Asides - Who's Who

The title and the cast of characters in a film today can show up anytime (and anywhere) during the first 10 or so minutes. In the past, we got the title followed by the cast of character list along with the director, producer, etc. In the silent days, the actor or actress often got their credit on the intertitle the first time they appeared on screen. For example, the intertitle might read, as we see someone entering a room, "Edmund Worthington, known to his friends as Eddie, his family as "the black sheep" and to women as Sweet Ed, has just returned from the race track. Neil Hamilton".

Here are two examples from the 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

And this frame grab is included because Nita looks amazing and Barrymore is in perfect profile.

However, in the late twenties and early thirties, while a straight list of characters was common, several, if not all of the studios, would at times start the film with the actor/actress being shown, along with the name of the character they were portraying. Many serial producers/studios used this device and continued to use it until the end of the chapter play era in the early fifties. What follows are a few of these cast/character screen captures. I just decided to capture these recently, so there is no real rhyme or reason. Enjoy.

Click on the images for a larger view.

From the serials.

Nita Naldi

Nita Naldi was born Anita Donna Dooley in 1897 in New York. She began her career as a showgirl in a Shubert revue and later went on to the famed Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1920 she appeared with John Barrymore in Dr. Jeykll & Mr. Hyde. This, her first role, seemed to solidify her film career. She then did a number of very successful vamp roles and was was fast becoming filmdom's leading, sexy lady. However, it was 1922's BLOOD & SAND that was to set her apart from others. Nita starred opposite Rudolph Valentino in one of the silent era's last truly great productions. (BTW, it was in Hollywood, through the alchemy of press agentry, that Nita was rhapsodized as a patrician grande dame, a daughter of a famed Italian diplomat, a distant relation of Dante’s Beatrice. Not bad for a gal from a working class NYC Irish-Italian family.)

In 1928, she made the last two of her 31 films. With the arrival of sound, her New York accent did not lend itself well to the "talkies", whereupon she retired from the silver screen. Nita died in 1961.

Nita Naldi - What do you think? Allure?