Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Media


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The Perils of Pauline: Trial by Fire

The Perils of Pauline, as I mentioned in a previous post, is a seminal movie cliffhanger serial from 1914, directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie, and starring Pearl White, Crane Wilbur and Paul Panzer.

Only 9 episodes of the original run of 20 survive today1, and here’s the first – Trial by Fire.
The quality is not very high and I personally find the soundtrack unnerving, but what to say… Enjoy!

In 2008 The Perils of Pauline was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

  1. the nine-parts version is actually a recut of the original 20-episodes ↩


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Arabian NIghts Art 2: Blind Baba Abdalla

arabian nights italy 1958 2Last week I posted a gallery of images from the first of the three Arabian Nights tales, taken from the 1958 Fratelli Fabbri volume.
The experiment was quite successful, so here we go with the second tale – billed as The Blind Sheik, but commonly referred to as The Tale of Blind Baba Abdalla.
It is interesting to note that the stories in this 54 booklet are not adaptations but, apparently, straight translations of the original text.

If you like, you can read the original story from the Sacred Texts website – in the Andrew Lang, 1898 translation.

Once again, the illustrations are by Benvenuti.

Next week, the third and last story, and gallery.


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John Barry’s High Road to China OST

I already mentioned how High Road to China is one of my favorite stories.
I like the original novel, the movie adaptation, the cast, the set-up, the movie poster that still hangs in my room and, of course, the music.

high road to china 1

John Barry has been one of the composers that invisibly provided a soundtrack to my first twenty years – he scored movies I loved, TV series I grew up with… he was inescapable, even if I only realized his ubiquity years later.

So, for today1, here’s the complete soundtrack of High Road to China, 1983, by the great John Barry.
Enjoy.

  1. it’s Valentine’s day, after all, and to me High Road to China remains a great date movie – which probably goes to explain why I’m chronically single. ↩


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Screwball

“Welcome to another world – of sleeping cars and porters, automobiles that start with handles and stop without warning; of starlit ocean liners, long-distance buses and auto camps. Luggage, purses, clothing, memories, identities and minds will be lost. Almost everyone can render popular tunes in close harmony and dance, but almost nobody can safely carry a tray – crockery and silverware will be dropped. The books here have titles such as Why Snakes Are Necessary and archaeologists post each other bones that don’t exist. Telephones are vaguely monumental, ring as loud as fire bells, and are ignored. Even face-to-face communication is confused. This may be in part because three or four people will often talk at once and at speeds that are medically ill-advised. There could also be animals around. And a great deal of falling – over logs and feet and sofas, into ditches, into water, into love.”

A great article about screwball comedies and the women in them, from The Guardian‘s archives.

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Screwball comedies were, in their own way, a sort of fantasy. Which probably explains why I like them so much.


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Arabian Nights Art 1: Kamar & Budur

arabian nights italy 1958 2My love of the Arabian Nights is on file – I have a few different editions, and I re-read a few tales every year. I’m still looking for the perfect, definitive edition, well knowing I will never find it and yet, that’s part of the mystique of the book.

Back in 1958, Italian publisher Fratelli Fabbri issued a gorgeously illustrated selection of stories from the Arabian Nights.
It was a 54-pages book – part of their line of books for young readers – and it included just three stories:

the Tale of Kamar al Zalam

the Tale of thge Blind Baba Abdalla

the Tale of Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber

I actually never saw the book. What I saw was the artwork, which was absolutely stunning, and is credited to Benvenuti (most likely Gianni Benvenuti, 1926-2005).
So here’s a gallery taken from the first story, The tale of Prince Kamar and princess Budur.
You can read the original story on Wikisource.
I’ll post galleries for the next two stories in the next two weeks.