Tag Archives: 1920s

“Prostitutka” (1927) is a Bolshevist silent rarity, unusual because of its subject matter, that being prostitution in the U.S.S.R. The world’s oldest profession requires a treatment both delicate and balanced, not an easy topic for a first time director like Herr Oleg Frelikh. Actually, this little known work was Frelikh’s only film as a director (prior to this, he had been an actor) and it’s a flawed but interesting effort.

Poor glazier Sam Bisbee has invented break-proof glass. He intends to show it off to a convention of automobile men. Due to a mixup his car is switched with another and his demonstration toss of a brick simply breaks the car’s windshield. On the way home he thinks a woman is trying to commit suicide and so prevents her. The woman is really Princess Lescaboura, who arrives in Bisbee’s home town looking for him.

Wlliam deMille produced and directed Miss Lulu Bett, a film of extraordinary conviction and insight. It was then often the custom for unmarried women to lodge with family; thus we discover Miss Lulu in a boring Midwestern town, an exploited household drudge for her sister and her overbearing brother-in-law. In the course of the story (based upon the Pulitzer Prize play and novel by Zona Gale), Lulu evolves from slavery into an attractive and self-assured woman, prepared to make her own life. Revealed through wonderful performances and clever use of props, the characters are extraordinarily solid and involving.

Molly Kelly wants to marry a millionaire. When she runs into Andy Charles, heir to a restaurant fortune, she jumps at the chance and marries him. Andy’s father if furious and disinherits them. Andy tries his hand at ditch digging to support his wife, but that doesn’t work out.

Rose, who works for a penny-pinching junk dealer, dreams of romance with wealthy bachelor Ted Tudor.

Salome, the daughter of Herodias, seduces her step-father/uncle Herod, governor of Judea, with a salacious dance. In return, he promises her the head of the prophet John the Baptist.

This visually magnificent and poetic city symphony of Paris in the late 1920s earned Sauvage the admiration of Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo. Sauvage maps the metropolis through its street life, monuments, ports, and automobile traffic.

An American polo player, arrogant and full of himself, must vindicate his actions to win the heart of a girl, Polly, after getting himself booted off the U.S. polo team.

Cullen has hired Tom to try and stop the robberies on his railroad. Knowing Cullen’s secretary Holt is tipping off the gang, Tom works undercover by posing as a highwayman. To help him bring in the gang he enlists the help of the hobo DeLuxe Harry.

All of those handsome young men in their flying machines are billeted in a field next to the Widow Berthelot’s farmhouse in France. Her daughter Jeannine is curious about the young men fighting for England in World War I and their airplanes. Then one of the aviators is killed. His replacement is Captain Philip Blythe who can’t help but notice Jeannine. When he lands the first time, she is standing in the middle of his “runway.” She makes a more favorable impression when he sees her later by the lilacs. When all of the young men depart on a mission, Blythe promises to return.