The Lost World (1925)

Explorer Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) is taking quite a beating in the London press, thanks to his claim that living dinosaurs exist in the far reaches of the Amazon. Newspaper reporter Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes) learns that this claim originates from a diary given to him by fellow explorer Maple White's daughter, Paula (Bessie Love). Malone's paper funds an expedition to rescue Maple White, who has been marooned at the top of a high plateau. Joined by renowned hunter John Roxton (Lewis Stone), and others, the group goes to South America, where they do indeed find a plateau inhabited by pre-historic creatures, one of which they even manage to bring back to London with them while hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The Lost World is the first in-flight movie, shown on an Imperial Airways flight in a converted Handley-Page bomber from London, UK, to Paris, France, in April 1925. In July 1929, the Kodascope Libraries acquired the 16mm rights to this film. The original lavender protection positive itself was edited down to five reels to create the abridged 16mm Kodascope version. This abridged Kodascope version was the only one widely known to survive in the U.S. until a more extensive (but still incomplete) original tinted, toned and hand-colored 35mm print was found in 2003 in the hands of a private collector and purchased by Film Preservation Associates. While filming one of the stop-motion scenes, the cameraman spotted a pair of pliers in the picture. So as not to draw attention to them by having them suddenly disappear, he moved them a little at a time until they were out of the shot. This was the first full length feature film to utilize stop motion animation to create its creatures.

Wow. It still amazes me that the filmmakers could makes some of the movies they made back in the silent days. Now thus far I have watched the cream of the crop, as it were, of silent films, the ones that are still mentioned and remembered today and The Lost World is one of them. It has a wealth of interesting items in it. First is the scenery with South American jungles and the dinosaur plateau, and down town London. Second, the blending of stop motion with live action (except one time when Lloyd Hughes literally lost his head as it disappeared at the juncture of the live action and the stop motion sections). And then there are the dinosaurs. There was a surprising amount of time devoted to the dinosaurs and they were done well considering when they were done. You could see them breath, and fight, and looked puzzle, and just be dinosaurs. You can really see where King Kong got it's roots. You even saw where Lost World: Jurassic Park got some of it's story. In LW:JP a T-Rex gets loose in San Diego and rampages through town, while in The Lost World, it was a brontosaurs doing the damage in London. I think I am going to have to add this one to a list of most influential movies that Impman suggested I make. But, the movie is in no way flawless. There is little interaction between the dinosaurs and the adventures to the point that 90 percent of the dinosaur scenes have nothing to do with the people or plot, they are just dinosaurs being dinosaurs (cool, yes, but they don't drive any of the plot forward). Now that I mention the plot, it was kind of thin. The weird thing that I noticed has to do with Ms. Bessie Love. She is pretty much the only women in the movie and the daughter of the missing explorer that disappeared. What is weird is that she is the only one in the movie that they would get close-ups, and when they did show her she would be nervous and fidgety (of course, if your father was missing you might be nervous and fidgety too.). Then they had a guy dressed up in a half man half monkey suit, a sort of ape man character, that lived with a chimpanzee, why he was living with the chimp I have no idea, but he was (maybe it was a little jungle love). This guy kept watching the explorers and generally created a little havoc at times but that was it, he was kind of a superfluous character. They also had an actor in black face as the one and only guide/porter for the group.

The Alphabet Project: N is for...

Nanook Of The North (1922)

Documents one year in the life of Nanook (Nanook), an Eskimo (Inuit) and his family. Describes the trading, hunting, fishing and migrations of a group barely touched by industrial technology. Nanook of the North was widely shown and praised as the first full-length, anthropological documentary in cinematographic history. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Rated #6 in 2002 by International Documentary Assn. on its list of Top 20 Documentaries of all time. All of the scenes are staged. The woman who plays Nanook's wife was not his actual wife. Nanook died of starvation in 1922, months after the film was completed.

This was actually pretty amazing to watch. It might have been staged but I believe that is only because of having to set up the camera to capture it. One of the cool parts was when Nanook built an igloo, they said it took him around an hour, he even cut out a large section of clear ice to make a window. There was also a scene where Nanook and his family go to a trading post in a kayak. Nanook paddled, his son sat on the his wife (the smiling one) was inside in the front, his other wife was inside in the back with a child and a dog, it was like an Eskimo clown car.

Next Up: "O" This weeks clue: One of the Bard's best tragedies. Now for last week's guesses:

The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad - Incompetent cop Frank Drebbin has to foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him.

Nowhere to Run - Escaped convict Sam Gillen single handedly takes on ruthless developers determined to evict Clydie - a widow with two young children.

The Naked Civil Servant - The life and times of Quentin Crisp, an outrageous and flamboyant homosexual, coming of age and growing into old age in conservative England.

No Sex Please: We're British - Porn store owner Pete orders some new stuff from his supplier Niko but Niko mixes up the address with the address of the local Barclays Bank. (Holy Cow, this is a real movie!?)

Naked Lunch - After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.

The Night Listener - In the midst of his crumbling relationship, a radio show host begins speaking to his biggest fan, a young boy, via the telephone. But when questions about the boy's identity come up, the host's life is thrown into chaos.

North by Northwest - A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

North Country - A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.

North to Alaska - Sam (John Wayne) and George (Stewart Granger) strike gold in Alaska. George sends Sam to Seattle to bring George's fiance back to Alaska.

Nothing to Lose - Nick Beam's life couldn't get any worse. He discovers he has been living a lie and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Ned Kelly - This film is based on "Our Sunshine" by Robert Drew, a novel based on the life of Australian bushranger and icon.

North and South - Two friends, one northern and one southern, struggle to maintain their friendship as events build towards the American Civil War.

Silent Movie (1976)

Shhhhh...Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn (Mel Brooks), Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them. The film contains only one word of dialogue, spoken by an unlikely source. Hilarity ensues quietly.

Trivia: Marcel Marceau, the famous mime, has the only speaking line in this movie: "No!" (when refusing a role in the silent film). As a result, the movie has been listed in the Guinesss Book Of World Records as having the fewest spoken lines of any sound movie. The logo for Big Picture Studios features the slogan "Ars est pecunia" which is "Art is money" in Latin. This is a takeoff on the MGM slogan "Ars gratia artis" which means "Art for art's sake." The villainous company Engulf & Devour is a spoof of Gulf & Western, which between 1965 and 1970 swallowed up 80 different companies, including Paramount Pictures in 1966. One scene shows the skyline of New York City. The orchestra begins playing "San Francisco", and the music comes to a sudden and noisy halt. The orchestra then goes into "I'll Take Manhattan". Mel Brooks claimed that he was able to get all of the big star cameos (Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Paul Newman, etc.) for under $300 a day, far below there normal salaries. Though, of course, they didn't have to learn any lines. At the sneak preview of the silent movie, several posters for Young Frankenstein (1974) are visible in theater lobby.

Well, if you are reading this you have figured out that I have been able to tweak my blog so that I can now find my spoilers by camouflaging them. From now on if you see a large blank space in my commentary, it is because it contains a spoilers. Okay, and now for the movie. I love Mel Brooks movies. They are hilarious. His genre comedies are the best. When I call them genre comedies I mean Brooks making fun of Westerns in Blazing Saddles, Sci-fi in Spaceballs, Horror in Young Frankenstein, and Hitchcock movies in High Anxiety. This is his take of silent movies, really, I'm serious. There was some great sight gags in this movie. Not his best (Blazing Saddles) but pretty good.

Top 250 Challenge: 221

Sunrise: A Tale Of Two Humans (1927)
Number 248 on IMDb's Top 250

An attractive woman from the city, on vacation, stays in a small farming community and dazzles a young married farmer. The wicked woman suggests that the man's deceptively dowdy-looking wife might "accidentally" drown. Can he, will he go through with it? The scene changes; in unexpected company, the man gets a kaleidoscopic taste of what the actual city is like. The dramatic climax comes in a fearsome storm and its aftermath...Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Many of the superimpositions throughout the film were created "in the camera". The camera would shoot one image at the side of the frame, blacking out the rest of the shot, then expose the film. They would put the exposed film back into the camera and shoot again, blocking out the area that already had an image on it. The original negatives of the film were destroyed in a fire in 1937.

For being almost 80 years old this movie still stands up pretty well. As I watched this I thought about the time period, 1927, and the elements of the story, a devious city woman seduces a innocent farmer and convinces him to murder his wife by drowning her so they can live together and then you watch as the farmer falls back in love with his wife on a visit to the big city only to almost lose her to drowning when the boat capsizes during a massive storm as they cross back to their home. This movie is the only movie to win and Oscar for Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production. (Wings won Best Picture, Production which eventually became just Best Picture)

Next Up: The Lady Vanishes, I promise, I saw Sunrise a couple of months ago and last night it cracked the top 250 so I had to add it in.

Top 250 Challenge: 211

Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari (1920)
Number 159 on IMDb's Top 250

A man named Francis relates a story about his best friend Alan and his fiancee Jane. Alan takes him to a fair where they meet Dr. Caligari, who exhibits a somnambulist (sleepwalker), Cesare (pronounced Chez-ah-ray), that can predict the future. Hilarity ensues. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare says he has until dawn. The prophecy comes to pass, as Alan is murdered, and Cesare is a prime suspect. Cesare creeps into Jane's bedroom and abducts her, running from the townspeople and finally dying of exhaustion. Meanwhile, the police discover a dummy in Cesare's cabinet, while Caligari flees. Francis tracks Caligari to a mental asylum, where it is discovered that he is the director! Or is he?

Trivia: Widely considered to be the first true horror film ever made. Weeks before the initial release of the film, posters with the tag-line "Du mubt Caligari werden!" ("You have to become Caligari!") where put up in Berlin without the slightest hint that they where promotion for the upcoming movie. The expressionist styles of the sets in Francis's story were the result of the character's insanity. Fritz Lang suggested that writer Hans Janowitz add an opening scene and a closing scene in a non-expressionistic setting, the garden, to show the difference between normal reality, and the expressionistic reality of the madman Francis. When Robert Wiene came in to direct the film, he followed Lang's suggestion and added the opening and closing scenes to the film.

German expressioniscinemama, huh? Well, all I can tell you is that this movie has some weird looking sets (you finally understand why by the end of the movie when it is revealed that it is Francis, not Caligari that is insane and that his story is skewed by that). I kind of wonder what it would have been like to see this movie when it came out without the benefit of 86 years of cinema history and not knowing twist at the ending. But I don't have that advantage so for me this movie was kind of meh.

Top 250 Challenge: 197

The Gold Rush (1925)
Number 170 on IMDb's Top 250

A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm.

Trivia: There was 27 times more film shot than appeared in the final cut. The scene where The Lone Prospector and Big Jim have a boot for supper took three days and 63 takes to suit director Chaplin. The boot was made of licorice, and Chaplin was later rushed to hospital suffering insulin shock. The "dancing rolls" sequence was so popular with audiences that, in some cases (such as the film's Berlin premiere), projectionists stopped the film and replayed the scene.

This movie was typical Charlie Chaplin. Which is to say, very funny. The little tramp has a bunch of hardships, meets a beautiful woman, and sweeps her off her feet. It also includes two classic Chaplin moments. Chaplin eats his shoe when he is starving, and he entertains four girls by dancing with two rolls and two forks. I'm glad I finally got to see it.

Top 250 Challenge: 184

City Lights (1931)
Number 98 on IMDb's Top 250

The plot concerns Chaplin's Tramp, broke and homeless, meeting a poor blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) selling flowers on the streets and falling in love with her. The blind girl mistakes him for a millionaire. Since he wants to help her and doesn't want to disappoint her, he keeps up the charade. He befriends a drunk millionaire, works small jobs like street sweeping, and enters a boxing contest, all to raise money for an operation to restore her sight. Hilarity ensues. In the end, it is a casual gift of a thousand dollars from his drunken millionaire friend that eventually will pay for the operation that restores the blind girl's sight. Unfortunately, like many of the Tramp's efforts, things go wrong and he is mistakenly accused of stealing the money. He ends up spending some months in jail, but not before getting the money to the blind girl. The ending, widely acclaimed as one of cinema's most touching, brings the flower girl, her sight restored, face to face with her kind benefactor. "You?" she says after recognizing the touch of his hand. "Yes" replies the nervous tramp, his face a map of shame, pride, love and devotion.

Trivia: Orson Welles said that this was his favorite movie of all time. Chaplin re-shot the scene in which the Little Tramp buys a flower from the blind flower-girl 342 times, as he could not find a satisfactory way of showing that the blind flower-girl thought that the mute tramp was wealthy.

Well, this was typical Chaplin, a well-rounded, funny, touching movie.

Top 250 Challenge: 168

The General (1927)
Number 141 on IMDb's Top 250

Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) has two loves in his life: his engine and his girl, Annabelle Lee. The War Between the States begins with an attack on Fort Sumter, and Johnnie is the first in line at the recruitment office. But the enlisting officer rejects him (not telling him the reason: he is more valuable to the South as an engineer). Annabelle believes he didn't even try to enlist, and she refuses to even speak to him until he is in uniform. Time passes and Union spies hatch a plot involving Johnnie's engine, The General. Not only do they steal The General while Johnnie and the passengers are off the train having dinner, but they kidnap Annabelle who was still on board. Johnnie pursues The General in another engine, The Texas. Through various mishaps he becomes the Unionists' sole pursuer. When the Unionists discover the train chasing them has only one man aboard, the long pursuit ends, and Johnnie barely escapes with his life. Johnnie is now behind enemy lines. He wanders the forest during a rainstorm then discovers a house, which he breaks into, grabbing what food he can. It turns out the Unionists who stole The General are using the house as a base of operations. While hiding under the dinner table, Johnnie learns the details of their next plot against the Confederates. More importantly, he discovers they have Annabelle Lee, whom he had never guessed was still on The General when it was taken. Johnnie manages to escape with Annabelle and take back The General. Hilarity ensues. Now the Unionists are pursuing Johnnie, but if he and Annabelle can outrace them, they can warn the Confederates of the Union's latest plan.

Trivia: Based on a true incident during the Civil War. A group of Union spies, both soldiers and civilians, stole a Confederate train, the General, in hopes of disrupting Confederate rail lines. As in the film, the conductor of the train ended up chasing after the train thieves on foot. The Union spies, however, failed in their mission and were captured. A few were executed while others were traded in a prisoner exchange. The survivors of the mission were awarded the first Congressional Medals of Honor. In the scenes with the opposing armies marching, Buster Keaton had the extras (which included Oregon National Guard troops) wear the uniforms of the Confederacy and march in one direction past the camera, then he had them change uniforms to the Union blue and had them march past the camera in the other direction. The scene in which The Texas crashes through the bridge was the single most expensive shot of the entire silent movie era. The Texas itself remained in the river until WWII, when it was salvaged for scrap iron.

This was a cool movie to watch. Made in 1927, 90% of the movie is shot on and around two moving locomotives (no CGI effects! Amazing) with Buster Keaton doing his own stunts, which were spectacular in their own right. And it all led up to the most amazing shot of the movie, the death of The Texas, when they drove The Texas right over the collapsing river bridge. Talk about having only one shot at a scene, the production company didn't even have enough money to remove the engine from the river and just left it there. There is no way a movie today could do the same thing with computer special effects and get the same reaction.

Top 250 Challenge: 147

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Number 162 on IMDb's Top 250

Everybody knows the story of Dracula...um...Nosferatu, right? The story centers on Count Dracu...Orlock from Transylvania who has decided that he needs a change of location, from his drafty castle to an old abandoned house in London. So to do this he secures a realtor named Reinfield...um...Knock, but Knock goes crazy and starts eating flies and spiders and the little creatures of the night. So Drac...Orlock gets Jonathon Harker...dang it...Hutter to pay him a visit in Transylvania to finish the paperwork. Hark...Hutter's wife Mina...um, no...Ellen doesn't like it that he has to go. Har...Hutter sees a bunch of freaky stuff in Transylvania and meets Drac...Orlock, the freakyist of the bunch, and oh, by the way, Orlock is a vampire. To make a short story shorter (the movie was only 81 minutes long) Orlock sees a picture of Ellen, falls in lust, jumps on a ship, meets the Werewolf..I mean the captain on the ship, barely beats Hutter to England (Hutter was on horseback), and lets hilarity ensue.

Trivia: Many scenes featuring Graf Orlock were filmed during the day, and when viewed in black and white, this becomes extremely obvious. This potential blooper is corrected when the "official" versions of the movie are tinted blue to represent night. Director F.W. Murnau found Max Schreck "strikingly ugly" in real life and decided the vampire makeup would suffice with just pointy ears and false teeth.

Director F.W. Murnau could not secure the rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula, so he just changed the names and started filming. Count Dracula becomes Count Orlock, Jonathon Harker become Hutter, Mina become Ellen, and Renfield becomes Knock. Because of this, we almost lost this movie forever. Bram Stoker's widow sued and won and had all known prints and negatives destroyed. The only prints that were left were being shown in other countries. They survived. This was a pretty good, pretty creepy movie.

Top 250 Challenge: 131

Metropolis

Number 67 on IMDb's Top 250

Nominated by Me

In the future, the society of Metropolis is divided in two social classes: the workers, who live in the underground below the machines level, and the dominant classes that lives in the surface. The workers are controlled by their leader Maria (Brigitte Helm), who wants to find a mediator between the upper class lords and the workers, since she believes that a heart would be necessary between brains and muscles. Maria meets Freder Fredersen (Gustav Fröhlich), the son of the Lord of Metropolis Johhan Fredersen (Alfred Abel), in a meeting of the workers, and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, Johhan decides that the workers are no longer necessary for Metropolis, and uses a robot pretending to be Maria to promote a revolution of the working class and eliminate them. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia:This film included no fewer than 1,100 bald extras. An original version, according to Fritz Lang himself, has not existed since the middle of 1927. Being one of the most expensive movies of the time, around 7,000,000 marks ($200,000,000 today), it nearly sent UFA (Universum Film) into bankruptcy. It is estimated that as much as 1/4 of the original film is lost forever.

Okay, I have been wanting to see this movie for awhile. It is considered to be the best silent science fiction movie ever made. The movie is set in the year 2026, complete with biplanes that fly around the city. Very cool movie. Thanks Will.