This is Part Three of the Cinema Museum Silent Spring long weekend, I’m putting my hot takes out in reverse order because… why not!?
A brilliant few days incorporating the British Silent Film Symposium 2026 run
by Kings College London and the 9th Kennington Bioscope Weekender.
Ypres (1925) with Cyrus Gabrysch, introduced by Lawrence Napper
“… fantasy must cower before the stark realities of mankind’s
agony – such as Ypres.”
Former soldier Blair Philips writing in The Stoll Herald,
November 19251
Philips was qualifying his description of this film as being
like a “dream…” emerging from “the mist of yesterday…” which would still be a
living nightmare for those who survived one of the bloodiest and most desperate
battles of the Great War.
Directed by Walter Summers, using a mix of reconstructions
of the Battle of Ypres mixed with contemporary footage from both side, this was
one of a number of films aiming to pay tribute to the loses and bravery of a
nation still in mourning. Produced for British Instructional Pictures, Ypres
followed on from The Battle of Jutland (1921), Armageddon (1923) and
Zeebrugge (1924) in this approach and also focused on the experience of
individuals to humanise the almost inconceivable events.
A series of maps are also used to show how the British and
Commonwealth soldiers in particular were able to, just about, defend the Ypres
Salient – a bulging line of attack/defence which emerged as the warring parties
fought their way up through North-Western Europe as the Germans attempted to
outflank their opposition and cut off supplies from the French ports. It’s a
film and a series of events I could easily spend a lot more time on – so watch
this space and read Lawrence’s book (link below).
Summers manages to make an entertaining as well as
instructional film and the comic asides were more necessary for the audience
then rather than now, although we don’t have to look far to see the horrors of
war as filtered through the modern apparatus of “instruction”.
“Whole companies were annihilated and the marvel is how
anyone remained to break up the infantry attacks which were delivered again and
again.”
An officer of the 1st Gloucestershire’s who was at
Gheluvelt
Rediscoveries and restorations Part II, with John
Sweeney, introductions from Dave Glass and Glenn Mitchell
The Cattle Rustler’s End (1911), starring J. Warren Kerrigan as Curley Temple (Shirley not!?) and Pauline Bush as his sweetheart Fannie, was a pacey tale of illicit love and cattle theft directed by a young Allan Dwan. Fannie’s father disapproves and so the couple meet by a tree where, unfortunately, a cattle rustler has also hidden the branding tools of his evil trade. One thing leads to another and Curley is accused and, as usual, it’s left to the woman to sort things out. This was another rare gem transferred from a nitrate 35mm print for digital restoration by Bob Geoghegan’s Archive Film Agency.
Racing for Life (1924), a five-reeler directed by Henry MacRae and starring Eva Novak and William Fairbanks, featured some extensive time-dilation as motor cars raced around their practice lap and, in the minute or so of elapsed time, our hero, seemingly miles away, has to fight off his kidnappers – including his own brother – race on foot, steal a police motorbike and run across the track to the pit in order to start half a lap behind the others.
This was, without doubt, great fun though and, coming on 35mm from Tony Saffrey’s collection, almost the first time in a century that
this extraordinary race has been seen and it was a thrill!!
There was also time for a quick Mabel Normand film, Mabel
lost and Won (1915) from Bob Geoghegan’s collection and which is so rare it
doesn’t even have an IMDB page! Once again the KB brings you the rarest of
the rare as well as the finest of everything else (yes, I work in marketing and
I cannot lie!).
 |
| Charles Vanel, one man alone with his cod... |
Pêcheur d’Islande (Fishers of the Isle) (1924),
with Stephen Horne, introduction by Liz Cleary
I was rather grumpy (Liverpool FC might
have lost again?) when watching this in Pordenone in 2023 but this film was
transformed for me here with Liz Cleary’s introduction being a large part of that. Liz
became interested not just in the film but in the novel from which it was
drawn, as well as the location and the way of life depicted, being driven to find out more and even to visit the locations. Inspiration is infectuous but she also added so much context to enable me to see the strength and purpose of the film.
Perhaps it’s also as I’ve just watched Rose of Nevada,
Mark Jenkin’s new film about the lives of trawlers on a small fishing boat. If
you go to Whitby, Fleetwood or former fishing villages such as Aberdaron in
North Wales, you will see grave after grave marking generations of deaths at
sea and for this reason too, the film’s downbeat yet also inspiring narrative
rings so true. Without giving any spoilers away, sometimes in cinema deaths
have to actually mean something and not simply be a plot point… Also, the exhausting
practicalities of line fishing here and trawling as in Rose are humbling
in themselves.
 |
| Pierre Loti abides... |
Liz’s pilgrimage to the film’s locations, Paimpol and
Ploubazlanec in northern Brittany, gave us a sense of the unchanging waters and
she also gave us the background of former naval seaman Pierre Loti’s 1886 novel
on which the film is based. Loti was an extraordinary character as the photograph above might suggest and the story drew on his experience of the Far East as
well as the Atlantic – his ability was in his description of the land and the
sea and director Jacques de Baroncelli crafts a poetic tale that pulls the viewer
in with stunning locations, and compositions as characters fade in and out of
each other’s thoughts: the shooting of one character features flashing images
of his loved ones in the manner of Abel Gance.
Charles Vanel – who really did have an issue with transport
in his career (c.f. The Wages of Fear) – is an unknowable rock of conflicted emotion as Yann the
fisherman and elfin Sandra Milovanoff is sadly beguiling as Gaud – the woman
who does battle with his affection for the stormy seas.
Stephen Horne’s accompaniment included Breton folk songs as
well as his own improvisations, as usual it made for the perfect connection between
the sentiments and the time.
 |
| Harry, Bebe and Snub play with shoes |
Focus on… Rolin’ with Glenn Mitchell and Dave Glass,
accompaniment John Sweeney
Glenn Mitchell and Dave Glass resumed their ongoing mission
by discussing the history and early output of Hal Roach’s Rolin’ company before
it rebranded as the Hal Roach Studio and the Kings of Comedy did battle –
Sennet vs Roach! Here we find a number of soon to be extremely famous folk such
as Snub Pollard, Bebe Daniel’s and Harold Lloyd, just not the Harry we’re that familiar
with.
Initially Lloyd played the role of Willie Work in one-reelers but by 1915 “Chaplinitis” was in full bloom and he wore an odd two-whisp moustache and tight-trampy clothes as Lucky Luke – the Chaplin you can meet between reels? Giving them Fits (1915) was Lloyd, Pollard and teenage Daniels’ debut for the company and is a riotous tale of events in a shoe shop in which Harry is for some reason called Luke the Fluke – a chance-based play on words.
Luke proved popular enough to move to two-reels and under his own name, “Lukes” as opposed to Rolin’s. Pollard also got his own series and in 1918 Roach started making films with a fellow called Stan Laurel and the rest was, eventually, history. You can’t help but be infected by Glenn and Dave’s enthusiasm and this reflects the high energies of these wonderful comedies and the fast-developing world of the business of laughter on screen: there was no luck involved, just talent and application.
Irene (1926), with Stephen Horne, introduction by
Kelly Robinson
Colleen Moore knew the score alright and she was one of the
most vivacious personas cinema has ever seen: an icon of the Jazz Age who even
had an F. Scott Fitzgerald-autographed mini-copy of The Great Gatsby in the
library of her legendary dolls house. Kelly Robinson showed the evidence in her
introduction to this zippy film which showcased Moore at the height of her
powers and popularity.
Directed by Alfred E Green, Colleen plays the titular Irish-American
as the daughter of the Ma and Pa O’Dare – played by Cork’s wonderful Kate Price
(who even mimes in Oirish) and Charles Murray who presents as drunk for most of
the story. Is it just me or whether The Irish only ever drunk and/or policemen
in most silent films? Anyway, Irene is the scatty but definitely smart heart of
the family of five, sorry foive!, who scrape by in an apartment until she loses
her job.
Madame Lucy – whose business motto is “Pay cash – look what
happened to the Light Brigade – they charged!”
 |
| Colleen and Kate from Cork |
After being kicked out by Ma who, y’know, was only joking…
Irene moves to New York and gets a job – that luck of the Irish! – delivering parcels
to the posh estates on the Boston Park Road. This is where she meets handsome
and likable rich person Donald Marshall (Lloyd Hughes) who has just invested in
a fashion house run by one Madame Lucy who, you’ll never believe… is Aberdeen’s
George K. Arthur who inherited his aunt’s business and her name, somehow?
Lucy declares that to make any woman beautiful is a simple
art and, well, soon Irene arrives with some parcels and Donald decides she
should be the proof of this theory – much to “Madame’s” dismay. Irene asks for
two pals to accompany her – there’s a lot of female solidarity in the film –
and Lucy spends most of the remaining storyline extremely unconvinced to comic
effect of course. I like George in this role and he sparks well with Colleen’s feisty
resilience.
There’s a grand finale at a fashion show that was filmed in
Technicolor and on the BFI’s 35mm print this has faded so the section from a
copy held in Russia was used – it was colourful but lower quality, Moore’s
smile radiated through though. It’s another fine exhibit in the case for
Colleen Moore being one of the stars of the age and of enduring charm. My Gen-Z
daughter was impressed with her pep and sisterly attitude, especially when sharing
roller skates with another late-night reveller who missed the last bus.
Stephen Horne accompanied with the style and verve Colleen
demands – Moore not less! A good time was had by all!!
Sadly, I had to away before the grand finale with the UK premier of the latest restoration of The Three Musketeers (1921). It’s available direct from the Film Preservation Society on Blu-ray and hopefully will be screened somehow and somewhere else.
A fabulous long weekend of silent frolicking – details of Day One and the Silent Film Symposium to follow in the coming days… Thank you to all at the KB and KC!
1. The
Great War in Popular British Cinema of the 1920s: Before Journey’s End,
Lawrence Napper, Palgrave Macmillan (2015)
