#john g blystone

[nerds-yearbook]

In 1950, a plague known as Masculitis was thought to have killed every man on Earth over the age of 12. Boys 12 and younger had survived due to a vaccination that had left them sterile. Women took over all major roles including President of the United States. Chaos was created when a fertile man was found and captured. (The Last Man on Earth flm, loosely based on the book The Last Man and a short story in Munsey's Magazine)

[thebarroomortheboy]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in BLOCKHEADS (1938) | dir. John G. Blystone 

[pacingmusings]

Seen (again) in 2022:

Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton & John G. Blystone), 1923

[gatutor]

Maureen O´Sullivan-Frank Albertson "So this is london" 1930, de John G. Blystone.

[citizenscreen]

Minna Gombell with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on set of BLOCK-HEADS (1938), directed by John G. Blystone

[fibula-rasa]

Seen in ’23: Annual Roundup

Top new-to-me films of ‘23 

(in the order I saw them, not preference)

The Blizzard / Gunnar Hedes saga (1923) [imdb | letterboxd]

The Rafter’s Bride / Koskenlaskijan morsian (1923) [imdb | letterboxd]

Funeral Parade of Roses / 薔薇の葬列 (1969) [letterboxd | imdb]

Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press / Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse (1984) [letterboxd | imdb]

Drylongso (1998) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy (1980) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Burning Crucible / Le Brasier ardent (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) [letterboxd | imdb]

Merry-Go-Round (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Dream Demon (1988) [letterboxd | imdb]

Mazel Tov / Ost und West (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Signal Tower (1924) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Second Track / Das zweite Gleis (1962) [letterboxd | imdb]

Restless Blood / Levoton Veri (1946) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Man Without Desire (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Adolescence of Utena / 少女革命ウテナ アドゥレセンス黙示録 (1999) [letterboxd | imdb]

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Honorable mention:

Ritratto di donna velata (1972) [letterboxd | imdb] (because it’s technically a mini-series)

Spirits of the Dead / Histoires extraordinaires (1968) [letterboxd | imdb] (because it would make the year-end list for “Toby Dammit” alone TBH)

So, according to letterboxd, only 33% of the films I watched in 2023 were rewatches. In an unexpected bit of consistency, that’s also my proportion of rewatches for ‘22 and ‘21. Sometimes crunching the numbers teaches you potentially meaningless things about yourself.

On my letterboxd, I put together a list of my top new-to-me films of ’23, in case you want an easier way to check if there’s anything you might want to add to your own watchlists!

READ ON BELOW THE JUMP!

As I continued my tradition of watching films as they turn 100, the 1920s was my most-watched decade as it was in 2022.

I was startled looking at the stats that the 1930s were so underrepresented! To ward that off in 2024, I think I’ll binge some pre-codes. Maybe we should all watch pre-codes in March 2024 to dishonor Will Hays on his birthday?

My top individual years were:

1923

1987

1986

1920

1911

1971 (unexpected!) 

1988

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In another bit of unexpected consistency, I seem to have watched roughly 60% American-made films every year for the last 3 years?

Regardless, I think my MVP for this year was Finland. Teuvo Tulio is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors and the silent films from Finland that I watched this year were highlights too!

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My most watched actors for 2023 were:

Alice Howell

James Finlayson

Stan Laurel

Snub Pollard

Katherine Grant

Marie Mosquini

Christopher Lee

Jackie Cooper

Lois Weber

Mabel Normand

Noah Young

Oliver Hardy

Richard Smith

Can you tell that I watched a ton of silent comedy in 2023? Of course Marie and Snub are making a return appearance here from last year, so I suppose I watched plenty of comedy shorts in ‘22 as well.

If you were only to count the feature films that I watched, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Douglas Fairbanks, Vincent Price, and William Haines would top the list!

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My most watched directors were:

Alice Guy

Dave Fleischer

George Jeske

Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass

Charley Chase

John G. Blystone

Lois Weber

Richard Smith

Maya Deren

Phillips Smalley

Another affirmation that I watched a whole lot of silent shorts, but this time because of the fantastic Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers set. I highly recommend picking up a copy (or checking it out of your local library). Not only is the set well curated, but there are so many great extras to put the films in context. 

For Christmas ‘23, I got the Cinema’s First Nasty Women set and I’m very excited to marathon those and be influenced into a year of behaving badly.

Maya Deren makes the list because I re-watched her films in advance of my cosplay/profile of her. If you haven’t dug into Deren’s short but fascinating filmography yet, I highly recommend it!

[drdavidhuxley]

Favorite New-to-Me Watches of 2023:

GOOD MORNING (dir. Yasujirō Ozu, 1959)

TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (dir. Anthony Minghella, 1990)

ALMA'S RAINBOW (dir. Ayoka Chenzira, 1994)

THE SMILING LIEUTENANT (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1931)

A TALE OF SPRINGTIME (dir. Éric Rohmer, 1990)

WOMAN CHASES MAN (dir. John G. Blystone, 1937)

ARISE, MY LOVE (dir. Mitchell Leisen, 1940)

FIFTH AVENUE GIRL (dir. Gregory La Cava, 1939)

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (dir. William Wyler, 1961)

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (dir. Max Ophüls, 1948)

THE DIVORCE OF LADY X (dir. Tim Whelan, 1938)

PUNKS (dir. Patrik-Ian Polk, 2000)

[lostgoonie1980]

182. Nossa Hospitalidade (Our Hospitality, 1923), dir. Buster Keaton & John G. Blystone

[o-the-mts]

90 Movies in 90 Days: Our Hospitality (1923)

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less. Title: Our Hospitality Release Date: November 19, 1923 Director: Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone Production Company: Joseph M. Schenck Productions Summary/Review: This Buster Keaton film satirizes the Hatfield–McCoy feud of the Appalachian region with called…

[kevinpshanblog]

100 Year Old Film

Our Hospitality December 13th, 1923

On December 13th, 1923, Buster Keaton's second feature film, Our Hospitality, was released to the public. The film, co-directed by Keaton and John G. Blystone, is a hilarious and inventive satire of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud, which pitted two rival families against each other in a bloody and violent conflict.

The film stars Keaton as Willie McKay, a young man who inherits his father's estate in the South, unaware of the feud that has been raging for decades. On his way there, he meets and falls in love with Virginia Canfield (played by Keaton's real-life wife Natalie Talmadge), the daughter of the head of the Canfield clan. When he arrives at his ancestral home, he discovers that the Canfields have sworn to kill any McKay on sight, except when they are inside their own house, where hospitality rules prevent them from harming a guest.

What follows is a series of hilarious and ingenious gags, as Keaton tries to stay alive and win the heart of his beloved, while avoiding the wrath of the Canfields. The film showcases Keaton's trademark physical comedy, as well as his remarkable attention to detail and historical accuracy. The film features a realistic recreation of an early 19th century steam locomotive, a thrilling chase sequence involving a horse, a bicycle, and a waterfall, and a spectacular stunt where Keaton hangs from a rope over a rocky gorge.

Our Hospitality is widely regarded as one of Keaton's best and most influential films, as well as one of the greatest comedies of all time. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1995, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

If you are a fan of Buster Keaton, or of silent comedy in general, you should definitely watch Our Hospitality, or rewatch it if you have already seen it. It is a film that will make you laugh, marvel, and appreciate the genius of one of the greatest comedians and filmmakers of all time.

[pablolf]

Film Journal

"Our Hospitality" by John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton

[rhade-zapan]

Change of Heart | John G. Blystone | 1934

Janet Gaynor + Charles Farrell

[letterboxd-loggd]

Great Guy (Pluck of the Irish) (1936) John G. Blystone

November 24th 2021

[gatutor]

Gene Raymond-Frances Dee "Coming-out party" 1934, de John G. Blystone.

[citizenscreen]

Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins in John G. Blystone’s WOMAN CHASES MAN (1937)

[1day1movie]

Our Hospitality (1923) Buster Keaton, John G. Blystone.