Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)
“The death of Mr. Banks leaves his niece Tillie the sole heir.”
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Surrender (1927)
“You seemed to like me when I wore a peasant’s garb. Is it my uniform that makes a difference?”
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Seven Chances (1925)
“I don’t want the money; it has already cost me the only girl I ever loved.”
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Review: Note: My reaction to this film reminds me of how I felt while watching Brewster’s Millions (1945), where the exhaustion of watching a financially-loaded time-bomb situation play out had me unexpectedly in knots. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Cameraman, The (1928)
“Don’t be discouraged. No one would ever amount to anything if he didn’t try.”
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Review: Note: MGM apparently referred to this film for years as a “perfect comedy”, and showed it to all its directors and producers to learn from. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Flesh and the Devil (1926)
“My boy, when the devil cannot reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh.”
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Review: Note: It’s difficult to ignore the homoerotic tensions between Gilbert and Hanson, who are often pictured as remarkably physically intimate.
Their blood-brothers friendship ultimately drives the entire narrative, and is the most intriguing (if underdeveloped) aspect of the script. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
“I suspect foul play.”
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Response to Peary’s Review:
However, he points out that “later the familiar overblown Spielberg adventure spectacle [taking place at] the Egyptian temple with bald, diabolical priests involved in a sacrificial ritual… replaces mystery-solving and our hero could be any indomitable Spielberg teenager, rather than a detective extraordinaire”.
This is all true, and yet I’ll admit to an overall fondness for this finely produced, creative imagining of Holmes and Watson befriending each other years before their “actual” first encounter as adults (per Doyle’s original stories).
Things start off with a bang, as we witness a series of truly gruesome hallucinogenic fits (courtesy of “excellent special effects by [George Lucas’s] Industrial Light and Magic”]:
and are introduced to both Watson and Holmes (who are “well cast and play… well together”). An early scene in which Holmes’s schoolmate-nemesis (Earl Rhodes) challenges Holmes to find a hidden vase on campus within an hour provides plenty of evidence of Holmes’ brilliant deductive capacities, and several interactions between Holmes and his fencing instructor (Anthony Higgins) show us his capabilities as a fast-thinking combatant.
It’s true that later events take quite the Indiana Jones-inspired turn, but these sequences are creepily conceived and finely mounted, and I was willing to go along for the ride. While it’s certainly not “must see”, I’d recommend this one as worth a once-look. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926)
“I’ll get the money in three months if it takes a year.”
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Review: Note: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp is noteworthy for providing Joan Crawford with one of her earliest significant roles; fun use is made of her soon-to-be larger-than-life persona through her presence in a series of posters. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The (1976)
“I am on the case, and you have placed me there: now you must be good enough to follow my instructions.”
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Long Pants (1927)
“Don’t worry, mother — those pants will never go to his head!”
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Strong Man, The (1926)
“Once there was a plain little girl who dared to love a brave, handsome soldier. But when he wrote that he was coming to America, she stopped writing and hid — for she had never told him she was blind.”
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The Strong Man (also notable as Frank Capra’s feature-length directorial debut) is cited by many as Langdon’s best film, and it is indeed an enjoyable affair. The most amusing sequence occurs just after Langdon’s character has arrived in America, as he’s looking for his long-lost penpal (“Mary Brown”) and meets up with a con-artist (Gertrude Astor) who has slipped a wad of money into his pants to elude the police. Astor tells the naive Langdon she’s “Little Mary”, and the two head off (in wonderfully forthright pre-Code manner) to her apartment. Their perfectly timed slapstick interactions together — as Astor does whatever it takes to try to slip the cash out of Langdon’s pants, and Langdon misinterprets her actions as lustful pursuit — are simply classic. The remainder of the storyline is a tad schmaltzy (Capra’s “touch” is already evident), as Langdon romances the impossibly sweet Brown, and learns that Brown’s preacher-father (William V. Mong) is leading a gang of righteous townsfolk in a crusade against the evil bootleggers who have taken over their performing hall. But throughout this narrative, Langdon is given plenty of opportunities to show off his slapstick genius; fans won’t be disappointed in the slightest, and those just discovering his work will be glad for this fine introduction. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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