Lonesome

Silent movies had a unique appeal to viewers in early cinema in that they forced the public to use their imaginations to fill in the gaps when the characters were speaking to one another. Silents didn't require extensive inter titles to get the jest of the actors' conversations. Consequently, the actors became larger than life because they weren't dragged down by imperfections in tonality and delivery most mortals possess. So when the first 'talkies' starting dribbling out of Hollywood after October 1927's "The Jazz Singer" was released, the voices emitting from the screen must have been jarring to those not used to hearing their acting idols speak. One of the first feature films after "The Jazz Singer" to contain a bit of audible dialogue was June 1928's "Lonesome." The film was initially released as a silent, then in September edited with three sequences of actual talking. The first talking sequence is 30 minutes into the film when Mary (Barbara Kent) and Jim (Glenn Tryon), meeting for the first time at Coney Island's amusement park, are sitting on the beach saying how lucky they are meeting each other. As one modern-day critic describes it, "They suddenly seemed very childlike and embarrassing compared to their 'silent selves,' perhaps even silly and sappy. They seemed flawed and human once I heard their voices. It was an interesting way for me to think about silence versus sound in cinema, as this film allows one to essentially to see both types in the same film." Film critic Andrew Saris claimed "Lonesome" was "a tender love story in its silent passages, but crude, clumsy and tediously tongue-tied in its talkie passages." There is one sequence in the dialogue portion that justifies the talkie addition. Jim gets hauled into the police station after a cop accused him of roughing him up after he tried break through the crowd to get to Mary, who had fainted. The police commander, debating whether to charge Jim, at first plays hardball. But when Jim pleads his case, you can hear the change of tone of the adjudicating official when he decides to let him go. An inter title could never convey such a friendlier timbre of the officer. The appeal of "Lonesome" is that the Paul Fejos-directed movie addresses a universal problem focused on singles living a solitary life in the big city. Jim, a keypunch machine operator at a city factory, and Mary, a telephone operator, work long hours. Their opportunities to meet the opposite sex are few. Fejos, a former medic with the Austrian Army on the front lines of World War One front lines whose love for theater transformed into directing film, used a bag of special effects tricks early on to cleverly portray the pair, using double exposures to show their routine day. The two do link up at the park and have a magical time staring into each other's eyes. Fejos colors his celluloid with hand-tinted and stencil-color segments to illustrate their romantic state. Once "Lonesome" was released in June, Universal Studio executives felt adding the talking sequences to the movie would add some pizzazz. The studio borrowed a Movietone News sound recording truck from Fox Pictures, owners of the audio system, on the pretext it was conducting sound tests when actually it was filming the three audible sequences. Fejos wasn't involved in those shoots, which didn't dampen critics' enthusiasm for the film, citing it as the highlight of his career. "Lonesome" was a great success for Universal, partly because of the revolutionary insertion of those "talking" segments.

Little has changed, it seems, regarding the isolation endured by those sucked into the daily metropolitan rat race. Pal Fejos superbly captures the chaotic excitement of Coney Island, and holds our attention despite the lack of plot - although the last minute 'twist' is something of a let-down.

A couple of things struck my mind while watching Paul Fejos's "Lonesome". One is of course that it's mostly silent with a few sound scenes. Another is that some of the scenes are tinted, one of the early instances of color in cinema. But probably the most important thing is what the movie says about relationships. The repetitive jobs held by the protagonists reminded me of the mind-numbing job held by Charlie Chaplin's character at the beginning of "Modern Times". The characters later introduce themselves to each other but pretend to be rich, feeling too ashamed of themselves to admit they're stuck in dead-end jobs. At the end of this day (the movie takes place over the course of less than twenty-four hours), these two will provide each other with the warmth and satisfaction that neither their employment nor the uncaring people around them will give. A bit like "The Shape of Water" in that sense. I recommend it.

The striking character of this film is its extreme intensity in a fantastic camera work that keeps rushing on in breathless frenzy to the very bitter end of the film. It's almost like a documentary in its constant flow of following the crowds from the working places to the reckless carneval of Coney Island, never leaving the strenuous hard pace of life for one second, except for the moments when the lovers find each other. Then there is a touch of poetry, which also marks the film with a totally different character, which makes it doubly interesting. This film is like no other film, the closest in likeness is actually Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" which also wallows in following the crowds in wild frenzy, but here the lovers provide some privacy and individualism, which is totally missing in Eisenstein's masterpiece, and this is certainly a masterpiece of the same rank but on a different level, for its very human touch of simplicity and basic togetherness. There are also some resemblance to Fritz Lang's "Liliom" with Charles Boyer, which also renders the carneval and wild pleasure hunting in frenzied rush of popular festivity in unforgettable cinematography. Paul Fejos made many documentaries, he was a master and genius in observing and capturing life at its most original and basic level, his documentaries are from Madagascar, South East Asia, Peru apart from Europe and America, he made altogether 44 films, and this is just an example of his extremely personal and highly advanced art of the film.

I saw a bad print ,on you tube ,with rock music and Czech titles.I was not aware that this was an American silent,and that actor in it was Glen Tyrone ,of king of jazz fame.I thought it was a Slovakian silent,but, when I read the i.m.b d . about it ,I was surprised.It was a silent that originally had synchronized music and sound effects and had talking sequences.I got real curious about it more.Then I read that it wasn't lost at all.It was played in archive theaters.I even suggest t.c.m if they could considered playing it .They ignored me .Then ,by surprise,I discovered that the restored version of lonesome was put On d.v.d. ,with four other Paul Fejos films.So I bought it.It was a good Tone poem about two lonely people ,played by Glen Tyron and Barbera Kent.She is a switch board operator ,while he is a machinist.They both end up meeting each other on Koney Island Beach.But only learn their name later on ,Mary,",so! it was Mary!Mary!, and Jim.The movie looks a little bit similar to Sunrise.Some of the Koney island amusement park night scenes were tinted ans stencil colored.It was a good effect.It also seemed that Andy Divine played a small part too, he was also a bit leaner in 28.The talking sequences looked like they were done in a hurry.The Camera did not move.Not even zoom lenses were used.The police station sequence was very static in it's sound talking photography.But they probably had a date type release the film and could not take more time for better shots, may be.In spite of this this is a very good silent ,sound classic film.One of the reason probably why it took time to get it on home video, was the fact,The song ,"always,written by Irving Berlin,Was in the movie as back ground music and a record sequence.The copy rights had to be paid to the Irving Berlin estate,may be.This comes with three other Paul Fejos classic films, Then talking version of Broadway, 1929.The silent version of ," The last performance,1929.It is worthy of collection.Available from Criterion and amazon.com and your specialty shops. I don't think wall mart would have this, may be. 09/22/12

It's a shame Lonesome hasn't been seen more widely by modern audiences. The limited acclaim it's received is well deserved. Lonesome is very simple. It's no more than a little romantic movie of two people who fall in love and then appear to lose each other. But the whole thing is told expertly well. The camera moves about freely in many unique and interesting ways. Visually alone, it's quite the spectacle. It also helps that the two in the lead roles are enjoyable. Glenn Tyron is good enough in his lead role, but his romantic interest, played by Barbara Kent, is the real star. She is fun and playful when needed, but her soulful eyes convey more pain then most people ever could with their voices. Her charisma is evident from shot one. The only downside to the film is the inclusion of a few sound scenes. Clearly done just to cash in on the new craze, it actually only serves to grind the story to a halt. It forces the movie to become stationary, and the dialogue itself is pretty inane. I cannot recommend the film strongly enough, though. It's as enjoyable of a romance as you'll ever see. There's nothing too complicated here: just two people falling in love, and it's a joy to see.

A sister of Sunrise and The Crowd, this film is more emotional and poetic than those landmarks and every bit as great. The plot concerns two working class American types, he works in the factory, she works on the intercom who meet by chance on a fairground and fall in love and then lose each other without knowing where the other lives. The film's beginning is to be treasured, it follows in detail the morning ritual of first the girl and then the man in their respective homes. The effect conveyed is the organization and elegance of women over the tardy, rushed, half-baked activities of men. The love story between the two characters is so beautifully etched and played so naturalistically by the actors(Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon) that the sense of loss in the latter half of the film is all the more painful and heart-breaking. The film deals with a certain truth about living in a city that has remained constant even after a good 80 years. At once a constant sense of community and at other an equally constant sense of loneliness from being in a crowd.

If only this remarkable movie hadn't had the misfortune to be released just when the enthusiasm for sound was sweeping all before it, it would probably have been more appreciated at the time and remembered today as one of the all-time classics. As an expression of the isolation of city life, it builds up an atmosphere of desperation, in spite of its romance with a happy ending. The scene where the boy searches frantically for the girl throughout crowded Coney Island, buffeted this way and that by the uncaring throngs, turned away by the indifferent faces of the amusement park workers, has few equals for anguish. Also unforgettable is the montage that cuts from one to the other of the lovers (who have not yet met) while they are at work, the one at a factory, the other at a telephone switchboard; the motions of the hands and the machines build to a frantic, overwhelming pace. Unfortunately, before the movie was released it was sadly mangled by the insertion of several sound sequences, which stop the continuity dead with their absolute stasis, and feature dialogue so thunderously inane you have to suspect it was written by the sound technician. Nonetheless, "Lonesome" remains one of the most sophisticated examples of the silent movie, an art form that was killed by sound almost as soon as it had reached maturity.

A young man and a young woman lead nearly identical lives throughout the day, he a punch-press operator and she a telephone operator. After work, both decide to go to Coney Island, where they meet, have fun, fall in love, and then lose each other. The movie's cute, but it isn't anything superb. There were two much better films made in the same year that Lonesome reminds me of. First, King Vidor's The Crowd, one of the best films of the period. That one takes place over quite a lot more time, but the styles are similar, with The Crowd being much more sophisticated in its narrative, characterization, etc. The Coney Island scenes are probably the most celebrated part of Lonesome, but these are nothing compared to those in the Harold Lloyd vehicle Speedy. Fejös exaggerates these scenes beyond belief, with so much confetti falling on the Coney Island patrons that one would think the crowd would drown in paper. This film is from the school of silent filmmaking where putting a lot of people on screen at the same time is considered ingenious. In comparison, the crowds of Speedy are believable, and that sequence is absolutely lovely. Lonesome also suffers from three intrusive sound sequences, which Universal forced in at the last minute. They stop the film dead in its tracks (but they are somewhat funny). Overall, the film is entertaining, if not too memorable. One particular sequence stands out as masterful: the man's and woman's workdays, edited back to back, with the whole screen surrounded by the numbers on a clock, translucent hands following the time. 7/10.

A romantic comedy circa 1928, complete with some of the trademarks of the genre - a very obvious and sappy plot, but also sweet moments of tenderness. This one also has the advantage of being so old that just seeing the street life in New York, the trip out to the beach and amusement park rides of Coney Island, and some of the primitive but ethereal special effects of the day were all very interesting. Barbara Kent is a lot of fun and while Glen Tryon's character is probably a little too dorky, as a couple they're pretty endearing. The scene of them sitting in front of the waves at night, and the one of them dancing on a cloud with a crescent moon in the background are simply sublime. The film has partial sound which works to its advantage - when we first hear them speak to one another at nearly the 30 minute point after having had nothing but intertitles before, it really stands out. The film uses overlays and plays with color tinting in ways that don't always work (and in fact were kind of jarring at one point), but it does add to the film's vibrancy. Its biggest issue is the story line, which is simple, predictable, and corny, something I can oftentimes forgive in a love story, but here it's a little much even for me. Still definitely worth watching though, if for nothing else, the visuals and the time travel back to 1928.