#George Siegmann

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2022:

84. Merry-Go-Round (1923) - Dir. Erich von Stroheim/Rupert Julian

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[ozu-teapot]

The Man Who Laughs | Paul Leni | 1928

George Siegmann and some unfriendly faces...

[carlos-gmen]

The Avenging Conscience: or ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill (D. W. Griffith, 1914)

[nitrateglow]

Halloween 2017 movie marathon: The Cat and the Canary (dir. Paul Leni, 1927)

“You must have been lonely these twenty years, Mammy Pleasant.”

“I don’t need the living ones.”

Driven to near-madness and physical decline by his greedy relatives, eccentric millionaire Cyrus West dies in his gothic mansion—however, he orders that his will not be read for another twenty years. Two decades come and go, and a quirky collection of West’s living relatives gather at the mansion to find out who gets the money. The lucky heir is the sweet-natured Annabelle West (Laura La Plante), but before she can claim her inheritance, she must be examined by a doctor who will certify whether or not she is sane. If so, she gets the money, family diamonds, and Cyrus’s creepy but big mansion. If not, she gets an extended stay at an asylum and the money goes to a mysterious runner-up heir, whose identity is sealed away in another envelope. Annabelle is decidedly the sanest of the lot of her bizarre relations, which include her nerdy and stammering cousin Paul (Creighton Hale), snobby and suspicious Aunt Susan (Flora Finch), (Forrest Stanley), the suave but mysterious Doctor (Arthur Edmund Carewe), and the chic but catty (Gertrude Astor), but as the night wears on, her nerves are subjected to unexplained disappearances, murders, and being stalked through the night by what could either be a ghost or an escaped madman from the local mental hospital. Whether the origins of these occurrences are supernatural or crime-related, it becomes clear someone wants to drive Annabelle insane and take her fortune, but who could it be?

Horror didn’t become a cinematic staple in the United States until the enormous success of Tod Browning’s Dracula in 1931; however, there were a few key Hollywood films during the silent era which paved the way for the terrors to come. The Phantom of the Opera is the most celebrated of them as it teems with suspense and gothic set design-- and that’s not mentioning Lon Chaney’s iconic monster make-up which left patrons screaming in the aisles. The Cat and the Canary is the second-most influential pre-Dracula American horror picture. While not as embedded in the popular culture as Phantom, it was one of the biggest hits of its day and remains a favorite of silent film aficionados. The cast sports a host of character actors familiar to lovers of 1910s and 1920s Hollywood cinema, and the visuals—oh Lord, the visuals are the true star, pure gothic expressionism mixed with innovative camerawork that should strike down the idea that all movies were “filmed stage plays” before Citizen Kane.

As you can likely see from the plot summary above, the storyline of The Cat and the Canary will likely appear familiar, even creaky, to contemporary viewers. It’s a classic old dark house mystery, with a bevy of strange characters trapped in a menacing setting, freaking out as things go bump in the night. This film and its 1922 stage play source material are often classified as dark comedy, as there is quite a bit of comic relief throughout due to how weird the characters are and how they react to the mayhem around them. However, the horror elements are strong enough to make this more than your standard drawing room murder-mystery: director Paul Leni and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton create an uneasy atmosphere from the first scenes where we learn about the death of Cyrus West, how he was driven to his grave by his cruel, avarice-ridden relatives. In a symbolic sequence, we see Cyrus in his pajamas dwarfed by large, double-exposed images of cats baring their fangs and swiping at him with large, clawed paws. It sounds corny when I describe it, but the effect it has when you actually watch it is chilling and effective.

After this prologue, we’re treated to a first-person POV tracking shot through the gloomy corridors of the mansion, curtains flapping about in the wind as the camera glides about in the ghostliest manner before we arrive at the safe where the will lies hidden. As you watch this movie, the one motif which resonates throughout is the image of hands. Hands grasping at jewelry or throats, hands tentatively outstretched, hands breaking through locks and windows—even the paws of the giant, expressionistic cats are part of this visual thread. These images help establish the menace of the situation as well as emphasize the greed that motivates so many of these characters. It’s a little bit of a shame that the plot is so basic in comparison to the elaborate cinematography and expressionistic visual symbolism. It isn’t a bad story by any means and there are several suspenseful moments to be found, one just wishes for a bit more meat or a more interesting protagonist to follow.

Even if the visuals and atmosphere are what make the movie for the most part, The Cat and the Canary is nevertheless a fun and spooky romp, featuring good comic performances from its cast. Laura La Plante was Universal’s most popular female star throughout most of the 1920s, though she is mostly forgotten today; this film remains her most remembered role, if only because the image of the clawed hands grasping at her throat as she sleeps is so iconic. As Annabelle, she isn’t given too much to do other than be bewildered and frightened, though her cool blonde style gives her the feel of a Hitchcock heroine in some scenes. Her thin characterization likely stems from the fact that Annabelle is the de facto everywoman character, the one spot of normalcy among these eccentrics. Even so, one wishes she was allowed to be at least a little bit more unique—though it would be hard to compete with the other actors in this movie. If you’re a silent movie nerd like me, then this movie is a practical who’s-who when it comes to character actors. Creighton Hale, a heart-throb of the 1910s who played Prince Charming in the 1916 Snow White which inspired a fifteen-year-old Walt Disney, plays the nerdy love interest Paul. George Siegmann, most known for his villain parts, is a creepy asylum employee who hopes to get someone in a straightjacket before the night is up. Annabelle’s fashionable flapper cousin Cecily is played by Hal Roach regular Gertrude Astor. My choice for best performance goes to Martha Mattox as the dour housemaid, ironically called “Mammy Pleasant” by the other characters. The only inhabitant of the manor for the past twenty years, she is enamored by her late master and spends much of the time almost savoring the discomfort of the frightened guests. The characters are all broad types rather than fully fleshed out beings, but such an approach fits the material.

The Cat and the Canary was not only a big box office hit, but also a huge influence for later filmmakers, most famously James Whale. Whale’s 1932 horror-comedy The Old Dark House replicates the look of this movie down to the eerie image of curtains billowing in a shadowy hallway. Later on, even Jean Cocteau seems to have mined Leni’s film for visual inspiration in his moody 1946 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Just watch that scene where Belle levitates down a corridor with billowing curtains and tell me you don’t get flashbacks to The Cat and the Canary! However, it is Whale’s The Old Dark House to which this film is often compared. To watch the two of them back-to-back could be an interesting experience: the humor in Whale’s film is much quirkier, the inhabitants of the eponymous house far more sinister, and the guests possess more depth on the whole, from Charles Laughton’s bitter widower to Gloria Stuart’s vain yet disillusioned socialite. Still, without Leni’s film, that movie might not be the masterpiece of horror-comedy we know and love now. Whale took the lessons he learned from Leni and pushed them further into weird territory. Yet even so, the camera movements and overlapping imagery in this film are sophisticated, in their own way superior to the later movie. Dammit, both are great—let’s leave it at that!

While the general concept may be dated, The Cat and the Canary is still an impressive film. It’s a lot of fun and the granddaddy of horror-comedy classics to follow, from The Old Dark House to the Evil Dead films. If you wonder why people thought sound films were a fad in the late 1920s, then the dazzling cinematography of even genre pictures like this should give you a good idea as to why.

[dwellordream]

American Culture in the 1910s: The Birth of a Nation (1915)

“If there is one film that stands at the centre of the interrelated developments in the economics, audiences, and the technical and narrative structures of film at this time, it is David Wark Griffith’s Civil War epic of 1915. Civil War pictures enjoyed a vogue in the 1910s, especially in the key fiftieth anniversary years of 1911, 1913 and 1915; ninety-eight such films were produced in 1913 alone. 

Griffith, a Kentuckian and the son of a Confederate veteran, had bought the rights to Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman (1905), a successful novel and play which related how the Ku Klux Klan saved the white South from the supposed tyranny of black enfranchisement under radical reconstruction. 

(In a deal which contemporary novelists would swoon over, Dixon was paid $2,500 up front for the film rights, and received 25 percent of the profits). Such a sweeping historical project suited Griffith’s enormous ambitions for film; he had chafed at the restrictions at Biograph where, between 1907 and 1913, he had built the studio’s preeminent reputation for quality films with an astonishing and technically innovative body of work. 

Indeed, Biograph’s refusal to release Judith of Bethulia, his 1913 epic, partly because he had exceeded their length and budget restrictions without permission, prompted his resignation and signing with Mutual on the agreement that he could make two ‘special’ films per year. 

His first was The Birth of a Nation. Costing an unprecedented $60,000 to produce, and an almost equal amount in promotion and legal fees, Griffith’s twelve-reel film was the most costly, lengthy and expensive to see in cinema history up to that time. It was also by far the most successful: by the end of 1917 it had grossed sixty million dollars. The film dramatised the fates of two families, one from South Carolina, one from Pennsylvania, in the years surrounding the Civil War. 

The Southern Cameron family, headed by ‘Little Colonel’ Ben Cameron (Henry Walthall), are friendly with the northern Stoneman family, headed by Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis), the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Stoneman – modelled on the proponent of radical reconstruction, Thaddeus Stevens – is portrayed as possessing a variety of disastrous personal weaknesses, including vanity (he wears a wig), a fondness for bombast and, most pointedly, a predilection for his mulatto housekeeper, played by Mary Alden. 

Following the war, and the deaths of sons from both families as well as an elaborately staged reconstruction of Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre, Stoneman pursues a policy (to quote from Woodrow Wilson’s history of the period, which was used in many intertitles) designed to ‘put the white South under the heel of the black South’. To enforce this he ensures the appointment of Silas Lynch (George Siegmann), his mulatto henchman, as Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. 

Meanwhile, Ben Cameron – recuperating in a northern hospital after heroic deeds on the battlefield – has fallen for Elsie Stoneman (Lillian Gish) who is working as a nurse there. The remainder of the film dramatises the threat to white southerners of this political policy, a threat continually dramatised in sexual terms as black men attempt to rape members of both the Stoneman and the Cameron families. The film’s climax comes as Cameron devises the idea of the Klan, which is hailed as ‘the organization that saved the South from the anarchy of black rule’. 

Riding to the rescue at the head of a huge posse of Klansmen, in scenes which had white audiences cheering, Cameron saves his sweetheart Elsie from the clutches of Lynch, and his sister from a horde of black militia. The double marriage at the close of the film sees ‘the former enemies of North and South . . . united again in common defence of their Aryan birthright’. Controversy attended this unvarnished white supremacist propaganda from the start. The National Board of Censorship voted fifteen to eight to pass the film, after insisting on cuts (such as a scene depicting the castration of the most malignant black rapist, Gus, and one showing ‘Lincoln’s solution’ of transporting black Americans back to Africa).

Riots broke out at screenings in Boston and Philadelphia, and the film was denied a release in several major cities. Moreover, the film was a major prompt to the formation of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 by William Simmons, a Methodist minister in Georgia. In the 1920s, the Klan would be a major political force for racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism and nativism, as its numbers swelled to over four million. 

Conversely, the film gave a great boost to the national profile of the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which led a vigorous protest against the film aided by many sections of the liberal and Progressive media (Francis Hackett in the fledgling New Republic denounced it as ‘aggressively vicious and defamatory’; James Weldon Johnson saw Dixon’s attitude as one of ‘unreasoning hate’). Stung by such criticism, Griffith and Dixon mounted very public defences of the film’s historical accuracy and the principles of free speech in films, a publicity which adroitly fuelled the film’s notoriety and its box office returns. 

 One of the things which troubled critics most was the film’s astonishing technical virtuosity. ‘As a spectacle it is stupendous’, Hackett noted glumly, a feature which only added to its persuasiveness and ideological force. Indeed, critics who attempt to separate the film’s politics from its technical achievements often overlook the fact that it was precisely these technical achievements that gave those politics both an appeal and a legitimacy to millions of Americans. 

The war scenes are epic in scale; and the final ride of the Klan, using tracking shots, dramatic high camera angles, and fast-paced cross-cutting between three different locations, was the apogee of a technique which Griffith had perfected at Biograph (where, as Tom Gunning notes, he had frequently utilised the ‘archetypal drama of a threatened bourgeois household’).

 Scenes such as the final ball before the Confederate volunteers leave for war – lit strongly from above and behind, to give the characters a glow suggestive of the imminent destruction of a way of life – are beautifully composed; and, as Eileen Bowser notes, the scene of the Little Colonel’s homecoming, where the camera withdraws its omniscience at the moment he enters his home and his mother’s arms, has an undimmed emotive power. 

Yet, like the popular fiction of the era such as Tarzan of the Apes, the popularity of The Birth of a Nation must be partly ascribed to its indulgence of fantasies of sexual dominance. Griffith had even swapped Lillian Gish into the lead role of Elsie Stoneman in place of Blanche Sweet because – as Gish recalled – ‘I was very blonde and fragile-looking. The contrast with the dark man [a blacked-up George Siegmann] evidently pleased Mr. Griffith, for he said in front of everyone, “Maybe she would be more effective than the mature figure I had in mind.”’

A turning point in assessments of the aesthetic and economic potential of features, nonetheless the film’s ability to represent and market with such wild success such a disturbing and reactionary conjunction of race, gender and sexuality is one of the decade’s most disturbing cultural moments.”

- Mark Whalan, “Film and Vaudeville.” in American Culture in the 1910s

[citizenscreen]

Léon Bary, Eugene Pallette, Douglas Fairbanks and George Siegmann in Fred Niblo’s THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1921)

[adrian-paul-botta]

Established as master of war movies, D. W. Griffith took on World War I in Hearts of the World. It was made at the request of the British government in 1917-18, and is as much a propaganda film as a drama, with much newsreel footage thrown in for good measure. But its leads (Robert Harron, Lillian Gish, and Dorothy Gish), its villain (George Siegmann), and an adorable child actor, Ben Alexander (who was to become a poignant, vulnerable soldier in All Quiet on the Western Front twelve years later), help greatly to put it over. And it also offers a glimpse of Noel Coward, age eighteen, pushing a wheelbarrow through a French village street.

[frankenpagie]

8.17.17

[delux2222]

Happy Birthday, George Siegmann (February 8, 1882- June 22, 1928)

Danton, Scaramouche, 1923

Silas Lynch, Birth of a Nation, 1915

Porthos, The Three Musketeers, 1921

Simon Legree, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1927

[docrotten]

The Cat and the Canary (1927) - Episode 60 - Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“Haven't you found anybody to put in your straight jacket yet?” “No, but I will by the time I leave.” Good luck with that! Join this episode’s Grue Crew - Joseph Perry, Chad Hunt, and Jeff Mohr - when they book a room in an old dark house and try to identify who is the cat and who is the canary in Paul Leni’s silent classic, The Cat and the Canary (1927).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 60 – The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Relatives of an eccentric millionaire gather in his spooky mansion on the 20th anniversary of his death for the reading of his will.

IMDb

  Director: Paul Leni

Writers: 

Original stage play: John Willard

Screenplay: Alfred A. Cohn

Adaptation: Robert F. Hill, Alfred A. Cohn

Produced by: Paul Kohner

Featured Cast:

Laura La Plante as Annabelle West

Creighton Hale as Paul Jones

Forrest Stanley as Charles Wilder

Tully Marshall as Roger Crosby

Gertrude Astor as Cecily

Flora Finch as Susan

Arthur Edmund Carewe as Harry

Martha Mattox as Mammy Pleasant, housekeeper

George Siegmann as the Guard

Lucien Littlefield as Dr. Ira Lazar

Hal Craig as Policeman

Billy Engle as Taxi Driver

Joe Murphy as Milkman

The Classic Era Grue Crew has a lot of fun with this founding member of the “Old Dark House” subgenre of films. Chad enjoyed viewing The Cat and the Canary with the knowledge that what later become classic tropes, were being viewed in this film for the first time by a lot of people. It is the shadows and lighting that wowed Jeff when he first saw this silent classic, but this time around, it was all about the actors, the characters, and the humor. Joseph points out how Universal’s Carl Laemmle hired Paul Leni, whose roots are in German expressionism, with the purpose of adapting the form for American audiences in The Cat and the Canary. Your Grue Crew highly recommends this movie and don’t get us started on the plastic eye!

The Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Grue Crew plan to release a new episode every other week. Hey, where else will you hear podcasts on films ranging from The Old Dark House (1932) to House on Haunted Hill (1959) to It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)? The next episode in our very flexible schedule will be Batman: The Movie (1966)! Yup! You read that right!

Please send us feedback on the films we cover, ideas for future films, or the podcast itself. After all, without you, we’re just four horror freaks talking about the films we love. Send us an email at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com or leave us a message, a review, or a comment at GruesomeMagazine.com, iTunes, the Gruesome Magazine Horror News Radio Facebook group or your friendly neighborhood podcast aggregator.

To each of you from each of us, “Thank you so much for listening!”

Check out this episode!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[djbugi-blog]

companies

yun ibibigay kong company sa university center ay 1 percent lang na magiging pag mamayari ng mga university sa university center sa mga companies na na post ko, at meroon dividend na makukuha ang mga universities sa university center sa mga companies na na post ko. yun ibibigay kong company sa doña rosario elementary school , ph.catholic at glenn gamas church ay 1 percent lang na magiging pag mamayari ng doña rosario elementary school , ph.catholic at glenn gamas church sa mga companies na naibigay ko sa kanila , at meroon dividend na makukuha sila sa mga companies na na naibigay ko sa kanila,

paghahatian ng mga universities ang 1 percent sa mga company na naibigay ko, kung 1 billion us dollars per month yun accumulated na kita, yun 1 percent niyon ay 10 million us dollars halimbawa 50 sila maghahati ay, 200,000 us dollars a month at makukuha nila monthly, mas malaki po ang makukuha ng big 30 na university

estimate lang po ito, baka malaki o maliit pa nag makukuha, kaya advise ko na i compute nila yun makukuha nila visit the website

w8.monthlyreport.ph.universitycenter.beta

visit the webiste w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta

mga stores at company na nabili ko sa novaliches proper visit the website

w8.investment.novalichesproper.beta

yun mga catholic church na nasa ph.catholic.beta at glenn gamas church ay bibigyan ng tindahan na jollibee, mang inasal,chowking,krispy kreme,mcdonalds,pizza hut,starbucks,goldilocks,red ribbon, savemore, puregold, ultramega, mercury drug, watsons, generika, bench, herbench, penshoppe,fox bikes,honda bike,kawasaki bike,yamaha bike,suzuki bike,vespa bike at marami pang tindahan, at yun catholic church na nasa pilipinas at glenn gamas church ang mag manage nito at pag mamayari nila ito at ilalagay malapit sa lugar nila, at mag kakaroon ng CEO ang church sa lugar nila para patakbuhin ang mga store na makukuha nila visit the website w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta

mga wrought iron company na nabili ko at ibibigay sa university center, at ang graduate ng university center philippines ay mag training gumawa ng industrial furniture, furniture,gates, etc sa mga company na ito

visit the website w8.ph.universitycenter.beta w8.ph.education.beta.

METALLBAU SCHULT INH. RONALD SCHULT STAHL- UND TREPPENBAU KUHLA GMBH GRABMALE CHRIST METALLBAU OLA GMBH SIEGMANN GRABMALKUNST GMBH FRANKFURTH-SIEBERT GRABMAL UND NATURSTEIN GMBH WINFRIED SCHAAF GMBH K & M KUNSTSCHMIEDE- UND METALLBAU GMBH BERNHARD GMBH HERMANN UGLER GMBH & CO. METALLBAU KG ERICH FRITZ NÜSSEL METALLKUNST GMBH W. BOGNER OHG KUNSTSCHMIEDE CHRISTIAN TRAUBEL WILHELM GEIDNER METALLWAREN-FABRIK GMBH & CO. KG HERIBERT NUSSER KG GEORG UND ANDREAS KAUFMANN - GRAVEURMEISTER OHG FRANZ UND PETER VÖGELE GMBH GESTALTETES METALL GMBH WOLFRAM EHNERT WALZ GMBH KULL SCHMIEDE + DESIGN GMBH JOSEF HERZOG KUNSTSCHMIEDE UND METALLBAU GMBH DS METALLTREPPEN GMBH MANFRED WERNER METALLBAU SENGE GMBH ROBERS LEUCHTEN GMBH BANATER EISEN MJM-KUNST DESIGN GMBH METALL GESTALTUNG ALTE HAMMERSCHMIEDE STEFAN FITTKAU METALLBAU + KUNSTSCHMIEDE GMBH VAN ÜNEN SCHLOSSEREI- KUNSTSCHMIEDE GMBH ROBERT SCHÖNSTEIN BAU- UND KUNSTSCHLOSSEREI GMBH MEKO METALLKUNST OTTMANN GMBH LÖLOFF KUNST- UND BAUSCHLOSSEREI GESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRÄNKTER HAFTUNG BROCKHAUS GMBH & CO. KG VIRO SCHMIEDETEILE GMBH GEBR. STELLER G. SCHÜRFELD GMBH FRIED. HÜNNINGHAUS GMBH & CO. KG GESENKSCHMIEDE HANS SCHEITTER GMBH & CO.KG CARL SÜLBERG GMBH & CO. KG

ang iglesia ni cristo na nasa ph.catholic.beta at glenn gamas church ay part ng catholic church, catholic na po siya,at bibigyan ko ng company

visit the website w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta w8.ph.iglesianicristo.beta

prosiebensat.1 media (media company) bieze food group

ang mga catholic church na nasa ph.catholic.beta at glenn gamas church ay bibigyan ng food company

visit the website w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta

P&G Unilever General Mills

nabili kong dutch biotechnology company at ibibigay sa university center, at ang graduate ng university center philippines ay mag aral ng biotechnology sa mga company na ito

visit the website w8.ph.universitycenter.beta

Genmab Bavarian Nordic Acesion Pharma Biosyntia Pcovery Orphazyme Zeal& Galecto Nuevolution Forward Pharma Avilex Pharma Symphogen

nabili kong company at ibibigay sa university center, at ang graduate ng university center philippines ay mag aral gumawa games sa mga company na ito

visit the website w8.ph.universitycenter.beta

activision blizzard electronic arts ubisoft

nabili kong company at ibibigay sa university center, at ang graduate ng university center philippines ay mag aral gumawa ng farming equipment sa mga company na ito

visit the website w8.ph.universitycenter.beta

Claas AGCO CAT New Holland

ang mga catholic church na nasa ph.catholic.beta at glenn gamas church ay bibigyan ng car company na mitsubishi motors

visit the website w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta

nabili kong company at ibibigay sa doña rosario elementary school

visit the website w8.ph.education.beta

vivendi (canal + groupe)

nabili kong company at ibibigay sa doña rosario elementary school

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arirang tv channel

nabili kong company at ibibigay sa doña rosario elementary school

visit the website w8.ph.education.beta

makro

- gagawin po itong retail store at pwedeng bumili rito yun walang mga tindahan, sa tingin ko nalugi ito noon kasi mga may tindahan lang ang pwedeng bumili rito, pero nakita ko dati na ang gaganda ng mga products dito at mura

ang mga catholic church na nasa ph.catholic.beta at glenn gamas church ay bibigyan ng company na Kmart, at mag tatayo sila ng supermarket sa malapit sa simbahan sa buong pilipinas

visit the website w8.ph.catholic.beta w8.ph.glenngamaschurch.beta

[klausming]

The Man Who Laughs (1928) US 110m, B&W, Silent Director: Paul Leni; Cast: Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Brandon Hurst, Olga V. Baklanova, Cesare Gravina, Stuart Holmes, Samuel de Grasse, George Siegmann, Josephine Crowell…

[get-that-face]

Day 12: Money Mad

(filmed 28 October/ 2/6 November in NY studio & unknown; released 4 December 1908)

Oh look, another film where everyone dies! Then again, it’s hard to say that they don’t deserve it, seeing as all the characters are obsessed with stealing money from each other by any means possible. It’s unusual that when the old man’s candle is knocked over while he’s being murdered, nothing happens, as opposed to the second overturned candle which burns down the house with the two dead robbers and the nasty woman. The presence of what appears to be actual fire on the floor of the actual set is pretty worrying, given the generally low safety standards of the film industry at the time. (Then again, given that the Triangle Shirtwaist fire was still three years or so in the future, it’s not like any industry was particularly safe. The actors were working in relative luxury by comparison!)

This is the second film D.W. Griffith shot for Biograph in 1908 that was based on “Just Meat”, a story by Jack London that involves two thieves poisoning each other to try and escape with their stolen loot alone. Both this and the previous short (”For The Love Of Gold”) bear no relationship to the original short story beyond the premise of criminals killing each other in their lust for material wealth. The setting here seems to be an Italian slum (note the “Sicilia” at the bank), but Griffith seems to use the occasional non-WASPy settings more for variety than for any sort of specific condemnation of a group--there will continue to be a number of “Italian” pictures amongst the Biographs, of varying plotlines and varieties. (As late as 1914, “The Italian” makes a prominent appearance as a character in Griffith’s “The Avenging Conscience”. Although the character is played by the almost stereotypically villainous George Siegmann, an actor probably best remembered as the scheming Silas Lynch in Birth of a Nation or the German would-be rapist in Hearts of the World, the Italians here are mostly neutral in moral terms, although depicted as rather drunk, slovenly, and cowardly in their personal life.)

Urban slums are a natural setting for tales of criminal depravity, and although the groups living in them have changed over time, the general perception of the moral hazards of the environment remains the same. Griffith’s most famous film about criminal elements in an urban slum setting probably remains 1912′s “The Musketeers of Pig Alley”, and certain aspects of the location shooting in the streets in this film mirror that film’s famous scene of the hoodlums sidling up the wall, closer and closer to the camera. That the basic elements of a scene can be so familiar, but so different in execution, helps illustrate just how much film techniques had evolved in the years between 1908 and 1912.

[98bluecalisky]

Actor Conrad Veidt passed away on this day in 1943. You'll know him from his striking performances in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) and The Man Who Laughs (1928), as well as his talkie turn in Casablanca (1942). Which of his roles is your favourite?