Special Subject – Silent Vidor Sampler – THE SKY PILOT (1921), PEG O’ MY HEART (1922), WILD ORANGES (1924), and LA BOHEME (1926)

There's Sometimes a Buggy

English - June 16, 2023 05:59 - 1 hour - 51.8 MB - ★★★★ - 14 ratings
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Previous Episode: Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Dorothy McGuire – Part 8: TRIAL (1955) and FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)

Next Episode: Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – 20th Century Fox – 1943: STORMY WEATHER & THE GANG’S ALL HERE

Our June Special Subject samples the surviving silent cinema of Dave's favorite director (now revealed!), King Vidor. We tease Vidor's auteur preoccupations out of these four early films—The Sky Pilot (1921), Peg o' My Heart (1922), Wild Oranges (1924), and La Bohème (1926)—and find a common focus on the successful, frustrated, or warped self-realization of his heroines. We explore the way Vidor articulates this theme through sometimes eccentric versions of a variety of genres: Western, comedy, Gothic melodrama, woman's picture. And if that doesn't tempt you, there are graphic and brutal fist fights, random storks, demonic dogs, milk-loving dogs, dangerous stunts, and Lillian Gish going that extra 10 miles for her art long before De Niro and Day-Lewis. (10 miles, dragged along the cobblestones, in fact.)

Time Codes:

0h 0m 45s: King Vidor, Transcendentalist

0h 13m 05s: THE SKY PILOT (1921) [dir. King Vidor]

0h 34m 38s: PEG O’ MY HEART (1922) [dir. King Vidor]

0h 44m 03s: WILD ORANGES (1924) [dir. King Vidor]

1h 01m 29s: LA BOHEME (1926) [dir. King Vidor]

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

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