Douglas Fairbanks - A Modern Musketeer (1916-1921)

Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer includes eleven of the joyful modern-dress comedies, westerns, satires, dream-fantasies and romances which, though mostly seldom-seen, made Fairbanks a tremendously popular hero. In addition to Fairbanks' unique talent, these ebullient films showcase his gifted collaborators including writer Anita Loos and directors Allan Dwan, Victor Fleming, and John Emerson.

Flicker Alley

Disc One:
His Picture in the Papers -1916
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish -1916
Flirting With Fate -1916

Disc Two:
The Matrimaniac -1916
Wild and Woolly -1917

Disc Three:
Reaching for the Moon -1917
A Modern Musketeer -1917

Disc Four:
When the Clouds Roll By -1917
The Mollycoddle -1920

Disc Five:
The Nut -1921
The Mark of Zorro -1921

Classic Fix

Douglas Fairbanks came to the movies in 1915, when high salaries were luring well-known stage performers to the new feature-length productions. Although most of these performers failed to "register" on camera and soon returned to New York, Fairbanks quickly became a supernova. His energetic, optimistic character, ingratiating smile and graceful, acrobatic style rapidly made Fairbanks one of the most admired stars in the world. By 1917, he had established his own production company. In 1919, along with Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith, Fairbanks formed United Artists Corporation.

This five-disc DVD collection includes eleven of the delightful modern-dress comedies, westerns, satires, dream-fantasies and romances which made Fairbanks a popular hero, before he launched into the costume spectacles for which he is best remembered.

The set begins with four films produced in 1916 through Triangle-Fine Arts: His Picture in the Papers, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, Flirting With Fate and The Matrimaniac. The collection continues with three films produced by Fairbanks for Artcraft / Famous Players-Lasky Corp. in 1917 and 1918: Wild and Woolly (1917), Reaching for the Moon (1917) and A Modern Musketeer (1918). Finally, four wonderful features that Fairbanks produced for United are included: When the Clouds Roll By (1919), The Mollycoddle (1920), The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Nut (1921).

In addition to Fairbanks's great talent, these ebullient films are also informed by gifted collaborators, including scenario writer Anita Loos and directors Allan Dwan and Victor Fleming, among others. This body of work showcases the lively "All-American" character that Fairbanks would continue to draw upon in his later 1920s epics.

Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer will coincide with the release of a new book, Douglas Fairbanks by Jeffrey Vance, the first critical analysis of Fairbanks's body of work in over twenty-five years as well as the first full scale biography in over a half century. This extensively researched, engagingly written and sumptuously designed book goes behind Fairbanks's public persona to thoroughly explore his art and far-reaching influence. Utilizing access to Fairbanks's personal and professional papers, Douglas Fairbanks is a superb portrait of a true pioneer, critically important to the creation of cinema as the defining art form of the 20th-century. (With Tony Maietta. Robert Cushman, Photographic Editor - University of California Press. Co-Published with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

Many of the films in this collection have been digitally mastered from 35mm or original-negative sources with music scores created for these editions by Eric Beheim, Philip Carli, Frederick Hodges, Robert Israel, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra and Franklin Stover. A Modern Musketeer, long thought to survive only as a fragment, is finally complete in a new restoration by the Danish Film Institute with an optional audio essay by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta. The Mark of Zorro is digitally re-mastered from an original 35mm fine grain.

DVDTalk

Douglas Fairbanks was one of the biggest movie stars of the silent era. His movies filled theaters around the world. The premiers of his films were huge social events. But he wasn't just a big star; he was also a shrewd businessman and a visionary when it came to the future of motion pictures.

Today Fairbanks is mainly known for his adventure films, a genre he arguably created with films like Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, and The Black Pirate. Before he drew his first sword however he was known as a comic actor first on Broadway and then on the silver screen. While these early films of Fairbanks are largely forgotten today, they are quite enjoyable and well worth searching out. Flicker Alley, along with David Shepard's Film Preservation Associates, has made that much easier by releasing Douglas Fairbanks - A Modern Musketeer. This five disc set contains 11 movies that chronicle Fairbanks early film career up until he became an action star. It's a wonderfully entertaining set that even non-silent films fans will enjoy.

Born Douglas Elton Ulman in 1883, he changed his name to Fairbanks when he took the stage on Broadway. There he struggled for a time, but by 1915 he had appeared in several successful plays. Hollywood, hungry for talent at the time, offered him $2000 a week to start. Films were still looked down upon, but he had a wife and son to feed, so he reluctantly took it. He reportedly told a friend "Yea, it's a lot of money but, movies?" In Hollywood he had a string hit movies, and a year later his salary had increased to $10,000/week.

It's unjust to rate this set by cost alone. Is it comparatively more expensive than other DVD sets? Perhaps. Does it provide more entertainment pleasure than most DVD sets? For lovers of silent film and the incomparable Doug, absolutely yes.
Fairbanks' historical advanture films of the 1920s have been readily available since the late 1990s, thanks to the quality work of Kino. His earlier work has been less well-represented and accessible; when obtainable, his pre-1920 movies have been mastered from shoddy source elements and usually accompanied by wholly inappropriate music. This boxed set of eleven remastered and restored films from Flicker Alley does a great deal to remedy this oversight.
Flicker Alley continues to provide rare historic films that are of remarkable picture quality and feature marvelous scores.
This set is being released in tandem with film historian Jeffrey Vance's biography of the great star and adventure film pioneer. Doug's costume swashbucklers are generally excellent, but his screen persona before he donned a cape and picked up a rapier is equally fascinating.
1916's "His Pictures In The Papers" features Doug as the meat-loving son of a vegetarian food magnate who finds love with an equally carnivorous young woman. It is also a wry and prescient commentary on fame and the lengths some will go to in order to achieve it. Also from 1916, "The Mystery Of The Leaping Fish" is probably the most unconventional film Fairbanks ever appeared in, as it features him as the cocaine-addicted detective "Coke Ennyday." It was co-scripted by Tod Browning and features a flair for the bizarre he would put on ample display when directing "Dracula" and "Freaks" in the early 1930s. "Flirting With Fate" also features some darker-hued humor in its story of a depressed artist who arranges to be killed just before finding good fortune. The final film from 1916, "The Matrimaniac," co-stars Constance Talmadge in a comic tale of the lengths a young couple will go to in order to tie the knot. Both "Flirting With Fate" and "The Matrimaniac" were available from Kino on VHS but not DVD.
Fairbanks' screen personality develops more fully in the three films he made for Artcraft in 1917 and 1918. They are all notable for dealing with the theme of having one's expectations for an idealized life being challenged. The delightful "Wild And Woolly" has the Wild West-obsessed Doug finding that the Old West does not require as much taming as he once surmised. Similarly, "Reaching For The Moon" chronicles Doug's realization that the life of a European monarch is not the fairy tale he once believed it to be. It is also an interesting comment on America's perceptions of World War I-era Europe with its depiction of a continent dominated by an unending number of assassination plots and murky counterplots. "The Modern Musketeer" demonstrates the limits and the advantages of living life according to a naive sense of chivalry exemplified by D'Artagnan. Its 17th century prologue provides a window into the sort of costume roles Doug would be playing in the years ahead.
"When The Clouds Roll By" from 1919 is notable for its more surreal elements including an incredibly original and complicated dream sequence. 1920's "The Mollycoddle" and 1921's "The Nut" offer two final opportunities for Doug to display his athleticism in a modern setting. "The Mollycoddle" is almost a prototype of "North By Northwest" with Doug as a foppish American "corrupted" by the soft life in Europe who is mistaken for an American agent by a gang of ruthless smugglers. "The Nut" is an amusing film featuring Doug as an eccentric inventor whose efforts to help a young woman in her reform campaign go awry.
The final film in the set, "The Mark Of Zorro," was shot prior to "The Nut." Its overall success with critics and moviegoers convinced Doug that he should focus his efforts on producing similar period adventures. It is a film that has been widely available for years, but this is the finest print of the film that I have ever seen.
A previous reviewer gave mention to the current economic turmoil our country is trying to negotiate. In a world where multiplexes are populated by heroes such as Batman and James Bond who seem motivated more by a grim sense of duty and self-loathing than honor, it is a tonic to watch a performer who takes delight in overcoming adversity and fairly dares the viewer not to share his sense of joy. The films of Douglas Fairbanks champion the concepts of hard work, optimism, and ingenuity; the very traits we will have to exhibit in order to rise as a nation once more. Because the demand for this set is probably not large, I very much doubt that it will be available elsewhere for significantly less. Is 90 bucks a lot of money to part with? Sure, I'm not independently wealthy. But as a fan of Fairbanks', the good humor he continues to give me is a source of inspiration that cannot be assessed in mere dollars.
~M. Boxwood

Receiving this very attractive 5-disc set really is like finding buried treasure of which perhaps only a small number of people were aware even existed. Although the name of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. is familiar to many, his fame in our day has focused only on his immensely successful and popular 1920s action-adventure dramas such as Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask. This is about to change, thanks to dedicated silent film producers like David Shepard, and Flicker Alley whose DVDs are always of top quality. Now the modern world can finally see the real Douglas Fairbanks in a surprising and delightful variety of films which made him a superstar already back in 1916. Ten of the films in this selection are examples and highlights of his successful career from the years 1916 to 1921, and the eleventh film is a wonderful new digitally mastered version of "The Mark of Zorro" which began his legendary series of swashbuckling adventure films of the Twenties. A much better picture quality and superb new musical score than previous releases of "Zorro" already make this release worth getting, but there are many more treats in store for Fairbanks fans and general silent film enthusiasts alike, in particular "A Modern Musketeer", complete for the first time after the latter half of the film was presumed lost until recently.

With Douglas Fairbanks, what you see is what you get. Always full of exuberance and positive energy, the Broadway stage could not contain his spirit, and even motion pictures struggled to keep up with him. His dynamic style bursts out of the screen in every scene, and some of his athletic abilities are absolutely astonishing. For example, several scenes in some of these films show Fairbanks scurrying up buildings with the effortless ease of Spiderman, but without tricks or special effects. He learned various skills such as roping and riding in order to do his own stunts and always be himself in every scene, complete with his ever-present grin and irresistible charm. But he was even more than just a breathtaking on-screen persona because he was active in writing, producing and directing most of his films, and worked with the best cast and crew in the industry to achieve an ever higher standard. The themes, genres and stories in this selection are as surprising, intriguing and entertaining as the man himself, with a fast-paced, action-packed, Western ("Wild and Woolly"), a crime adventure with humour ("The Mollycoddle"), impressive special effects - for 1919 - in an unusual parody about psychology ("When the Clouds Roll By"), a satire about fame and vegetarians ("His Picture in the Papers") and a most bizarre black comedy about drug addiction and smuggling ("Mystery of the Leaping Fish"). While some of these have been available and even reasonably well-known among fans, this set also includes some rare gems such as "Reaching for the Moon", in which Doug the Dynamo plays someone much like himself, who cannot be contained in a dull button factory job and dreams of rubbing shoulders with kings. In fact, most of these films show a great deal of the real Fairbanks personality, and his genuine enthusiasm still flows and reaches out to the viewer nearly a century later with nothing lost in the passing of time. And those viewers familiar only with some of his famous action hero roles will be surprised to see Fairbanks as quite a brilliant and effective comedian in different styles of comedy and with various acting techniques. The films are immensely enjoyable on their own, but an excellent 32-page booklet provides background information on each one, and the producers have chosen the best silent film composers for each film, such as Robert Israel, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra and Eric Beheim, to name a few. This first rate treatment gives due credit to one of early Hollywood's great pioneers and stars, and this set definitely belongs in any serious silent film collection.
~ Barbara (Burkowsky) Underwood

Meat-eating Pete Prindle has always been an embarrassment to his wealthy vegetarian father, Proteus Prindle. As a result, when railroad baron Christopher Cadwalader insists that, in order to marry his daughter Christine, Pete must have a half-interest in Proteus' health food empire, Pete's continued bachelorhood seems assured. Proteus gives in somewhat, however, and, after admiring the testimonial given to vegetarianism by his daughters Pansy and Pearl in the Vegetarian Gazette , he tells Pete that he can have the half-interest if he manages to get his picture in the papers. Pete then swims to shore from a steamer, wrecks his car and beats up a champion boxer, but he can never get the publicity he wants. Then, when he prevents a train from being derailed by a gang of thugs, the media make him a national hero. As a result, he gets his picture in the papers, he gets his half-interest, and he gets married

Director: John Emerson
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Clarence Handyside, Rene Boucicault, Jean Temple, Charles Butler, Loretta Blake, Homer Hunt, Helena Rupport, Terry McGovern, Nick Thompson, Erich von Stroheim




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Douglas Fairbanks successfully starred in modern comedies before embarking on his better-remembered career of historical swashbucklers in the 1920s. 'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish', however, isn't like his other comedies. It's his only two-reel short film, as he otherwise made feature-length productions of five reels or more. It's most outrageously different, however, for its humorous portrayal of drug use. In it, Fairbanks plays a detective with a drug habit, or rather a life of drugs—a Sherlock Holmes parody; throughout the picture, he pokes himself with syringes he carries in a bandolier, when not snorting cocaine by the handful, drinking concocted cocktails, or eating gobs of opium. It gives a completely new meaning to Fairbanks' usual exuberance. Appropriately, his character's name is Coke Ennyday. Ironically, this drug-fiend detective foils a plot by smugglers to import drugs.

'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish' has acquired a decent cult status for a silent film from the 1910s, and I consider it one of Fairbanks' most enjoyable comedies. Yet, Fairbanks, reportedly, disliked it so much that he didn't want it distributed. According to Jeffrey Vance ("Douglas Fairbanks"), the film was made twice: first by Christy Cabanne, who was fired and whose footage was entirely discarded, and then by John Emerson with the assistance of Tod Browning—this second filming is what was released and what we see today. Besides Fairbanks, credit here needs to go to Browning's very original scenario, in addition to Emerson's direction and Anita Loos' title card writing. In the end and within the movie, the film we just saw turns out to be a scenario pitch by Fairbanks, and it's such a weird idea that it's rejected. I like it

Directors: Christy Cabanne, John Emerson
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love, Alma Rubens, Allan Sears, Charles Stevens, Tom Wilson, George Hall, William Lowery, Joe Murphy, B.F. Zeidman




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Penniless artist Augy Holliday falls in love with a society girl named Gladys. Gladys' status-conscious aunt rejects Augy as a suitor, but he nonetheless decides to propose. Gladys hears Augy rehearse his proposal with another woman, believes the rehearsal to be real, and so decides to marry someone else. Despondent, Augy unsuccessfully tries to kill himself and then pays Automatic Joe fifty dollars to do it for him. Soon, however, Augy's financial situation improves, and Gladys learns the truth about his intentions. So Augie gets the girl, but must avoid the man hired to kill him. Finally, Joe finds Augy, but having also found religion, he wants not to kill Augy, but only to return the fifty dollars

Director: Christy Cabanne
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, W.E. Lawrence, Jewel Carmen, Dorothy Haydel, George Beranger, J.P. McCarty, Howard Gaye, Wilbur Higby, Lillian Langdon




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When Marna Lewis elopes with Jimmie Conroy, Wally Henderson, whom Marna's father wants her to marry, follows the couple onto their train and wires Marna's father to begin legal action to prevent the secret wedding. Jimmie is separated from the train when he tries to bring a minister, Reverend Tubbs, to perform the marriage, and he and Tubbs make their way to the town of Jazboro to meet Marna. There, however, Marna has been sequestered in a hotel by her father and the police, Tubbs is jailed on vagrancy charges, and Jimmie is chased all over town by the local authorities, winding up stuck atop a telephone pole. Although old-fashioned small town justice has separated the bride, the groom, and the reverend, modern technology brings them together, as Tubbs performs the ceremony and has Marna and Jimmy take their vows over the phone

Director: Paul Powell
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Constance Talmadge, Wilbur Higby, Fred Warren, Clyde E. Hopkins, Winifred Westover, Monte Blue, Mildred Harris, Carmel Myers, Charles Stevens




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A prologue compares the old West with that of the modern day. In the story, Hollis J. Hillington, the New York president of a Western railroad, and his son Jeff, a nut for Western legend and lore, are introduced. When three representatives from Bitter Creek, Arizona arrive to convince Hillington to run a line through their town, Hillington, hoping to cure Jeff of his obsession, sends him West to investigate. After Nell Larrabee suggests that the town disguise itself to be like the old West, so that Jeff will have a good time and report favorably to his father, they plan a fake train holdup and Indian raid, and secretly exchange Jeff's bullets for fake ones. When Steve Shelby, a crooked Indian agent, leads a real Indian raid and abducts Nell, Jeff, locked in the dance hall, kicks through the ceiling to his room above to get real bullets. He leads a victory over the Indians and rescues Nell, but decides that he has been a fool and goes home. Because Western romances always end in marriage, Jeff and Nell are next seen in Eastern garb in their mansion, which overlooks the Western plains

Director: John Emerson
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Walter Bytell, Joseph Singleton, Calvert Carter, Forrest Seabury, J.W. Jones, Charles Stevens, Sam De Grasse, Tom Wilson, Ruth Allen, Edward Burns, Wharton James, Monte Blue, Adolphe Menjou, Bull Montana




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Alexis Caesar Napoleon Brown entertains delusions of grandeur although he is only a lowly clerk in a New York button factory. Completely discouraged, he takes up a philosophy that claims that one may attain any object in life by concentrating one's mind on it, but loses his job while trying to practice the philosophy on his boss. Encouraged by the fact that his late mother came from the kingdom of Vulgaria, Alexis concentrates on the subject of becoming a royal personage and falls asleep. Soon after, the minister of Vulgaria appears and states that the king is dead and Alexis must take the throne. Alexis accepts and travels to Vulgaria where he is kept busy dodging attempts made on his life by Black Boris, a pretender to the throne. While dueling for his life after insulting the homely Princess Valentina, his betrothed, Alexis falls over a cliff and awakens to discover that he has merely tumbled out of bed. Thus disabused of his fantasies, Alexis eagerly returns to his life in the button factory, proposes to Elsie Merrill, his down-to-earth sweetheart, and eventually finds happiness as a family man in a New Jersey suburb

Director: John Emerson
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Richard Cummings, Millard Webb, Eugene Ormonde, Frank Campeau, Joe Brooks, Jim Hogan, Bull Montana, Charles Stevens, Keene Thompson, Erich von Stroheim




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Ned Thacker of Kansas has inherited the spirit of D'Artagnan through the prenatal influence of his mother, an avid fan of French novelist Alexandre Dumas. Unfortunately, his gallant attempts at chivalry are generally misunderstood by the modern women he encounters. On a transcontinental journey, this modern D'Artagnan meets Elsie Dodge, an innocent sixteen-year-old traveling with her mother and Forrest Vandeteer, a middle-aged millionaire who has designs on the young girl. Ned promptly falls in love with Elsie and his determination to win her is solidified when he learns that Vandeteer has already had three wives. On a trip down the Grand Canyon trail, Navajo Indians try to kidnap the girl, but Ned fights them off, rescues Elsie, and wins her mother's consent to their marriage

Director: Allan Dwan
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Marjorie Daw, Kathleen Kirkham, Eugene Ormonde, Edythe Chapman, Frank Campeau, Tully Marshall, Jim Mason, Zasu Pitts, Charles Stevens




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When New Yorker Daniel Boone Brown becomes the unwitting subject of Dr. Metz's hypnotic experiments, his job in his uncle's brokerage office is threatened. Daniel attributes his ill luck to an opal ring, so he throws it away in the park, where it is picked up by Lucette Bancroft, with whom Daniel promptly falls in love. Former suitor Mark Drake schemes to gain possession of Oklahoma oil interests owned by Lucette's father, but Daniel chases after Mark and Lucette, and manages to win her back. Later Daniel and Lucette are on a train that is swept away by a massive flood. When the two take refuge on a drifting roof, a minister floats by, and marries them

Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Kathleen Clifford, Frank Campeau, Ralph Lewis, Daisy Jefferson, Bull Montana, Herbert Grimwood, Albert MacQuarrie, Victor Fleming, Thomas J. Geraghty, William C. McGann, Harris Thorpe, Babe London




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Richard Marshall, a bespectacled mollycoddle, meets fellow American Henry Van Holkar and his yachting party while in Monte Carlo. Van Holkar is involved in the illicit smuggling of diamonds from Arizona to Amsterdam, and when, as a prank, several members of his party shanghai Marshall aboard the yacht, the smuggler believes him to be a spy and attempts to drown him. Marshall escapes and follows the party to Arizona. There, Van Holkar discovers that Virginia Hale, another member of his party, is the real spy. Deciding that he must eliminate the rest of his group, Van Holkar arranges a landslide, but Marshall arrives in the nick of time to save Virginia and the others. After a savage fight between the two adversaries, Van Holkar falls to his death from a precipice and Marshall, proving that he is not a mollycoddle, wins Virginia

Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Ruth Renick, Wallace Beery, Paul Burns, Morris Hughes, George Stewart, Charles Stevens, Lewis Hippe, Betty Bouton, Adele Farrington, Albert MacQuarrie, Freddie Hawk, Bob Burns, Frank Campeau, Eagle Eye, Bull Montana




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Charlie Jackson, a Greenwich Village bachelor, is in love with his neighbor, Estrell Wynn, who has a theory that poor children can be made into proper citizens by being exposed periodically to homes of the wealthy. To aid her theory, he entertains rich patrons, but they leave in indignation at a premature fireworks explosion. After a number of wild adventures, Charlie rescues Estrell from rival Feeney, and with the aid of millionaire cub reporter Vanderbrook they are married

Director: Theodore Reed
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Marguerite De La Motte, William Lowery, Gerald Pring, Morris Hughes, Barbara La Marr, Frank Campeau, Jeanne Carpenter, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Charles Stevens




IMDb


When Don Diego Vega returns to Old California from school in Spain, he discovers the tyrannical governor Alvarado in power. Assuming the persona of an effeminate fop while secretly masquerading as Zorro, a masked bandit who robs the wealthy and gives to the poor, Diego attempts to restore justice. His true identity known only to his faithful servant Bernardo, Zorro outwits his enemies, wins over the soldiers to his case, forces the governor to abdicate and wins the affections of Lolita, a lovely aristocrat who is delighted to discover that her foppish fiancй Diego, whom she scorns, is actually a dashing hero

Director: Fred Niblo
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Noah Beery, Charles Hill Mailes, Claire McDowell, Marguerite De La Motte, Robert McKim, George Periolat, Walt Whitman, Sidney De Gray, Tote Du Crow, Noah Beery Jr., Charles Belcher, Milton Berle, Gilbert Clayton, Snitz Edwards, Albert MacQuarrie, Charles Stevens, John Winn




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