Early Universal Vol 2

For those of us who enjoyed last year’s Vol 1, this year's follow up – EARLY UNIVERSAL VOL 2 - offers up an even bigger treat. Bearing in mind just how long ago the three feature length silent films were made it is staggering how splendidly they have been restored for this 2-Disc Blu-ray release.

First up is a truly epic adaptation of visionary author Jules Verne's '20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA' (dir. Stuart Paton, 1916). For 1916 this really is stunning and innovative and this re-mastered version has to be seen to be believed! Many will be familiar with the plot and will have seen the James Mason version - but this film has a debatably more interesting and expanded storyline that adds to Verne's original. It also merges two of Verne's novels; the other being 'The Mysterious Island'. As for the plot: it appears that many ships have been going down after sighting a strange ‘monster’ in the sea and so the United States Government decide to send a naval vessel, the ‘Abraham Lincoln’ to search for the monster and destroy it once and for all. Aboard the vessel are Professor Aronnax (Dan Hanlon), his daughter (Edna Pendleton), master harpooner Ned Land (Curtis Benton) and the Professor’s assistant. After finally sighting the apparent beast the crew mistake this large metallic tube when it surfaces as a sea monster and open fire on it. This perhaps is stretching things a bit far. The ‘monster’ is in fact Captain Nemo’s (Allen Holubar) jet propelled steampunk submarine ‘The Nautilus’. Incensed, Nemo decides to ram the flimsy vessel, thus making it rudderless. In panic the four passengers jump overboard when a merciful Nemo brings the submarine up and takes them on board. Nemo has very much his own agenda for his actions and is a man bent on revenge. He offers his new 'passengers' a deal: he cannot let them go knowing they will tell the world about him/the Nautilus but he will let them live and stay on board as his prisoners. That or death - obviously they will choose the latter option. Nemo, however, is not the villain of the as the climax reveals…. In a subplot, a group of Union soldiers (both stories take place during the Civil War) under Lieutenant Bond (Matt More) crash-land in their hot-air balloon on a mysterious island and encounter a ‘child of nature’ (Jane Gail) – an apparent solitary and wild native girl who is rescued by one of the stranded balloonists having fallen into a trap. Just who is this girl, how did she come to be there and who is that tortured soul of a man called Charles Denver (William Welsh) in the nearby yacht? Bit by bit, the two stories begin to intermingle…
This complex and for its time extravagant film cost nearly half a million dollars and grossed around eight million! The shooting took place in the Bahamas and it was the first movie to use revolutionary underwater photography (filmed by the Williamson Submarine Corporation) which really is something to behold (overlooking the rather daft makeshift panto octopus) although you can't help wishing it was in colour.

Disc 2 kicks off with THE CALGARY STAMPEDE, a ‘modern’ Western from 1925 set in Canada, directed by Herbert Blaché and featuring the now near forgotten real life rodeo champion Hoot Gibson. As the first film gave us thrills a-plenty undersea here we have almost as many thrills on land and Gibson is actually doing his rodeo tricks for real - this is dangerous stuff indeed. In a nutshell: our hero Dan Malloy (H. Gibson) has fallen in love with Marie La Farge (Virginia Brown Faire) whose father Jean (Pierre Faunce) is against the romance as he doesn’t think a cowpuncher (albeit a respected one) is in any way good enough to marry his daughter. But Dan is determined to make this girl his bride. Despite another argument Dan hopes that Jean will soon be his father-in-law but it is not to be, for a little later a slimy low down rat by the name of Fred Burgess (Jim Corey) has just come out of jail and kills Jean La Farge… the man responsible for his arrest. This is witnessed by Burgess’ native Indian lover Neenah (Ynez Seabury), referred to throughout the film as 'the half breed' (this is 1925). However, all fingers point at poor old Dan Malloy who remains the number one suspect even after saving the life of Sgt. Bill Harkness (W. McCulley) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Malloy is forced to do a runner and keeps a low profile at a rodeo ranch 300 miles south of Calgary – pretending to be a half-wit. A year later the Mounties, this time under Sgt. Callahan (Philo McCullough) are still on his trail and when Callahan suspects Malloy despite his acting simple-minded he must be careful not to reveal his true identity by climbing on a horse, no matter how big the temptation. But Callahan won’t give up easily and has a few tricks up his sleeve, having mysteriously failed to put two and two together as to who really had the means and motive to kill old Jean La Farge! Things soon get more complicated as we’re heading towards a stomping climax at the next Calgary Stampede where you gonna see some real ridin’ Roman style! Director Herman Blaché must have had a field day with his cinematographer Harry Neumann and you can see why Hoot Gibson got the part. So here we have two action packed (albeit totally contrasted) films and we do need to come down a bit. What more than a comedic farce featuring then popular English leading man Reginald Denny.

WHAT HAPPENED TO JONES? (dir. W. A. Seiter, 1926) is pure screwball comedy heaven and is based on the 1897 Broadway play by George Broadhurst. In this highly entertaining farce, Reginald Denny plays Tom Jones – a wealthy and good-looking young chap about to marry his beloved Lucille Bigbee (Marian Nixon) although Lucille’s snobbish parents (Melbourne MacDowell and Frances Raymond) would rather see the foppish Henry Fuller (William Austin) as their future son-in-law. On the night before his wedding Jones tries to behave himself and has the best of intentions spending the evening by himself in his apartment but… due to a stupid coincidence he finds himself drawn into one last poker game with some mates, including family friend Ebenezer Goodly (Otis Harlan). Too bad that purely by coincidence two police officers spot the illegal activity through a window and alarm their colleagues. During the subsequent raid both Jones and the overweight and clumsy Ebenezer manage to make their exit via the apartment block’s fire escape ladders but the law is on their heels in no time. In despair, Jones and Ebenezer first hide in a Turkish Bath which is in fact a sauna for overweight ladies – cue for some hilarious shenanigans. Unfortunately the cops soon turn up as well. Disguised as not exactly convincing women, the two ‘culprits’ are soon on the run again and flee to Ebenezer’s house where they bribe the maid to keep quiet about the disguise before Ebenezer lies to his battle axe of a wife (Margaret Quimby) that Jones (now pretending to be a man of the cloth) is his younger brother (!). Naturally Mrs. Goodly assumes that the priest has arrived in town to wed Mr. Jones and Ms. Bigbee but when town gossip and family friend Minerva Starlight (Nina Romano) arrives to reveal that Jones is now a wanted man who broke the law, poor Jones finds himself in a pickle. Things soon get worse when he finds out that Lucille’s parents have no plan to call off the wedding and instead marry off their daughter to Henry Fuller. Jones needs to save the day (and his own wedding) and fast! Disguised as a priest he turns up at the local church to sabotage the ceremony but then the real rector (Broderick O’Farrell) turns up… oh dear! This is tremendous fun to watch and of course there will be a happy ending!

All three films were produced by the man who WAS Universal Pictures - the legendary Carl Laemmle. Many of us tend to equate the early Universal Pictures solely with the first great horror movies (all of the prime 'monsters' like Dracula, the Wolfman and the Frankenstein creature originated from this studio). However, what is on offer in this 2-Disc set shows us that the horror genre was not all this revered studio had to offer - far from it.
Bonus material includes audio commentaries, film appreciation docu plus collectors booklet. Furthermore, the first print run (2000) will be presented in a Limited Edition O-card slipcase.