Author Archive: Retro

Corporal Jack Borden, of the Northwest Mounted Police, trails the man who killed his partner to New York City. The killer is an unscrupulous promoter who is selling worthless stock in a gold mine. Borden, with the help of Blanche Hall, locates the man in a Bowery dive, but he escapes and Borden tracks him back to Canada. Along the way, he discovers that Blanche and his sweetheart, Milly, are long-separated sisters and brings about a reconciliation

Pete Seeger (who wrote a manual for playing steel drums) visiting steel drum makers and players in Trinidad. We found the process of tuning the pans particularly interesting.

This interview took place as Lugosi was coming back from a failed trip to Europe, but Bela tried to put a gam face on it.

Wealthy Argentinian cattle owner’s son, a painter in Paris, is persuaded to enlist in the war effort, spurred on by a recruiter who invokes the image of The Four Horsemen. Original music score by Blaine L. Gale.

Valentino as a Russian Robin Hood is out to avenge the murder of his father and to outwit the Czarina. Young Cossack lieutenant becomes the masked “Black Eagle” to avenge his father’s murder. Delightful romantic costume picture is referred to by some as one of Valentino’s finest performances. Based on a story by Alexander Pushkin. Original music score by Blaine L. Gale. Dir. Clarence Brown

Spanish nobleman Valentino is kidnapped by smugglers bound for Mexico. While at sea, they come upon a plundered vessel with a sole survivor, a beautiful woman, whom Valentino protects by dressing her as a man.

Impoverished Italian nobleman takes a job with a New York antique dealer and falls in love with his secretary. Complications abound when Rodrigo is pursued by a gold-digger who believes he’s still wealthy and becomes romantically torn between the two women. Original music score by Blaine L. Gale.

When M. Beaucaire, a handsome barber, catches the Duke of Winterset cheating at gambling, Beaucaire exacts Winterset’s cooperation in sneaking Beaucaire into a great ball, disguised as the Duke de Chartres, and to introduce him to the beautiful Lady Mary. The disguised barber successfully pulls off the masquerade and is soon the toast of society. But Winterset is embittered at having been blackmailed so, and he sets out to destroy Beaucaire if he can do so without revealing his own duplicity.

Rise and fall of a peasant boy who becomes Spain’s most famous Matador, but is seduced by a scheming woman. Valentino’s most famous role.