{"product_id":"gaslight-follies","title":"Gaslight Follies","description":"This rarely-seen four-part documentary from legendary Hollywood producer Joseph E. Levine celebrates (and pokes fun at) the silent era. The first part, \"Stars of Yesterday,\" profiles the biggest names of the era - including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Marie Dressler, Lon Chaney, Wallace Reid, Clara Bow, Mabel Normand, William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Lillian Gish, and Will Rogers - accompanied by selected scenes from some of their best films. It's followed by \"Time Marches Back,\" a compilation of newsreel footage from the early days of cinema, with such wide-ranging topics as the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Babe Ruth's record-breaking career with the Yankees, the formation of the motion picture studio United Artists, and women's fashions in the year 1905! Next is a twenty-minute excerpt from the otherwise lost 1935 film \u003ci\u003eThe Drunkard\u003c\/i\u003e, starring James Murray, Clara Kimball Young, and Janet Chandler. A parody of silent movie cliches that were then considered outdated, it was later remade as \u003ci\u003eThe Villain Still Pursued Her\u003c\/i\u003e (1940). \u003ci\u003eGaslight Follies\u003c\/i\u003e concludes with the 1915 version of \u003ci\u003eEast Lynne\u003c\/i\u003e starring Alan Hale, Sr., accompanied by a comical \"narration\" from radio performers Milton Cross and Ethel Owen. This rare, three-reel version of the classic Ellen Wood novel can only be seen as part of this compilation film (viewers who would rather not hear the satirical commentary are advised to turn the sound down!) \u003ci\u003eGaslight Follies\u003c\/i\u003e is the first movie produced by Joseph E. Levine, kickstarting a long career that would see him serve as the American distributor of such films as \u003ci\u003eGodzilla: King of Monsters!\u003c\/i\u003e (1956), \u003ci\u003eHercules\u003c\/i\u003e (1958) and \u003ci\u003eTwo Women\u003c\/i\u003e (1960). He eventually produced classics of his own like \u003ci\u003eThe Lion in Winter\u003c\/i\u003e (1968) and \u003ci\u003eA Bridge Too Far\u003c\/i\u003e (1977), in addition to serving as an uncredited executive producer on \u003ci\u003eThe Producers\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Graduate\u003c\/i\u003e (both 1968.) \u003ci\u003eGaslight Follies\u003c\/i\u003e came about when Levine met Maxwell A. Finn, who had amassed an amount of silent film footage and was planning on editing it into a feature (Using his real name, Max J. Rosenberg, \"Finn\" would later go on to found British horror movie studio Amicus Productions.) The positive response \u003ci\u003eGaslight Follies\u003c\/i\u003e engendered temporarily panicked the major studios into worrying that dubbed-over silent films would become the next box-office sensation. Instead this technique was mostly relegated to television with programs like \u003ci\u003eSilents Please!\u003c\/i\u003e (1960-1962) and \u003ci\u003eMischief Makers\u003c\/i\u003e (1960-1961).","brand":"Alpha Video","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":45802769449110,"sku":"089218832191","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0703\/9621\/5446\/files\/089218832191.jpg?v=1762203105","url":"https:\/\/moviezyng.com\/products\/gaslight-follies","provider":"Movie Zyng","version":"1.0","type":"link"}