Jumpin' for Joby: Jobyna Ralston Watch-fest

[BettyLouSpence]

Jumpin' for Joby:
the Jobyna Ralston Watch-fest



Welcome one and all to the Jobyna Ralston Silent Photoplay Forum Watch-fest! We'll be watching four films with Joby in a major role, taking one week for each film. Joby is best remembered today for being Harold Lloyd's leading lady in six of his twelve feature films from 1923 to 1927, as well as for her (surprisingly small) role in the first Oscar winning film Wings (1927), a war epic in which she co-starred with Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen (who she met on set and later married that year), and Clara Bow.

However, for this watch-fest I wanted to focus on her lesser known features. I soon ran into a problem: most of these films which are extant are frustratingly unavailable to watch online. In the end I was only able to find three. But, no matter; we'll simply end the fest with Joby in a familiar role as Harold's leading lady!

Films currently being watched will be in a larger font, bold, and colored red. Time slot to watch starts and ends on Monday nights. I've conveniently placed the dates underneath each title.

The Three Must-Get-Theres O1922)
with Max Linder; comedy; 52 min
July 6 - July 13
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4y_D3Jb0mU

The Power of the Press (1928)
with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.; drama; 1 hr 3 min
July 13 - July 20
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o7W5aSfFwZA

Special Delivery (1927)
with Eddie Cantor; comedy; 58 min
July 20 - July 27
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qB0v4AqNHZY
Note: This upload has no score. I recommend watching with another silent Eddie Cantor film, Kid Boots, playing in a separate window. This one has a piano score by Arthur Siegel that, after a five minute preview, I find more or less matches up with Special Delivery.

The Freshman (1925)
with Harold Lloyd; comedy; 1 hr 16 min
July 27 - August 3
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTvRX7E7Ak

Happy watching!

[Kitty]

Awesome!!! I'm not super familiar with her, so this will be a fun one.

[donnie]

Yay! Looking forward to this fest! Especially the rarer ones I've not seen yeet.

[BettyLouSpence]

Thanks! I really went all out for this one.

Here is our first film: The Three Must-Get-Theres, a 1922 comedy by Max Linder which parodies both the novel and the film adaptation released by Douglas Fairbanks a year prior. We have until next Monday night, July 13, to watch.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4y_D3Jb0mU

[donnie]

Those gifs are great, by the way, especially the bottom one.

[Kitty]

Those gifs are great, by the way, especially the bottom one.

I second that! Where did you find them?

[BettyLouSpence]

I found both with an image search of "jobyna ralston gif". The second one is from Tumblr.

[BettyLouSpence]

Watching The Three Must-Get-Theres right now.

[BettyLouSpence]

Just finished watching. A little heads up: despite the 52 minute running time of the upload, the actual film itself is only around 37 minutes long. As for the music, it's maybe not the most fitting, but one can tell that the uploader tried their best to select a variety domain pieces to match to different sections of the film, though they were of course limited to those in the public domain. There's also no titles.

And now, for spoilers:

► Show Spoiler

This film isn't just a comedy, it's thoroughly absurd and straight-up surreal. There's anachronisms galore (at one point Dart-In-Again drives a motorcycle, after calling the musketeers with a phone by a tree) and bizarre situations (the weird bald guy with four hairs on his head that is basically in the court to have his head stroked by King Louis or the Cardinal). I've never seen Max Linder's work before, but I'm guessing this style of comedy was his forte?

There's some really funny visual gags in this. One of my favorites is when the the three musketeers—called Walrus, Octopus and Porpoise—arrive in the room to report for duty. The magistrate(?) gets up off his chair and is revealed to be a dwarf, to Dart-In-Again's utter jaw-dropping shock Another fave is when the lady in waiting is leaving in her carriage, and drops her handkerchief as a favor... and the "carriage" is revealed to be an automobile converted into a sedan (still retaining its wheels!), transported by two goose-stepping men. And then as a bonus Dart-In-Again blows his nose with the prized handkerchief

Joby plays Constance Bonne-aux-Fieux, Dart-In-Again's love interest. She isn't in the film for very long, with her appearances being quite brief. But she still manages to radiate her charm.

[Kitty]

Just finished watching. A little heads up: despite the 52 minute running time of the upload, the actual film itself is only around 37 minutes long.

That's weird! Even IMDb says 58 minutes! But Wikipedia says 37 minutes.

I will be watching this within the next couple days. Thanks for the heads up.