Monday, 2nd AUGUST 2002 JUST DESERTS(2)!!!
featuring: LOST ATLANTIS (1920) (aka L'ATLANTIDE/L'ATLANTIDA) Foreign Legionnaires Captain Morhange & Lieutenant de Saint-Avit (Jean Angelo & Georges Melchior), in a now-clichéd 'lost-in-the-desert-on-the-verge-of-delirium' situation, are led to a secret oasis in the Sahara, where they discover the city of ATLANTIS, lost beneath the sands. They fall under the spell of its evil, immortal, femme fatale Atlantean Queen whom all men adore. Antinéa (Stacia Napierkowska; in French she has been referred to as "une vamp sensuellement viperine", and I couldn't have put it better in English) The Queen habitually captures men to be her lovers; when tired of them, they’re transmuted into mummified statues of gold ('gilded' - gelded?), displayed in coffins in her trophy room ! The underground city is the setting for a tragedy stemming from the passion, jealousy & love awakened by Antinéa in Lieutenant Saint-Avit.
This popular adventure-fantasy - Belgian director Jacques Feyder's 1st feature film, based on Ferdinand Marie Pierre Benoit’s 1919 post-war beststeller, L'Atlantide - was the first large-scale production for French cinema- at the time,France's most expensive film ever, made for 2 million francs. A great commercial success at home & abroad, it played in Paris for a year. The cost doubtless reflects the fact that it was filmed partly on location in the Algerian Sahara desert, - truly a highlight of the film (and in colour!)- to say the least, unusual for the period. Unfortunately, our print is Black & White, listed to run for 95 minutes. L'Atlantide inspired 4 film versions- one in 1931 by G.W. Pabst: ‘Queen of Atlantis” (Herrin Von Atlantis)- and was parodied in Toto the Sheik / Toto Sceicco(1950). The Atlantis story had been used as early as 1913 in August Blom's “Atlantis.” Feyder belonged to the Impressionist generation, yet ironically from the start his films were characterised by heavy realism. With its striking visuals, his is probably the best of the four.
The novel L'Atlantide is a classic "lost-race-of..." novel published in separate translations in 1920: in the U.S. as “Atlantida”, in England as “Atlantis”. In France, the novel became embroiled in controversy; Queen Antinéa was recognized by just about everyone as H. Rider Haggard's ‘SHE’, though fewer recognized the plot as derived from Haggard's ‘The Yellow God’ (1908). Louis Aubert, the film’s financier, insisted that the end result achieve the spectacular status of Italian blockbusters of the period, such as ‘Cabiria’ (1914) or ‘Quo Vadis’ (1912). The production was troubled: the choice to shoot exteriors in the Sahara for a realistic effect resulted in a litany of dangers such as attacks by nomads, to the extent that the company demanded armed protection. Oppressive heat brought on illness, and the budget blew out. Commentators of the time said the whims of the diva Stacia Napierkowska, a famous dancer also renowned for her acting in Louis Feuillade's ‘Les Vampires’ (1915), detracted from her fascination & talent. At the time, exhibitors & critics thought the film excessively long & repetitious – which might diminish appreciation of the cinematography and attention to historical reconstruction - and which would dampen dramatic tension. The real scoop is that this film appears to have originally been shot in colour, not tinted or toned, but the actual process is unknown. It’s variously reported around the WWW that the Nederlands Filmmuseum has discovered & resored a virtually complete (196 mins), original colour print. Previously surviving prints have been listed as running for 110, 140 and 125 minutes. The colour film is said to be strikingly different from previous versions, as Feyder used the pallette very consciously. Prod Co: Thalman & Cie. Société générale pour le Développernent international et commercial de la Cinématographie. Dir: Jacques Feyder. Wr: Jacques Feyder, from the novel of Pierre Benoit. Phot. Georges Specht, Amédée Morrin. Cast: Stacia Napierkowska (Antinéa), Jean Angelo (Captain Morhange), George Melchior (Lieutenant de Saint-Avit), Marie-Louise Iribe (Tanit-Zerga), Andre Roanne (Lieutenant Massard), Paul Franceschi (the librarian), Génica Missirio (Captain Aymard), Rene Lorsay (Lieutenant Ferrières), Abd El Kader Ben Ali (Segheir-Ben Sheik), Mohamed Ben Noui (Bou-Djema), Emile Daltour (the colonel), Barber (the major), Irma Perrot, Christiane Mancini, Chatelain. 91 mins. @ 24fps. NFVLS.
plus: Quickie Theatre returns(!) with: SON OF THE SHEIK (1926) (Excerpts.) Why sit through the entire 66 minutes of the real thing when you can get the message outta this splendid 1960 rehash in under thirty? Well, of course, you should, but as rehashes go, Turrell & Killiam's History of the Motion Picture series is a fine way to whet your appetite for some really memorable highlights of silent cinema, and probably has them presented in better condition than you'll otherwise be likely to see them, at least projected onto a screen. In a nutshell, Ahmed, (the son of the Sheik), falls in love with a dancer, Yasmin, daughter of a renegade Frenchman who leads a troupe of mountebanks & thieves. When Ahmed is captured by Yasmin's father and held for ransom, he is led to believe that she has tricked him.When freed he abducts her, taking her to a desert camp. He is about to force her to submit to him when his father, the Sheik, barges into the tent, freeing the girl. Later, Ahmed learns that it was not she but rather her jealous admirer who betrayed him. He follows Yasmin to a dancehall, where a bitter fight with knives takes place. Ahmed emerges victorious, unscathed and with the girl in his arms. Based on the novel by E.M. Hull. Dir. George Fitzmaurice. Prod. Des. WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES. Wr. Frances Marion, Fred de Gresac. Cast: RUDOLPH VALENTINO, VILMA BANKY. Prod Co: Gregstan Enterprises. Prods: Saul J. Turell, Paul Killiam. Dir: Saul J. Turell. Narr. Paul Killiam. 25 mins. ALC. I DREAM OF JEANNIE (196?) Excerpt from random episode of the popular TV series. Dir. Hal Cooper. NFVLS
THE LOST VALLEY (1963-1966?) An episode of THE WORLD OF COMMANDER McBRAGG, the pathetically far-fetched tales of a retired British naval officer, self-proclaimed adventurer & world traveler, spinning Baron Munchausen-style ramblings from his trophy-laden library ("There I was, surrounded by cannibals when..."). Each of McBragg’s stories depicts his use of extraordinary means to extract himself from inescapable situations, so extraordinary, in fact, that even his animated listeners find him hard to believe. When his veracity is questioned, McBragg is unfazed. He simply clears his throat & mutters, “Quite.” The World of Commander McBragg came from TOTAL TELEVISION, the studio that produced The Bullwinkle Show & Dudley Doright And Friends. Commander McBragg was modeled after Sir C.Aubrey Smith, fine old English actor from the 30's & 40's, always to be seen in the club, sipping brandy by the fire, talking about his days battling savages for The Empire. A member of the "Hollywood Raj", a group of English actors living in self-imposed exile among the palm trees & Spanish Mission architecture of 1930s Hollywood. Ronald Colman, David Niven, George Sanders, Boris Karloff, and others convened regularly for gin & tonics on the lawn and polo, presided over imperiously by Aubrey Smith, character actor and legendary cricketer of an earlier generation.
British actors were joined by a kind of auxiliary, who loved to play at being members of the gentry. Tasmanian Errol Flynn , Montanan Gary Cooper and the Nebraskan Darryl Zanuck, the latter of whom ostentatiously took up polo to further the illusion. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. cultivated an English-sounding accent, befriending nobility, serving the British gallantly in World War II, and playing the part of English lord so effectively that he was finally knighted in 1949. The presence of this anachronistic community-within-a-community made it possible to make ‘British’ movies in America - more self-consciously British than those made in London. The catalogue of every British author from Dickens through Noel Coward to J.B. Priestley was ransacked for stories of British pluck, wit, and grace. (Wunna these days we'll run a Colonel Heeza Liar, and then you'll be sorry!) Prod. Co. Total Television. Character Voices: Kenny Delmar (Commander McBragg), Delo States (Stanley Livingston). ~3 mins. NFVLS.
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