Once again, Turner Classic Movies has done a great service to film buffs everywhere -- at least for those who have cable TV service and can get TCM -- with their TV debut of this film. Beautifully photographed in 1924, this extraordinary story gets restored to full health and with a new musical soundtrack.
From the very first scenes, "Wild Oranges" captures the bittersweet theme of love and loss, and plays it in a moving but subdued manner.
The film slowly builds to its final crescendo and it has a positive moral to the story: a few moments of courage is enough -- when mixed with love -- to annihilate a lifetime lived in fear and phobia-induced panic. Does that sound hackneyed, or 'cliched,' at all ?? Oh well. "Wild Oranges" ain't that at all. Perhaps that is because the telling of this kind of story in 1924 was not all that common. And if it was more common then than it seems, now, it still gets a 9 for the performance of Virginia Valli.
This is a small movie by comparison with "Ben Hur" in that same era, but with great, nay, almost visionary direction and camera work.
There's not a minute wasted in this movie. All the other congratulations, however, belong to the restoration team, the musical direction and the new soundtrack articulated for this movie. This is a long-lost classic of the silent screen era and its return, via TCM, is most welcome.
From the very first scenes, "Wild Oranges" captures the bittersweet theme of love and loss, and plays it in a moving but subdued manner.
The film slowly builds to its final crescendo and it has a positive moral to the story: a few moments of courage is enough -- when mixed with love -- to annihilate a lifetime lived in fear and phobia-induced panic. Does that sound hackneyed, or 'cliched,' at all ?? Oh well. "Wild Oranges" ain't that at all. Perhaps that is because the telling of this kind of story in 1924 was not all that common. And if it was more common then than it seems, now, it still gets a 9 for the performance of Virginia Valli.
This is a small movie by comparison with "Ben Hur" in that same era, but with great, nay, almost visionary direction and camera work.
There's not a minute wasted in this movie. All the other congratulations, however, belong to the restoration team, the musical direction and the new soundtrack articulated for this movie. This is a long-lost classic of the silent screen era and its return, via TCM, is most welcome.