Tag: silent movie

  • Walk of Fame Movie Adventures: The Son of the Sheik (1921) and Rudolph Valentino

    Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky in The Son of the Sheik.
    Vilma Bánky and Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik.

    A classic “You know who should be in charge of this Arabic country? The British” film. Lots of macho men and kept women.

    I went through three different sources for this before I found a decent free print.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Rudolph Valentino's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Rudolph Valentino.

    Valentino’s popularity was dropping when this came out, but then he died on the press tour and this movie became huge. He has a great face, but he looks better when you don’t see the rest of his head.

    Bonus: there’s a pretty big part for Karl Dane– much larger than the film I specifically watched to see him.

    Today’s fake poster is from another movie that uses the “[blank] of the [blank]” format.

    A fake poster for The Son of the Sheik mimicking the poster for The Day of the Jackal.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Walk of Fame Movie Adventures: The Little American (1917) and Jeanie MacPherson

    Mary Pickford in The Little American
    Movie bar for The Little American

    Apparently the concept of “No one will harm me- I’m an American!” has been around for a while.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Jeanie MacPherson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Jeanie MacPherson.

    Jeanie MacPherson wrote this, and she never met a coincidence she didn’t like. Angela (Mary Pickford) has two people courting her in America, who go to fight on opposite sides in WWI Europe. The Angela gets a letter from an aunt in France asking her to come take care of her. When she gets to France, one suitor is part of an army unit taking over the aunt’s house, and the other just happens to be leading the opposing force.

    Also: one guy is fighting to free France, and has been nothing but a gentleman to Angela. The other is fighting to take over the country, and when he’s reunited with Angela he doesn’t recognize her and tries to rape her. Naturally, she ends up picking the would-be rapist. So weird.

    Today’s fake poster is only roughly similar in layout, but it was fun to draw all the dripping blood in the title mockup.

    A fake poster for The Little American mimicking the poster for Little Shop of Horrors.
    Fediverse reactions