I had just received the Buster Keaton Collection (French edition: "L'Intégrale des Courts Métrages, 1917-1923", Collection Cinéma Muet, by Arte Vidéo) as a New Year's present (January 2002), and it was while watching "His Wedding Night" that I came across that sequence... There she was, Virginia Rappe, looking right into the camera! It was just an intuition, and if it wasn't her, well it surely must have been her second self. I wrote immediately to my correspondent and friend in Italy and told him about those photograms showing Virginia Rappe as an extra: the pretty lady in the car. We decided to put the photograms from the movie in the section "Immagini" of the site we have dedicated to the actress, and mentioned her little role in her Filmography. Of course, it hadn' t been proved yet that the woman in the movie really was Virginia Rappe - as I just said, it was nothing but a feeling, even if a very strong one. We were glad to notice, some time later, that even the Internet Movie Database reported our "find", and later on some newsgroups were also mentioning it. It would be great if some cinema history experts could confirm that the extra in the movie is Virginia Rappe. I have heard that a Californian writer is working on a biography of the actress. I hope that the book will be available soon, maybe we will read something about her role in Mr. Arbuckle's film. A happy new year to all silent movies' estimators!
M. J. Virginia Rappe Web - La ragazza della Cuffietta http://digilander.libero.it/virginiarappe/
2 Comments:
It's remarkable to come across such a find, especially when so few of Arbuckle's films are available today. Thank you for sharing these!
I had just received the Buster Keaton Collection (French edition: "L'Intégrale des Courts Métrages, 1917-1923", Collection Cinéma Muet, by Arte Vidéo) as a New Year's present (January 2002), and it was while watching "His Wedding Night" that I came across that sequence... There she was, Virginia Rappe, looking right into the camera! It was just an intuition, and if it wasn't her, well it surely must have been her second self.
I wrote immediately to my correspondent and friend in Italy and told him about those photograms showing Virginia Rappe as an extra: the pretty lady in the car. We decided to put the photograms from the movie in the section "Immagini" of the site we have dedicated to the actress, and mentioned her little role in her Filmography. Of course, it hadn' t been proved yet that the woman in the movie really was Virginia Rappe - as I just said, it was nothing but a feeling, even if a very strong one. We were glad to notice, some time later, that even the Internet Movie Database reported our "find", and later on some newsgroups were also mentioning it. It would be great if some cinema history experts could confirm that the extra in the movie is Virginia Rappe. I have heard that a Californian writer is working on a biography of the actress. I hope that the book will be available soon, maybe we will read something about her role in Mr. Arbuckle's film.
A happy new year to all silent movies' estimators!
M. J.
Virginia Rappe Web - La ragazza della Cuffietta
http://digilander.libero.it/virginiarappe/
Post a Comment
<< Home