Melodrama films captivate the audience by weaving narratives that evoke intense emotions. These films primarily focus on family dynamics, centering around characters who face adversity and exploring themes of duty and love. The melodramatic format portrays characters navigating their challenges with unwavering determination, selfless acts, and bravery. Movie critics and theater owners often use the certain expressions to describe the movies they are reviewing or showing. [1] [2] [3]
In crafting an article for a particular silent film WP:MOSFILM recommends a section titled Critical reception. That section consists of movie critiques by professional critics and direct quotes from audience members.
This listing is a general glossary of slang terms commonly used by silent movie movie critics, theater owners, and film fans to describe the melodramatic films they are reviewing or screening. This glossary offers a fast reference to the slang used in 1920s movie reviews, as they are quoted verbatim.
Example
They Like 'Em Rough,' with Viola Dana. – Comedy-drama in which a husband uses cave man tactics to make his flapper wife come to time.— 1922 Exhibitors Herald Movie Review [4]
Example
They Like 'Em Rough,' with Viola Dana. – Comedy-drama in which a husband uses cave man tactics to make his flapper wife come to time.— 1922 Exhibitors Herald Movie Review [4]
Example
flyers made from San Francisco to Hawaii. It is just a hoak meller that will, for the better part, carry in some of the smaller grindhouses.— 1926 Variety Movie Review [5]
Example
. . . where Nazimova comes to a house of refuge, not knowing that Sills is there, and is pronounced dying by physicians, but is saved by Sills' prayer. To us who make and sell pictures, this "saved by prayer" situation registers as hokum, but just the same it has a genuine wallop for most of your customers, and consequently this final sequence effectively tops a very good red meat dramatic yarn.— 1924 Wid's Movie Review [6]
Example
flyers made from San Francisco to Hawaii. It is just a hoak meller that will, for the better part, carry in some of the smaller grindhouses.— 1926 Variety Movie Review [5]
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In the park awaiting her train home she meets Forrest Chenoworth, a rich idler, whose money has gotten him into trouble with a lady named Jane.— 1920 Wid's Daily Movie Review [7]
Example
. . . where Nazimova comes to a house of refuge, not knowing that Sills is there, and is pronounced dying by physicians, but is saved by Sills' prayer. To us who make and sell pictures, this "saved by prayer" situation registers as hokum, but just the same it has a genuine wallop for most of your customers, and consequently this final sequence effectively tops a very good red meat dramatic yarn.— 1924 Wid's Movie Review [6]
Example
Reviewing the 1928 "The Racket" - Eight January Chicago, racketeers who, for various good reasons, or on the lamb and temporarily going straight in Los Angeles, we're rounded up and induced to work and this crook melodrama.— 1928 Motion Picture Classic Movie Review [8]
Example
In the park awaiting her train home she meets Forrest Chenoworth, a rich idler, whose money has gotten him into trouble with a lady named Jane. . . The alderman's son, a waster, is acquainted with Jane— 1920 Wid's Daily Movie Review [7]
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for prevailing codes of decent behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes in public, driving automobiles, treating sex in a casual manner, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms. As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a very strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill established character archetypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality and family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, filmed, or on television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers further cues to the audience of the dramatic beats being presented.
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s which continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day. This exhibition practice was markedly different from the era's more common practice of fewer shows per day and graduated pricing for different seating sections in large urban theatres, which were typically studio-owned.
Christmas in August is a 1998 South Korean romance drama film. It was director Hur Jin-ho's debut and stars Han Suk-kyu and Shim Eun-ha.
The Mob is a 1951 American film noir crime-thriller produced by Columbia Pictures, directed by Robert Parrish, and starring Broderick Crawford. The screenplay, which was written by William Bowers, is based on the novel Waterfront by Ferguson Findley.
Death Proof is a 2007 American action slasher film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women with modified cars he purports to be "death-proof". Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell co-star as the women he targets.
The Unholy Night is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Ernest Torrence.
Hell Morgan's Girl is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joseph De Grasse, and starring William Stowell, Dorothy Phillips and Lon Chaney. The screenplay was written by Ida May Park, based on the Harvey Gates story entitled The Wrong Side of Paradise, which was the film's working title. The film's tagline read: "This is "Hell Morgan's Girl". You Doubt Her. You Accuse Her. You Pity Her. You Condemn Her. You Hate Her. You Love Her. SHE'S WONDERFUL!"
In the Name of the Law is a 1922 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson with Dick Posson acting as assistant director. FBO released the film in August 1922. The film's "All-Star" cast included Ralph Lewis, Johnnie Walker, and Claire McDowell. The cast also included Johnson and his wife, Ella Hall. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. In the Name of the Law was the first picture in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
Flaming Youth is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Colleen Moore and Milton Sills, based on the novel of the same name by Samuel Hopkins Adams. The film was produced and distributed by Associated First National. In his retrospective essay "Echoes of the Jazz Age", writer F. Scott Fitzgerald cited Flaming Youth as the only film that captured the sexual revolution of the Jazz Age.
The Still Alarm is a melodramatic play by Joseph Arthur and A.C. Wheeler that debuted in New York in 1887 and enjoyed great success, and was adapted to silent films in 1911, 1918, and 1926. Though never a favorite of critics, it achieved widespread popularity. It is best known for its climactic scene where fire wagons are pulled by horses to a blazing fire.
The Lighthouse by the Sea is a 1924 American silent adventure film produced by and distributed by Warner Bros. The film's star is canine sensation Rin Tin Tin, the most famous animal actor of the 1920s. The film was directed by Malcolm St. Clair.
Huck and Tom is a surviving American comedy-drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor and released in 1918. The scenario by Julia Crawford Ivers is derived from Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Robert Gordon and Jack Pickford reprise the title roles from the 1917 version of Tom Sawyer, a successful adaptation that was also directed by Taylor.
The Golden Gallows is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Paul Scardon and starring Miss DuPont. It was produced and distributed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
Deserted at the Altar is a 1922 American silent film melodrama directed by William K. Howard and produced by Phil Goldstone Productions. It stars Bessie Love and Tully Marshall.
Is Love Everything? is a 1924 silent American melodrama film directed by Christy Cabanne. It stars Alma Rubens, Frank Mayo, and H. B. Warner, and was released on November 30, 1924.
The Mailman is a 1923 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson. FBO released the film in December 1923. The film's "All-Star" cast included Ralph Lewis, Johnnie Walker, and Virginia True Boardman. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. The Mailman was the fourth film in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
The Spirit of the USA is a 1924 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson. FBO released the film in May 1924. The film's "All-Star" cast included Johnnie Walker and Mary Carr. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. The Spirit of the USA was the fifth film in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
Life's Greatest Game is a 1924 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson. FBO released the film in October 1924. The film's "All-Star" cast included Johnnie Walker, Tom Santschi, Jane Thomas, David Kirby, and Gertrude Olmstead. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. She was inspired by the 1919 World Series Black Sox Scandal scandal. Life's Greatest Game was the sixth film in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
The Non-Stop Flight is a 1926 American silent melodrama directed by Emory Johnson. FBO released the film in March 1926. The film's "All-Star" cast included Knute Erickson and Marcella Daly. Emilie Johnson, Johnson's mother, wrote both the story and screenplay. The Non-Stop Flight was the eighth and final film in Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO.
Ordinary Production Given to Very Convenient Melodrama
Slang of the 1920's The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations, and the flapper sub-culture had a tremendous influence on mainstream America; many new words and phrases were coined by these liberated women. Many of these are still used today!