Melodrama films captivate the audience by weaving narratives that evoke intense emotions. These films primarily focus on family dynamics, centering around characters who face adversity and exploring themes of duty and love. The melodramatic format portrays characters navigating their challenges with unwavering determination, selfless acts, and bravery. Movie critics and theater owners often use the certain expressions to describe the movies they are reviewing or showing. [1][2][3]
In crafting an article for a particular silent film WP:MOSFILM recommends a section titled Critical reception. That section consists of movie critiques by professional critics and direct quotes from audience members.
This listing is a general glossary of slang terms commonly used by silent movie movie critics, theater owners, and film fans to describe the melodramatic films they are reviewing or screening. This glossary offers a fast reference to the slang used in 1920s movie reviews, as they are quoted verbatim. The definitions were all sourced from the online Wiktionary - a free standard dictionary.
C
edit- come to time
- The expression was used in prizefighting (boxing). Also used:
- Verb - come to time (past participle come to time)
- (dated) To come forward in order to resume the contest when the interval allowed for rest is over and time is called.
- (idiomatic) to meet expectations.
- flapper (plural flappers)
- young woman, especially when unconventional or without decorum or displaying daring freedom or boldness; now particularly associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s. A stylish, brash, hedonistic young woman with short skirts & shorter hair
- gandy dancer
- (chiefly US, idiomatic) A railway laborer, especially a member of a crew which carries rails and affixes them to ties.
- Heart-Tugging
- One's deepest emotions or inner feelings. to tug at one's heartstrings.
- Heart-Wrenching
- One's deepest emotions or inner feelings. to tug at one's heartstrings.
- Highbrow
- Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated, or a cultured or learned person or thing.
- Histrionics
- Exaggerated, overemotional behavior, especially when calculated to elicit a response; melodramatics
- Hokum
- (An instance of) excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film
- hoity-toity
- (uncountable, archaic) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour; airs and graces.
- hotsy-totsy
- (slang, usually derogatory) Fancy, sophisticated.
- idler (plural idlers)
- One who idles; one who spends his or her time in inaction. One who idles; a lazy person; a sluggard.
- Mawkish
- Excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment.
- Meller
- A melodrama.
- Mellerdrammer
- (derogatory, dated) Pronunciation spelling of melodrama.
- Melodrama
- A drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in especially thrilling or pathetic parts.
- wallop (plural wallops)
- A heavy blow, punch e.g. he gave him a mighty wallop
- An emotional impact, psychological force e.g. that film has some serious wallop
- A thrill, emotionally excited reaction.
- Pathos
- The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
- Pretentious
- Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction
- Sappy
- Excessively sweet, emotional, nostalgic; cheesy; mushy.
- screaming meemies
- (slang) A state of anxiety; the jitters.
- scofflaw
- (US) One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets).
- Sentiment or Sentimental
- Feelings, especially tender feelings, as apart from reason or judgment, or of a weak or foolish kind
- Tearjerker
- An emotionally charged film, novel, song, opera, television episode, etc., usually with one or more sad passages or ending, so termed because it suggests one is likely to cry during its performance
- Waster
- Someone or something that wastes; someone who squanders or spends extravagantly.
- Weepie
- A sad or sentimental film, often portraying troubled romance, designed to elicit a tearful emotional response from its audience
- ^ Brooks, P. (1995). The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06553-4. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
- ^ Costello, Robert B., ed. (1991). Random House Webster's College Dictionary. New York: Random House. p. 845. ISBN 978-0-679-40110-0.
- ^ Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2010). New Oxford American Dictionary, Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1091. ISBN 978-0-19-539288-3.
- ^ a b "Metro-They Like "Em Rough"". Exhibitors Herald. Chicago, Exhibitors Herald. 5 August 1922. p. 487. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- ^ a b "NAZIMOVA AND MILTON SILLS in Madonna of the Streets". Wid's. Hollywood : Wid's Weekly. 25 December 1924. p. 191. Archived from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
Ordinary Production Given to Very Convenient Melodrama
- ^ a b "Gladys Leslie in Vitagraph's "THE MIDNIGHT BRIDE"". Wid's Daily. New York, Wid's Films and Film Folks, Inc. 1 February 1920. p. 148. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
- Movies at Curlie
- Allmovie - information on films: actors, directors, biographies, reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data
- Film Site - reviews of classic films
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - information on current and historical films and cast listings
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
Example
They Like ‘Em Rough,’ with Viola Dana. – Comedy-drama in which a husband uses cave man tactics to make his flapper wife come to time.— Exhibitors Herald Movie Review[4]
F
editExample
They Like ‘Em Rough,’ with Viola Dana. – Comedy-drama in which a husband uses cave man tactics to make his flapper wife come to time.— Exhibitors Herald Movie Review[4]
G
editH
editExample
. . . where Nazimova comes to a house of refuge, not knowing that Sills is there, and is pronounced dying by physicians, but is saved by Sills’ prayer. To us who make and sell pictures, this “saved by prayer” situation registers as hokum, but just the same it has a genuine wallop for most of your customers, and consequently this final sequence effectively tops a very good red meat dramatic yarn.— Wid's Movie Review[5]
I
editExample
In the park awaiting her train home she meets Forrest Chenoworth, a rich idler, whose money has gotten him into trouble with a lady named Jane.— Wid's Daily Movie Review[6]
M
editN
editExample
. . . where Nazimova comes to a house of refuge, not knowing that Sills is there, and is pronounced dying by physicians, but is saved by Sills’ prayer. To us who make and sell pictures, this “saved by prayer” situation registers as hokum, but just the same it has a genuine wallop for most of your customers, and consequently this final sequence effectively tops a very good red meat dramatic yarn.— Wid's Movie Review[5]
P
editS
editT
editW
editExample
In the park awaiting her train home she meets Forrest Chenoworth, a rich idler, whose money has gotten him into trouble with a lady named Jane. . . The alderman’s son, a waster, is acquainted with Jane— Wid's Daily Movie Review[6]
