My latest video was far more trouble than it's worth.
I made it late Monday night, during a merciless bout of insomnia, when I had nothing better to do.
I finished the video around 5:00 a.m. - breathed a big sigh of relief, pressed the "Save" icon, and.....
....watched the entire thing disappear before my astonished eyes.
I had accidentally pressed "delete".
After I wore out my entire repertoire of curse words and phrases (which is vast), I collapsed into bed - ready for Dreamland.
Being a persistent masochist, I remade the video this evening - despite the fact that I had a zillion more important things to do (I counted them).
Thank you, Microsoft Movie Maker. Thank you Rudy Vallee. And thank you, beautiful ladies of the silent screen.
Why the video? Because it nourishes my craving for the delicious past.
I was born fifty years too late. I belong in another era. I savor the distant ambience of the teens and twenties - - when songs were beautiful, and life seemed sweet.. (life is never exactly sweet of course, but nostalgia renders it that way). ...when men were men, women were women, and there was no bullshit about gender (see some of my previous posts, if you dare).
Since I have a fierce passion for silent films, I chose photos of some of my favorite actresses of that era. It was very difficult to do, because I had to leave a lot of them out.
Cover photo for the video is Dorothy Janis, whom I absolutely love. Ironically, she only made five films - before retiring in 1930. She married a musician and lived to be 98. I fell for Dorothy Janis when I saw her in The Pagan (1929) with Ramon Novarro. Of course, I had a big crush on Novarro, too, but that's beside the point.....
I made this video tribute to film star Pola Negri (1897-1987) several years ago. It is accompanied by her singing the Tango Notturno from the 1937 German film of the same title. (full-screen viewing is best) Polish-born Negri exemplifies the sultry, exotic, mysticism of the silent film era. She was not only a Hollywood film
star, but also made motion pictures in Poland, Germany, and England.
Although the height of her popularity was during the silent era, she made
numerous successful European talkies. Negri's career fizzled by the late 1930's but she emerged from obscurity in 1964 to appear in one final film, The Moon-Spinners (with Hayley Mills). When I lived in California and wrote articles for movie magazines, I admittedly knew very little about Pola Negri except for the old rumors that had
persisted through the years. She was supposedly nothing more than a
vapid vamp, whose greatest talent was that of generating publicity. When
Rudolph Valentino died in 1926, Negri threw a well-publicized hysterical fit at his funeral.
Her enthusiastic display of tears andswooning seemed to be the highlight
of her acting career. Pola claimed that she and Valentino had been
secretly engaged shortly before his death. Much later, In her declining years, she admitted that the "engagement" had been a publicity stunt and she was never in love with him. It
wasn't until I finally saw some of Pola Negri's films that my negative
opinion of her completely changed. She was an impressive actress, with an alluring persona and obvious intelligence. I never knew that she could sing until I saw
her in Mazurka (1935) and her vocal skills surprised me.
Negri's
expressive, sultry singing style is the epitome of the Berlin cabaret era and reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich. Ironically, Dietrich was supposed
to star in the film Tango Notturno but was replaced by Pola Negri. Marlene
Dietrich was a superb cabaret performer - - much more potent on
stage than she was in films. Although it's difficult to compare the two,
I feel that Pola Negri was the better singer - - more polished and vocally
sophisticated. Her performance of Tango Notturno is intoxicating. Incidentally, Tango Notturno was written by the German film composer Hans-Otto Borgmann.
When I just tried the video it wouldn't play for some reason. If it doesn't work you can find it on my YouTube channel, which is JayveeSonata.
