Buster Keaton -- Sailor Lassies Help Navigator -- December 19, 2024

Photoplay, December, 1924

Buster's The Navigator was set aboard an ocean liner that was adrift on the ocean. The movie is hilarious. "...it isn't easy to be laughable for six thousand feet of film."

Moving Picture World, 20-December-1924

Metro-Goldwyn, soon to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, proudly announced its current product, including The Navigator, Erich von Stroheim's Greed, Henry King's Romola, starring Lillian Gish and based on the novel by George Eliot and Victor Sjöström's He Who Gets Slapped, starring Lon Chaney.

Moving Picture World, 20-December-1924

Several theaters in the mid-west promoted The Navigator by having young ladies in sailor suits hand out rolls of Life Savers candy. 

Moving Picture World, 27-December-1924

Loew's Montreal promoted the film with a ship in the lobby and the staff dressed in naval uniforms. I like the caricature of Buster in the circles.

Moving Picture World, 20-December-1924

Meanwhile Buster was wrapping up work on his next movie, Seven Chances.

Lillian Gish -- Not a Movie -- A Work of Art! -- January 30, 2024

Motion Picture News, 12-January-1924

The White Sister was based on the play by F Marion Crawford and Walter C Hackett, and the novel by Crawford. The film, shot in Rome and Naples, starred Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman. Henry King directed. Lillian Gish became entangled romantically and legally with Charles Duell, president of Inspiration Pictures, Inc. "Not a Movie -- A Work of Art!"

Motion Picture News, 26-January-1924

In Old Chicago -- October 8, 2021

150 years ago today, on 08-October-1871, a fire broke out in Chicago. It burned for three days and killed at least 300 people. Mrs O'Leary's cow did not start it. However, in 1938, 20th Century-Fox released a big musical, In Old Chicago. Alice Faye, Fox's biggest star, played the lead. Tyrone Power Jr played a gambler who was the son of Mrs O'Leary. Don Ameche played another son of Mrs O'Leary. Alice Brady played Mrs O'Leary. The cow was unbilled.

In this story, Mrs O'Leary left a lantern in the barn and her cow kicked it over and started the fire that raged for three days and destroyed most of Chicago. The fire did start in O'Leary's barn, but the cause is unknown.

The special effects were good. I don't remember the songs.

Richard Barthelmess, 125 -- May 9, 2020

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Actor Richard Barthelmess was born 125 years ago today, on 09-May-1895. He played leads opposite Lillian Gish in two movies directed by DW Griffith, Broken Blossoms and Way Down East.  Barthelmess joined with Charles Duell and director Henry King to form the Inspiration Picture Company.  Their first production was Tol'able David, which became a huge hit.  After the talkies started, he dropped from the lead in the original Dawn Patrol to smaller parts. 

He served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.  He left the film business after the war. 

Photoplay, June, 1925

The Ghost of Rosy Taylor -- July 31, 2018

Moving Picture World, 13-July-1918

Mary Miles Minter was a young, beautiful actress who took many parts that could have been played by Mary Pickford.  She was very popular, but she got tangled up in the case of the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, which quickly ended her career.

When I read Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By, one story that struck me was the chapter about director Edward Sloman.  Brownlow said that The Ghost of Rosy Taylor was one of the few movies directed by Sloman that was available to screen.  He tried to contact Sloman, but found that he was too old and ill to talk.

Moving Picture World, 13-July-1918

Moving Picture World, 13-July-1918

I later learned that the movie was co-directed by Henry King.