What’s New In Old Movies: June 2025

by Don Stradley

The Little American (1917) was a different type of role for Mary Pickford. Already burned into the minds of moviegoers as the scrappy sweetheart of the pictures, here she plays a slightly more adult version of her usual character. She’s Angela Moore, a young American woman who travels to Europe at the zenith of World War 1. The Los Angeles Evening Express hailed Pickford’s performance as “undoubtedly…the greatest dramatic effort in her entire screen career,” which at that time already spanned 200 or more titles. Even without her, the Express proposed, “the picture would rank as one of the most remarkable cinema productions of the day.” 

As most everything “Our Mary” did in her prime, the film was a blockbuster success, held over for many weeks at theaters around the country. Directed by Cecile B. DeMille with the usual grand strokes, the film features everything from the sinking of the Lusitania (known in the movie as the Veritania, filmed in Los Angeles Harbor at San Pedro), to the always lovable Mary on the front lines in France, saving old folks and children as shells burst all around her. Not even the scourges of war could wither the great Pickford’s indomitable spirit. Of course, it was a propaganda tale released just as America was getting involved in the war, and the Germans are presented as snarling monsters. The strongly anti-German depiction got the film banned in certain theaters, but overall, The Little American did what it was supposed to do – it earned money, and excited people about the explosive conflicts in Europe.

Pickford’s biographers have dismissed the film as not among her best, but at the time it was a smash. Moreover, Pickford threw herself into the war effort. Her image was seen on pro-war posters, and she sent photographs of herself for soldiers to carry into the trenches. On one of her goodwill trips, she presented each of the 600 recruits at Camp Kearns near San Diego with a gold locket containing her picture. Presumably these, too, were carried into battle. How many U.S. soldiers were killed with Pickford’s image somewhere on their person?

From VCI Home Entertainment comes a newly restored Blu-ray of The Little American with an original score by Adam Chavez, and a new audio commentary track by author and film historian Marc Wanamaker. You’ll also receive an extensive photo gallery by Tiffany L Clayton, liner notes and a pictorial booklet by the Mary Pickford Foundation, and A Lodging for the Night - an American Biograph short film from 1912. (Available June 10) 

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Fort Lee in New Jersey was already a popular east coast film location when Mark Dintenfass established Champion studios there in 1910. Fort Lee was soon home to Biograph, Eclair, Kalem, Fox and Universal, making it the hub of America’s burgeoning movie industry. Made in New Jersey: Films from Fort Lee, is a stunning new double disc Blu-ray from Milestone Films. A perfect package for film historians, it showcases more than six hours of material from the Fort Lee heyday. 

Perhaps the set’s real find is The Vampire (1913), a 38-minute melodrama that is significant for introducing the “vamp” character to the cinema. Alice Hollister plays “Sybyl the Vampire,” an enigmatic young woman who puts “the bite” on a soon-to-be-married man, draining him of his dignity. The film includes the infamous “Vampire Dance,” which was quite scandalous at the time. Performed by Bert French and Alice Eis, who had done versions of the dance on stages and in vaudeville houses, the scene has a powerful, hypnotic effect on a naïve country boy (Harry F. Millarde). He’s already fallen sway to Sybyl, “a woman dressed in close-fitting silver silk,” as one critic wrote, but after seeing the macabre dance performed by French and Eis, realizes he must break from Sybyl’s clutches and return to his fiancé. The three-reel Kalem drama was thought for many years to be lost. Yet here it is in all its vampish glory.

Sampling a period from 1909 to the 1930s, the Milestone set includes Edgar G. Ulmer’s Ukrainian operetta Cossacks in Exile (1939), filmed at the beautiful Little Flower Monastery. Other films in the set include an early version of Robin Hood, and a pair of early productions from D.W. Griffith. You’ll also see the original “Biograph Girl,” Florence Lawrence, in Not Like Other Girls (1912). Though most of her work has long since long vanished, Flo is often considered the first movie star. The chance to see her in this collection alone is cause enough to celebrate.

In all, Milestone has collected 14 films, plus two documentaries. The set was curated by Richard Koszarski, author of Fort Lee, The Film Town and a 20-page booklet that comes with the Milestone set. As the press release notes, Made in New Jersey: Films from Fort Lee, “is a landmark release for cinema history and simply a joy to watch.” I can’t argue. (Available June 24)

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The Tom Tyler Silent Film Collection from Undercrank Productions is a nice introduction to an old cowboy star’s long forgotten work. Presented on a single disc (Blu-ray as well as DVD), the release includes The Man from Nevada and The Law of the Plains, both from Syndicate Pictures (1929), plus a short bonus slideshow feature, Tom Tyler: A Life in Pictures. In all, it’s approximately 85 minutes of the underrated Tyler, in movies that no one has seen for nearly a century. The project was instigated by Tyler historian and super fan, Mary Della Valle, who co-produced the disc with Undercrank. Every old six-gun star should have a supporter like Mary. 

The disc also gives viewers a chance to admire the work of director J.P. McGowan, an overlooked movie pioneer who wrote and directed dozens of Western dramas during the silent era. He was also an actor of some repute, appearing in more than 200 movies. He plays a heel in Law of the Plains, his rugged Australian looks a perfect contrast to the clean-cut, All-American Tyler. From the press release: “Undercrank brings both of these films to fans in new 2K digital restorations from archival nitrate 35mm film elements preserved by the USC HMH Moving Image Foundation Archive and the Library of Congress, with new musical scores by Ben Model.” Model, incidentally, also added music to many of the pieces in the recent Fort Lee collection from Milestone. The Tyler disc is available now.

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From the kennel: Sometimes a new release can be described simply as an idea whose time had come, which is how I feel about Wonder Dogs! A two-disc Blu-ray set from Kino International, this is a collection of films featuring Hollywood’s most daring doggies. Produced in cooperation with the Library of Congress, Wonder Dogs! presents some of the great silent era stars (Charley Chase, Roscoe Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Tom Mix) alongside some truly fascinating pups, some of whom display brilliant comedy chops of their own, as well as terrific instincts for drama. 

The collection, which clocks in at just under eight hours (or 56 in dog hours) also includes newsreel footage, short films, and outdoor adventure flicks where the pooches really get to strut their stuff. Special features include audio commentaries by film historian Anthony Slide, interviews with curators/archivists Lynanne Schweighofer and George Willeman, and composer Andrew Earle Simpson. As the press release explains: “Films dated as early as 1898 offer satisfying simple glimpses of dogs at play, anticipating the adorable animal videos that would become social media phenomena more than a century later.” (Available May 20)