By Doug Gerbino
Warner Archive has released three classic silent (or part-silent) films. The Merry Widow (1925), Don Juan (1926) and Noah's Ark (1929). These three films are among the best-remembered hits of the late silent, early sound era. First, let's start with The Merry Widow (1925, MGM). This film stars Mae Murray and John Gilbert and was directed by Erich von Stroheim. Much has been documented about von Stroheim's excesses as a director. This was his first film after the infamous debacle known as Greed. Hollywood legend has it that while going through the daily rushes of this film with MGM chief Irving Thalberg, von Stroheim showed a single 10-minute take of one the character's shoe closet. When Thalberg questioned the 10 minute shot of shoes, von Stroheim said, "This is to establish that the character has a foot fetish." Thalberg supposedly replied, "And you have a footage fetish!" Loosely based on the Lehar operetta of the same name, this film casts Mae Murray as the widow in question who is being courted by silent screen lover John Gilbert. Murray was a quirky, tempestuous silent screen star who, according to legend, was the real person Gloria Swanson's character, Norma Desmond, was based on in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950). The image quality is quite acceptable, but sadly the grand two-color Technicolor finale no longer exists (at least in this print).
The next film in this series of releases is Don Juan (1926, Warner Bros. & The Vitaphone Corp.) Starring John Barrymore, Mary Astor, and Warner Oland, this grand swashbuckler is about the greatest lover in the world. This film is a lot of fun, but it is made even more exciting (to film historians, at least) by the knowledge that this was the first movie to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system that brought the silent era to an end. Don Juan is a silent film with a synchronized music and sound effects track recorded by The New York Philharmonic Symphony. What sets it apart is the Warner’s inclusion of the short-subject program that accompanied the premiere of this movie – eight short films that were live action sound. First we have Will Hayes, the then-president of the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America (and later head of the infamous Hayes Office censure board), giving a very stiff and stilted address of welcome to Vitaphone. What follows is seven shorts devoted to some of the most famous classical musical artists of that day: Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist Sr., Marion Talley, Anna Case and Giovanni Martinelli, the great tenor from the Metropolitan Opera Company. Martinelli, who took over from The Great Caruso and sings "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci, is the one who brought the house down; it was his short that all the critics wrote about in their next-day reviews. It was Martinelli – a year before Jolson – who said (in Italian) "You ain't heard nothing yet!" Still electrifying after almost 85 tears.
Last, we come to Noah's Ark. This 1929 "part-talkie" was directed by Michael Curtiz, who would later go on to have one of the most eclectic directorial careers of anyone in Hollywood. Mystery of the Wax Museum, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca (best director AND best picture of 1943), Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas are but a few of the many pictures from this Hungarian director. This film is an epic in the grandest scale. It is one of those Hollywood spectacles that used a Biblical story to tell a modern morality tale. Set in Europe at the outbreak of World War I, this film stars Delores Costello (Mrs. John Barrymore at that time), George O'Brien (of Sunrise fame) and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. This film is infamous for causing a number of costume extras to be killed during the deluge sequence of the great flood: director Curtiz did not tell the extras what to expect because he wanted to capture true horror and surprise on their faces. He got his shot… and then some. This is one of those hybrid films that is mostly silent with a couple of talkie sequences tacked on. It is all synchronized with a Vitaphone music and sound effects score that was originally on 16-inch phonograph discs.
These films are a valuable window into our past, which give us an idea of what was happening in this tumultuous period in Hollywood when movies were learning to talk.
Click here to order from the Warner Archive