Camera Speaks, The (1934)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Extremely bizarre Vitaphone short was G.W. Bitzer being credited with the story. For those who don't know, Bitzer was the first great cinematographer doing hundreds of films for D.W. Griffith during their golden period. The film tries to pay respect to the "golden period" of movies as an elderly guard falls asleep after two new hot shots bring in a new movie camera to store. Before leaving they make fun of the older movie camera and later the "spirit" of this old camera tells us all the great images it caught back in its day. This is when we get countless clips from various silent movies including an early Edison short, a Charles Ray film and one with Gloria Swanson. Having a movie be able the "spirit" of a camera certainly makes for an interesting idea and for the most part this is a nice tribute to early cinema even though I'm really not sure what the point was unless it was to remind people of 1934 that films use to be silent. Joseph Henabery is the uncredited director here and he too has a connection to Griffith, which includes playing Lincoln in THE BIRTH OF A NATION.