The experts were right when they said that silent filmmaking was developing something unique and beautiful, before talkies came along and spoiled the party with all that noise. This ‘handy three-pack’ of once-obscure Josef von Sternberg classics proves the theory 100% — his intense dramas excite audiences with something that’s gone missing from the movies, or the cinema or whatever you want to call it: the magic of visual stylization in the service of basic human emotions. Before Marlene there was Evelyn Brent and Betty Compson: Sternberg presents them as shimmering visions.
3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 529, 530, 531
1927-28 / B&w / 1:33 Silent Ap / 81, 88, 75 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 8, 2019 / 79.96
Starring: George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook; Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell; George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova.
Cinematography: Bert Glennon; Bert Glennon; Harold Rosson
Original Music: multiple scores by Robert Israel,...
3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 529, 530, 531
1927-28 / B&w / 1:33 Silent Ap / 81, 88, 75 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 8, 2019 / 79.96
Starring: George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook; Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell; George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova.
Cinematography: Bert Glennon; Bert Glennon; Harold Rosson
Original Music: multiple scores by Robert Israel,...
- 10/22/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There have been at least four major “King Kong” movies — and another, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” is due early next year. And yet when fans of all ages think of the girl in the palm of the ape’s hand, they think not of Jessica Lange or Naomi Watts, but of the actress who first embodied her in 1933.
As we speak, New York’s popular indie house Film Forum is filling the next two weeks with movies that starred Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow who tamed the giant ape. Also featured are movies written by Wray’s husband, Academy Award winner Robert Riskin. The program is done in conjunction with a new memoir by Victoria Riskin, the couples’ daughter and former president of the Writers Guild of America West.
“They were an early Hollywood power couple, each with a lasting legacy,” TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz said. “Wray is more easily identifiable,...
As we speak, New York’s popular indie house Film Forum is filling the next two weeks with movies that starred Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow who tamed the giant ape. Also featured are movies written by Wray’s husband, Academy Award winner Robert Riskin. The program is done in conjunction with a new memoir by Victoria Riskin, the couples’ daughter and former president of the Writers Guild of America West.
“They were an early Hollywood power couple, each with a lasting legacy,” TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz said. “Wray is more easily identifiable,...
- 3/26/2019
- by Mary Murphy and Michele Willens
- The Wrap
John Monk Saunders is a good example of the screenwriter-as-auteur in the sense that he had a tone (mordant, tragic) and a set of concerns (Wwi aerial combat and its effects) that were consistent throughout his work, almost to the point of claustrophobia. Saunders was an airman himself, and like his characters, he just couldn't leave it behind. A recurring theme of his work is that war is not only traumatic, but addictive. Ace of Aces is a typical work: Saunders would achieve greater glory with William A. Wellman (Wings, 1927), Howard Hawks (The Dawn Patrol, 1930) and, best of all, with William Dieterle and The Last Flight in 1931. Ace of Aces is a relatively minor-league outing. Though director J. Walter Ruben delivers a few elaborate tracking shots, the film belongs mainly to the writer and the Rko effects team—Vernon L. Walker, who worked on Citizen Kane and King Kong, stitches...
- 6/14/2017
- MUBI
(William A Wellman, 1927; Eureka!, PG)
In the mid-20s, Hollywood's movie moguls were always on the lookout for grand projects to head their annual schedules, and in 1926 Paramount (then the major studio) bought Wings, a Great War flying story by John Monk Saunders. A wartime training instructor who, to his enduring chagrin, never got to France, Saunders devoted his Hollywood career to flying movies, creating what became a dominant adventure genre of the 30s. A little-known B-movie director, William A Wellman, was hired as director because of his active service as a pilot in the war, and the film was shot in Texas with the Us army providing 220 planes and hundreds of skilled extras.
A mixture of melodrama, sentimental romance and heavy-handed comedy, Wings was superbly choreographed with skilfully photographed stunt flying and aerial combat. It tells the tale of two small-town boys (Richard Arlen, Charles Rogers) undergoing flight training...
In the mid-20s, Hollywood's movie moguls were always on the lookout for grand projects to head their annual schedules, and in 1926 Paramount (then the major studio) bought Wings, a Great War flying story by John Monk Saunders. A wartime training instructor who, to his enduring chagrin, never got to France, Saunders devoted his Hollywood career to flying movies, creating what became a dominant adventure genre of the 30s. A little-known B-movie director, William A Wellman, was hired as director because of his active service as a pilot in the war, and the film was shot in Texas with the Us army providing 220 planes and hundreds of skilled extras.
A mixture of melodrama, sentimental romance and heavy-handed comedy, Wings was superbly choreographed with skilfully photographed stunt flying and aerial combat. It tells the tale of two small-town boys (Richard Arlen, Charles Rogers) undergoing flight training...
- 2/2/2014
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Wings, Dr. Strangelove: Film preservation and ‘Amazing Tales from the Archives’ (photo: Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Clara Bow, Richard Arlen in William A. Wellman’s Wings) The 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s edition of "Amazing Tales from the Archives" was perhaps the weakest of the series to date. In the past, they have done a wonderful job demonstrating the excitement of finding lost films and footage, assembling them together, preserving and restoring them. This installment revolved around the "Digital Age," and did not concentrate only on silent film. The reconstruction of William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927), the first Best Picture (or "Best Production") Academy Award winner, was a familiar story of how an old film print could be dusted off and used for the production of a Digital Cinema Package. By now, we all are aware of the importance of film preservation, which is part detective work and part modern technology.
- 6/4/2013
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Fay Wray and John Monk Saunders, later film career [See previous article: "Fay Wray King Kong: Never a Superstar."] Robert Riskin died in 1955. Wray had been previously married (1928-1939) to writer and aviator John Monk Saunders, a Best Original Story Oscar winner for the aviation drama The Dawn Patrol (1930), and the writer of two Fay Wray movies: the aforementioned Legion of the Condemned and The Finger Points. An alcoholic who developed a serious drug problem during his marriage to Wray, Saunders committed suicide in 1940, the year after the couple’s separation became final. (Photo: Fay Wray and Jack Holt in Frank Capra’s [...]...
- 9/17/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cinemark is pleased to announce that the very first motion picture to win an Academy Award®, the silent film .Wings,. will return to screens for a rare presentation May 2 and 16, 2012. Presented by Paramount Pictures, .Wings. was meticulously restored to give fans the chance to view the visually stunning epic in pristine condition.
.Cinemark is thrilled to present this silent film masterpiece as our next Reel Classics offering,. states James Meredith, Vice President of Marketing for Cinemark Theatres. .This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Hollywood history on screen, with incredible visuals and the original score recorded by a full orchestra..
.Wings. is a 1927 World War I drama that explores the devastating effects of war through the story of two men who go off to battle and the woman they both leave behind. This historic piece of cinema stars Clara Bow, Charles .Buddy. Rogers and Richard Arlen, and...
.Cinemark is thrilled to present this silent film masterpiece as our next Reel Classics offering,. states James Meredith, Vice President of Marketing for Cinemark Theatres. .This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Hollywood history on screen, with incredible visuals and the original score recorded by a full orchestra..
.Wings. is a 1927 World War I drama that explores the devastating effects of war through the story of two men who go off to battle and the woman they both leave behind. This historic piece of cinema stars Clara Bow, Charles .Buddy. Rogers and Richard Arlen, and...
- 5/2/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This past week Criterion put up a ton of new content on their Hulu Plus page, a number totaling 37. What’s even more interesting is that they put 10 films that aren’t in the collection or any of their Eclipse sets either, which is always an exciting time for film fans everywhere. As per usual, I’ll be listing the films with the links to their respective pages. This entry will just focus on the non-Criterion collection films for the moment. Also, to keep this article going, please sign up using this link. I’ve already had one person do so, and every time one of you does so, it gives another 2 weeks. So a huge thank you to anyone who signs up.
Q Planes (1939), a film by Arthur B. Woods and Tim Whelan, stars Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Valerie Hobson. Produced by Alexander Korda, it’s about a...
Q Planes (1939), a film by Arthur B. Woods and Tim Whelan, stars Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Valerie Hobson. Produced by Alexander Korda, it’s about a...
- 5/21/2011
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Actress Fay Wray, best known for her role in 1933 movie King Kong, died on Sunday. She was 96. Born Vina Fay Wray in Alberta, Canada, on September 15, 1907, she was one of six children. Her family moved to the United States when she was three years old. Wray was barely in her teens when she began her silver-screen career as a extra. She went on to be regularly cast as a heroine in silent movies, scoring her breakthrough in 1928's The Wedding March. In the early 1930s she made a number of horror movies, including Doctor X and The Vampire Bat, and became known as Hollywood's first "scream queen". After those movies, Wray won praise for her King Kong character's combination of sex appeal, vulnerability and lung capacity as she was stalked by the beast to the top of New York's Empire State Building. But her career fell into decline following King Kong and she retired from movies in 1942 after her second marriage. In 1953, she made a comeback in character roles and made movies until 1958 and worked in television into the 1960s. Wray had a daughter, Susan, by her first marriage to John Monk Saunders, and two children, Robert and Vicky, with Robert Riskin.
- 8/10/2004
- WENN
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