Today's Mood

Not really -- this is an aspirational mood. I'm in 

actuality quite stressed. Buster, take me awayyyyy...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1926

May wonders never stop wondering, we're doing two editions of our "Siri Says" series in as many weeks -- what a spectacle! Who needs a Super Bowl when you've got this shit? It's a good time of the year for these posts because what the hell else is going on, movie-wise? We're post-Sundance and mostly only shit's being released in theaters, and everybody's sick of the Oscar conversations. So why not look back at movies-past? And this week we're going way way past, very nearly an entire century, to The Movies of 1926. (As explained last week I have too few years left for this series so I didn't actually ask Siri for a number between 1 and 100; I am now choosing the few remaining years from a hat, basically.) 

In fact we're going so far back that as far as I can come up with I've only seen five movies from 1926 total. My batting average with Silent Film is not great, Bob! So I put "Favorite" in quotes, which implies "Only" this go-round (although a few of these are straight-up masterpieces, to be sure.) And there are several films from this year I've always wanted to see, so do check out the "Never seen" list for more titles of note...

My 5 "Favorite" Movies of 1926

The General

(dir. Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton)

-- released on December 25th 1926 -- 

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

(dir. Lotte Reiniger)

-- released on July 2nd 1926 -- 

Faust

(dir. FW Murnau)

-- released on October 14th 1926 -- 

The Son of the Sheik

(dir. George Fitzmaurice)

-- released on July 9th 1926 -- 

Battling Butler

(dir. Keaton)

-- released on August 22nd 1926 -- 

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Never seen: The Winning of Barbara Worth (dir. Henry King), Don Juan (dir. Alan Crosland), Beau Geste (dir. Herbert Brenon), The Sea Beast (dir. Millard Webb), The Student of Prague (dir. Henrik Galeen)...

... Tartuffe (dir. Murnau), What Price Glory? (dir. Raoul Walsh), Tell It to the Marines (dir. George W. Hill), La Bohème (dir. King Vidor), The Johnstown Flood (dir. Irving Cummings), Bardelys the Magnificent (dir. Vidor)

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What are your favorite movies of 1926?

6 Off My Head: Siri Says 1924

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My attempt to reinvigorate my somewhat slumbering "Siri Says When" series continues apace with a brand new episode here only eleven days since the last! This time around Siri slapped us with a toughie, since the number between 1 and 100 that she gave me was "24" meaning today we're going to go picking our favorite films from the year 1924. It must be said I have not seen a lot of movies from the year 1924! I've seen a few -- enough to do a list, which is why we're here doing just that. But the percentage of 1924 films that have been lost either unto time or unto my not nearly Silent Film educated enough ass is high, I warn you. As far as I can scout out it seems I have seen six 1924 films in total? And these are all of them. So please don't take this list as gospel -- we work with what we've got when we glance this far into the way-back-machine... 

My 6 Favorite Movies of 1924

Greed

(dir. Erich von Stroheim)

-- released on January 26th 1924 --

Sherlock Jr.

(dir. Buster Keaton)

-- released on May 11th 1924 --

The Thief of Baghdad

(dir. Raoul Walsh)

-- released on March 18th 1924 --

The Hands of Orloc

(dir. Robert Wiene)

-- released on June 4th 1924 --

Hot Water

(dir. Fred Newmeyer)

-- released on October 26th 1924 --

Michael

(dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)

-- released on Novermber 17th 1924 --

(P.S. Dreyer's Michael, which is one of the earliest examples of homosexuality being depicted on-screen, has just recently gotten restored and Kino Marquee will be streaming the film online in July as part of their "Pioneers in Queer Cinema" series that also features Mädchen in Uniform and the original 1933 version of Victor & Victoria. See more about the series here.)

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Never seen: The Last Laugh (dir. Murnau), He Who Gets Slapped (dir. Victor Sjöström), The Marriage Circle (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)...

... Monsieur Beaucaire (dir. Sidney Olcott) Waxworks (dir. Leo Brinsky), Beau Brummel (dir. Hary Beaumont), Happiness (dir. King Vidor), His Hour (dir. King Vidor), Three Women (dir. Lubitsch)

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What are your favorite films from 1924?

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Come and See That Portrait of a Lady

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I think there are several movie-lovers who are shedding a tear or two over some good movie news today, among which I clearly count myself -- Criterion has gifted us with their announcement of new titles for the month of June, and it feels like a steadying ship to me anyway. If Criterion can put out Portrait of a Lady on Fire on blu-ray loaded with extra features, well, maybe we'll be okay eventually. Céline Sciamma's master-class in period lesbian romance (and my #4 favorite movie of last year) isn't all they promise us -- there's Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman starring Jill Clayburgh, there's a 4K restoration of Kon Ichikawa's 1964 documentary about the Olympics Tokyo Olympiad, there's Buster Keaton's silent classic The Cameraman, and...

... there's Elem Klimov's devastating 1985 anti-war masterpiece Come and See, which has been touring a 2K restoration this year (I imagine that's, you know, stopped at this point) -- I reviewed it last month right here and it's harrowing, brutal, and absolutely necessary film-making, not to be missed. As long as you can handle it. But living in this world, I think we should all force ourselves to handle it. It's a vital experience, that film. Anyway you can check out everything on Criterion's site, and I'll of course update as they get closer.

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Good Morning, Buster

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The great and inimitable Buster Keaton was born on this day, the year 1895, so here I will share with you a fun little clip from his 1930 film Doughboys, which is about, guess what, a "naive and wealthy young man"...

... who's trying to impress a girl and accidentally signs up
to be in the Army in the process.
And something tells me hi-jinks then ensue.

Yup! Hi-jinks! (Are lo-jinks a thing? Lo-jinks should be a thing.) Anyway Buster has a big weekend ahead here in new York - Peter Bogdonovich's documentary about him called The Great Buster is opening here at the Quad, and alongside it they're running a series of his movies - check it out! Here's the full clip from Doughboys:

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Buster Makes Ya Feel Good

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Alright folks, I'm off for a few hours for the previously mentioned NYFF screening - I'll be back this afternoon though. For a quick minute, anyway. Take a nap with Buster and we'll talk later.

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Who Wore It Best?

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feedback surveys

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Inspired by this morning's Gratuitous Buster Crabbe post!

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Buster Crabbe, Buster Keaton - I love that the movies had room for two Busters at one time, but why hasn't there been another one? We deserve a new Buster! It's a great name. I would LOVE it if everybody started calling me Buster pic.twitter.com/LIV3TYi9pq

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 7, 2018

4 Off My Head: Siri Says 1928

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After last week's easy breezy take on the movies of 1990 I was due for a tougher pick this week when Siri answered my "Pick a number between 1 and 100" query, and she set about a stumper -- she told me "28" and so we've got to choose our favorite Movies of 1928. Indeed after some scouring I could only make a proper list of 4 (it's a very good four, mind you) but there's a post-script to that and there are several movies I want to see but still haven't... all that said let's get to it...

My 4 Favorite Movies of 1928

The Passion of Joan of Arc

(dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)

-- released on October 25th 1928 --

The Crowd 

(dir. King Vidor)

-- released on March 3rd 1928 --

Steamboat Bill Jr. 

(dir. Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton)

-- released on May 20th 1928 --

The Fall of the House of Usher 

(dir. Jean Epstein)

-- released on October 5th 1928 --

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Runners-up: Okay so I am pretty certain that I seen all three of the silent films that Alfred Hitchcock directed in 1928 - Champagne, Easy Virtue, and The Farmer's Wife - at some point, but that point would've been back in college and I'll be damned if I recall much of anything about them. I've been meaning to go back and re-familiarize myself with his early stuff.

The same goes for Sergei Eisenstein's film October: Ten Days That Shook the World - we definitely watched that in film school but it's just a blur of Soviet imagery to me now. 

And Then there's The River starring the dreamy Charles Farrell - I've seen scenes from it (him swimming naked in the titular river is unmissable) but the majority of the film is lost.

It would've been a cheat to include any of these movies on my "Favorites" list just to get the number up to five when in truth the four films that I did choose I remember well, have seen more than once, and like very much.

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Never seen: The Man Who Laughs (dir. Paul Leni), The Wedding March (dir. Erich von Stroheim), Our Dancing Daughters (dir. Harry Beaumont), Beau Sabreur (dir. Waters), The Circus (dir. Chaplin )

What are your favorite movies of 1928?

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4 Off My Head: Siri Says 1922

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Since we're doing this a day later than we usually do I guess it's appropriate that Siri gave me such a difficult number when I asked her to pick a number between 1 and 100, so that way we can just half-ass the whole shebang. She gave me "22" and normally I would choose five favorites from that year, but looking through the movies of 1922 I, uh, cannot. Since I have not from as far as I can tell even seen 5 movies total from that year. But here are the 4 movies that I have seen from that year, and thankfully I like them all...

My 4 Favorite Movies of 1922

Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler

(dir. Fritz Lang)

-- released on April 27 1922 --

Nosferatu

(dir. F.W. Murnau)

-- released on March 4th 1922 --

Häxan

(dir. Benjamin Christensen)

-- released on September 18th 1922 --

Nanook of the North

(dir. Robert J. Flaherty)

-- released on June 11th 1922 --

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Never seen: Foolish Wives (dir. Erich von Stroheim), Beyond the Rocks (dir. Sam Wood), Blood and Sand (dir. Fred Niblo), Cops (dir. Buster Keaton), Grandma's Boy (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer), Robin Hood (dir. Dwan)

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What are your favorite movies of 1922?

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Good Morning, Buster

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The silent sex-bomb that was Buster Keaton was born 121 years ago today, and so here are a few pictures of him making the old-timey one-piece men's swimsuit about as sexy as the old-timey one-piece men's swimsuit could look in the 1921 short called Hard Luck.

(So many hard puns at my disposal, 

so very many hard puns!!!) 

You can watch the short online... right here, in fact!

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The diving scene comes towards the very end of it. Anyway TCM is showing several of Buster movies today so I hope you guys set your DVRs - some of them seem a little obscure, too. Here's the schedule.

In unrelated-to-Buster news it is October and so TCM has announced all the great horror movies they'll be showing this month -- this site right here did a good job of sorting out the films into categories and dates. I spent half an hour yesterday fixing up my DVR for the next couple weeks. On that note, take it away Buster...

Look at that lady checking out his butt!

Go on with your horny self, old-timey lady.

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Today's Mood

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I know how you feel, Buster Keaton.

Now I really know how you feel.

I know it's just me projecting upon it but that fade to black just as the masseur gets especially rough with him, well, it reads awfully dirty to me. Where there's a will and the will is to be handsy with Buster Keaton, there's a way! That's what I always say. 

These pictures are from Buster's 1926 flick Battling Butler, which is entirely on YouTube, and which I will now post in order for you guys to entertain yourselves for a bit - I've run outta gas today.

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