12/11/2022 0 Comments The trail of the lonesome pine 1915I do find The Cheat remarkably compelling for a 1915 feature. Like Griffith, he was an innovative and imaginative film-maker in the 'teens, but was overtaken by others and seemed content to repeat his successes more or less. I do think his films (more than most) need to be considered in the context of their precise date. It's a must-see for anyone wanting to study proto-noirs. So, not an auspicious start, but I still have more DeMille silents to try on.įor me, DeMille's most interesting silent is The Whispering Chorus. I did chuckle at the quote I chose to represent DeMille in this thread, as the film ends with a seeming endorsement of mob rule! The Cheat isn't much better, but it benefits from a shorter running time and a more perverse treatment of its lurid subject matter, wherein a rich woman yet again gets herself into trouble by accidentally signing away her body to a lecherous Asian dandy who, in the film's most striking scene, literally brands her as his (the audience sees this coming a mile away, but it's still pretty insane). I didn't find the film particularly interesting from a filmmaking standpoint, I must be honest, but I've certainly seen worse contemporary silent films. The movie's highly moralistic, but in a strange way, as the solution to everyone's problems is seemingly to hit rock bottom and then get pulled up off the floor by someone who's already hit rock bottom before you. The film sees the rich woman's actions here as wrong, yet that's bizarre since she clearly broke the law and the film goes to great lengths to make its bribed policeman into a hero after he dies whilst in the process of upholding the law by rectifying his earlier mistake. Manslaughter takes it to an absurd degree, paralleling its central figure's legal trouble with the maid she presses charges against for stealing a ring to pay for her sick child's treatment. An interesting pairing given that both films concern stentorian rebuffs against the foolishness of wealthy young women. Watched my first two DeMille silents today thanks to Kino's Manslaughter/the Cheat double feature. This has a superb orchestral score by Carl Davis not found on the Treasures from the American Archives Vol.3/Image release noted above. The same is true for the edition of The Godless Girl produced by Kevin Brownlow's Photoplay Productions. DeMille: American Epic, televised here in the UK at least, though I'm not aware of any home video release. Highly noteworthy is Kevin Brownlow's two-hour documentary, Cecil B. The Passport transfers not from those sources are quite poor - probably from VHS and/or 8/16mm dupes - as noted in the reviews on Silent Era, such as this one, though I don't know is the Jef issue is any better. Even in the case of The Volga Boatman (denied an official DVD release), my multi-tinted Kino VHS was superior in every way to the Passport knock-off. From the one or two I sampled, the Passport versions removed the tints and added vastly inferior music scores. The now deleted Passport set includes many of the other later silents, but - as noted in some Amazon reviews and discussed on Nitrateville - it's obvious these were mostly ripped from David Shepard's Image and Kino editions. The Volga Boatman (1926) - Kino VHS/LD (multi-tinted) The Virginian (1914) - Passport (Cecil B DeMille Classics Collection)Ĭarmen (1915) - also Image (coupled with The Cheat)Ī Romance of the Redwoods (1917) - also Passport set (Compiled by domino harvey, Jonathan S, kingofthejungle, Rev.Powell) The Western List Discussion and Suggestions The Ten Commandments (1956) R1/A Paramount The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) R1 Paramount Wassell (1944) R2 Universal (Spain)Ĭalifornia's Golden Beginning (1948, short subject) North West Mounted Police (1940) R2 Odeon (UK) This Day and Age (1933) R1 Universal Vault MODįour Frightened People (1934) R1 Universal The Sign of the Cross (1932) R1 Universal #The trail of the lonesome pine 1915 modThe Squaw Man (1931) R1 Warner Archives MOD Madam Satan (1930) R1 Warner Archives MOD The Squaw Man (1914) R1 Alpha / Warner Archives MODĪ Romance of the Redwoods (1917) R1 Alpha / R1 Passportĭon't Change Your Husband (1919) R1 Image
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