TimR

Here is the link: http://http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-B.../dp/B00009PBIH

Maybe this is not the same? It is not available in the US, but I am looking into purchasing a player that plays DVDs from both other regions, and this would be a good reason - if it is the real thing.

Keechelus

Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey 1927) is the only UK silent movie I have seen, so far.

It is marvellous! Maybe because it was late in the film era before sound, Hindle's acting is very natural - though the 1912 source play was a shocker in its time, for showing Midlands industrial life without flinching.

My appreciation of Hindle Wakes has been helped by the 1976 TV remake, but I much prefer the 1927 film.

penfold

Nope, that's the modern documentary of the same name...the original film should be longer, too. It was released - unrestored IIRC - on a WHSmith own-label VHS; so I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a while....like the rest of us !! It's actually a scandal that it's not available...it should be compulsory viewing in the nations schools, with annual refresher screenings for our politicians....
In terms of attendances, it remains the most successful British film of all time. During the period of its original release, ticket sales were the equivalent of one third of the country's population. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of the males were abroad..
..there is an extraordinary comedy, from the summer of 1916, called Tubby Takes a Rest Cure. Tubby is a thirty-something suburban clerk, suffering from ennui. He decides to have a long weekend in the country.....he is rather put out by being stared at by the bewhiskered porters at the country railway station; on the way to the Hotel, he's practically mobbed by young ladies in white smocks from the farm; meanwhile his wife, fearing that Tubby would be lonely on his own,comes down on the next train, discovers Tubby with the girls; she storms off to the hotel, where Tubby catches up with her being chatted up by three officers.....scenes of mild finger wagging, and making up, ensue. The End. So there we have it; a romantic comedy from the summer of 1916, the basis of which is..... there are no young men left in the countryside......

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Ah, the joy of silent films, where a Lancashire millworker can be played by a New York actress with utter conviction and realism. Maurice Elvey is one of the most underrated directors; capable of great work, even when forced to churn them out in the thirties and later. I don't think it was the industrial life was that shocking in 1912...unusual, but not shocking...Spoiler Alert!!...it was the extra-marital sex and her refusal to marry the boy.....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

TimR

What a disappointment. Oh, well - thank you for the correction: I would have been taken in by the title. I have been looking for that film for years.

You watched it with an audience and with live music? It seems that Britain is the place to be for viewing vintage films that are hard to find. This does happen here at times - as with the Abel Gance Napoleon - but not often enough.

I don't suppose Tubby Takes a Rest Cure is available? Seems unlikely - no luck so far. Oh, it is frustrating to hear about these films and not be able to see them!

penfold

Very much doubt it....and I had to go to Italy to see it !! re BotS, it's the only way to really appreciate a silent....on a big screen, with an audience, with suitable live music for preference. But again, I've been all over to see it...Italy, Nottingham and London... and in November in Bristol, with luck.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Keechelus

"...it was the extra-marital sex and her refusal to marry the boy..."

Yes, exactly right. I didn't make my point very well. The working-class father and his ex-mate, now owner of Daisy Bank Mill were shown as good men, but the surprising independence of young Fanny was a brave portrayal in 1912 and in the movie 15 years later.

The industrial city was very well depicted, but the story's courage was in Fanny's rejection of a loveless marriage. Dam' good, and maybe a start to the tradition of realism in Brit cinema that we love so well today.

penfold

One of, certainly....and if you get to see any of my Avatar, Guy Newall's films from the twenties, you will be similarly impressed. Fox Farm, Lure of Crooning Water....or George Pearson's...Of course, in the days before sound, location filming (Used to great effect in the Blackpool sequences in Hindle Wake) was a lot simpler to carry off.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Dr Amicus

In addition to all the talk about features, don't overlook shorts! There's a BFI disc (I don't have it but it's high on my wants list!) of the complete films of RW Paul, including the wonderful The ? Motorist, which sees a car driven round the rings of Saturn. Genius.

I saw this a few years back in Brighton as part of a programme of British Silent Sci Fi - which included the silent version of High Treason, the British answer to Metropolis, which was also released in a sound version. Far from a great film, I'd love to see a DVD released - maybe a double discer with both versions...

penfold

The RW Paul set is lovingly put together, and I'd recommend it if you're interested in very early cinema, Georges Melies' style.
High Treason (Maurice Elvey - again!) is a cracker, with the right push it could become a camp classic. It's set thirty years into the future, the mid-fifties...the world has devolved into two superpower blocs, with an uneasy peace being threatened by unscrupulous arms manufacturers using Agents Provocateurs to provoke a profitable war...a terrorist bomb on the Channel Tunnel train is answered by a (highly realistic) massed bomber attack on London ....only a worldwide pacifist organisation can save the day...incredibly, it's a retelling of the Cold War from thirty years before it occurred. A must see....for my money, it's a more satisfying film than Things To Come... and I think the silent version is the one that survives, I think the sound version may be lost.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??