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We may not have film of the legendary actresses Lily Langtree or Sara Bernhardt to enjoy, but now we can see the famed Anna Pavlova dance and act, in an epic-length revolutionary saga inspired by a Grand Opera. In conjunction with the BFI and the New York Public Library, The Milestone Cinematheque gives us the full 2015 restored feature. A second disc offers more vintage film clips of the world’s first ballerina with an international touring company.

The Dumb Girl of Portici

Blu-ray

The Milestone Cinematheque

1916 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Aperture / 112 min. / La muette de Portici / Street Date February 6, 2018 / 26.38

Starring: Anna Pavlova (Pavlowa), Rupert Julian, Wadsworth Harris, Douglas Gerrard, John (Jack) Holt, Nigel De Brulier, Lois Wilson.

Cinematography: Dal Clawson, Allen G. Siegler, R. W. Walter

Written by Lois Weber from the opera byDaniel Auber, Germain Delavigne, Eugène Scribe

Produced by Carl Laemmle

Directed by Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley

The...

'The Doll' with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig: Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring 'the German Mary Pickford' has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy 'Seven Chances.' 'The Doll': San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the German Mary Pickford – Ossi Oswalda Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (So This Is Paris, The Wedding March), the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation The Doll / Die Puppe (1919) has one of the most amusing mise-en-scènes ever recorded. The set is created by cut-out figures that gradually come to life; then even more cleverly, they commence the fast-paced action. It all begins when a shy, confirmed bachelor, Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), is ordered by his rich uncle (Max Kronert), the Baron von Chanterelle, to marry for a large sum of money. As to be expected, mayhem ensues. Lancelot is forced to flee from the hordes of eligible maidens, eventually...

The Dumb Girl Of Portici (1916) Screens Sunday December 4th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of two of Lois Weber’s most important films, Milestone Films has released restored versions of Shoes and The Dumb Girl Of Portici. Working with the Netherland’s Eye Filmmuseum, the Library of Congress, archivist Lori Raskin and composers Donald Sosin and John Sweeney, these films will both be screening at Webster University. The small but magnificent ensemble Shoes, with Weber’s star discovery Mary MacLaren was released the same year as her epic blockbuster The Dumb Girl Of Portici featuring the legendary dancer, Anna Pavlova. The two films show brilliantly the tremendous range Weber had as a film director.

“Lois Weber was the most successful of all the women directors in the first quarter of the 20th century and, at the time, was placed...

Rex Harrison hat on TCM: ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Anna and the King of Siam’ Rex Harrison is Turner Classic Movies’ final "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 31, 2013. TCM is currently showing George Cukor’s lavish My Fair Lady (1964), an Academy Award-winning musical that has (in my humble opinion) unfairly lost quite a bit of its prestige in the last several decades. Rex Harrison, invariably a major ham whether playing Saladin, the King of Siam, Julius Caesar, the ghost of a dead sea captain, or Richard Burton’s lover, is for once flawlessly cast as Professor Henry Higgins, who on stage transformed Julie Andrews from cockney duckling to diction-master swan and who in the movie version does the same for Audrey Hepburn. Harrison, by the way, was the year’s Best Actor Oscar winner. (See also: "Audrey Hepburn vs. Julie Andrews: Biggest Oscar Snubs.") Following My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison...