Category Archives: 1928

The Cardboard Lover
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Written by Lucille Newmark and Carey Wilson from a play by Jacques Deval
1928/US
Cosmopolitan Pictures for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/You Tube

Title card: The French Riviera – Where American tourists think a chateau is a hat… and the Big Casino is the ten of diamonds.

Marion Davies is once again adorable and Nils Asther is dreamy but it’s not as good as the similar story told in The Patsy released the same year.

Sally (Davies) is on holiday in the French Riviera with her American flapper friends.  She is an awkward but lovable goofball and starstruck to boot.  She tries to get an autograph from handsome tennis champ Andre (Asther) without success.   Andre is having problems with his duplicitous lover Simone.  So Sally volunteers to help Andre make Simone jealous.  If you don’t know where this is going you need to see some more romcoms.

This is cute but it drags at only 50 minutes.  But Davies is cute and I think Asther is the most beautiful of all the early Lotharios so I didn’t mind much.  The print on YouTube is pretty poor but watchable.

The Patsy
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Ralph Spence from a story and play by Barry Conners
1928/USCosmopolitan Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Patricia Harrington: [dreamily gazing up at the sky] Isn’t that a marvelous moon?
Tony Anderson: Not bad, for a town this size.

Marion Davies is adorable in this silent comedy.  Throw in Marie Dressler and you’ve got a winner.

The Harrington family consists of Pa (Dell Henderson), Ma (Dressler), older daughter Grace (Jane Winston) and teenager Pat (Davies). Ma and Grace are mercenary snobs.  They both browbeat poor Pat and Pa.  Pat is a lovable but awkward goofball.  In addition, she has a giant crush on Grace’s beau Tony (Orville Caldwell), who hardly knows she exists.  Pat goes to Tony for romantic advice and is told to get a personality.  Her attempts make her look slightly insane. But …

I don’t associate King Vidor with comedies but this one is quite fun.  Davies is a talented comedienne.  Dressler is more severe than the usual but very good.  Some of the gags go on for too long near the end but I was thoroughly entertained.  Well worth a try.

According to IMDb, this film gave Dressler, who was in a career slump, a much needed boost.

Marion Davies impersonates Mae Murray, Lllian Gish and Pola Negri

Speedy
Directed by Ted Wilde
Written by John Grey, Lex Neal, and Howard Emmet Rogers
1928/US
The Harold Lloyd Corporatio (Distributed by Paramount)
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Harold “Speedy” Swift: Aw, Jane – why worry about losing a job on Saturday, when we can go to Coney Island on Sunday?

Yet another 1929 Oscar-eligible film with a segment at Coney Island!  And an excellent one at that.

Harold “Speedy” Swift (Harold Lloyd) is an earnest young man who is prone to mishaps and unintentionally causes chaos everywhere he goes.  He is in love with Jane Dillon (Ann Christy), the granddaughter of “Pops” Dillon who is the owner/operator of the last horse-drawn street car in New York City.  Pops is allowed to keep his route as long as his car is run once every 24 hours.

After Harold is fired from one in a series of very short jobs, he takes Ann for a fun-filled day at Coney Island.

A syndicate is trying to put together a merger of the streetcar business and must buy up the small operators if it is to succeed.  After Pops is unwilling to sell out except at a high price, a gang of thugs is hired to board the car and do away with the old man.  Harold, who can’t get married until Pops is settled, determines to run the car and save the day.

Harold also gets a job as a taxi driver who is forced for one reason or another to drive at a breakneck speed through the streets of New York.  Both goals result in some spectacular  chases.

This was Harold Lloyd’s last silent film and it’s a dandy.  If you don’t smile at one gag you have only a few seconds before you are laughing at another. The high-speed chases are truly incredible and ahead of their time.  Lloyd is constantly making a fool of himself while also being a real hero.  I think the only other Lloyd film I have seen is The Freshman.  I will have to remedy that some day.

The film has been beautifully restored.

Lonesome
Directed by Paul Fejos
Written by Edward T. Lowe and Tom Read from a story by Mann Read
1928/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Jim: I’m only an ordinary working stiff. And I’m so tired of being alone that I can’t even stand my own company.

Dipping my toe into watching movies again with this sweet and well-made romance.

You are never more alone than when you are living alone in a big city.  Telephone operator Mary (Barbara Kent) and machinist Jim (Glenn Tyron) are both lonesome and their friends are all paired up.  Separately, they hear the music of a truck advertising a July 3 day of fun on Coney Island and decide to give it a shot.  Of course they meet and fall in love in just a few hours.  But fate seems to work against them.

I liked this a lot.  The direction includes some nice modernist cinematography to emphasize that crowded feeling. I found similarities to both The Crowd (1928) and Sunrise (1927) in the shots perhaps because they both feature days in a carnival atmosphere.  The lead actors are appealing and the love story is touching.

The film has been beautifully restored with tinted scenes and a bit of spoken dialogue.  To see the restoration on YouTube pick the version with Spanish subtitles.  All the English intertitles are preserved.  The other one has dubious “music” and an inferior print.