Silent Sundays: The Bells (1926)

“The next sun shines bright and clear, but in the bosom of Mathias rages the storms of yesternight.”

            A man named Mathias (Lionel Barrymore) owns an inn in his small French village in the mid-1800s. He has ambitions of becoming the local Burgomaster. Unfortunately he is having trouble repaying the loan on his tavern. To make sure he receives votes Mathias gives free drinks and credit to those who come in. He owes money to a man named Frantz who threatens to tell the entire town that Mathias has no money. Mathias also owns a mill and several other businesses. The workers at the mill need to be paid. They go to Mathias to ask for credit and he agrees which drives him further into debt.

            Mathias and his wife Catherine have a daughter named Annette. Annette is in love with a gendarme (police officer) named Christian. Mathias always sacrifices things so his wife and daughter can have nice new things. He dresses shabbily and does not let on how in debt he is. Frantz comes to see Mathias with the offer to marry Annette and all the debts will be forgiven. Mathias will not hear of such an idea. He tells Frantz that if Annette marries it is to someone that she loves.

            A fair comes into town. Mathias sees a mesmerist who claims that he can make a criminal confess and a good man tell of his good deeds. After seeing the mesmerist Mathias goes to a fortune teller. The teller is immediately distraught when she looks at his hand. She sees nothing but bad things in his future. Mathias is confused and upset by the reading he cannot think of what could possibly happen to him that will be so bad.

            On Christmas a Polish man named Baruch comes to the inn. Baruch sits down with Mathias for a drink. They are all alone. When Baruch goes to leave he pays Mathias with a gold coin. Mathias asks the traveler if he is carrying all gold coins and the man replies that he is. On his way out Baruch tells him “Peace be with you.” Mathias follows the man’s sleigh out into the woods and kills him for the gold.

            Mathias is able to pay Frantz off and keep a great amount of money for himself. He gives the story that an uncle of his died and left him all the money. Christian comes in to tell everyone that a sleigh and a glove have been found in the woods and that they are looking for the missing man. Christian later asks Mathias for Annette’s hand in marriage. Mathias agrees and promises to give Annette a dowry of thirty thousand Francs. As Mathias counts the money he thinks he sees the blood of Baruch on his hands and he cannot clean it off. When he turns around he sees an apparition of Baruch and hears the bells from the sleigh.

            Mathias is eventually named Burgomaster of the town. On the day he is appointed a man named Jethro comes searching for his brother Baruch. He brings the Mesmerist along with him because he believes that the Mesmerist can make any man confess. Mathias orders both of them yelling that the Mesmerist does the work of the devil and he will not have any of that in his tavern. His first order as Burgomaster is the case of Baruch. Jethro comes to court again with the Mesmerist and once again Mathias has them both thrown out.

            As time goes on Mathias becomes tortured ever more by his conscious. He keeps seeing Baruch. On the day of his daughter’s wedding he goes upstairs to count the money for the dowry. He dreams he is on trial for the murder with Frantz as the judge. Jethro and the Mesmerist are there. The Mesmerist gets Mathias to confess. He keeps hearing the bells constantly because of his guilt. Out of his dream Mathias is in the room with the ghost of Baruch next to him. Baruch tells Mathias “Peace be with you.”

            The Bells was an interesting film. I liked the idea that Mathias had been a good man but pressure and want and need of money drove him to murder an innocent man. I also liked how Mathias felt his greatest threat was the Mesmerist. He did not want to admit that he believed the Mesmerist could get him to confess he was fighting himself on that belief and that as why he mostly felt so tortured. Lionel Barrymore did an excellent job in this film. He played the character of Mathias just right he did not once overact. The Bells is not a stand out silent film but it is good and is a silent film I suggest taking the time to 

Frankenstein (1931)

“It’s Alive!”

            Years ago my brother was on a Universal Monster kick. I can remember clear as day my parents buying him the DVDs of Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein. I had no idea why he was so interested in them especially because they were old black and white films. At the time I was not into classic films yet so I had no interest in them. Then I noticed maybe a year or two later that Anthony was putting the DVDs in a box to be sold. By that time I had just begun to like classic films so he told me to take them. Now, several years later, I am finally getting around to watching at least one of the classic horror films. I chose Frankenstein to watch first because I love Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, I had to see what the comedic geniuses were referencing.

            I am not going to write a summary of the film out because I am sure that everyone in their life time has heard the story of Frankenstein or more accurately Frankenstein’s monster.

            I can clearly see why this film is cited as the birth of the horror film genre. I can just picture it being so scary for movie goers in 1931. Over seventy years later the close ups of The Monster’s face are terrifying. If I was little kid watching this now I would be afraid. I read that the makeup for the Monster was all done by the makeup artist Jack P. Pierce and make no reference to Mary Shelley’s book character. Pierce created the most iconic monster makeup ever. He made the face makeup a grayish- green color so it would look pale on the black and white screen. All future references to the Monster were made to look like Pierce’s work.

            The cinematography and some of the sets have a great German Expressionist look. The Expressionist look and it being in black and white greatly enhance the scariness to the film.

            I had to laugh at several of the scenes because I kept thinking of Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein is one of my all time favorite movies. I put that movie on and I laugh as if it is the first time I seeing it. From the first scene I was laughing when Frankenstein told Fritz (not Igor) to get down when they are at the cemetery and he is still standing. In Mel Brooks’s version Gene Wilder tells Marty Feldman to get down and he is still standing up. If you have never seen Young Frankenstein there is clearly something wrong with you and you must go watch it right now.

            Frankenstein is a classic film all film lovers of any decade or genre should see. It is one of the perfect examples of filmmaking, style, writing, casting, direction, and cinematography. Even though Frankenstein is based off of a classic work of literature it has a good story and characters that “horror” films of today lack.

 

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)



“Genghis Khan comes back! Genghis Khan leads the East against the world!”

            The Mask of Fu Manchu is one of those old “horror” films from the 1930s that is so much fun to laugh at. All I could do while watching this film was laugh.

            Fu Manchu (played by Boris Karloff) wants the mask of Genghis Kahn because it apparently has great powers to where he can take over the world. Some British archeologists from The British Museum have also been looking for the mask. One of the archeologists Sir Lionel Barton knows the exact location but he will not tell anyone where it is.  After he talks with his associates Nyland Smith and Terrance “Terry” Granville he gets kidnapped and brought to Fu Manchu’s palace.

            Fu Manchu tortures Barton by lying him down under a bell without food and water and sleep for days. Barton’s daughter Sheila has been really worried about him. She tells Terry and Smith that her father has told her where the mask along with a sword is buried. Word gets to Fu Manchu that the mask and sword have been found. He sends a messenger to Sheila, Terry, and Smith that he will give them Barton back is they hand Fu Manchu the mask and sword. Terry decides to give the evil man a replica of each artifact.

            Unfortunately Terry has no such luck in fooling Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu has Terry tortured by his sadistic daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy). After she has tortured Terry Manchu injects him with a concoction made of all kinds of venom that will allow Terry’s mind to be controlled. He sends Terry back to convince Sheila and Smith that Barton (who is now dead) now wants the mask and sword moved to a different location.

            Needless to say the three Britons come very close to the end but with a lot of luck and only six minutes left to the film they save the day and kill Fu Manchu and get the mask and sword.

            The plot sounds really good I would go see a film with this plot today but this is part the reason why some old films get a bad rep. The acting was horrible and outrageously overdone especially by Karen Morely who plays Sheila. It was like she was giving her all and it just came out as overacting to the point where it was sad. Of course I had to see this film no matter how corny it was because Myrna Loy is in it and this is when she was still in the vamp/exotic stage of her career. I was cracking up so bad from just seeing her! I will say Loy definitely had the face to play the exotic roles which is funny because she was of English, Welsh, and Scottish descent. What I cracked me up the most with is that Loy is playing a sadistic Asian woman who pretty much rapes Terry by keeping him “entertained.” From the moment Fah Lo See lays eyes on Terry all she has on her mind is having her way with him.  Karloff I have never really seen in any other film besides this but Fu Manchu was a panic he was the corniest part of the whole film. There was one scene in the film where  Manchu was talking about his daughter who is a character not a real person but I was thinking of Loy he was talking to a crowd of people gathered at his palace and he told them to listen to his daughter even though she is “ugly and insignificant.” Then a few scenes later he tells someone that his daughter is beautiful!  With Fu Manchu we know that he is evil because he keeps talking about taking over the world and only leads the captives being carried by one of his followers to their torturous ending but with Fah So Lee we see her sadistic side when she yells for her henchmen to whip Terry and she looks sexualy excited in a twisted way.

            The Mask of Fu Manchu does have some good points despite being really silly in others. Fu Manchu is a very sinister and diabolical character as well as Fah Lo See. Had the script and the acting been a bit better surrounding the two sinister characters the film may not have been so cheesy. The plot is really interesting you can see where Indiana Jones may have been inspired from.

            I say sit through The Mask of Fu Manchu at least once especially if you are really into cheesy ‘30s “horror” films or if you want to see Myrna Loy before she broke out of her vamp stereotype. The film is a great laugh.