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Rare Gems on DVD

Our users have spoken, and we have listened. You want to see rare and hard to find films, and we have created for you the Silent Gems Collection, available on eBay. This DVD collection includes rare and for the first time available films with our stars, as well as other silent masterpieces. These are high quality films that are hard to find anywhere else. Please click on this link to see the collection: Silent Gems Collection

Important Update:

You don't have to leave our website in order to obtain the films from our Silent Gems Collection. These gems are now available to our users as a reward for donation. For details click here.

 Out Yonder 1919The Woman God Forgot 1917That Model from Paris 1926For Better for Worse 1919Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall 1924

 

OUR DOCUMENTARY

    We are proud to present to all silent film lovers our multiple award-winning documentary! In March 2015 it won the distinction "Award of Merit" at the San Francisco Film Awards. In May it won the Silver Award at the 2015 International Independent Film Awards. In September 2015 it won the Award of Recognition at the Accolade Global Film Competition. Of equal merit is the inclusion of the documentary in the Official Selection of the San Jose International Short Film Festival in October 2015. In December the documentary won the extremely prestigious Diamond Award at the 2015 California Film Awards. The amazing run of recognition for our documentary continued in 2016. In February it was included in the Official Selection of the Buffalo Niagara International Film Festival.

 San Francisco Film Awards newInternational Independent Film Awards newAccolade Global Film Competition Award newSan Jose International Short Film Festival newCalifornia Film Awards small new

Lon-Chaney-and-Marceline-Day-in-The-Big-City

   Lon Chaney and Marceline Day

 

Directed by                Tod Browning
Written by                 Tod Browning, Waldemar Young
Starring                      Lon Chaney, Marceline Day
Cinematography        Henry Sharp
Editing by                   Harry Reynolds, Irving Thalberg (uncredited)
Distributed by            MGM
Release date                March 24, 1928
Country                       United States
Language                     Silent, English intertitles

 

This film is part of our series 'Hidden Gems'. It can be watched by registered users who make a donation. For more details, please click here.

 

"The Big City" is a classic crime drama.  We have included this film in our program to illustrate the work and contributions of our star Marceline Day.


The last known copy of the film "The Big City" perished in 1967 in the MGM vaults fire that also destroyed "London after Midnight".  Silent Era lists this film as "survival status: unknown".  It is not available for viewing, so we have to rely on newspaper articles from the 1920ies.  If you have any information about a surviving copy of the film please let us know.


Here are just a few of the reviews for this film:
 
No one in the world can look so 'hard boiled' and menacing as this Lon Chaney  and few can look so sympathetic in the very same role.  In his latest starring vehicle, "The Big City", Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's gripping romance of New York's underworld, Chaney plays the role of a hardened detective.  And no character could demand more of an actor's histrionic talents.  He has to be the very embodiment of the law - and still be as human as anyone else.  Few beside Lon Chaney could play this complex role adequately, and of it Chaney has made a masterpiece of motion picture acting.

"The Big City" is a delicate romance told in a setting of NIGHT CLUBS AND BRIGHT LIGHTS, holdups and police and gangster battles woven into an amazing blend of thrills and surprises.  Marceline Day in the role of a little shop girl, innocently caught in the underworld, is appealing. (Mirror)
 
Chaney plays the role of a police sleuth, and Betty Compson is seen as a member of the underworld. Marceline Day, however, has the big female lead as a shop girl who is enmeshed in an  plot engineered by a detective.  A very ingenious plot and well acted by a very fine cast. (Portland Guardian)
 
Chaney and his associates come in conflict with a gang of jewel thieves: a sensational hold-up of a popular night club, gun battles and duels of wits between the detectives and gangsters; these are all breathlessly exciting backgrounds for a charming love idyll of a boy and a girl.  Miss Day, a shop girl innocently enmeshed in the underworld, has some remarkable scenes. (Recorder)
 
Marceline Day in the role of a little shop girl, innocently caught in the underworld, is appealingly sweet. (Sunday Times)
 
"The Big City" is a delicate romance, told in a setting of night clubs and bright lights, police raids in the underworld and battles of "crooks," woven into an astonishing blend of thrills, surprises, and romance.  In this colorful, swift-moving picture of New York night life, Lon Chaney plays the role of a detective, and, avoiding the use of elaborate disguises which characterized many of his previous appearances, he gives a truly marvelous performance.  Briefly, the story is that Chuck Collins, a New York detective, is detailed to circumnavigate the machinations of a gang of cabaret thieves.  Assuming the role of proprietor of a dance hall, he is accepted by the underworld as a fellow-gangster.  Move and counter-move follow in rapid succession, and finally Chuck captures the entire gang.  The leading feminine role, taken by Marceline Day, is that of a shop girl enmeshed in the underworld plot engineered by Chuck, and an admirable study she makes of it, too. (The Brisbane Courier)
 
A vivid story of the underworld of New York, it shows just how far the influence of a young girl of strong character and high ideals can affect the lives of people born and bred to crime.  Marceline Day lives up to her name as 'Sunshine', the sweetness of  her smile capturing all hearts. (The Register)
 
Marceline Day does splendidly with her role. (Motion Picture News) 
 
Marceline Day, as Sunshine, has never played with more charm and depth. (Picture Play Magazine)

 

Click to enlarge:

 

Lon-Chaney-and-Marceline-Day-in-The-Big-City-fine-emotional-acting

   Lon Chaney and Marceline Day

 

Attention please.

Registration and donation are required to watch the films part of the series 'Hidden Gems'. Please complete the steps in the article 'Gems for Donation' before proceeding.

Registered users who made the required donation please click here to watch this gem.

 

Below is a short preview of the film.

 

 

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