I love silent movies. My DVD collection grows slowly but surely. Keaton is my favorite comedian of all time and his pictures have brought me great joy. My memories of being introduced to Haroly Lloyd with my Dad are precious. The early Laurel & Hardy silents actually do rival their later "talkies"...which are the bench mark for comedy duos! The Mary Pickford classic "Sparrows" (1926) is a film for the ages. This list could go on and on.
Tonight (Feb 28th) Deo volente, I will be attending my fifth opening night of Topeka's KANSAS SILENT FILM FESTIVAL. This will be the 18th annual event for this august organization. Every year the organizers bring in esteemed national (and local) musical talent to accompany the silents that are being shown. The last few years the Colorado based MONT ALTO MOTION PICTURE ORCHESTRA have been the high-lighters. http://www.mont-alto.com/ Tonight they will be playing a solid 60 minutes of music to accompany the 1921 Will Rogers classic "Doubling for Romeo." Tomorrow (Saturday) they will play for 75 minutes while accompanying the 1928 gem: "The Patsy" with Marion Davies. It will be
heaven. http://www.kssilentfilmfest.org/kssff2014/program.html
As the silent age of cinema moved into the talkies, the great scoring and "cuing" for shorts and feature length films remained at a very high quality.
The great LeRoy Shields wrote (sadly, uncredited) most of the music for Hal Roach's OUR GANG comedies. http://www.leroyshield.com/
The "revivalist" Dutch Band/Orchestra THE BEAU HUNKS have as a labor of love released several discs of re-created music of Mr. Shields. http://www.beauhunks.com/ GOOD OLD DAYS brings back memories that are filled with glee and childhood joy. Enjoy...
Did the weather impact your fun in going to see the films? I remember watching a 90 minute film entitled "When Comedy Was King" at the base theatre with my folks and enjoying the silent comedies and then talking about the films, actors, and actresses with my folks. It was shortly after that I got involved with watching the 8 mm silent films of the silent movie stars. I never got into the silent dramatic films, except for Lon's films and Nosferatu. I still love all the silent comedies of that time. I watched "Duel At Diablo" today for the 6th + time. What a great western with James Gardner. I first saw it in 1966 at while living in Homestead. I highly recommend it. Let me know how the silent films were.
ReplyDeleteReliops--thank you your Emperorness for the communique. I have never seen "Duel At Diablo" but now WANT TO! Thanks. As for Silent films...they are fast becoming my favorites...in my top 25 movies of all time I have at least 5, maybe more. It's an art form that for me is not only mondo-enjoyable, but somehow "connects" me to a time and place that my Dad and Mom (though the silents were pretty much gone by their own youthful movie watching days in Mpls) would have known and appreciated.
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