Nickelodia #1 (1912)

The Nickelodia series is dedicated to the proposition that there's a lot more to the nickelodeon era than just The Lonedale Operator. Here are the contents of this edition:

1. A Country Cupid (Biograph, July 24, 1911). Directed by D. W. Griffith. Starring Blanche Sweet and Edna Foster.

2. The Adventures of Billy (Biograph, October 19, 1911). Directed by D. W. Griffith. Starring Donald Crisp, Edna Foster, Dell Henderson, and featuring a cameo appearance by director Griffith.

3. The Charge of the Light Brigade (Edison, October 11, 1912). Directed by J. Searle Dawley. Starring Ben Wilson, James Gordon and Richard Neill.

4. The Egyptian Mummy (Vitagraph, December 16, 1914). Directed by Lee Beggs. Starring Billy Quirk, Constance Talmadge, Lee Beggs and Joel Day.

5. In the Tennessee Hills (Kay-Bee, February 12, 1915). Supervised by Thomas Ince. Directed by James Vincent. Starring Charles Ray, Enid Markey and Clyde Tracy.

6. Broncho Billy's Sentence (Essanay, February 13, 1915). Directed by G. M. Anderson. Starring G. M. Anderson, Carl Stockdale and Virginia True Boardman.

All films are complete and feature piano scores by Frederick Hodges.

Fantastic dvd with great presentation.

What a great surprise! I was expecting a bare bones, bad print quality, tinny synth scored dvd... Boy was I wrong! I had bought this because I wanted to see the incomparable Blanche Sweet in a Griffith short I had not seen. When I first put it in my player and chose the play option in the menu section, I was greeted by a wonderful piece of original art from a silent movie theater: a call to please refrain from whistling or talking loudly. I knew right then that the makers of this dvd cared about what they were doing. All five shorts were wonderful. The print qualities were great, except for the "Charge of the Light Brigade." Highlights for me included Ms. Sweet in "A Country Cupid," and G.M. Anderson in "Broncho Billy's Sentence," although all the shorts are sure to please (I enjoyed all of them). They border on the obscure; which is very nice. Most people have probably not heard of Anderson. He was Hart's predecessor. There were even some extras, which included some shots of "then and now" pictures of the old studios and locations where Anderson used to do the Broncho Billy films.

Many of the shorts were preceded by historical information about the actors or production. Notes were even made about "mess ups" like the girl child actress (playing a boy) clearing shown wearing girls shoes in one scene (A Country Cupid). The same girl is in one of the other shorts (the Griffith one "The Adventures of Little Billy" about a boy on the street who gets manipulated by tramps and rescued in the end from his poverty) and is quite impressive. The dvd said she had a past career in vaudeville and it is clear that she was a very skilled actress (often played boys, though!). The score for all these shorts was supplied by a rather skilled real-life pianist. I especially appreciated the hymns woven into the Broncho Billy short after he was converted (A mighty fortress and Soldiers of Christ Arise).

Great dvd. Grab it today! June 26, 2008

An excellent and enjoyable selection of early films

I'm really pleased to be able to give this DVD a 5-star rating and thereby praise Unknown Video's fine efforts in bringing rare silent films back into circulation and presenting them in an appealing and also educational manner. I was particularly happy to see an insert with good notes about the 6 short films on this DVD, which appears to be the first in a series of such silent films from the early film-making period of 1911-1915. The main production companies are represented here in 15-minute short films: Biograph, Edison and Vitagraph; then two more, lengthier films by other pioneering film-makers, namely Thomas H. Ince and G.M. Anderson, and all of them feature well-known stars of the silent era such as Blanche Sweet, Constance Talmadge, Charles Ray, Donald Crisp and G.M Anderson (alias "Broncho Billy"). For the novice, this DVD serves as a fine introduction to this early period of silent films, and as most of these shorts are currently not readily available elsewhere on DVD, it also makes a very welcome addition to a silent film collection. The picture quality of all but one of the films is extremely good, especially for the age of these films, and the one of lesser quality, namely "The Charge of the Light Brigade" 1912, is only slightly poorer, a little blurry and too much light in some scenes. The content and otherwise high standard of the films, along with an excellent traditional piano score accompaniment easily outweigh these few imperfections, in my opinion.

The first two Biograph shorts from 1911 are prime examples of pioneering director D.W. Griffith's work, choosing themes which highlighted social problems and relationship dramas relevant at that time, and which still pack a punch even today. "A Country Cupid" starts off looking like a quaint, old-fashioned love story in a rural town, but there is an element of "fatal attraction" - by 1911 standards, that is! "The Adventures of Billy" is another great example of Griffith's style in action and suspense, as the audience feels pity for a young homeless boy who falls prey to a couple of tramps with bad intentions. The next short is the Edison production of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" which is impressive for its big scale battle scenes, as well as being a fine rendition of Tennyson's famous poem. For a complete change of pace, the following short, "The Egyptian Mummy" 1914, was already one of my favourites, combining comedy with an element of mystery as a mad professor finds the elixir of enteral life and decides to try it on an Egyptian mummy to see if he can bring it back to life. His prospective son-in-law has other ideas, however, and the consequences are quite hilarious. Then the mood changes to more serious drama again, this time in quite an authentic Western setting in the last two films; "In the Tennessee Hills" being a rarely-seen Thomas Ince drama about a struggling, honest man (Charles Ray) moved to take revenge on his cruel and ruthless landlord. And last but not least, one of the literally hundreds of short films in the life and times of Broncho Billy, the first real Western star of the screen. By 1915 G.M. Anderson had already produced, directed and starred in dozens of short Broncho Billy episodes, and this one, "Broncho Billy's Sentence" is a more refined story with a moral message as a bad Broncho Billy finds religion and turns himself in to the law. There is a short but fascinating little slide show as a bonus, showing the areas around Niles, Ca. where Anderson made the Broncho Billy series. Overall, a very good and varied selection makes for entertaining viewing, and lastly, the refrigerator magnets of silent era stars included with each Unknown Video DVD are also a lot of fun and worth collecting!
July 1, 2006

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