I saw this on Turner Classic Movies "Silent Sunday." For a long time, I have been interested in silent movies (though some are hard to follow for modern viewers--it was after all, another time), but as so many of them are lost, and the survivors are usually hard to find, I've only been exposed, really, to the ones shown on TCM.
I was interested in this one, because of Lon Chaney, interested for 2 reasons; first it's said that it is his personal favorite of the roles he played, and second, this film is one of the few, if not the only, one where Chaney appears as himself (I have never seen that, just Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback, etc).
So this film features Chaney as a marine drill Sergeant, and his big challenge is to turn a reluctant recruit into a marine. There is a romantic complication, (naturally both men like the same gal--gee that even went on in movies back then), and a good amount of action, but the point is (at least what I took away from it) is that while Chaney's character is gruff and tough, he has a good heart.
The only shortcoming to me, was there were only two women in the film Both are quite attractive, of course one is the "good" girl and one is "naughty" (the naughty one was a bit hotter I think). One thing I enjoy about silent movies is, they are a historical record, i.e. you are seeing people, cities, etc as they were in 1914 and so on.
I enjoyed this film a lot. I am hoping that TCM shows silents that are even rarer.
I was interested in this one, because of Lon Chaney, interested for 2 reasons; first it's said that it is his personal favorite of the roles he played, and second, this film is one of the few, if not the only, one where Chaney appears as himself (I have never seen that, just Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback, etc).
So this film features Chaney as a marine drill Sergeant, and his big challenge is to turn a reluctant recruit into a marine. There is a romantic complication, (naturally both men like the same gal--gee that even went on in movies back then), and a good amount of action, but the point is (at least what I took away from it) is that while Chaney's character is gruff and tough, he has a good heart.
The only shortcoming to me, was there were only two women in the film Both are quite attractive, of course one is the "good" girl and one is "naughty" (the naughty one was a bit hotter I think). One thing I enjoy about silent movies is, they are a historical record, i.e. you are seeing people, cities, etc as they were in 1914 and so on.
I enjoyed this film a lot. I am hoping that TCM shows silents that are even rarer.