User reviews

The ultra-low budget of this film clearly shows in the extreme close-ups of faces, searchlights and office space (avoiding the need for background sets!) and stylised landscape model work: but it forms a surreal style all of its own, as extra 9413 learns to mouth 'blah blah blah' instead of talking and don bland masks instead of his own face... none of which does him any good in a world where the 'Casting today' signs always slide out further to reveal their true nature: "NO casting today". His female counterpart, dancing puppet-like to the director's tune (and perhaps his casting couch?) does rather better.

In this film, Hollywood is Hell and bliss is to become a free man and not a number. Sardonic social commentary without a single word.

This short experimental film tells the story of a man (Jules Raucourt) who comes to Hollywood to become a star, only to find himself branded a lonely extra.

There is clearly talent behind this little-known film. Robert Florey, better known for "Murders in the Rue Morgue", directs. And his cinematographer is none other than Gregg Toland, who was the eyes behind many a major success, including "Citizen Kane".

This short shows that even as early as 1928, Hollywood had an appeal and glamor that would draw people in, only to be chewed up and spit out by the system. Actors are a dime a dozen... and while no picture would be complete without extras, they are nothing to the audience.

For more detailed information on this 11 minute silent film short from 1928 see the IMDb comments submitted by another reviewer here who described this film very educational detail. I recently saw this experimental film and found it very strange and oddly entertaining. It stars unknown actor George Voya as The Star and Jules Raucourt as 9413. Raucourt had a brief film career in lead roles and became a character actor and ironically an extra himself in the later stages of his career. Here Raucourt is a Hollywood extra with the number 9413 penned across his forehead. Voya who never launched an acting career is ironically The Star with a star drawn on his forehead. Adriane Marsh is a Hollywood extra that makes good. Director/producer/writer Robert Florey is the cigar chomping, telephone talking casting director in close up of his mouth and hands only. A black background with shadowing is used with paper cutouts and masks used as props and scenery. Florey and special effects/ writer/ director/editor Slavo Vorkapich co-wrote and co-directed this film. It was also the third and final film that young cinematographer Gregg Toland worked on with Florey and Vorkapich. Toland would go on to photograph such films as Wuthering Hwights. Intermezzo, The Grapes of Wrath, The Outlaw, Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives and The Bishops Wife among the many films in his talented career that earned him an Academy Award and six nominations before his untimely death at the age of 44 from heart disease in 1948. It's interesting here to see the early work of the budding genius of Toland. Florey enjoyed a long career as a director of B movies before moving into television in the 50's and 60's and directing dozens of popular series episodes like The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Outer Limits and Thriller. Again it's interesting to the work of a man like Florey who had a 40 plus year career in film early in that career and on a small budget. This film has been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry and deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress. It's worth 11 minutes of your time to check it out if you are interested in the history and evolution of film. It's an experimental film and I would give this a 7 out of 10.

Life and Death of 9413, A Hollywood Extra (1927)

*** (out of 4)

A huge technical achievement from director Robert Florey who's best remembered today for his Bela Lugosi chiller Murders in the Rue Morgue. This short tells the story of an actor, number 9413, moving to Hollywood to become a star but hitting dirt instead. The "story" really isn't anything at all but the visuals, done through miniatures and mirrors, is quite nice to look at and pack a nice little punch.

Fans of early cinema should certainly check this out. A lot of what we see in future Florey films is on display here.

Experimental - but accessible - movie describing the hardships of life as an extra in Hollywood that skilfully disguises the fact that it cost only $97 to make.

Miniature expressionist sets are the real star of Life & Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927), & render this partially a work of animation. It's on the National Registry as a work of cultural significance.

The thirteen-minute story symbolically criticized the maltreatment of Hollywood extras.

Our naive hero, John Jones (Jules Raucourt), arrives in Art Deco Hollywood all smiles & dreams.

He has a letter of introduction that gets him hired by a casting agent (Robert Florey being quite antic in the film he wrote & co-directed).

As an extra he's known thereafter as 9413, the number being printed right on his forehead. Now begins the endless wait for his number to come up.

Other numbers become automatons with fading dreams, but 9413 struggles to remain an individual.

Earning no money, falling deeper in debt for his rent, he is slowly starving to death, while imagining he is surrounded by scorpions.

At last he dies, but continues dreaming even in his coffin. He dreams he is ascending to heaven, or perhaps he really is ascending in the form of a heroic paper cut-out silhouette. In the firmament he becomes a shining star, with wings.

Reportedly filmed for $97.00, one reason it looks so incredible is thanks to cinematographer Gregg Toland, who went on to such amazing camera work on films like Citizen Kane.

If you ever want to know when Hollywood became such a stressful place, where people gave up their lives to be a star, usually with no return, this little short can point you to way back in the silent era.

This little heavy-handed sequence deserves a lot of respect for its experimental uses of models, lighting, and different camera techniques at the time. Today it comes off as a bit heavy handed, a bit too obvious. Even when you know what's they're doing or trying to do, you can't help but giggle: "Heh, those are models!" Still, they're interestingly designed models.

A lot of the stuff working around actors and characters would have been really strong if it wasn't really so comical (which doesn't really work within the structure of the film because the film itself is rather dark and direct). The fish-out-of-water way they open and close their mouths and the over-acting does help to give the film an absurdist feel, but it also helps to not take the film very seriously.

--PolarisDiB

Prolific television and second feature director Robert Florey teamed with Gregg Toland and others to produce this dark short around the advent of sound. It's a rather acerbic comic work that suggests instead of going west young man, better to stay put.

An optimistic fellow sets his sight on Hollywood stardom and takes Greeley's advice. Starting in at the bottom floor he is assigned an impersonal number for identification. Dehumanization of the spirit follows as reality sets in, employment wavers and bills pile up.

This avant garde word to the wise features some sharp camera work, dissolves and double exposure for its day. Well edited, it has a tragi-comic touch that remains unrelenting in its condemnation of the industry. A deceptively disturbing work in miniature.

Perhaps the foremost American Avant-Garde/Experimental film, "The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra" is an effective and impressive short depicting the exciting highs of ambition and the crushing reality of life. Inspired by German Expressionism and George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" the filmmakers set the look of the former with the rhythms of the latter creating a brisk and sequential pulsating narrative on an aspiring hopeful's attempt and fall. In stark black and white expressionist sets and film footage illustrate the bright lure of urban promise as individuals' dreams are shattered and human beings reduced to insignificance. The numbers in replacement of names, the babbling gibberish, the callous indifference, the rejection of self - all highlight the futility of succeeding in an industry built on fantasy and illusion. One of the most distinguished in all of the silents and shorts this is a successful and pointed critique on Hollywood, the entertainment business and life in general.

This experimental short film (around 1000') demonstrates some clever techniques for the time. Note the crossed title sequence so that neither director has top bill.

The camera work is by Gregg Toland who would later film Citizen Kane and Wuthering Heights. Rumour has it that the half lighting so characteristic of Toland's later work was achieved by accident when one of the two lights blew!

There is some interesting hand held camera work in there too.

The impact this film had was profound. Considering the year it was made:1928, and the budget being $98.

$98 in 1928 equals $1,737.64 in 2024. Which is still very low cost. The clever tools used to create the imagery, telling a story was impressive. It goes to show that having human emotion, being moved, doesn't have to entail a multi-million dollar budget. Brilliant and resourceful story line, causing intrigue and thought provoking results.

Recommended viewing. Very interesting and entertaining. Good job, on the film makers, to pull off their concept, with low tech, low cost methods of story telling.