Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Movies are Murder CMBA Blogathon - The Canary Murder Case (1929) part 2

  

 As the theme of this year's CMBA (Classic Movie Blog Association) blogathon is "Movies are Murder," the Louise Brooks Society join's in with a post devoted to the celebrated 1929 film,
The Canary Murder Case.


Things you may or may not have known about 1929 film, The Canary Murder Case, starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, Louise Brooks, James Hall, Eugene Pallette and Gustav von Seyffertitz. Production on the film took place between September 11 and October 12, 1928 at Paramount’s studio in Hollywood. Sound retakes took place on December 19, 1928.

The film was initially shot as a silent, and shortly thereafter reworked for sound. The film's credited director is Malcolm St. Clair – although retakes for the sound version were directed by Frank Tuttle. (Both had worked with Louise Brooks in the past.) The sound version was listed at 7 reels (7,171 feet) or 80 minutes – while the silent version was listed at 7 reels (reported as 5,843 feet). Both versions are extant. (The silent version, so far unreleased on home video, is said to be the better film.)

Look-alike actress Margaret Livingston, who would marry bandleader Paul Whiteman in 1931, was the uncredited, body and voice double for Louise Brooks in sound version.


 S.S. Van Dine, the author of the novel on which the film was based, is the pseudonym used by art critic Willard Huntington Wright (1888 – 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was an important figure in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-WWI New York, and under the pseudonym (which he originally used to conceal his identity) he created the once immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance, a sleuth and aesthete who first appeared in books in the 1920s, then in movies and on the radio in the following decades.

— Willard Huntington Wright’s brother was the American avant-garde painter Stanton Macdonald-Wright. Willard’s portrait, painted by his brother in 1914, hangs in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. (link to portrait)

Wright was one of the best-selling authors in the United States. The Canary Murder Case was the second book in a popular series featuring Vance — though the film made from it was the first in a series to feature the character. William Powell revived his role as Vance in four additional films, including The Greene Murder Case, released later in 1929. Other actors who played Vance include Basil Rathbone and Edmund Lowe.

— S.S. van Dine’s novel was loosely inspired by / based on the real-life murder of showgirl Dot King, which was never solved. King was among those nicknamed “Broadway Butterflies.” (George Kibbe Turner, who wrote the story "The Street of the Forgotten Men," the basis for Brooks' first film, also wrote a series of stories about Broadway Butterflies.)

— Glenn Wilson, a Federal investigator attached to the bureau of criminal investigation for Los Angeles county, reportedly served as an adviser on the film.

— Louise Brooks was especially popular in Japan in the late 1920s. And those films in which she played a modan gāru, or modern girl, proved to be a success. Not suprisingly, The Canary Murder Case was a HUGE hit in Japan, where it opened in April 1929 at the Hogaku-Za Paramount Theatre in Toyko as part of a double bill with the UFA film, Metropolis. (Imagine that!)


— In a 1931 article on the cinema in Singapore, the New York Times notes that “Asiatics love the gangster film, but very few are shown, owing to the censorship regulations which bar gun battles and will not tolerate an actual ‘kill’ on the screen. The first cuts made before they decide to ban all films of this type were very clumsy and made a mystery story a bigger mystery than ever. For instance, in the Canary Murder Case.”

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand, Trinidad, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).

Elsewhere, The Canary Murder Case was shown under the title Die Stimme aus dem Jenseits (Austria); O drama de uma noite (Brazil); El Crimen de la Canaria (Cuba); Die Stimme aus dem Jenseits and Kanárkový vražedný prípad (Czechoslovakia) and Hlas Ze Záhrobí (Slovakia); Die Stimme Aus Dem Jensits (Danzig); Hvem dræbte Margaret O’Dell? (Denmark); De Kanarie Moordzaak (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Hääl teisest maailmast and Hääl teisest ilmast (Estonia); Salaperainen Rikos and Ett hemlighetsfullt brott and Det hemlighetsfulla brottet (Finland); Le meurtre du Canari (France); Die Stimme Aus Dem Jensits (Germany); Kandari Gyilkosság and Gyilkossag a szailoban (Hungary); La canarina assassinata and Il caso della canarina assassinata (Italy); カナリヤ殺人事件 (Japan); 카나리아 머더 케이스 (Korea); De Kanarie Moordzaak (The Netherlands); I Kanarifuglens Garn and I fristerinnens garn (Norway); Kryyk z za Swlatow (Poland); Die stimme aus dem Jenseits (Poland, German language publication); O Drama duma Noite (Portugal); Kdo je morilec? (Slovenia); ¿Quién la mató? (Spain, including The Canary Islands); Midnattsmysteriet (Sweden); and Дело об убийстве канарейки (U.S.S.R.).


A previous post, Movies are Murder CMBA Blogathon - The Canary Murder Case (1929) part 1, had appeared on November 7 at  9:29 am.

The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Need help translating table of contents of Japanese film book with a chapter possibly about Louise Brooks and Clara Bow

 

I need help translating the table of contents of a Japanese film book from the late 1920s. If I understand correctly, one of the 30 chapters from this book concerns Clara Bow and Louise Brooks!  Can anyone read these chapters titles and tell me if I at all correct. Normally, while looking through non-English books or magazines, I can usually depend on visual guide posts like images or the occasional English word or name. But, there were no such guideposts in this particular book. If I am right, and the right chapter can be identified, then I can have it translated.

Clara Bow and Louise Brooks were the subject of a near "cult-like" following in Japan in the late 1920s. Hence, my interest in this book. The table of contents comes from Shinema no ABC (ABC's of Cinema), a 1928 book by Tadashi Iijima. I managed to get a hold of a reprint of this significant early work of film criticism. For mnore information, HERE is an interesting link to a history of film criticism in Japan.


Friday, March 12, 2021

Louise Brooks depicted in a 1930 Japanese magazine

I wonder if anyone can tell me something more about this four page article. It appeared in a Japanese magazine devoted to proletariat issues in 1930. Is it about Louise Brooks, who is pictured, or is it, more likely, about left-leaning director G. W. Pabst? Is the piece complete? I think so, but am not sure. Any and all help would be appreciated. Double-click on a page to make it bigger.

 
Lately, I have been working on a chapter in my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which is titled "Louise Brooks as modan gāru." Brooks was popular in Japan in the late 1920s. In fact, as I reveal in the book, Japan was the only country outside of Europe were Brooks three European films were shown around the time of their release!

Monday, April 29, 2019

Today: Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box screens on Isle of Wight / Love Em and Leave Em in Japan

Later today, the sensational 1929 Louise Brooks' film Pandora's Box will be shown on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. This 7:45 pm screening will take place at the at the Ryde Academy, Pell Lane PO33 3LN. More information about this event may be found HERE.


Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Pandora's Box was released in 1929. It features Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts, and Daisy D'Ora.

Running time: 105 minutes. Category: PG

Dr Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner) keeps Lulu (Louise Brooks) as his mistress, but does not like it when the worm turns. Lulu faces injustice when fear of damage to his reputation gets in the way of Ludwig doing right by her. Unsurprisingly, Ludwig is already engaged to be married to Charlotte (Daisy D'Ora), a woman of his own social class. But Lulu relishes life, a survivor in a failing, repressive society, while those around her are victim to their own delusions and fixations.

Ryde Film Club's monthly screenings are now at Ryde Academy, Pell Lane PO33 3LN. Ample parking and disabled access. Admission: £5 for RFC members, £7 guests.


Pandora's Box is going through a major revival in the UK. The previous day, the acclaimed film was shown in a medieval church in York, England. Read about that event HERE. Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box? Visit the Louise Brooks Society website as well as its Pandora's Box filmography page.

LAST MINUTE UPDATE:

I just found out that the 1926 Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em will be showing in Japan later today. Here are the details:

【SILENT FILM PIANO LIVE】 Love’em and Leave’em (1926) 《Date & Time》 April, 29, 2019, 3:00pm 《Location》 Planet+1 (Nakazaki2-3-12, Kita-Ku, Osaka) 《Live Music performed by》 Ryo Torikai(Piano) 《Fee》 ¥1500 (student/¥1300, under20/¥800)


Monday, February 25, 2019

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before

I have been working day and night on my latest book project, Around the World with Louise Brooks: the making of an international star. And as of today, I have nearly 550 pages completed, and hope to have the book finished in a few months. Perhaps because I have been so focused on this project, last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before.

Onchi Koshiro "Movie Theater (Hogaku-za)" 1929 *

I dreamed I was at a screening of the lost Louise Brooks' film A Social Celebrity (1926). Since it is lost, no one today really knows what the film "looked like." But there I was in my dream, viewing whole scenes and anxiously wondering how to record what I had seen. What was this dream, this fevered pitch? Was A Social Celebrity somehow transmitted to me through our collective unconsciousness and through time? If so, who sent this dream to me?



A street scene is vivid in memory, though I don't know that there is any sort of street scene in that particular film. There is such a scene in The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), and perhaps in my dream logic I was conflating the two early Brooks' movies. I have seen that earlier film, and recently came across a remarkable foreign clipping depicting a production still (depicting a street) taken during the making of The Street of Forgotten Men. Below is that production shot. I wonder who the solitary, short haired young women might be in the lower center of the image? Standing apart, day dreaming....



* The print shown above was made by the Japanese artist Onchi Koshiro. It depicts a woman on a movie screen inside the Hogaku-za movie theatre in Toyko. The work is dated 1929, the same year that The Canary Murder Case was shown to great acclaim in that very theatre. Koshiro once said "Art is not to be understood by the mind but by the heart." I think the same can be said for dreams.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Louise Brooks Oddities #8

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found a few days ago. The two images come from a Japanese film magazine and date from late 1929. Can anyone translate the text? I realize the images are a little rough, but this is the best quality available of these incredibly rare finds.

I am assuming that Brooks, and Pabst and Brooks, posed especially for these pictures in order to send a message to their Japanese fans. At least that is the way it looks to me. Brooks is even smiling in the right hand images, as if it were all a joke. The source of these images, and their context, will be revealed at a later date.

Might the chalkboards spell out their names? Or something else?

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

A silent film mystery from Japan

I came across this image in a 1927 Japanese movie magazine, but can't figure out what or who it is. Can anyone help? I don't think it is Louise Brooks. Nevertheless, it is a very striking image who or whatever it turns out to be. Thanks in advance.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Louise Brooks - Her historic appearance in Japan

Lately, I've been reading Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan, by Hideaki Fujiki (Harvard University Asia Center). It is a fascinating scholarly work that looks at the way movie stars were "made" in Japan in the Teens, Twenties, and Thirties.

By "made" is meant the way their personas were presented and copied by those both in and outside the film world. This book covers Japanese stars of the time, as well as American stars and how they helped shape Japanese youth culture. It girl Clara Bow figures prominently as leading type of "modern girl" (the Japanese term for a flapper). Louise Brooks also figures in this a recommended book.

In Japan, Bow and Brooks was considered Moga (short for modan gāru, or "modern girl"). The term first appeared in 1923, and wasn't connected with any particular star. Soon enough, however, critics began to associate the "modern girl" type with certain American stars such as Brooks, Colleen Moore, and especially Bow. (Conversely, Mary Pickford, Janet Gaynor, and Lilian Gish were seen as an "old type.")

Eigagaku nyūmon (1928)
The fame these American actresses enjoyed in Japan was such that young women were reported to have modeled themselves after both Bow and Brooks. Critics in the late 1920s even remarked that Japanese youth knew about the two actresses than they did about classic literary figures or contemporary politicians. The two actresses were also compared and contrasted.

Picking through the footnotes and bibliography of Making Personas led me to Kimio Uchida's Eigagaku nyūmon, whose title translates as Introduction to Film Study. The book, pictured right, was published in Toyko in 1928. Remarkably, it's frontis image (I am not sure I can call it a frontis piece, as it does not face a title page) depicts Louise Brooks!

I obtained this scan by borrowing one of the very few vintage copies of  this book in the United States.

As such, this inclusion marks the actress's first appearance in a book of film criticism. It beats by a few years both Cedric Osmond Bermingham's Stars of the Screen 1931 and C.A. Lejeune's Cinema, each of which were published in England in 1931.


Here is the frontis image, a still from Love Em and Leave Em (1926). Can anyone translate the Japanese text below Brooks' portrait?

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan (starring Clara Bow and Louise Brooks)

There is a new book out which should appeal to anyone interested in Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and silent film. The book is Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan, by Hideaki Fujiki, a professor of Cinema and Japanese Studies at Nagoya University. The book was published by the Harvard University Asia Center, and is distributed by Harvard University Press.

Fujiki's book is a detailed and fascinating look at how film stars are "made." According to the publisher, "The film star is not simply an actor but a historical phenomenon that derives from the production of an actor's attractiveness, the circulation of his or her name and likeness, and the support of media consumers. This book analyzes the establishment and transformation of the transnational film star system and the formations of historically important film stars--Japanese and non-Japanese--and casts new light on Japanese modernity as it unfolded between the 1910s and 1930s."

One chapter, "Modern Girls and Clara Bow," stronly suggests that the It girl was the subject of an intense following in Japan. And not far behind was Louise Brooks. In Japan in the late 1920s, the two actresses were compared and contrasted. Both were considered "modern girls," another term for flappers, and each influenced the way young Japanese women dressed and acted. (Colleen Moore was also considered a modern, though less so than Bow and Brooks, in opposition to Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, who were considered "old fashioned.")

Bow and Brooks were each the subject of articles, which the author cites, in the Japanese press. Fujiki also notes that Akira Iwasaki, a prominent left-wing film critic, historian, and producer who helped introduce German experimental film in Japan, once penned a story called "Clara Louise."

In Making Personas, Fujiki "illustrates how film stardom and the star system emerged and evolved, touching on such facets as the production, representation, circulation, and reception of performers' images in films and other media." I've only begun looking through this book, but have found much of interest in it. The images of American movie stars on the cover of Japanese film magazines is fascinating. This book is recommended to anyone interested in the world wide phenomenon that was silent film.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Turning Japanese

Continuing the international flavor of some of the recent LBS blog posts, I notice that a copy of a scarce Japanese book about Louise Brooks is currently for sale on eBay. The seller's description reads, in part: " . . . published by Chuokorou-Sha, Tokyo, 1984, 122 pages, large hardcover in dust jacket with photographic endpapers, 10.25" by 10.25". Text in Japanese. Scarce Japanese book on silent screen legend Brooks, profusely illustrated with over 100 film stills, portraits, and publicity images. Beautifully printed and very uncommon."

Indeed, it is an uncommon and rather nifty book. I have a copy in my collection. Here is a dusty scan of my scuffed copy.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Chance favors the prepared mind

There is a saying, "Chance favors the prepared mind."

The other day I was organizing my past and future interlibrary loan requests. I am nearly through with my research, and would say that I have requested about 98% of the material I had hoped to examine. Among the items I was planning to look at was Shinko eiga, a Japanese film journal dating from the late 1920's. [I have looked at a few years worth of Movie Times, another Japanese movie magazine dating from the silent film era. It was a mostly Japanese language fan type publication, which included bits of English-language text and lots of pictures. The University of Chicago library has a long run of the publication. And the University of California, Davis has a shorter run. I have been to each library to examine copies.]

I figured I had better do a little research about Shinko eiga, to find out exactly when it started, what it covered, and most importantly, who might have copies which I might be able to borrow. And so, I googled the title. And came to a page on the University of Michigan's website devoted to the school's Center for Japanese Studies and it's prewar proletarian film movements collection. It is an amazing page, full of scans of Japanese film magazines dating from the late 1920's and early 1930's. I downloaded a few issues in order to check them out - to get a feel for what these publications were like.

I don't read the language, and can't tell what they are about. But I do understand pictures. And while skimming through the April 1930 issue of Shinko eiga I came across this page. I downloaded this particular issue because the web page synopsis stated the issue contained a "Special section on women, with several essays written by women. Opinions of filmmakers whose work was cut by the censors." That sounded intrigueing!


The picture of Louise Brooks - which I was so delighted to find (chance favors the prepared mind) - is from Pandora's Box. Perhaps this is some sort of review or article about the film, which was released in Europe just a years before ? Or perhaps it is about Brooks' role in the film? I just don't know. What also intrigued me was the fact that this publication was founded by the Proletarian Film League of Japan, a decidedly left leaning group. And the director of Pandora's Box, G.W. Pabst, was a known to have left leaning sympathies. [I once came across an article about Pabst in a similar German publication from the period.]

If anyone can tell me what this page is about, I would be very grateful. The image included above can be found on page 58 of the pdf of Shinko Eiga 2.4 (April 1930). Interested individuals or translators can check out the entire article. Whatever it turns out to be, it's a nice find.

[Individuals interested in world film history will want to check out the University of Michigan web page noted above. There is an issue of Eiga No Eiga (January 1928) which is devoted to Charlie Chaplin! Other issues and articles can be found devoted to Eisenstein and Pudovkin, etc....]

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Lulu in Japan

Louise Brooks adorns the cover of a 1929 Japanese magazine, which is for sale on eBay.
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