It's Danse Macabre Monday

Danse Macabre (1922)

Starring: Adolph Bolm, Ruth Page, and Olin Howland

Director: Dudley Murphy

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Young lovers (Bolm and Page) try to escape Death in what is essentially a music video made in the days when film had no sound.

"Danse Macabre" is a spectacular short film, with excellent special effects and starring professional ballet dancers that was made to be precisely timed to the Camille Saint-Saens composition of the same name. The film was meant to be marketed to high-end theaters with full orchestras, where it did indeed play to critical acclaim. It was also popular in less elaborate venues where pianists or smaller ensembles provided the score.

 
Director/producer Dudley Murphy announced plans for an entire series of these sorts of pictures--he called them Visual Symphonies--but at the time it was impractical. They would only be successful if the music they were made for was performed precisely timed to what was happening on screen, by talented, well-rehearsed musicians. Although some movie theaters would have that capacity, many (most even) would not. 

Big hair of 1982 was nothing compared to big hair of 1922

"Danse Macabre" was, as far as I can determine, the only one completed. By the time synchronized sound arrived (bringing audiences things like the Sing-Along series from the Max Fleischer Studio), Murphy had moved onto other ventures, so one can only imagine what he might have come up with if he hadn't been too far ahead of the technological curve.

This, being Halloween, seemed like a perfect time to share this film with you, synced to a roughly contemporaneous recording of "Danse Macabre". Maybe enjoying this great, mostly forgotten masterpiece of early cinematic horror will awaken the Halloween Spirit within you! (There are going to be more "Danse Macabre"-centric posts here at Shades of Gray today. So please check back again later!)

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Ruth Page (1899 - 1991) was a top ballerina and trailblazing choreographer whose career in American dance spanned almost 40 years, and whose impact on the art is still felt to this day. You'll probably see more of her here, during a future observation of International Dance Day!