| Description |
1 online resource (8 minutes) |
| Summary |
THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND is part of the film retrospective UNSEEN CINEMA that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema. A film designed to show the absurdity of talkies that recorded action in pictures with unnecessary explanations of the action recorded in sound. Film was shown for one night in a Boston theater but not appreciated by the audience. Harold Lloyd, directed by Sennett, might have brought it off. --J.S. WATSON, JR.Watson's 1930/1933 avant-garde film is a unique example of Dadaist aesthetics in early sound cinema. A minimalist and virtually expressionless acting style on a claustrophobic set characterizes the melodramatic love triangle. Watson considered the film a failure, though it appears extremely modern today, and he suppressed its existence. --JAN-CHRISTOPHER HORAK Born to wealth, James Sibley "J.S." Watson, Jr. was considered a Renaissance man in each of his chosen fields: medical doctor and researcher, man of letters, preservationist, philanthropist, and filmmaker. After graduating medical school, Watson bought and published "The Dial" between 1920-29, a literary journal founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1840. By the mid-1920s, he became fascinated with motion pictures and produced a striking series of films: "The Fall of the House of Usher "(1927), "Tomatos Another Day" (1930), and "The Eyes of Science" (1931), among others. --JAN-CHRISTOPHER HORAK / BRUCE POSNER. Alternate title: "Tomatos Another Day", "It Never Happened". 35mm 1.20:1 black and white sound 6:43 minutes. Courtesy: James Sibley Watson Jr., Nancy Watson Dean |
| Notes |
Title from resource description page (viewed June 16, 2020) |
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"American surrealism" |
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"Early American avant-garde film, 1893-1941" |
| Credits |
Composer: Alec Wilder |
| Notes |
In English |
| Subject |
Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Drama
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Surrealism in motion pictures.
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Experimental films -- United States
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Motion pictures -- United States.
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Experimental films
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Motion pictures
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Surrealism in motion pictures
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Triangles (Interpersonal relations)
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United States
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| Genre/Form |
Feature films
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Drama
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Experimental films
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Fiction films
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Romantic comedy films
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Short films
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Short films.
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Experimental films.
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Romantic comedy films.
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Fiction films.
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Feature films.
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Courts métrages.
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Films expérimentaux.
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Comédies romantiques (Films)
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Films de fiction.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Watson, James S. (James Sibley), 1894-1982, director.
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Wilder, Alec, composer
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Cineric (Firm), presenter.
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