It is a rare enough event for a silent to be shown on UK television (and especially one that I have not seen previously) that I mustn't quibble too much, but be thankful for small mercies. This British silent is either from 1930 or 1929 (depending which reference material you believe) and was apparently originally made as a part-talkie, although the sound discs have now been lost -- so we're back to a silent. It is an early directorial effort from the vintage UK director, Anthony Asquith, who made one or two classics in his long career (in particular "Way to the Stars") and while possibly under-rated, did make fairly workman-like movies. I was however impressed with the sophistication of the film techniques on display here, starting with a smooth transition into a flashback, flashbacks in flashbacks, close-ups, and imagined scenarios and conversations. The story concerns a manicurist wooed by one of her co-workers and one of her clients, and the former's growing jealousy as she becomes fonder of the latter, until he tries to cut her now fiance's throat while shaving him. He escapes from prison and makes his way to her cottage, her baby and her husband. What happens thereafter may not make a lot of sense in terms of how people behave, but it was all nicely done. However there was meant to be a red flash at the denouement (which Hitchcock used in "Spellbound" some fifteen years later), but it was missing on this print, although oddly enough included on the clip from this film shown as part of the "Silent Britain" documentary; weird that.
The other interesting part of this movie was a section that did seem to go on interminably of our heroine on a date at the "talkies", with shots of the orchestra accompanying the silent short before the main feature, women refusing to remove their hats, and the whole business of how feature films can amuse, thrill or scare their audience. On many levels Asquith showed more imagination and film flair here than he did in a number of his subsequent and better-known pictures.
1 comment:
I agree with your remarks about the techniques used but felt Asquith did not manage his material as well as he might have. The length of time spent in the
cinema was far too long and added little, if anything, after the first few shots. I
was not taken with the acting though it does require a mind-shift to appreciate the
differences between silent and sound techniques.
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