Thursday, June 25, 2009

Douglas Fairbanks book




I just re-watched 1930's Norma Shearer lump of gold The Divorcee (see previous post), but now with commentaries by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta - and that may be one of the best commentary tracks I've ever listened to. They were so talanted, youthful, hilarious and had a great chemistry. I say - take a look at it! I am of course talking about the DVD box set Forbidden Hollywood Collection volume two.

Since I'm a part of this young Internet generation, I simply had to google these guys. First I came over their IMDb profiles (written by each other, how cute), and then found my way to their blog Two Modern Guys in Classic Hollywood. Candy!




And that's were I get to the Douglas Fairbanks part of this ordeal - they obviously not too long time ago write a biography about Douglas Fairbanks (names quite simply "Douglas Fairbanks"), and before that Jeffrey Vance has written the biographies "Chaplin: Genius of Cinema", "Buster Keaton Remembered" and "Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian". (Take a look at their short presentation text at the bottom of their blog, fascinating. How do you become a film historian when you're just a little lass from Sweden?)

My point is: How can that book (and the others, for that matter) be anything but totally awesome? I just ordered Mick Lasalle's honoured book "Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood" - but I guess my next order will be something Vance/Maietta related.

Here's a trailer I snatched from their blog:




Don't Tom Cruise look awefully plastic? And why the Backstreet Boys haircut? The pretty faces of United Artists are probably gone forever...


2 comments:

Christopher said...

I watched The Iron Mask again just the other night..Fairbanks does his farewell ..Its a great little film and highly entertaining..and a little sad..

Lolita of the Classics said...

Christopher:
It's a great film! The first Fairbanks film I owned on DVD, actually - and one of the absolutely first silents I saw!