Synopsis
A boy (Tryon) and girl (Kent) live alone in New York City. Neither of them has
anybody. They meet on the way to Coney Island and enjoy a day together there.
Chance events separate them and each goes home in despair. It turns out that they
live next door in the same apartment building and a song on the record player
(Irving Berlin's Always
) brings them back together.
Discussion
Director Pál Fejös (commonly known as Paul Fejos) had an extraordinary career, which included documentary filmmaking and archaeology. He made only four commercial movies in Hollywood. Lonesome premiered at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. As with many late silent films, it had a soundtrack with music and effects, as well as tacked-on talking scenes. Fejös did not direct these dialogue sequences, which were added to the film in the wake of The Jazz Singer (1927).
TCM Film Festival, 2012
Lonesome was shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2012 as part
of the Discoveries
theme, signifying little-known or forgotten films worth
rediscovering. Jared Case, Head of Collection Information at Eastman House, was
featured as a guest speaker. Case talked about the restoration of the film.
Archivist Henri Langlois of the Cinémathèque Française had an
original print in French titled Solitude, which was repatriated to
America. The first restoration, done in the 1970s, was an untinted black-and-white
version without a soundtrack. In 1994 hand-tinted color and English intertitles
were added; this version premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. In 2010 the
soundtrack was restored. The film is now available on DVD as part of the Criterion
Collection.
Further Reading