Alfred Hitchcock Silent Movie: **^ The Ring (1927)

 One Round Jack Sander (Carl Brisson) works at a carnival as a boxer.  He takes on all challengers and if they can last a round with him they win and get money.  However Jack never loses.  He is smitten by the ticket taker (Lillian Hall Davis).  She catchers the eye of a man in the crowd, Bob Corby (Ian Hunter).  Turns out he is a boxing champion and wins the match.  However he is impressed with Jack and hires him as a sparring partner.  He is also helping him train as a boxer rather than a carnival performer.  He weds the ticket taker, and thimgs appear to be happy.  However she spends considerable time with Bob and he bercomes increasingly jealous.  He is losing his love.  Finally Jack meets Bob in the ring.  Bob handles him easily for several rounds and Jack is knokced down several times, one time saved by the bell.  His wife had been in Bob's corner, but as she sees Jack putting up a struggle, she slowly switches sides and ends up in Jack's corner.  This reanimates Jack and he is able to win the fight and his girl.  The ring is the boxing ring, but also the wedding ring given her by Jack, and a bangle given her by Bob with the money he won from winning the carnival fight.  

It is interesting the way Hitchcock often uses close ups of faces to show emotions at the carnival.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1928)

 This is an early Alfred Hitchcock Silent movie.  There is a serial killer on the loss in London.  He kills every Tuesday and leaves a card "The Avenger."  About this time a new lodger (Ivor Novello) asks for a room at a boarding house.  The whole area is uptight as it seems the murders keep getting closer and closer to the boarding house.  The landlady (Marie Ault) suspects the new lodger, and the police come to question him.  In the meantime a young lady (June Tripp) at the house is falling for him.  He is quite an improvement over another lodger who is always trying to hit on her, and even locked her up in handcuffs against her will.  The police come back with a search warrant, and find a map of all the murders in the lodger's room, as well as a picture of one of the victims.  The detective arrests him for murder.  He claims his innocence and the young lady believes him and helps him escape.  They meet up an he explains the victim was his sister and he has been trying to find the murderer.  The murders have lead him to the boarding house as the most recent was very close and the murderer seems to be migrating.  When the London peole discover him they believe he is the murderer and all chase him and in the end capture him.  However the detective is able to intervene and lets the people know he has learned the murderer has already ben captured.  

A bit hard to follow at times.  They were trying to use news type for a scene but the picture didn't work so I couldn't read it.  However the story is good, and shows how hard it is to judge others.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***^ Easy Virtue (1928)

This is a silent movie and consequently hard to follow at times, but the theme is very intriguing.   A young woman, Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) is divorced by her husband, and he proves in court she was unfaithful, however that status is in doubt.  There was an all male jury who decided the case.  This leaves a stain on her in England, so she fleas to France, where she meets a young man, John Whittaker (Robin Irvine) and marries, but doesn't speak of her past.  The supposed lover suicided.  

After the wedding she returns to England, and the young man's mother (Violet Farebrother) is very cold.   His father (Frank Elliott) is more accepting.  When news comes out of her past the mother drives a wedge between she and her husband.  It is just a matter of time that she is abandoned again.  The press, the courts and her husbands family have beaten her cruelly.  

Silent Alfred Hitchcock Movie: **Champagne (1928)

 I think this is the Alfred Hitchcock silent movie I like least.  The story is about the daughter (Betty Balfour) of a champagne tycoon (Gordon Harker), whose father refuses permission that she marry her boyfriend (Jean Bradin).  She flies her father's plane to meet her boyfriend who is on a yacht going to France.  Her boyfriend has sea sickness and she meets a mysterious stranger (Ferdinand Von Allen).  She receives a telegram from her father who warns her about marrying him, so she proposes to him.  They argue over her having asked for his hand.  He later regrets this and looks for her to apologize, and finds her playing chess with the stranger, so they quarrel again.  The father meets them in France, and announces the family fortune has been lost.  The boyfriend leaves and the father thinks he is only interested in money.  The daughter is robbed and consequently they are destitute and father and daughter take a dilapidated apartment.  Boyfriend returns again to apologize and she rebukes him saying she is going to take a job.  She works in a restaurant where she sees the mysterious man who hands her a note to contact him if she is in need.  The boyfriend does not approve of the job and they argue again.  Her father also does not approve and says it was a ruse his having lost the family money.  She is mad at both her father and boyfriend, but the mysterious stranger pays for her trip back to America.  Turns out the mysterious an works for her father to keep her safe.  The boyfriend, unaware of this decides to attack him but father intervenes to say he no longer objects to the wedding.  Our couple of love birds now argue about the wedding arrangments as the movie ends.

This movie flounders because it really doesn't have much to say.  

Alfred Hitchcock Silent Movie: **^ The Manxman (1929)

 This is an early Alfred Hitchcock.  In this movie there are two best friends, and one woman.  One is a lawyer and very loyal.  Pete (Carl Brisson) is in love with Kate (Anny Ondra).  Phillip (Malcolm Keen) is a lawyer and his trusted friend.  When Pete proposes marriage, Kate's father says absolutely not.  Pete determines to go over seas to get rich, and asks Phillip to keep and eye on Kate for him.  Kate and Phillip love each other, but are loyal.  when they hear Pete is presumed dead, they let go however.  However Pete is not dead and returns, and marries Kete.  However Kate is pregnant with Phillip's baby.  She has a baby girl, which Pete assumes is his.  They continue life until everything reaches a head for Kate.  She is married to Pete but loves Phillip, who is the father of her baby.  She attempts suicide by drowning.  She would like to be with Phillip but his lawyer, judgeship aspirations do not allow this.  But when Kate comes before him for trial, everything falls apart; or comers together based on your viewpoint.  

Movie Review: The Gaucho (1927)

I was hoping to get the story of El Gaucho, Martin Fierro.  This is not that story.  This is more a Robin Hood type movie starring Douglas Fairbanks.  This movie is a silent movie and stars Douglas Fairbanks as El Gaucho.  He is the head of a band of thieves which roam the Andean Mountains in Western Argentina.  He has been plundering the area, and has a serious girlfriend.  This movie tells hits story, but also the story of a miraculous healing water which is blessed by The Virgin.  There is a woman who fell from a cliff, and woke up and saw an apparition of the virgin, and also was healed from the wounds of her fall in the blessed water.  There is a community which forms around this shrine called the City of Miracles.  This city has much gold as people who are cured miraculously donate gold.  With this they hope to take care of the poor. 

However an usurper, Ruiz, conquers the city, throws the poor in jail, and steals the gold.  The Gaucho is also intent on stealing the gold.  He does conquer the town, but he does not find the gold.  He pardons the poor, but the man with the black death he says should go shoot himself because he poisons everyone with is breath. The movie takes a twist when this man infects The Gaucho, and The Gaucho's hand starts turning black.  The saintly woman leads him to the shrine to heal him if he has faith.  However the girl friend sees them and becomes jealous.  She betrays them to Ruiz' men.  However in the meantime he is healed by the sacred water, as is the man with the black plague.  The girlfriend realizes what she has done, and brings The Gaucho's men to the rescue.  In this movie we see Fairbanks doing his swashbuckling moves through the trees as he makes his escape.  They use a cattle stampede to defeat Ruiz and his men.
A couple points of historical interest.  The Gauchos roamed The Pampas more than the Andes, and this is where most of the large cattle estates were.  However, Fairbanks and Lupe Velez dance a tango.