#George O'Brien

[harritudur]

George O'Brien as The Man, in SUNRISE (1927)

[marthajefferson]

JANET GAYNOR and GEORGE O'BRIEN as The Wife & The Man

SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927) dir. F.W. Murnau

[tavoit]

While traditionally worn over a collared shirt, the understated, casual chic of a v neck sweater worn next to the skin cannot be overestimated

And it looks good at any age

If you are Robert Redford, that is....

[vintage-every-day]

George O'Brien (April 19, 1899 – September 4, 1985) was an American actor, popular during the silent film era and into the sound film era of the 1930s.

[guy60660]

George O'Brien 

[citizenscreen]

From Stage and Screen, Personalities: George O'Brien giving John Ford a wheelbarrow ride.

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Johnstown Flood (1926) Irving Cummings

December 16th 2023

[kdjonesfla]

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Phyllis Haver and George O'Brien

[byneddiedingo]

Holmes Herbert, June Collyer, and George O'Brien in East Side, West Side (Allan Dwan, 1927)

  Cast: George O'Brien, Virginia Valli, Holmes Herbert, J. Farrell MacDonald, Frank Allworth, June Collyer, John Miltern, Dore Davidson, Sonia Nodell, Frank Dodge, Dan Wolheim, William Frederic, Jean Armour. Screenplay: Allan Dwan, based on a novel by Felix Riesenberg. Cinematography: Theodore J. Pahle, George Webber. 

In Allan Dwan's silent East Side, West Side, big, likable George O'Brien plays big, likable John Breen, a naïf in the city. O'Brien also played a naïf in the city in his other big film of 1927, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Murnau's film is an acknowledged masterpiece and Dwan's isn't, though Sunrise is melodrama striving to be art, whereas East Side, West is unabashed melodrama, rags to riches, interrupted romances, secret parentage, self-sacrificing heroism, sneaking villainy, happy ending and so on. Somehow Dwan manages to stuff all that, plus a subway cave-in and a sinking passenger liner, into a tidy 90 minutes. It all begins with O'Brien's Breen looking at the Manhattan skyline from the barge he lives on with his mother and stepfather, and longing to be part of it all. He gets his wish, sort of, when the barge is swamped by a passing ship and his parents drown. He swims to shore and hides out in the cellar of the Lipvitch family's home. They take him in and put him to work assisting Papa Lipvitch in the tailor shop, and he begins a shy flirtation with the Lipvitch daughter, Becka (Virginia Valli). A suitor for Becka's hand, known as Flash (Frank Allworth), spots Breen's talent for fisticuffs and helps him get a start as a prizefighter. When he begins to make a name for himself, he catches the attention of the wealthy developer Gilbert Van Horn (Holmes Herbert), who soon recognizes that Breen is his long-lost son -- he was forced to annul his marriage to Breen's mother, who decided never to tell her son about his father. Uncertain whether to reveal the truth to Breen, Van Horn asks Breen what he would do if he ever met his father: "I'd kill him!" Breen replies. (The italics are in the title card.) Van Horn decides to keep the secret, but he takes Breen in and tries to fulfill his desire to become a builder in the city he loves. He also introduces him to his pretty ward, Josephine (June Collyer), setting up a rivalry with Becka. Dwan never wastes time putting all this plot into place, which proceeds as you might expect, the story flavored with evocative shots of the city. The film touches only lightly on the ethnic character of the East Side: The Irish are seen as pugnacious and clannish, and the Lipvitches are obviously meant to be Jewish. There's some stereotyping in the penny-pinching character of Papa Lipvitch (Dore Davidson), but the issue of intermarriage is never raised in the case of Becka and Breen. East Side, West Side is the only silent film in the Criterion Channel's retrospective of Allan Dwan's work, but it makes me wish there were more.

[pacingmusings]

Seen (again) in 2023:

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau), 1927

[harritudur]

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

(yeah i had to draw something about them *sorry not sorry*)

[tavoit]

Actor George O'Brien in formal attire

and looking effortlessly cool in casual mode.

[vintage-every-day]

George O'Brien (April 19, 1899 – September 4, 1985) was an American actor, popular during the silent film era and into the sound film era of the 1930s.

[lafiguraentutapiz]

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. F.W. Murnau. 1927

[mbdmnts]

George O'Brien