Tide of Empire

Last updated

Tide of Empire
Tide of Empire.jpg
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Waldemar Young (scenario)
Based onArgonauts
by Peter B. Kyne
Starring Renée Adorée
Tom Keene
Cinematography Merritt B. Gerstad
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Music by William Axt (uncredited)
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 23, 1929 (1929-04-23)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages Sound (Synchronized)
English intertitles

Tide of Empire is a 1929 American synchronized sound Western film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Renée Adorée and Tom Keene. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process.

Contents

On January 12, 2010, Tide of Empire was released on home video for the first time on DVD on Warner Archive Collection. [1]

Plot

The film

Cast

Music

The film features a theme song entitled “Josephita” which was composed by Ray Klages (words) and Jesse Greer (music).

Production

The film was originally slated to star Joan Crawford in the female lead, but the final filming had Renée Adorée instead of Crawford. It was one of the last MGM films without dialogue and performed badly at the box office.[ citation needed ] Buster Keaton, who was visiting the set, got cast in a cameo as a drunk getting thrown out of a saloon. [2] It was actually a prank and a matter of self-casting, since director Allan Dwan was as surprised as everyone else to suddenly see Keaton “come flying out the saloon doors. It wasn’t part of the scene at all—-I didn’t expect it.” Dwan decided to keep this unscripted scene in the film. [3]

Censorship

When Tide of Empire was released, many states and cities in the United States had censor boards that could require cuts or other eliminations before the film could be shown. The Chicago Board of Censors required the elimination of all execution scenes, which required the addition of film to maintain the synchronized sound track and maintain the continuity of the dialog sequences. [4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Tide of Empire". silentera.com.
  2. ↑ Bogdanovich, Peter (2012). Who the Devil Made It. Random House. p. 149 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Curtis, James (2022). Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life (First ed.). United States: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 362. ISBN   978-0-385-35421-9.
  4. ↑ "Chi Censors Force M-G to Reedit Sound Film". Variety . 94 (7). New York City: Variety, Inc.: 71 February 27, 1929. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.