Guess what. It turns out flights to China take a long time. That’s a lot of time to watch movies. Even more than I planned for. I’m going to turn the page soon, but before I do I want to talk about what I watched.
Seven Chances is probably the weakest Buster Keaton I have ever seen. I was relieved to read him say pretty much the same thing. The premise is pretty funny. A man can earn his large inheritance if he gets married by 7 pm. He spends the first half failing to get any women to marry him. Then the whole town learns of the inheritance and he is chased by literal hundreds across town. That ending kind of rocks…in more ways than one. I recommend watching that final 20 minutes.
I was so bummed by Seven Chances, I wanted to watch Our Hospitality to see if it would smooth over my rough feelings. It did. Despite being set in the South, it has blessedly no racial humor. It’s set in the early 19th century, about 100 years before the film was made. Keaton has a lot of fun reproducing that time period. He even rides a hobby horse. I laughed out loud on the plane. You might laugh out loud in your living room.
Erotikon by Mauritz Stiller is about an entomologist obsessed with the mating patterns of beetles. He is quite successful and lets his wife spend a lot of money on nice furs and an active social life. There’s a ballet within the film about a king who kills his friend for loving his wife. The film also has a niece who can cook mutton and cabbage casserole. It’s pretty nice to see a film approach infidelity like this. When the scientist is confronted with his wife’s deception, he is convinced to challenge the offender to a duel. Then he remembers all the important research he has to do. He sends his butler with a note asking if they could maybe just not do it. Lubitsch fans would probably enjoy this one.
Which brings me to The Marriage Circle by Ernst Lubitsch. This is a really tight screenplay and I loved every minute of it. Mizzi is annoyed with her husband and wants to start an affair with the doctor whose wife is her best friend. The best friend is also being pursued by the doctor’s partner. Meanwhile, Mizzi’s husband wants a divorce so he sends an investigator to gain evidence of infidelity. Pure Shakespeare.
The Salvation Hunters is Josef von Sternberg’s first film. He made it at just 30 years old. It’s a story about the urban poor and the actors give natural and vivid performances. There are shades of L’Atalante and On the Waterfront. The first sequence of the film is set among the dredge of the docks. Those people in that place, that will stay with me.
Finally, I want to talk about L’Inhumaine or “The Inhuman Woman” by Marcel L’Herbier. It is such a technological marvel. It is high modernism that reads like science fiction…until it becomes science fiction. The intertitles are written in stylish sans serif font. The singer’s house is an art deco palace, complete with an indoor duck pond and forest populated by fake palm trees. Her servants wear papier-mâché masks that fix their faces into smiles. The artificiality is the point. She is meant to be both inhumane and inhuman.
The movie can be split into three parts. They’re all great but I found the third part to be the most fascinating. The singer is courted by an engineer. He shows her a special technology that connects television with a gramophone. When she sings, the music comes out of the gramophone. She can view anyone who is listening to her. The engineer and singer are so engrossed in the device that they continue for hours. Earlier, she claimed she wanted to travel the world and now she only wants to sing through this. Why go somewhere when you can see it right in your living room?
