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Film · Shakespeare Film Company · 1912

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Richard III

26Leave it.

Warde introduces a stage Richard, and murder is how that crown is taken.

Take controlThis scores 26. Richard III cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Frederick Warde steps out and introduces the picture, then plays Shakespeare's king. Murder is how Richard takes the throne. I will not describe the killings. A family can sit with it if you already know the play is bloody and you refuse to narrate the deaths.

The camera records a stage performance more than it tells a new story. That is the useful fact. It is one of the oldest surviving American features, which is why I bothered on a weeknight. The crown is taken by murder, and the picture keeps the actor. It does not rethink the reign. One evening of Warde is plenty, and it isn't a comfort.

Journal

Keep Richard III in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 26. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

By Any Means

34 instead of 26

By Any Means is still a history film, and it scores 34 instead of 26. What you gain is truth: The historical stain is real and should be told straight.

The eight

4
Industry
Warde's stage acting is the work the camera was brought in to keep.
2
Household
Murder is how he takes the throne, so the royal house is the loss.
2
Piety
Conscience does not stop the murders that put the crown on him.
2
Courage
The risk on screen is other lives, spent so one man can be king.
2
Republic
A crown taken by murder is a debt to the realm he does not pay.
2
Temperance
The want for the throne drives the plot and is not put down.
3
Truth
Murder, not a rightful claim, is how this Richard takes the throne.
4
Stewardship
What lasted is Warde's performance, among the oldest American features.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Richard III · 26IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · MGM · 1958

Pass it on

Gigi

26Leave it.

A best picture. The training is the rot, and the marriage at the end does not redeem the school.

Take controlThis scores 26. Gigi cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

It won the best picture of its year, and the award does not change the curriculum. A grandmother and an aunt are training a young woman in Paris to be the mistress of a rich man: how to choose jewels, how to behave at the table, how to be expensive. The young man who has been wandering through other such arrangements decides he wants this one, and the happy ending is that he marries her instead. The film expects the marriage to retire the question.

It does not. The school was the story, and the school is a preparation of a girl for a man's use. The songs are lovely and the loveliness is the danger, because loveliness is how the curriculum gets past a room. I would not put it on for a young woman as a charming antique. If adults watch it as history, say what the aunt was actually teaching before the last waltz. The last waltz is not a pardon.