Note: Some spoilers, something that seems odd to announce for a review of a film that is 83 years old.

Lost for over 80 years, the silent film "Beyond the Rocks," was recently discovered in the Netherlands a few years ago. While it has been touted as a "lost classic," a "lost film of great significance" might be a more appropriate description. While the discovery of a print of any lost film (and there is a plethora of films which have vanished, particularly from the early days of cinema) is cause for celebration, "Beyond the Rocks" is important because it pairs two of the most important performers of the silent era, Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. It is also based on a novel by Elanor Glyn, who was extremely popular in her time. (Her novel "It" provided the film that made Clara Bow "The It Girl.")

In many ways "Beyond the Rocks" is a typical soaper. Swanson plays a loving daughter who marries a wealthy old codger to help her father's financial situation. She is, in fact, in love with Valentino, who is, himself, smitten with her. The film moves through several locales providing Swanson with ample reasons to wear several different outfits which still look amazing even in scratchy black and white. Her honeymoon is in the Swiss Alps which provides a daring mountainside rescue sequence where Valentino becomes hero. Then after a brief respite in the opulent manner of a wealthy acquaintance, the film ends in Africa where horses, camels and several sand dunes provide yet another glorious backdrop for romance.

What is most amazing in this story of star-crossed lovers is the climactic end of the film where Swanson's ailing, wealthy, aged husband sacrifices himself so that she may marry her true love. This was in the age of the beginning of the Hayes Office, which censored films in America for over 40 years, so a sexual liaison between the married Swanson and her young male admirer is never even hinted at. They talk of running away but the thought of such scandal is simply impossible, never mind smooching or having a sexual liaison.

The "lovers" are discovered when a rival for Valentino's affections switches the letters Swanson has written to her husband and her suitor. Both men realize the mistake and the husband concludes that an affair has taken place. The two men meet and the younger faces the husband to affirm the truth. It is after this that the older man travels to Africa with an archaeological expedition he has funded where he has heard there is much danger. Sure enough, marauders appear to secure his fate just as Swanson and Valentino, who are trying to catch up with him, arrive.

While this is indeed the stuff of romance novels and soap operas, "Beyond the Rocks" is interesting because it provides an unusual solution to the would-be adulterers fate with a husband who is willing to step aside (and in this case die, which would be the only "acceptable" solution to the whole mess in the Hayes era) so that his young wife, whom he loves, can be happy. I don't think I've ever seen such a thing in a Hollywood film before. In many ways, it seems not only odd, but quite daring.

In 1922 it was still quite uncommon for a studio to use two A-list actors on the same film. The coupling of Swanson and Valentino, two of the most popular of the time, must have resulted in enormous publicity for the film. The two do have a very nice chemistry together.

Through the study of silent films, just as through the study of literature and art, we can unlock many secrets to our past. "Beyond the Rocks" may not be an adequate reflection of the reality of 1922, but there is some truth within its three walls. Certainly Swanson's costumes indicate what must have been the highest of high fashion in the day. And the sexual mores of the times, including flirting and romance, are quite apparent from watching the film.

The viewing of silent films also provides us with a history of cinema that is interesting to those who love the medium. Swanson and Valentino emote for the camera in the way that silent actors were known to do at the time and yet there is a subtlety and grace to their work. Over 20 years of film acting had evolved when this film was released, and it is easy to note the refinement of the art when one watches these two enormously popular performers in the film. One sees easily why they became so popular. Swanson is fresh-faced, lively and sparkling; Valentino is handsome, suave, debonair.

Film, of course, has created a shorthand for many ideas and plot-points common to stories and we see the development of these in silent films. "Beyond the Rocks" is another step in uncovering not only the history of cinema in America, but the history of America itself.

Notes:

One of the 81 films directed by Sam Wood between 1920 and 1949.

The restored film, as released by Milestone, has a filmed introduction by Martin Scorsese.

No original score material, often provided for theater organists in the silent era, has been located for the film. The restored film has a new score by Henry Vrienten as well as some sound effects.

The newly discovered print was found in a donation of over 2000 film canisters bequeathed to the Nederland Filmmuseum from a Dutch collector. Since the title cards on the found version were in the foreign language, it became necessary to search out an English language version of the script. The Filmmuseum first contacted the Harry Ransom center at UT which houses over 25,000 items relating to Gloria Swanson, including scripts, manuscripts, letter and photographs. The Ransom Center did not, however, have a copy of the English language script. Fearing that they would have to simply translate the title cards from the Dutch language into English, the researchers kept looking and eventually found a script for the film in the archives at Paramount. The script helped in the restoration process by providing a blueprint to make sure that all the scenes that should be in the film were there. It also contained the English title card dialogue which was recreated for this film. English language telegrams and letters shown in close up have also been reproduced for this restored film.

Two scenes in the film were severely damaged and restored as best as they could be. The first is at a reel change where an establishing shot of a train passing denotes the beginning of the married couple's travel for their honeymoon. This part of the film becomes almost artistic in its lost images, providing a avant-guard moment in the film reminding one not only of the power of the image but the power of the suggested image. We do not have to see more than a second of the train passing to complete the image in our own heads, the destroyed images that pass in the screen allow our minds not only time to complete the image in our heads but to contemplate the beauty and spectacle of the moving image. Andy Warhol once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that he liked scratches and damaged spots on film because it reminded him that he was watching a film, something that wasn't reality - and that made it all the more real. This damaged moment in the film reminds the viewer not only of the tenuous nature of film but the tenuous nature of history itself, the endless gaps in our knowledge of the past that is supplanted by the conjecture of our own imaginations based on hypotheses and common sense.

The second scene with damage is at a party where guests, including the stars, sit around a sofa and talk. The damage here moves from edge to center of the screen at both sides and the tempo of the damage, as it moves in and out, provides an almost artistic pacing to the film which could nearly act as the score itself. Again, somehow, this moment does not detract as much as it adds, acting as an enhancement to the film, making the moment not only seem crystalized by the photographic image, but reinforced by the motion of the film itself. We are watching a "moving" image after all and this dance of damage reminds us that it is not only an imitation of life, but actual life itself we are seeing presented on the screen, and both are equally tenuous.

The film debuted in the U.S. in May of 1922. The discovery of the lost print began somewhere around 2000 or 2001 and was kept secret until all reels were found and an announcement was made in 2003. The restored version debuted at Cannes in 2005 and then played in the Netherlands just a few days later before playing in America at a few museums and festivals beginning in October.

For more information about "Lost Films," check out the book of that title by Frank Thompson.

Viewed in Austin in December of 2005 at the Paramount Theater as a part of the Association of Moving Images Archivists annual conference. The screening was preceded by a speech by Louis Black, UT Professor, founder of the "Austin Chronicle" and the SXSW Festival and friend of nationally known film critic Leonard Maltin. Black is an animated storyteller, perhaps a bit too nervous and fidgety, and talked about seeing silent films as a high school student in NYC with Maltin. He introduced Gloria Swanson's granddaughter who spoke briefly and read from here grandmother's autobiography about the film. She ended by introducing the two woman from the Netherlands who discovered and restored the film.

The film is restored in two versions, one using the typical film projection speed of 16 frames per second which has a sort of flickering effect and the other, which was screened at the Paramount, a 35mm version with the new soundtrack. This soundtrack was turned down after the Scorsese intro and a live original score, written for this performance, was played by Graham Reynolds http://www.grahamreynolds.com of the Golden Arm Trio (drums, xylophone, gong) and a pianist named Peter Stopschinski.

Music score below is for the live accompaniment I saw, not for the film's recorded score, which I have not heard).

Report Card

Script: B+

Acting: B+

Cinematography\Lighting: C

Special Effects\Make Up: A

Music: A

Final Grade: B-