miyamoto Reviews

La maison du mystère (1923)

Tremendous innovative silent serial

[10/10 · 1 June 2004]

The scope of the film, covering over 18 years, deserves to be treated as a serial. Essentially a murder mystery with the gardener, an amateur photographer, taking a picture of a murder The murder is seen reflected in the lens of his camera.

Naturally an innocent man is arrested - and convicted of the murder.

There is a tremendously innovative wedding sequence, filmed as though it were a zoetrope.

The film shown at MOMA was tinted. With 150 people present, the audience began clapping at the end of chapter 3 and didn't stop until the final chapter.

La maison du mystère (1923)

A murder mystery romance tale covering about 20 years

[10/10 · 2 July 2003]

An art film shot as a serial. An imaginative wedding scene shot in silhouette, begins a tale of murder blackmail and romance covering a period of about 18 years, ending around 1923. The film had the MOMA audience breaking out into applause at the end of each chapter, starting from about chapter 3. At the June 28, 2003 showing at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, only 2 people left of the 150 people who came to see the film, and they came back to see the end of the film. A remarkable feat since the film ran over 7 hours. The film was projected at 22 frames per second. At a 16 frame per second speed the film takes over 9 hours to view.

Although not a standard cliffhanger type serial, the storyline is so intriguing that the audience came back early from the two intermissions.

Ghost of Zorro (1949)

Fair serial - routine except for Clayton Moore

[5/10 · 26 May 2002]

The standard plot and acting are acceptable but the fight scenes lack the excitement of the earlier Republic serials because they are not under-cranked. Even the runaway coach scenes (the same shot repeated twice in the same serial for two different chases) are relatively unexciting. The shooting angles don't provide a sense of motion. Just look at the Lone Ranger serial by Republic and compare the riding scenes in the earlier serial to this one.

Best thing about the serial is George J. Lewis, playing a good guy.

Fantomas: The Man in Black (1913)

Chapter 2 of Fantomas (1913)

[8/10 · 29 December 2000]

Although I have seen the film listed as about 43 minutes long, the version which I have seen runs about 2 hours long. Which version have the others seen? Obviously, a masterpiece when seen with the rest of the Fantomas serial.

Greed (1924)

A marvellous adaptation of the novel, "McTeague" by Frank Norris.

[10/10 · 23 June 1999]

A masterpiece which,even in its edited version retains the flavour of the gritty novel by Norris. It is too bad the complete version has been lost but what remains, the studio's version, retains some of the greatness of what must have been in the full version.

The Real Howard Spitz (1998)

Relatively enjoyable family film with an inept film score.

[5/10 · 2 February 1999]

the film would have been enhanced by a better musical score. At times, the score worked against the mood of the film. And at other times, was silent when some mood cue was required.