Left to right: Helen Lynch, unknown player, Malcolm McGregor, Arthur Lake, Laura La Plante, Pauline Frederick in Smouldering Fires.

OTHER VIEWS: Although she is little-known today, Pauline Frederick was once the most famous actress in the whole world. (By "actress", I mean just that, not "show business personality"). It was a position she achieved by hard work. "People who think the path of a chorus girl is strewn with roses, have a lot to learn," she once declared. "I knew going on the stage would entail hardships. but I now venture to say that a man with a pick and a shovel has a much easier time!"

    It was due to her stage reputation, however, that Pauline Frederick was offered the leading role in her first film, The Eternal City (1915). She continued to play the leads in another 56 movies, right up until 1929. In 1931 she graciously accepted a co-starring role for the first time ever in This Modern Age as a personal favor for Joan Crawford and Irving Thalberg at M-G-M. She was billed second to Joan Crawford. For the rest of her 65-movies career, Pauline Frederick generally played the third lead (never less than fourth), and was top-billed in Monogram's Self-Defense (1933).

SUNRISE

George O'Brien (a farmer), Janet Gaynor (his wife), Margaret Livingston (a vacationer), Bodil Rosing (maid), J. Farrell McDonald (photographer), Ralph Sipperly (barber), Jane Winton (manicurist), Arthur Housman (masher), Eddie Boland (mister obliging), Gibson Gowland (angry driver), Sidney Bracey (fun fair official), Gino Corrado (barber shop manager), Phillips Smalley (waiter), Clarence Wilson (money lender), Barry Norton (dancer), Sally Eilers (girl in dance hall), Fletcher Henderson (performer), F.W. Murnau (man in street), Bob Kortman, Harry Semels.

Director: F.W. MURNAU. Screenplay: Carl Mayer. Based on the 1917 short novel, "The Journey to Tilsit", by Hermann Sudermann. Titles: Katherine Hilliker, H.H. Caldwell. Photography: Charles Rosher, Karl Struss. Film editor: Harold D. Schuster. Art directors: Rochus Gliese, assisted by Alfred Metscher and Edgar G. Ulmer. Special effects: Frank Williams. Music: Hugo Riesenfeld. Stills: Frank Powolny. Cameramen: Stuart Thompson, Hal Carney. Assistant director: Herman Bing. Executive producer: William Fox.

Copyright 12 June 1927 by Fox Film Corp. New York opening: 23 September. U.S. release: 4 November 1928. 8,729 feet. 97 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Vacationing vamp from the city induces a gullible farmer to murder his wife.

NOTES: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted this picture ahead of Chang and The Crowd for "Artistic Quality of Production." Janet Gaynor won the award for Best Actress (in conjunction with her performances in Seventh Heaven and Street Angel). Rosher and Struss were voted the year's best photographers for their joint cinematography of Sunrise. (Two cameras were used, Rosher operating one, and his friend, Struss, the other). 

    The movie was also nominated for Art Direction.

    Number 7 in the Film Daily's annual poll of U.S. film critics.

    One of Mordaunt Hall's selections for the Ten Best Films of 1927.

    Herman Bing, the assistant director, is also the well-known character actor.

COMMENT: Simply one of the best movies ever made, Sunrise is both an invigorating and heart-warming, yet sometimes comic and intensely dramatic experience.

    It seems to me that it would be hard to go past George O'Brien [pictured] for the year's Best Actor and F.W. Murnau for Best Director, yet both men were not even nominated. The scene in which O'Brien's besotted farmer tries to murder his wife must surely rank as the number one dramatic moment in the whole history of the cinema. It is absolutely terrifying, and yet the sheer horror of this moment is brilliantly modified and translated into the charmingly frenetic comedy that follows.

    Full marks also to Struss and Rosher for their incredible, superbly atmospheric photography. (Interestingly, Struss was the official cameraman for the Awards Ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on 16 May 1929, so he had the job of photographing himself). And it is no surprise to find the designer of the movie's absolutely breathtaking sets as a nominee. 

    I certainly won't question Janet Gaynor's accolades either, but there is another player in the film who deserves a special recognition: Margaret Livingston. Her role is vital and she plays it with utter conviction.

    Yes, as other reviewers have already noted, the movie is heavily Germanic in style, mood and presentation. Murnau's camera is moody, oppressively fluid, realistic, scarifying and intrusive as it draws us inevitably and inexorably into his "Song of Two Humans." 

AVAILABLE on DVD through Fox. Quality rating: Ten out of ten.       

SWEET ADELINE

Charles Ray (Ben Wilson), Gertrude Olmstead (Adeline), Jack Clifford (Bill Wilson), John P. Lockney (Pa Wilson), Ida Lewis (Ma Wilson), Gertrude Short (Fluffy), Lilian Leighton (Adeline's ma), Sabel Johnson (fat lady on hay ride), Theodore Lorch (the town miser), Frank Austin (cafe proprietor), John Hall, Beth Nagel.

Director: JEROME STORM. Screenplay: Charles E. Banks. Based on the 1903 song by Richard H. Gerrard and Harry Armstrong. Photography: Philip Tannura. Producer: Charles Ray.

Copyright 31 December 1925 by Chadwick Pictures Corp. New York opening: 14 January 1926. 7 reels.

SYNOPSIS: Impoverished farm boy tries to beat his elder brother for the affections of a lovely new neighbor.

COMMENT: An absolutely delightful movie that belies the bad reputation of (and public indifference to) all Charles Ray's films after his financially disastrous 1923 fling with The Courtship of Myles Standish. Here with a far more capable director at the helm, a bright script and a first-rate support cast, Ray provides a most entertaining vehicle that provides an abundance of laughs and happy suspense from start to finish. (True, we are watching the expertly condensed 5-reel Kodascope version and it's more than possible that the missing 15 minutes or so may have caused the narrative to drag in places; but we have to take the movie as edited "to make the laughs come faster" -- as indeed they do!)

    In fact, the movie starts with a great flourish in the middle of the very first reel when the bucolic hero decides to mail a letter. This prosaic proceeding for most people is here translated into a mad dash in an old jalopy that makes a spectacular, jaw-dropping, near-miss effort to beat the speeding mail train to the railroad depot.

    Ray himself proves most ingratiating throughout and is given excellent assistance by Jack Clifford as the obnoxious standover merchant of an elder brother, the lovely Gertrude Olmstead as the sweet miss of the title, plus Gertrude Short as a helpful chorus girl.   

AVAILABLE on DVD through Sunrise Silents in a beautiful tinted print from the Kodascope Library. Quality rating: 9 out of ten. 

Also included in the book is a useful contact list of DVD suppliers. Of course, most large bookshops, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc., are excellent sources for commercially manufactured DVDs, which are often discounted or on special. The ten suppliers listed in the book, however, are either retailers who stock more obscure items as well as main-line product, or sources that supply direct to consumers. Here are five of these Highly Recommended Suppliers:

Free Movies on DVD. http://www.freemoviesondvd.com

Grapevine Video, 4021 W. San Juan Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85019. http://www.grapevinevideo.com

Sinister Cinema, P.O. Box 4369, Medford, Oregon 97501-0168. http://www.sinistercinema.com

Sunrise Silents, P.O. Box 4124, Middletown, Rhode Island 02842. http://www.sunrisesilents.com

Vintage Film Buff. http://www.VintageFilmBuff.com