Just crotchety old me.

The sentence that begins at 2:33 seems to end in something that looks like “more,” “where,” or “want.” Then she looks to the side and behind.

The sentence that begins around 2:50 looks something like “rah chain [or shane], everyone — hate! — [something I can't get at all]” and then she sighs deeply, nods, and starts doing a pouty sexy face. The sigh and nod imply to me that she’s reciting a line, playing out part of a scene; the pouty face looks like a change in emotion and scene to me.

Does anyone who actually reads lips have an idea?

“In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.

George Eastman House is the repository for many of the early tests made by the Eastman Kodak Company of their various motion picture film stocks and color processes. The Two-Color Kodachrome Process was an attempt to bring natural lifelike colors to the screen through the photochemical method in a subtractive color system. First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues.”

Also interesting is the black background; I’m wondering whether this is really a black background, or just a side-effect of the very strong lights needed by early film. A similar effect is common nowadays on macro photography, where the very narrow apertures used limit the incoming light so only objects very close to the flash are illuminated, and the background is invariably jet black.

In the ‘teens and 20s there were several color processes, none successfully either due to expense or cumbersome equipment.

What we are seeing is likely an early 2-color variant of Technicolor. It used black and white film. It also was shot with a special camera that had ONE lens.

You can Google “Two Color Technicolor” and get the basics of how the process worked.

Eventually a full three-color process was developed, giving us the glorious Technicolor Hollywood was famous for. And due to similarities with Kodachrome, Technicolor had to pay a royalty to Eastman Kodak — or was it the other way around? — Anyhow, thanks for posting these pictures

But is it odd that I see them all as little old ladies?

I did wonder about how often these women, and indeed, most women in silent movies, kept their hands up and near their faces. I wondered if it was a subconsciously protective gesture in a society where it was still legal to beat your wife or daughters. A woman who kept her hands near her face would find it easier to block a blow aimed at it.

But Wikipedia lists most of the films as lost. So it doesn’t look like it will be possible to match the line with one spoken (maybe title-carded) in one of her silent films.

I checked the films she’d made in and before 1922. It looks like the last word in the line that begins at 2:50 could be “Jerry,” a character from “Jazzmania” (1922). Murray’s character ends up marrying Jerry at the end of the film, which would explain the romantic surrender at the end of that line. That’s about all I’ve got.

For starters these women aren’t ”chubby” by 1910s or 2010 standards. Hope Hampton seriously? And for the commenter who said it was an idealized version as everyone was poor and malnourished that was not true either. There were poor and malnourished…many of whom became silent film stars. Average Jane could be Louise Brooks or Marie Dressler; ready made clothes were new to the 20s and thus there was less a focus on it. The ”thin” trend started in the 1910s with Irene Castle, same with the short hair look. She or Brooks could easily be an actress now though people would say they had eating disorders.

Have any of you ever seen a silent film? Jesus the assumptions! The hands and eye fluttering are part of posing; not of acting for a silent film. Mae Murray wasn’t the greatest actress ever be I’ve seen a few of her films (Delicious Little Devil and Merry Widow are easily available) and she doesn’t flutter or move like that. I’d say the mother and child are the closest to ‘acting’ but I still feel nothing in this gorgeous clip is acting.

Silent film acting started a touch rigid taken from the stage…1900 to say 1918…it kept loosening up. By 1921 it was quite modern. If you watch a film from 1921 to 1929 the odds are the acting will be on par with anything in a modern talkie film. Get your youtubes and netflixs and rent Pandora’s Box, The Unknown, The Gold Rush (25, not 40s one), The Big Parade (just aired 2 nights ago on TCM, Little Annie Rooney, The Iron Mask…SOMETHING!

I write about silent film over at forgetthetalkies.com . I also run a silent film publishing company 1921 PVG Publishing. Spend a minute familiarizing yourself with the era and art form before assuming. I’m shaking my head right now.

For the pudgy girls they were mostly vamps, and Mae Murray was a bit of a blonde vamp pre Jean Harlow. Nita Naldi and Theda Bara would be ‘heavy’ now (cruel cruel people recall Naldi as ’250lbs’…she wasn’t) but dang if they weren’t sexy!

Anita Page is what I consider the average body type of the silents. We remember Clara Bow as pudgy even though she could be extremely thin when forced (It is a good example, 1927.) It was her baby cheeks. The 1910s and 20s were not subtle about fat. If a reviewer thought a female star was too fat they’d say so. Bluntly at that.

Clara Bow and Mabel Normand both had that. Vilma Banky was considered too fat when she came to the US 1926). Google and I bet you’ll disagree.

I think we lack faces these days. These women could lose or gain 20lbs and still look good. Nowadays when you see models, actresses, and retro wannabes (mostly 1950s focused) they all have decent to hot bodies…but ‘butherfaces’. I’ve seen women recreate a 50s look perfectly and have a slim little body to boot; but their face would never do back in the actual 50s if they wanted to be in film or modeling.

It stars Anna May Wong (who is a full sad story in and of herself) and while its a bit stilted the acting is solid and the color breathtaking. It looks like something from the 1960s without sound. I believe its on both youtube and DVD.

These are great. Look like regular camera tests rather than actual dailies of filmed scenes.

And another thing that was a holdover from the silent/B&W era: the exaggerated makeup. Seeing these color shots must have made some studio exec think, “You know, I guess it’s about time to retrain some makeup artists, if this whole color fad is ever going to take off.”

I highly doubt the women of the 1920s had to have their defenses up at all times on the off chance that a man would happen to strike them in the face.