Ben Hur (1925), Carl Davis and Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London

Roman Novarro

Guest blogger: In a departure for ithankyou, we welcome film historian Dr Sylvia Hardy as guest commentator...

Watching the 1925 silent film, Ben Hur at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday evening was an extraordinary experience. The remastered print was accompanied by a new score, written and conducted by Carl Davis and the combined effect was magnificent. At the end of the two and a half hour performance the orchestra was given four standing ovations.

Roman Novarro and Francis X Bushman square up

Would the film have been as impressive without the accompaniment? Almost certainly not. Because the music both reflected and augmented the actions and emotions of the characters and the events of the story it was hard to realise that this was a silent film. As Kevin Brownlow points out, although film editing became more complicated mechanically with the introduction of sound, ‘it was never more challenging aesthetically than at the height of the silent era’; he cites the chariot race from Ben Hur as an example.

The greatest spectacle in cinematic history?

Equally impressive is the huge action sequence earlier in the film when the pirate ships ram the Roman fleet and Ben Hur is freed from his shackles as a galley-slave. Both these episodes were enormously enhanced by recurrent musical themes which reach a triumphant conclusion.

48 cameras were used to film the sea battle

The religious, semi-mystical aspects of the film – an important aspect of the film - were also brought out and developed by the musical accompaniment. Possible traces of sentimentality – after all, conventions of representation in such areas have changed considerably since the 1920s - were expunged, and unlikely incidents became genuinely moving.

Betty Bronson as Mary

Dr Sylvia Hardy is an academic specialising in Edwardian Literature and British Film. She is a former secretary of the Wellsian Society and author of H.G. Wells and British Silent Cinema: The War of the Worlds (published in Young And Innocent? The Cinema in Britain, 1896-1930).

She attended the screening of Ben Hur because her son-in-law was up a soggy mountain in Scotland...

I've only watched the film on DVD and the full spectacle of live orchestra and big screen sounds something else. Superb action and powerful performances from Novarro, Bushman, Bronson et al. Encore Mr Davis!!

Phenomenal Mary Pickford… The Hoodlum (1919)

There’s been a great deal on Mary Pickford over recent weeks in this thing we may still call the blogosphere, chiefly as part of the excellent Pickford Blogathon run by Classic Movies.

I have to confess to knowing very little about this powerhouse of early silent film. Her fame pretty much matched that of Chaplin and she was arguably the most famous woman in cinema, if not the World, during the Great War and beyond.

I’d seen her act very intelligently in the Griffiths short, The New York Hat but had been put off further investigation by an impression that she acted “under her age” and in flimsy comedy-dramas that were of strictly "pop" appeal.

Well, once again, I was wrong and now it’s my turn to gush...

Mary Pickford was the most popular actress of this period because she was undoubtedly technically advanced and because she controlled the quality of her productions. She also looked the part and watching The Hoodlum from 1919, she projected an easy-going likeability that was no doubt the result of many years work in perfecting her craft but which also came from within. She was natural, relaxed and good looking - someone you could easily connect with.

Here the script is a bit wayward but it matters not because Mary holds it all together with a sureness of expression that is quite remarkable. She’s next-door naturalistic all the way through from the spoilt brat at the beginning to the street hustling dice player who wins over the Craigen Street locals and then the lover who stands up for the wronged man at the end.

Pickford had a comic touch that seemingly transcends common sense: she takes us with her with a nod and a wink of massive energetic eyes that convey almost unlimited emotional intelligence.

Mary plays Amy Burke the grand-daughter of the fearsome multi-millionaire Alexander Guthrie (Ralph Lewis) who lives in the lap of 5th Avenue luxury getting her way whenever she likes. She throws tantrums, tortures her poor cat and drives like a mad woman.

Her father (Dwight Crittendon) is absent, involved in some vague research down town where he lives amongst the poor people of Craigen Street documenting their living conditions and doing good work.

Grandpa Guthrie asks Amy to come travelling with him but she refuses wanting to spend more time with her father. This does not go down well and we see a space open up between the two as she heads for a new experience below her class.

Amy learns early on that she must blend in to preserve her father’s “life’s work” and not give the game away. She quickly transforms from a spoilt brat into a street wise, wise-cracking bowery babe, playing craps, dancing in the street and playing the local police for fools.

A mysterious stranger arrives to stay, Peter Cooper, who is quickly revealed to the audience as Guthrie in not very convincing disguise… He has come to observe his grand daughter and is appalled - what has happened to his princess?

But Amy is now part of this new society and helps to look after her neighbours…helping to stop the feud between two neighbours by setting up a mock fight for one to rescue the other, getting help for a sick mother unable to tend to her many children and generally pitching in using her energy for good.

She also takes a shine to a young man, John Graham (Kenneth Harlan) who is seemingly an impoverished painter but who is actually hiding a secret: he was wrongly found guilty of fraud and, after serving his time, is trying to gather evidence to regain his good name.

The man he holds responsible for his misfortune is one Alexander Guthrie …oh dear.

Amy begins to drag the bearded old man into events and, reluctantly at first, her Grandfather begins to see the benefit of giving and he sees that this experience has made Amy a better person. But things come to a head as Amy, finally learning John’s secret, helps him break into her Grandfather’s house to steal the ledger that will show his innocence.

Things go awry and they are caught by the police and then by Guthrie. Devastated by Amy’s seemingly criminal betrayal, he tells the police that he will deal with them. Amy tells him of John’s situation and then Guthrie is revealed to be the caring and generous Peter Cooper… There are more twists and turns than in a Regency play but everything works out in the end and we finish with Amy marrying John and heading off to happiness after one last comic flourish.

So…The Hoodlum is no earnest masterpiece of social commentary but it is a very entertaining film and you do care for the characters. A lot of this is down to Mary Pickford and her peculiar gift must have been to carry films no matter what the premise and the quality of script.

She just has it all within her range and you believe her. Whether you’d believe her as a 12 year old girl or even a boy is another matter but here she’s reasonably close to her age (26 at the time, playing maybe late teens?) and the setting is contemporary and realistic.

Craigen Street would have been a recognisable reality for most of the cinema audiences and Mary was someone they could easily identify with even after the opening scenes of comic tantrums. They would trust in her ability to become one of them and to reflect their lives on screen just as much as Chaplin.

I watched a VHS of the Milestone edition of The Hoodlum which features an vigorous score from Bonnie Janofsky. As you all probably know, Milestone have done much to maintain Pickford’s memory and are the leading source of her films on DVD. It’s a shame more films aren’t more readily available but visit the Milestone site and I challenge you to come away empty handed!

The titles alone say it all about the Pickford phenomenon, everyman adventures with laughs and uplifting endings... Amirilly of Clothes Line Alley, Tess of the Storm Country and Heart O' the Hills. We can kid ourselves that we've moved on but no one is more sophisticated than Mary Pickford. She helped invent film acting and works on levels that still move to this day.

There’s also a very good Mary Pickford documentary on YouTube, it’s the PBS film and narrated by the exemplary Laura Linney.

I know a bit more about Mary Pickford now and will watch more with interest. Can anyone recommend any good biographies?

Under-the-surface tension… La Piscine (1969)

Under an unrelenting Provençale sun, a couple lounge around a swimming pool stirring only to slip into the water or to make love. In the sun soaked silence the two seem beaten down into their own stillness by the heat and content to just be where they are in spite of the proximity of “suffering St Tropez”.

So begins Jacques Deray's La Piscine...an unflinching examination of humanity by the pool, stuck between holiday and horror.

Alain Delon plays Jean-Paul Leroy, an advertising copywriter who would rather be a novelist, if he could really find the time and good fortune. His wife is Marianne (Romy Schneider) who is happy to be with her man as he takes a break from the unsatisfying search for perfect copy and the disappointment of his latest book rejection.

The two have a sado-masochistic relationship with Marianne asking Jean-Paul to scratch her back – “no one does it like you…” whilst in the evening the latter takes a leafy branch to gently beat her bare back. There’s something vaguely unsettling in the nature of their relationship although clearly Marienne dotes on Jean-Paul but he is a man deep in disappointment.

Their retreat is disturbed by a phone call from Harry Lannier (Maurice Ronet) one of Jean’s oldest friends and a long-time ex of Marienne’s. He’s in the area and has somehow tracked them down. Marianne is pleased at the prospect of seeing their gregarious and energetic friend but Jean-Paul is reluctant.

Harry arrives in an impressive sports car and with his 18-year old daughter, Penelope (Jane Birkin) the result of a long-ago relationship. He’s an extrovert working in the music industry and who has friends all over the place which makes us wonder all the more just why he had to interrupt the Leroy’s holiday for two…

Harry stirs the couple out of their sun-stroked stupor and is warmly received by Marienne – we’re not sure if she’s over Harry and we’re clear that he isn’t over her although whether he’s driven by anything other than the needs to “have” just another beautiful possession is not clear. Harry’s a bit boorish and quite selfish. Marienne, as becomes increasingly clear, is quite self –less.

Jean-Paul is cold towards Harry. Only later do we fully understand how far their relationship goes back. They are boy-hood pals ultimately in long-term competition and not really friends anymore: it’s clear who Harry’s here for.








Harry returns from a trip to St Tropez with a take-away, ready-cooked party – sports cars, guitars and short skirts abound. As things ramp up Harry dances with Marianne, rather too intimately for Jean-Paul to bear.


Already interested in Harry’s daughter, Jean-Paul takes off with her to go swimming… The two arrive back very late and a line has been crossed. Marianne – never convinced that her hold on Jean was absolute and always willing to set him free – offers to leave if Jean wants to pursue Penelope.

Harry and Jean argue in a very male way… not directly addressing the obvious and getting drunk. Harry goes off to St Tropez and returns home late at night… Jean is waiting for him and the two are finally able to tell each other what they think of their poisoned relationship.

Spoilers... Harry falls into the swimming pool and Jean overcome with years of his own failures and Harry’s successes and spurred on by Harry’s over-familiarity with Marianne… drowns him. This scene is horrible to watch as first Harry falls into the pool and then Harry pulls him back but then lets him go… up until the last we expect him to pull Harry free but the act is committed in slow motion fits and starts… Jean making his mind up as he goes along. The cruelty we had seen with Marianne now manifesting itself fully and sickeningly with his pushing Harry slowly and firmly back into the depths.

Jean covers up his crime but after the funeral Inspector Lévêque (Paul Crauchet) arrives from Marseilles homicide to dig deeper than the local police have managed…

Will Jean escape with his crime and will he even admit it? And will Marianne stand by him in spite of what looks like their ruined relationship? She has already sacrificed a lot for this intense and disappointing man will she walk away for herself or stay for him?

Delon and Schneider – who were married in the early 60s – make an excellent couple. There’s an unspoken edge to their relationship that creates a strange mood from the start as they lounge about weighed down by the sun and the pull of the water in the titular pool. They are being sucked together and may never be able to escape from their situation.

Delon is understandably one of the leading men of the period, extreme good looks matched by an enigmatic presence and emotional discordance.

Schneider is easily his match both in terms of emotional intensity and in having the bluest eyes in cinematic history. If you really have to spend two hours watching a couple of actors in bathing costumes…you’d struggle to do better.

Jane Birkin plays well as the bored teenager who provides the tipping point for their marriage breakdown but she’s a little stiff in comparison and even I can pick up her English accent and a rather stilted delivery. But maybe that’s the point.

Maurice Ronet’s Harry is a successful failure who largely has only his own interests at heart. His appreciation for his daughter is more as an object to make him look good – like his sports car – and he only wants Marriene for two things (his need to humiliate his “friend” Jean being the other…).

All is filmed superbly by Jacques Deray who uses the beautiful location to almost claustrophobic effect: the Provençal hills always pressing down on the house, its inhabitants and the swimming pool.

Needless to say the new Blu-ray disc transfer is crystal clear - it's available from all good Amazons... I look forward to my trip to the south of France in summer but there won’t be a pool where we’re staying...

The Devil re-incarnate… restored L’Inferno (1911)

For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest,

To sketch the bottom of all the universe…

This is a new DVD version of L’Inferno thoroughly restored by Cineteca di Bolgna and released in 2011 - the film’s centenary - by Cinema Ritrovato. Apologies for a lo-ong post but a bit of Dante due diligence was required!

The print now looks much cleaner and generally quite stunning for a film of this vintage. It runs at just over an hour, although the original length was much longer – over a kilometre of film. The English intertitles are taken from a Victorian translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and are much more in tune with the film’s intent than the 2004 Snapper version.

It has two choices of soundtrack, a modernistic one from Eddison Studio which uses atonal synth sweeps, synchronised shouts, crashes and bangs to startling effect and a more traditional, but none-the-less effective piano score from Marco Dalpane. Needless to say, both serve the action much better than Tangerine Dream on the 2004 release.

This DVD comes complete with a lengthy booklet containing essays (all in Italian) on the project – and a series of interesting extras including one showing the visual inspirations for the film – mostly from Gustave Doré’s haunting engravings.

In short: it’s one big upgrade and nothing less than this milestone film deserves.

L’Inferno was a massive undertaking filmed by many hands over a three year period and released in 1911, the 50th Anniversary of Italian Reunification – the Risorgimento – for whom Dante was an important inspiration (maybe more Italian than Shakespeare is English…). It was directed by Francesco Bertolini and Adolfo Padovan with further technical assistance from Giuseppe de Liguoro.

The film boldly attempted to recreate the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy and therefore deals with the descent into Hell by the writer.

It’s an uncanny masterpiece with lots of weirdly-memorable imagery - an unsettling mix of late middle-ages religious sensibilities with early twentieth century experimentation: Méliès meets Hieronymous Bosch.

There’s some outstanding cinematography with stunning in-camera effects showing gigantic figures, burning skies over the river Styx and famously the Devil himself looming hugely over the frozen landscape at the base of Hell chewing remorselessly on the soul of the most evil of evil-doers.

There is also extensive outdoor filming most notably at the film’s opening as Dante (Salvatore Papa) and Virgil (Arturo Pirovano) walk through some amazing mountainous viewpoints on the way to Limbo – they must have used some very strong camera men!

The beginning sees Dante seemingly lost in the woods…approaching middle age and confused by his own direction at what he viewed as the half-way point and crossroads of his existence.

Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark,

For the straightforward pathway had been lost…

Beatrice, Dante’s ideal of womanhood (and whose untimely passing is marked in this poem and others) descends from Heaven to ask the poet Virgil to guide him and to show him the consequences of moral descent and the one true path.

They pass through the gates of Hell and encounter the uncommitted…souls who never took sides in the eternal conflict between good and evil. They are destined to forever inhabit the shores of Acheron…tortured by their regret and the manifestations of their conscience. Charon the Ferryman then arrives to transport them across the river Acheron to Hell where their journey will now encompass the famous nine levels.

In the First Circle is Limbo where reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. This includes many righteous people – Virgil himself – but, because they died un-baptised they could not enter Heaven. Very much the uncompromising Christian thinking of the Fourteenth Century but at least Limbo has its plus points - proactive punishment has not yet really begun.

That they sinned not; and if they merit had,

'Tis not enough, because they had not baptism

Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest...

In the Second Circle the torture really begins as Dante encounters the lustful as they are born aloft by a relentless wind - one of the film's best visuals, as dozens of figures float across the screen. He encounters a couple - Francesca da Rimini who had committed adultery with her husband's brother, Paolo Malatesta.

They were the victims of her husband’s vengeance and have eternity together to reflect on their sins, cast up in the winds. The film uses numerous flashbacks to show the original sins that led to this punishment.

In the Third Circle the three-headed dog Cerberus guards the gluttons who lie on the ground pounded by ceaseless foul, icy rain… They are sightless and heedless of their neighbours, symbolizing the cold, selfish, and empty sensuality of their lives. In Hell the punishment very much fits the crime.

In the Fourth Circle are the Greedy who, as in Gustave Doré's illustrations, are weighted with huge money bags… be careful what you wish for.

Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,

On one side and the other, with great howls,

Rolling weights forward by main force of chest.

In the Fifth Circle Dante and Virgil find the River Styx in which the wrathful fight each other. The atheist Phlegyas reluctantly transports Dante and Virgil across to the City of Dis. This is shown in a stunning split screen, tinted red to highlight the ferocity.

They smote each other not alone with hands,

But with the head and with the breast and feet,

Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.

Initially the gates to Dis are blocked by fallen angels and the Furies, but the poets gain entrance thanks to angelic intervention. They are now free to enter the Sixth Circle and encounter the Heretics whose unquiet slumbers are forever disturbed by their flaming graves.

Passing into the Seventh Circle, Dante and Virgil encounter the Harpies who stand watch on the branches of trees formed by the souls of suicides.

Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,

And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;

They make laments upon the wondrous trees.

The Eighth Circle contains the fraudulent and is called Malebolge. Within there are ten Bolgias dedicated to specific types of fraudster who are all tortured in befitting ways…

Here Dante’s imagination goes into absolute overdrive as he describes people buried head firs or with their heads twisted backwards. Hypocrites are dragged down by heavy cloaks, thieves plagued by serpents and the Sowers of Discord are mutilated.

Dante encounters Bertran de Born who carries his own severed head as a symbol of his reason having left his body… You can imagine the audience’s gasps at this point!

Giants guard the entrance to the Ninth Circle and lift the poets into the final stage of their journey. The film makers use clever perspective trickery here to good effect, aided by the flattened depth of field of fixed cameras.

Once inside, Dante and Virgil discover the frozen lake at the heart of Hell which is filled with the semi-submerged refrigerated souls of the treacherous.

The deeper into Hell we follow the more unsettling L’Inferno becomes as the nature of the tortures becomes increasingly cruel and severe: a real entrance into the medieval mind. Here is one man gnawing at the skull of another who, in life, was responsible for the starvation of the man and his sons.

Life was harsh and cruel and it follows that Hell had some work to do to more than match it.

Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me

And underfoot a lake, that from the frost

The semblance had of glass, and not of water.

Each one his countenance held downward bent;

From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart

Among them witness of itself procures.

And, right at the centre of Hell is bound Lucifer – a demon with three faces each of which is chewing away on the soul of an evil man. The famous image of Old Nick snacking on the body of Judas is one of the most striking in L’Inferno and leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling even now.

"That soul up there which has the greatest pain,"

The Master said, "is Judas Iscariot;

With head inside, he plies his legs without”.

But, just as things become almost too horrible, the Poets climb past Satan and up through a hidden tunnel and back to the World:

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

I watched the film a number of times and it is not an easy “entertainment”. It’s not a horror film and it has a message, not only that all will be held accountable for their actions but also that we must take care to steer a true course ourselves.

For, in spite of the overtly Christian content, Dante’s poem is a wake up call for himself and us all to make the most of life because eternity or the quality of our last living moment will be fixed on our deeds. Almost a humanistic message regardless of the poet’s original intent.

L’Inferno is undoubtedly a major landmark in cinematic history and hopefully this restoration will get a wider release.

Also included in the extras are a series of short films all dealing in various ways with life in Hell: an excerpt from the daft Maciste in Hell (1926) and two interesting comedies, How Greediness Spoilt Foolshead's Christmas (1910) and The Devil on Two Sticks (1909), which is the more charming and technically-interesting.

Distribution is a little flaky and I got the last one then in stock at the BFI Filmstore – but I’m sure they’ll be getting more in. Otherwise, there are copies mistakenly listed under Books on Amazon.co.uk (only 2 left at the tiem of writing!) or Cinema Ritrovato direct (currently out of stock).

Dante’s Divine Comedy is available in many editions and the Longfellow translation is on Amazon.