Cinematic Era: 1927 Vintage

General views of everyday life for Greenland Inuits, showing them kayaking, fishing etc.

A Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes short

This collection captures the duo’s earliest (mis)adventures on screen, chronicling their journey from their first films together – The Lucky Dog and the aptly titled 45 Minutes to Hollywood – to the dawn of their official partnership in thirteen shorts released throughout 1927. From Duck Soup and Sailors Beware! to Do Detectives Think?, Putting Pants on Philip and The Battle of the Century (once available only in incomplete versions until its missing scenes were rediscovered in 2015), these films show the development of two independent comedians into the most influential and celebrated comedy duo of all time.

A lost short film.

"The Ancient City of Corsairs" is Emile Gaudu's first professional film. He offers us a guided tour of the built heritage of Saint Malo and then takes us to the preparation of the annual Terre Neuvas campaign.

Farmer Al Falfa is a patrolman rollerskating through the park. A day of misadventures climaxes with a monkey stealing his clothes.

The orphaned Eva flees from her harsh foster mother, who wants to marry her off to the suitor Berg. By pure chance, she ends up with the barber Kummersen, who has his own struggles to deal with: A Bolshevik apprentice with a large, dripping nose, an old intrusive housekeeper, and above all, a missing hundred kroner note for the rent. Nevertheless, he takes pity on Eva and accepts her as an apprentice, since the previous one had left in fury. To avoid upsetting the old housekeeper, Eva must disguise herself as a boy, and from here the story takes many unexpected twists and turns. (Stumfilm.dk)

Hungary as a picturesque country: old farms, spinning and weaving, goose keeping, shepherds, oxen, sheep, the market, traditional costume (Sunday, church), making costumes: embroidery, pattern drawing, traditional wedding with czardas dances. In the cities recordings of industry, traffic, the production of a traditional embroidery and Budapest.

After the florist dies, good people take in her daughter. She grows into a beautiful girl and becomes a dancer. Three men fall in love with her at the same time, each of them representing different character traits, and their material position is also different. The first is a count - a low-life, whose advances the girl quickly rejects. The second is a wealthy doctor, a mature and upright man, with whom the girl becomes engaged. There is also a third - a poor painter, a friend of childhood years. At some point the girl becomes convinced that it is the painter who loves her with his one and only love. So she returns the ring to the doctor, gives up her prosperity and decides to bind her poor but happy future to the painter.

Based on an erotic short story, the film tells the story of a boy who meets a beautiful lover. It turns out that the mysterious girl is the ghost of a woman who died two years ago.

Harry B. Parkinson (1884-1970) was a prolific producer and director of “interest films”, mostly remembered for his suppressed The Life Story of Charlie Chaplin (1926) and for his films of London life. In addition he made some imaginative sing-along films, with variations of the bouncing-ball technique. This example, from the “Syncopated Melodies” series, illustrates a popular song of 1926, one of approximately 600 written by the sheet music publisher Lawrence Wright (1888-1964) under the nom-de-plume of Horatio Nicholls.

The song “Barcelona” was written in 1925 by Tolchard Evans (music) and Gus Kahn (lyrics). This was the first in H.B. Parkinson’s series of 12 “Syncopated Melodies”. At the end of the film the audience is requested to join in.

A corporate film with compilation shots in which Stork’s machinery is advertised. Hengelo, eastern Netherlands.

Documentary about the Staatsmijnen (state mines) in Limburg, Netherlands.

Report about the transfer of the administration of the Dutch East Indies from Governor-General D. Fock to A.C.D. de Graeff on 7 September, 1926.

A short film by the renowned painter Edvard Munch which is currently viewable at the Munch museum in Oslo. The film depicts several street scenes from both Oslo and Dresden and is of an experimental nature.

A silent film, Xin Ke (The Immigrant) is the story of a newcomer (played by Zheng Chaoren) to Singapore from mainland China, living in a mansion of wealthy relatives, unfamiliar with the customs of Southeast Asia (Malaya and Singapore), suffering and being excluded everywhere. After his own efforts, he is finally accepted and loved.

A street corner fast-pitch salesman for something called "Hoak" stops a girl walking by to give his spiel.

The law man's sole daughter and knows who she should marry. But she has fallen in love during a trip to the capitol.

Cartoon short.

Cartoon short.

Felix is after Peaches, a sexy female cat whom he spots skating on the pond.

The execution of the man who committed a deadly attack against the President of the Republic of Bolivia is recounted.

A look at the life of the Evenki people, formerly known as the Tungus, indigenous to North Asia.

This technically ambitious short fiction film utilized actors from the Rochester Community Players, and was shot on locations across Rochester, including Britton Field, now the Rochester International Airport. Kodak screened it for customers at sales conventions, and it proved to be the perfect finale to Gleason’s film career-- A tale of a handsome aviator (and not a sportsman) returning home and finding love. The unofficial “Godmother of Amateur Filmmaking,” Gleason wrote "Scenario Writing and Producing for the Amateur" in 1929.

Government film on national park road building

A rich girl is not allowed to get married with commoner, Per, by her mother.

Directed by Frank E. Kleinschmidt, Primitive Love follows the daily struggles of an Eskimo family during the harsh winter.

At the beginning, Thirty Years of Motion Pictures (The March of the Movies) was merely a presentation/lecture given by Otto Nelson at two National Board of Review conferences, in 1925 and 1926, under the title Early History and Growth of the Motion Picture Industry. These proved so successful that work on a film version began, with historian Terry Ramsaye (who around the same time published the seminal study A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture) coming onboard the production.

Kiddie gang wars at the Fox lot.

The McDougall Kids go to the park to play.

The McDougall Kids play American Football.

Only a fragment of this film survives (175m from the original 1820m).

An early animated Song Car-Tune from the Fleischer Studios.

Three musical numbers performed by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians for Vitaphone.

Churches, residences, an undertaker, and unidentified locations mainly in Indianapolis, IN; Denison, TX; New Orleans, LA; Nashville, TN; and Memphis, TN.

Bernardo De Pace, known as "The Wizard of the Mandolin," plays several tunes, including "Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna" and "That's Why I Love You."

British documentary.

When a beautiful princess escapes from the ink bottle, only to be captured by a villainous knave, Max draws a stove which he has Ko-Ko use as armor, inflates Fitz into a destrier and sends them off in a deed of daring-do.

Nadia de Hock breaks her engagement to another man because of her love to the marquis d'Areghi. She lives a life of pleasure until Areghi reveals he is just an adventurer who has just killed his brother. He asks her to sign a letter so he can use her as his alibi. Some time later, Areghi is attacked by Nadia's guard dogs as he tries to see her. He dies as she forgives him for the pain he caused her.

An ironic comedy to the sports world about the corrupt gears of football. As goalkeeper, figure a dwarf...

Giovanni Martinelli & Louis D'Angelo in a Duet from Act IV of the Opera 'La juive'.

Giovanni Martinelli singing 'Va prononcer la mort' from Act IV of the Opera 'La juive'.

John Charles Thomas (1891-1960) was a celebrated American baritone. Here is an early 1927 Vitaphone film of him singing two songs.

The editorialist of The World, newspaper of the "capital of yanquilandia", needs to look for evidence to free himself from an accusation of slander, for an editorial in which it was stated that Teodoro Rooselvelt, artificer of the separation of Panama, could not run for reelection as president of the USA because he had breached an international treaty. Therefore, several detectives are sent to Colombia to locate evidence of this treaty. One of the sleuths is Patterson, an ambiguous man in love with Berta, the daughter of a modest employee of the Colombian consulate in the city of skyscrapers.

Filmed by Manuel Morales.

Filmed by Manuel Morales.

Filmed by José Avilés, a photographer "who started the business and is very well known in the press." The film shows the various buildings, gardens, sports fields, and halls of the Lawn Tennis Club of the Exposition, as well as the aristocratic clientele who frequented the club.

The film opens with the parade of carriages and pedestrians heading to the National Stadium on the opening day of the tournament. Next, the members of the delegations, sports authorities, spectators, and teams participating in the championship appear on screen. Then come the matches and their exciting moments, with some scenes from our footballers' training in Ancón shown on the screen beforehand. The captions, well-written and engaging, were created by our colleague, Mr. Luis Palma, sports editor of the leading newspaper.

Musical tribute and wreath-laying at the statue of Piet Hein in Rotterdam (in the fog).