We began watching a film about Charlie Chaplin and his life. Charlie Chaplin was very well played by Robert Downey Jr. We got to see a scene of how Chaplin started his career here in the United States. Chaplin had recieved a telegraph with an offer to go work for a studio in California. Once he finally got to the California, he went to go meet with the director who offered him the job. One look at him and the director didn’t believe he was the real Charlie Chaplin and tried to just wave him off. Then Charlie started to perform his famous drunk act and quickly won over the director and everyone near by. They believed that he wasn’t the real Chaplin. After he performed his comedy drunk act, everyone cheered him on and that was proved that he was the real Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin is one of the most known character to be on the big screen in history. I hope we get to watch the rest of the film some time later in the semester.
The “Bride of Frankenstein” was surprisingly a very interesting film. That exactly why they say you should never judge a book by it cover. I thought that since it was such a old movie I would not be too interested. Boy, was I wrong. I did not expect that a movie made in 1935 would be as good as it was. I expected a film with much worse editing, effects and acting. The fact they put such a good film together with such subpar technology at the time is quite impressive in my eyes. We was told to lookout for comedic moments in the movie. Professor Schlegel told us to try and pay attention to the jokes being told in the film. Looking at the movie from that viewpoint allowed me to notice a bunch of jokes in the film the I feel I would have looked over. My favorite part of the film is when Frankenstein meet the old blind man. In those scenes it is shown that Frankenstein is not trying to hurt anyone. He only begins to act out when people are screaming or attacking him because he looks like a monster. I truly enjoyed when he finally made a “Friend”. Thanks to their friendship one of the funniest scene in the film happened in my opinion. I love the scene when Frankenstein says “Drink, goooood” and “Smoke, goooood”. Overall it was a great film really wish it was longer.
Before this class I did not know that Russia was involved so much in the development of editing. Obviously the Russians were more interested in using editing for propaganda purposes. With out any sound they have found a way through only images to tell story so well. They used a correlation of photos that alone don’t have much meaning but together can use it to tell as story. It honestly amazing to see how well a story can be told with no sound.
History of the Motion Picture 
It seems almost strange to enjoy something like a movie that was made in the 1930s to look and sound as well as the “Bride of Frankenstein” was. Before coming into this class, I thought we wouldn’t see anything worth watching until later in the semester, but here I am sitting in class laughing and enjoying such in old film. I felt the main difference between this film or one of today was the fact that there was no color. I could find myself watching one like this soon on my own time.
I had very similar feelings about the part in the movie with the old blind man. Like the monster, the old man was lonely looking for someone to have a connection with. It gave such great message to the viewers to not judge by only looks. Everyone was so scared and would scream, but all he needed was someone to help. The old man who was blind did not care about the looks, he just knew that someone needed help and was willing. The film did a great job to get this point across.
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My favorite part of the film was also the part when Frankenstein met the lonely blind guy. That part of the movie was just very pure to me. It showed me that you can’t just judge a book by its cover. Yes, Frankenstein is a monster to the whole town, but as you said “He only begins to act out when people are screaming or attacking him because he looks like a monster”. If no one ever attacked him, he would have been viewed as a regular being. The friendship between the blind man and Frankenstein was good while it lasted, but I agree overall this was a well directed film.
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You are so right about that, “Don’t judge a book by the cover”. I tend to always judge, not only books but everything, by the way it looks on the outside. I definitely judged this film before and after watching it, I enjoyed it. I thought the same thing when Frankenstein met the old man. He was never trying to hurt anyone, it was just the fact that everyone was afraid of him and called him a monster so they thought he was bad. When people started attacking him, he retaliated and that caused many people to get seriously hurt.
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