Author Archive: Retro

Mr. Newlywed will not allow his wife to have a dog. Her uncle, taking pity on her, goes out to buy one. Meanwhile, Wilkens and his wife, butler and maid to the Newlyweds are informed they must retrieve their “secret” child from friends who were watching her. Uncle comes home with the dog, a cute puppy, and shows his niece. He hides it in the sideboard. Mr. Newlywed shows the uncle an article in the paper about a mad dog running wild in Passaic (Solax Film Co. was located in Ft. Lee, NJ). Quickly, Uncle sneaks the puppy out in his coat. The Wilkens’ bring their baby in and hide him/her in the same sideboard! Mrs. Newlywed feels guilty and writes Mr. a note telling him to look in the sideboard and not to be to angry for she will never deceive him again. He looks and, seeing the baby, screams, bring everyone into the [...]

A recent immigrant learns several hard lessons about how husbands in America are expected to behave.

A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out onscreen.

Haunting and hypnotic, this artistic gem recounts the lyrics from a popular 1898 song of the same name. Weber’s stylistics, including circular matte shots, foregrounding of the cross and the rosary, and placement of the characters within each shot bring to the film an enormous emotional and spiritual range.

An American heiress seeks the hand of an impoverished German prince.

Close up we see pistons move up and down or side to side. Pendulums sway, the small parts of machinery move. Gears drive larger wheels. Gears within gears spin. Shafts turn some mechanism that is out of sight. Screws revolve and move other gears; a bit rotates. More subtle mechanisms move other mechanical parts for unknown purposes. Weights rise and fall. The movements, underscored by sound, are rhythmic. Circles, squares, rods, and teeth are in constant and sometimes asymmetrical motion. These humanmade mechanical bits seem benign and reassuring.

Some spectators, without any relation between them, find themselves in a cinema where they are seen in a film called Life’s Mirror : they are portrayed – as in a mirror – their life. This way they can follow the developments of their hypothetical future that will be realized if they follow to the end the path they are following with their behavior. Molly, a girl who has escaped to the cinema with her boyfriend despite the ban on parents, is seen in a possible future abandoned by her boyfriend, after he announced that she was pregnant. The result will be that, returned home repentant, will apologize to parents for the escape.In another case, Anne Wall, wife who is in the room for having followed her husband who neglects her for a new “girlfriend”, decides to leave him and her children. At the end of the film, however, the husband will choose to return home [...]

Mr. and Mrs. Consumer find that they have no food in the house. It is salary day, so they depart for the market which is a monopoly and presided over by a syndicate representing the goods they controlled. Their motto is “Our prices, all we can get.” This syndicate is composed of kings, thus divided: Milk, butter and eggs, coal, bread, sugar, meat, clothing and tobacco. At this market there is a great gathering which finally thins out to the few who have enough money to satisfy the grasping kings. The various types of consumers buy or try to buy their necessities at exorbitant prices. The kings are greedy and cruel. Finally unable to bear these impositions, the people become impatient and resolve to do something to repair their wrongs. The kings have a reunion and make a mound of their bags of gold, which they worship. It is transformed into the God of Greed, [...]