1920′s Movies on Blu-Ray: Wings – A Classic Reaches New Heights

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With the recent release of the restored and remastered classic 1920’s movie Wings on Blu-Ray and DVD in January, we thought we would do a quick review of the title.  Originally released in 1927 to raves, it is a must own for anyone interested in the silent movie era.  If you haven’t seen the film or own it yet it is a must check out title.  This World War one fighter pilot epic released by paramount starred Clara Bow, Charles “buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen and launched the career of a young Gary Cooper.

The film is a classic tale of two young men fighting for the attention of the pretty small town girl played by Sylvia Lewis.  To stir the pot, The Jack Powell character fails to see that the plucky girl next door played by Clara Bow is smitten.  The two foes ship off together to train to fly planes, only to become friends as a result of the trials and tribulations of flight training.  Training pails to the hell that is war they find out after they ship off to Europe to fight the Germans.

The battle of Saint Mihiel sets the stage for the climax of the film.  David Armstrong played by Richard Arlen is shot down behind enemy lines and is believed died.  He however survives the crash and manages to steal a plane.  In a cruel ironic twist of fate designed to pull the emotion strings of the viewers, as he races to the allied lines in his stolen German bi-plane he is shot down and killed by Jack Powell.
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Silent Film and Serial Star, Actor-René Navarre:Fantomas Mystery Man

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Source: Cinémagazine, nr. 109.

René Navarre (1877–1968) was born Victor René Navarre July 8, 1877 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France and died virtually forgotten, at the age of 90, on February 8, 1968 in Azay-sur-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, France.
He was a star of the French silent cinema and appeared in 109 films between 1910 and 1946. Navarre is best remembered as the mysterious master criminal Fantômas in the legendary serial by Louis Feuillade.

Although best known for Fantomas (the four serials which comprise the Fantomas saga: Fantômas, à l’ombre de la guillotine, part 1, Le vol du Royal Palace Hôtel, part 2, La disparation de Lord Beltham, part 3, Autour de l’échaffaud; Juve contre Fantômas, part 1, La catastrophe du Simplon Express, paer 2, Au crocodile, part 3, La villa hantée, part 4, L’homme noir; Le mort qui tue part 1 Le drame de la rue Norvins, part 2, L’enquête de Fandor, part 3, Le collier de la princesse, part 4, Le banquier de Nanteuil, part 5, Elisabeth Dollon, part 6, Elisabeth Dollon; Fantômas contre Fantômas part 1,  Fantômas et l’opinion publique, part 2, Le mur qui saigne, part 3, Fantômas contre Fantômas, part 4, Règlement de comptes; Le faux magistrat part1, Prologue, au château des Loges, part 2, Le prisonnier de Louvain, part 3, M. Charles Pradier, juge d’instruction, part 4, Le magistrat cambrioleur, part 5, L’évadé de Louvain),
He starred in many other serials:
(whether Bebe, is a serial or a series of shorts cannot be verified, since the films are not available for viewing.)  The films in the set are as follows:Bébé marie sa bonne (1912); Bébé persécute sa bonne (1912);Bébé, Bout de Zan et le voleur(1912);Bébé est somnambule (1912);Bébé et le financier (1912);Bébé et le satyre (1912);Bébé jardinier (1912);Bébé veut payer ses dettes (1912);Bébé voyage (1912).

Other serials in which he starred are
La prison sur le gouffre (1912);
chapters:

  • I  3 brumaire an V;
  • II – Intimité;
  • III – La vengeance:
  • IV – Sur l’abîme ;
  • VI – Le pardon;
  • VII – L’autre vengeance

La gardienne du feu (1912)
chapters:

  • part 1, La Salomé de Régis Méral
  • part 2, La sonate à l’aînée
  • part 3, Le calvaire ;

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Silent Movie Stars: Neva Gerber and Ben Wilson

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Two silent era stars, who seem to have fallen into relative obscurity, are Ben Wilson and Neva Gerber. In total, they were in 340 films, most of which have not survived. However, a few of their serials have survived, in one form or another.

Benjamin Franklin Wilson was born on July 7, 1876, in Corning, New York and died on August 25, 1930, in Glendale, California, of heart failure.

He was as a prolific motion picture star and director and producer during the silent era. He made his debut in Edwin A. Porter’s short film, “Silver Threads Among the Gold” (1911) for the Edison Company (Anonymous, no date) and appeared in the serial “What Happened to Mary? (1912) and, again, in the Serial, Who Will Marry Mary? (1913)

He appeared in 212 films, directed 138 films, produced 79 films (including the serials, “The Brass Bullet, 1918, “The Mysterious Pearl”, 1921, “Days of ’49″, 1924, “The Power God”, 1925, “The Mystery Box, 1925, and “The Voice from the Sky, 1930.)
He wrote 11 screenplays

Screenplays written by Ben Wilson

  • 1913 The Twelfth Juror (short) (as Benjamin F. Wilson)
  •  1914 Mother and Wife (short) (scenario)
  •  1914 When the Cartridges Failed (short) (scenario)
  •  1914 While the Tide Was Rising (short) (scenario)
  • 1915 A Happy Pair (short) (scenario / as Ben Wilson)
  •  1915 A Seashore Romeo (short) (scenario / as Ben Wilson)
  • 1915 A Shot in the Dark (short) (scenario / as Ben Wilson)
  • 1915 Sh! Don’t Wake the Baby (short) (scenario / as Ben Wilson)
  • 1915 Souls in Pawn (short) (scenario / as Ben Wilson)
  • 1920 Bill’s Wife (short) (as Ben Wilson)
  • 1923 The Santa Fe Trail (story)
  • 1924 Days of ’49 (scenario)
  • 1926 West of the Law
  • 1929 The Sheriff’s Lash (story and scenario / as Ben Wilson)

His last film appearance was in the sound film, the Buck Jones Oater, “Shadow Ranch” as Tex. His last appearance in a motion picture serial was the sound film, The Voice from the Sky.

 

Ben Wilson as Carter Holmes is in big trouble as Monsieur “X” *masked), Harry Archer as Raoul Bornay and Marie Pavis as Mlle. Zora Ruharde look on.

 

Neva Gerber was at one time engaged to William Desmond Taylor, who was murdered in 1922.

Neva Gerber (born Genevieve Dolores Gerber, aka Jean Dolores) born: April 3, 1894, Chicago, Illinois died: January 2, 1974, Palm Springs, California (Pneumonia and Cerebral thrombosis)
She was also a popular motion picture star and writer, appearing in 128 films and one of the serial queens of the silent era. She was both a leading serial heroine and a western heroine in Harry Carey’s melodramas.

She made her debut as the Flower Girl ( 1912), and starred in her first serial, “The Great Secret”, 1917, and appeared with Ben Wilson (to whom she was not married), in “The Voice on the Wire”, 1917, and starred in thirteen serials, some of which also starred Ben Wilson.  The other serials in which she starred with Ben Wilson, or which Ben Wilson produced or directed are “The Mystery Ship”, 1917, “The Trial of the Octopus, 1919, “The Screaming Shadow”, 1920, “The Branded Four”, 1920, “The Mysterious Pearl”, 1921, “The Santa Fe Trail”, 1923, “Days of ’49″, 1924, “The Power God”, 1925, “The Mystery Box 1925 “Officer 444″ and “The Voice from the Sky”, 1930.

In 1923, she married Edward Dana Nolan under the name Genevieve Millet. It is unknown when the marriage ended but by the time her mother died, she was married to a Mr. W.A. Booth. This marriage also ended and she married William Munchoff, who died in 1960. (Doyle, 1999)
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Max Linder: Silent Film Actor Extraordinaire

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Max Linder

(1883-1925)

Born Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle in 1883, he was better known to the world as Max Linder, his stage name.  A French actor, screenwriter, producer, director, and comedic giant of silent film. Famous for his character Max, one of the first recognizable recurring characters in film. Gabriel started his carrier early.  Starting with a love for the theatre, he enrolled in the Bordeaux Conservatorie near the beginning of the turn of the century. He soon was discovered and received awards for his performances and continued to pursue a career in the legitimate theatre. He became a contract player with the Bordeaux Théâtre des Arts, performing in plays by Pierre Corneille , Molière, and Alfred de Musset.

This French comedian switched gears acting in films beginning in 1905.  He creating the very first broadly popular comic character “Max”, an aristocratic, skirt-chasing raconteur. This persona received much attention and critical acclaim and Linder was highly respected by Charlie Chaplin.  Through Linder’s career Chaplin called him: “The Professor” and described himself as a disciple.  Seriously wounded while serving during the first world war, he experienced melancholia, suffering from depression.  The great war put his career on hold while Europe erupted in the cataclysm that was WW1.
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Revue Cinema: Home of Silent Sundays

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If you have never experienced a silent film projected in a single screen historic movie house you don’t know what you are missing.  The Revue Cinema located at 400 Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto Ontario is just such a cinema, and is an anomaly in the age of the multiplex.  It still screens silent films regularly under the banner of its Silent Sundays program.  The historic cinema which is about to experience its 100 year centennial has been running the silent film series regularly every couple of months since 2009 to rave reviews and full houses.  The cinema offers an experience as close as you can get to what seeing a silent film was historically like-short of traveling back in time.  The Revue Cinema which opened in 1912 was in fact a silent movie house during the early years of its long history.  Though not one of the grand palaces which were built to house large crowds on Toronto major streets, The Revue Cinema still had a regular neighborhood following and was the longest continuously operating cinema in Ontario until it closed briefly in 2006.  The local community organized and was able to reopen the cinema in 2007 after a fundraising campaign and the launch of the not for profit organization The Revue Film Society which runs the cinema.     One of the mandates of the organization is to offer diversity of programming which they succeed in doing by screening silent films with live accompaniment.

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