Silent Wierdness: The Great Day (1920)

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Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Born Today January 26: Geoffrey Kerr

1895-1971

British stage actor, turned film actor, turned writer Geoffrey Kerr was born Geoffrey Kemble Grinham Keen on this date in London. Geoffrey was the son of legendary character actor Frederick Kerr (it was his father who first used the surname "Kerr" as a stage name); the younger Kerr, however, did not appear on the stage until after college, after which he got his start in several of his old man's productions. All of this was cut short by the out break of World War I, which saw Geoffrey commissioned into service with the Shropshire Light Infantry. After being sent to the trenches, a frightened and miserable younger Kerr and a very worried older Kerr were fortunate enough to have an acquaintance from the theater to help to facilitate a transfer a the brand new Royal Flying Corp. In this capacity, he was wounded, but recovered enough to spend the rest of the war in the position of a gunnery instructor for troops. After the war ended, Kerr left for New York City, where he soon made his Broadway debut. From 1920 on, he spent his time divided between The States and his native UK. During the 1920's, he had also had a film career of sorts in Britain. Despite that most of his film appearances came after his Broadway introduction, he did have a small part in a Meyrick Milton melodrama in 1917: The Profligate, which marked his film debut. He next appeared with his father in the mystery melodrama 12:10 in 1919; directed by Herbrt Brenon, which marked the very first release of the British & Colonial Kimematograph Company. After this, he appeared in just six films produced in the United Kingdom, none of them of any significant note (unless you want to include The Great Day from 1920, which was the very first release of Famous Players-Lasky British Producers/Paramount British...that...and the fact that Alfred Hitchcock did the title designs). Kerr did not make an appearance in American film until 1926 (his last of the decade), making his last British film appearance in the 1922 melodrama The Man from Home; directed by George Fitzmaurice and sporting a screenplay by Ouida Bergère, it did have deep ties to the U.S. In between that time, he spent several successful years on the Broadway stage, even having one of his own plays--in which he appeared--produced. His American film debut came in the Richard Barthelmess romantic drama Just Suppose in 1926 directed by Kenneth Webb; the film was based on a stage play by A. E. Thomas in which he had appeared on Broadway (a copy of the film survives in the collections at UCLA Film archives). It was his last silent roll and his last acting role of the decade. Kerr did appear in the all sound 1929 short Night Club in a song and dance routine filmed in New York, featuring the likes of Fanny Brice, Pat Rooney, Ann Pennington and Percy Helton--all figures on Broadway, and directed by Robert Florey. Kerr picked up his film acting career again in 1931, with three film appearances that year, leaving off acting in motion pictures for good there after. The second of these three was the romantic comedy The Runaround (August 1931) in which he took the top bill opposite Mary Brian. His last film role came in Once a Lady (November 1931), a drama starring fellow Brit Ivor Novello in one of his attempts to take Hollywood by storm. Kerr's career in films however did not come to end with his retiring from acting, he started a whole new career as a writer that included screenplays. He was responsible for the scenario adaptation of the Robert Donat comedy with horror elements The Ghost Goes West in 1935. In addition to working directly on screenplays, Kerr also had a number is plays adapted for the screen as well (see Cottage To Let aka Bombsight Stolen). His script directly for the screen was the 1949 adaptation for Fools Rush In, a comedy based on a Kenneth Horne play; and, his work first reached television, when one of his plays was adapted for the film The Monster of Killoon in 1952. While he and fellow writer James Leasor provided script material for the now lost television series "My Husband and I" (1956). These represent the extent of his writing credits during his lifetime; but, in 2016 an ambitious student film entitled Kenopsia was produced that used one of Kerr's stories as source material. The film represents the only use of his writing as source material after his death. During his lifetime, Kerr also continued to act on the stage, especially Broadway, into the early 1950's. After he retired from acting altogether, he continued to write, producing one fantasy novel in 1954. Kerr eventually retired back to his native England, passing away in Aldershot (located in Hampshire) on the 1st of July in 1971 at the age of 76. There is no information about his memorial or burial, but there is a family tradition of cremation. Both his famous father and his son were cremated and his father has a memorial plaque at Golders Green Crematoria in Greater London. Kerr was married to actress June Walker; they had a son, John, who also became an actor.

Kerr with Walker

IMDb

Wikipedia

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Born Today August 13: Alfred Hitchcock

1899-1980

One of the world's best known directors of suspense and even horror, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, was born on this day in Leytonstone, Essex, England (now part of London). He was the son of shop merchant (greengrocer and poultry seller). He was raised Roman Catholic and schooled in catholic institutions in the London area. He had trouble with his weight from the start and often described this as an alienating factor in his childhood, despite that he was the sheltered youngest child of three. It occasioned that despite this favor, his father could be quite cruel. Hitchcock claimed that his father once sent him to the local police station with a note he had written asking that young Alfred by locked up for five minutes; this Hitchcock claimed instilled in him a life long fear and general negative view of police officers. He was only five years old. After graduating from engineering school he became a draftsman and an advertising designer--a skill that would serve him well later in life in his famous story-boarding of films. When World War I broke out, he was called up to service with the army. His weight, however, ultimately kept him from serving actively; he did, however, serve at garrisons at home. In this capacity, he joined the regiment of Royal Engineers as a cadet. It was when he was working at an electrical cable company as an advertising designer that he began to tinker with creative writing. The company, Henley's, began an in-house publication called The Henley Telegraph in 1919. Hitchcock began submitting short articles, his first piece "Gas" was featured in the first edition. He had already developed a fascination with the motion picture industry. That same year he was determined to enter the business, and he found work as a title card designer for the Famous Players-Lasky, which by then was a part of Paramount--Hitchcock worked for them at Islington Studios. When Famous Players left the UK in 1922, Hitchcock remained on the studio's pay-roll as part of the staff. It appears that the first film that Hitchcock actually worked on was The Great Day (1920) as a title designer while still a Paramount employee. This is a fascinating part of Hitchcock's time in the film industry that gets little attention; at first blush, "title card designer" does not sound terribly exciting, but when one looks at the films he worked on during this time, one can find influences on his later work. By 1922, he working on more than just title cards and had begun giving active input on art direction. The first title that he is absolutely known to have worked on in this capacity is Three Live Ghosts, though there may well have been titles before this. Also in 1922 came his first directing job on the unfinished project Number 13 made under what would become Gainsborough Pictures (the title is thought to be Hitchcock's personal working title for the film). The budget for the production--two reels of which were shot--ran out and was thus shut down (Hitchcock was said to have raised some funds for the film from his own family); apparently the nitrate was then melted to extract the silver for re-use. However, some production stills, in the form of photographs, do still exist--as does a photograph of Hitchcock directing it. The film has become a legend of it's own in the last few decades, what with wholly unsubstantiated rumors of copies in mysterious private collections, right down to it's inspiring it's own film by the same name starring Dan Folger as Hitchcock--ironically, like it's original namesake, the film was never finished for many of the same reasons (hey...what if there is a "Number 13 curse"....doubt it).

Still from Number 13

First known photograph of Hitchcock directing.

Unknown to a lot of Hitchcock fans, he also has a fair number of original writing credits to his name dating from the early twenties quite apart from pictures that he would direct. One of the earliest is the now lost Woman To Woman (1923), directed by Graham Cutts for Balcon, Freedman & Saville (who would rename themselves Gainsborough). Hitchcock was famous for making cameo appearances in his own films; this practice actually started in his most famous silent film The Lodger (original title The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog). In all Hitchcock would make/direct 12 films in the silent era (techinally 13 if you add in a filmed sound check), including one of the most important early sound films in Britain Blackmail (incidentally this is the film for which the 1 minute sound test was filmed; also there is a fully silent version that has been restored). [List of his silent films from the 1920's can be found below.]

Hitchcock's first film cameo

Hitchcock would, of course, go on to be one the most formative and well know film makers of twentieth century. It is beyond the scope of this silent blog to tackle that, however, a few milestones in his life as a film maker and director can be easily pointed out without becoming too tedious.

Scene from Blackmail (1929)

The first film that Hitchcock made in the 1930's was Murder! (1930) starring Herbert Marshall. He experimented with extensive special effects in Number 17 (1932) (one of my favorites). His The Man Who Wasn't There (1934) featuring Peter Lorre, would be a film he would remake in 1956 with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. His first U.S. production was Rebecca in 1940 for Selznick International Pictures. His first actual horror film (a genre that he is well associated with today) was actually Psycho in 1960; despite that his Alfred Hitchcock Presents, of which he was the host, premiered on broadcast television in 1955--the show certainly touched on horror elements. The Birds was a main influence on the late George A. Romero's 1968 The Night of the Living Dead, along with The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price. His next to last film, Frenzy (1972), saw him return to his native Britain for production. His last film, Family Plot (1976), was a comedy thriller romp starring Karen Black and Bruce Dern. It was made for Universal and saw his return to Hollywood. During this period of time, he was intending on making another spy thriller entitled The Short Night, but due to his declining health, and that of his wife Alma, the project was never filmed. Hitchcock eventually succumbed to full renal failure in his Bel Air home on the 30th of April, 1980. After his funeral mass, his remains were cremated and scattered over the Pacific ocean.