After all the years (well all my life, really) that I have spent being addicted to movies, the one category that I was not much interested in until recently is the most historic: silent films. I have always found them interesting in one way; because I am a "history geek," I found them fascinating as a sort of living record of say, how Los Angeles looked back then, watching actual people from 1917, and so forth, but as far as sitting through most of them, especially the feature length ones, I wasn't really interested. The combination of them being of another time, for another audience, very few have survived, and so on---I just didn't spend much time with them.
But recently this changed--I read two books by Scott Eyman, "Lion Of Hollywood," about L.B. Mayer, and "Empire Of Dreams," about Cecil B. Demille. These books made me very interested in viewing some of these films, but my first problem is, of course, most of the silent films discussed in film histories have not survived, and, secondly, for those that are still available, what is the best source? For most people with a casual interest in the material, that would be Turner Classic Movies. TCM shows silent films fairly regularly, for part of the season they show them on Sunday nights, and when they feature a certain star, they might run all day, as in the case of Lon Chaney recently. This is invaluable for people like me, with a casual interest; I think most people have seen The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and Phantom of The Opera, (I have), but few of this generation have seen films such as The Unholy Three, Tell It To The Marines, Laugh Clown Laugh, and the one that I have spent all this time bloviating to get to: The Ace of Hearts.
The Ace of Hearts is about a "secret society" or "dark brotherhood" (with one sister, though), i.e. a group of assassins, that have decided a "certain man" has "lived too long." They discuss how he has become more greedy arrogant, etc. The story is, evidently, deliberately generic, but I would suppose that you could interpret the group as being communists, the "man who has lived too long," capitalism, the group as an anarchist, the "man" as the U.S. President, and so on and so forth, but the story is laid out as, the group decides that this man, whoever or whatever he is, should die, and one of them will be the one to kill him.
The way this is decided, by the society's rules is, a deck of cards is shuffled, and a card dealt to each person in turn, whomever gets the ace of hearts, will be the assassin; this person will be provided with the general plan and anything needed to carry out the execution. One complication is, Mr Forrest, who is chosen, and Mr. Farrallone, (Chaney), are both in love with Lilith, the only female in the society. That's one level where the film is interesting--if it weren't for that part of the story, there probably would not be a female involved. Secondly, this is one of only two films that I know of, where Chaney appears with his true face, i.e. no layers of makeup as usual. His hair is sort of long, that's all. The only other film that I am aware of where you see his "true face" is Tell It To The Marines.
So now, the action is set in motion. The method of execution is chosen, and Mr. Forrest has his appointed task. But of course complications ensue, (I won't detail those), and a relief assassin has to step in for Mr Forrest (guess who)? The Society is not happy. I will leave the ending for you to discover since I am assuming you have not seen the film and I have told you plenty, already.
Finally I am fascinated by how Lon Chaney was able to convey such emotion in films that had no spoken dialog. Many silent stars could, because they began as stage actors, but he could do it to an entirely different level. Many believe he would have been a huge star in sound films also, but unfortunately he passed away in 1930, just as sound films were beginning. I am very interested to see "The Unholy Three" sound version, as I have never heard him speak.
If you have not seen many feature length silent films this is an excellent one to start with.
8/10.
But recently this changed--I read two books by Scott Eyman, "Lion Of Hollywood," about L.B. Mayer, and "Empire Of Dreams," about Cecil B. Demille. These books made me very interested in viewing some of these films, but my first problem is, of course, most of the silent films discussed in film histories have not survived, and, secondly, for those that are still available, what is the best source? For most people with a casual interest in the material, that would be Turner Classic Movies. TCM shows silent films fairly regularly, for part of the season they show them on Sunday nights, and when they feature a certain star, they might run all day, as in the case of Lon Chaney recently. This is invaluable for people like me, with a casual interest; I think most people have seen The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and Phantom of The Opera, (I have), but few of this generation have seen films such as The Unholy Three, Tell It To The Marines, Laugh Clown Laugh, and the one that I have spent all this time bloviating to get to: The Ace of Hearts.
The Ace of Hearts is about a "secret society" or "dark brotherhood" (with one sister, though), i.e. a group of assassins, that have decided a "certain man" has "lived too long." They discuss how he has become more greedy arrogant, etc. The story is, evidently, deliberately generic, but I would suppose that you could interpret the group as being communists, the "man who has lived too long," capitalism, the group as an anarchist, the "man" as the U.S. President, and so on and so forth, but the story is laid out as, the group decides that this man, whoever or whatever he is, should die, and one of them will be the one to kill him.
The way this is decided, by the society's rules is, a deck of cards is shuffled, and a card dealt to each person in turn, whomever gets the ace of hearts, will be the assassin; this person will be provided with the general plan and anything needed to carry out the execution. One complication is, Mr Forrest, who is chosen, and Mr. Farrallone, (Chaney), are both in love with Lilith, the only female in the society. That's one level where the film is interesting--if it weren't for that part of the story, there probably would not be a female involved. Secondly, this is one of only two films that I know of, where Chaney appears with his true face, i.e. no layers of makeup as usual. His hair is sort of long, that's all. The only other film that I am aware of where you see his "true face" is Tell It To The Marines.
So now, the action is set in motion. The method of execution is chosen, and Mr. Forrest has his appointed task. But of course complications ensue, (I won't detail those), and a relief assassin has to step in for Mr Forrest (guess who)? The Society is not happy. I will leave the ending for you to discover since I am assuming you have not seen the film and I have told you plenty, already.
Finally I am fascinated by how Lon Chaney was able to convey such emotion in films that had no spoken dialog. Many silent stars could, because they began as stage actors, but he could do it to an entirely different level. Many believe he would have been a huge star in sound films also, but unfortunately he passed away in 1930, just as sound films were beginning. I am very interested to see "The Unholy Three" sound version, as I have never heard him speak.
If you have not seen many feature length silent films this is an excellent one to start with.
8/10.