Well start the new year by looking back to the 2014 Zane Greys West Convention in Durango and the black and white silent movie featured on movie night. Member Alan Pratt turned us on to a movie review of The Vanishing American written when it opened. Whether you saw the movie in Durango or not, go back through the years and enjoy the review as if it had been written yesterday. MOVIE REVIEW The Vanishing American (1925) THE SCREEN; The American Indian. By MORDAUNT HALL. Published: October 16, 1925 The Vanishing American, the photodrama presented last, night in the Criterion Theatre before a brilliant gathering in which there were a host of celebrities, proved to be an inspiring production fashioned with infinite pains. The theme, of course, deals with the passing of the American Indian, and at the outset one is reminded that the ever was the scene of the survival of the strongest. From a fleeting glimpse of the aborigines, glancing like dogs to right and left as they emerge from their recesses, one is taken to their skin-clad and paint-bedaubed successors, and then to the more interesting but slothful cliff-dwellers, who are pictured on ledges in the Grand Canyon, some dozing and others going about their toil listlessly. Energy then stalks along in the shape of the redskin, who mercilessly and easily defeats the inactive people. The battle scene is a work of art, as one perceives the primitive spears being thrown helter skelter among the lazy mass of cliff-dwellers. Here a weapon strikes home and there a man topples to his death from a dizzy ledge. Suddenly one is confronted with a gloating troop of victors, swarming up the heights, slaying any opponent in their path, obviously thrilled and enthusiastic over their triumphant fighting. Years go by, and then one gazes upon the first white faces seen by the Indians—the Spaniards. The redskins had never seen a horse and although they looked upon, what to them were the bloodless faces of the invaders and thought they were gods, they argued among themselves that the power of these white men was begotten from the strange huge animals they rode—they had never seen a horse before. Nophaie, descendant of a clan of heroes who counted nothing accomplished nothing done, would fain capture one of the great animals, and in the end, although his confréres have been stupefied with their first drink of firewater, this Nophaie springs on the back of a white horse and clings to the animal as it tears away in fright. The next chapter in this epic is where an Indian agent has opened his office in a small township, still within the shadows of natures unchanging sentries. The victors of the cliff-dwellers have lost their vim, and the white men are the strong ones. Perhaps here George B. Seitz errs in making Booker, the villian impersonated by Noah Beery, a trifle too vehement, too vicious and venomous. Marion Warner, the schoolteacher enacted by Lois Wilson, is pretty, but Miss Wilson reminds one of this fact too frequently, what with blinking her eyes to a sort of Morse code and wearing gowns that would be apt to attract any scoundrel. She has several pairs of high-heeled shoes that are hardly the sort of thing to wear in such a wild place. The descendant of Nophaie is played by Richard Dix, who is excellent in most of the scenes, but even he occasionally wants more than his innings, and his fight with Booker and his friends is mindful of a scene in a Douglas Fairbanks production, as he skips over them and is left alone after a terrific tussle, when one expects that the scoundrels will either blow or beat his brains out. Mr. Dix also weakens in some scenes in the dark make-up. Just when the blackguards have stolen the horses and Captain Ramsdell arrives on the scene, the story changes to thoughts of the World War. The orchestra injects enthusiasm by the playing of Over There, and one realizes that Nophaie as an American is going to fight for his country. Marion Warner is torn between affection for Captain Ramsdell and admiration for the redskin, who both meet in the shell-holes of the Somme. There is something about the barren battlefield that takes one back to those skyscrapers of the desert. These fighting scenes are wrought with great artistry and matchless photography. This is a film which receives much impetus from Dr. Hugo Riesenfelds grand music score, and to us the finest and most inspiring air, which came forth more than once from that orchestra pit, sometimes with pomp and power and at others with edifying softness, was the American Festival March, a composition of Dr. Riesenfeld. Here, in spite of certain shortcomings in the actions of some of the characters, is a photodrama which is a fine accomplishment. The American Indian. THE VANISHING AMERICAN, with Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Malcolm McGregor, Charles Stevens, George Magrill, Shannon Day, Charles Crockett, Bert Woodruff, Bernard Siegel, Guy Oliver, Joe Ryan, Bruce Gordon, Richard Howard, John Webb Dillion and others; adapted from a story by Zane Grey, directed by George B. Setiz; special music score by Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld. At the Criterion.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:09:22 +0000
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