Highlights
Count Binface and electoral theatre
Don’t be a costumed loon — It’s trivially easy to stand for Parliament in the UK. Any loon can do so. You need ten electors to nominate you and £500 for a deposit – and it’s actually been getting easier. The deposit was introduced in 1918 (£150 – quite a lot of money then). Before […]
I hate this
But does it matter? — I don’t usually say that sort of thing here. I try to be more measured, less personal. I’m talking about the police face recognition vans obviously. This might not surprise you: I mean that I don’t like them. I’m an old git after all, a man who’s written here before […]
Where is my patriotism?
Come, love of country, fill my heart… — I do love Britain. I guess I love England more. London most of all. I hope that in my life I’ve honoured the place I live and not disgraced it or undermined it (I support England and GB in sporting events – I fly a little flag […]
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Chaps in trouble
We’ve got to 1919. The officer class over-reaches itself and gets stuck on the ice. It’s a disaster but it all works out in the end. — Every year’s top-grossing…
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A 1918 double bill: pathos and perfect slapstick followed by a mind-expanding account of the Russian revolution
Mabel Normand and Vladimir Lenin, together at last — I’m watching every year’s top-grossing movie, since 1913. You can get these chronological reviews in your inbox over here. — MICKEY,…
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A fairytale, a comedy, a fantasy – and a Disney princess 20 years before Snow White
Mary Pickford was famed for playing childlike parts, flighty young women with spirit. In 1917’s The Poor Little Rich Girl, she broke new ground by playing an actual child. —…
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This review turned into a disquisition on underwater storytelling
This adaptation of Jules Verne’s great submarine romance was the top-grossing film of 1916 – and it wasn’t even the first movie version — 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, STUART…
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Technofeudalism, neofeudalism, political capitalism and old-fashioned capitalism
It is possible for geniuses to explain things in ways that non-geniuses can understand but sometimes they need to switch formats to do it. — Microverses: Observations from a Shattered…
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Bus drivers, bus conductors and the spirit of Tobruk in Sloane Square
Loyalty and transgression on the number 10s. — I’ve been reluctant to share this story over the years because I’ve always suspected it’s a bit too perfect and that it…
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A visionary work of art, a hateful apologia for slavery and Jim Crow… and a really bad film
The Birth of a Nation was the top-grossing film of 1915… — THE BIRTH OF A NATION, D.W. GRIFFITHS, DAVID W. GRIFFITH CORP., 1915 So I did it, I watched…
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An organised crime drama with a dramatic police raid and an ultra-modern remote surveillance storyline
It’s called Traffic in Souls and it’s an extraordinarily modern movie – a prototype for a whole new category — TRAFFIC IN SOULS: WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS, GEORGE LOANE TUCKER,…
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Music that satisfies completely
From music we get all sorts of things. And one of them is completion. — I love jazz but even after decades of exposure to every different genre I’m still…
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Trump’s epic disdain
Trump the innovator is back on the campaign trail, diagnosing and mocking his audiences. And they love it. — I can’t stop watching this video. It’s a random tiny clip…