If David Gill and Kevin Brownlow never did anything else but this 13 episode documentary on the silent era in film, their contribution would always be remembered. In fact they did much more. And to cap it all, they produced probably the penultimate documentary on the transition to sound in film.
If you have "The Jazz Singer" DVD set from 2007, then you have a museum in a box on the subject, but it is largely Warner and Vitaphone centric. The opening of the documentary makes it clear that sound was never a problem with the movies - they had "sound effects men" for gun shots, creaking doors, etc. and orchestras accompanying films for music. A musical number from Warner Brothers' "So This is Paris" (1926) saliently makes that point. What the movies could not do was supply sound synchronized to the spoken word.
All of the efforts at sound film starting with Edison in about 1910 and going forward are discussed. The problem was not as easy to solve as Edison initially thought, and although solutions were found by the 1920s, the major studios weren't biting. Some solutions had problems with adequate amplification, others had problems with requiring a static camera. All of the studios save two took the pledge to keep sound out. William Fox adopted Ted Case's method of sound on film and had movietone newsreels as early as 1927, but kept films silent. It was little Warner Brothers, always the runt of the litter, that decided to adopt Vitaphone in their feature films and ultimately change the industry and their own financial fortunes.
As much as The Jazz Singer is famous, though, it was the second sound film Al Jolson did for Warner Brothers a year later - "The Singng Fool" - that caused the other studios to realize that the era of silent film had come to a close. And that is ironic, because in the words of RIchard Barrios on "Fool" - "What is this film that makes The Jazz Singer look like Ibsen?".
There is much about how the transition was so uncertain. Actors and actresses, in their 20s and 30s at the time, found it hard to believe that they had become dinosaurs overnight. Many acting in Hollywood could barely speak English, and they returned to their home countries. Emil Jannings did so after winning the first Academy Award for best actor in a silent performance. However, many passed their "sound tests" with the studios only to be rejected by audiences five or so years into the transition in favor of new faces that had arrived on the scene.
The interviews with people who lived through the transition and even succeeded for a few years are included - Mary Astor, Frank Capra, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Bessie Love, Lillian Gish, Ben Lyon - all have their humorous and personal stories to tell. Viola Dana - Buster Keaton's first true love, but that's another story - has a humorous tale to tell about Edison's Kinetophone. And Charles Buddy Rogers talks about how he, Dick Arlen, and Gary Cooper over at Paramount were so relieved to pass their sound tests. Rogers, looking healthy and hale here in his 70s, has an ironic contribution. He passed the sound test, even did some successful film work for a few years, but was one of those actors ultimately crowded out by the new faces.
The saddest tales were of the unnamed people in industries that became extinct. There were 32K orchestra musicians employed in the film industry in theaters throughout America in 1928. Just four years later there were only four thousand. The title writers are not mentioned, but they probably met a similar fate.
The closing of the episode uses the final scene from Douglas Fairbanks' "The Iron Mask" to poignantly illustrate the end of the silent era. I'd be surprised if it doesn't choke you up a bit.
Highly recommended.
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