Sherlock Holmes Found -- October 22, 2014

Moving Picture World, 21-October-1916

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette. Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898. Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone. The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner. Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 feature film, which had been believed to be lost.

I was happy earlier this month when the  San Francisco Silent Film Festival announced that a print has turned up at the Cinémathèque Française.  The  Cinémathèque and the Festival are working together on a restoration.

Learn more about William Gillette on my other blog:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/03/sherlock-holmes-looks-exactly-like.html

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The Royals beat the Giants 7-2.  Jake Peavy started well, but the wheels fell off in the sixth. 

A Character Which This World-Renowned Actor Has Stamped With Undying Fame -- July 26, 2014

Moving Picture World, 01-April-1916

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette.

Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898. Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone. The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner.

Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 Essanay feature film, which is believed to be lost.  Many people felt Gillette was too old by the time the film was produced. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Famous Figure of Fiction -- August 23, 2013

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette. Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898.  Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone.  The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner. 

Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 feature film for Essanay, which is believed to be lost. The ad is from the 24-December-1916 Bisbee, Arizona Daily Review. Note that the film was "Released through the Big Four -- Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig, Essanay, Inc."  VLSE succeeded the Motion Pictures Patents Company, which had tried to establish a monopoly on film production and distribution. 

Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version.

Treasures 5: The West #3 -- January 19, 2012

One of my Christmas presents was the fifth Treasures From the American Film Archives, The West.

Disc three starts with The Lady of the Dugout, which stars and was produced by former bank and train robber Al Jennings, allegedly based on true events in his life.  Jennings, who once shared a prison cell with O. Henry, was known for telling stretchers, so I wouldn't accept the movie as a documentary, but it does have a very realistic feel to it.  The only parts that didn't feel real were the Mojave Desert standing in for Oklahoma and Tehachapi with its huge mountains representing a Texas town.  Jennings and his brother Frank were good, understated performers.

The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaw was made in 1915 by a group of lawmen as a response to and earlier, now lost, Al Jennings movie.  Marshal Bill Tilghman and two others produced the movie and appeared in it, along with other peace officers and at least one real bandit, Arkansas Tom Jones.  Tilghman and his partners felt that other movies glamorized bad men.  This one, which unfortunately exists only in parts, takes a different approach.  It includes bits about the original Wild Bunch and Cattle Annie and Little Breeches.  I liked the subtitle "Outlaws do what they do because they are what they are."  That would be a good line for a film noir.  The image above is an ad from the 09-June-1920 Tulsa Daily World, announcing a showing of The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws (an alternate title) with a personal appearance by Marshal Bill Tilghman. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version.

"The Girl Ranchers" is a 1914 Nestor one-reeler, which was distributed by Universal.  It was silly, but fun.

"Legal Advice" was a 1916 Selig Polyscope one-reeler written by, produced by, directed by and starring Tom Mix.  It may have been the first entire Mix Selig movie that I have seen.  It was a funny story about a pretty female lawyer who came to a western town.  My wife enjoyed the powerful wind blowing through the interiors.  The lawyer had to hold down her dress during one scene.  The end was disturbing.

Womanhandled was a 1925 Paramount feature, directed by Woody van Dyke and starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston.  It was a comedy, making fun of western movie cliches.  The movie includes scenes shot on location in Central Park and Houston, Texas.  The scenes by the Houston train depot include lots of streetcars.  Richard Dix was actually funny in this movie.

"Beauty Spots in America: Castle Hot Springs, Arizona" is a 1916 Essanay split reel which shows life around the elegant resort.

"The Romance of Water" is a 1931 one-reeler produced by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to justify their stealing water from the Owens Valley.  It doesn't mention the water war and the dynamiting of the acqueduct.

"A New Miracle in the Desert" is an item from a Hearst Metrotone newsreel which tells about the Colorado River acqueduct, which allowed Los Angeles to steal water that it didn't even need.

"The West in Promotional Travelogues" is a group of excerpts from various travel movies, including Edison's 1898 "Sunset Limited," a view of the Georgetown Loop, and tours in Yosemite and Yellowstone.

I enjoyed the whole set.  I'm grateful to my family for the gift.  I recommend it highly.

Disc one: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-1-january-11-2012.html

Disc two: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-2-january-12-2012.html

Treasures 5: The West #2 -- January 12, 2012

One of my Christmas presents was the fifth Treasures From the American Film Archives, The West.

Disc two starts with "Over Silent Paths: A Story of the American Desert," a 1910 one-reeler directed by DW Griffith for the American Biograph Company.  A wanderer in the California desert accidentally kills a prospector while robbing him.  The wanderer runs away, overcome by grief.  The prospector's daughter finds her father.  She buries him and swears vengeance over his grave.  As she drives their wagon towards town, San Fernando, she finds the wanderer lying unconscious.  She gives him water and takes him to town.  She reports the murder to the sheriff.  Rather quickly, this being a one-reeler, the daughter and the wanderer become attracted to each other.  There is a brief romantic scene by Mission San Fernando Rey de España. When the Wanderer proposes marriage, he pulls out a sack of gold. The daughter recognizes the sack as her father's. She pretends to accept his proposal, but snatches the pistol from his belt and marches him to the sheriff. Griffith could fit a lot of story into 16 minutes.

"Life on the Circle Ranch in California" was shot in 1912 in Santa Monica.  It is a documentary of ranch life, but the commentary by Donald W Reeves is careful to point out where scenes are staged, like the setting up of the camp and the fiesta after the roundup.  He is sarcastic about the scenes where people who are not cowboys try to brand a calf.

"Broncho Billy and the Schoolmistress" is a 1912 Essanay produced during the company's stay in San Rafael.  A new school marm arrives in town and all the men are interested, including Gilbert M Anderson, Broncho Billy, Augustus Carney, who played Alkali Ike in the Snakeville comedy series, and a character named Jack.  Men warn the new teacher not to go out at night to visit her students, but she pulls out a revolver and shows it to them.  They think it is too small.  The men decide for some reason to scare her by faking a robbery and they persuade Broncho Billy to be the robber.  Jack shoots him and then things are confusing and then Broncho Billy marries the teacher.  The image above shows "Broncho Bill" and Alkali Ike. It is from the 13-November-1911 Chicago Day Book.

"How the Cowboy Makes His Lariat" is part of a 1917 movie in which wild west show star Pedro León demonstrates collecting horse hair, twisting it into rope, and making a cinch.  He does not make a lariat in the surviving footage.

"Mexican Filibusters: An Incident in the Recent Uprising" is a 1911 Kalem film about Mexican Americans who are smuggling arms to revolutionaries in Mexico.  The smugglers are the heroes and the female smuggler saves the day.  There are some nice railroad scenes.

"The Better Man" is a 1912 Vitagraph one-reeler, shot in Santa Monica, about a no-good father who leaves the house to gamble while his daughter is dangerously ill.  A Mexican American horse thief breaks into the house and demands food.  The mother wants him to go for a doctor.  He tries to ignore her, but the daughter takes his hand and the mother points to an image of Mary and Jesus.  The father leaves the saloon and sees a wanted poster for the thief.  He decides to collect the reward.  The thief runs towards town and the father tries to catch him, but falls over a cliff.  The thief winds up on the father's horse.  He gets the doctor and they ride back towards the house.  The ride is intercut with the father running towards the house.  The doctor treats the little girl and the father tries to capture the thief.  The mother tells the father to let him go.  This was the other movie we raised money to preserve in the 2010 For the Love of Film Blogathon (http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-do-we-need-to-preserve-films-brief.html).  

"Ammunition Smuggling on the Mexican Border" is a unique three-reeler produced in Texas in 1914 by a former sheriff, Eugene Buck.  It tells the true story of the capture of Buck and a deputy, Candelario Ortiz, by gun runners.  Ortiz is killed by the smugglers as two posses search for them.  There are two commentaries.  One, by Martin Marks, explains the background of the movie and speculates that Buck may have made the movie to tell his side of the story because he was the star witness in the trial of the surviving smugglers, who included an American IWW member.  The other commentary talks about the musical accompaniment.  My favorite line:  "It doesn't matter where the music comes from, it matters where it is going."

"Lake Tahoe, Land of the Sky," is a 1914 documentary by Essanay.  I enjoyed seeing the steamboat and the train arriving at Truckee in a snowstorm.

Mantrap is a 1926 feature starring Clara Bow and directed by Victor Fleming.   It was a wonderful comedy.

"The Golden West" is an excerpt from a 1938 film by an unidentified amateur.  It was shot in Kodachrome and it documents a trip to Los Angeles, probably from Pennsylvania.  It shows many freakish sites, including a gas station built around a Fokker F32 airliner with rotating propellers.

I'll do Disc Three another day.

Disc One: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-1-january-11-2012.html

Disc Three: http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/treasures-5-west-3-january-19-2012.html