The hand-tint to Hell (or The Diva is in the details)… Satanic Rhapsody (1915)

If Bertini is the thought, the determined-soul of classic Italian Diva films then could Lyda Borelli be the style and grace? Less naturalistic than her “sister” she was the one with the classic theatrical training (Bertini being more purely “of the movies” although she did theatre too) and was remarkably expressive whilst creating a natural intimacy that compels the viewer still.

She was enormously successful until her “retirement” in 1918 by which time she had married count Vittorio Cini and for the next four decades focused on raising her four children and shuttling between Venice and Rome: sometimes the going gets so good there’ll never be a “better” time to quit.

Lyda Borelli

But her work and presence left their mark on an adoring public and the reasons for this seem perfectly exemplified by this odd and spectacularly-colourful take on the Faustian-pact… a skilled mash-up of contemporary dance, art and literature…

American academic Angela Dalle Vacche makes an interesting point about the nature of the Italian “Diva” film at this stage; yes they were films centred around strong female leads but, unlike their sisters across the pond, they “…were characterized by a suffering and maternal aura (mater dolorosa) which the American femme fatales never adopted.” Their trials were to include the full gamut of women’s issues such as abandonment, divorce, adultery, pregnancy, employment and, as here, aging.

An offer she can't refuse?

Based on a contemporary poem by Fausto Maria Martin and directed by Nino Oxilia (director of Sangue Blu) in 1915, Satanic Rhapsody was not released until the year of his death in the trenches of 1917, delayed by other schedules and possibly post-production colourization! Today it stands as a remarkable testament to Borelli’s appeal as well being a remarkable film in its own right.  A pre-raphaelite delight... and more.

Ugo Bazzini - would you trust this man?

Lyda plays Alba d’ Oltrevita, an elderly society lady, who has little life left and spends her days remembering her former beauty. She wishes far too hard and from out of a painting pops the malevolent form of Mephisto (zestfully realized by Ugo Bazzini) who offers to return her youth on the condition that she destroys a small statuette of Cupid which will mean that she will be restored but never again be able to feel love…

She throws the objet d’amour to the ground (does it smash?) and is instantly transformed into her younger self, vitality coursing through the veins of her outstretched, graceful arms as Miss Borelli begins to show her extraordinary physicality.

Reaching out to Tristano and Sergio

We see her looking at her reflection in a pond, surrounded by a veil of white silk that floats around her upper body born aloft by her movement: this is youth and beauty in motion and repose. She meets two brothers Tristano (Andrea Habay) and Sergio (John Cini) and proceeds to enchant them both in playgrounds, parks and parties.

All of this is shown in remarkable colour thanks to the labours of Oxilia’s army of hand colourisers – their technique isn’t always within the line but it shows the richness of the fabrics and more than a hint of the technicolour re-birth Alba’s pact has enabled. It is very much her journey as she sashays through a society that now views her with lust and awe – no longer pity.

But one cannot traverse in glory for long without impacting on those around you (I should imagine…) and soon Sergio is smitten, jealous of his brother’s share of Alba’s affection and wanting her for himself at any cost. He delivers an ultimatum: Alba must agree to marry him or he will kill himself… Now, it’s been a while, but that doesn’t sound like a winning tactic to me.

Consequences and complications start queuing up like London buses in a tube strike and you can be sure that… well, you know, Faust…

 “Alba has a confusing idea: the whole universe is love…”

The film is split into three parts with the first setting up the rejuvenation, the second the tug of love with the brothers and the third a dance of regret, desolation, hope and mortality. Borelli dominates this sequence even more than the others and there is no end of colourful moments as she wrestles with her turmoil. This is art in film.

Mirror mirror

There are some superb compositions and none more unsettling than her standing in front of her reflection – a double image – as she slowly draws a veil over her head: a veil for marriage and a veil for death. This action is repeated in the gardens as she prepares to make the choice that will kill her… a rebirth of a kind as she leaves behind the destruction of her immediate regeneration: this is a freedom she never knew she had.

Loie swirls and Lyda twirls

Satanic Rhapsody is “opera” and I doubt any other actress in Britain or Hollywood could carry it off or at least mean it in the way La Borelli clearly does at least in this context. Dalle Vacche – in the excellent Diva – Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema – points out the similarities between Borelli’s rapturous dance and American performer Loie Fuller but then Borelli was not only well-educated but also keen to express as much of her influences as possible. She gives a thoughtful and provocative performance so different in style and tone from what I’ve seen of La Bertini…  rich cinema.

I watched the 2007 reconstruction which features the original music from Pietro Mascagni written in 1914 and now played by Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz - it is good that the music survives to complete the experience of this most artful of films.

Further reading: This is just a blog, but these works are the real deal in terms of rigour, research and analysis; well written too even if I’m still trying to get to grips with Bergsonism ...

1.       Angela Dalle Vacche’s in-depth article Lyda Borelli’s Satanic Rhapsody: The Cinema and the Occult

  

2.       The same author’s Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema is available from Amazon.

Home Counties on the range… The Squaw Man (1931)

“I think it is terribly dangerous for him to ever take her in his arms or touch her deliberately… any physical contact must be legitimately for a purpose – like helping her off with some wet things.” So wrote co-scriptwriter, Lenore J. Coffee to her director Cecil B. DeMille.

This was DeMille’s third go at Edwin Royle’s The Squaw Man following two silent versions in 1914 and 1918 and, if anything, the tale of inter-racial love was more sensitive in the early thirties. At least in 1914 the part of Nat-u-ritch was played by a Native American - Lillian St. Cyr (aka Red Wing) – on DeMille’s insistence but here in 1931 we were back to make up and Mexican María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez took on the role.

Lupe vexed...

The Californian anti-miscegenation laws existed until 1948 but apparently relationships between whites and Native Americans was “more accepted” than other combinations. You can see the appeal for DeMille in this opportunity to plug into what biographer Scott Eyman refers to as the “duality” of the audience: “… its eagerness to vicariously experience the forbidden, while at the same time preserving a sense of respectability.”

Eleanor Boardman

But I’m not really here for Cecil but for Eleanor Boardman in sound. Wiki-parently Boardman was “unable to make the transition from silent to talking pictures” but I think the truth was more along the lines of her having better things to do: divorcing King Vidor, romancing then marrying Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast in Europe oh, and bringing up two daughters, Antonia born in 1927 and Belinda born in June, 1930 just a year before this film was a released. She and Vidor were to have a battle royal for custody which certainly hit him hard as Durgnat and Simmon contend in King Vidor, American and no doubt exhausted their mother just as much. She was also someone who her later interviews confirmed, wasn’t necessarily that bothered with her film career, proud though she was of The Crowd and surely several others.

On this showing, Boardman could do “talkie” and, indeed, she is as nuanced and eye-catching as ever; not as energetic and edgy as her co-star, Lupe Velez – ten years younger – but more controlled, expressing her various reversals of fortune in quietly-desperate ways: a better portrayal of natural “English” than Velez’s portrait of “native” American.

No doubt, had Eleanor wanted to carry on making movies for us then she could and would… but, as much as Norma Talmadge, she didn’t need us anymore and she probably thought the audience could do without too especially given the cruder tone of pre-code in which the next generation made their way in more revealing and overtly sexual ways… Lupe being one of course and in this film too…

The ruling class

The story starts in England as the idle rich gather for a weekend at the country pile of Henry, Earl of Kerhill (Paul Cavanagh) and his wife, Lady Diana Kerhill (Eleanor Boardman). Henry has been collecting funds for his regiment’s orphan fund along with his cousin James 'Jim' Wingate (Warner Baxter) but has “borrowed” £10,000 to invest in a scheme run by a pal; one that couldn’t fail but which now has.

Lord and Lady take a break

Henry and Diana’s sparring over snooker reveals a marriage under strain and when Jim arrives, the lights in Diana’s eyes tell us all we need to know. As the party progresses the excellent Roland Young throws in much humorous gravitas as Sir John 'Johnny' Applegate who sacrifices his pawn in the hope of beating Henry’s aunt at chess: ‘tis a foretaste!

There’s a nifty sequence as the camera shifts from Jim in the garden to Diana behind a window – emblematic for the silent star forced to mime behind the glass until being revealed in sound at the doorway. Diana and Jim are in love and as they wish by the well they come close to admitting it until and over-hearing Henry surprises them. The truth is out but Jim is too much of a man and Diana is too much of a woman to betray Henry.

Diana and Jim agree the "decent thing"

Meanwhile Henry’s “investment manager” has killed himself and that truth is also about to come out too. He takes his own gun but Jim prevents him and hatches a plan to save both Diana and Henry’s honour at the cost of his own… he will take the blame and leave for America.

Jim's sense of duty is overwhelming

Cut to the middle of nowhere and a dusty ranch near Buzzards Pass where local bully Cash Hawkins (the effortlessly aggressive Charles Bickford) wants to appropriate part of the land of a recently-arrived rancher from England… Jim faces off the threat even with the local Sheriff Bud Hardy (DeWitt Jennings) favouring Cash (in hand, no doubt).

Cash tries to intimidate Naturich

Cash is also pressurising a Native American, Tab-y-wana (Joseph Singleton…), for his land by pushing liquor into his hands in the hope he’ll get drunk enough to let go. Tab-y-wana’s daughter, Naturich (Lupe Vélez) intervenes only to become the focus of Cash’s interest but as the ranchers pulls her hair and pushes her against the bar Jim arrives and slaps him down.

That’s one save to the Englishman but Naturich soon returns the favour as Cash aims to ambush Jim whilst he drinks himself into a stupor after spotting a picture of Diana in the society pages… a good moment from DeMille as the camera pans round the newspaper and shows the source of Jim’s reaction. She shoots Cash before he can gun down Jim.

Cheers m'dear

Jim avoids arrest – it wasn’t his gun – but is shot from his horse by Cash’s men as her returns home. Naturich saves him (2-1!) and nurses him back to health… she’s infatuated and gradually Jim returns that interest. Folks are talking though, it’s just not done round these parts, and he attempts to send her back to the reservation only to find her crouched outside the house soaked to the skin in a storm…

Steamy... literally.

It’s now that DeMille is able to show that “physical contact” as Jim does indeed help “her off with some wet things…” in front of the fire as Velez shows off her bare shoulders and legs in one of those code-transgressing moments so popular at the time. The scene ends with Naturich leaning her head against Jim’s arm as he sits masterful on his chair… all “code” for far more.

So now, common law in the cabin, what lies in store for Jim and Naturich? The story cuts to eight years ahead after the arrival of a son… and events in England progress as well meaning that Jim’s past and present are about to collide in the most forceful of ways…

The Squaw Man has some interesting moments and good performances all round but it doesn’t quite add up to more than the sum of these parts.  Even DeMille later admitted that it was a bit slow and it is indeed far less pacey than the 1914 original which has a lot more action and dramatic impact.Then there is the toe-curling "native" dialogue and references to Naturich having a "primitive mind" - hey, maybe she just doesn't want to learn English even after eight years with gentleman Jim?

The two are available on Warner Archives DVD either direct or from Amazon. This one is worth watching for butch Baxter and lusty Lupez but for me, elegant Eleanor still excels them all.

The league of extraordinary gentlefolk… The Ace of Hearts (1921)

Chaney in torment

After only a few weeks I’m playing off the Queen of Spades with The Ace of Hearts, although, with Hearts being trumps, the former wins this round. The Ace of Hearts is close though and is the kind of dark mystery melodrama you’d expect more from Europe than Hollywood.

Secret societies, death pacts, hidden agendas… all undermined by love – human weakness defining human strength in the face of ruthless and cold-hearted, organised killing in the name of progress… the more things change…

The Brotherhood of the greater good...

The film is a compelling pulp fiction in ten chapters that are economically-focused by director Wallace Worsley, he of The Penalty and The Hunchback… (both with this film’s star, Lon Chaney), who here brings Gouverneur Morris’ adventure novel to life on screen.

Farallone (Lon Chaney) belongs to a secret society along with several well-dressed middle-aged men, Forrest (John Bowers) and a lone lady, Lilith (Leatrice Joy). We’re never given much background on the group’s reason for being but we do know that the members are devoted to the cause – a dig at contemporary extremism perhaps in the wake of the Great War?

The Group monitor and then dispose, as required, of degenerates who are in breach of their moral code a modus operandi expressed by vague references to their targets’ short-comings. For their latest mark Forrest has been working as a waiter in the restaurant frequented by the “person who has lived to long” whilst friend Farallone has been painting his painting for three months.

The ”Brotherhood” use non-specific phrases: we don’t know who they are fighting against and what their “enemies” have done but, we give them the benefit of the doubt as they seem to be the good guys… Which reminds me of a Mitchell and Webb sketch in which they play SS soldiers with one turning to the other and, pointing to the death’s head on their caps, asking whether they might be, you know, the “bad guys”?

John Bowers, Leatrice Joy and Lon Chaney stride into the wind and rain

The Brotherhood’s target has had the power and opportunities to make the world better… but he has “made it worse”. It is not explained how and why but the Brothers and Sister are convinced they have this right and that the man has “lived too long”.

Grimly they pass round the cards and the one who gets the – you guessed it – Ace of Hearts – will have the duty of committing the act and terminating the life of this individual and making the World in general better for his exclusion.

At a time when individuals – tsars, kings, kaisers, generals, priests and revolutionaries – counted arguably more than they do now, you can sense the root appeal of this logic especially form a country in which assassination has been attempted so often on their president.

Here it acts as a curious means of forcing the hands of the three central characters who had previously been locked in an unresolved triangle of affection. Forrest gets the Ace and Lilith offers him her hand in eth hope that love will make him lucky; not just love of “The Cause” but for each other! Now, this would exclude all third parties and Farallone is especially concerned about that…

He is heartbroken and in a moving sequence watches the newly-married couple’s new home all night, standing looking up in the forlorn hope that something will change in his favour. No one stands in sorrow quite as well as Lon Chaney and here he is drenched through for good measure: there’s no singing but it is raining.

It should have been him…

Game's up mate...

Preparations are made and Forrest just has to bide his time until the appointed time to place the bomb that will kill the target and possibly him as well. But the couple’s union has brought a change of perspective and Lilith says: “Hatred seems so wrong - now that we have love.”…

But Forrest’s resolve seems strong and as he encounters an exhausted Farallone on their steps he reiterates his conviction and asks the other man to look after Lillian if he doesn’t survive.

The tension mounts as Forrest sets about his preparation in the café and Lilith goes to Farallone for help, Worsley cuts between the two scenes as Farallone realises his love for Lilith could never really be reciprocated whilst Forrest witnesses two young lovers sat right next to where his target will sit… In the face of such romantic innocence can he complete his task to kill he who must be killed at the cost of their lives…

Finally The Menace (Raymond Hatton) arrives and takes his regular seat. Forrest stands over him his mind in turmoil. If he doesn’t kill the man he knows his own life will be forfeit, the Brotherhood have strict rules so, who does he kill, the Menace and Young Love or his own chance for happiness?

No spoilers… The Ace of Hearts follows its own romantic arc as love for The Cause is challenged by love for each other with passion, compassion and loyalty all rising up in the face of the cold-blooded accountancy of the Brotherhood who are every bit as bad as the men they judge. In the end the Ace of Hearts trumps all else and that’s as it should be.

You may think that’s a bit soppy but I don’t think the position has changed much between the post-war years and modern conflicts in which automatons play an increasing role in despatching “high priority” targets.

The central cast all perform well In spite of John Bowers occasionally reminding me of David Walliams. Leatrice Joy (the future Mrs J Gilbert) shows a good range as the woman who finds love runs far deeper than any mere “cause” whilst Lon Chaney is as extraordinarily expressive as ever in showing that true love involves sacrifice as well as conviction.

Whaddaya mean Davd Walliams?!

I watched the DVD from the TCM Lon Chaney set which is enlivened by a stirring original score from Vivek Maddala. It’s available direct or from Amazon.

Acadian fire… Evangeline (1929)

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,

Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman’s devotion,

List to the mournful tradition, still sung by the pines of the forest;

List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

In 1755 British soldiers deported a group of French-Canadians, Aradians, who refused to join with the Empire in fighting their French challengers. The communities were forcibly removed from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – up to 11,500 from a total population of 14,000… one of the first large-scale population redistribution and a large scale operation for the British.

In 1847 the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem that follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.

It became the poet's most famous piece and remains one of his most enduring works in spite of the inevitable historical inaccuracies... since when have poets been required to be historically accurate?

Never-the-less thousands of lives were lost and the British were responsible for a high-mountain of human misery.

In 1929 Edwin Carewe made a film version starring Dolores del Rio, shot in Louisiana and more about the poem than the history. The film was silent but featured a Vitaphone soundtrack – don’t you just love transitional technology: always some great innovation but never as prosaically-practical as the eventual winning technology!

Delores sings?

For this Milestone DVD the majority of the sound disks were used which adds tremendously to the atmosphere and authenticity if not the hi-fidelity. You get to hear Miss del Rio (or someone else) sing and as with all things Vitaphone, the soundtrack is not directly synched with the dialogue just music, songs and sound effects. There are a few audio segments missing and so pianist Philip Carli filled in sympathetically for Hugo Riesenfeld’s music.

The impression quickly gained from this film is one of scale as well as poetic emotional sweep: this is definitely a tone poem and not a book adaptation and the rhythms are quite operatic: Evangeline is found singing to herself as she works away in her impossibly sweet cottage whilst her love Gabriel (Roland Drew) sweeps into the harbour not on wings but posed heroically on the bow of a fishing boat.

Roland Drew sweeping...

We see Father Felician (Alec B. Francis) strolling along the harbour surrounded by innocents and accompanied by lengthy dolly shot that introduces the town of Grand Pre in Acadie, then the toothless fiddler Michael (Bobby Mack) who will provide much comic relief even played against the stern Notary Rene la Blanc (George F. Marion).

To the main players, the alpha leader blacksmith Basil (James A. Marcus), father of Gabriel and the richest farmer in the town, Benedict Bellefontaine (Paul McAllister) and his son Baptiste (Donald Reed) who, for all his charms can’t prevent Evangeline’s heart beating for Gabriel even for a second: theirs is a steadfast passion – far more than that as we will see..

Cheers!

Now the sailor is returned it is a time to celebrate and Edwin Carewe directs a cast of thousands with aplomb and there are some gorgeous set-pieces captured by the cameras of Robert Kurrle and Al M. Green. A marriage contract is drawn up and signed in good humour and the community gathers again to witness the wedding of the year.

Meanwhile, the British have been getting set for war with those pesky Frenchies and the time has come to force them off King George II’s soil. The British Governor-General (Louis Payne) impresses the need for the Arcadians to join in the fight but they are reluctant to battle their fellow Frenchmen.

The march to the church

Now, dear reader, this is one of those moments in film historicals when the delicate Brit must look away in shame (my clan were variously Irish and Scottish at this point or Shropshire peasants so I’m taking no blame) but that aside, there’s no doubt this film is as kind to the “Mother country” as it could be. Most of the blame for the bad behaviour is laid at the table of Colonel Winslow (Lee Shumway) whose rogue, hot-headedness leads to the worst of consequences: the reality was far more organised and shameful.

The British army arrives just as Evangeline and Gabriel are being married – with hundreds of heavily-armed red-coats descending on the thousands of peaceful revelers (a bit like an early nineties rave after the Essex Constabulary turn up at 3AM Eternal…). The men are ordered into the church in which they are told they will pay the price for their insubordination: they will all be deported south and have their families broken up and their property destroyed.

Acadia burns as the boats start to take its citizens away

This genuinely-shocking development changes the tone of the film – and things get a whole lot darker form this point on as things kick off in a desperate struggle inside the church only halted by the appeals of Father Felician.

British guns mean that there can be no compromise and the community is dispersed - with contemporary images of mass-displacement all too fresh in the mind, this is, again, unsettling. The Army is relentless, not giving a fig for man, woman or child and the families and the lovers are split and taken away on boats.

As long as waters flow, their love will endure...

The months roll by and we follow Evangeline as she follows her search for her Gabriel: theirs is a true love and one that will endure “as long as waters flow…” You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be pulled in by this one and sometimes melodrama just works in spite of yourself.

Great composition and camerawork...

The film is lovely to look at and has the air of unreality required to match the poet’s phrases. Roland Drew and Delores del Rio make for a lovely lovelorn couple – the latter may not be one of the very best actors but she has an ethereality all of her own and is easily the stand-out performer.

Dolores del Rio

It’s also great to hear her “sing” her song – a theme apparently written by Billy Rose and one Al Jolson.

Evangeline is available from those nice Milestone people and is available direct from their shop – shipping is quick and very reliable!

Buy the Milestone DVD!