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Post by tom on Apr 1, 2021 18:00:13 GMT -6
For those who may be interested.
JC in one of her earliest movies.
She's a party guest near the 35 minute mark.
Proud Flesh. 1925.
It's a funny little movie.
Eleanor Boardman is quite good.
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Post by Admin on Apr 1, 2021 20:24:46 GMT -6
For those who may be interested. JC in one of her earliest movies. She's a party guest near the 35 minute mark. Proud Flesh. 1925. It's a funny little movie. Eleanor Boardman is quite good. Thanks, Tom! Very interesting to actually SEE her earliest appearances rather than just reading about them! (I spotted Joan starting at about 35:03, through about 35:47.) |
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Post by tom on Apr 2, 2021 17:38:19 GMT -6
For those who may be interested. JC in one of her earliest movies. She's a party guest near the 35 minute mark. Proud Flesh. 1925. It's a funny little movie. Eleanor Boardman is quite good. Thanks, Tom! Very interesting to actually SEE her earliest appearances rather than just reading about them! (I spotted Joan starting at about 35:03, through about 35:47.) Thank you. I like "Joan spotting" in her early bit parts! I'm still trying to find her in Bardelys the Magnificent as well The Merry Widow! |
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Post by tom on Apr 2, 2021 18:23:09 GMT -6
Not a movie but a behind the scenes look at the film that made JC a superstar.
The Making of Grand Hotel
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 3, 2021 9:54:22 GMT -6
I always love the behind the scenes making of all the Joan Crawford movies and I love Grand Hotel so it’s a win - win for me to have watched it. Thank you so much for posting this for us. It was a great find.
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 3, 2021 10:08:59 GMT -6
Thanks, Tom! Very interesting to actually SEE her earliest appearances rather than just reading about them! (I spotted Joan starting at about 35:03, through about 35:47.) Thank you. I like "Joan spotting" in her early bit parts! I'm still trying to find her in Bardelys the Magnificent as well The Merry Widow! |
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 3, 2021 10:13:21 GMT -6
Tom. Thanks, I never saw this movie. I’m glad that Stephanie told us what part of the movie Joan was in so I didn’t miss her. It was fun to see her back then. Thanks again.
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Post by tom on Apr 3, 2021 17:38:22 GMT -6
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
1926
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2021 3:08:24 GMT -6
Thanks, Tom! p.s. If interested, here's my lengthy review of "Tramp3," from the BOE site: www.joancrawfordbest.com/filmstramp.htm#OurIn Joan's fifth credited film, a Silent, she's on loan-out from MGM to First National to play the love interest ("Betty Burton") to silent comic Harry Langdon, who here appears in his first feature-length film after having worked in Mack Sennett shorts since 1923. Langdon plays "Harry Logan," the son of a local shoemaker who now can't make ends meet because the giant corporation Burton Shoes has been wiping out competition with their successful billboard ad campaign featuring Burton's daughter Betty. (We get our first glimpses of Joan as a face advertising Burton's product, both on display in the Burton Shoes office and on the billboard directly across from Harry's Pa's shoe shop that Harry can't quit ogling.) Pa will lose his shop altogether if he can't come up with rent. Potential rescue comes in the odd form of Burton Shoes having a cross-country walkathon publicizing the product that pays $25,000 to the winner. On the day the race begins, Harry stands around pondering how to save his pa's shop (while simultaneously ogling the Betty billboard); the real Betty appears and convinces him to join the race. After diddling and dawdling and professing his love, he's off on his big mission! Now, this set-up seems at this point to be extremely full of promise: You've got the political ("Big Corporation vs. The Little Guy") as well as the "Romeo and Juliet" angle ("daughter of capitalist yearns for son of small shop owner"). Not to mention the fact that the wicked landlord who wants to close Pa's shop for non-payment of rent is also, improbably, the prime competitor in the walkathon! Unfortunately, all of this interesting psychological backstory is immediately tossed out once the race begins, not to be referred to again. It is a Langdon feature, after all, so of course the focus should be on Langdon and his shenanigans...It's just that Langdon's not that interesting to watch, nor is the gag-writing for the film particularly clever. (NOTE: Famed director Frank Capra is one of six writers of the film.) Langdon's schtick is that he's a mild-mannered, childlike character who reacts to goings-on in a baby-faced, lackadaisical way... I can't help but compare him to Chaplin and Keaton, also rather childlike, disheveled, ragamuffin characters. The difference between these two and Langdon, though, is that the formers' interplay with and interpretations of their comedic situations seems a lot more engaged and witty and fast-paced---they had an adult sensibility despite their man-child personae. I have no idea who wrote the material for Chaplin and Keaton's early films; maybe Langdon's writers were just not up to snuff, but if that's the case, then he's still the one responsible for making the most out of sub-par material. He doesn't do so in this film. (A side-note, his looks were also kind of distracting to me: His pale baby-face, tiny kohl-rimmed eyes, and red lips made him, to my modern sensibility, the creepy spitting image of talk-show host Sally Jesse Raphael.) There are the requisite "money" scenes, and Langdon is not uneffective in them, it's just that they run on too long and try to milk too little funny material. First is the hotel scene with Harry and the rival landlord. Harry has pinned up numerous pictures of Betty. The landlord meanly tears them down and demands some sleep before the big race. When Harry tries to "quietly" hammer up another Betty picture, there's the predictable mayhem as Harry loudly falls about and destroys the room. There is one mildly clever bit where a fan falls into Harry's bed and proceeds to stir up the joint, but overall the scene is slow, especially after the landlord gives Harry booze and pills to make him sleep. The viewer expects some major comedic pay-off here, but Langdon just kind of looks into the camera with a "boozy" expression for a few moments...and then goes to sleep. And is late for the Big Race the next day, with little consequence. OK... The next big scene is during the race, when Harry is caught amid a flock of sheep and is forced to climb a fence for protection. On the other side of the fence, he finds himself dangling over a steep cliff and pulls out nails from the fence to hammer his clothes onto it so he won't fall; the fence gives and he slides down the now-sloping hillside to ultimate safety. The slide down the hill was one of the more fast-paced moments of the film, but... I can't help but think of what Chaplin might have initially done among the huge flock of sheep! The dangling-over-the-cliff thing is a trope of silent films; it's what an actor does in other, less stereotypical, moments that makes him memorable... Langdon goes on to be part of a chain-gang after stealing some fruit while walking: His picking out a tiny hammer to pound on tiny rocks is cute; but then when a big lug accidentally hits him over the head with a sledgehammer, Harry's response is to look befuddled for the first two times, and then to throw a big rock and bonk the guy over the head. Ha-ha. In the final scene, a cyclone blows into town. Surprise---Harry's umbrella turns inside out! He does get to, more funnily, wear a shower curtain after his clothes have blown away, and rescue Betty (also funnily fanning her in the middle of the windstorm and later throwing a rock after the departing storm in David-and-Goliath fashion; his mid-storm goings-on are also credited with inspiring Buster Keaton's later, better-done scenes in "Steamboat Bill, Jr."). Post-storm, he wins the race and is united with Betty. As they look into their home, there's Langdon himself as their bonneted baby in an oversized bassinet---gurgling, sneezing, rocking, chewing on balls and stuffed animals...I'll grant that this is funnily weird! But overall, Langdon's sense of comedy seems extremely slow-pokey and uninspired. Oh, and about Joan...She looks very attractive and smartly turned out in her few appearances. How she's often presented onscreen is interesting to me: This has to be one of the first cinematic cases of a female with a very small part being overtly fetishized. We often see her as others in the film see her: First viewed on a billboard, later seen onscreen by Harry's Pa as he watches newsreels featuring the race at his local theater. It reminded me of a tactic that later filmmakers employed (more skillfully and with greater psychological intent): The Sharon Stone character in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories" and Jessica Lange in "All That Jazz"---a dream-girl muse, briefly seen but nonetheless propelling the picture... |
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Post by tom on Apr 5, 2021 10:11:18 GMT -6
Great review. Agree with everything. Like a lot of JC's 1925 and 1926 works, there is just not enough screen time for JC!
Harry Langdon is one of those early comedians for whom a little goes a long way.
The final "baby" scene is creepy to me. Not funny at all. Should have ended the film with (a) the cyclone scene, and (b) more face time for JC!
She looks great in this film, not quite the chorus girl who arrived in Jan 25 and not yet the Jazz Baby of '28.
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Post by tom on Apr 7, 2021 16:52:46 GMT -6
 There's the mystery party guest near the 35' mark. I think that's Lucille LeSueur!  |
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Post by tom on Apr 13, 2021 18:48:53 GMT -6
Pretty Ladies. The movie JC considered her first.
Watch it before it gets taken down!
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Post by tom on Apr 13, 2021 18:55:58 GMT -6
Pretty Ladies. The movie JC considered her first. Watch it before it gets taken down! Parenthetically, I like this movie. One of my favorite movies from her first year in Hollywood. ZaSu Pitts is great. I'm guessing Liliyan Tishman also did a great job since I want to smack her for being such a meanie! 😃 |
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Post by tom on May 7, 2021 18:38:00 GMT -6
For those who may be interested. JC in one of her earliest movies. She's a party guest near the 35 minute mark. Proud Flesh. 1925. It's a funny little movie. Eleanor Boardman is quite good. I really like this movie. Harrison Ford as Don Diego steals this movie. I'm really starting to appreciate Eleanor Boardman. Watching The Circle now. She's really good in everything I've seen her in thus far. I'm sorry she retired at the onset of talkies. |
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Post by tom on May 12, 2021 16:03:03 GMT -6
I don't recall if I posted this tantalizing 13 second clip of Paris (1926).
If not, here it is!
Wonder where they found it, and if there is more!
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