Silent Military Classics

[Pat Holscher]

Rarely watched now days, but does anyone feel any silent military movies are particularly noteworthy.

Pat

[george seal]

The original version of All Quiet on the Western Front was screened in 2 versions: silent and with sound. They developed a special technology to take the camera out of the sound booth and film outside. (Guys like Hitckock put cameras in soundproof boxes because of the noise of the reel mechanism was picked by microphones). This movie replaced that covering the camera with blankets. The film has 2 actresses playing the protagonists mother (the actress was changed for the sound version, the original's voice was unpopular as happened with lots of silent era actresses).

[Bob Rea]

Seems there was one about the air war that is deemed a classic but the name eludes me at this moment.

Bob Rea

[Pat Holscher]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bob Rea</i>
<br />Seems there was one about the air war that is deemed a classic but the name eludes me at this moment.

Bob Rea
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

That may be Wings or Hell's Angels.

Pat

[Bob Rea]

Wings it was.


Bob Rea

[JV Puleo]

Years ago I saw the Abel Glantz movie "Napoleon" - the reconstructed version complete with a new musical score. It was put on in genuinely heroic fashion, the entire RI Philharmonic Orchestra provided the music. What sticks in my mind however was that the technical details were quite good, I can remember only one obvous gaff.
Some time later I was looking at a copy of the London Illustrated News printed when the movie was new (around 1927?) There was an article on the making of the film along with some still shots and...
the information that the uniforms had been borrowed from the Musee de l'Armee - which had hundreds, if not thousands of original uniforms and loaned them out as costumes!
JV Puleo

[Pat Holscher]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JV Puleo</i>
<br />Years ago I saw the Abel Glantz movie "Napoleon" - the reconstructed version complete with a new musical score. It was put on in genuinely heroic fashion, the entire RI Philharmonic Orchestra provided the music. What sticks in my mind however was that the technical details were quite good, I can remember only one obvous gaff.
Some time later I was looking at a copy of the London Illustrated News printed when the movie was new (around 1927?) There was an article on the making of the film along with some still shots and...
the information that the uniforms had been borrowed from the Musee de l'Armee - which had hundreds, if not thousands of original uniforms and loaned them out as costumes!
JV Puleo
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Wow!

I can't imagine a museum handing out uniforms over 100 years old now.

Pat

[browerpatch]

Silent military classic? Got to be Buster Keaton in "The General". His interaction with a railway mortar is simply delightful to watch.


Related to the note about museum loaning uniforms, I can't verify anything, but I remember reading once that when "War and Peace" was filmed in the '60's, the Russians dug into their armories for weapons and uniforms for the film. I don't know if its true or not.

Frank

[John Ruf]

Hello Frank:

That makes perfect sense considering the Russian prediliction to save everything just in case they need it down the line.

Hope to see you at a drill soon!

Regards,

John Ruf
Culpeper, Virginia

"God forbid that I should go to any Heaven in which there are no horses."
Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham 1852-1936

[Pat Holscher]

Speaking of Russians, the film "The Battleship Potemkin" should be mentioned. Propoganda to be sure, but great cinemotography that is still stolen today.

Pat