D.W. Griffith's Isn't Life Wonderful? 1924

A silent film directed by D. W. Griffith for his company D. W. Griffith Productions, and distributed by United Artists. It was based on the novel by Geoffrey Moss and it went under the alternative title Dawn.

A family from Poland has been left homeless in the wake of World War I. They move to Germany and struggle to survive the conditions there, during the Great Inflation. Inga (Carol Dempster) is a Polish war orphan who has only accumulated a small amount of money from the rubble and hopes to marry Paul (Neil Hamilton). Weakened by poison gas, Paul begins to invest in Inga's future and he serves as their symbol of optimism. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the film in a letter to Carol Brown dated April 1926; "I say: isn't Life wonderful? (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 12).

Sherrill Grace in her annotations to the Collected Letters Vol 1 states that the film is:

"....about two young lovers who respond to being robbed with the cheerful remark: 'Isn't Life Wonderful?'. They end up living happily married in a pretty cottage. The film stayed in Lowry's mind, and he used it as a thematic motif in October Ferry to Gabriola. See my discussion of the allusion in The Voyage That Never Ends (88-89)."

Thomas Meighan

© Arthur Khales / Fondation John Kobal 

Thomas Meighan (April 9, 1879 – July 8, 1936) was an American actor of silent films and early talkies. He played several leading man roles opposite popular actresses of the day including Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. Read more on Wikipedia


Lowry refers to Thomas Meighan in a letter to Carol Brown dated 2nd June 1926; "Thanks awfully for the snap, GloriabetogoodnessBebedaniels-Swanson. I wish I could be a Thomas Meighan to you. But unfortunately my hair is untidy. My shoes always dirty. My face is a Z 15 model and above all - I am not Six Foot Two." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 39).

Malc's joke about gloria-be-to goodness, includes the names of the film stars Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels who along with Thomas Meighan starred in Cecil B. De Mille's film Male and Female 1919. Its main themes are gender relations and social class. It is based on the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Crichton". Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 - March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals such as 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain. In a long career, Bebe Daniels made over 230 films. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Bebe Daniels in letter to Carol Brown dated 2nd June 1926; "Thanks awfully for the snap, GloriabetogoodnessBebedaniels-Swanson. I wish I could be a Thomas Meighan to you. But unfortunately my hair is untidy. My shoes always dirty. My face is a Z 15 model and above all - I am not Six Foot Two." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 39).

Malc's joke about gloria-be-to goodness, includes the names of the film stars Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels who along with Thomas Meighan starred in Cecil B. De Mille's film Male and Female 1919. Its main themes are gender relations and social class. It is based on the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Crichton". Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson  in a scene from Male and Female 1919 

Gloria Swanson (March 27, 1899 – April 4, 1983) was an American actress, singer and producer, who is best known for her role as Norma Desmond, a faded silent film star, in the critically acclaimed film Sunset Boulevard (1950). She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Gloria Swanson in letter to Carol Brown dated 2nd June 1926; "Thanks awfully for the snap, GloriabetogoodnessBebedaniels-Swanson. I wish I could be a Thomas Meighan to you. But unfortunately my hair is untidy. My shoes always dirty. My face is a Z 15 model and above all - I am not Six Foot Two." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 39).

Malc's joke about gloria-be-to goodness, includes the names of the film stars and Bebe Daniels who along with Thomas Meighan starred in Cecil B. De Mille's film Male and Female 1919. Its main themes are gender relations and social class. It is based on the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Crichton". Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

De Mille's Male and Female 1919

Lowry refers to the above film in letter to Carol Brown dated 2nd June 1926; "Thanks awfully for the snap, GloriabetogoodnessBebedaniels-Swanson. I wish I could be a Thomas Meighan to you. But unfortunately my hair is untidy. My shoes always dirty. My face is a Z 15 model and above all - I am not Six Foot Two." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 39).

Malc's joke about gloria-be-to goodness, includes the names of the film stars Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels who along with Thomas Meighan starred in Cecil B. De Mille's film Male and Female 1919. Its main themes are gender relations and social class. It is based on the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Crichton". Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

Dinner At Eight 1933

Jan Gabrial states that her and Lowry went to see the film in London in 1933; "Later that week, after seeing Dinner At Eight and downing several cocktails, Malcolm became drunk and didactic and, of course we quarreled and separated." (Inside The Volcano Pg. 35).

Dinner at Eight is a Pre-Code 1933 comedy of manners/drama starring Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, and Billie Burke, and produced by MGM Studios. The film was adapted to the screen by Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz from the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, with additional dialogue supplied by Donald Ogden Stewart. Produced by David O. Selznick, it was directed by George Cukor. Read more on Wikipedia

Dinner at Eight presents intersecting stories set during America's Great Depression that illustrate the rough passage from the old aristocracy, based on European customs and ancestral wealth, to the new aristocracy, hewn out of the free-for-all of 20th-century capitalism. Packed with capable actors allowed to shine in intimate, dialogue-heavy, extended takes, the movie offers an interesting study of culture, a thoughtful lesson on life, and an entertaining series of touching and amusing tales.

Cavalcade 1933

Jan Gabrial states that in November 1933 that she and Lowry went to see Coward's Cavalcade in London. We must assume that she is referring to the film rather than the stage production which ended its run in September 1932. The film version was directed by Frank Lloyd. The screenplay by Reginald Berkeley and Sonya Levien is based on the 1931 play of the same title by Noël Coward.

The film shows a view of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 through New Year's Day 1933, the film is presented from the point of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot. Several historical events serve as background for the film, including the Second Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and World War I.

The cast includes:


Diana Wynyard as Jane Marryot
Clive Brook as Robert Marryot
Una O'Connor as Ellen Bridges
Herbert Mundin as Alfred Bridges
Irene Browne as Margaret Harris
Margaret Lindsay as Edith Harris
John Warburton as Edward Marryot
Bonita Granville as Young Fanny
Douglas Walton as Soldier

Pudovkin's Deserter

The Deserter is a 1933 Soviet film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin.

Jan Gabrial states that her and Lowry went to see the film in London in 1933. (Inside The Volcano Pg. 34)

The film chronicles the tale of a strike on Hamburg's docks that was inspired by leftists. Livanov, their leader, finds that his weak heart cannot stand the strain of the strike; he must return to Russia to rest. While he is gone, the strike situation becomes more serious. The German government uses violent measures to repress the strike. Livanov feels he cannot lie idly by while his comrades are in danger. He returns to Germany to join them.

Cast:

Boris Livanov - Karl Renn
Vasili Kovrigin - Ludwig Zelle
Aleksandr Chistyakov - Fritz Muller
Tamara Makarova - Greta Zelle
Semyon Svashenko - Bruno
Dmitri Konsovsky - Strauss
Yudif Glizer - Marcella Zelle
M. Oleshchenko - Bertha
Sergey Martinson - Passer-by
Maksim Shtraukh
Sergei Gerasimov
Sergei Komarov - Worker
Vladimir Uralsky
Ivan Lavrov - Richter
Ivan Chuvelyev
A. Besperstny

In 1929, four years before making this film, V.I. Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein had collaborated on a Sound Manifesto that called for a radical use of asynchronous sound effects, which would be used in counterpoint to the screen image, rather than supporting it, as is normally the case. In DESERTER, Pudovkin put this theory into practice. Starring Boris Livanov as German dockworker Karl Renn, the film focuses upon a politically unconscious figure who learns the error of his ways. Renn becomes involved in picketing and demonstrating on the dock but walks out on his comrades one day, doubtful about the value of this kind of political activity. A kindly communist offers to send him to the Soviet Union as a member of a German delegation, and he eagerly accepts. When the delegation returns from the Soviet Union, Renn chooses to stay behind, finding a secure job as a specialist in a factory. Not long thereafter, he learns that the police have killed his closest friend, revolutionary Ludwig Zeile (Vasili Kovrigin), and he realizes that he must return to Germany and rejoin the fight. The soundtrack, which Pudovkin wrote at length about in FILM TECHNIQUE AND FILM ACTING, has an unusual density and complexity because of the technique of asynchronous montage; it could serve as an early example of musique concrete. Rotten Tomatoes

California Straight Ahead 1925

A film directed by Harry A. Pollard starring Reginald Day, Tom Hayden, Gertrude Olmstead and Tom Wilson.

Lowry refers to the film to emphasis a point he is making in the film script for Tender Is The Night about the creation of atmosphere in the film with the use of signs, words and advertisements of Paris in 1926; "Here the signs are not only historically accurate - your research department being at the moment the memory of one of your writers - Ca Qua Ca Gaze, for instance, was the French name given to Reginald Denny's California Straight Ahead, which was playing in Paris in 1926..." (The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry: a scholarly edition of Lowry's "Tender is the Night" Edited by Miguel Mota and Paul Tiessen Pg. 75). We can assume that Lowry must have recalled a poster of the film on his 1926 visit to the city with The Leys School.

Long after the death of Wallace Reid, writer Byron Morgan was still coming up with the type of road and racing stories he created for the late star. Reginald Denny has the lead in this especially hilarious comedy-thriller. Because he stays too long at his bachelor party, Tom Hayden (Denny) shows up late to his wedding to Betty Browne (Gertrude Olmstead). As a result, the ceremony is called off and Hayden's family disowns him. So he and his valet Sambo (Tom Wilson) decide to take the double-decker wedding car on a cross-country trip, paying their way by supplying tourists with chicken dinners and radio music. In the desert, Hayden runs into Betty and her angry parents (Fred Esmelton and Lucille Ward). When animals break loose from a nearby circus, Hayden saves the Brownes and when he arrives in Los Angeles, he drives Mr. Browne's car in a big race. He wins -- and wins Betty. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Sangren fra Sevilla (The Singer From Seville) 1930

Lowry refers to the film The Singer From Seville in his novel Ultramarine; "past where Ramon Novarro is playing in Sangren fra Sevilla." (Pg. 68). This reference is made by Dana Hilliot when he is thinking of Oslo which reflects Lowry's visit to the city in 1931. This is the only reference made by Lowry to the film and there is no other record of whether he saw the film. The cinema where Dana sees the film is showing is possibly in Stortingsgata as Lowry mentions that Dana is walking down that street in Oslo. The cinema could possibly have been Scala cinema, Stortingsgt 28; National cinema, Stortingsgt 10; Cordial, Stortingsgt 16; Circus World Theater Stortingsgt 20; Bio-Rama Stortingsgata 14; Kosmorama Stortingsgt 14 or the Boulevard Theatre Stortingsgt which can be seen below in early 1940's.

The film was called Call of the Flesh in America directed by Charles Brabin. The film stars Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, and Renée Adorée. It featured several songs performed by Novarro and originally included a sequence photographed in Technicolor. Read more on Wikipedia

The version which Lowry possibly saw may be different to the original one. As with several American films made between 1930 and 1932, Call of the Flesh was remade into two alternate language versions. Novarro appears in both, reprising his role as Juan de Dios Carbajal, and directed both of them. They were filmed using a different crew and supporting cast on the same sets at MGM Studios. A German-language version, also to be directed by Novarro, was never filmed for financial reasons.

Broken Blossoms 1919

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl is a 1919 silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess and Donald Crisp, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It is based on Thomas Burke's short story 'The Chink and the Child' from the 1916 collection Limehouse Nights.

Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry held this film in high esteem; "I see it as one of the greatest and most moving films of all time, one that is also a return to a great tradition of the movies, something that should combine the emotional impact of Griffith's Broken Blossoms and Isn't Life Wonderful." Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 171 ; "Signs along the street mocked at him: Business as usual during alterations: Broken Blossoms: Dead End: No cover at any time. World's loveliest girls. Larger, more modern. He waved them aside" Lunar Caustic. 


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