unidentified series of movie stills?

[rg]

the scans below show 5 unidentified and undated photos of what seems to be a ballet scene from a movie.

the danseuses look more 'decorative' than professional.

the photos simply have BALLET handwritten on the back and the suggestion of the 1920s for dating.

(the numbering in lower left corner is evidently for some cataloguing system.)

[Mme. Hermine]

hmm...would it be possible to get a closeup from the first photo, of the young lady and the gentleman she is clinging to?

[rg]

when next i take the photo from its album, i'll try to re-scan in close-up...

[rg]

close-up scan:

[atm711]

if it's an American film---the gentleman looks a lot like Brian Donlevy--he made a movie in 1926 called A Man of Quality.....a really wild guess.

[Mme. Hermine]

Plot: Man of Quality (1926)

The brother of director Raoul Walsh, George Walsh starred in this low-budget gangster melodrama directed by Wesley Ruggles. Walsh plays Jack Banning, a motorcycle cop by day and undercover agent by night. Disguising himself as "Strongarm Samson," Banning infiltrates a gang of smugglers headed by Richard Courtney (a very young Brian Donlevy). Unfortunately, Marion Marcy (Ruth Dwyer) recognizes him and spills the beans to Courtney. The villain orders his henchman, Spanish Joe (Lucien Prival), to take the undercover cop "for a ride," but Banning escapes with the help of female undercover agent Dorina (Laura De Cardi). Marion, who has come to love the heroic policeman, is kidnapped by Courtney, but Banning manages to rescue her in the nick of time. With the gang behind bars, Banning and Marion can finally plan a future together. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Of course it's possible that the female undercover agent went undercover at the ballet, i suppose.

You're right though, he does look like Brian Donlevy. But for some reason the woman looks very familiar to me.

[Helene]

In the 1920's Donlevy was in a number of movies where he seemed to play a gangster or a bit part, except for Paul Revere in "The Eve of the Revolution". None of them look like prime candidates for a ballet:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002046/

[atm711]

Plot: Man of Quality (1926)

The brother of director Raoul Walsh, George Walsh starred in this low-budget gangster melodrama directed by Wesley Ruggles. Walsh plays Jack Banning, a motorcycle cop by day and undercover agent by night. Disguising himself as "Strongarm Samson," Banning infiltrates a gang of smugglers headed by Richard Courtney (a very young Brian Donlevy). Unfortunately, Marion Marcy (Ruth Dwyer) recognizes him and spills the beans to Courtney. The villain orders his henchman, Spanish Joe (Lucien Prival), to take the undercover cop "for a ride," but Banning escapes with the help of female undercover agent Dorina (Laura De Cardi). Marion, who has come to love the heroic policeman, is kidnapped by Courtney, but Banning manages to rescue her in the nick of time. With the gang behind bars, Banning and Marion can finally plan a future together. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Of course it's possible that the female undercover agent went undercover at the ballet, i suppose.

You're right though, he does look like Brian Donlevy. But for some reason the woman looks very familiar to me.

I searched imdb for a long time trying to find a summary of the plot---how did you get it? Reading that scenario would have convinced me it had nothing to do with the still photo.

[Mme. Hermine]

Every movie fan's friend - www.imdb.com!

[Mme. Hermine]

I thought briefly the woman might be Bebe Daniels, but thanks to rg's lovely closeup, I don't think so....

[bart]

The man in the top hat looks like your typical Diaghilev impersonator, something Adolf Menjou might have played later on.

I like the Degas feel to the second photo. Otherwise, they don't really look like ballet dancers, except for costume and point shoes.

Does the Harlequin figure suggest a real ballet in the repertoire during the 20s?

[rg]

re: the ballet costuming, the 'pointe shoes' look more approximate than accurate - the ribbons and strings seem more decorative than functional. the shoes look as much like ballet slippers (w/ pointeshoelike ribbons) than actual pointeshoes.

re: Harlequin - this character was a standard part of turn-of-the-twentieth-century pantomime performances in Denmark as well as in England.

i suppose one can rule out THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA since no Harlequin scene appears in that film.

[Mme. Hermine]

Not sure about that, rg, since IMDB's cast list, which shows both credited and uncredited players for the films, credits one "Roy Coulson" as the Jester, uncredited, in The Phantom of the Opera...unless they're talking about a scene where the Phantom goes on stage as Death and kicks a Jester around, that one seems to be much more a jester than a harlequin.

Also, it seems they shot new ballet and opera sequences for a 1929 re-release of the film? So maybe these are production stills that wouldn't necessarily represent actual scenes?

[rg]

'not sure' is likely the theme of all this conjecture.

what doesn't jibe w/ any PHANTOM clips i've seen is the scale of this stage, not to mention the landscape w/ pagodas in the background of the Harlequin number - but as noted, since additional sequences were shot, this might be one that was shot and then not included.

then again, it's not clear if this is from an American or a foreign film, if indeed it's the world of moviemaking at all...

[Mme. Hermine]

Such fun regardless!!!

[Amy Reusch]

Don't know why, but it says "opera" dancers to me in a big way... not Phantom, but opera none the less... perhaps because of the quality of the costumes but less quality seemingly in the technique of the lesser dancers...