"In the Beginning" is the appropriate, if uninspired, title of the second episode in Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's superlative documentary on the American silent film, "Hollywood." The episode explores factors that prompted the budding U.S. film industry to move from Fort Lee, New Jersey, west to California and details the emergence of Hollywood as a community and the center of film-making. Cecil B. DeMille's daughter, Agnes DeMille, provides fascinating anecdotes and details of life in early Hollywood, and, not surprisingly, her father's 1914 film, "The Squaw Man," was the first feature made in Hollywood.
Brownlow and Gill illustrate the rise of movie stardom and fan worship through newsreels of the crowds attracted by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks on their foreign travels, and they show the growing cultural influence of Hollywood stars such as Colleen Moore, the flapper in "Flaming Youth," whose straight hair and bangs revolutionized women's hair styles. The engrossing interviews include not only Colleen Moore and Agnes DeMille, but also actresses Leatrice Joy and Lillian Gish, stunt man Harvey Parry, writer Anita Loos, and directors Allan Dwan and Henry King. Producer Hal Roach touches on the rise of the opulent movie palaces, although the subject deserves a stand-alone documentary, and four big-budget spectacles are generously excerpted: D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance," Cecil B. DeMille's "Joan the Woman," and Douglas Fairbanks's "Robin Hood" and "The Thief of Bagdad."
The contribution of composer Carl Davis to the series cannot be underestimated. From his nostalgic-romantic opening theme to the accompaniment of the various film clips, Davis's score is appropriate and memorable. Not surprisingly, Davis has subsequently composed scores for such restored silent classics as "Napoleon," "The General," and "Ben Hur, A Tale of the Christ." As with the series as a whole, viewers can argue the subjective inclusion or exclusion of specific films and individuals, and they can bemoan the superficial glance at subjects that deserve more depth, but those are small quibbles about an invaluable documentary that preserves so much about a period in film history that was quickly fading from living memories when it was made.
Brownlow and Gill illustrate the rise of movie stardom and fan worship through newsreels of the crowds attracted by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks on their foreign travels, and they show the growing cultural influence of Hollywood stars such as Colleen Moore, the flapper in "Flaming Youth," whose straight hair and bangs revolutionized women's hair styles. The engrossing interviews include not only Colleen Moore and Agnes DeMille, but also actresses Leatrice Joy and Lillian Gish, stunt man Harvey Parry, writer Anita Loos, and directors Allan Dwan and Henry King. Producer Hal Roach touches on the rise of the opulent movie palaces, although the subject deserves a stand-alone documentary, and four big-budget spectacles are generously excerpted: D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance," Cecil B. DeMille's "Joan the Woman," and Douglas Fairbanks's "Robin Hood" and "The Thief of Bagdad."
The contribution of composer Carl Davis to the series cannot be underestimated. From his nostalgic-romantic opening theme to the accompaniment of the various film clips, Davis's score is appropriate and memorable. Not surprisingly, Davis has subsequently composed scores for such restored silent classics as "Napoleon," "The General," and "Ben Hur, A Tale of the Christ." As with the series as a whole, viewers can argue the subjective inclusion or exclusion of specific films and individuals, and they can bemoan the superficial glance at subjects that deserve more depth, but those are small quibbles about an invaluable documentary that preserves so much about a period in film history that was quickly fading from living memories when it was made.