My introduction to silent films occured at a most unlikely place, a pizza parlor in Greenville SC. This was back in the early 1960’s when silent films were first being rediscovered. More often than not they were used to get laughs like on a TV show popular at the time called FRACTURED FLICKERS or at this pizza parlor where 8mm abridged versions of old silent movies were shown while an employee played barber shop quartet standards on an upright piano. The prints were of poor quality and usually the action was too fast but it didn’t matter to me because I was hooked.
Seeing this documentary took me back to those days which is not surprising since it dates from 1964. Back then programs dealing with silent movies used bad prints at the wrong speed with inappropriate background music, cartoon sound effects, and well meaning but condescending narration. This is not to say that BEFORE HOLLYWOOD is of no interest. Quite the opposite, it was fascinating to see rare footage of the early days in Fort Lee captured on film. Most of it was taken from a 1935 documentary GHOST TOWN: THE STORY OF FORT LEE. It was also interesting to see virtually complete versions of Edwin S. Porter’s RESCUED FROM AN EAGLE’S NEST with D.W. Griffith as an actor and the Griffith directed THE CURTAIN POLE featuring Mack Sennett and Florence Lawrence which I had heard about for years but had never seen. The documentary was originally made for TV and is slightly abridged with all the commercial breaks intact and runs about 45 minutes.
To fill out the DVD there is the 1912 Biograph short THE NEW YORK HAT with Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore, surviving excerpts from the 1917 feature A GIRL’S FOLLY which shows a Fort Lee studio at work giving us a rare glimpse into how silent movies were actually made. This was directed by Maurice Tourneur as was THE WISHING RING, a totally charming complete feature from 1914 which rounds out the program. There is also a printed insert from Fort Lee film historian Richard Koszarski which contains additional background information. An absolute must for anyone interested in film history and an excellent example of how far we have come in our view of and our restoration of silent films.
The Capsule Critic 