MovieChat Forums > Noah's Ark (1929) Discussion > I Love Silent Film!

I Love Silent Film!

posted 7 years ago by jojomack2006
6 replies | jump to latest

No dialogue, no barriers to true communication. People must have been disappointed when "Talkies" arrived. I just really think Silents are Special! Few things quickly: ant to see a Great Silent? Find and see "The Crowd", I got it from London UK, it's 4Star! Love Silent Westerns! Jack Hoxie, his brother Al; GREAT! George O'Brien is my #2 B Cowboy; see my whole list at Blue Steel - message Boards. That's it for now...This Noah's Ark is powerful! John

[–] Jhines01 7 years ago

I just tuned into this on TCM, and it was silent.

All of a sudden, the actors started speaking!

Now it's silent again, with intertitles instead of speech.

Some kind of late twenties hybrid?

[–] mattohmss 7 years ago

The talking sequences were added in post; they weren't even directed by Curtiz, but instead by Roy Del Ruth (who also directed the first version of The Maltese Falcon, with Ricardo Cortez and Dwight Frye) -- they were reshoots intended to take the place of the original silent versions of the scenes.

Interesting to note, that sometimes it appears that more expensive shots from the silent versions are cut into the newer-filmed sound version scenes to save on costs -- the scene where Dolores Costello has her unfortunate reuniting with Noah Beery in Paris, for one.

[–] pepperdog61 7 years ago

All of a sudden, the actors started speaking!

Now it's silent again, with intertitles instead of speech.

Some kind of late twenties hybrid?

Exactly, "part-talkies" were a fairly common phenomenon during a small time window from 1927-29. "The Jazz Singer" with Jolson being the first.

Early sound mics couldn't pick up dialogue from much of a distance, which made outdoor (and in certain cases, indoor) sound-filming impossible. But movies done entirely indoors with the primitive equipment tended to become stagebound and dull. The "part-talkie" format was a sort of band-aid on the problem.

When the boom microphone became available around autumn of 1929, the problem of filming outdoor dialogue went away (the original version of "The Virginian" with Gary Cooper is a good example of early boom mics in action). And the "part-talkie" disappeared soon after.

[–] Jhines01 7 years ago

Thanks, Pepperdog. You can learn a lot on these boards.

I had always thought all films were silent until "The Jazz Singer," and then they all became talkies.

[–] jojomack2006 7 years ago

Don't know a thing about it except Guinn Big Boy Williams and George O'Brien are Beautiful! Lots of movies did that at the end of the 20's, some silent, some sound. I had a Ken Maynard movie on VHS 1930, it ran like a silent then there was sound then back and forth. Some tiny movie theatres we're wired for sound. (Great Depression no money). John

[–] zoolzool 7 years ago

Yes! George was indeed beautiful! He never looked better than he did in Noah's Ark, I think. And this is what is called a "goat gland" film. Paul McAllister, who played Noah, filmed some talking scenes of his own, which were never added to the movie.

"We're living in a powder keg and givin' off sparks..."