One, I love the dedication. Read it closely. He's saying, "I love Lois and Brad, but they didn't help out one lick with this book." Without their cooperation, he wrote the book. And he's letting us know that.
Two, I love that people back in the fifties (and I hope there are still some people that do this but I'm not one of them) had personal seals made up for the books in their home library. This seal is on the inside cover. I blurred out the name as a quick Google search brought up plenty of family still in the Maryland area (and from what I could gather they're all quite rich - I guess that's why they had personal book seals).
Three, I love these excerpts:
On What Price Glory - "And lip-readers can still have a field day watching curses that will probably never become commonplace on the sound screen, no matter how 'adult' the cinema becomes." Sorry Joe but you were way off on that prediction. I wrote about this movie and profanity in the cinema last year here.
On Sunrise - "If, heaven forbid, I had had to select the five great American films, instead of the 50, one of those five would most certainly have been Sunrise."
On The Crowd (which he liked very much) - "As a rule, I don't like films about 'ordinary' people doing 'ordinary' things. If that sounds snobbish, I don't mean it to be. But we all see ordinary people every day of our lives. Why pay a dollar to see them on the screen when for fifteen cents or so we can see the same thing on a bus?"
On movies from 1928 to 1932 - "... let me say that talkies at this period did little else but talk."
On John Barrymore - "Only really great actors can get away with ham, and only really great actor can get away with not taking themselves quite seriously! On all counts, John Barrymore was one of the greatest."
On Charlie Chaplin - "There are those who feel that Chaplin is a god, at least cinematically, and can do no wrong. I am not one of them. I have a tremendous amount of respect for his work, and consider him one of the foremost craftsmen of the screen. But to me Buster Keaton was a far superior comedy creator."
On Neil Hamilton - "In these days of mumbling types, I for one would welcome his soft, pleasant, clear diction back to the screen again."
And finally, quoting Mae Murray on the character of Norma Desmond, after viewing Sunset Boulevard - "None of us floozies were that nuts!"
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All quotes taken from Classics of the Silent Screen, copyright 1959 by Joe Franklin.
21 comments:
I just checked Joe Franklin's filmography on IMDb. He's included in the The Aristrocrats! I think there may be a resurgent interest in Mae Murray after that quote of hers.
These are great quotes. I agreed with him at one time about Chaplin and Keaton. I have since reversed my position.
As for the dedication, I read it a bit differently. I imagined that his child was banging around the house and generally making it a place not conducive to quiet contemplation and that his wife was interrupting every few minutes with routine questions and complaints that he promised to do something or go somewhere.
I never saw The Aristocrats, I wonder if Franklin talk about the joke or deliver his own salty version.
Murray's quote is pretty famous so I guess it doesn't have much to do with Franklin but I bet he was one of the first to bring it to light. I'd like to see some of her jazz age morality tales like Circe, the Enchantress, with party scenes that look like they're straight out of The Shining but almost none, and Circe is one of them, are available on DVD.
Marilyn, Franklin goes on to criticize viewers who also "despise all of Chaplin's work because of his political beliefs, alleged or actual... This, of course, is quite unfair, and all that matters is what shows up on the screen."
He also admits that "Keaton stopped at comedy... whereas Chaplin's work often went far deeper."
I like your interpretation of the dedication.
I have seen The Aristocrats. I can't remember if he tells the joke, or just talks about comedy in general, but I do know that Sarah Silverman included him as a character in her version of the joke, and he was not pleased after the movie came out. Also, they show Joe Franklin's office at one point, and it's quite something.
I tihnk Sarah Silverman alludes to the fact that Joe Franklin raped her. Of course she's kidding.
I mean... right?
It was probably a joke.
What you and Arbo have been blogging about the last two days has made me nostalgic. Your still of inside of that library book made me realize I hadn't been to one in two years (AT LEAST!).
And the central library here is a great one. It's where I - when I was unemployed - picked up a lot of information on movies, too many countless things to recount right now.
On The Crowd. I've never seen it, but stills - from books from the library, no less - always looked amazing. The images make me think of a hybrid of The Apartment, Brazil, and The Trial... though, having not seen it, that could be ridiculous. To my knowledge it is still unreleased on DVD, correct?
Bill, Arbo - Of course she was kidding. It was Phil Rizzuto.
Fox - The Crowd is a great movie. It's got an ending you can see coming from a mile away (it's practically telegraphed in the first five minutes) but the shots, the characters and the acting (it's got great silent acting) all make it worthwhile. It's not on DVD yet and I don't know why, it's a revered classic. The AFI Silver Theater, just a few minutes from my house, is showing it in November. My wife's never seen it and I'm very excited to go.
Also next month Farley Granger's showing up for a special screening of Strangers on a Train that I've got tickets for. I'm sure, of course, he read my piece on Robert Walker (pause for derisive laughter).
Sarah Silverman is a pig.
Bill asked a question on his blog about our respective Netflix queues. I'm afraid I must make the startling admission that I do not belong to Netflix. My public library has one of the best stocks of DVDs and VHS tapes I've ever seen. Many silents, foreign, documentaries - all the stuff you can't find at Blockbuster. So, Fox, as you can imagine, I spend a fair amount of time in my library. Not all of it is on movies either. It's one of the reasons I don't mind my relatively high property taxes. They buy for me what I'd buy for myself through Netflix and GreenCine, and a whole lot more. The library is not a place of nostalgia for me. It's contemporary, active, and a great, great resource for everything cultural and civic.
In addition, we can get Facets DVD and video rental for free because the hubby is a volunteer. Yes, it's a bit inconveniently located and we can only keep the films for 2 or 3 days, but when I really, really need a film I can't find anywhere else, it works great.
Great public libraries are a great resource and if you have one near you then you often can find some obscure movies inside. And as I never tire of saying here, the one we go to has the best and cheapest second hand bookstore in the world! Classics of the Silent Screen by Joe Franklin, hardcover, original printing: One dollar. The most expensive thing I've ever seen there is their collections. You know things like a Twelve Volume Time-Life Encyclopedia on American History or Rand-McNally's Complete Set of Atlas' for each part of the world or The Encyclopedia Britannica Complete Set. Those things can go for as much as 15 bucks.
Okay, I'll stop rubbing it in now.
Library sales are among the greatest things this world has ever produced. I can walk out of one of those things with two boxes of books -- books I genuinely want to read, and in some cases books I've been trying to find for several years -- for twenty bucks. God, they're great.
Marilyn-
I definitely need to return to ours and take advantage of its stacks. In fact, all this talk is making me itchy for it. I just may swing by on my way home from work.
It really is silly how aweseome libraries are. I mean, you go in and get stuff FOR FREE! An unappreciated resource, for sure.
And the way you and Jonathan are talking about your library's movie selections is making me even more itchy. I know they had a nice selection a few years ago, but I'm sure it's pretty glorious by now.
Bill - We get boxes too. We eventually have to donate books back because we run out of storage space but man, I wouldn't have half the old movie books I have now without them. Most have been out of print for decades.
Fox - Movie collections vary greatly from library to library but if you still have a VCR (I don't) there are some great titles that still haven't made it to DVD that are usually available.
Love this post, and all the commenters are getting me in the mood to hit the next Friends of the Library Sale in my neighborhood. I haven't been to one in years, but I've picked a lot of great stuff in the past.
"The Crowd" - I watched the King Vidor segment of "The Men Who Made the Movies" on TCM recently and have been interested in this one (and also "Our Daily Bread")ever since. (Does anyone else remember "The Men Who Made the Movies" seriesfrom when it was first broadcast on PBS in the early 70s? Great, great stuff.)
As for "Sunrise," I just recently saw it for the first time, and it really is a beautiful movie. I think the middle section, in which the couple rekindles their love through a series of mostly comic adventures in the city, should be required viewing for any aspriring maker of romantic comedy films. It's so simple but so lovely.
I absolutely love it when someone mentions a film book that's new to me. I want this one! He sounds extremely witty, even though I disagree on Chaplin and absolutely worship The Crowd.
Pat, I recently saw "Our Daily Bread" on TCM and it's a stunner. The acting is a bit amateurish at times but it somehow adds to what Vidor is trying to accomplish. Another director who has yet to receive his full due.
Jonathan-
I have to say I am pretty shocked to hear that you don't have a VCR, considering how many classic films aren't available on DVD yet.
Pat, I remember watching the one (The Men Who Made the Movies) on Alfred Hitchcock on tv in the seventies and becoming fascinated with so much of his work I hadn't yet seen.
And Sunrise is a film that simply bowls me over visually, and otherwise, every time I see it. It's a true masterpiece of the cinema.
Campaspe, don't be mislead by his lead in to The Crowd - he loves it and hails it as a masterpiece. The lead in was his way of saying he didn't normally go in for that kind of thing but The Crowd does its job so expertly that whether you like that kind of movie or not you'll be impressed. And he admires the hell out of Chaplin, but he's clearly a Keaton man.
Fox, when my VCR finally gave out a couple of years ago I never could be bothered to buy a new one. I'll just have to wait for those titles to come out on DVD I guess.
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