Wordiezett So much average

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

npalazzo1928 Out of all the films that have ever been made, why this one?Because I've been so lucky to see this film at various classic film conventions over the years, despite the fact that the prints I've seen were showing their wear; and yes, there were a couple of clunky scenes where they were trying out sound for the first time. But in spite of that (which isn't really much to forgive) this is probably the only film of its kind that packed such an emotional punch because its story was so simple (as you can see from the other reviews contained herein) and built up to such an anxiety for Jim and Mary, making you wonder whether they will ever get together again because the film makes you feel that they are meant to be together. There's even a great piece of foreshadowing in the film which I won't mention because it hints at the ending, which, I'll never understand why people spoil because it's the very Heart and Soul of the film. If there was ever a film whose ending should NEVER be spoiled, it's Lonesome.And I'm especially lucky in that--ever since I've seen this film--I've always wanted it to be restored and released on DVD; and I don't know how it happened, maybe because I've told so many people about it (without spoiling it!), maybe the Universe saw how much I loved this film...but it was finally restored and released--get this--on my birthday last year! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect birthday present! For anyone who is or has been lonesome, for anyone who still believes in true love, for anyone who is lucky enough to have found their soul mate, this film was meant for you. In a way, it's a shame more films can't be made with the same quality of story and feeling as this one; but that's what makes Lonesome so unique. To wrap this up...there was publicity booklet put out by the Universal Pictures exhibitors in 1928 which describes the plot (again without giving the ending away!) and ends with the challenge, "If Ever You Have Seen a More Beautiful or Enjoyable Picture - Please Name It." See? They knew...Thanks for reading this review.

kidboots Two ordinary people - their personalities seem to jump out from the start of this brilliant film. Mary is cheery, greeting every day with a smile, Jim is a jokester, the life of the party, she is a switchboard operator, he is a machinist. But they are lonely and meet after taking the advice of a billboard that encourages people to have a fun day at Coney Island. Jim spies Mary on the bus and tries to attract her attention but it is only at the beach when Jim finds Mary's cherished ring that they get to know each other.The version I saw was all silent, with Hungarian titles no less, probably packaged for Paul Fejo's own country, to show he was much more than a bacteriologist!!! Fejos was another import for Universal who, along with Fox, thoroughly embraced the European Expressionism movement that peaked in Hollywood in the late 1920s. Fejo didn't stay in America long and by the early 1930s he was back directing in Europe but with "Lonesome" he included some striking neo expressionistic camera effects including multiple super impositions etc.Like "The Crowd" the two leads were played by relative unknowns and they were perfect in their roles. Barbara Kent had found fame of sorts by playing the good girl in "Flesh and the Devil" but who was going to remember her with Greta Garbo playing the villainess. Glen Tryon had failed to make the grade - initially he was a Hal Roach discovery who saw him as another Harold Lloyd. He was also given the role in Fejo's next film "Broadway". Both of them are almost too convincing as the lonely couple who as the evening progresses find themselves caring very deeply about the other person. They are separated when the roller coaster that Mary is riding in catches on fire and Jim, who is thought of as being a nuisance is hauled off to night court. There is an extended bit of silent dialogue here (similar to a scene on the beach where Jim is dreaming of blue picket fences etc) which was probably another "goat gland" sequence.I thought Tryon was very moving - outside cocky but inside eaten up with loneliness. At one stage he says "I am so lonely and alone - I can't stand my own company". The emotion and the intentness builds as they look for each other at the fair that is now fast becoming desolate. At the end they both return to their flat, overcome by despair - he tries to play records and her little doll, the one memory of the day, falls off the table and breaks. They then discover that they live in the same building!!!Fejo found the idea in a newspaper article about loneliness in New York but I think it shares similarities with a 1915 film "Young Romance". In the older movie, two youngsters who, unbeknown to themselves, work in the same department store, read the same romantic serial and go on a week's holiday determined to find some romance at any cost - preferably with someone wealthy. Mary and Jim, early in the movie, try to pretend to be more exotic that they really are, then Mary laughs and says that they have probably both been reading the same romantic serial!!Highly, Highly Recommended.

Varlaam This film is outstanding.A man and woman leave their respective rented rooms for work. He's a "punch presser"; she's a switchboard operator. After work, neither one feels up to joining friends; they just feel too ... single. But they both head to Coney Island. They meet, fall in love, get separated, return home distressed. A plot that simple, even clichéd, does not appear to hold much promise.But the energy! The pacing is so frenetic. There's constant movement on camera, clocks ticking, crowds scurrying, throngs crushing, machines stamping, carnivals, streamers, roller coaster rides. Moments of relative calm come when the lovers are together.The thrilling impersonality of the urban maelstrom has hardly been better depicted. I came away thinking it was one of the best things I've seen.If you've seen "The Devil and Miss Jones", the Jean Arthur / Robert Cummings comedy from 1941, then you can't help but remember the Coney Island beach scene where everyone is packed in together with barely room to move.Well, this film has a scene just like that one. In fact, the greater part of the film is that way. You're never so alone as when you're in a crowd. These scenes are funny, but they do make their point.I saw a restored print of "Solitude" (as it was titled) with colour tinting and three sound sequences, courtesy of Cinematheque Ontario. The sound segments are just awful, so typical of the very earliest sound, but perhaps they're a blessing in disguise. The extraordinary quality of the silent film is spotlighted by the awkwardness of these three brief scenes: Jim and Mary on the beach, Jim and Mary near the midway, Jim at the police station.The ultimate restoration of this elusive marvel would make the film silent throughout, liberating it from the stylistic cacophony of the stilted sound sequences.Neither lead performer, Barbara Kent nor Glenn Tryon, was known to me previously. (Andy Devine is plainly recognizable however.) It seems that Tryon later became the producer of "Hellzapoppin" and "Hold That Ghost". He also holds the only acting credit for a film that anyone at all seems to have seen, "Variety Girl" from 1947. To me, Barbara Kent resembles Paulette Goddard somewhat, while Glenn Tryon looks like a brother to Don DeFore and Bob Cummings.The screening I attended was the Toronto première of the restoration. Let's hope it now becomes more widely available.

Levana If only this remarkable movie hadn't had the misfortune to be released just when the enthusiasm for sound was sweeping all before it, it would probably have been more appreciated at the time and remembered today as one of the all-time classics. As an expression of the isolation of city life, it builds up an atmosphere of desperation, in spite of its romance with a happy ending. The scene where the boy searches frantically for the girl throughout crowded Coney Island, buffeted this way and that by the uncaring throngs, turned away by the indifferent faces of the amusement park workers, has few equals for anguish. Also unforgettable is the montage that cuts from one to the other of the lovers (who have not yet met) while they are at work, the one at a factory, the other at a telephone switchboard; the motions of the hands and the machines build to a frantic, overwhelming pace.Unfortunately, before the movie was released it was sadly mangled by the insertion of several sound sequences, which stop the continuity dead with their absolute stasis, and feature dialogue so thunderously inane you have to suspect it was written by the sound technician. Nonetheless, "Lonesome" remains one of the most sophisticated examples of the silent movie, an art form that was killed by sound almost as soon as it had reached maturity.