"Mother doesn't like you, but I like you": See how a little boy's words save his father's life, in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928), One of the Great Masterpieces of Pictures (Multiple Different Versions!), in spite of MGM's Meddling with the Ending

["King Vidor: The Men Who Made the Movies (1973) Richard Schickel’s TV Documentary on PBS (Video)."]


Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

The Crowd (1928): Full silent movie directed by King Vidor, stars James Murray, Eleanor Boardman

"1,943 views Premiered Jan 1, 2024 #oldhollywood #vintagefashion #vintagestyle The Crowd is a 1928 silent movie nominated for the very first best picture Academy Award as "Unique and Artistic Achievement" and is considered today one of the best silent films [N.S.: films, period!] in history. The Crowd was directed by King Vidor and stars James Murray, Eleanor Boardman and Bert Roach.

"IMDB plot summary: The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls."

"👉🎥ReelOldMovies.com for more classic movie news, books and lists!"

"From wikipedia:

The Crowd was conceived by director King Vidor and filmed after the success of his previous film, the critically acclaimed box office success The Big Parade.

Vidor wanted the new film to be innovative in its story, acting, and cinematography. The film mixes striking visual styles and moving camera cinematography – as well as hidden cameras in some of the New York City scenes, and subtle use of scale models and dissolves – influenced by 1920s German cinema and F.W. Murnau in particular, with intense, intimate scenes of the family's struggle. Vidor avoided casting big-name stars in the film to attain greater authenticity; Murray had started as a studio extra, and had appeared in featured roles already, but had made his way to California riding boxcars and doing odd jobs such as shoveling coal and washing dishes. For his female lead, Vidor selected Eleanor Boardman, an MGM contract actress and also Vidor's second wife.

Vidor's great financial success at MGM in the 1920s allowed him to sell the unusual scenario to production head Irving Thalberg as an experimental film. MGM chief Louis B. Mayer reportedly disliked the film for its bleak subject matter and lack of a happy ending, and the studio held the film from release for almost a year. At the studio's insistence, seven alternate upbeat endings were filmed, according to Vidor's autobiography, and previewed in small towns. The film was finally released with two endings, one Vidor's original ending, and another with the family gathered around a Christmas tree after John has gotten a job with an advertising agency. Exhibitors could choose which version to show, but, at least according to Vidor, the happy ending was rarely shown.

French director Jean-Luc Godard, when asked in the 1960s why more films were not made about ordinary people, he responded, "The Crowd had already been made, so why remake it?" Yet, at the time of its release, just before the start of the Great Depression, audiences were already seeking escapist entertainment over the realism portrayed in The Crowd, a stark realism that filmmakers would not embrace again until after World War II. The film, however, proved to be popular enough during the months after its distribution in 1928 that it grossed twice its production costs. The arrival of sound films at the same time combined to radically change filmmaking. Due to the limitations imposed by early sound-filming techniques, The Crowd's innovations in camera movement would not be equaled for another decade.

[This 1928 American film entered the public domain on January 1, 2024 (N.S.: actually, 2023), per the Copyright Term Extension Act.]

#classicmovies #film #movie #movies #oldhollywood #cinema #cine #oldmovie #oldmovies #history #drama #entertainment #moviescenes #movieclip #moviebuff #cinematic #fullmovie #art #earlycinema #vintage #vintagestyle #archive #moviehistory #actress #actor #fashion #vintagefashion #vintage #oldhollywoodglamour #history #oldhollywoodstars #oldhollywoodmovies #blackandwhite #silentmoviestars #silentmovie #silentmovies #kingvidor #eleanorboardman #silentmovie #silentfilm #silentfilms #newyork #archive #nychistory #nyc





Via The Wayback Machine


https://ia601207.us.archive.org/19/items/TheCrowd1928/The%20Crowd%20%281928%29.mp4

With Music (May be the same version as that from The Wayback Machine above)





1,434 views Jan 1, 2024 #publicdomain #1920s #silentfilm
#fullmovie #publicdomain #silentfilm #1920s
Irving Thalberg - Producer

Score contained new original music under copyright, hence it was removed to avoid copyright infringement

Synopsis: John, an ambitious but undisciplined New York City office worker, meets and marries Mary. They start a family, struggle to cope with marital stress, financial setbacks, and tragedy

Genre: Romance, Drama

Director: King Vidor

Top cast: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark, Daniel G. Tomlinson, Dell Henderson, Lucy Beaumont





The WEJB/NSU Theater, 1902-1981:

Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902);

The Great Train Robbery (1903);

C.B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man (1914);

D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915);

D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages (1916);

Harry Carey and John “Jack” Ford’s Straight Shooting (1917), the First Feature-Length, “Cheyenne Harry” Western;

Charlie Chaplin’s Shoulder Arms (1918);

The Outlaw and His Wife (1918), Starring and Directed by Victor Sjöström (Seastrom);

Starring “Jack”: See the 1920 Silent Picture Classic of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;

Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920);

Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920);

D. W. Griffith’s Way Down East (1920);

F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1921);

The Kid (1921), Charlie Chaplin’s First Feature as Director;

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s First Pictures Featuring the Evil Genius, Dr. Mabuse: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, Teil I (Dr. Mabuse, the Player, Part I); and

Dr. Mabuse, Teil II: Inferno (Dr. Mabuse, Inferno, Part II, both 1922, released one month apart) with English subtitles;

James Cruze’s The Covered Wagon (1923);

John Ford’s The Iron Horse (1924);

Charlie, in The Gold Rush (1925);

Lon Chaney, in The Phantom of the Opera (1925);

King Vidor, Laurence Stallings, and Harry Behn’s The Big Parade (1925), Starring Gilbert and Adore!

Buster Keaton’s The General (1926);

John Ford’s 1926 Western, 3 Bad Men;

When a Man Loves (1927), Starring “Jack” and Dolores Costello;

Josef von Sternberg and Ben Hecht’s Underworld (1927), the First American Gangster Picture;

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1927);

“Wild Bill” Wellman’s Restored, Classic Silent Picture, Wings (1927), One of the First Two Best Picture Oscar Winners;

F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927, One of the First Two Best Picture Oscar Winners);

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s Dystopian Science Fiction Epic, Metropolis (1927), the Greatest S/F Picture Ever, Plus Its Soundtrack Suite;

Frank Borzage and Austin Strong’s Seventh Heaven (1927);

Samson Raphaelson, Alfred A. Cohn, Jack Jarmuth and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer (1927), the First-Ever Talkie, Starring Al Jolson, by Warner Brothers;

St. Louis Blues (talkie, short, 1929);

Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou’s First Talkie: M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931) (M: A City Searches for a Murderer);

Paul Robeson in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (talkie, 1933);

The Man Who Knew too Much (1934): The Original Version of the Early Hitchcock Classic;

John Ford’s Judge Priest (1934), Starring Will Rogers, with Hattie McDaniel;

Kate Hepburn in the Super Chief’s Quality Street (1937);

Cary Grant and Roz Russell in Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, and Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940);

Zero’s Since You Went Away (1944);

William Dieterle’s A Portrait of Jennie (1948);

Jules Dassin, Albert Malz, and Malvin Wald’s The Naked City (1948), Plus Music; and

Paul Newman, in Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981).