“A young and beautiful artist particularly applauded in THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, that serial film of a very curious character. This artist is Hélène Darly, whose performance is so personal it is quite remarkable. We will see her in the near future in La Chiffonier de Paris, a film made by the Société des Films Albatros.”

    

Inside, journalist V. Remay relays an impromptu interview with a gracious Darly. The full text is in French above. In the excerpt we’ve translated below, Darly describes how Fille du peuple helped prepare her for her later role in THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY and describes the extremely unorthodox manner in which some of her most emotional scenes from the serial were shot.

“Hélène Darly: On the other hand, I had the opportunity there [shooting Fille du peuple] to worry about the issue of crying on screen, which served me well later in THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY. I realized that tears look very bad on screen and I studied the facial expressions that can show sobs without tears…

Do you understand me? The internal tears, the tears that choke…

V. Remay: Do I understand you?…But I can only think about your lead scenes in the Tribunal scenes in THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY. In this film that I love, I rank them among the best, and I admire you without reservation.

Hélène Darly: It’s kind, what you’re saying to me…But do you know how I shot them? Mosjoukine was just in bed, with typhoid fever. We hardly worked. And then [director Alexandre] Volkoff said to me one day:

You know that we have some film to shoot for your lead scenes. Let’s use this lost time to get them out of the way. And that’s how I played those scenes of poignant pain in an empty studio, where the hammers are pounding in the background, with, only, a few vague extras around me. I had nothing to inspire me, nor the solemn pageantry of the set, nor my partner Mosjoukine. Just my imagination before the relentless objective of [cinematographer Joseph-Louis] Mundviller and the imperious and always demanding instructions of Volkoff…”

Source: Mon Ciné, Nr. 106, 28-2-1924 1924

You can see Hélène Darly channel her “internal tears” in THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, on home video for the first time in a 3-disc DVD collection and available for pre-order today.

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A new collection of Chaplin’s Essanay films will be released by Summer 2015. Today, you can see the impressive results of this painstaking restoration on Blu-ray/DVD in CHAPLIN’S MUTUAL COMEDIES, now available in a Limited Edition SteelBook.

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1. What sparked your interest in silent films and Chaplin films in particular?

2. You’re here to premiere your new restorations of two of Chaplin’s Essanay films: A NIGHT IN THE SHOW (1915) and THE BANK (1915). Tell us a little about what makes these two films special.

3. You have devoted countless hours to track down rare pieces of footage. What are you looking for? What would make a film element of no interest during the restoration process?

4. What is your favorite piece of lost or rare footage that you’ve found?

5. You have been collaborating on The Chaplin Project for over a decade. Now that you are wrapping up the Essanay film restorations, is this the end?

6. Chaplin shot the Keystone comedies, then the Essanays, and then the Mutual comedies, yet you decided to restore the films out of order. Why save Essanay for last?

A new collection of Chaplin’s Essanay films will be released by Summer 2015. Today, you can see the impressive results of this painstaking restoration on Blu-ray/DVD in CHAPLIN’S MUTUAL COMEDIES, now available in a Limited Edition SteelBook.

For more exclusive interviews like this one, plus film preservation news and special discounts, sign up for the Flicker Alley Newsletter.

You can criss-cross the globe in beautiful Smilebox curved-screen simulation with Cinerama’s SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD, now available for pre-order at a Special Sale Price.

For more exclusive sneak peeks like this one, plus film preservation news and special discounts, sign up for the Flicker Alley Newsletter.

You can see all of Lowell Thomas’ adventures across Central Asia in Cinerama’s SEARCH FOR PARADISE, now available for pre-order at a Special Sale Price.

For more exclusive sneak peeks like this one, plus film preservation news and special discounts, sign up for the Flicker Alley Newsletter.

You can see the full restoration results in Cinerama’s SEARCH FOR PARADISE, now available for pre-order.

For more exclusive sneak peeks like this one, plus film preservation news and special discounts, sign up for the Flicker Alley Newsletter.

The Cinerama camera on the set of the shoot in the Arabian Peninsula.

Bedouins and Boy Scouts in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where the Arabian-American Oil Co. was located.

Shooting a scene on the Darjeeling Railroad in India.

Shooting along the Ganges River, which flows south from the Himalayas.

Cinerama’s SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD Blu-ray/DVD Combo is now available for Pre-Order.

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Pictured Above: Wausau Daily Record-Herald, September 17, 1914

This September 17 marks the 100-year anniversary of the premiere of THE LUMBERJACK. The oldest surviving film made in Wisconsin, THE LUMBERJACK was produced by a group of itinerant filmmakers who traveled from town to town making “local talent” pictures. Seventy years later, the making of this local film became the subject of the documentary WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP AND I WORE A BIG RED ROSE. Both films are now included in the WE’RE IN THE MOVIES: PALACE OF SILENTS & ITINERANT FILMMAKING Blu-ray/DVD collection. In celebration of THE LUMBERJACK‘s milestone anniversary, we’re taking a look at the only known contemporary reviews of the film, courtesy of WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP‘s director, Stephen Schaller.

THE LUMBERJACK was previewed for the film’s cast on Wednesday morning, September 16, 1914. The public premiere was the following evening, September 17, 1914. As indicated in the half-page ad above, THE LUMBERJACK was paired with “the big two reel biograph” THE HONOR OF THE LAW. Although the biograph now appears in the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Schaller’s years-long search for a mention of the film in reference work has not yielded any results and it is unclear whether a copy survives.

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, September 16, 1914, p. 2

Notes Schaller:

“The review of the opening night events appeared in the following day’s newspaper under the headline ‘Amusements.’ It’s reported that ‘great appreciation of the acting of the cast was shown by the enthusiasm of the audience’ and ‘Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Hagge as the principals were heartily encored.’ The Rothschild Park bridge railing collapse is described as a ‘thriller which was not anticipated when the picture was arranged.’ However, the death of Paragon Film’s executive, Edward Rosenthal, is not mentioned.

Note, too, that the reviewer twice mentions interior scenes of the saw mill which were ‘very pleasing.’ Sadly, there are no interior scenes of the saw mill in the extant print. This is why I inserted my own intertitle ‘Missing Footage? Site of the McMillian Saw Mill’ into WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP and followed it with a 180 panorama of the now vanished mill’s location.”

Wausau Daily Record-Herald, September 18, 1914, p. 3

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You can watch THE LUMBERJACK and WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP AND I WORE A BIG RED ROSE in WE’RE IN THE MOVIES: PALACE OF SILENTS & ITINERANT FILMMAKING, now available on Blu-ray/DVD.

Below are three of the newly-restored images. On the left is a page from a faded comic book. On the right is a restoration done by the 3-D Film Archive.

If you have 3-D glasses at home, be sure to place the blue lens over your right eye!

Please note: This red/blue anaglyphic image is for comparison purposes only. The restored images will be presented in full HD on 3-D RARITIES.

Images courtesy of Bob Furmanek and the 3-D Film Archive. For more information on 3-D comic books, please visit the 3-D Film Archive.

Image from Mighty Mouse, Issue #1

Image from Tor, Issue #1

Image from Tor, Issue #1

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