Margot's Silent Film Emporium

Thank you dear, that's such a sweet thing to say. I'm okay, massively frustrated and filled with rage, but okay 🙂
We will see how things are after the midterms.
Thank you so much for your kind words you are a darling!❤️

Thank you sweetie! ❤️

Exactly dear, and I can't pretend like everything is okay when everything is awash in hate and vile corruption. I would feel like I'm fiddling when Rome is burning.
I love writing about films but the world has sucked the joy from it and left me with an empty husk of meh.
Take care, you are super!❤️

Thus I have decided to go on hiatus for a bit and spend my energy on fighting the good fight. I don't live in the US, so I can't fight there, but I will do everything in my power to keep fascism from spreading in my little part of Europe.

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments and likes. 🥰
Margot❤️

I'm devastated by all the evil that has been loosed upon us. I hate it. It has made me someone who actually giggled when I read Hulk Hogan died. I wasn't raised to be that way.
And so talking about Murnau's direction or how Louise Brooks is my girlfriend (this is true by the way) leaves me empty.

Hello darlings,

I'm sure no one's noticed but I've not been posting much of late. I just can't seem to get into the groove of posting whimsical yaps about silent pictures when the world is going to complete shit around my ears, and your ears too.
#silentfilm #fuckfascism

What I didn't like about this picture were the scenes where the animals were not treated kindly. Horses falling, cattle being beaten, and so on, the usual shit found in old westerns.
I reluctantly liked this picture and I'm glad I saw it. For more Lois Wilson check out bsky.app/profile/marg...

Smile when you say that mister. Hale and Kerrigan have a disagreement while Jackson tries to mediate in the center. Actually, he just wants Hale's gun to avoid what he calls accidents, before the two men engage in reindeer games.

Alan Hale (senior, not the Skipper) is fantastically brilliant as the fantastically rotten bad guy. If he had been the Skipper he would have made Gilligan kill the passengers and serve them up for lunch. It's funny how father and son look so much alike btw.

Tully Marshall showing that there were no showers in the desert. He is dressed in traditional frontier leather and in bad need of a shave. And shower.

Lois Wilson talking to Alan Hale but thinking about Kerrigan. She is sitting in her wagon while he sits atop his horse.

He was both menacing and hilarious, a rare combination indeed.
Tully Marshall as Jim Bridger was flamboyantly excellent, though not at all historically correct. Marshall was one of the best character actors ever, and this role doesn't nothing to disprove that. He and Torrence are great together.

From left to right, Alan Hale as the bad guy, William Torrence as Kerrigan's bestie and Kerrigan, all dressed in western clothes. Hale and Kerrigan are heavily made up, whilst Torrence is not, and looks much better.

Torrence, Kerrigan and Tully Marshall as Jim Bridger have a good chat. Marshall is dressed in a deer skin suit, which is probably quite rank smelling in the hot desert.

A note about Kerrigan, he was gay and retired shortly after this picture to spend his life relaxing with his partner, away from the picture business. Must be nice.
Aside from Lois Wilson's eyes, what made this picture shine was the supporting cast.
William Torrence as Kerrigan's friend was great.

One of the first shots of the lovely Lois Wilson in The Covered Wagon. She is sitting in her family's wagon doing some crocheting or some such needlework and looking quite fetching. I would love to fetch her.

The same scene as before, but a few frames later. Lois Wilson is showing off her smile and letting the world know that pioneer women were hot.

Kerrigan's acting isn't bad, he's just lacking in charisma. Lois Wilson, as the female lead, is quite lovely and acts quite well, as is her wont. Cruze does a great job with Wilson's first scenes and the audience is mesmerized (or should be, if they know what's good for them) the rest of the way.

J Warren Kerrigan all dolled up in heavy stage makeup, playing Will Banion, the hero in The Covered Wagon.

Kerrigan with a little girl trying to repair her broken doll. There is a covered wagon behind them. No spoilers, but later on the broken doll is the least of the little kid's worries.

Cruze captures the expanse of the West and the hardships faced by the settlers quite well, and even portrays the indigenous folks sympathetically (usually).
However J Warren Kerrigan as the hero left me cold. I think it's more my fault for watching the picture now, rather than in 1923. But meh.

Because I had read about it and it's authenticity and felt that, as one who fancies herself a connoisseur of silent pictures, I needed to see it. So I did. It wasn't bad and sometimes I, dare I say it, even enjoyed it.
Direction from James Cruze was quite good, though not overly adventurous.

Movie poster for The Covered Wagon, 1923, showing a train of covered wagons descending a grassy hill.

Last night I finally watched The Covered Wagon (1923). Disclaimer: I hate westerns, and that still goes after seeing this film. I grew up in Texas (but I've overcome that handicap) and westerns just bring back past trauma of idiots, lots and lots of idiots.
So why did I watch it?
#silentfilm

My mother had a VHS copy of Metropolis from the 80s that had a horrible 1930s cocktail party soundtrack. Mom muted it and showed it to us with Pink Floyd instead. Mom was great.

I adore this.

Ossi Oswalda being bathed by a bevy of beauties.

Harry Liedtke and Ossi Oswalda in a close up shot.

This film is so good-natured and just the thing to lift one's spirits after a day of doom scrolling.
For the eagle-eyed viewer, there's even a flash of nipple in a scene with Ossi in the bathtub, showing that she is not wearing a hidden towel. Ooh la la. ❤️🙂

Ossi Oswalda in boxing gloves as she prepares to fight for her man.

The Black men are actually played by Black men, and there are no racist jokes or other demeaning treatment of the men. They are merely his servants and they are quite funny.
Julius Falkenstein as Josef is great, and Harry Liedtke as Prince Nutki is good if underused.
Ossi is wonderful, of course.

Victor Janson surrounded by his four Black servants. One holds his coffee, another his cigar, one some cake and the lasts a napkin.

Julius Falkenstein is waited on by a plethora of servants.

The film could be considered early screwball comedy mixed with a heaping of Marx Brother's style absurdity. The Quaker family depends much too much on servants, and this is a running gag throughout the picture. In fact, Janson has four Black servants who follow him constantly.

Ossi Oswalda introduces Victor Janson (her father) to Julius Falkenstein (her intended) in Janson's bedroom.

Ossi Oswalda and Julius Falkenstein nearly encircled by servants in livery.

Another Lubitsch favorite is Victor Janson, who plays the father, an American (!) oyster magnate named Quaker. Mr Quaker's spoiled daughter is unhappy because other American girls are marrying royalty, and she wants too as well.
Her doting father agrees to find her a prince, and mayhem ensues.

Ossi Oswalda is standing in her destroyed bedroom with her arms extended as she celebrates her upcoming nuptials.

It is well on display in this picture, which is a hilarious romping farcical homage to absurdity.
The titular character is played by Ossi Oswalda, who was die Puppe in Die Puppe made that same year. In fact, much like Wes Anderson today, Lubitsch had his favorites and they appear often in his films.

Poster for Die Austernprinzessin showing star Ossi Oswalda in front of a line of black servants dressed in red coats.

The world being what it is, I am still not up to a heavy silent drama (which is a pity), so yesterday I watched Ernst Lubitsch's Die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) from 1919. It was, of course, great fun.
Long before Lubitsch went to Hollywood, he possessed the Lubitsch Touch.

#silentfilm

My favorite Sam Cooke song!❤️

For a minute I thought it was a '26 Tesla.

That's more than ecstasy if you ask me! I really love this picture, it's so fun.

This was his third feature, his first was in 1925, but this was really the first one that's Hitchcock as we know him. It was fun.

Marie Ault opens the door to Ivor Novello, dressed for a cold foggy night in overcoat, scarf and hat, in The Lodger.

Close up of a young woman wearing a cloche hat, of which I am entirely envious, in the process of screaming while being murdered in The Lodger.

The film isn't perfect, but it clearly shows Hitchcock as a first class director even then. There are many Hitchcock-esque shots, the mood is moody and the suspense is suspenseful.
It's also noteworthy for being that rarest of things- a good British silent picture.

Ivor Novello looking quite tasty in his smoking jacket and tie as he looks forlorn and all sensitive.

Ivor Novello wearing a coat and scarf over the lower half of his face and a hat as he stands in the London fog.

Gwenn, by the way, was Santa in Miracle on 34th St.
The Lodger was played by Ivor Novello, a talented musician as well as actor, and even for someone like me who doesn't like boys, he's quite lovely to look at.
June Tripp is indeed one as Daisy, and Malcom Keen plays a convincing dick.

Marie Ault looks over the shoulder of Arthur Chesney as he reads about the latest murder victim in The Lodger.

The cast is excellent. I particularly liked the performance of Marie Ault as the worried mother. Arthur Chesney did good work as the father, and I was sure I had seen him in another Hitchcock picture, Foreign Correspondent (1940) but I was surprised to find out that was his brother, Edmund Gwenn.

June Tripp sits in a hot tub smiling as she contemplates what life as the wife of a serial killer would be like. She is wearing nothing but unfortunately the bathtub interrupts our gaze before we see anything good.

On one hand, Joe is indeed an asshole, and is one 365 days a year, while the serial killer only kills blondes (as Daisy is blonde this is a minus) but only does so on Tuesday evenings, so six days a week he's quite okay.
There will be no spoilers here, but she does make the right choice. Maybe.