A Recap of Films: 1920-1929 (US)

In the United States, the 1920’s saw a major rise in the quality of films as well as in attendance in the box office and acceptance as an art form. Film length also increased on average. The short film barrage from the previous decade was replaced with fewer and more purposeful films, on average. There was also a large boom in the production companies and thus a boom in stardom among filmmakers. More filmmakers from around the world headed to the US in the 20’s and many of them became famous.

The end of the 20’s had some major changes in film and in the United States in general. The innovation of talking films, talkies, began with The Jazz Singer in 1927. The overnight sensation of syncing dialogue and soundtracks took off and silent films almost instantly stopped being produced. Many seasoned silent film stars resisted the change, but the sound era was upon them. Charlie Chaplin poignantly noted that the silent movies had learned their craft just about the time they went out of business.¹

Major Changes

Increased Box Office Sales

In the 1910’s there were less than a dozen films that broke $1M at the box office and only three of those surpassed $3.3M, Birth of a Nation ($10M), Mickey ($8M), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ($8M). In the 1920’s there were five to ten films grossing more than $1M each year with at, least 14 over $3.3M, The Big Parade ($18-22M), The Singing Fool ($12M), Ben-Hur ($10.7M), The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ($9.2M), Something to Think About ($9.2), The Jazz Singer ($7.6M), The Covered Wagon ($7.6M), The Kid ($5.4M), The Gold Rush ($5.4M), Gold Diggers of Broadway ($5.2M) Way Down East ($4.5M), The Ten Commandments ($4.2M), Wings ($3.6M), and Blake of Scotland Yard ($3.5M).

Longer Movies

The length of films increased on average as well. The average length of top ten box office films from 1913 – 1919 was 75 minutes (including the outliers: Birth of a Nation and Intolerance). With those outliers removed, the average would be 67 minutes. The following decade, 1920 – 1929, the average film was 97 minutes.²

Longer movies tended to mean bigger budgets and longer film times. Many of the filmmakers that were used to making a film a month in the 1910s found themselves making a movie or two a year in the 20s. This also led to movies with plots that had more character development. A ninety minute movie that was strictly gags and prat falls would not survive, but throw in a love story and some character arcs and you are good to go!

Talkies

Talking pictures, “talkies”, were a work in progress from the early 1900’s. However, it was difficult to record, distribute, sync, and play audio back at an appropriate volume. It would not be until the 20’s that “talkies” would begin to gain traction. The major player in making that happen was Lee De Forest, who patented optical sound on film technology. This would replace the attempted model of playback via records or cylinder phonographs.

The technologic developments would begin in short films, as most experiments did, with films like: From Far Seville, starring Conchita Piquer. The technology made it possible to capture her signing and other stage audio with a perfect syncronization.

The next big milestone was the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927. The Jazz Singer starred Al Jolson and only the singing sequences were synced up to pre-recorded audio. The rest of the film was structured like a standard silent film. The success of The Jazz Singer was significant and the silent era was ended, just about, overnight. It would take a few more years for sound capable cinemas to overtake silent film cinemas. By that time most film studios had stopped making silent films.

There were those that fought the transition to talkies, like Charlie Chaplin, and those that embraced it, like: Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Regardless, sound films were here to stay and it allowed film to take off to the next level. The dynamic within films changed with the ability to incorporate dialogue and sound effects. For comedians this meant more room for nuance and jokes without having to rely on exaggerated pantomime and for dramatic actors it meant that their acting could flourish without the distraction and limited aspects of intertitles.

The first full length sound, “talkie”, film was Lights of New York. It was released a year after The Jazz Singer and by the same studio, Warner Brothers.

Creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

Another major milestone in the film industry was the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on May 4, 1927. It was not created to hand out awards, but to function as an alternative to unions. It was established by Louis B. Mayer and 35 other filmmakers of the time. The founding members were comprised of five main branches: Actors, Directors, Producers, Writers, Technicians, plus some lawyers.

It would not be until May 16, 1929 that the first Academy Awards would take place. The inaugural class of award winners would become: Wings for Best Picture, Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone won Best Director awards, Janet Gaynor won Best Actress, and Emil Jannings won Best Actor. The ceremony has transformed significantly over the last century with categories changing, restrictions on attendance, and how it is broadcast.

What does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences do? Over time, the Academy has predominantly been known for its annual film award ceremonies and less about its other activities. According to Britannica.com,

“The academy’s other activities include supporting research and education for the improvement of film technology, preserving and documenting the history of motion pictures, publishing such reference materials as the Annual Index to Motion Picture Credits, encouraging film-study programs, sponsoring vocational scholarships, fostering cooperation among the creative members of the industry, and propagating prestige for the Hollywood film industry.”³

Booming Business & Stars

Production Companies

The previous decade was comprised of early film making giants getting their start or ramping up from the turn of the century. These were companies like: Universal Studios (founded in 1912), Famous Players-Lasky (founded in 1912) would later become Paramount Pictures in the 1920s, Metro Pictures (formed 1915) would merge with Goldwyn Pictures (formed 1916) and Louis B. Mayer Pictures (formed 1918) to form Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer in 1924. The new owner of MGM was Marcus Loew of Loews Inc. He partnered with Louis B. Meyer and created one of the largest film companies in history. There was also Fox Film Corporation (formed in 1915) and Cohn-Brandt-Cohn, later Columbia Pictures, (formed in 1919).

The 1920’s saw the birth of other filmmaking giants like: Warner Bros. (formed in 1923), Disney Brothers Studio, later The Walt Disney Company, (formed in 1923) and RKO (formed 1928). All of these companies would become major players in the film production and film distribution business for decades to come.

Movie Stars

There were movie stars in the 1910’s in actors like: Charlie Chaplin, Douglass Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Roscoe Arbuckle, Cecil B. DeMille, and Mabel Normand, to name a few. A decade primarily driven by short films and where the comedies reigned supreme, with some outliers like D.W. Griffith’s, The Birth of a Nation. These stars would become rich and powerful in the industry and even lead to the formation of United Artists by four of the filmmakers listed above: Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith.

Douglass Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Cecil B. DeMille would continue to be stars through most of the 20’s. Fairbanks and Pickford were married in 1920 and saw the decline of their film careers by the end of the 20’s. Chaplin would go on to make some of his most memorable and influential films during the 1920’s and 1930’s with films like, The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940). He was also one of the few successful silent stars to continue to make mostly silent films after the transition to talkies. Cecil B. Demille would continue to make films into the late 50’s, leaving a legacy of filmmaking behind him.

The 1920’s saw the rise of a new class of actors, directors, producers, and other filmmakers that would join these ranks. Members of this next class would include: Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Lon Chaney, John Barrymore, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Marion Davies, Norma Talmadge, Alice Terry, Jobyna Ralston, Janet Gaynor, and John Gilbert, to name a few. Laurel and Hardy were also getting their start, as a duo, in the mid-late 1920’s. Both of them had solo careers before working together, but nothing like their success as a team. They would not become superstars though until the 1930’s.

The 1920’s Comedians

The comedic giants of the decade were, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Each of them had their own brand of physical comedy, stunts, and gags. The biggest differences between them were in how they told their stories and the types of characters that would define their legacy.

The master of comedic dramas. Chaplin was already a star going into the 1920’s, but his fame continued to grow in the early 1920’s. In 1918, Chaplin began working for First National, which let him run his own studio and team. This marked the start of Chaplin being able to produce his own films. This gave him total control and marked the beginning of his dramatic comedies. He had incorporated elements of sadness or melancholy before in his films, but this was characterized more by his role in society and less on how the plot affected his characters arc.

The Kid & The Dramatic Comedy

The dramatic aspects of his films did not ramped up until The Kid, released in 1921. The Kid began filming a few weeks after the death of his first born son and marks the introduction of the dramedy in film. The death of his son did not inspire the film, as it was written and set to start filming before he was born. However, there is no way it could not have impacted his performance.

Chaplin would finish out the decade with only five other films following The Kid,. Those films were, Idle Class, Pay Day, The Pilgrim, The Gold Rush and The Circus. His style of filmmaking created stories and characters that were incredibly sympathetic and films that were well rounded for a wide audience.

Keaton began filmmaking with Roscoe Arbuckle in 1917, making The Butcher Boy. From that point on, Keaton learned a lot about filmmaking from Arbuckle. By 1920 Keaton was working with Metro Pictures. In that same year, Keaton released The Saphead, marking his first leading role. Keaton would not write or direct this film, however, this quickly changed.

The start to Keaton’s famous filmmaking run began in 1923, with the film Three Ages. Keaton would then go on to make classic films like: Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Seven Chances, Go West, Battling Butler, The General, College, and Steamboat Bill Jr. His complete control over his films and their, mostly successful, box office responses, makes Keaton one of the most successful auteurs and potentially the most successful silent film actor.

Just about all of Keaton’s films during this time period were romantic comedies. His ability to weave his brand of physical comedy in with his narratives are legendary. The biggest downside to his films are his propensity for racist attitudes towards African Americans as well as infusing the lost cause ideology in some of his films, e.g. The General.

Keaton would run into some missteps with his films that would cause the budgets to skyrocket. His friend, relative, and producer Joe Schenck, began to limit Keaton’s control of the filmmaking starting in 1927 on the film College. That change would mark the beginning of the end for Keaton. By 1928, Keaton would sign a deal with MGM that would further cement his role as an actor.

For five years Keaton would make films for MGM, primarily the rom-com style films that he had been making for over a decade. His deteriorating marriage, lack of control, death of his friend Roscoe Arbuckle, and other factors likely contributed to a drinking problem and his decline. In 1933, MGM let him go.

One major difference in the production of Lloyd’s films were that he was mostly credited as an actor. He was not credited as the auteur in the same way as Chaplin or Keaton, yet his success and involvement in the productions are unquestionable. Throughout the 1910’s and 1920’s, Lloyd would be in more films than Chaplin and Keaton combined. Harold was in 201 films in this period, whereas, Chaplin would be in 79, and Keaton would be in 53.

The biggest stylistic change in the tempo and feel of Lloyd’s films were that they would frequently feature a thrilling sequence of some kind. For example, his character might find themselves on top of a steel frame of a building under construction while blindfolded. His films also became more interlaced with dramatic themes, making his films more in line with Charlie Chaplin’s than Buster Keaton.

Harold Lloyd’s 1922 film, Grandma’s Boy is commonly compared to Charlie Chaplin’s 1923 film, The Kid. Lloyd’s character in Grandma’s Boy has a deeper story and arc over the course of the film than in his previous films. This gives his character a more sympathetic eye to the viewer and ultimitaly makes the film more memorable and impactful. The same is true for Chaplin’s film The Kid, although Chaplin took this to the next level by including a child actor and writing the story to surround their separation.

Lloyd made over two dozen films in the 20’s and even successfully transitioned to sound films in the 30’s. His character did not transition well through the great depression and his career declined into the 1930’s.

Lloyd was a huge success in the 1920’s and became one of the most successful actors of that period. His wealth allowed him to build the famed Greenacres in Beverly Hills, comprised of a 44-room mansion, golf course, outbuildings, and 900-foot canoe run on 15 acres.³ The Estate would later be sold in 1975, four years after Lloyd’s death.

The 1920’s Dramatic Actors

There was more than just comedy in the 1920’s and many actors reached stardom without having prat falls or stunts. Some of the major players in this field were: Douglass Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Norma Talmadge, Lon Chaney, Rudolph Valentiono, John Gilbert, John Barrymore, Mary Pickford, and Greta Garbo. An honorable mention to Snitz Edwards as well. Edwards did not star in films, but was an outstanding sideman to actors like: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Lionel Barrymore, Lon Chaney, and Buster Keaton.

Like many of the other silent stars, John Gilbert was not able to make the transition to talkies. It appears that this was due to a combination of unsuccessful films and the depression of those failures leading him to drink. He was brought in by Greta Garbo to costar in her film Queen Christina, which brought him success. However, his declining health due to alcoholism would lead to his early death in 1935 at the age of 38.

Gloria turned down a one million per year contract with Famous Players-Lasky, in order to work with United Artists in 1925. United Artists would allow her the creative outlet to make some of her most memorable films of her career, Sadie Thompson (1928) and The Trespasser (1929).

Their relationship would wane with stories of her accepting his proposals and then getting cold feet. Rumor has it that she was bisexual and would have various love interests throughout her life. She would never marry though and never have kids.

Her stardom continue to grow in the 1920’s, but the studio was concerned about her transition to talkies. When she came to the United States, she could not speak English. By the end of the 1920’s, she could speak English, but the concern was that her accent would not translate well. The reluctance from the studio, MGM, can be seen in the fact that her last three “silent films” were actually sound pictures with no dialogue. These films are Wild Orchids, The Single Standard, and The Kiss.

When she made the transition to talkies in 1930 she was immediately greeted with major success and skyrocketed in fame. She would become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.

Unfortunately, Lon Chaney died young, at the age of 47, to pneumonia in 1930. He was not able to make a transition to talkies, outside of the sound remake of Unholy Three where he voiced five characters. I wonder what kind of characters and films would have come out of Lon Chaney in the world of sound film.

Directors

Greed (1925)

Stroheim wrote and directed Greed based on the novel McTeague: A Story of San Francisco. The story follows McTeague (Gibson Gowland), his wife Trina (ZaSu Pitts), and her cousin and former love interest, Marcus (Jean Hersholt). Trina ends up falling for Mac instead of Marcus, at the same time she discovers she has won $5000 from the lottery. The ensuing downward spiral of their lives leads to death. Stroheim painstakingly crafted an environment of full emersion for his film crew and actors. Everything was filmed on location, instead of on a film set, and his actors lived on location. This was also the case for the finale of the film that was filmed in Death Valley.

The theme’s in Greed are, obviously, greed and jealousy. Stroheim is able to illicit visceral emotions through several sequences in the film. There is the scene where Trina rolls around in bed on top of her $5000 in gold lottery winnings. Gold that has caused a rift in her marriage that ultimately leads to her death. After McTeague kills Trina, he makes his way to Death Valley. Marcus is hot on his trail and the two meet in a duel at the climax of the movie. McTeague ends up killing Marcus, but not before Marcus can handcuff themselves together. The now handcuffed McTeague, realizes his fate as he stares at the empty water jug and blood splattered gold in the middle of the desert.

The vision and execution of this level of realism and authenticity was unique in this era. Stroheim even had the gold seen throughout the film colored in by hand, a process called the Handschiegl color process. Stroheim’s efforts in Greed would set the stage for contemporary filmmakers, like King Vidor and Jean Renoir, as well as filmmakers to come, like Alfred Hitchcock and Guillermo del Toro. The immersive nature and psychological experimentation within Greed was groundbreaking and it was a shame the full version did not survive.

Originally, Stroheim intended the film to be over nine hours long and had cut a version this way. MGM quickly cut the film down several times until it was released at under two hours long with a poor reception. The entire uncut version was lost after the merger of MGM and only partially reconstructed versions exist today.

Acting

Erich von Stroheim also had success as an actor. His knack for playing the villain led him down the road of the character actor. He would act in films in the 1910’s and 1920’s, outside of his own, but he thrived in France when he starred in films like, La Grande Illusion and in the 1950’s as the supporting actor in Sunset Boulevard.

Animated short film series

Other Noteworthy Films

Nanook of the North (1922)

Robert J. Flaherty’s film about “Nanook” and the Inuk people is one of the earliest examples of what we consider a Documentary. His attempt to capture a day in the life of Nanook and his people was well intentioned, but criticized for being in authentic. Flaherty staged many of the shots and asked Allakariallak, changed to “Nanook” to make it more appealing to an audience, to hunt without technology to show how it used to be done. The wives depicted in he film are also Allakariallak’s, but Flaherty’s.

The spirit of what Nanook represents is what it is remembered for and regardless of the staging, it still influenced future filmmakers. Without knowing the flawed backstory, the film is a documentary about how other cultures can survive in extreme climates and exposed people to cultures they likely had never seen or considered before. At the same time, depicting them the way that Flaherty did was not authentic and thus was at the expense of the real Inuk people.

The Toll of the Sea (1922)

The Toll of the Sea was released on November 26, 1922. The film was one of the first Technicolor films, second to The Gulf Between (1917). The Toll of the Sea was not the first color film, but was the first done with natural color process to the film that did not require special projectors. The story is an adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. The film is set in China and stars Anna May Wong and Kenneth Harlan.

Flesh and the Devil (1927)

Greta Garbo had immediate success in her American film debut, The Torrent, however it was her third film, Flesh and the Devil, that began her Hollywood stardom. The romantic affair between Felicitas (Garbo) and Leo (Gilbert) was emphasized by the actors real life love affair behind the scenes. Their Hollywood romance would become high profile, although they never got married. They would still go on to make films together well into the 1930’s.

Flesh and the Devil was based on The Undying Past by German author Hermann Sudermann. A love triangle is formed between two childhood friends, Leo (Gilbert) and Ulrich (Hanson), and the beautiful countess Felicitas (Garbo). The local pastor compares Felicitas to the Devil taking the form of a woman to tear the two friends apart. Through years of deceit and misfortune the brothers end up dueling to the death in a blizzard for her love. Felicitas attempts to stop the duel, but falls through thin ice on her way to the dueling location. As she dies the spell is broken in the men and they reconcile their relationship.

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs examines the misfortune of Gwynplaine, played by Conrad Veidt. Gwynplaine is the son of Lord Clancharlie, also played by Veidt, who is orphaned after King James II kills his father by way of Iron Maiden. King James II also had Gwynplaine maimed by a Comprachico surgeon, who cuts a permanent grin into his face .

A young Gwynplaine is able to escape the Comprachico in a snow storm and stumbles upon an infant, Dea, in the arms of her cold dead mother. Gwynplaine finds Ursus’ camp who takes the young children in and discovers Gwynplaine’s deformity as well as discovers that Dea is blind. Time goes on and the three of them have grown together and started a traveling show, with Gwynplaine, as the man who laughs.

Along the way we see Gwynplaine struggle with the constant ridicule and lack of empathy given towards him, by all except Dea. Behind his ever present smile we see the sorrow and struggle portrayed through Gwynplaine’s eyes. The tale ends with Gwynplaine discovering and rejecting his heritage, embracing his deformity, and running away with Dea and Ursus.

Conrad Veidt does an excellent job playing someone with a permanent smile that can still express the full spectrum of emotion through only his eyes. Even though the film is labelled as a horror, it does not appear to be one. In reality the film is a drama that happens to focus on someone that is visually unsettling. There are no real tones of horror, outside of the German Expressionist tones and themes created by Director Paul Leni and production designer Charles D. Hall.

The role was originally supposed to go to Lon Chaney and through various circumstances, the role ended up going to Veidt. It was still suited for Veidt, as he was already a fixture of German Expressionism with is role as Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It would be interesting to see how Chaney would have tackled this role. Chaney tends to bring an edge that would have potentially painted Gwynplaine as less sympathetic and more villainous.

Another interesting influence the film had on the world was its inspiration for the Marvel villain, Joker. Although Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson disagreed as to their respective roles in the 1940 creation of the Joker, they agreed that his exaggerated smile was influenced by a photograph of Veidt from the film.⁵

Docks of New York (1928)

Josef Von Sternberg’s Docks of New York, follows a ship stoker named Bill Roberts, played by George Bancroft. When his ship docks in New York, he goes on shore for his one night off. The stubborn and macho Bill Roberts quickly finds himself saving a young woman, Mae, from drowning right off the docks. He helps revive her and brings her to safety with the support of Lou, a matriarch of the waterfront and wife to Bill’s superior officer, Andy.

Mae, played by Betty Compson, recovers from being in the cold water and we discover that she is a depressed young prostitute that has lost the will to live. She and Bill hit it off and begin a night of drinking that leads to them getting married in the saloon.

Their budding relationship is juxtaposed to Lou and Andy’s relationship. Lou and Andy represent what is to come for the “young” lovers. I say young because George Bancroft was 46 and Betty Compson was 31 when Docks of New York was made. Andy and Bill’s work takes them from port to port without a set schedule, resulting in them not having a place they call home. This lifestyle has withered Lou and Andy’s relationship to a state of loathing, regret, and heartache.

Docks of New York takes place over the course of one night and one day and the scenes are captivating in many different ways. There are artistic elements that are present in Harold Rosson’s cinematography, who would go on to be the cinematographer for The Wizard of Oz. The mise en scène (the arrangement of scenery and stage properties) throughout the film, and specifically in the bar, creates a genuine feel for the setting and a realism that does not always come across in films of this time. The way that bar partrons move the scenery around to prepare for a wedding feels as though we are watching a little bit of behind the scenes, but really the director is just not cutting the scene and letting things unfold on camera.

This also lends itself well to the dynamic use of the camera. The way that Sternberg set the stage with the crowded bar full of tables, chairs, and patrons, created a rich and lively setting. The busy bar scene is actually full and yet the camera is able to navigate its way through the crowd. The tracking shots through the bar create three dimensional depth that makes the film feel more natural as well as highlights the “community”. It is a busy scene full of people that don’t always get along, yet are all walking a similar path.

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