, no, no that’s Faust; I mean a creepy Phantom. Please excuse my mistake; it was an easy one to make seeing as the opera performed in this film is Faust. Coincidence? I think not.

Christine (Mary Philbin), the understudy to the prima donna, has a mysterious voice coach who first communicates to her through the walls and then later in a face to mask meeting that she will be the star of the show, but only if she gives everything up but him and the opera. No, she’s not a schizophrenic, just so hell-bent on being a diva that she’ll do just about anything to get ahead—think Mariah Carey in the Tommy Mottola years. He causes all kinds of mischief to ensure this—threatening notes to the lackluster prima donna and dropping a chandelier on the audience to end a performance. Christine’s very annoying boyfriend, Raoul, wants her to give it all up and marry him, and since she is starting to get weirded out by the Phantom she agrees. This makes the Phantom jealous and so he kidnaps Christine and takes her to his man-cave. Instead of seeing posters of his favorite team and his collection of shot glasses, she sees his hideous skullface. To emphasize how shocking his face was the camera actually went out of focus. Eventually, Christine is rescued and the Phantom is chased by an angry mob to his drowning death in the Seine.

This film is ultra-melodramatic, but it is watchable due to the creepiness of Lon Chaney’s Phantom and the great set designs. The underground tunnel scenes are the best, with the unmasking of the Phantom and Raoul’s near-death experience in a torture room where the heat is unbearable (see Hell and Faust), Personally, I wished he had used the provided noose. But I digress. Anyway, the music is eerie and Lon Chaney is stellar. A good watch in October.

The Big Parade (1925) **

Why is this 1925 King Vidor classic the top-grossing (worldwide) silent film of all time? I suppose people were willing to pay the price of admission to see one of the most realistic war films of the silent era.

Released just eight years after the end of the Great War, this film follows the story of Jim Apperson (played by John Gilbert) from reluctant volunteer to disabled war hero. Jim is a bored, rich young man who allows his naive fiancée to convince him to enlist. Off to war and quartered in France, Jim befriends Slim Jensen and Bull O’Hara (no relation to Scarlet) and falls for French shop girl Melisande. She’s easy on the eyes, but what makes her really attractive to Jim is that he can’t understand a word she’s saying. Any man’s dream…

Later on his unit is ordered to the front at Belleau Wood. The battle scenes are elaborately designed and heart-wrenching to watch. When they get bogged down in No Man’s Land, surrounded by snipers and a machinegun nest, the commander orders Jim, Bull, and Slim to take out the nest. Slim goes first and takes out the nest, but on his way back he’s injured and lies in the battlefield moaning in agony. This is too much for Jim and Bull and they try to rescue him, but Bull is killed and Jim is shot in the leg. Jim becomes enraged—comparable only to the rage of a man who has been stood up at the altar by a Swedish beauty. Anyway, this is where one of the more memorable scenes takes place. Jim stalks a German sniper into a trench and is about to slit his throat when the German motions for a cigarette. Compassionately, Jim gives him one and soon the soldier dies right next to him.

Later Jim is rescued by a Red Cross truck and while recuperating in the hospital he learns that Melisande’s village has been bombed. He grabs a crutch and hitches a ride on a truck. He finds Melisande’s village leveled and as he’s calling out for his love the town is shelled again. Jim is injured again in the leg, so much so that it is amputated. Returning home crippled he finds his finance in love with his brother and he returns to France and is reunited with Melisande.

The battle scenes in this film are great. This is not a sanitized view of war. The drudgery, cruelty, and mind-blowing death and destruction that encompass war are realistically depicted. John Arnold’s photography is superb.

This film literally reinvigorated the public’s interest in war films. If you are a fan of such films as Saving Private Ryan or Paths of Glory you must watch this film. A true cinematic gem from the silent era.

The Gold Rush (1925) **

For all you silent-haters who don’t appreciate the genius of Charlie Chaplin, the star of this 1925 classic, all I have to say to you is this: Cluck you!

The Gold Rush in question does not take place in 1849 California (though the snowy mountain scenes were filmed in the Sierra Nevada), but nearly fifty years later in the Klondike of Alaska. Like countless others, the Tramp is in search of his fortune when a snowstorm forces him to take shelter in a mountainside cabin. This is where he meets Big Jim McKay (who has just found a “Mountain of Gold” but he keeps this on the DL) and baddie Black Larsen. When the three men run out of food they draw cards and Larsen has to go in search of food. Unfortunately for Big Jim and the Tramp, Larsen is a wanted man and when he runs into 2 police officers he kills them. He later stumbles upon Big Jim’s claim. Meanwhile, the duo enjoys the famous Thanksgiving Feast of boiled boot (really black licorice)—the Martha Stewart recipe closely followed. The savoring of every part of the boot the Tramp shows in this scene is hilarious. Later on Big Jim gets hungry again and starts to hallucinate that the Tramp is a chicken. Thus, ensues the classic chase between friend and fowl. Luckily for the Tramp, a bear wanders in and the Tramp shoots it—no more food shortage!

Later on the two men part ways and the Tramp goes to a mining town, where he falls in love with dance hall girl Georgia. He invites her to a New Year’s Eve dinner, which she forgets to attend. This is the dinner where he performs the famous dinner roll dance. While all of this is happening Big Jim is having a run in with Larsen that results in amnesia for Jim and death by avalanche for Larsen. Big Jim meets up with the Tramp and tells him he can’t remember where the claim is but if they can find the cabin again he’s sure they’ll find the gold mine and become millionaires. They find the cabin just in time to endure a blizzard and bunker down for the night. The next morning they go about fixing breakfast unaware that the cabin is hanging halfway over a mountain. In one of the most comic action scenes of Chaplin’s career, Big Jim and the Tramp scramble to escape the teetering cabin just in time. They find the gold mine and make for home via boat. If there is one fault with this film it is that Georgia is on the boat and she and the Tramp end up together—I prefer the lovelorn Tramp.

This film is classic Chaplin: incredible physical comedy paired with hilarious sequences. One of the best Little Tramp films of all time—it’s difficult to pick between this and Modern Times. A must see for a true film lover.

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) 1925 **

If you ever had to take a film class in college you watched this 1926 Soviet propaganda film by Sergei Eisenstein. You may have hated all 75 minutes of it, but you watched it and then wrote the review you thought your Eisenstein-worshiping professor wanted to read. Am I wrong? Perhaps. I do know a lot of people who think it’s great and I do think it was very important to the development of film, but it is not my favorite film.

There are three things this film is known for: the use of montage, violent images, and the famous baby carriage careening down the steps of Odessa. I’d say there was a fourth, that Joseph Goebbels thought the film was brilliant and took copious notes to use later in his duties as Nazi propaganda minister, but I know Eisenstein would like that to be kept on the down low—especially since in the film an angry mob attacks a bourgeois when he yells (via title card) “Down with the Jews.” I think Goebbels must have just remembered the title card!

The Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917 (just 8 years prior to the release of this film), but it wasn’t the first attempt to throw of the chains of Czarism. In fact, the Russians had a revolution in 1905; the same year that this story takes place. This is not a coincidence because sailors of the Battleship Potemkin did have a mutiny and there were political protests in 1905. However, don’t think this is a historically accurate film, because there never was a massacre on the Odessa steps.

The film itself is broken into 5 segments: 1. Sailors protest eating maggoty meat (and who wouldn’t!), 2. Sailors mutiny and their leader, Vakulynchuk, is killed, 3. The mourning of Vakulynchuk by Odessa, 4. The massacre on the Odessa staircase, and 5.Soldiers and sailors unite against tyranny. The most famous of these is the Odessa staircase sequence. This is where a mother pushing a baby carriage falls to her death and as she falls she nudges the baby carriage, causing it to roll down the steps amid chaos. Another famous scene is when the woman is shot in the eye (through her glasses). These scenes have been imitated in such films (but many more) as The Untouchables, Bonnie and Clyde, Foreign Correspondent, and most recently in Inglorious Bastards.

Eisenstein was a master of evoking emotion through montage. He was a master manipulator in this regard. His creation of images that stay with you long after seeing the film is striking. This is an important piece of film history, but not a film that just anyone will enjoy—including some former students who took History of the Motion Picture 101—you know who you are—kiss-ups.

Seven Chances (1925) **

Whoever said 7 was a lucky number never met Jimmie Shannon—the hero of this film who must be married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday if he is to inherit $7 million. Doesn’t sound so unlucky to you, huh? What if I told you he learns this news on his 27th birthday with only a few hours to spare?

Buster Keaton stars in this 1925 silent classic race to the altar, where surprisingly women actually turn down marriage proposals that offer $7 million dowries. He offers this bonus bonanza to his true love first, but she’s miffed that he seems only ready to get married now that he must marry any girl to get his inheritance. Then he asks seven country club types and they all turn him down---perhaps if it had been Oct. 1929 they would have said yes. Anyway, an ad is taken out relating his predicament to the general female population and Jimmie goes to the church to wait for any takers. Asleep in the front pew, Jimmie soon awakes to a church filled with eager brides. What ensues is a madcap chase of angry would-be brides pursuing their ticket to fur coats and butlers named Ruggles. In the end, the sweetheart forgives and the couple is married at exactly 7 o’clock—all in a day’s work.

This is not Keaton’s best film, but it is funny and has a few good stunt scenes. Most notable of these scenes is the falling rock sequence where not only does Keaton have crazed women chasing him but deadly rocks as well. Less than an hour long, the film, with its comical elements and action sequences, is a good way to introduce a silent film virgin to the genre.