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The Life and Death of 9413:
a Hollywood Extra
A gray screen with the words "the life and death of 9413 a hollywood extra" written in white text, in an an angled, jagged font.
Title card from the film
Directed by
Written by
  • Robert Florey
  • Slavko Vorkapić
Produced by
Starring
  • Jules Raucourt
  • Voya George
  • Adriane Marsh
Cinematography
Music byGeorge Gershwin
Distributed byFBO Pictures Corporation
Release date
1928
Running time
11 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)
BudgetUS$97

The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra is a 1928 American silent experimental short film co-written and co-directed by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapić. Considered a landmark of American avant-garde cinema, it tells the story of a man (Jules Raucourt) who comes to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star; he fails and become dehumanized, with studio executives reducing him to the role of an extra and writing the number "9413" on his forehead.

The film has abrupt cuts, rapid camera movement, extensive superimposition, dim lighting, and twisted shapes and forms at disorienting angles. Filmed on a budget of only $97 ($1,721 in today's dollars), it includes a combination of close-ups of live actors and long shots of miniature sets constructed from cardboard, paper cubes, tin cans, cigar boxes, and toy trains. With no access to Hollywood studios or equipment, most of the film was made in the filmmakers' homes (their walls painted black to provide a background).

The story was inspired by Florey's own experiences in Hollywood and George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. It was one of the first films shot by Gregg Toland, who was later acclaimed for his work on such films as The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Citizen Kane (1941). The film is a satire of Hollywood's social conditions, practices and ideologies, and the film industry's alleged mistreatment of actors. Douglas Fairbanks assisted with its development, and Charlie Chaplin and Joseph M. Schenck helped to promote it.

Unlike most experimental films, it received a wide release by FBO Pictures Corporation in more than 700 theaters in North America and Europe. The film has been well-received by contemporary and present-day critics; according to film historian Brian Taves, "More than any other American film, it initiated the avant-garde in this country".[1] It was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Florey co-wrote and directed Hollywood Boulevard (1936), a lighter version of the film.

Plot

Mr. Jones (Jules Raucourt), an artist and aspiring movie star, arrives in Hollywood and is immediately star-struck by the film industry's glitz and glamour. He speaks with a film-studio representative, presenting a letter of recommendation and trying to speak on his own behalf. The representative cuts him off, however, and writes the number "9413" on his forehead. From this point on, 9413 speaks only in unintelligible gibberish and moves mechanically, mindlessly following the instructions of film directors and studio representatives. He goes on a series of casting calls; unable to find success, he is repeatedly confronted with signs reading "No Casting Today". A series of images are interspersed through these scenes: shots of Hollywood, cameras filming, the word "Dreams" written in the stars, and a repeating loop of a man walking up a stairway toward the word "Success" without ever reaching the top.

Two men look at each other while applauding in the direction of a third man, who holds a paper mask in front of his face.
Studio executives applaud Extra #15 (Voya George) as he holds paper masks in front of his face, symbolizing his performances.

Unlike 9413, other extras around him become successful. A woman (Adriane Marsh) with the number 13 on her forehead repeatedly kneels and stands back up at the behest of a film director, and eventually succeeds in landing a part after she is greeted by a "Casting Today" sign. Another extra (Voya George) with the number 15, who—unlike 9413—has an expressionless, unenthusiastic facial expression, holds paper masks symbolizing his performances in front of his face. He is greeted enthusiastically by cheering crowds, all of whom speak in the same gibberish as 9413. His number is replaced with a star, and he becomes tremendously success. 9413 admires the new movie star and tries to mimic him, presenting his own (much more impressive-looking) mask. The star is unimpressed and ignores 9413, who sadly cradles his mask like a baby and laments his inability to achieve success.

Time passes, and 9413 remains unable to find work in Hollywood. Despite repeated phone calls to studio representatives begging for work, he is confronted by "No Casting Today" signs. He cannot afford food, and bills he is unable to pay are slipped under his door. A series of images symbolizing his mental anguish include twisted trees blowing in the wind and a man lying on the stairway leading to "Success", still unable to reach the top. Starving, exhausted and in despair about his failures, he collapses and dies; after the other actors laugh at him, his tombstone is shown: "Here Lies No. 9413, a Hollywood Extra", next to the words "No Casting Today".

After his death, 9413's spirit leaves his body and is pulled by a platform into the sky. As he gets higher, he grows angelic wings and ascends into heaven: a place with glittering crystal towers and bright, blinking lights. A hand removes the "9413" from his forehead, he smiles happily, and flies further into heaven.

Production

Conception

Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapić, who met after Florey attended one of Vorkapić's American Society of Cinematographers lectures,[2] are credited as co-writers and co-directors of The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra.[3] Although accounts differ about the two men's level of involvement in the film's creation, most identify Florey as primarily responsible.[4] According to film historian Brian Taves, Vorkapić was not involved in the writing or direction of the film; his contributions were limited to set design and miniature lighting, but Florey insisted on equal credit for Vorkapić's role in bringing the film to fruition.[4][5] Early reports about the film support this view, including a 1928 article about Florey in Hollywood Magazine.[4] Taves also says that Vorkapić did nothing to promote the film when it was first released, later exaggerating his role in its production when it became respected.[4][6] Paul Ivano, who did camerawork on the film, agreed: "Vorkapić tries to get credit, but he didn't do much."[7] Vorkapić has said that the initial idea was Florey's, and they discussed it and drafted a rough one-page synopsis together. However, "all the effects were devised, designed, photographed, and added by me", and "at least 90 percent of the editing and montage" was Vorkapić's work.[2] He said that he directed most of the opening and ending sequences, crediting Florey with filming the casting scene and the shots of laughing extras, and the rise of Voya George's character to stardom was filmed jointly.[2]

Within a few years of his arrival in Hollywood, Florey conceived a film about an ordinary actor's dreams of becoming a star and his failure to realize his hopes.[8] Florey's work as a publicist and journalist covering the film industry gave him a familiarity with the struggles of aspiring actors, and their disappointment at failing to achieve their dreams, which influenced the writing of A Hollywood Extra.[9] The final inspiration for the film, however, came after Florey attended a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.[9][10][11] Florey had been working in Hollywood for only a few months when he heard Gershwin's music, and it inspired him to incorporate its rhythms into a film.[11] He later described the film as a "continuity in musical rhythm of the adventures of my extra in Hollywood, the movements and attitudes of which appeared to synchronize themselves with Gershwin's notes".[9] Although most avant-garde films of the time emphasized mood over emotion, he wanted his script to be equal parts abstraction and narrative.[12] Florey wrote it in precise detail, describing each shot relative to the length of film required (a budget necessity, due to the expense of film stock).[9]

Development

Florey owned no camera at the time, and his efforts to obtain one were unsuccessful until he met Vorkapić.[11][13] Florey said of their discussion: "I say to Slav, 'Slav, I have an idea but not much money. You have a camera and are a clever painter. Let's make the picture in collaboration and we split the benefit.'"[13] Vorkapić himself claimed to have said: "Florey, you get me 100 dollars and I'll make you a picture in my own kitchen."[2] Vorkapić allowed Florey to borrow a small box camera that he had purchased with the proceeds from the sale of one of his oil paintings.[11][14] It was a DeVry camera with one lens, a type that Florey said was sold as a "toy".[13] Florey also had trouble obtaining film, as he found it cost-prohibitive to purchase negative and positive film from film laboratories.[11] However, Florey knew that "film ends", scraps of leftover unexposed film stock, were often discarded after shooting on big budget Hollywood films, so he attempted to persuade filmmakers to give them to him.[10][11] Camera work had just been completed on The Gaucho (1927), a film starring Douglas Fairbanks, and he was able to obtain more than 1,000 feet of film from the production in 10- and 20-foot strips.[11] Florey then spliced the film ends together by hand, a process he found time-consuming and frustrating, but one that resulted in the equivalent of a full reel of negative film.[11] Fairbanks, who had previously hired Florey to handle his European public relations, provided financial assistance for the production of A Hollywood Extra.[10] He also gave Florey access to his editing rooms and helped provide him with film ends.[10][15]

The film was shot by Gregg Toland, credited simply as "Gregg",[16] who was simultaneously working as an assistant to cinematographer George Barnes at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio.[10] It was one of the first films for Toland,[17] who later received acclaim for his cinematography on such films as The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Citizen Kane (1941).[14][18][19] The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra cost $97 ($1,721 today) to make,[10][20][21] which was covered entirely by Florey.[22] The budget was composed of $55 ($976 today) for development and printing, $25 ($444 today) for negatives, $14 ($248 today) for transportation, and $3 ($53 today) for store props, most of which cost five or ten cents individually.[23] From the development costs, the salary expenses for everyone involved in the film totaled $3.[2] Toland had use of a Mitchell camera during filming, which allowed for some shots that would have been impossible with the DeVry camera, including about 300 feet of closeups.[24] Additional camerawork was done by Paul Ivano,[25] and Taves has in fact argued that Ivano was primarily responsible for much of the film's camerawork, with Toland handling primarily the close-ups.[4] The film was shot on 35 mm film,[3] over a period of three weeks in late 1927,[13] filmed mostly on weekends.[3] No subtitles are used in the film. Only two captions are used, each with one word – "DREAMS" and "SUCCESS" – but they are created not through subtitles, but by reflecting moving light through cardboard cutouts, creating words among the shadows.[25]

Casting

A man wearing a suit jacket and tie stares forward with a shocked and confused facial expression, with the numbers "9413" written across his forehead.
Jules Raucourt stars as the protagonist, who is dehumanized after studio representatives make him a film extra and write the number "9413" on his forehead.

The role of extra 9413 was played by Belgian actor Jules Raucourt, credited in the film simply as "Raucourt". Although Raucourt started his career as a leading man of silent action films, he ironically became a film extra himself after cinema transitioned into the sound era.[26][27] Raucourt later wrote a novel using the title of the film.[7] The role of Extra #13 was played by Adriane Marsh, herself a film extra,[26][27] who never again obtained a named role in cinema.[27] Extra #15, who then becomes a movie star, was portrayed by Voya George, a personal friend of Vorkapić,[26][27] who went on to a career in European films.[2] Robert Florey also himself appears in the film as a casting director,[7][14] although only his disembodied mouth and hand are visible, shaking his finger at the protagonist.[7] Slavko Vorkapić also had a brief role in the film as the man constantly walking up the stairs toward the words "SUCCESS".[2]

Filming

The filmmakers had no access to a studio,[21] so shooting took place in rooms at their homes, with the walls painted black for use as a background.[21] Herman G. Weinberg, a writer for Movie Makers, and Jack Spears of Films in Review, said it was filmed mostly at Florey's residence,[21][28] while film historian David E. James claimed it was filmed in Vorkapić's kitchen.[3] In an interview, Florey claimed the filming took place both in his kitchen and in Vorkapić's living room.[2] Some scenes were also filmed in Toland's garage.[28][29] The film is shot in three basic types of compositions: miniature sets, close-ups of live actors, and newsreel-like scenes of Hollywood and film studios. The film's visual motif includes abrupt cuts, rapid camera movement, extensive superimposition, dim lighting, and shapes and forms in twisted and disoriented angles. In this way, it shares some similarities with German Expressionism,[25][30][31] particularly the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).[31][32] The opening credits, in particular, are angular and expressionistic.[3] A single 400-watt lamp was used as lighting in the film;[20][25] they originally planned to use two lamps, but one of them burned out before filming began.[2] During close-up shots, the actors would hold the light bulb in their hands so their faces would be lit. When an actor changed position, he or she would switch the bulb from one hand to another.[21][24] As a result, the faces of the actors are often kept in partial shadow, keeping their features obscured.[25] Toland also used small reflectors that he borrowed from film studios, which included a light bulb hung inside a mirror shaped like a cone.[2] The film's acting is heavily abstract and stylized, with the actors mouthing gibberish instead of speaking actual words.[14][31] A record of Rhapsody in Blue was played constantly during filming, so that the actors would, in Florey's words, become "saturated" with the rhythm of the "blues". This was a source of aggravation for Florey's neighbors and landlord.[7]

A series of slanted and curving girders representing an abstract city landscape are set in front of a hazy white backdrop. A slanted black sign appears in the foreground with the words "CASTING TODAY" written in jagged white text.
A silhouette of a man holding his arms in the air stands atop a wheeled platform ascending a diagonal girder. The backdrop is foggy and white, with silhouettes of curving trees and shapes visible.
Scenes of Hollywood cityscapes (top), and of heaven at the end of the film (bottom), were achieved through the creation of miniature sets made from such items as paper cubes, tin cans, cigar boxes, toy trains, and an Erector Set.

Scenes of Hollywood cityscapes, as well as shots of heaven at the end of the film, were achieved through the creation of miniature sets that were filmed in long shots to give the appearance that they were large and expansive.[33][34] A total of 45 sets were built in total, none larger than about two square feet, with the most expensive costing $1.67. It took days to prepare these sets. Florey cut cardboard from laundered shirts and shaped them into squares while Vorkapić painted them impressionistically to resemble buildings.[29] The elevated trains in the cityscape scenes were actually toy trains Florey purchased and mounted on pasteboard runaways. He would pull them along the track on a string with one hand while he shot the scene with the other.[33] Movement on the miniature sets was simulated by moving lamps and casting shadows.[34] To make the miniature sets look more realistic and to conceal defects, prisms and kaleidoscopes were placed in front of the camera lens and moved during filming, and cylinder lens systems were used and rotated during shooting to magnify the image to the desired diameter. Florey said this was useful in "giving the scenes the rhythms which we thought they required".[35]

Skyscrapers in the sets were oblong cubes that were shot from an angle that exaggerated their height. To create the effect of sunlight glimmering off the buildings, one person would stand on one side of the cubes with a mirror, and another would stand on the opposite side with a light bulb and swing it back and forth, so the mirror could catch reflections of the swinging light and throw it back onto the skyscrapers.[33] To create a sense of hysteria and excitement surrounding an opening night performance, a skyscraper was photographed with the camera swinging quickly up and down from side to side.[33] While scenes from miniature sets were composed of long shots, scenes were actors were shot entirely in close-ups,[34] which make up about 300 feet of the final film reel.[29] Rather than attempting to put the actor into the miniature backgrounds through trick photography, the scenes were cut rapidly and successively, so the viewer first sees the actor and then the set, creating the impression they are in the same place.[34] Sets involving actors were minimalistic, with some consisting of only a few elements like a table, telephone, two chairs, and a cigar.[10]

A film studio set was created by photographing several reel spools with strips of film dangling against a background of blinking lights. The casting office was created by silhouetting strips of cardboard against a white background.[33] To portray the mental anguish of the protagonist, strips of paper were cut into the shape of twisted trees, which were silhouetted against a background of moving shadows and set in motion with an electric fan.[33] To create a scene near the end of the film, when the protagonist starts becoming delirious, the camera moves through a maze of different sized cubes, with geometric designs inside them, all placed on a flat, shiny service.[33] The heaven setting was also a miniature set created from paper cubes, tin cans, cigar boxes, toy trains, and a motorized Erector Set.[28][33][36] No still photos were taken for the film, but illustrations showing prism and kaleidoscope effects have been made by enlarging frames of negative. The paper prints were considerably softer than the movie print in order to avoid graininess.[35] The final film was edited to a one-reel length of 1,200 feet of film strip,[3][24] featuring about 150 scenes.[7] Florey said it featured the same number of angles as full-length feature films of the time.[2] Although the film was carefully edited to be synchronized with Rhapsody in Blue, much of the original lyrical quality has been lost in shortened and modified versions of the film.[24][28]

Themes and interpretations

The film serves as a satire of the social conditions, dominant practices, and ideologies of Hollywood, as well as the film industry's perceived mistreatment of actors.[3][37] Filmmaking was becoming more expensive and requiring larger technical resources, particularly with the rise of sound production, making it increasingly difficult for amateur filmmakers to enter the profession. This deepened a divide between amateurs and Hollywood professionals, and as a result, a growing number of amateurs started lampooning Hollywood in their films, including A Hollywood Extra.[37] The subject of the film is an extra who starts his Hollywood career with hopes and dreams, but ultimately finds himself used and discarded by the industry, and his artistic ambitions destroyed.[11] At the start of the film, the protagonist has a name (Mr. Jones) and a letter of recommendation outlining his talents, but his abilities are ignored and he is reduced to a number, symbolizing his dehumanization.[3][38]

A photo from a low angle of three men looking ahead, clapping their hands and opening their mouths widely.
Spectators applauding a performance by Voya George's character. Actors and spectators alike are portrayed as unintelligent automatons in the film, their mouths yapping senselessly.

The movie star served as an illustration of hero worship in American culture, and the painted masks he dons represent his performances.[39] Actors and spectators alike are portrayed as unintelligent automatons, their mouths yapping senselessly as they respond to Hollywood films and to hand signals from film directors.[11][30] One scene repeatedly loops the same shot of a man climbing a flight of stairs with the word "SUCCESS" atop it, representing the actors' vain attempts to find fulfillment and advancement in his career. Film historians William Moritz and David E. James have compared this to a similar scene involving a washerwoman in the Dadaist post-Cubist film Ballet Mécanique (1924).[14][30] Other segments in A Hollywood Extra are also frequently repeated, like views of the city lights, and shots of "Hollywood" and "No Casting" signs. This further exemplifies the protagonist's constant struggle to succeed in Hollywood.[40]

The film's abrupt cuts, artificial scenery, extreme close-ups, and twisted angles all metaphorically amplify the dark and somber narrative.[30] Shots of film producers and critics in A Hollywood Extra are shot from low angles with dark backdrops, giving the characters a powerful and foreboding ambiance. Gregg Toland would make use of similar camera techniques in his later work on Citizen Kane.[14] Due to the lighting, close-ups of the actors' faces are often shadowed, shrouding some of their features and depriving the characters of wholeness.[25] The all-black backdrops in these close-ups also deprive the film of a real-world presence.[30] During a scene in which the protagonist awaits phone calls to learn about casting decisions, the image of a telephone is superimposed directly onto the actor's forehead, symbolizing his growing obsession with finding work.[14] His failure to achieve success mocks him even after his death, as the words "No Casting Today" appear next to his gravestone.[30] His death is symbolized by a pair of scissors cutting a film strip.[13][30]

While the film portrays the reality of the protagonist's experience in an expressionistic style, the glamour of Hollywood is portrayed more objectively. In reversing these conventional expectations, however, the film invites the viewer to interpret this version of Hollywood as merely "the material of dreams" and "an unreal paradise of cruelty and failure", according to Taves.[41] Scenes on the streets of Hollywood are filmed with a wildly moving camera from tilted angles, and edited into rapid juxtapositions, to reflect the false and excessive nature of the Hollywood film industry.[25] The protagonist's ascension to heaven at the end of the film serves simultaneously as a fitting conclusion to the story, and as a satire of Hollywood's desire for traditional happy endings.[13][28][42] As he ascends, heaven is located in the opposite direction from Hollywood, another jab at the industry.[13] James wrote that the vision of heaven as an escape from the film industry's brutality "figures the avant-garde's recurrent utopian aspirations".[43]

The film also touches upon Hollywood's perceived mistreatment of women. While the male actors wear masks, which symbolize their ability to act, the female Extra #13 does not wear any and is instead expected to simply stand obediently and listen to the male filmmakers. Her only role is to be an object for men to look upon.[36] The fact that she is able to achieve success by filling this simple role, contrasted against the protagonist's inability to succeed despite his hard work, reveals how differently the film industry views the roles of male and female actors.[36]

Release

The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (1928)

Although most commonly known by its proper title, The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra has also been released and advertised under different titles at various times, including Hollywood Extra 9413, and $97, a reference to the film's low budget.[44] Other titles include The Rhapsody of Hollywood,[15][45][46] a name suggested by comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin,[15][47] and The Suicide of a Hollywood Extra,[45] a misnomer created by the distributor, FBO Pictures Corporation.[47] While many experimental films from the period were simply screened in the filmmakers' homes for private audiences of families and friends, A Hollywood Extra received a wide public exhibition.[48] Upon its release, Florey described the film this way:[39]

It is not much. Just about a man who is a fine actor in Iowa or somewhere and who comes to Hollywood and expects to conquer it overnight. ... The would-be idol goes to the studios. ... The casting director, he is merely a hand that rejects or selects. ... And the rest just tells how he loses out all around.

Sources differ on when and where the film premiered. According to film critic Daniel Eagan, Florey premiered the film in a movie club in Los Angeles,[45] while film writer Anthony Slide wrote that it opened at New York City's Cameo Theatre on June 17, 1928.[39] However, David E. James said the film had its true premiere at Charlie Chaplin's villa in Beverly Hills, California.[19] Chaplin, who by this time was disenchanted with many aspects of Hollywood filmmaking,[45] was so impressed with the film that he watched it five times,[19][24] and then screened it for guests at his home. This audience included elites from the film industry,[19][24][45] including Douglas Fairbanks, John Considine, Harry d'Arrast, D. W. Griffith, Jesse L. Lasky, Ernst Lubitsch, Lewis Milestone, Mary Pickford, Joseph M. Schenck, Norma Talmadge, Josef von Sternberg, and King Vidor.[49][50] The screening was accompanied by a record of Rhapsody in Blue, as well as Chaplin himself playing the organ.[49] Florey was so fearful of a negative reaction due to the film's satire of Hollywood that he removed his name from the credits and hid in the projection room during the screening. While the audience originally expected it to be one of Chaplin's gags,[6][49] they were very impressed with the film,[24][45][49] and Schenck arranged for it to be shown on a United Artists Theater on Broadway starting on March 21, 1928.[19][28][51] A special musical score, based on Rhapsody in Blue, was prepared by Hugo Riesenfeld for the showing, which was played by a live orchestra,[49][51] and made heavy use of the saxophone.[49] With a presentation usually reserved for bigger budget films, it played twice nightly along with the Gloria Swanson film Sadie Thompson (1928), and was billed as "the first of the impressionistic photoplays to be made in America".[51]

The film was heavily publicized,[52] which many of the media reports emphasizing its low budget of $97.[49] It achieved enough fame to become picked up for distribution by FBO Pictures Corporation,[31][45][51] which eventually became RKO Pictures through a merger.[45][51] The company released the film to more than 700 theaters in North America and Europe.[31][49] In North America, it was shown not only in New York and Hollywood, but also in the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Montreal, and Washington, D.C. areas.[51] It played in Philadelphia along with Prem Sanyas (1925), but it generated more praise than the main attraction film and earned $32 in a single week.[53] A Hollywood Extra became one of the first widely seen American avant-garde films, not only in the United States but also throughout the Soviet Union and Europe,[43][54] including England, France, Germany, and Italy.[54] The French rights for the film, along with Florey's The Love of Zero (1928), were sold for $390.[53]

Although the film was made in opposition to classical style, it was embraced by those within the Hollywood industry,[43][55] and ultimately helped Florey, Vorkapić, and Toland get more prestigious assignments within the film industry.[19][55] Vorapich was offered a special effects position at Paramount Pictures shortly after A Hollywood Extra was released.[19] Paramount wanted to hire Florey for the position, but after Josef von Sternberg clarified that Vorkapić was most responsible for A Hollywood Extra's special effects, they made the offer to him.[49] Film production designer William Cameron Menzies was anxious to work with Florey after watching A Hollywood Extra, so the two co-authored The Love of Zero, with Florey directing and Menzies designing the sets.[5][56]

Reception

To the extent that The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra dramatizes the condition of human life enthralled by and ruined by the entertainment industry, the all-pervading, massively powerful imagery of capital itself, it is the prototypical 20th century avant-garde film.

David E. James, film historian[57]

The film was well received by critics, both in its time period and in modern day.[43][54] One reviewer said it ranked in cinema "where Gertrude Stein ranks in poetry",[43] while another praised Florey as "the Eugene O'Neill of the cinema".[6] A 1929 edition of Movie Makers, the official publication of the Amateur Cinema League, called it a triumph of amateur experimentation and imaginative use of limited resources.[37] In a separate Movie Makers article, Herman G. Weinberg called the scenery "a fantastically beautiful vision of a dream metropolis, done in the expressionistic manner, but done with a fine eye for the camera and the context of the piece".[33] C. Adolph Glassgold, contributing editor for the journal The Arts, called it "a truly tremendous picture" and said Florey could become "the eventual leader of cinematic art". He added: "It has movement, tempo, form, intensity of feeling, highly dramatic moments; in short, it is a real motion picture."[46] In a Film Mercury review, Anabel Lane predicted Florey would "one day hold a position of one of the bigger film directors", and said of the film: "If this production had been made in Europe and heralded as a hit, it would ... have been called a masterpiece."[6] One reviewer from Variety even speculated as to whether A Hollywood Extra was "an unannounced foreign-made short" given how similar in style it was to European art films.[43][54] Film director Henry King praised the film as "way ahead of its time" and "a stroke of genius", declaring: "It was the most original thought I ever saw".[24]

It has also been acclaimed by modern-day film historians and critics, and has often been included in lists of the most prominent experimental films.[43] Brian Taves called it a "landmark" of avant-garde film,[12] and said: "A Hollywood Extra was something entirely new, in both style and substance; more than any other American film, it initiated the avant-garde in this country."[1] Film historian William Moritz called it "a genuine little masterpiece",[14] and "perhaps the most famous American experimental film of the 1920s".[58] Hye Seung Chung, a film professor at Colorado State University, called the film an "early American avant-garde masterpiece" and described Florey as "one of the most undeservingly neglected B film auteurs".[59] David E. James called it the "prototypical 20th-century avant-garde film",[57] and wrote that A Hollywood Extra's successful commercial distribution indicates experimental films were acceptable among a popular audience during its time period, "rather than only an elite or mandarin audience".[19] Director and author Lewis Jacobs wrote: "Its style, broad and impressionistic, disclosed a remarkable sensitivity and resourcefulness in the use of props, painting, camera, and editing."[31]

The entirety of the original A Hollywood Extra has not survived.[26] In 1997, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[60] The film has been restored and released on two DVD collections: Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894–1941, by Image Entertainment,[61] and Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s, by Kino International.[62] In 1996, the BFI commissioned composer David Sawer to write a score for the film. It and first performed by the Matrix Ensemble, conducted by Robert Ziegler. The work, called Hollywood Extra, is scored for eight musicians and was published by Universal Edition.[63]

Remake

Main article: Hollywood Boulevard (1936 film)

The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra was adapted into a remake called Hollywood Boulevard (1936), which was co-written and directed by Florey.[51][64][65] Like in the original film, the remake's central character is an actor seeking a job in Hollywood, who is subjected to the cruelties of the film industry and the whims of studio executives and film producers.[51][66] Hollywood Boulevard also includes some visual similarities to the original film, such as unusual angles to reflect the disordered nature of Hollywood.[51] However, the remake includes several subplots that lengthen the running time of the film and make it more attractive to mass audiences,[56][66] which Brian Taves said "tend(s) to diminish the importance of the central characterization, depriving Hollywood Boulevard of the singleness of purpose that made A Hollywood Extra so unforgettable".[66]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Taves 1998, p. 114
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zecević 1983, p. 11
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h James 2005, p. 39
  4. ^ a b c d e James 2001, p. 51
  5. ^ a b Taves 1998, p. 116
  6. ^ a b c d Taves 1987, p. 88
  7. ^ a b c d e f Taves 1987, p. 86
  8. ^ Taves 1987, p. 80
  9. ^ a b c d Taves 1998, p. 95
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Eagan 2010, p. 141
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weinberg 1929, p. 866
  12. ^ a b Taves 1998, p. 94
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Taves 1998, p. 96
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Moritz 1996, p. 216
  15. ^ a b c "Projection Jottings: Film Made for $94 Impresses Chaplin". The New York Times. April 15, 1928. p. A119. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  16. ^ Dixon 2015, p. 97
  17. ^ Merritt 2000, p. 52
  18. ^ Bawden 1976, p. 694
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  20. ^ a b Watson 1929, p. 848
  21. ^ a b c d e Weinberg 1929, p. 879
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  24. ^ a b c d e f g h Taves 1998, p. 98
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  26. ^ a b c d Slide 2012, p. 48
  27. ^ a b c d James 2005, p. 42
  28. ^ a b c d e f Spears 1960, p. 216
  29. ^ a b c Taves 1987, p. 84
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Bibliography

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