Where Bootlegs are (Were) Best #3

Boots No More ... but Still: Chaney and Ford Legit ... and Not

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (1924) --- Stop presses. He Who Gets Slapped is no longer a bootleg. Not that it has been for a good many years now, Warner Archive having released a standard DVD, then Flicker Alley with a Blu-Ray culled from better preservation materials than Warner had. Latter owned the title thanks to acquisition of the Metro library, all of silents now Public Domain, us enabled to exploit entirety of the era at will. Unfortunates who got Slapped decades ago were those who dared copy classics even where ownership cared nothing of their assets except to harass those who loved forgotten films and sought to share them. How refreshing then to see He Who Gets Slapped and ones like it please fans willing to spend for silents. He Who Gets Slapped was of sort you’d lure out back door of archives or via those with illicit access to holdings of same. I knew such freebooters and bless their memory. If you wanted Chaney apart from the Phantom or Hunchback, these were sole sources, no question asked but how much? It seems an ongoing violation to be in legitimate possession of He Who Gets Slapped, so once forbidden was it and others akin. Flicker Alley has been Blu-Ray supplier of much from pre-talk epoch. Their Foolish Wives was a miracle I never imagined for what seemed worst distressed among Stroheims. He Who Gets Slapped happened thanks to Flicker Alley not having to rely on Warners, quality source being Blackhawk in latter-day ownership and improving on what went before. What a treat to see the Blackhawk logo on back of Flicker’s box, a reminder of that company being around since before most of us were born. He Who Gets Slapped made history as the first feature following merge of Metro, the Goldwyn company, and Louis Mayer’s independent firm. Slapped stars in addition to Chaney were Norma Shearer and John Gilbert, but of the trio Chaney stayed ripest fruit.

Note Chaney Chair Gifted to Him By "Working Staff" on He Who Gets Slapped ... No Actors, Just Crew Signatures ... Shows How Popular Chaney Was With Those Like Him Who Labored for a Living.

What is it about him that fascinated,  fascinates still? Maybe aspects of life that torment his characters bedevil us yet, Chaney drama touching deepest it seems. What slows us walloped him. He Who Gets Slapped is of one man’s utter humiliation, profound so as to change identities and bury his once accomplished self. How many today could drop out so completely? Fewer now I’d guess, the 20’s a time when a spouse and/or father could ditch obligations and start fresh way far else (see William Desmond Taylor). Who of us have considered such a radical move? Wouldn’t work so well what with drones observing and who knows what/whom else. Remember “grass widows”? None of these so long as Google thrives, let alone AI. Lon Chaney’s “Paul Beaumont” could slip quietly away and watchers circa 1924 not only believed it but could emulate him given similar circumstance. Surely harder pulling off serious crimes nowadays, so guess I’ll forget looting the Louvre. He Who Gets Slapped was based on downer premise from a Russian novelist thought avant-garde, his a hit to succeed on stage and the movie. Beaumont, aka “He,” was cream to cat that was Chaney, Beaumont hauling near weight of Quasimodo’s hump, revenge upon stealer of science research plus wife delayed till bloodthirsty finish Chaney fans waited patiently for. Certain and specific insults to mind, body or both were what Chaney followers expected, him zeroed in on darkest corner of onlooker psyches. This was a reason, maybe the best of them, why Chaney topped attendance polls. So long as our sufferings seemed incalculable, then so will his till point of getting even or ennobling death. There was no other actor so readily identified with. We’d not realistically hope to be a Gilbert or Fairbanks, but Chaney … anytime, all the time. Whatever privacy he insisted upon offscreen was accommodated, this a least we could do to show appreciation for what he toiled so mightily to give us.

SALUTE (1929) --- What we, we as in ones separate from archival holdings, have on Salute is dubs off dubs off dubs made from an AMC broadcast (their John Ford tribute) of thirty at least years ago when fans kept VCR’s always at the ready to record on cassette films they might never have opportunity to see again. That wouldn’t be case for classics that turned up and often in sparkling quality, Salute and others like it gone down ratholes from which they’d not peek apart from DVD from collector to collector or You Tube now that PD status finds Salute all over the Net, transfers still circa AMC past and blurry for most part (most? I haven’t found one yet that was passable). AMC’s print looks to have been 16mm, cue marks throughout for commercial TV insertions, George Eastman House credited as source. Is this the best GEH has, or do other archives also have Salute? Whatever … it’ll pass on a small enough screen, and it is Salute after all, a rarity among John Fords and surprisingly ignored or dismissed by his chroniclers. Odd taste that is mine likes it however, and though I never attended military academy, there is still romance of same that makes me almost wish I had (not really … would they have let me stay up to watch Shock Theater?). Ford’s Navy geekdom might have started here, nothing about the institution he doesn’t revere, even hazing as imposed by beginners Ward Bond and John Wayne which seems cruel in the extreme, or maybe that’s because we are all such sissies now. This was a first time Wayne got to talk onscreen, him in and out of groups, getting words in where he can. It sure took Ford a long time to recognize what an asset he had in Wayne, but look how nasty he got when Raoul Walsh did the overdue job of “discovering” Duke. Wouldn’t speak to Wayne for years after. Not sure I could have stayed friends long with a personality like Ford’s.

Ward Bond lends ape-like appeal to chief bully part, softens later to almost a regular guy. He was said to have pushed his way onto a bus headed for location, Bond recalled by all as a guy who could not be insulted despite many trying, was never embarrassed for being oblivious to possibility of it. A happy life Ward must have had as result … how does one get hurt where unconscious of those who’d try? Bond never met a twenty-four ounce steak he didn’t like and drank others not under tables, but floors. Add nonstop smoking and cue early exit (Ford’s mourning was profound). Wonder if the by-then “old man” regretted in hindsight making fun of Ward. “Old man” thing baffles me, as Ford was younger than me when he did his last, Seven Women. Didn’t take as much to hang old tag on folks then, men and women, unhealthy habits getting premature job done. Salute was shot mostly at Annapolis, thus authenticity re training and drills. Might they yet have a print from days showing Salute to incoming plebes? Bet you could ask a hundred and draw that many blanks, sort of like when we went to Williamsburg the last time and I inquired of lots if they recalled the Perry Como holiday 1978 special shot there in entirety, John Wayne Perry’s guest and checking out historic sites, talking to staff plus guests. You’d think from now it never happened. George O’Brien is putative star of Salute, but he’s gone for long stretches where focus is instead on William Janney and Helen Chandler. Lee Tracy as sport announcer along with director colleague of Ford’s at Fox David Butler get a look-in, Salute culminating with the big Army-Navy game where it looks like a hundred thousand easy in attendance. I watched that mass of cheering humanity and thought, all gone now. And look how exuberant they are for an event to now raise more chill than cheers.