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Post by coopfan on May 10, 2007 15:58:06 GMT -5
Seven young English aviators are billeted at the Berthelot farm near the French front. One of the flyers, Philip Blythe, falls in love with farmer Berthelot's daughter, Jeannie, and on the morning before a dangerous mission declares his love for her. Philip is shot down, and Jeannie helps an ambulance crew to extricate his apparently lifeless body from the wrecked plane. In the following weeks, Jeannie searches in vain in all of the military army hospitals for Philip. She does encounter Philip's father, who, disapproving of her lowly origins, falsely informs her that Philip has died. In farewell, Jeannie sends a bouquet of lilacs to his room, and Philip, recognizing the flowers as her gift, painfully drags himself to his window in time to call her back to him.
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Post by coopfan on May 10, 2007 20:28:04 GMT -5
I haven't watched all of this movie but someday I will.
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Post by coopfan on May 25, 2007 1:49:59 GMT -5
I just found this thread over at TCM that states that Lilac Time had got a full restoration. I hope they show it on TCM now sometime soon! forums.turnerclassicmovies.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7926213Here's a cool review I found on it from Golden Silents taken from the Killiam collection video source which is probably a better source that what I have for it. LILAC TIME Starring Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper THE FILM SPECTATOR June 23, 1928 By long odds, a greater picture than "Wings" is "Lilac Time," Colleen Moore's contribution to the air epics of the screen. It is greater than the Paramount picture because it is equally thrilling and, in addition, has what "Wings" lacks, a connected, coherent and dramatic story from which it does not depart for as much as one foot of film. "Lilac Time" might be taken as a model for pictures that are planned as supers. From the opening scene until the last it seems to concern itself only with telling its story. As it lets nothing interfere with the telling, the story moves swiftly along its logical course and holds our interest in it as a story. The same story set in any other environment would hold our interest. That is the test that any story should pass before it is screened. If it does not have enough inherent strength to keep us interested when it is told in a shanty, it lacks strength enough to warrant it being told in a palace. "Lilac Time" has strength enough to warrant it being told in any setting. But it is told in France, and it is war time when young fellows take their seats in planes and grin as they fly towards death; when foes meet above clouds and have it out up there until one combatant falls through a cloud, and the other wipes his wounds and looks for another fight; when romance remains alive though nations pass away. "Lilac Time" is a romance possessing all the terrific trimming that war could adorn it with. I saw it before it had some of the trimmings that will be added prior to its release. It was strictly silent when I viewed it, but when it is released, it will have talking sequences and sound effects that should improve it immensely, for it is a picture that will lend itself admirably to the application of sound. But it is great, even as a silent picture. Colleen never before has appeared in anything with such dramatic and pictorial sweep. And she never gave a better performance. She is in the story logically by reason of being a French girl at whose farm aviators are stationed. At no place does the story strain itself to keep going. It is quite unlike the story of "Wings" which commits suicide when it takes Clara Bow to France. George Fitzmaurice directed "Lilac Time." The last previous picture of his that I viewed -- "Rose of Monterey" -- was so beautiful that it was not true, and I had grown to look upon Fitz as a director who had no peer in spreading beauty on the screen, even if he had to sacrifice drama to get it. I take it back. Fitzmaurice has done a magnificent job with his direction of "Lilac Time." At no time does he sacrifice drama to beauty, but in several sequences he mixes the two, giving us scenes of exquisite beauty and romantic strength. In some shots showing a road crowded with people who are evacuating a village, Fitzmaurice uses a row of eucalyptus trees as a gorgeous frame for the action. The shots above the clouds are not as impressively beautiful as those in "Wings," but George did not have as much latitude in framing them. A director on the ground cannot control very well the work of actors on the other side of a cloud. I am surprised, though, that a director with such a highly developed artistic sense as Fitzmaurice possesses, should give us in close-ups a love scene set among lilac bushes. He had everything at hand to combine into a love scene of surpassing beauty and tenderness, but he throws all of it away and gives us the kind of shots that the public is tiring of. There is another scene that is weakened greatly by close-up treatment. Gary Cooper is leaving on a flight that means almost certain death, and is saying farewell to Colleen, whom he loves. The leave-taking is shown in an exceedingly stupid close-up. It should have been a medium shot, with the line of planes showing dimly in the background, thereby retaining as part of the scene the grim thought back of it. Gary Cooper gives a splendid performance in "Lilac Time." He is more human and likable than I have seen him in most of his pictures. Eugenie Besserer is fine as Colleen's mother, and several others in a long cast distinguish themselves. The picture is one that I recommend without reservation to all exhibitor readers of The Spectator. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video source: Killiam collection |
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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on May 25, 2007 12:54:52 GMT -5
Dan, I love your signature!!
I started watching this movie but couldn't finish it bcause I couldn't read the titles! I'll have to finish it this weekend...
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Post by coopfan on May 25, 2007 16:53:49 GMT -5
Not to worry on not seeing that movie as I haven't seen it either because I couldn't read the titles.  Isn't that a niffty signature. Its kind of got that cinemascope to it even though Sgt York was a regular frame movie. I just cut a portion of the picture out in Photoshop. And yes I knew you were going to love it before I posted it. ;D |
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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on May 25, 2007 18:17:50 GMT -5
That's genius! I love it.
You've got the best signature in town, pardner...I'mma jealous, lol.
That movie was just terrible! I tried watching their expressions but I couldn't tell if she was upset at some guy not drinking his gin because he's dead or if she was just very fond of the broken cup...
MAYBE I'll get through it on our Memorial trip; It's an hour drive so I may be able to finish the rest of it but If I never show up again, that's because I've lost my eyesight and I can't see the keyboard anymore.
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Post by coopfan on May 25, 2007 19:31:34 GMT -5
I gave up pretty quick trying to watch that film but more power to you in your attempt |
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Post by coopfan on Jul 13, 2007 21:35:02 GMT -5
Lilac Time complete movie now on YouTube: Part 1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivPAxxGucKEPart 2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LORyCv2ivyIPart 3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAkbqJ0Fi3UPart 4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRcXhX3oBcIPart 5 www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ZWblc-UyMPart 6 www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEBVd8JFfHIPart 7 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffrt-FANsRgPart 8 www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN0IwnkedigPart 9 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiEnCRQz1_8Part 10 Ending www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6FEac_Xu4sThis was taken from video tape purchased on Amazon titled Collector's choice. Original video and audio was not that great but not quite as bad as previous bootleg dvd version I had. The original video was very low in contrast and blurry. I added about 25 percent contrast and subtracted 6 percent of brightness to try to get some sort of black balance to the picture. However, the picture still goes from extremely bright in one scene to rather dark in another. There is no consistency to the picture. If this picture is ever fully restored, it would have to be done on a frame by frame basis. I also added about 90 percent to the sharpness and cleaned up a very distracting audio hiss and crack soundtrack using proffesional hiss and crack removal software. The original audio for this movie on collector's choice is in quite bad shape and still does not sound real great but does sound a whole lot better than it did. Also some quality was lost with YouTube re-encoding the video as they always do, but still think it looks a great deal better than the bootleg dvd that I tried to watch one time. I recommend watching the video segments at the smallest viewing setting to get the maximum video quality that YouTube can offer. Below is an original screen capture of the quality of the video tape footage before I worked on it.  |
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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on Jul 13, 2007 22:28:22 GMT -5
*Gasps* There are people in this film!
And what are those? ...WORDS?!
*Sobs uncontrollably* It's such a beautiful thing...--words!
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Post by coopfan on Jul 14, 2007 10:28:21 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments on the videos of Gary's that I did up for six of his movies. It really takes a very long time to encode and post these videos. It probably takes an entire day of my life to do just one of his movies and get them posted on Youtube. I really thought more Cooper fans would watch them than what have done so and may stop with this movie as they are just not getting the kinds of views on youtube that would make it worth my time to post any more. In fact not a single person has even watched part 8 and parts 10 to Lilac Time which is a little disappointing to say the least. In fact the video that got the most views that I have posted is the Jim Reeves super rare video of him singing Welcome to my World on the Jimmy Dean show which is at 1,126 views so far and Jim Reeves fans all over are amazed that I have this video. I think I am going to include this one in my signature here since it is the most popular video that I have done. The one song he does on there titled Welcome to My World I have always looked at as a religious song with God asking us to step into His World that was built with us in mind, but I don't think that is what it was intended to be but perhaps it was as it also mentions to knock and the door will be open which is a Biblical reference. Anyway I always say that this is my favorite Jim Reeves Christian song.
I have finished watching 51 of Cary Grant's movies ane while he was in some very good movies overall he is no Gary Cooper for the entire body of his work as I thought he had many duds. I suppose this is no matter to those women that watch both him and Gary for their looks but his movies over all are not of the same level as Cooper's enitre body of work in my opinion. The same can be stated on Jimmy Stewart and Humprey Bogart. I think I only like 10 of Bogarts movies and the rest can be forgotten in my view and I consider myself a huge Bogart fan. With Jimmy Stewart, none of his westerns are as good as Gary's as I have watched them all now. If he would have done more movies like It's A Wonderful Life then I may have liked him as much as Gary but he didn't so enough on that. Jimmy Stewart is from a town that is only about a 45 min drive for me so he is very big around where I live but just not with me.
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coopsgirl
The Bees Knees
More than just the 'It girl'
Posts: 584
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Post by coopsgirl on Jul 14, 2007 15:24:45 GMT -5
I'm surprised more people aren't watching the movies you've put up. Maybe over time though they will get more hits. I definitely would watch them but they've blocked Youtube where I work which totally stinks  You are right on too about no other actor having as watchable a body of work as Gary did, at least not that I've seen so far. I really only like Cary Grant's comedies, I like quite a few of Jimmy Stewart's movies but nowhere near all of them. B/c of seeing Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Arthur with Gary I have seen quite a few of their movies and liked them but I don't like all of them like I do with Gary. I mean I even love his westerns and I just can't watch a western is he's not in it.  |
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Post by coopfan on Jul 14, 2007 15:58:27 GMT -5
Well now that I got up the movie Lilac time on You Tube, I finally had a chance to watch it the whole way from beginning to end and I must say it is not one of my favorite movies of Gary's. It seems like there is far more over acting in this movie than in either Doomsday or Barbara Worth. In fact Gary really hams it up at the end of this movie in the most extreme dramatic fashion. I guess it is good that I made this up and everything for people to see as it is one of his more hard to find movies but it may rank down at the complete bottom of my lists for Gary Cooper movies. Perhaps at 80th place. It may be due to the fact that I just watched The Dawn Patrol with Errol Flynn as that movie is leaps and bounds ahead of this movie in story line and acting. I know that the Golden silents people think that these silent movies are the best movies ever made and all that, but motion pictures progressed a great deal from 1928 to 1938 and it was all for the better in my view. These biplane ww1 movies just didn't cut it for the silent era and I don't think they were ready to become great stories until Errol Flynn's version which is a million times better in every way to both Lilac Time and Wings and this is coming straight from a true die hard Gary Cooper fan. Doomsday and Barbara Worth were simplier love stories that worked quite well for the silent era and much better than these silent movies seemed to work for me at least. Doomsday is in fact in my top 10 favorite Coop movies but Lilac Time is in the bottom 10 for sure. I am sure it had all to do with the director and nothing to do with Gary himself as an actor as he was much more natural in other silent movies done around the same time. So to all the Golden Silent people out there, I recommend to see a real ww1 biplane movie go rent out the Erol Flynn movie The Dawn Patrol as this lylac time movie just isn't all that good. The actress playing the lead is no Clara Bow for sure and Wings is a superior movie to this one in every regard that can be recorded.
This is my review of the movie and sorry for such a negative review but they can't all be winners.
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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on Jul 14, 2007 17:15:40 GMT -5
I post them all on Myspace and people comment left and right; don't worry, you're getting more views than you think. I made them embedded so it doesn't show on the counter, but everyone says they're just amazing.
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Post by coopfan on Jul 15, 2007 15:51:02 GMT -5
I may have been a little hard yesterday on my review of this movie. It is a very simple love story and I guess it not all that bad. I guess I just didn't like the over dramatic ending that much but I do think Doomsday had a much better plot as well as The winning of Barbara Worth.
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senta
Cat's Meow
Posts: 76
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Post by senta on Nov 8, 2007 6:53:04 GMT -5
Hi,
I haven't watched Lilac Time on Youtube, because I have the same Collector Choice VHS. And I like it. I begin to like silents more and more after watching them on YouTube. I think it can't be compared to Dawn Patrol, which sure is great movie - one of my favorites with Flynn, but these silents have something so endearing in them, some naive tuch, and I always think: why I didn't born in these times? Unfortunatly I haven't watch Wings yet. But hope so.
Regards,
Senta
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