Popular reviews

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  Review by Cineanalyst ★★★

  Uncle Tom's Ranch

  The inspiration of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on Helen Hunt Jackson's novel "Ramona," with its respective cause being against the genocide of Native Americans, is apparent even without knowing the history, both appealing to Christian evangelism, the pity of a sick child, and the "tragic mulatto" or mixed-race romance trope these books invented (and there's even an evil stepmother in this one). Both novels were extremely popular in their day and have since fallen out of favor assuredly for the same reasons they were once effective, their genre-based appeal to emotions subsequently becoming dated. That's the main drawback, too, for this 1928 film adaptation to today's eyes. Dolores del Rio, in one of…

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  Review by camille ★★★★ 1

  It was such a treat to see this beautiful restoration have its TV premiere as part of Dolores del Río’s “Summer Under the Stars” day on TCM. Ramona tells the story of a mixed race Scottish-Native American girl (del Río), who has been adopted by a wealthy landowning family in 1850s California, and deals principally with the theme of racial injustice against Native Americans. In this regard it is an unusual and exceptional film for a 1920s Hollywood production, and even though the Native American love interest is played by the white Warner Baxter, the film overall paints a deeply moving portrait of the hardship faced by Native Americans in this particular time and place.

  The star of the show…

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  Review by Quiller ★★★ 6

  Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona doesn’t get much attention anymore, but it was one of the most popular American novels of the late 19th century. Although Jackson’s goal, like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was to build sympathy for exploited Native Americans, her novel’s romantic depiction of Old California’s Mexican grandees helped turn Southern California into a tourist destination. It also played a role in bringing the region to the attention of filmmakers. D.W. Griffith’s 1910 adaptation was one of the first films shot near L.A. Over the next 25 years, three more adaptations were made. 

  This version is often regarded as the best, thanks to the fact that director Edwin Carewe and screenwriter Finis Fox were Native Americans and brought…

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★

  Perhaps overly romantic, but there's no denying the allure of Dolores del Rio and her two leading men Warner Baxter & Roland Drew. I've seen the original 1910 and first sound adaptation of Ramona, but this late silent version might be the best. And most of that is due to del Rio shining as bright as she did.

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  Review by damfino99 ★★★½

  Ramona is adopted by surly Mexican rancher Señora Moreno, but after the girl discovers her Native American heritage she chooses to marry Temecula sheep shearer Alessandro instead of adoptive brother Felipe.

  
  Lovely melodrama with a sympathetic eye towards native populations. Dolores del Rio is mostly great, while occasionally edging into overblown Silent Film Acting. Warner Baxter is fairly wooden in glossy redface. Roland Drew was appropriately dreamy, though pining after your adoptive sister isn't really a great look. Some gorgeous exteriors filmed in Zion National Park and the sheep shearing scenes are delightful. Impressively shot village raid.

  From a modern perspective I find the ending a bit questionable, but overall a very nice, well-made engaging film. The restoration is fantastic.

  
  Watched for Film School Drop Outs 2021 - Week 10: 7-11 March, actor Dolores del Rio. Also watched Bird of Paradise but that wasn't very good so trying another one of hers.

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  Review by Marya E. Gates ★★★★½

  Dolores del Río is sublime in this

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  Review by Leonora Anne Mint

  Fascinating and mostly compelling drama directed by Native American filmmaker Edwin Carewe, starring the luminous Dolores Del Rio, and featuring a lot of swoony romance and extreme devastation. The ending is rather sudden and weird, the rest is pretty affecting.

  This was popular in its day, then became a lost film for many many decades before being discovered in Eastern Europe less than a decade ago? It looks pretty good considering that history! There are some unusual and interesting tints on the print too, including a very dark red used for an intense scene where a Native American village is raided and burned by racist settlers (a pointed role-reversal of the kind of imagery already common in Western films at that time).

  Accompanied with beautiful live music by Rodney Sauer and members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

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  Review by ChristopherDay ★★★★

  A much-needed corrective to Annie Get Your Gun, kudos Nitrate show. Here we are in 1928, and while there's certainly problematic casting, this portrays Native Americans as  compassionate, loving, intelligent. And overwhelmingly tragic of course.

  
  Bonus: The print we saw this on is 88 years young (!)

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  Review by Julien English ★★

  Not for me, mais y a une scène où la fille ride un âne, pis ça, ça valait le coup.

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  Review by Lee Jutton ★★★½

  A far more sensitive - and thus very refreshing - treatment of Native Americans than one would normally expect from the silent era. Credit is due to director Edwin Carewe and screenwriter Finis Fox, brothers who were of Chickasaw heritage. Dolores del Rio is lovely and wonderful as the titular heroine, though one does wish that her Native American love interest were not played by Warner Baxter in a bad spray-tan...

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  Review by Matt Constantine ★★★½

  Well, that was dark.
  It's always tough to swallow clearly white actors playing Native Americans. If you can get past that, this film is a surprisingly brutal depiction of the mistreatment Native Americans received from white people. Like, it goes real dark a few times.
  Apparently the film is presented as more of a Romance, but I don't know. It just seems like a grim look at the horrors of the past...that has a bit of kissing.

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  Review by UnlovelySara ★★★

  Classic Film Challenge 2022 | #28 Watch a film directed by Wallace Fox or Edwin Carewe

  More sympathetic towards natives than what I expected: Dolores del Río deserved to be the star that she was, maybe even a bigger one