Where movie villains come from

Villain Nationalities in Early American Films
How did some of the movie stereotypes start?

Will H. Hays became President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors

Foolish Wives 1922 ad
Erich Von Stroheim

of America (MPPDA) in 1922. "If here and there a nation found a detail in a film offensive to its ideas - what matter? Ours were the only goods on the market." 

"'What the motion picture business needs,' remarked one of Will Hays' assistants as he attacked his daily correspondence, 'is an island of its own. A child-size island will do so long as we have our own national government and a good, peppy name that people will always remember.' 

"'What for?' asked his visitor obligingly.

"'For all the villains to come from,' replied the Hays man.

"The foreign work of the Hays organization began with that trouble - the nationality of villains. And in spots and spurts, it remains trouble even to this day." 

Villains who rocked the world. "One of the first tasks of Filmland's adviser was to soothe the injured feelings of half the nations of the globe." Here are excerpts from an a 1933 article that discusses some of the common villain nationalities we see in old movies. Cliches and prejudices. It made audiences more comfortable if the villains had no back-story and if the villains were nothing like them.

The article doesn't address other marginalized segments of society, then or now, who may be seen as easy targets, stereotyped and placed a negative light. Characters of certain ethnicities and types were seen more rarely. When seen, they were too often represented only in certain ways. The article doesn't address the different female villains, African Americans, Native Americans or the number of villains with physical disabilities.

Change after World War One  
When Hays took over, "the producers paid little attention to foreign tastes and preferences. It was not necessary or at least so they felt. Just at the moment when the American film was finding itself the World War had disrupted all the European studios. Foreign audiences had to take American pictures of go without. Decidedly they preferred not to go without. 

"By train, by airplane, by muleback, camelback, llamaback, the American motion picture penetrated every corner of the world.  If here and there a nation found a detail in a film offensive to its ideas - what matter? Ours were the only goods on the market. The producers simply translated the titles into sixteen or seventeen languages and let it go at that. Into this scene of honest industry and peaceful prosperity, enter the villain."

The Woman in Grey, Arline Pretty; Just one of the many early film serials. Where the term cliffhanger was born. What nasty villains!


Roots in Theater 
"A superb showman named William Shakespeare had perceived long ago that it is always safest to make your heavy villain a foreigner. His Iago was Italian, his Shylock a Jew his king in Hamlet a Dane his Lady Macbeth a Scot. 

"He couldn't do anything about Richard III without faking history but everyone knew already that Richard was a bad one. Popular drama, taking a cue from him, hardened this custom into a tradition." 

"The Bad Man finds a worse man"
1927 Original Print Film Scene Bad Man
Western Holbrook Blinn

Westerns and Mexico
"Even to monotony the character who stampeded the herd, sniped at the foreman, kidnapped the ranch man's beautiful daughter and took a sock in the jaw from the one-hundred-per-cent-American hero was a Mexican. In spite of which these films were going to Mexico along with the rest. To say that the Mexicans did not like this would be to state the obvious."

American films 'offensive to Mexican patriotism' were prohibited from entering Mexico. Then all US films were prohibited; this included newsreels. Hays sent a representative to Mexico and he was there for five weeks. When he returned he carried treaty drawn in perfect diplomatic form signed and sealed by the high Mexican government officials. Hays was to sign it. 

"It provided that the motion picture business should keep the Mexican villains out of their films, should in all other ways refrain from offending Mexican sensibilities. And on their part the Mexicans agreed to admit American films freely and without prejudice." 

Edward G.Robinson was Caesar Enrico Bandello
Little Caesar 1931

Gangster films, Italy and Greece
"A simple gunman film had a villainous character called Nick - or some other name equally noncommittal. One scene showed, in just a flash, the front of his restaurant bearing the sign, Nick the Greek. A mere bit of background, it had slipped by unnoticed. 

"But all the Greeks here and abroad noticed it and most emphatically. Spartan, Athenian and Corinthian societies protested, the Greek government expressed offense, their minister brought it to the attention of our authorities. 

"A half dozen times during the craze for the underworld film, Italy stood offended at an Italian surname attached to an underworld character or even an Italian baptismal name." ...

Looking at character and cast lists of gangster movies from the 1930s and 1920s I see several that used nicknames instead of names with any nationality at all. Angels with Dirty Faces had Soapy. In 1928, The Racket had Spike and Chick. When used, last names tended to become vague as to nationality.

Little Caesar in 1931, a milestone film for Edward G. Robinson, costarring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had characters with Italian names.

D.W. Griffith's short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) said to be one of the first gangster movies, was made in a time when characters often had no specific character name anyway. The Little Lady, The Musician, The Sidekick, The Policeman. More than one character is called 'Rival Gang Member.'

Just like the old movie serial villains, Boris and Natasha on The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show are going to drop the heavy object du jour on our heroes' heads. This dastardly duo is not only foreign, but they are macabre like some of their horrifying villain fore-fathers and mothers of the past.

Dubbing; What did you say? Germany
"Up to last July [article was from mid-1933], American firms did some business in dubbing native films with German speech. Dubbing is the process of cutting out the English speaking sound-strip and supplanting it by voices speaking a foreign language and synchronizing with the lips of the actors. Now all dubbing for German exhibition must be done by German firms."


Related Books and Pages of Interest:

Early movie censorship 1900s-1920s Dirty Business Movie Censorship in Early Hollywood: Coverups, Arrests, Ballots and Scorecards, States and Cities 

Badmen, Bandits, and Folk Heroes: The Ambivalence of Mexican American Identity in Literature and Film

Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos

Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood  

Boris and Natasha Vintage Post Card, Toys

Quotes
New Movie Magazine 1933

Classic film stars born under the sign of Aries

April is the Lucky Movie Month

Mary Pickford
The Little Princess

"Is it any wonder that the same sign of the Zodiac should produce Mary Pickford the screen's best known star and Charlie Chaplin, the screen's greatest artist? 

"Is it to be wondered that Harold Lloyd and Lon Chaney and Thomas Meighan and George Arliss and Wallace Reid and Mary Brian and Constance Talmadge and Warner Baxter and Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson are all Aries children? Aries in astrological language is symbolized by the Ram -- and you can't keep a good ram down! ...

"Aries is a cardinal sign - a fiery spectacular publicity sign. Mars is the ruling planet of Aries. Mars is electric, forceful, active and aggressive. It gives courage, initiative, punch. It governs sex. It gives IT. It is the planet of personal appeal."
-- New Movie Magazine 1931

Gloria Swanson, Janis Joplin Janis Joplin, Margot Kidder and Dave Meggyesy appeared together on The Dick Cavett Show August 1970. Meggyesy was a linebacker St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s and he wrote a bestselling memoir, Out of Their League.




We have a bunch of March birthdays around here to celebrate. I read that it's particularly lucky for those born under this sign in the Year of the Ram (Sheep) so Happy Birthday to all! 

Lon Chaney Sr.

Elizabeth Montgomery 4/15/1933 and
Dick Sargent 4/19/1930 with their
Bewitched children

 Other current and vintage stars who happen to be Aries March babies, or just on the cusp are Florenz Ziegfeld Jr, Elton John, Harry Houdini, Karl Malden (quite the quartet right there). Add to that Pearl Bailey, Rosie O'Donnell, Joseph Barbera, Chico Marx, Alan Arkin, Spencer Tracy and director WS Van Dyke.

The list of those born in April is very long, we'll limit it to 15 at random: Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Maya Angelou, Loretta Lynn, Wallace Beery, Barbara Hale, Rick Moranis, Virginia Cherrill, Billie Holiday, Roger Corman, Walter Connolly, Bea Benaderet, Elizabeth Montgomery and one of her Bewitched Darrens, Dick Sargent. Add 1920s stunt woman and leopard trainer Olga Celeste for good luck.

On March 17, 1914 Teddy, the Mack Sennett dog was born. Teddy the dog actor, an Aries, was born in the Year of the Tiger.
-- Picture Play Magazine 1921

The above list of Aries celebrities makes for one terrific answer when someone asks for your list of guests to the ultimate dinner party. Clara Bow was well known for having IT. In 1927, she made a movie with that title. Bow was born in late July, under the sign of Leo. If you're born in March or April you have some great company.

A few quick silent movie chicks

Happy Easter

Here are some silent film stars who are breaking out of their shells to celebrate Easter and welcome springtime. A short more recent video is in the middle.

Bessie Love is carried away by Easter Bunnies 1929

May Allison 1919
Blonde blue-eyed screen star
half of famous Hollywood romantic pair
with Harold Lockwood in 1910s

Josephine Hill comes out of her shell 1920
Her movies included Westerns
Hill was in films with Champion and Bullet,
two of the first famous dog actors

June Collyer 1928
Her work included the Stu Erwin Show (with her husband Stuart Erwin)
and a 1934 film with Bela Lugosi, Murder by Television

Hope Lange's Easter Party Roddy McDowall, Robert Redford 1965
Soapbox Productions (no audio)


Hope Lange was in the television version of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, co-starring with Edward Mulhare.


Director Alfred Hitchcock, who gave us the film Psycho, was said to have an aversion to eggs.... This dislike showed up in his films.
If you don't like the thought of egg salad or worse Deviled Eggs, don't look.

A couple of the guys:

Though Fred Kohler tended to play heavies,
he could be a softy, too 1928

Jackie Coogan and pet rabbit Oscar 1924
Coogan was in The Kid with Charlie Chaplin
He grew up to work with Betty Grable and
co-star as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family

Related pages of interest:

Animated Characters on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: Bugs Bunny and more

Ducks and Geese in Movies

Movie Quiz Answers Golden Age of Hollywood

The past two articles presented a Movie History quiz. Here are the answers. How well did you do?

1) Director David Wark Griffith invented the close-up, first used 1911. What was it? A wrench! Other characters believed the character was carrying a gun. Some

Rudolph Valentino
& Alla Nazimova in Camille

directors scoffed at the technology. We're paying for an entire actor. Why should we only see part of their body?

2) An iris-in is a photographic trick by which when a scene is shown at first only a small circle appears which grows larger and larger until the picture covers the entire screen.
3) There are sixteen impressions taken by the camera are shown on the screen in a second
4) There are one thousand feet are there in a reel of film
5) $175,000 dollars was the largest sum ever paid for the film rights to a stage play. It was paid by DW Griffith for Way Down East.
6) The names of three women writers given in the 1920 quiz were: Anita Loos, Frances Marion and Ouida Bergere. 

Just a few of the other prominent female screenwriters of the 1920s were June Mathis, Jane Murfin, Jeanie MacPherson, Elinor Glyn, Bess Meredyth, Clara Beranger, Dorothy Farnum, Agnes Christine Johnston, Frances Guihan and Eve Unsell.



7) The woman director given as the answer was Lois Weber. You could add Dorothy Arzner and Alice Guy-Blaché.  Lillian Gish directed her sister Dorothy in the 1920 film Remodeling Her Husband. The costar was Dorothy's husband at the time James Rennie. Cleo Madison and Mabel Normand were among the list of actresses who were directing in the 1920s.

8) Mack Sennett went by the pseudonym Walter Terry



The devices used to create old time radio sound effects were similar to those used behind the scenes of silent movies

9) The man in the photo at right provides sound effects on a variety of devices to enhance silent movies. In the photo, he's operating a wind machine, which

Sound effects man 1922

simulates the sound of a snowstorm or a similar type of weather event. 

**Note: The same sort of machine was used during the making of The Wizard of Oz (1939) to simulate the sound of the tornado.

10) Buster Keaton coined a new word Optience. He suggests we use it instead of the word Audience.  His word refers to people who attend the movie theater vs the stage theater. It's also used to refer to people who attend the movies vs those who listen to the radio.

11) Cecil B. DeMille was called the answer to an extra's prayer.

Open questions 1 through 11 in another tab
 
Also Known As:
12) Charlie Ray, Mary Pickford and Louise Glaum
13) "It may shock you to know that Arline Pretty gurgled in her cradle under that very same name."

Years earlier in 1917, a magazine offered a contest. Fans could win $25. Arline Pretty was looking for a new name. "Star to discard real name and $25 will be given for a new reel one." Guess the studio and/or the star never liked any of the suggestions?

14) Juliet Shelby aka Mary Miles Minter
15) Gilbert Roland and Barry Norton
16) Lucille Le Sueur aka Joan Crawford
17) Anita Dooley aka Nita Naldi
18) Ricardo Cortez, his birth name is Jacob Krantz
19) Mack Sennett, producer
20) James Kirkwood's wife Augusta Appel aka Lila Lee
21) Gladys Smith aka Mary Pickford
22) Lucille Langhanke Astor combined with the given name of Mary
23) It's Talmadge; he is Richard Talmadge born Sylvester Metz, who had been a boy member of the famed acrobats, the Mazetti Troupe.
24) Joel McCrea, because "he is the most slug-nutty person in Hollywood."
25) Joan Crawford (his wife at the time.) He also called her JoJo and she called him DoDo.
26) Theda Bara was the first screen vampire. Her nickname was The Vamp, short for vampire. Bara began making movies in 1914.
 

Alan Roscoe, Theda Bara in Camille.
This 1917 film is considered to be lost.

F. W. Murnau's  German film Nosferatu appeared in 1922. Count Orlok may have been the first cinema vampire, modeled after Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel Dracula.

27) Lewis Joseph Cote aka Lew Cody
28) In 1920 the most famous horse in pictures was Bill Hart's 'Pinto'
29) Actress Carole Lombard married someone named William twice. In 1931 she married actor William Powell. In 1939 she married actor William Clark Gable.

News and Gossip

Lew Ayres and Ginger Rogers
1934

30) Ginger Rogers "was to have started work on a picture last Monday but did not show up. She had left a note pinned to her pillow. 'Dear Mama am going away. I'll be perfectly safe so don't look for me!'"

Her mother contacted the sheriff's department and asked them to search for her. Some of her friends had a hunch that Lew Ayres, her boy-friend knew where she had gone, but he agreed she needed the rest and kept her secret. 

Ginger, resting on a Nevada ranch was surprised to hear over the radio that she had been reported missing and contacted her mother right away. It was February 1934 at the time of her disappearance and Ginger Rogers was twenty-two years old. Rogers and Ayres were married later that same year.

31) "Dainty Lilian Harvey who weighs only 95 pounds can boast the smallest waist in Hollywood exactly nineteen and a half images. However Ginger Rogers who isn't quite as petite as Lilian weighing about one hundred and fifteen pounds comes very close to Lilian's waist measurements and perhaps hers may be called the second smallest."



What about your waist? The Ideal woman's figure through time....

Barbara Stanwyck 1932

32) Barbara Stanwyck was taking time off to try and heal a back injury. "Stanwyck suffered a serious spine injury several years ago which never properly healed. … Barbara's injured spine goes back to the days when she was working in Ten Cents a Dance, released in 1931. It was while making a scene for that picture that she sustained the injury."

By 1934 Stanwyck was nearing 30, she was probably more serious about life and her craft, her future. She had her health and her son to think about.

33) "Constance Bennett was the cause of the quarrel between Gilbert Roland and Clark Gable at a party at the home of Samuel Goldwyn. 

"Roland who escorted Connie to the party took offense at the manner in which Gable spoke to Constance and was quoted as saying angrily to Gable, 'You quit picking on her and pick on me.'

"Clark seemed willing and for a minute it looked like the start of a good old fashioned fist fight, but other movie luminaries present stepped in and calmed the boys.  In the absence of her husband Maquis Henry Falaise who is in China making a picture Roland has been acting as Connie's escort."

Gilbert Roland and Constance Bennett were wed in 1941 and remained married until 1945.

34) Karl Dane who made his first screen hit as the Swede in The Big Parade shot himself on April 14 despondent over his failure to obtain motion picture work.  Dane's body was found surrounded by newspaper and magazine clippings of his former success - cut short by talkies.

35) Helen Vinson was selected the most beautiful Technicolor subject for 1937 by the International Color Camera Club.

36) Dick Powell's contract with Warner Brothers contains a clause saying that Dick is not to marry while said contract is in effect - lest he jeopardize his popularity. Dick scoffs at the danger and wants it taken out.  Dick and Mary Brian have been going together so long that it is possible he wants to marry the girl. 

[It's been suggested that other stars had such clauses in their contracts and that in other cases studios forbade stars from marrying such as in the case of Jean Harlow and William Powell in the 1930s.]

37) Danielle Darrieux was paid to learn English.
38) "Are Herbert Marshall and Gloria Swanson a mutual consolation society? Herbert's marriage to Edna Best once one of filmdom's happiest seems on the verge of a break-up, Gloria's marriage to Michael Farmer is about to end in divorce - and Herbert and Gloria have been night-clubbing together."

39) Alice Faye didn't like stairs.

40) Sigrid Gurie was forbidden by her studio to be seen in public before the release of her first picture. 

Sam Goldwyn's publicity department suggested that she was the Norwegian answer to Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich as she was set to star in The Adventures of Marco Polo. After her debut, news was it "turned out she was from a little farm town of Cucamonga, California."

41) Lily Pons considered the number 13 to be good luck
42) Sue Carol had a phobia of birds, particularly hating their flapping wings.

These quizzes were prevalent and fun in the old magazines and even in the newspapers. They covered a variety of topics. I plan to run more from time to time. You'll find links here.

Open questions 12 - 42 in another tab

Download quiz questions and answers in a PDF file 

Print out for your Hollywood movie party or long car or plane trip. Fun to occupy friends between movies.

Related pages of Interest:

Old Hollywood Stars Thanksgiving Menus Quiz: Match the stars to the menus they served Their traditional Thanksgiving meals 

Retro TV Housekeeper Quiz Eight maids at Christmas not a-milking, Eight Maids at Holiday Time or Any Time

Group games for parties, For old and young: for Christmas, Birthdays, Vintage parlor games for any time of year, movie-inspired

Fake Snow Bringing winter to silent movies: Making snow blizzards in Hollywood California - Includes Way Down East

Keeping time with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor: Gifts of watches and sapphires 1930s

Sources:
Motion Picture 1934
Movie Weekly 1922
Photoplay 1922, 1927, 1938
The Miami News  February 21, 1934
Picture Play Magazine 1920 and 1922
Talking Screen 1930

1920s film star quiz 1930s news gossip

Golden Age Movie Quiz
Questions part two of two

It was the roaring twenties. Movies were silent and still pretty much of a 

Louise Brooks Gallery
Wrapped Canvas

novelty. Twenties Hollywood had its share of gossip and scandal as well as glitz and glamor. Here are more questions from the Twenties and the Thirties to test what you know about the stars of classic movies, the movie stars' names and movie studios. 

This is the era of Jazz, the flappers and vamps, great screen lovers and swashbucklers. For some questions I've placed the exact year it was asked. All are from 1920-1939.

Also Known As:
12) Who are the following: The Best Loved Boy on the Screen,
America's Sweetheart and The Lady of the Peacocks? 
13) What is the real name of actress Arline Pretty?
14) What motion picture star's real name is Juliet Shelby?  
15) Which two Valentino successors are these Luis Alonzo? Alfred de Biraben?  



16) What Black Bottom dance expert first strutted as Lucille Le Sueur?
17) Anita Dooley is a villainous vamp. What's her reel name?    
18) Who are Jack Krantz and Jack Crane?
19) What American is known in England as Walter Terry
20) Whose wife is Augusta Appel? 
21) This is almost too easy. Who is Gladys Smith? 
22) What aristocratic surname does Lucille Langhanke use? 
23) Three girls have the same screen surname Sylvester Mazetti uses. Do you know what this is? 
24) Whose nickname is Slug? (1932)
25) For whom does Douglas Fairbanks Jr have the nickname Billie?
26) Who was the first screen vampire? (1920)
27) What Hollywood he-mannikin started life as Lewis Joseph Cote?
28) Name the most famous horse in pictures? (1920) 
29) How many times did actress Carole Lombard marry a man named William?

Melissa & Doug Pirate Costume
Some of the best costumes around
for your own little swashbucklers

News and Gossip All were asked in 1934 unless stated otherwise.
30) The mother of what movie player asked the police to search for her daughter who had disappeared for several days? 
31) Which feminine motion picture star has the smallest waist in Hollywood? 



Get out your favorite corset, bullet bra and shoulder pads for that party. It's the latest thing in underthings.

32) Why has the popular Barbara Stanwyck retired temporarily from motion picture work? 
33) Who are the two handsome screen heroes who almost came to blows over a blonde movie queen?
34) Which former screen star committed suicide in a fit of despondency over his failure to obtain motion picture work?  
35) Name the actress selected the most beautiful Technicolor subject for 1937 by the International Color Camera Club.

The History and Science of Color Film: From Isaac Newton to the Coen Brothers

 
36) Who is the screen crooner who asked to have the no-marriage clause taken out of his contract with his producing company? 
37) Who did Universal Studio pay more than 40,000 for learning to speak English? (1938)
38) Who has been seen with Herbert Marshall since his wife Edna Best went back to England?

39) This actress has a phobia about stairs. Her latest script is being rewritten for her so she won't have to work on them. (1938)
40) This star was forbidden by her studio to be seen in public before the release of her first picture (1938)

41) Most people regard the number 13 as bad luck. This actress not only considers the number thirteen her good luck number but has the number on her license plates.
42) Birds, particularly with flapping wings irritate this actress frightfully. To see or hear those wings flap almost drives her insane. This fear springs from a bad scare she had as a young child. Who is she? (1930)

** A page to print out questions with the answers will be available. Hand out the quiz at your Oscar party, during a long car trip, your movie themed baby shower, at your next movie party.  Please be kind and rewind. Great conversation starter.

Related Pages of Interest:

Part One of this Quiz: Questions 1 - 11

Movie Quiz Answers

The Impact of Rudolph Valentino

Scenes removed by censors in the early days of censorship; just what lines and images were they removing? 

Barbie Collector 2008 Black Label - Pop Culture Collection
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds Barbie Doll
The answer to No.42 is not Tippi Hedren

Will Barbie hold in her hand a slip of paper that reveals
the name of the person who had the most correct answers?

Customizable Silent Movie Luggage Tag
Attending a festival or screening?  

Classic Movie Soup Bowl, Popcorn, Ice Cream Ice Cream, Snacks Mug 
Classic early image of actors John Barrymore. Theda Bara, Louise Glaum, Pauline Frederick, Antonio Moreno, Douglas Fairbanks (publicity photos taken on Fairbanks' 1918 trip selling war bonds. Also on that trip was Charles Chaplin and Mary Pickford)
  

Movie trivia questions Hollywood 1920s-30s era

Test your film history knowledge
Hollywood Movie Questions 1920s - 1930s

All questions are from quizzes and tests that appeared in 1920s-30s movie magazines.

How well do you know old movies, legendary screen actors and actresses, directors, history? While there may be more than one answer to some of the questions, the answers given will be the answers they gave then. Consider the time period. How much do you know? Do you have to Search/Google the answers? * This is part one. *

Harold Lloyd Filmstrip 1922

Movie Making, the mechanics, trivia from 1920:

1) Who invented the close up?
 
2) What is meant by an iris-in?
 
3) How many impressions taken by the camera are shown on the screen in a second?
 
4) How many feet are there in a reel of film?

5) What is the largest sum ever paid for the film rights to a stage play and for what play was it paid?






Sunset Boulevard 1950, Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim; "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up..."

This man operates machines during the film.
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"
--The Wizard of Oz 

Behind the scenes 1920s - 1930s
6) Name three of the best known women writers of original stories for the

Harold Lloyd Gifts Clothing
Prizes? Customize

screen [1920 Magazine actually gave three names as an answer.]
7) What woman achieved distinction as a motion picture director? (1920 question)
8) What American is known in England as Walter Terry?
9) In the picture above you see a technician who's operating a machine. He uses it during silent films and he is usually offstage. What's the man's job and what exactly does this machine do?
10) In 1922 Buster Keaton is credited with coining the term Optience. What does it mean?
11) This director is called the answer to an extra's prayer because all his pictures call for hordes of extras.

Part Two: More questions:
How well do you know actors' nicknames and real names?
How about gossip and news of the day? 
This is a free movie quiz for your next film party.

Page to print out questions with the answers will be available. Hand out the quiz at your Oscar party, your movie themed baby shower, at the next movie party at your house.


Buster Keaton's locomotive scene from The General, 1927. Nearly unbelievable by today's standards that this was real. How could they re-do it??

GoPro Camera HERO4
Life was different then but there are similarities.
Now we watch movies that friends shot on their GoPro cameras.
We laugh at footage they shot while they forgot the camera was running!
Now we can use software to create things that were impossible in those days.
Is the look better, worse or just different? Impossible to compare?

1920s Flapper
Gatsby Dresses
For that 1920s party, a costume

Related Pages of Interest:

Part two of this quiz: Questions 12-42

Movie Quiz Answers

10 Female Film Producers of the 1910s  

A Good Cry-Off Camera Musicians Help Silent Film Actors Bring Tears