American Silent Film Review

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American Silent Film ReviewThis book, written by the late film expert William K. Everson, is one of the best that you will read on silent film. Everson covers the entire silent film era from its beginnings to the coming of sound. This book focuses on the artistic successes more than the business end of the topic. While he completely covers D.W. Griffith's career, he also champions other early directors like John Collins. He covers interesting topics like art direction (or the lack of) in many early films. While the scope of the book is American films, he devotes time to the influence of European films and filmmakers on American films.
This books is an excellent introduction to silent film, yet a person familiar with the topic will not be able to put it down either.American Silent Film OverviewPraised as the "best modern survey of the silent period" (New Republic), this indispensable history tells you everything you need to know about American silent film, from the nickelodeons in the early 1900s to the birth of the first "talkies" in the late 1920s. The author provides vivid descriptions of classic pictures such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Sunrise, The Covered Wagon, and Greed, and lucidly discusses their technical and artistic merits and weaknesses. He pays tribute to acknowledged masters like D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish, but he also gives ample attention to previously neglected yet equally gifted actors and directors. In addition, the book covers individual genres, such as the comedy, western gangster, and spectacle, and explores such essential but little-understood subjects as art direction, production design, lighting and camera techniques, and the art of the subtitle. Intended for all scholars, students, and lovers of film, this fascinating book, which features over 150 film stills, provides a rich and comprehensive overview of this unforgettable era in film history.

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Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star Review

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Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star ReviewFull disclosure - I am a friend of the author but it doesn't matter. Were I so fortunate as to stumble over this absolute delight of a book in an unlived alternate life somewhere else, I'd still love it! Why? Because it pulled me in to a world about which I knew nothing. RIN-TIN-TIN:THE MOVIE STAR is exhaustively researched yet not remotely pedantic. Ann Elwood's warmth and concern for the actualities of a dog movie star's life dissolve the usual flags indicating academic research, yet leave the quotable facts available. The multi-layered tale of a French WWI puppy and his enigmatic owner, transported to Hollywood in its heyday, is told with humor, accuracy and an expansive analytical style that will fascinate even cat people.
Most readers now extant were not alive during an epoch in American history when studio shots of canine faces adorned movie posters outside a thousand theaters. The rise of the dog movie star is a curious social artifact that Elwood deciphers with intelligent, thought-provoking verve, enhanced by explorations of the storyboards of Rin-Tin-Tin's movies. And the wealth of accompanying archival material, especially photographs, provides a guided tour to a significant but forgotten time.
Highly recommended for cinema buffs, dog lovers, historians of post-WWI American culture and everyone else who loves finding that special, unusual book that turns out to be a goldmine of provocative ideas.
Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star OverviewRin-Tin-Tin, a German Shepherd, an icon of the 1920s and early 1930s, was as famous a movie hero as Rudolph Valentino or Douglas Fairbanks. His athletic feats astonished audiences - he could scale an eleven-foot fence, leap over chasms, and climb trees. His acting brought tears, laughter, and amazement. At train stops, when he was on tour, crowds gathered to give him ice cream. Thousands of children wrote him fan letters, and he answered with a paw-autographed photograph. This book is a biography of both Rin-Tin-Tin and Lee Duncan, his owner and trainer. It places their lives in the context of their times, especially France, where they met, and Hollywood, where Rin-Tin-Tin became a star. At the heart of the book are the questions: 'Why did a dog, at that particular time, become so famous?" and 'How much of the legend of Rin-Tin-Tin is really true?"

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Buster Keaton: Cut To The Chase Review

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Buster Keaton: Cut To The Chase ReviewOn the positive side, this book talks about the lean years in Buster's life, including his second marriage, that are pretty much ignored in other books on Keaton. It offers a complete filmography at the end, and talks about what has happened to Buster's extended family in the years since his death. On the negative side, the author jumps to conclusions or offers her own opinions about what happened as facts. Like everyone else, I vehemently disagree with the functional illiteracy accusation. Did Buster lack formal education? absolutely. Was he illiterate? absolutely not, based on jobs he had at MGM that involved working on scripts and his own diary which prove otherwise. Buster was interested in his craft and had no use for going over contracts and legal issues with a fine-toothed comb, a character trait that was part of his undoing for sure, but not proof he couldn't have read them had he been interested.
The specific errors that the author makes include her claiming that by the late 50's Buster didn't even remember who Dorothy Sebastian was - part of her portrait of Buster as an emotional cripple. However, about the same time, Buster wrote, along with a ghost-author "My Wonderful World of Slapstick" in which he talks about the dilemma he was in when he met his third wife Eleanor while already involved with a woman with which he had an off-and-on relationship for the previous ten years, and how he wanted to break it off with this woman to pursue Eleanor without hurting the woman's feelings. He is obviously talking about Dorothy Sebastian here, but he comes from an era in which he doesn't want to "kiss and tell" and omits her name from the book. There are other erroneous conclusions in which the author totally misinterprets certain magazine articles to claim Buster is actually complaining about this or that. The point is, take this book with a grain of salt. Entertaining it is, entirely accurate it is not.
From reading this book - and others for that matter - the person who comes across as a total mystery to me is Natalie Talmadge - Keaton's first wife. Here again, the author adds her own conclusions about Natalie's attitudes that I can't see Natalie ever conveying to anyone who would have revealed them, but the following facts are inescapible:
a. Natalie spent a huge percentage of Buster's money on clothes she never wore and homes Buster really couldn't afford.
b. Natalie ceased sexual relations with Buster after the birth of their second child.
c. The effect of (a) was that Buster HAD to sign the contract with MGM in order to keep the money pouring in after his own studio closed.
d. The effect of (b) was that Buster looked elsewhere for female companionship.
e. The effect of (c) was that Buster became an alcoholic when he no longer had any creative control over his films and was reduced to a performer in movies he largely held in contempt.
f. Natalie ultimately divorced Keaton because of (d) and (e) and was seethingly angry with him for the rest of her natural life, when in fact her own actions ( (a) and (b) ) contributed to the whole cycle in the first place.
In spite of this obvious chain of events, Keaton never spoke evil of his first wife, a fact that even the author of this book admits. That truly makes him a class act in my book.Buster Keaton: Cut To The Chase Overview

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