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Made in Heaven

Date produced: 1943

Filmmaker(s):

Jesse Geisler

Description:

"Although Made in Heaven, by Jesse Geisler, is a carefully planned and sequenced film of the preparations for a wedding and the wedding itself, it gives the effect of complete realism, tinctured with good humor and the joy of life. The preparations are gay, as the bride's friends help her to dress, producing "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue" in the traditional way. The Jewish orthodox ceremony is handled with simple dignity and then, with the section presenting the wedding party, the film resumes its lighter treatment. Transitions from one sequence to another are excellently handled, and the scenes of the wedding party represent an outstanding accomplishment, for it is not easy to make good movies at such an occasion." Movie Makers, Dec. 1943, 478.


Mag the Hag

Date produced: 1925

Filmmaker(s):

Hiram Percy Maxim

Description:

"Mag the Hag" is a 1925 amateur fiction film shot and edited by Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936), founder of the Amateur Cinema League. It is one of the earliest amateur fiction films shot on 16mm in Northeast Historic Film's collections. It features Maxim's daughter, Percy Maxim Lee, in the lead role of Percy Proudfoot. oldfilm.org


Making of Dinosaur Dream, The

Date produced: 1995

Filmmaker(s):

Sidney N. Laverents

Charlotte Laverents

Description:

Documentary film chronicling the background and production of Dinosaur Dream (1995), which Sid Laverents made in his late-80s with assistance from his wife, Charlotte.


Mister E

Date produced: 1960

Filmmaker(s):

Margaret Conneely

Description:

"A domestic black comedy, MISTER E expresses some of the edgier mischief and discontent that women of mid-century America could rarely express openly. This short film narrates the revenge acted out by a young wife, left at home while her husband is at a card game; by staging a rendezvous with a mannequin, this woman provokes an eruption of jealousy and violence before bringing about the desired marital tenderness." Chicago Film Archives


Nantucket Turnabout

Date produced: 1945

Filmmaker(s):

Richard Elms

Description:

"Take a man who wants to play golf and his wife who wishes to see the sights on a family vacation and you have the simple plot of Nantucket Turnabout. Richard Elms treats the idea with a freshness, however, that lifts it from the usual vacation film class. Through the mechanism of the wife's desire to visit historical places, some lovely views of Nantucket are logically inserted in the film, while the husband wearily tags after her as his prepayment for a chance to play golf. The eventual golf game ends with the wife, fresh after her sight seeing, winning easily, while the exhausted husband repeatedly drives to the rough, far into the final sunset." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 496.


Near Miss

Date produced: 1951

Filmmaker(s):

Barry W. Dance

Description:

"Believing that he has been betrayed by his wife, the slightly Milquetoast lead character of Near Miss tries all imaginable methods of committing suicide — but without success. In presenting this simple saga of frustration, Barry W. Dance exhibits effective camera viewpoints, uniform exposures, convincing acting and a progression from one scene into the next which is done with precision and pace. Above all he preserves good taste in his plot episodes — a gracious accomplishment all too often slurred over in the strain for comic effect. Near Miss is a pleasant and entertaining farce." Movie Makers, Dec. 1952, 340.


New Horizon

Date produced: 1933

Filmmaker(s):

Randolph B. Clardy

Description:

"In New Horizon, Cinematographer Clardy presented the life of a farm girl at a moment of crisis. One reel, almost without titles, tells the story of her efforts to marry the man she loves in spite of her father's opposition which keeps her chained to the farm." American Cinematographer, Feb. 1935, 78.

"Clardy was the winner last year of the gold medal for scenario and photography. Last year Clardy's picture was based on a western theme, while this year his scenario, although set in its greater part in the outdoors had several indoor shots. However, most to be admired was the way in which he handled his production both from composition and directorial standpoint. There were only three people in his cast with the girl assuming the major role. His sense of dramatic values, and especially his fine feeling for the proper tempo brought forth unstinted praise from the judges." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1934, 365


Ngono and Her People

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

Ray L. Garner

Description:

"About a 9-year-old African girl, found by Protestant missionaries in the French Cameroons and reared in a mission school, who later marries a native teacher and returns to help her village." National Archives.


Not One Word

Date produced: 1934

Filmmaker(s):

Kenneth F. Space

Ghex Foster

Description:

"Not One Word, by Kenneth F. Space, ACL, is an all around triumph of amateur photoplay production. It is a simple melodrama of the keeper of a lighthouse, his wife and the rejected suitor who returns. A wreck at sea (beautifully staged in miniature) is the complicating dramatic factor, and, with these ingredients, a dignified motion picture story of remarkable unity has been produced. In it, Mr. Space and his able staff have blended dramatic lighting, authentic settings and superb photography to achieve a distinguished whole. Under restrained but smoothly paced direction, the three leading players have enacted their roles with definite histrionic skill. If one were to try to select a single quality in the film which is outstandingly brilliant, the vote of this observer would be cast for the cutting. It is accurate and incisive, adding that last bit of dramatic "punch" which is perhaps the quality least often achieved by the amateur producer. Not One Word speaks for itself, but in the wordless and potent idiom of cinematic imagination." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934, 534.


Old House, The

Date produced: 1953

Filmmaker(s):

Keith F. Hall

Description:

"Five years before the action of The Old House opens, a young man and his bride of but a year had been involved in a train wreck. The bride, Claire, was killed: but the man — scarred in mind, bruised in body and (he thought) dependent on a walking stick — lived on. He comes now, as the film begins, for one last look at the Old House, "the Old House where I was born and grew up, where Claire and I had been so happy for one short year, with hopes and plans for a future that never came." But, instead of viewing (with self-inflicted sadness) his old homestead, he meets accidentally with a brightfaced boy of five, son of his widowed tenant. How this youngster, this "artless wisdom dressed in blue jeans," frees the man from his stick (a mere surface symbol of his bondage) and from his obsession with the past is the theme of The Old House. But it is fruitless always to attempt a factual outline of any visual study in human relations. And, heartwarmingly, believably and triumphantly, The Old House is simply and exactly that. The producer, Keith Hall, has plotted the course of his tenuous drama with a sure touch and unfailing taste. His scenic progressions are so artful as to seem artless, while his camera work and narrative exposition never fail him in the delicate unfolding of his denouement. Yet it is to the three players of this picture — and to their narrator — that the ultimate tributes must be paid. Young Ross Hall as the Boy, Noela Hall as his widowed Mother, and Mr. Hall himself as the Man are exactly and exquisitely right in their restrained underplaying of three diflicult roles. Reg Cameron, the narrator, speaks lines which are always literate, and often lyric, with warmth and understanding. From its simple opening to its quietly soaring climax, The Old House is a tender and moving triumph." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 318-319.


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