Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1928
Ramona (1928 film)
Buy Ramona (1928 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Ramona' is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Edwin Carewe, based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel 'Ramona', and starring Dolores del Ro and Warner Baxter. This was the first United Artists film with a synchronized score and sound effect, but no dialogue, and so was not a talking picture. The novel had been previously filmed by D. W. Griffith in 1910 with Mary Pickford, remade in 1916 with Adda Gleason, and again in 1936 with Loretta Young.
Cast
* Dolores del Ro as Ramona
* Warner Baxter as Alessandro
* Roland Drew as Felipe
* Vera Lewis as Seora Moreno
* Michael Visaroff as Juan Canito
* John T. Prince as Father Salvierderra
* Mathilde Comont as Marda
* Carlos Amor as Sheepherder
* Jess Cavin as Bandit Leader
* Rita Carewe as Baby
*Jean the Dog as Dog
*Shep Houghton as the Mexican Boy
*Nadine Riga as the Girl
*Saint-Granier as the French singer
*Dorothy Teters as the Indian
Plot
The film depicts Ramona, who is half Native American, as she is raised by a Mexican family. Ramona suffers racism and prejudice in her community, and when she finds out that she is half Native, she chooses to identify as a Native American instead of a Mexican American so that she can marry Alessandro, who is a Native as well. This romantic tragedy relays the tragic death of Ramona and Alessandros child at the hands of a Caucasian doctor, who refuses to help their child because of his skin color. Shortly after, the couple moves away, and Alessandro is killed by a white man for robbing him of his horse; Ramona eventually reunites with her childhood friend Felipe and starts a new life as a depressed woman. She is only able to recover from her depression and remember her feelings for Felipe when he sings a song from their childhood to restore her memory.
Production
Parts of the film were shot in Zion National Park, Springdale, and Cedar Breaks National Monument, all in Utah.
Reception
Mordaunt Hall of 'The New York Times' found much to praise in what he called "an Indian love lyric": "This current offering is an extraordinarily beautiful production, intelligently directed and, with the exception of a few instances, splendidly acted. The scenic effects are charming. ... The different episodes are told discreetly and with a good measure of suspense and sympathy. Some of the characters have been changed to enhance the dramatic worth of the picture, but this is pardonable, especially when one considers this subject as a whole."[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0CEFDE173CE73ABC4D52DFB3668383639EDE&& Mordaunt Hall, "An Indian Love Lyric"], 'New York Times', May 15, 1928, accessed February 1, 2011
Effects
An article published by UCLA claimed that the 1928 film is believed to be the most authentic of the five film adaptations of 'Ramona' since the director Edwin Carewe was part Chickasaw and Dolores del Ro was raised in Mexico. 'Ramona' is differentiated from most films with a typical Hollywood ending because of its authentic cultural values embedded throughout. An article by 'Indian Country Today' revealed the fact that Carewe discovered del Ro in Mexico and invited her to Hollywood to perform in his film. Many film enthusiasts see Carewe as del Ros steppingstone to fame in Hollywood as an actor and singer. Del Ro recorded the film's theme song, "Ramona." It was not used in the 1936 version.
Helen Hunt Jackson and Edwin Carewe shared a goal of exposing the mistreatment of the Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. Federal Government through the means of 'Ramona'. Both the book and the film, however, were popularized because of their dramatic, romantic, and cultural aspects.
Preservation status
For decades, 'Ramona' was thought to be lost until archivists rediscovered it in the Nrodn Filmov Archiv in Prague in 2010. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress later transferred 'Ramona's highly flammable original nitrate film to acetate safety stock. Library of Congress Moving Image Curator Rob Stone was in charge of the challenge of converting Ramonas Czech intertitles back into English. The only available copy was given to the Library of Congress to replicate and then send back to the Czech Republic.
The restored version of the 1928 film had its world premiere in the Billy Wilder Theater with the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra playing live at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 29, 2014. Carewe's older brother Finis Fox had written 'Ramona's screenplay and created its intertitles.
See also
* List of rediscovered films
References
Buy Ramona (1928 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1928