Chicago
Tags: satire, murder

Plot synopsis:
At the start of the silent version of Chicago, Amos Hart (a much more sympathetic role than in either the source play or the later musical) wakes up and makes breakfast for Roxie, his wife, who makes light of his obvious affection. He goes to his job at a nearby cigar store, meeting Katie, the cleaning girl, who thanks him for a coupon that allowed her to buy an "Ingersoll" (an inexpensive pocket watch). At Amos' store, a customer jokes that he's about to give his girl "the air." The customer, who is Roxie's lover, arrives at her flat and makes it clear he's tired of her demands for money. She attempts to seduce him and take more money, but he throws her to the ground as he leaves, and she picks up a gun and shoots him, all while the player piano continues to play a jaunty tune. She calls Amos and asks him for help. Amos recognizes the man from the store, but tells the police that he killed the man in self defense. The district attorney tricks Roxie into a confession, and she's put in jail.The press coverage goes to Roxie's head, and she lords it over the other women in jail. Amos consults with Billy Flynn, the best lawyer in Chicago, but the extravagant up-front fee is more than he can raise. While giving a down payment, Amos notices Flynn's hidden safe. He breaks in and steals the contents of the safe, and although he isn't recognized, he loses his watch in a fight with Flynn's body guard. The next day Amos pays Flynn the balance with some of the stolen money, but when Flynn notices he doesn't have a watch, he suspects but can't prove the identity of the burglar. Flynn and Roxie concoct a false innocent persona for the court-room, but the all-male jury is swayed as much by Roxie's fine legs as by any legal argument, and Roxie is acquitted. Outside the court-house, another murder occurs, and all attention goes to the new celebrity murderess. Back at the apartment, Flynn's detectives come looking for the rest of the money, and ask Amos to show them his watch to prove his innocence in the burglary. Katie, the cleaning girl, produces her watch, pretending to have borrowed it from Amos, and after the detectives leave, she gives him the money, which she hid from the detectives. Roxie tries to get the money, but Amos, in anger, throws it on the fire and sends Roxie out into the rain -- still loving her, and having saved her life, he knows she's a cheat and never wants to see her again. He breaks all of her things in the apartment, but Katie, coming in to straighten things up, indicates a better romance for Amos in the future.

Review: Phyllis Haver stars here as Roxie Hart in a story based on a hit Broadway play from 1927.
He's an expert on law and headlines, especially after he gets his $5,000.Haver, who looks a lot like Laura La Plante here) is terrific as the hard-boiled Roxie as she learns the ropes in prison and in the court room.
Victor Varconi plays the hapless Amos, but he has a whole subplot here that's not in the famous musical versions of this play.
There is no Velma Kelly in this story but Roxie's rival in prison, who is unnamed, is played by Julia Faye.The film was produced by Cecil B.
DeMille and although Frank Urson gets credit for direction, many think the film was directed by DeMille.This new DVD release by Flicker Alley is a gorgeous print with solid music by the Mont Alto Orchestra.
I suspect that Mr. Rob Marshall watched this 1927 silent before making his recent screen adaptation of the smash-hit Broadway musical.
The non-musical scenes in his version look an awful lot like this exceptional film.Phyllis Haver provides a marvelously witty and sexy characterization as Roxie Hart, that ultimate gold digger who shoots her lover for jilting her and then becomes a media sensation.
Haver puts all sorts of unique touches on the role, and her scenes during the murder trial are small gems of comic acting.
The handsome Victor Varconi, looking for all the world like Liam Neeson, has a much larger role as Amos, Roxie's long-suffering husband, than any subsequent version would give that character.
This original version focuses much more on the domestic relationship between these two -- the roles of Billy Flynn and Mama Morton, treated so colorfully in the musical, are much diminished here, and the character of Velma Kelly is absent altogether.The recent stage revival and movie have blunted the impact of this story's critique on the modern media and the public's responsibility in enabling our media to peddle trash.
It's surprising that a film that came out nearly 80 years ago makes the same point just as candidly; one can only imagine how forceful this message must have seemed at the time.Grade: A.
Last night the Sam Goldwyn theatre at the Academy in Los Angeles was filled to capacity for the screening of this 1927 silent movie.
Phyllis Haver had a range of expressions from A to Z - fantastic - and the courtroom scene, played for comedy, was truly a highlight.
Yes, the 1927 silent film 'Chicago' is the same story that became the big-budget Oscar-winning musical of 2002.
(There was a remake in between, 'Roxie Hart': starring Ginger Rogers.) Apart from the obvious difference that one 'Chicago' is silent and the other is a musical, both films tell exactly the same story.
The major difference is that murderess Velma is a minor character in the silent version.
Also, in the silent version, Roxie's husband is presented more sympathetically rather than as a fall guy.When I saw the 2002 'Chicago', set in the Jazz Age 1920s, I was annoyed by a couple of musical numbers in which the dancers were wearing blatantly modern disco-era outfits, which would never have been tolerated in 1927.
The silent-film 'Chicago' is conceived as a MODERN story, set in the jazz-baby present day, and so it makes little effort to evoke its own period.
Much of this movie takes place in cramped studio sets which are supposed to be dingy walk-up flats or courtrooms, but which fail to convince.If you've seen the recent 'Chicago', then you already know the plot of this 1927 movie, including all the surprises and plot twists.
During Roxie's trial for homicide, the prosecutor (Warner Richmond) has a larger and more sympathetic role than in the musical remake.
Phyllis Haver is excellent in the lead role, and sexier than Rene Zellweger.
(Though not nearly as sexy as Catherine Zeta-Jones.)This 'Chicago' was produced in 1927, the first year of the Academy Awards.
I wonder what the people connected with this movie would have thought if someone had told them that this story would win the Oscar for Best Picture...
Quite apart from all those razzle-dazzle dance numbers, the 2002 version actually told the STORY better..
CHICAGO (1927) is the story of Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver), a bored young housewife who kills her lover during an argument.
She convinces her doting husband Amos (Victor Varconi) that she killed the man in self- defense.
Amos goes to great lengths to save her from the noose, hiring oily lawyer William Flynn (Robert Edeson).
Direction is credited to Frank Urson, but in actuality Cecil B DeMille directed the majority of the film.CHICAGO is an adaptation of a play by author Maurine Watkins, which was inspired by Watkins' own articles about the trial of real-life murderess Beulah Annan.
Amos is the moral center of the movie, a decent man who is so in love with his wife that he is willing to break the law to save her, yet struggles with her murderous deed and self-centered, callous attitude.The acting in CHICAGO is nothing less than excellent.
Phyllis Haver makes a great lead, portraying the many facets of Roxie Hart's character skillfully.
I had never heard of Victor Varconi before, but he played Amos with great skill, sensitivity and restraint, turning in a very believable performance.
This film came out the same year as landmark movies like SUNRISE, WINGS, and METROPOLIS, and even though it is not as celebrated as those visual marvels, in its way it's just as accomplished.SUMMARY: CHICAGO is a skillful blend of satire and drama that boasts a razor-sharp script, excellent performances, and highly accomplished direction.
excellent version of the famous story of Roxie Hart.
Phyllis Haver, now all but forgotten, shines as Roxie Hart, a good time girl who despises her husband and seeks sugar daddies for fun.
As soon as you see her pretending to sleep, having discarded her garter with bells attached, you know she's trouble.So Roxie kills, and goes to jail, and because she's blonde and pretty, she's taken up by the media in this wild world of flappers and jazz.
Those familiar with the musical film with Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones will be wondering 'where's Velma?' but that character isn't in the forefront at all.
This film is all about Roxie, and, more than the musical version, to some extent about her cuckolded husband Amos.
Victor Varconi puts in a lovely performance as Amos in this film.Haver might dominate the proceedings, and lights up what is already a fast-moving and effective bit of jazz fluff, but there's a good, if brief performance from Eugene Palette as well.
As Casely he is very watchable indeed.As this was a late silent, the acting styles are mainly naturalistic, and the fact that it does not have sound, only titles, doesn't matter a bit when it comes to following the story.
Miss Haver acts her heart out anyway and you can feel her contempt, her fear, her desperation, just as you would if you could hear it.A superior film, and one which occasionally makes it out for public showings.
Herr Amos Hart works in a tobacco store and Frau Roxie Hart does absolute nothing but to be unfaithful to her husband with an old man.
excuse this Herr Graf for such obvious remark ) kills her lover in her apartment.Desperate over what she has done, she calls for help to her husband telling him that the old man tried to get advantage of her.
But his love for Roxie is so important to him that he decides to help her by taking the services of a famous, greedy and unscrupulous advocate ( excuse again this Herr Graf for such an obvious remark ); this in order to defend his wife from the death penalty.
Meanwhile Frau Roxie Hart's famous trial is nearly begun."Chicago", a film directed by Herr Frank Urson in the silent year of 1927, was based in a Broadway play which in turn was based on a true story ( occurring in a real city!
). Reminiscences of the original stage play in its primal concept can be seen in the film, when the director uses a few sets ( the Hart's apartment, the jail or the trial court ) in order to develop the story as it were different acts of a play.
This is especially during the first part of the film during the dramatic development at the Hart's apartment and at the end of the movie during the trial.
However, Herr Urson makes fairly good use of the proper characteristics of the cinema film narrative in "Chicago" by, constructing excellent visual metaphors ( the jury's feet responding Frau Roxie charms, the tabloid paper going down the gutter ).
And let's not forget the social realism that can be seen in the film ( Chicago daily life or the Hart's apartment ).
Naturally this happened with the madcap Roxie, a situation depicted in "Chicago" in a raw and effective way.Another merit of "Chicago" is the combination of comedy and drama in equal terms highlighting Frau Roxie's stupidity, selfishness and easy living in contrast with her self-sacrificing husband who suffers the acts and nonsense of his wife.
He's a man who honestly cares about and loves his wife enough to steal and lie for her although this affection and emotion is not returned.Starring as the couple are two excellent and not well-known actors who handle their roles considerably well.
Herr Victor Varconi as Herr Amos Hart is the lovingly and humiliated husband.
Frau Phyllis Haver shines and takes all the credit in the picture thanks to her brilliant performance as Roxie Hart, a madcap, simple and selfish modern girl who has no scruples combined with no brains ...
who will meet her end on the end of a rope  a woman who lives her own life caring for no one except the money."Chicago" is an excellent silent movie for all those reasons mentioned above by this German count.
Don't forget also a modern one added recently featuring a superb musical score compiled by Herr Rodney Sauer and "The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra".
The Original Roxie Hart.
Chicago (1927)*** (out of 4) The first screen adaptation of the Broadway hit has Phyllis Haver playing Roxie Hart, a morally questionable young woman who murders her lover (Eugene Palette) in cold blood when he says he's leaving her.
Her husband (Victor Varconi) must try and raise money to hire a lawyer (Robert Edeson) but even he is quite crooked and things don't get any easier once the trial becomes a media sensation.
CHICAGO was turned into an Oscar-winning musical in 2002 and Ginger Rogers played the role in a 1944 film (ROXIE HART) but this silent version has been pretty difficult to see up until a few years ago when UCLA restored it.
Frank Urson does a nice job directing the film and I really enjoyed that free-spirited, Jazz-like feeling he brings to the movie.
May Robson plays one of the women and does a nice job but the cat-fight that breaks out between Roxie and another woman was very well done and quite a lot of fun.
Palette would become a very well-known character actor and it was a lot of fun seeing him in this early bit.
I read the Maureen Watkins play after seeing "Chicago" (2002) and "Roxie Hart" (1941).
While, I did enjoy many things, there were also some disappointments.The good things are the little comic bits that are added which the play and other two movies do not have.
These include Roxie putting black stockings on her door to pretend that someone inside has died to trick a repo-man and putting her husband's tie around her neck to show what the hangman's noose will look like.
The rehearsal of her "looks" before the jury is hilarious, so are the three gum chewing young women spellbound by the trial as if watching a movie.
DeMille was the producer, the sharp satire of the play and the two other movies is sharply curtailed.
The DVD does have some nice extras, including a well done documentary short looking at the real trial, Maureen Watkins original newspaper articles, a 1950 documentary on the 1920's and "The Flapper Story" a delightful 1985 documentary..
Phyllis Haver Gives a Knockout Performance as Roxie Hart.
Really terrific silent film about Roxie Hart (played by Phyllis Haver), blonde bombshell married to a handsome, devoted, sensitive husband who does stuff like serve her breakfast in bed - he loves "every curl on her head".
But soon Roxie is arrested and loving it as she laps up the publicity she receives as a public figure dubbed the "Jazz Slayer"; she's soon put on trial for murder under the tutelage of a high-priced defense lawyer who teaches her all the tricks to help steer the jury her way!An excellent film with intriguing plot line and funny too, there are quite a few laughs in this.
There is a very amusing scene in women's prison featuring an ensemble of lady prisoners apparently allowed to wear their "street" attire in jail, not limited to sequins, garters, and black lace teddies - Roxie gets into a big cat fight with one of these ladies, featuring lots of hair pulling and both of them rolling around on the floor all tangled up in an exercise belt.
The film features a truly great and memorable performance by Phyllis Haver, absolutely perfect in this part.
And I must say, the actor who plays her husband, Victor Varconi, is truly a very handsome man!
The screening I saw of this featured an absolutely gorgeous black and white print - I long to see this film released on DVD.
Excellent, irony-filled adaptation of Jazz Age story.
I, too, was fortunate to attend the public screening of this recently-restored film at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles.
While I feel that some of the scoring choices on the part of the accompanying dance orchestra were inappropriate and distracting, and while I suspect that the projection speed was a bit slow (22 fps instead of 24), this is an excellent film adaptation (based on the original stage play) that can hold its own in comparison to the 2002 version (based on the Broadway musical).
I should note, too, that this preserved print is the "roadshow" version, which means it is a longer version that was probably shown at the New York or Los Angeles premieres before being cut down for wider release in 1927.Aside from the stellar performances of Phyllis Haver (sexy, vibrant, and even affecting) and Victor Varconi (stoic and sympathetic) as Roxie and Amos Hart, what struck me most about this film was its pervasive use of dramatic irony--a device that is eminently suited to this particular story.
Whereas the Bob Fosse musical seeks to emphasize the power of the media in manipulating public opinion, this 1927 CHICAGO strikes me more as a comment on the ironies of life, both cruel and merciful.
To name only one example (caution: spoilers ahead), the murder scene is exquisitely conceived: as a player piano hammers out a joyful rag, Roxie rashly fires a shot as her lover walks out the door.
The cracked mirror, and the black stockings on the door effectively add to the irony of the scene.This is a film that deserves a DVD release (at proper projection speed and with a top-notch score).
If Phyllis Haver has been unjustly forgotten (the curse of Roxie Hart's fate), this is the film that, if marketed properly, could turn her into a bona fide 1920s icon.
Phyllis Haver, as Roxie Hart, Has Role of a Lifetime!!.
In 1924 all America was gripped by the Chicago trial of Beulah Anann for a "crime of passion' - murdering her lover, Harry Kalstedt, then apparently playing "Hula Lou" on the phonograph for about 4 hours before she decided to tell anyone about it.
A couple of years later it was turned into a movie and gave Phyllis Haver, formally known as a supporting comedienne, the role of her life.
The film was based on the hit play "Chicago" of the year before, Beulah became Roxie Hart and it opened out the play considerably, with some additions based on the original murder and some concocted by Hollywood screenwriters.
Completely remastered and with a hummable musical score this may have been Pathe's most prestigious film - all about "a little girl who was all wrong in the big city"!!
Amos Hart (Victor Varconi) is just besotted with his flapper wife Roxie who yearns only for wealth, only maid of all work, Katie, appreciates Amos's kindness.
Disillusioned Amos sizes up the situation but still takes the blame for the murder - however the D.A. is convinced Roxie is guilty as hell!!
Roy Barnes) who builds her up as "Chicago's Most Beautiful Murderess" and convinces her that in a few days women will be naming their babies after her - the celebrity of Roxie Hart kicks in!!There is a hilarious fight in the woman's prison between Roxie and "Black Narcissus" with cries of "Peroxide" and "false hair!!" and they all get entangled in the prison gym equipment with May Robson acting as referee.
Roxie is found not guilty in a very funny performance in which she has the all male jury eating out of her hand and looks set to bask in her notoriety for a long time to come but when "Two Gun Rosie" slays her lover in court Roxie realises that celebrity is fickle and as disposable as yesterday's newspaper.
The movie finishes on a depressing note for Roxie who, even though cleared of murder, by Hollywood standards was not allowed to get off scot free for her crimes.
Even Amos is left pondering what might have been at the movie's ambiguous ending.Reviewers praised Haver to the skies for her performance - "astoundingly fine" and "makes this comedy most entertaining".