Ramona (1928 film)

Ramona
Film poster
Directed by Edwin Carewe
Written by Finis Fox
Based on Ramona
by Helen Hunt Jackson
Starring Dolores del Río
Warner Baxter
Music by "Ramona" by Mabel Wayne and L. Wolfe Gilbert
Cinematography Robert Kurrle
Edited by Jeanne Spencer
Production
company
Inspiration Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • May 20, 1928 (1928-05-20)
Running time
 80 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent (English intertitles)

Ramona is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Edwin Carewe,[1] based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona, and starring Dolores del Rio and Warner Baxter. This was the first United Artists film with a synchronized score and sound effects, but no dialogue, and so was not a talking picture.

The novel had been previously filmed by D. W. Griffith in 1910 with Mary Pickford, remade in 1916 with Adda Gleason, and again in 1936 with Loretta Young.

Cast

Production

Parts of the film were shot in Zion National Park, Springdale, and Cedar Breaks National Monument, all in Utah.[2]:286

Reception

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times found much to praise in what he called "an Indian love lyric": "This current offering is an extraordinarily beautiful production, intelligently directed and, with the exception of a few instances, splendidly acted. The scenic effects are charming.... The different episodes are told discreetly and with a good measure of suspense and sympathy. Some of the characters have been changed to enhance the dramatic worth of the picture, but this is pardonable, especially when one considers this subject as a whole."[3]

Preservation status

For decades, Ramona was thought to be lost until archivists rediscovered it in the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague in 2010. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress later transferred Ramona’s highly flammable original nitrate film to acetate safety stock.

The restored version of the 1928 film had its world premiere in the Billy Wilder Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 29, 2014. Carewe's older brother Finis Fox had written Ramona's screenplay and created its intertitles.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Progressive Silent Film List: Ramona". Silent Era. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  2. ↑ D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood Came to Town: a History of Moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-14-2360-5874.
  3. ↑ Mordaunt Hall, "An Indian Love Lyric", New York Times, May 15, 1928, accessed February 1, 2011
  4. ↑ Aleiss, Angela (March 27, 2014). "Recovered and Restored: Ramona, Silent Movie by Chickasaw Filmmaker". Indian Country Today Media Network. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
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