Take your pick and print out this year’s assortment of Color Calendars:
Greta Garbo:
John Barrymore as The King of Fools in THE BELOVED ROGUE (1927):
Joan Crawford circa 1927:
Lon Chaney and Lupe Velez in WHERE EAST IS EAST (1929):
Gloria Swanson circa 1919:
Phyllis Haver and Olive Borden in FIG LEAVES (1926):
Lupe Velez circa 1930:
The Original Rin-Tin-Tin circa 1925:
Among our most popular posts here are the “On the Set” series showing legendary figures of Old Hollywood at work on the set of their films. It’s high time we posted a new round of photos – all in living color of course!
On the set of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923) director/producer Cecil B. De Mille (on the left) introduces the U.S. Secretary of War John Weeks to the Pharoah Rameses aka Charles De Roche:
The original Rin-Tin-Tin (1918-1932) and his owner Lee Duncan enjoy sunset on the beach in 1929:
John Barrymore at his magnificent Tower Road home in the Hollywood Hills circa 1930:
Clara Bow gives some swimming suggestions to her niece and nephew circa 1928:
Bette Davis and her dog do a bit of fishing on the San Clemente River in 1933:
Greta Garbo and John Gilbert join director Edmund Goulding and crew for a picnic lunch during outdoor filming on LOVE (1927):
Marion Davies is directed by Sam Wood on the set of THE FAIR CO-ED (1927):
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. is the center of attention at the Hotel Manila in the Philippines during the filming of AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY MINUTES (1931):
Joan Crawford takes some movies of her own during filming for THE UNDERSTANDING HEART (1927):
Frank Borzage directs Spring Byington and Errol Flynn in THE GREEN LIGHT (1937):
Lupe Velez enjoys the beach during filming for HELL’S HARBOR (1930):
Producer/Star Mary Pickford with Allan Forest and Anders Randolf on DOROTHY VERNON OF HADDON HALL (1924):
Rootin’ tootin’ cowboy Humphrey Bogart (!) plays a Mexican bandit in VIRGINIA CITY (1940):
Glamorous Gloria Swanson is unglamorously washed ashore in MALE AND FEMALE (1919):
Director William Desmond Taylor, whose 1922 murder has never been solved, almost seems to be looking for his killer circa 1920:
Finally, Rin-Tin-Tin again in a stunning pose that feels almost 3-D:
If you check on some of our previous posts you will find that we have been experimenting digitally with turning two dimensional images (2-D) into three-dimensional images (3-D). Your blogmeister has been sampling new software developments with the recent advent of VR (virtual reality) and 360 (through headgear you can look around as in real life). My approach continues to be based on the original 19th century stereoscope idea: side-by-side images taken at a slightly different perspective to trick our eyes into seeing the images as 3-D. Admittedly low tech but it works. Now with the use of VR headgear (see Amazon for Google Cardboard headgear for $5) the stereoscopic view is enhanced even more.
The key is using your cell phone to view Youtube videos in VR or, in this case, old-fashioned 3-D. The effect can still be seen with “free viewing” so you don’t need any glasses, headgear or other equipment apart from training your own two eyes to focus on the two images (right eye on the right image, left eye on the left). Once mastered, our brain combines the left and right images into a third “middle” image that’s in 3-D.
At any rate, here is our first Youtube video combining the latest software enhancements by colorizing black & white photographs from the 1920s, then transforming them into 3-D, and finally processing them in HD (High Definition). Whew! I have also added original 1920s music. Enjoy the slide show!
Here is a new gallery of black-and-white to color transfers that I have made during the past several months. As the software technology improves so does my work.
Alice Joyce in her home circa 1920:
Alice Joyce tries her hand at archery c. 1920:
Anna May Wong at a movie premiere circa 1931:
It’s 1928 and the talkies are coming. A rare photo showing a film star being coached on speaking for the microphone – Anita Page at the USC Speech Department:
Rudolph Valentino greets visitors to the set of MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE in 1924. The lady is Mrs. Valentino, Natascha Rambova:
Carmel Myers snuggles up to Francis X. Bushman in BEN-HUR (1925):
Screenwriter Bess Meredyth gets into the spirit of things during the filming of BEN-HUR (1925):
Lon Chaney in makeup for DR. WU (1927) chats with fellow MGM star Col. Tim McCoy:
Clara Bow seems displeased with the attentions of Ernest Torrence and Percy Montmart as director Victor Fleming (in white hat) moves things along. Cinematographer James Wong Howe is in the snap cap behind the camera. On the set of MANTRAP (1926):
A radiant Dolores Del Rio in REVENGE (1927):
Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore at Half Dome, CA in A FREE SOUL (1931):
Greta Garbo returns to America after a trip to her home in Sweden, 1933:
Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd enjoy the view during the filming of NEVADA (1927):
Gloria Swanson and Cecil B. DeMille on the set of THE AFFAIRS OF ANATOLE (1921). Also left to right are Theodore Kosloff, Elliot Dexter, Agnes Ayres, Jeannie MacPherson, and Wallace Reid:
Marian Nixon on location for RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (1925):
A striking image of Strongheart and Lady Jule in 1924:
Merry Christmas, folks. I am reposting this from my Facebook group, Silent Films Today. Enjoy!
Christmas with Lionel Barrymore
– Mr. B’s many versions of “A Christmas Carol” are all over the Internet (thankfully) but here are two commercial recordings of less well-known performances he made in 1950:
Among the finest Golden Age films are the very first horror films of the sound screen. Later films were more gory, and had more shock and slasher violence, but in terms of sheer romantic Gothic style these first films have never been equaled. Your blogmeister has been busy making color transfers and searching his files for photos to demonstrate the lyricism of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN (both 1931), and the most impossible sequel that was better than the classic original, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). Let’s begin!
Two scenes from DRACULA say it all in terms of pictorial composition. The later British Hammer horror films of the 1950s and 60s have many admirers but the sets were small and lacked this type of poetic grandeur:
FRANKENSTEIN continued in this vein and, if anything, improved on it. This is a half-sheet poster, that is, 22×28 inches:
Original color lobby card that captured the Gothic tone:
Many credited the influence of the German expresssionist movement of the 1920s for the artwork in these films. The fact that Universal Pictures at the time was owned by German immigrant Carl Laemmle suggests that this influence was no coincidence:
We don’t think of sadism being in these films but the evidence proves otherwise:
Original color title lobby card:
But FRANKENSTEIN’s director, James Whale, achieved the impossible when four years later he created even even better sequel. Here is another half-sheet poster:
This is a two-page exhibitor trade advertisement. I added color:
These are a series of posed shots that are not scenes from the film itself. Lovely Valerie Hobson plays Elizabeth, Baroness Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger is the unforgettable Doctor Pretorius. I added color:
But of course nobody but Boris Karloff as the Monster could really menace a damsel in distress:
Let’s conclude our homage to Gothic horror with a 3-D finale:
and of course the most iconic image of all:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
This superb costume adventure of Old Russia set during the reign of Czarina Catherine the Great offered an eye-popping camera shot as it traveled down a huge banquet table. Here is an on the set production photo showing how it was filmed. Seated on the right looking into the camera are Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Banky. Seated on top of the bridge is director Clarence Brown. Color is by yours truly:
And here is the shot as it appeared in the film:
The survival rate of Bill Hart’s westerns is impressive. A stage actor from New York, Hart’s love of the American West transformed his career in 1914 to starring, directing, and in some cases writing, a classic series of films. Hart managed to capture the “Old West” just before it faded away forever and his films seem more like documentaries than dramas. Our film here is one of the most rarely-seen and has been preserved by the Danish Film Institute in its original color tints. The main titles and intertitles were in Danish but I translated them and substituted English versions using vintage title cards. Finally I added music, which no silent film should ever be without. Enjoy!
