This Week
Let's go to the Movies and Rin Tin Tin
Wyatt Earp testifies at Spicer hearing
Writers Notebook: Somerset Maugham
Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 (Part 11)
During the mid 20's there was a lot of sorting out of studios, production companies, and producers. Warner Brothers, Sam Goldwyn and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were the main players.
Warner Brothers, one of Hollywood's most famous studios, was founded in 1923 by four brothers: Jack, Sam, Harry And Albert Warner. Although the brothers never seemed to get along with each other Warner Brothers Studio managed to produce some of the most memorable movies in the history of Hollywood.
Warner Brothers Studio was originally located at 5800 Sunset Blvd. Right in the heart of Hollywood just a few blocks east of DeMille's Yellow Barn where the Squaw Man was made and not far from Gower Gulch and Paramount Studios.
Warner's first true success was a short 'Where the North Begins' starring the the famous dog, that came out of World War I, Rin Tin Tin.
But Rin Tin Tin wasn't the only success to come out of those early days. Darryl F. Zanuck, later to become one of Hollywood's top producers, came out of that early Warner Brothers experience. (There was another more profound event that happened at that studio in 1927, which we talk about next week.)
Sam Goldwyn was never a part of the famous MGM Studio that used his name and original logo. Leo the lion and the Goldwyn name were left over from the old Goldwyn Pictures when he sold his interest in the company to Metro Films. Sam Goldwyn was a corner stone of MGM, but Sam was long gone before Marcus Loew and Louis B. Mayer formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer out in Culver City.
MGM headed by Louis B. Mayer moved into its headquarters in 1924 and over the next several years the studio grew faster and signed more stars than any other Los Angeles area production company.
Sam Goldwyn had been a part of several production companies Lasky Famous Players, Paramount, the Goldwyn Company, which was acquired by Marcus Loew to be part of his Metro Pictures.
Sam apparently marched to a different drummer and eventually set up his own company Samuel Goldwyn Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Sam Goldwyn did it his way and produced quality and successful films for the next 35 years.
Using Variety's reviews as a benchmark some of the notable films of 1924 and 1925.
Beau Brummell 1924 Warner Brothers: Variety panned the film, the cast John Barrymore and Mary Astor and director Harry Beaumont.
The Big Parade 1925 MGM: Variety gives high marks to director King Vidor, and said, 'John Gilbert's performance is a superb thing...' 'Teamwork has made this picture. It makes 'em, laugh, cry, and it thrills – plenty. Besides which the captions are an example and a lesson for how it should be done.'
The Eagle 1925 UA: Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Blanky and Louise Dresser. The cast and film win approval from Variety with special high marks for Louise Dresser.
The Gold Rush 1925 UA: Charlie Chaplin carries this rags to riches story off with ease and gives his audience a long look at the Chaplin genius.
The Navigator 1924 Metro-Goldwyn: Buster Keaton's stoic face and physical comedy make up for the lack of a story line. Keaton scores in spite of a bad script.
The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Universal: According to Variety's review the film is dull along with Lon Chaney's performance. Not one of Chaney's best.
The Sea Hawk 1924 First National: Milton Sills, Enid Bennett and Wallace Beery bring the story to life from the first reel according to Variety and they keep the action at a high level throughout the film.
Sherlock, Jr. 1924 Keaton/Metro: Variety pans. 'This Buster Keaton feature length comedy is about as unfunny as a hospital operating room.' The reviewer seems to think that it did have one clever moment toward the end of the film, but he concludes 'The rest is bunk.'
Stella Dallas 1925 Goldwyn/UA: Bella Bennett, Ronald Coleman, Alice Joyce, Jean Hersholt and Lois Moran are the players that Henry King directs in Frances Marion's scenario. King tells the story simply and directly. The two outstanding performances are turned in by Bella Bennett and Lois Moran.
Thief of Bagdad 1924 Fairbanks/UA: Director Raoul Walsh takes his audience on a fantasy, fairytale and keeps them suspended in aw for a 155 minutes with his picture version of the Arabian Nights. Douglas Fairbanks and Anna May Wong win honors for their acting roles.
Ben-Hur 1925 MGM: Director Fred Niblo, producer Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg. Scenario; Bess Meredyth, Casey Wilson, June Mathis, Katherine Hilliker, H.H. Caldwell.
Cast; Ramon Navarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Carmel Myers.
Excerpts from Variety review. 'Ben Hur is a picture that rises above spectacle, even though it is spectacle. On the screen it isn't the chariot race or the great battle scenes between the fleet of Rome and the pirate galley's of Golthar. It is the tremendous heart throbs that one experiences leading to those scenes that make them great...'
'As to individual performances: First the Mary of Betty Bronson. It is without doubt the most tremendous individual score that any actress has ever made, with but a single scene, a couple of close ups. And in the color scenes she appears simply superb...'.
'Then as to Ramon Navarro: anyone that sees him in this picture will have to admit that he is without doubt a man's man and one hundred percent of that. Francis X. Bushman does a comeback in the role of the heavy, Messala that makes him stand alone...'
Also the rest of the cast received their individual plaudits for jobs well done.
Film clips:
The Eagle 1925 for video Click Here
The Thief of Bagdad 1924 for video Click Here
Ben Hur 1925 MGM for video Click Here
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone'
Excerpt from Spicer hearing. Wyatt Earp continues his testimony.
"Overruled," Judge Spicer snapped, "Continue Mr. Earp.”
Wyatt said, "About one month after that I met Frank and Tom McLowry in Charleston. They tried to pick a fuss out of me down there and told me that if I ever followed them up again as close as I did before, they would kill me. The first incident that had to do with the Clanton’s was back when myself and Doc Holliday happened to go to Charleston. We went there for the purpose of getting a horse that had been stolen from me.”
Wyatt then directed a stare at Ike Clanton before saying, "I had heard that the Clanton's had him. I was told by a friend that the man who carried the dispatch from Charleston to Ike Clanton's ranch had rode my horse. I filed papers about the
stolen horse and some days later heard the animal was in a Charleston corral. I proceeded from Tombstone to Charleston, went to said corral and found my horse. Billy Clanton was there and tried to intercede by taking the horse away, but I stopped him. After seeing the papers, Billy backed off and gave up the horse. Following this he made the comment, asking me, ‘If I had anymore horses to lose."
Wyatt frowned. "Bud Philpot was killed by those men who tried to rob the Benson stage. And as a detective I helped to trace the matter up, and I was satisfied that
three men, named Billy Leonard, Harry Head and Jim Crane were in on that robbery. I knew that Leonard, Head and Crane were friends and associates of the Clanton’s and McLowry’s. It was generally understood among officers and those who know about criminals that Ike Clanton was a chief amongst the cowboys. That the Clanton’s and McLowry’s were cattle thieves and generally in the secrets of the stage robbers and that
the Clanton and McLowry ranches were meeting places for the gang.”
Wyatt stopped talking for a few moments, looked out at the gallery and said earnestly, "I wanted to run for sheriff of this county. And I thought it would be of great help to me, with the people and business community if I could capture the men who killed Philpot. There were rewards of almost twelve hundred dollars each for the capture of the robbers Leonard, Head and Crane."
"I would like to point out that the name Holliday was not mentioned in that group. Doc Holliday had nothing to do with that tragedy”
Then in a sober business-like tone Wyatt said, "I went to Ike Clanton, Frank McLowry and Joe Hill when they came in town. I talked to them in the back yard of the Oriental Saloon. I told them what I wanted. I said I wanted the glory of capturing Leonard, Head and Crane and if I could do that, it would help me make the race for sheriff. I said if they would put me in a position to capture those three -- they would get all the reward.”
(To Be Continued)
Writers Notebook:
Somerset Maugham:
‘Truth is not only stranger than fiction it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.’
Truman Capote would probably agree and point to his nonfiction ‘In Cold Blood.’
Hemingway might disagree and go back to his general stand that in fiction you’ll find more real truth than in nonfiction.
As a bystander, I’d just like to see the debate.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://hurricanehunter.blogspot.com
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