Grand days in film and musicals

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 18

Grand days in film and musicals

American Silent Film. By William K. Everson. Oxford University Press. 378 pp. Index, illustrations, American Musical Comedy from Adonis to Dreamgirls. By Gerald Bordman. Oxford University Press, 1982. 244 pp. index.

(Reviewed by

Ruth Zanker)

Mack Sennett, pioneer producer of slap stick silent films, wrote an autobiography. In it he gave synopses of films starring W. C. Fields that were never made. As a popular silent film title put it, “he grew muscle-bound from patting himself on the back,” feeling secure that no-one would bother to check the miles of dumped silent film footage. He was happy to add a little more fiction to popular myths, and this type of film history was all too common until recently. Apathy turned into interest in the 1960 s when television seized upon many silent prints for filler material. This was followed by archival restoration which has rescued some nitrate stock films from decay. Rescue is - an expensive business, but it is indicative of a change of attitude that even Hollywood, where production houses were notoriously casual about early footage, has begun working with the American Film Institute to restore important works. The results have opened our eyes to the silent period. The scratched, speeded up prints which seemed only good for a giggle are sometimes revealed as masterpieces. Clean prints in’ original hues, shown at correct speed, even, for a lucky few, accompanied by full live orchestra, make it clear that some imaginative leaps in direction, art work, and acting have never been equalled. The first generation of scholar-restorers such as Kevin Brownlow will also be the last to be able to consult the directors, cameramen and stars of these films; They will also often decide which films • will survive through restoration or video tape records and we will have to accept their summary of the rest. Their work will have to be regarded by future students of film as the most authoritative material on the silent film industry. Even though some films survived or have been restored, it is worth

remembering that the bulk of the early stuff is lost. In 1921 525 odd films were released of which 50 remain, including Valentino’s first starring role in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” The survival rate improves through the decade, thank goodness, but there are yawning gaps which include works by Griffith, and even the young John Ford. Von Stroheim’s legendary “Greed” (1924) is lost, too. Everson wryly comments that it is “constantly reported in unlikely corners of the world like a nitrate Holy Grail” — surely hard to miss at 42 reels and eight hours in length (10 reels was felt to be long). Its stills suggest a use of deep focus which predates Welles’s in “Citizen Kane.” Everson’s book is a useful introduction to the American silent film industry on the East Coast and then in Hollywood. We have much to thank him for. He has sat through miles of silent film so he can say with authority that, “in view of the tremendous quantity and qualitative output of those years, the percentage of truly great films is perhaps smaller

than one would expect given that technical mastery had been achieved early.” After his epic labours he is able to confirm that not too much has to be changed in the two standard views of silent film history. The first looks at the directorial innovators and Everson continues to affirm Griffith (to whom he devotes most space) von Stroheim, Vidor, Murnau, and Flaherty as pivotal, though not frequently commercial successes. The second approach regards Hollywood as a money-making industry and here, too, there are few surprises: Valentino, Fairbanks and Rin-Tin-Tin vehicles, not know for their risk taking, won the box office. Everson thinks, however, that there is a third approach to silent film which focuses on the neglected film-makers, talented journeyman, not hacks, who reflected popular taste and kept the industry solvent, like James Cruze, William Seiter and George Seitz. Their profits supported the monstrous experiments of people like von Stroheim. Some interesting observations arise from his study — that Valentino consciously played for laughs, that the 1920 s were unique for strong female roles, Everson has produced a reliable introduction to American silent film which will fire film enthusiasts to look for prints of films discussed, and will open the eyes of those who believed that silent film was a naive, pre-sound experiment. Gerald Bordman’s ‘American Musical Comedy” is an important book for specialists in the genre. It fails to appeal to a more general audience because so few scenarios, songs or even stills exist from the bulk of the early shows and Bordman’s reconstructions are, perhaps inevitably, rather academic. Even so, Bordman makes some provocative generalisations about the American nature of musical comedy, for example that its heydays were the 1920 s and 19405, and that the shows which hit Broadway today, such as “Annie” and “A Chorus Line,” do not match up to the greats of the past in either their music or their comedy.