Blessed are the Kickstarters… Zander the Great (1925), Edward Lorusso with Ben Model

Even with the vast majority of silent films lost, there continue to be new discoveries or at least new re-emergences and re-evaluations. Edward Lorusso wrote in his excellent book, The Silent Films of Marion Davies published in 2017 that this film was “largely forgotten” and was only extant outside of the archives on a grainy grey-market VHS copy from Videolibrary. Mr Lorusso was clearly not going to let that lie and proceeded to set up a funding campaign via Kickstarter, his 17^th and 8^th for Marion which duly brought in double the backing after being funded in just four hours.

 

He was thus able to create a new scan of the 35mm print from the Marion Davies Collection in the Library of Congress which is not only in very good condition but also contains the original tints making this one of the loveliest looking digital offerings. Ben Model provides an expertly improvised organ score and the plan is to release the film more widely through his company, Undercrank Productions. So, even if you missed this project, you’ll be able to see what is yet another truly entertaining Davies’ film at some point.

 

Directed by George W. Hill from a script by Lillie Hayward with Editorial Direction from Frances Marion, Zander represented something like a return to “normalcy” as Lorusso wrote, with epic costume drama left behind for a western with a strong moral core. This was the actresses first “Hollywood” film for MGM and allows her to show off her impressive and under-rated range, from comedic Pickford style kidding around as an orphan at the start, to the more dramatic episodes out West, romance and comedy hair cuts that have to be seen to be believed… especially relevant in this age of “Lockdown Haircuts”, if only more of us thought to use a bowl to guide the scissors!

Marion in motion

Marion kicks off in full Mary-mode as Mamie Smith a spirited orphan who has far too much energy to follow the rules of her orphanage in Weeweedin, New Jersey, nor the terrifying Matron (Emily Fitzroy keeping a glacial, straight face almost throughout). Exhibitors Trade Review noted that Marion’s appearance and interpretation were “strongly reminiscent” of Pickford and whilst that’s true, boy does she carry it off well. The same paper was also complimentary about Hill who was apparently the replacement for one Clarence Badger who producer and Davies’ partner and career counsellor, William Randolph Hearst, who also burned his footage before bringing in the replacement. Quite what Hearst wanted for Marion is open to interpretation… there’s no way this was going to be a great drama but perhaps he was simply trying to get the best for his friend?

 

Another reviewer, “A.S.” in Photoplay, described this opening section as a “turning point” in Davies’ career and a performance that will “place her in the rank of the Gishes, the Pickfords and Colleen Moore.” She’s certainly a whirlwind with her ponytails, freckles and sheer “bounce”. The perpetual motion Marion is also supported by some smart stunt work with a man in a dress carrying her huge laundry basket and riding her motorbike in dangerous fashion but not quick enough to defeat the modern freeze-frame; a tribute to the quality of the transfer.

 

Rescued by Hedda Hopper

Mamie goes too far and is badly beaten by the sadistic Matron before being rescued by the kindly Mr. Pepper (Richard Carle) before being shipped out from the orphanage to stay with a single mother Mrs. Caldwell (Hedda Hopper), and her small child Alexander whom Mamie calls Zander (who grows up to be played by Master Jack Huff). The house and surrounds look like something out of a fairy tale, especially in the gorgeous lilac tints and there’s some smart business involving a proposal from a local lad which is rejected in silhouette by a fully grown Mamie who wants to marry only for love.

 

Talking of which, Mrs Caldwell has been waiting years for her husband who has gone off to Mexico in search of his fortune and as the years pass she grows frailer as her hopes fade. She gets ill and when he finally writes to callously brush her off, Mamie pretends he’s arranging to meet her after establishing himself in Singletree, Arizona (there’s only one tree, do you see?). As she dies, Mamie promises to take her son to find his father there.

 

Now the film hits its stride as Mamie and Zander evade the attempts of the old orphanage to take in the boy and make their way out West in a battered Ford with both of Zander’s pet rabbits… this is a good film if you like Lagomorpha as, by the time they arrive, the two have become rather more, proving that old jokes really are pretty, pretty old.

 

Harrison Ford is also really good in this film

Mamie seeks refuge in a huge house – a very expressive set design – where she encounters two old hands, “Good News” (Harry Watson) and “Texas” (Harry Myers) who are going to be good for some slapstick whilst also being apart of a gang liquor smugglers. The gang’s leader, of Dan Murchison (Harrison Ford no, not that one… how many times Paul!?) takes an instant disinterest in Mamie until she takes her hat off and is revealed as a woman as beautiful as Marion Davies! A fourth horseman is revealed as Juan Fernández (Holbrook Blinn).

 

Dan’s all for kicking Mamie out until there’s a lightning raid by the local Sheriff, played by Hobart Bosworth who, as all those who’ve seen Behind the Door know, can give bad guys one hell of a beating! Mamie’s the domestic cover they need and there’s more as Dan reveals his real name… yes, he’s Zander’s long lost father and he means to change course.

 

Or. Does he? The bad guys are all relative and there’s a gang leader in the desert called Black Bart (George Siegmann) who’s just as keen as the law enforcement officers to end Dan’s trade in hootch. There’s a lot of moral issues piling up and you can be sure they’ll all be resolved one way or another in a breath taking finish featuring some smashing locations and Marion choking on gusts of sand whipped up under Randolph Heart’s specific instruction: he wanted her to be seen to suffer just as much as Lillian Gish on the ice in Way Down East… and it looks like she did. Amongst her impressive array of competencies seems to be physical resilience; no one can doubt that as troopers go, Marion was real!

 

That's acting, Rudolph!

So it came to pass that Zander the Great is no longer forgotten or grainy and grey, it’s part of our growing appreciation of Marion Davies the star and even if it’s not exactly a classic it is very much a film made by a genuinely classic star… For that Mr Larusso is owed a debt of gratitude by all of us who find the actress charming and highly skilled. Marion is being rehabilitated and I’ve no doubt that Mr Hurst would be pleased to know how much she is still truly loved.

 

The commercial release will be out in early 2022 and you'll be able to order direct from the Undercrank Productions site as this film joins Beauty’s Worth, The Bride’s Play, Little Old New York and the excellent When Knighthood Was in Flower, which was a Ben Model Kickstarter, on the roster. When the going gets tough the tough get Kickstartng and we can only be grateful for the enthusiasm, expertise and passion of both gentlemen!

 

There’s also a fascinating post on Ed’s website, Silent Room discussing the relationship between Chaplin and Davies as well as the former’s stunt work in this film. There’s no evidence of the lion taming scene apart from references in Davies and other biographies and the cue card proves it had gone by the final cut… all signs of wanting to avoid the opprobrium of Citizen Hearst or just a casualty of the widespread changes made by the magnet? Who knows… there are plenty of mysteries left in silent film as PH has so eloquently stated in her recent post about Le Giornate in Pordenone.

 

Forward into the past it shall be then… as always!

 

Keeping up appearances… Skinner's Dress Suit (1926), Kennington Bioscope with John Sweeney

“He enjoyed making nice medium pictures. Simply, easily, quietly.”   Reginald Denny describing his pal, director “Bill” Seiter.

Kevin Brownlow introduced this film – a print from his own collection - with a description of how he’d met its star Reginald Denny in 1964, many years after the British actor’s silent heyday and after decades of playing stock English characters in the talkies. Brownlow projected the film for Denny and his family and, despite the letters fears that the film might “creak” he was rewarded with an emphatically-amused response.

The same thing happened tonight aided and abetted by John Sweeney’s effortless period piano precision.

Skinner's Dress Suit is that rare thing a genuinely charming comedy featuring two vibrant leads – Denny and the lovely Laura La Plante who cut a rug almost as sharply as her platinum bob. In thrilling style, the two dance the Savannah Shuffle…. a variation on the Charleston – before leading a host of society types in trying to learn the steps.

Strictly Come Shuffling

Directed by William A. Seiter a keen golfer and close buddy of Denny’s the film never strains and the relaxed humour is testament to the compatible temperaments of both men: “we never had an argument, never a cross word, “he told Brownlow, “…and we always brought the picture in within budget...” Seiter was clearly a very able manager of time and people.

Denny plays Skinner and over-reaching and under-achieving office worker whose wife, Honey (LLP), keeps egging him on to get a raise. But Skinner not only doesn’t have the nerve he doesn’t really have the edge being walked all over by both his juniors and his superiors. Unable to tell Honey he’s been passed over yet again, he pretends that he’s had a $10 a week raise and the two start extending their credit starting with a party dress for her and a dress suit for him.

Both prove very useful after Skinner is taught the new dance craze, the Savannah, by fellow wage slave Miss Smith (a peppy Betty Morrissey) and simply everyone at the party they attend wants to learn it. Social mobility awaits but in keeping up appearances their credit gets stretched to the limit.

Laura La Plante and Reginald Denny

But gradually they are accepted by their snooty neighbours, The McLaughlin’s and are invited into higher society…

All comes crashing down when a major contract is lost and Skinner is the man to be let go… he hasn’t the heart to tell Honey as she entertains but has to fight off the repro men gathering for their furniture and the tailor who wants his fine dinner suit back.

There’s just one last chance… an invitation to the party of the season held by the Colby’s (Hedda Hopper and Henry Barrows) if they can make an impression Skinner could still save his social standing…Cue Mr Jackson (Lionel Braham) the man who withdrew his contract with Skinners firm and his wife (Lucille Ward) both eager themselves to get introduced to society… You can work out the rest but the story is so well pitched the resolution works as smoothly and reassuringly as you’d hope.

A really enjoyable mainstream slice of silent Hollywood and just the thing after my week of Vampire Counts and murderous priests!

Skinner negotiates with his tailor

On the undercard tonight was a selection of the really rare and fascinating a collection of unique 4k high definition scans of original nitrate prints made by Tony Saffery, taken from his personal collection. You’ll only find this kind of thing at The Bioscope folks… we are spoilt rotten!

Rambles around Mulhausen (c1920) was a genuinely stunning Pathecolour travelogue around Alsace and Sparta showing slices of the everyday in colour including folk dress that has “hardly the Bond Street flavour…” and a boy with a pig.

Adventures of little Nibs (1928) was a cartoon of Itchy and Scratchy style – bullets and brickes flying through the ultra-violent air of a city. Policemen are wanted “good pay, as long as you live” and Nib’s pal Mike gets a job meeting the height required thanks to a bump on his head.

The view from south, Mulhausen, Alsace Lorraine

The Makeshift Bedroom (1906?) was a bizarre Andre Deed short in which Mr Deeds lives in a bed in the street… Policemen tiptoe around so as not to wake him and street lights ae covered before everyone decides to chase him and he floats off into the harbour on his multi-purpose mattress.

LCC Housing campaign film (c1921) was a typically British public information film asking people to do their patriotic duty and buy binds to support house building. A surreal turn is made when two of the most famous people in the World, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, join in the call… or at least their pictures do.

His New Cane (1912) This film is presumed lost in some quarters but here it was larger than life – a man sticking his walking device into others business until, again, there’s a huge chase…

Mr Deed in a spot of bother in a later film

Cinema Lake (1920) was a part live action/part animated oddity with a drawing board character erasing drawings and actuality alike: “Just wait till I take away Prohibition…” even now that’s funny!

London Wonder City (c1921) was indeed a wonder: The Guildhall, Mansion Houise, St Pauls and Fleet Street as well as Piccadilly Circus in colour at night..

Tommy Marries his sister (1910) involved the casual brutality of a small boy helping his sister marry the guy she likes and not the one she’s been given. Well done kid!

A mad-mixed bag and an excellent intiative to share and brought to life with skilled accompaniment from Meg Morley and Mr Sweeney.

Thankyou Kennington! See you in 2017!

Un-coded messages… Skyscraper Souls (1932)

The BFI has been hosting a sequence of films made between 1930 and 1934: the period between the announcement of the Hays Code and its more rigorous enforcement. These films show the progress from stilted talkies to more slickly-recorded slices of post-depression life. Because of their frankness and directness they feel like an unfinished bridge between the romanticism of late period silent films and post-war noir…  They feature people more like ourselves and we’ve simply more in common with these characters than the earnest, airbrushed leads that followed.

Dwight Buildings and diminutive neighbour...

Yet, amongst all the hoopla about naughty, haughty, “pre-code” were these disparate movies a deliberate attempt to make (without) Hays before the sun stopped shining or merely a reflection of the desperate times when people wanted escapism with a realistic edge? When the going got tough audiences wanted stories not just of love but of survival.

Skyscraper Souls is one of the more interesting examples, addressing the business moralities that helped create the Great Depression in the first place and which continued to impact the ordinary cinema goers.  Based upon the novel Skyscraper by Faith Baldwin, the story was adapted for screen by C Gardner Sullivan and Elmer Blaney Harris and directed by Edgar Selwyn (who once missed a fatal trip on the Titanic in order to see a play…). Not surprisingly, the narrative feels “bookish” with an involved plot and a cast of dozens.

Now that's a grand entrance...

The majority of the action takes place in a huge skyscraper – markedly higher than the Empire State Building – owned by Mr David Dwight (Warren William) who runs the bank and pretty much everything operating within the tower. Times are hard for Mr Dwight as he has had to refinance in order to keep things afloat and he has re-mortgaged the building on the basis of a loan he can’t repay. Whilst his fellow directors consider his future he looks for third parties to rescue his investment, even though he has fifty million in the bank he could use himself.

Warren William and Verree Teasdale

Dwight is married or rather semi-divorced, long-distance, to Ella (Hedda Hopper) who is almost a paid employee…  whilst he is having an affair with his secretary Sarah (Verree Teasdale).

A pretty new secretary starts, Lynn Harding (Maureen O’Sullivan, not so long after meeting Tarzan) who Dwight interrupts getting changed… she catches his eye even though he assures Ella that her legs are better (they aren’t).

Norman Foster and Maureen O’Sullivan

Lynn is being pursued by a rather insistent/borderline-annoying young man called Tom (Norman Foster - laterly a director and also husband to Claudette Colbert, improbable as his screen persona here would make that seem…) who pesters her from the lift to the landing. For some reason she starts to find this attractive but, whilst Tom’s pushy,  she’s not putting out, having set her sights on marriage and security.  Tom also wants to marry but he’s only clearing fifty a week with a small saving of $1,800. Clearly people valued any kind of financial security at this time and recent history gives an unpleasant glimpse of the truth of such uncertainty.

Jean Herscholt and an off-the-shoulder Anita Page

One of the senior secretaries is Jenny LeGrande (the ace Anita Page) who acts as counsellor - knowing the workings of this Tower of Babel better than most. A gentleman  jeweller, Jacob (Jean Herscholt) carries a large flame for Jenny – he doesn’t look like her usual squeeze but still hopes to provide her with the security and love they’re all looking for….  Is he just another obsessive/possessive old man or someone more paternal: in this world of the avaricious surely someone has to be motivated by love?

Dwight invites Lynn to work late on typing copies of reports and, whilst Tom pesters her with sandwiches and other advances, she is called up to the boss’ apartment on the top storey. On arrival she finds a party in full swing and Dwight soon gets her tipsy on champagne. His pursuit is interrupted by the older Charlie Norton (George Barbier) who takes a shine to the bright young thing… Manny glasses later Lynn has disappeared only to turn up in the morning innocently curled up in one of the spare beds.

Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan

Tom gets jealous and the clear implication is that she’s made an investment decision based on an exchange in kind prior to fiscal remuneration… but it’s not so and she’s been misjudged. Tom’s a fool for not trusting her: actually Tom’s just a fool full stop.

Meanwhile, Dwight is up to dastardly dealings with  Charlie Norton; arranging a further investment that, unbeknownst to the latter, he aims to maximise his profits at everyone else’s expense through insider dealing and price manipulation so complex the plot doesn’t bother really explaining how it works.

Greed

Tom joins in the seeming gold-rush after being tipped off by Sarah and it seems he can’t fail to make a killing – enough to persuade Lynn to marry him? But she’s also got her eye on the big boss as he looks to line her up as a replacement for poor Sarah who he’s about to pension off with a nice home in the country and an annual stipend for her silence.

No spoilers: The stocks rise and then they crash… Tom loses his savings along with so many others including most of Dwight’s colleagues. He’s won and doesn’t care who lost but it’s never over till the greedy banker bounces…

Warren William is undoubtedly Skyscraper Souls’ star turn with an appropriately domineering screen presence for a man who’s building all around it. Reputedly his roles dried up once the Hays crack-down came but I find it hard to believe that a change of style would account for an actor of such obvious abilities.

Maureen and Anita

Maureen O’Sullivan is suitably sympathetic as the vulnerable and yet ambitious Lynn although you have to question her taste in men: the not-so-wise-cracking Tom and then the boss offering her a career leg up that couldn’t possibly come free from reciprocation. Anita Page energises every scene she's in - a little underused in my humble opinion - and acts the part with a heart believably well.

The film is often compared with Grand Hotel with events taking place almost entirely in one place, here Dwight’s Tower giving a self-contained claustrophobia to events as well as being a statement on the world of David Dwight… a monument to his ambition.

Skyscraper Souls is available on Warner Archives’ Forbidden Hollywood Volume 7 series along with Employees’ Entrance (1932) which also featuring William, this time as the CEO of a large department store… maybe he did get typecast but he is even more convincing in that film as the face of calculating, amoral capitalism.

I can see how these films' sexual openness could upset the establishment but it’s also clear that they were politically very pointed: for a few years after the crash greed wasn’t good but that was never going to be a sustainable message in the land of the free.  Indeed, how quickly are we now acceding to the idea that punitive austerity is necessary along with any measure that favours commerce over compassion: we don’t all care to be considered and some would prefer the certainty of easy answers over serious, open-ended debate. 

 

Free market finance at work

Of course, film isn’t censored in the way it used to be but how many recent mainstream films have there been that really question our capitalist process and how many more are there with a main purpose of simply disorientating us into deep-engagement super-heroic fantasy?

Ahem… anyway, you can order the set direct from Warners or through Amazons: good value with four films for the price of two and Bettie Davis too!