Movie Memories

Movie Memories #2 (1934)

** (out of 4)

The second film in the series from Vitaphone doesn't go for laughs like the first one. Instead we get, as other reviewers pointed out, a family album type documentary where we see some of the many famous faces of the silent era. We get a loving narration as we see clips of the famous faces and many of these faces are forgotten today (some even forgotten by silent film buffs). We get clips from Valentino, Colman, Powell, Beery, Cody, Jack and Mary Pickford, Siegmann and many others. Some of the most interesting moments are when Lon Chaney is introduced as "already a classic" four short years after his death. We also have Fatty Arbuckle being shown some respect a year after his death but too bad it couldn't have happened before. Finally, we get clips from Marie Dressler's birthday party, which ended up being her last as she passed away shortly before this movie was released. If you're a fan of silent cinema then you might enjoy seeing these clips as well as the others. This certainly can't come close to actually watching their films but it's a quick history lesson.

This Warner Brothers one-reeler is a series of clips of actors who had died since the town's rise to prominence, with soapy encomiums narrated by Ralph Staub in a mournful tone. It is a list of performers who had achieved fame and died in the previous decade and ignores the shabby manner in which the industry punished or ignored those it found unprofitable or just inconvenient. As some wag once remarked, sincerity is everything and if you can fake that, you've got it made.

Some of the performers may still be familiar to the interested but casual fan of silent movies. A few of the names escaped me -- cowboy stars mostly.