High hopes… Stranded (1927), Edward Lorusso Kickstarter

 

I’m a sucker for a film about film and whilst many might think of Show People I go back to Eleanor Boardman in Souls for Sale (1923) and also the lost film Merton of the Movies (1924) the source novel for which, by Harry Leon Wilson, thankfully survives along with a few plates showing the film’s stars, Glenn Hunter and Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath). The novel allows your mind to run wild with the ideas of Merton sleeping out on the set hoping for his big break, the film craze was in full flight and people did indeed make desperate attempts to make it big against all the odds.

 

This film, transferred in lovely 2k from the Library of Congress’ 35mm copy, is Edward Lorusso’s 25^th Kickstarter project and it was once again successful enabling Ed to enlist David Drazin to provide a lively jazz-aged new score for this delightful slice of life story. The story came from Anita Loos, who was a big enough draw at tis point to get mentioned on the promotional material, assisted by Frances Guihan with witty titles from West Indian writer Wyndham Gittens. Loos’ next film project was the first production of her novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928).

 

The star here is one Leonie Flugrath, aka Shirley Mason who is the younger sister of the aforementioned Viola and bears more than a passing resemblance as you’d expect. I’d say she was more of a classically good-looking star and with a “leading lady” persona that lacks Viola’s intensity and spunk. I have seen more of Viola and she’s a more rounded actor but then who knows what else young Shirley had in the tank.

Shirley Mason and the Godlike Genius that was Gale Henry!

Here she’s very sweet and sympathetic as Sally Simpson, a young woman in a small town who has reached a crisis point in her life, stranded between her love for Johnny Nash (William Collier Jr.) and her dreams of “making it” in Hollywood. Johnny can offer her security as well as love and yet she wants to try her hand at fame, eve though she’s very little preparation for this endeavour… The American Dream is a bit vague but that doesn’t stop her mother played by the great Florence Turner – yes, "The Vitagraph Girl" who spent time in Britain making Daisy Doodad's Dial (1914) and others.

 

Despite protests from Grandmother (Lucy Beaumont) and falling out with Johnny – who, not unreasonably, suggests that acting training as well as talent may be necessary – Sally duly heads off West, with a young boy sent by Johnny to hand over chocolates and an apology note, just missing his mark. Sally is on her own and Johnny doesn’t know if she got his peace offering or not.

 

In Hollywood Sally gets an early break and meets up with a host of extras earning $5 a day. One of the older heads, Lucille Lareaux played by the marvellous Gale Henry, knows the ropes and tries to advise the younger woman as well as to set expectations but when she does engineer a big chance for Sally she completely blows it… she just can’t act and it’s painful to watch.

 

So, unlike Show People et al, Stranded is dealing with the downside of Hollywood and it’s now not so much will Sally make it but will she manage to avoid the salacious scheming of Grant Payne (John Miljan) a self-styled friend of the stars and man in the know who trues to seduce the young woman with great promises…

 

Directed by Phil Rosen, the story races along and Shirley Mason makes for a winsome leading lady just as John Miljan excels at the evil. It’s the kind of film that would please cinema goers at the time and a reminder of the nature of so much cinema during this high-volume period. As the saying goes: they can’t all be classics… but in its way, Stranded is, a classic example.

 

Very few of Mason’s films survive and it’s to Mr Lorusso’s credit that he’s made this one available as well as Shirley’s The Apple Tree Girl (1917) and The Awakening of Ruth (1917) along with two of Viola Dana’s films. In addition to working on a number of Marion Davies films, Ed’s also written the definitive book on her cinematic works which I can highly recommend.

 

I’ve said it before, “blessed are the Kickstarters” but everything is driven by curious and determined characters like this and I commend Mr Larusso’s ongoing efforts just as I back his next project, The Enchanted Cottage (1924) – details here! The funding stage is completed but if you missed that it should be available later through Grapevine Video.

 

Mary Pickford, J. Farrell MacDonald and John Harvey

There’s an added bonus of a delightful and very rare short film, The Lighthouse Keeper (1911), directed by Thomas H. Ince and staring young Mary Pickford as Polly, a young woman caught in a tug of love between honest Tom Atkins (John Harvey) and the no-good Bert Duncan (William E. Shay) who tries to get his revenge after the two are married. Unluckily for him, Polly’s steadfast father, Nat (J. Farrell MacDonald), won’t let his lighthouse be used to doom his daughter and son-in-law.

 

As with Stranded, this was transferred from a Library of Congress print and has its original tints, some new (?) title cards and some cracking shots of the raging sea. Ed Lorusso provides the music this time and it’s a job thoroughly well done! 

Ed’s films have been broadcast on TCM and screened elsewhere. Grapevine Video have also made some available on home media which is what I hope will happen in this case: Shirley Mason and her co-stars deserve to be recalled and their skills appreciated anew by the silent film curious and around the world. We just can’t get enough of new old stuff!

Florence Turner

Would you trust this man? 

The lost world… Merton of the Movies (1924)

"This is such a good picture that we intend seeing it again at the first opportunity we have."

New York Times, September 8, 1924

Recent research from the Library of Congress has concluded that up to 75% of American films made before the advent of sound have been lost. How much does this add to the allure of silent film and do we count ourselves especially lucky to be able to watch that which survives? There’s no way of knowing how many classic have been dumped and whether what remains is almost by definition the best, the most watched and the most cherished? But, without doubt, many great films will never be seen again and many entertaining films that might have added to our appreciation of the period and its entertainments.

Aside from bemoan their loss, what can we actually do about non-extant films? Maybe the answer is to try and put them in context and to try and give them some kind of existence in memory.

Maybe, like Bradbury’s characters in Fahrenheit 451, we should all task ourselves with committing to memory at least one silent film so that it lives on in some way… maybe by drawing together the available information we can somehow resurrect them at least enough to catch a glimpse of what might-have-been and what actually-was…

Viola Dana and Glenn Hunter

Merton of the Movies is a lost film from 1924 directed by James Cruze, starring Glenn Hunter (who had earlier featured in Smilin' Through) and Viola Dana (star of many dozens of films from 1910 onwards including Children of Eve)  and which enjoyed some success being nominated as one of the top ten films of the year by the New York Times.

It was based on a 1919 book written by Harry Leon Wilson who also wrote The Ruggles of Red Gap which was later turned into a film starring Charles Laughton... In 1922, the book was adapted into a Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and a tie-in novel was published including stills from that production.

My copy of the 1922 edition, issued to tie in with the play's success: thanks Mary!

My friend Mary found a copy for 75c in a bookstore near where she lives in Santa Barbara and kindly sent it to me knowing it would be just my cup of tea. So now, ladies and gentlemen, I am able to re-tell the story of the book that led to the play and then onto the film and let your imaginations fill in the rest with the aid of the few shots that remain…

The book begins with some very dense, florid prose as cowboy Buck Benson does battle with one Snake le Vasquez for the honour of city girl Estelle St. Clair… you wonder if this is just aged creaky style but its Wilson’s post-modern humour poking fun at not just the movies but also our dreamy devotion to them.

Buck confronts Snake le Vasquez

 The participants turn out to be two showroom dummies and one stock room one: Merton Gill (Glenn Hunter) who whiles away his working hours daydreaming of being a western film star. He is employed by Mr Gashwiler (Charles Sellon) at his general store and is saving every penny for his big chance in Hollywood.

Merton has an ally in Tessie Kearns (Gale Henry) who writes scenarios in her spare time – none yet published – as well as accompanying Merton on frequent trips to the local movie house. He worships BB the star of dramatic serials and rather looks down on the slapstick shorts served on the undercard: real drama was worth more than laughter.

Soon Merton heads off to chance his hand with his savings and the promise of his old job back if things don’t work out - Mr Gashwiler obviously seeing nothing much to lose in the extension of such generosity…

Merton finds room and board and begins a daily routine of looking for work as an extra at the Holden Studios where BB films her serials… part-stalker, part-dreamer, you wish Merton the best but you’re not convinced he’ll get very far.

Flips buys Merton a square meal (image thanks to Jay Parrino...)

He encounters others on the fringes of the business including Mr. Montague (Charles Ogle) and his daughter Sally – nicknamed “Flips” (Viola Dana) who seems to have a finger in every pie and to know everybody and everything. Merton decides he doesn’t like her “frivolity” he prefers that movies are taken more seriously.

Wilson’s construction of cohesive inner dialogue for Merton is expert and you wonder how this could ever be translated onto the silent screen – a voice-over would help explain the young man’s nativity and an earnestness that blinds him to neuro-typical responses almost throughout the whole book.

Flips sees something in him and she persuades slapstick specialist  Jeff Baird (DeWitt Jennings) that his unflinching seriousness will have hilarious results when placed in the context of the latter’s silly comedies. Young Merton also bears more than a passing resemblance to  Harold Parmalee (Elliott Rothe), a successful and serious dramatic actor.

The formidable Flips

So it is that Merton gets into the movies thinking that he’s filming the start of a new serious strain of from the joker and his wobble-eyed cast (any resemblance to Ben Turpin is entirely deliberate…). But it’s vital that in order to be the joke, Merton mustn’t get the joke and Wilson works very hard to enable Baird’s hood-winking to succeed. His every improvised excuse for how things look is rapidly assimilated as justification for some of the extremes Merton must endure.

Things go well but Flips worries about how he’ll react when he discovers the truth… in spite of it all she’s going soft on the guy.

But Bairns thinks only good can come from being successful and even laughter is better than no applause at all… He rushes Merton into his next feature and aims to complete that before the cat is let out of the bag.

No spoilers… you can’t see the film but you really should read the book! There’s also a remake featuring Red Skelton in 1947 but it’s also fair to say that Show People owes more than a little to Merton.

Merton is so well-informed about the movies, how they’re made and how the effort in front of the camera can only truly be appreciated once all of the editing, cutting and post-production has been completed. Merton’s nights on the lot show evidence of Wilson’s depth of research and it’s especially fascinating to get a glimpse of the production process. Most of all, the attitude of the film-makers to what was already a massively successful business, is so revealing: the clichés were already in place probably a decade before the book was written.

Glenn Hunter in the play

The play was a huge success and Glenn Hunter had starred in one of the touring products. You can imagine he’d do very well in this role but Photoplay thought Charlie Ray would have been better. The New York Times was rather more enthused:

"Mr. Hunter's performance is all that could be wished. He makes Merton wistful and hopeful... While he is pathetic, he is persistent, and his frowns and smiles, his puffed-out chest and speaking eyebrows keep one constantly interested, and often stir one to hilarity."

Glenn Hunter as Merton as Buck

The Times described Viola Dana as splendid and you can imagine how she’d cope very well with the wise-cracking Flips, always addressing life on the balls of her feet – up for anything!

Ultimately, it’s hard to do anything other than imagine which bits of the 335 page novel would have informed the film and perhaps the play might provide a closer fit (it’s downloadable from the Internet Archive). But the book, as all source materials, stands on its own right and is stillavailable from Amazon. Second hand copies are also on eBay, later editions without dust-jackets are quite affordable, but a mint copy of the first edition could set you back over $2,000.

Maybe one day the celluloid will be found… it’s a slim chance but every so often, cinematic dreams do come true as Merton himself would attest.