Laila

Laila - silent movie
I watched this movie on Turner Classic Channel early this morning. It started at 12:30am and didn't end till 3am. At about 2am I was going to pack it in and tape the rest of it, but it was so interesting I stuck with it till the end. What a fantastic story and acting. It was hard to believe I was watching a movie made in 1929. I'm not going to stretch this review out . . . I loved it and it may have been one of the longest movies I've ever stayed awake for! I highly recommend it.

Ethno-drama at its best
I see that the two previous reviewers watched Laila on TCM, as I did. I am on Pacific time, so I was in bed a little after midnight, our time! I am a fan of the old silent ethno-movies, beginning with Edward Curtis's "In the land of the war canoes" (1914) and Robert Flahrety's "Nanook of the North" and "Taboo," and so on. Laila ranks right with the very best of them, with stunning scenes of the great reindeer herds, wolf packs, and the nomadic camps of the Laplanders -- all shot on location in northern Norway. It is a rich and complex story of a Norwegian girl rescued from the snow and raised by Laplanders, betrothed to marry her foster brother -- whom she does not care for in any romantic sense. The dilemma involves interracial marriage, resolved in an interesting twist at the end.

The cinematography, by the director George Schneevoigt (1893-1949), is as good as it gets. It is hard to believe that you are watching a 1929 silent film. But what blew me totally away...

ANOTHER GREAT OLDIE
I did the same as the first reviewer and stayed up till 2:00am CST to finish watching. The director of this movie was as good or better than most today. The camera work was excellent and I wonder what it would have looked like originally before it needed to be restored. I'm going to put this on my want list and hope to get it sometime this year.

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