Hula
(1927)
on
|
Released to American theaters just after the New York premiere of World War I epic Wings (1927), Hula (1927) is one of six feature films released in 1927 that Clara Bow appeared in for Paramount. The film’s Hawaiian location is an exotic backdrop to this comedy-romance that is sparked by Bow’s effervescent performance.
Hula Calhoun (Clara Bow) is a young woman who has grown up on her widower father’s Hawaiian ranch. Not cultured in the ways of the ‘civilized’ world, the childlike Hula nonetheless captures the affections of visiting British engineer Anthony Haldane (Clive Brook). Hula professes her love, but Haldane keeps the fact that he is married to himself and is forced to give her a cold shoulder. Intruding in the middle of it all is the shameless and well-named Mrs. Bane (Arlette Marchal) who is also trying to capture the eye of Haldane. Confused and hurt, Hula resolves to break through his chilliness. Haldane is forced to level with her, but when he admits that he does not lover his wife, Hula encourages him to abandon his reserve and love her. In stoic British resolve, Haldane refuses to lose his honor and violate his wedding vows — it wouldn’t be sporting, you know.
Hula then throws herself into all the recklessly fun-loving situations she can manage in an attempt to evoke jealousy from Haldane, including flirting with shallow Harry Dehan (Arnold Kent) and performing a smouldering Betty-Boopish hula dance. Well, it works, and Haldane punches out the drunken, lustful Dehan and is forced to admit his love to the delighted Hula.
After months of attempting to obtain a divorce, Hula and Haldane are shocked by the arrival of his wife (Patricia Dupont [Miss Dupont]) and her mercenary refusal to grant a divorce. Hula then schemes to scare off the money-hungry wife.
Director Victor Fleming gives Bow a number of close-ups throughout the film that give full play to her entertainingly expressive face. — Carl Bennett
|
 2004 Sunrise Silents edition
Hula (1927), color-tinted black & white, 81 minutes, not rated.
Sunrise Silents, HULA-N (NTSC) and HULA-P (PAL), no UPC number.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC or PAL, one single-sided, single-layered DVD-R disc, Region 0, 4.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 1536 kbps audio bit rate, PCM stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, keep case, $21.95.
DVD release date: 1 November 2004.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 6 / additional content: 3 / overall: 6.
|
|
 This DVD-R edition from Sunrise Silents features a natural-speed video transfer from a very-good 16mm reduction print, which has been presented edition producer Rich Olivieri in windowboxed format to allow the maximum image area present in the print to be seen on all televisions.
The source print is soft of image details and is marked with the usual amount of speckling, dust, occasional scuffing and scratches. While the print is slightly contrasty, with burnt-out highlights and plugged up shadows, the print holds a passable range of graytones that keeps the film watchable in this edition. Color-tints have been digitally added, and they keep the print’s contrastiness from being as noticeable to viewers.
The film is accompanied by a MIDI-driven digital piano score, which allows for some customization of the accompaniment to the film’s action. This approach is economical for small-budget home video producers who want to workaround the totally inappropriate option of simply running prerecorded music under the film without tailoring it to the action it accompanies.
Don’t be misled by ongoing claims by Sunrise Silents that their discs contain commentary on the film. As is commonly understood among DVD consumers, audio commentary is an alternative audio track that runs in conjunction with the film featuring historical and anecdotal information about the film and filmmakers. Sunrise Silents’ discs instead feature a video introduction by edition producer Rich Oliveri, which is referred to as “commentary,” that serves much the same purpose as the three-minute introductions to films featured on TCM and AMC cable networks.
While not of ideal quality (few public-domain companies can afford to produce better), this disc is still collectible given the moderate quality of the source print and its modest production costs. While waiting for a new home-video edition of Hula to be prepared from 35mm materials, we recommend this DVD-R disc to fans of Clara Bow and romantic comedies.
This disc is out-of-print.
|
