1927 - THE CAT AND THE CANARY, a brillant horror comedy.

Take every old haunted house cliche and mix it with humor.  Hire Paul Leni one of Germany's best expressionist directors and you have a film that is a practically perfect genre piece.

The setup is the deceased relative in a spooky old house bit.  The family members have arrived for the reading of his will and one of them is a murderer who wants all the inheritance.  Even in 1927 this was a bunch of cliches but as they say it's not the story but how you tell the story.

 

A moving camera, witty title cards and a perfect blend of humor and scares really work here.  In some ways the fact that this is a silent film adds to the fun. The anachronisms that are silent films these days indirectly contributes to the stylish mood of this film. 

The Cat and the Canary is a lot of fun.


82 minutes.

1927 - THE END OF ST. PETERSBURG, another film classic to get through

Celebrating the tenth year of the Russian revolution, Vsevolod Pudovkin, filmed this story of the fall of the city of St. Petersburg which eventually became Leningrad.  The film is told from the point of view of a peasant who gets his friend, a revolutionary in trouble with the authorities.

This film is extremely well directed with each shot carefully composed and edited.  Pudovkin has a very strong visual sense along with a careful editing rhythm.  

This film seems a lot easier to watch than that other Russian film I sat through,  Earth.  There is something about these lefty intellectual artists who attempt dramatize the lives of the "ordinary people."  Their efforts always smack of a condescending intellectualism.   The End of St. Petersburg seems to be able to avoid this for most of the film .   

To use an overworked word this is a very "cinematic"  film experience in spite of the age and subject matter of the film.

80 minutes

1927 - BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY, an attempt to capture the feeling of a large metroplitan city.

A silent film that wants to show life in Berlin from sunrise to sunset.

Clearly the film was filmed to give an impressionistic view of Berlin as a city constantly in motion.  Trains, cars, airplanes and people are seen always on the go.  The editing is also fairly frantic at times which adds to the theme of a city in constant activity.

This film is not character driven, the only character is the city itself. 

Berlin Symphony of a Great City is an interesting companion piece to People On Sunday.

65 minutes.

1927 - UNDERWORLD, impressive early gangster film from Von Sternberg.

I doubt when Josef Von Sternberg filmed Underworld he knew he was creating an entirely new genre in films.  What I don't doubt is that Von Sternberg had a complete understanding of how to integrate the visual elements to the story.  The is an extremely well made film.

Everything about this film is first rate, the photography, the set design, the acting and the story.  It's amazing to see a film that actually succeeds in every area for a change.  It's hard to believe this was Von Sternberg's first major film. 

Underworld was written by  Ben Hecht and Jules Furthman, parts of it turn up in Howard Hawk's films Scarface and Rio Bravo.  Also, the female lead  character "Feathers" shows up in Rio Bravo as well.

A very impressive silent film from Criterion's Von Sternberg trilogy.

80 minutes.