Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/J. Gordon Edwards filmography/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was archived by SchroCat 09:11, 14 April 2015 [1].

J. Gordon Edwards filmography

Nominator(s): Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 20:40, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured list because... it is a comprehensive filmography of J. Gordon Edwards, a once-lauded but now nearly entirely forgotten director of the American silent film era. Although he's been compared to Alfred Hitchcock and D.W. Griffith, the bulk of his work (like most silent films) simply no longer exists. But that doesn't stand in the way of preserving information about his oeuvre, and presenting it to our readers. I'm no stranger to Featured Content, but this is my first trip to FLC; hopefully everything is in order. Disclosure: This is a WikiCup nomination. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 20:40, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved comments from Jimknut (talk) 22:31, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

;Comments from Jimknut* "His oeuvre consists of over fifty feature films made between 1914 and 1924. He is perhaps best known for directing over twenty films starring Theda Bara—including Cleopatra, her most famous role—and for directing the 1921 epic The Queen of Sheba." – I'm okay with the "over fifty films" part since the exact number of his films is not known. However, if the exact number of films he made with Bara is known I suggest changing the sentence from "directing over twenty films starring Theda Bara" to "directing 26 films starring Theda Bara" (or whatever the exact number is). Is Cleopatra really her most famous film? Does one of your sources say so? The word "directing" is used twice in one sentence. I suggest having the second time changed from "and for directing the 1921 epic" to "and also the 1921 epic".

Not sure how I missed that I'd left two uses of "directing" together like that. Yuck. Fixed. Also gave the precise count of Edwards's films with Bara. Cleopatra is absolutely citable as Bara's most famous work, but let me review my Bara literature for which reference makes that claim most directly. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"He became known for his epic filmmaking and for a permissive approach to directing his starring cast, an attitude that led Bara's biographer to compare him to Alfred Hitchcock.Often, that cast included the vamp actress Bara, who starred in many of his films, including all twenty-three of her film appearances from the 1916 film Under Two Flags until A Woman There Was in 1919 including the 1917 epic historical drama Cleopatra. – I suggest changing this to "He became known for his epic filmmaking and for a permissive approach to directing his starring cast, an attitude that led Theda Bara's biographer to compare him to Alfred Hitchcock. Often, that cast included the Bara, whose films with him include Under Two Flags (1916), the epic historical drama Cleopatra (1917), and A Woman There Was (1919)." This way the variations of "film" are minimized and the word "including" is not used twice in one sentence. If you're going to refer to Theda Bara as a "vamp actress" then do so the very first time you mention her in the introduction.

Agreed. Reworded as suggested, descriptor for Bara moved to her first appearance. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The director, producer, and scenarist columns – I have used columns similar to these in the filmographies I did for Gene Kelly, Charlie Chaplin, and Mary Pickford because I felt it was warranted for them. I don't believe they are all that necessary for Edwards. You have him listed as director for all but two of his films (and one of those two is a "maybe"). There's only one film in the producer column and only four in the scenarist column. Therefore, my suggestions is this: Place the entire list under a section titled "Filmography" (i.e., ==Filmography==) and change the current sections to sub-sections (i.e., === Balboa Amusement Producing Company (1914)===). At the very beginning of the filmography (before Balboa) state: "All films directed by J. Gordon Edwards except where noted." Take out the director, producer and scenarists columns and expand the width of the notes column. For St. Elmo state in the notes section that Edwards was probably the director. For A Daughter of the Gods add to the notes section that it was directed by Herbert Brenon and that Edwards was the production supervisor. For the films that Edwards was the scenarist add that information to the notes section to each of those films.

Your Pickford filmography was absolutely one of the inspirations for how I set this one up! But, I think your point is well-taken here. Tables restructured as requested. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ref(s) column – Change the title to "Ref". Since it's an abbreviation "Ref" can stand for either "Reference" or "References".

Done. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Darling of Paris – In the "Based on" column you can add a link to Victor Hugo.

Done, and I can't imagine why I didn't have that in the first place. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You might consider making the film titles sortable.

Table is now sortable by date (which is the default ordering) as well as by title. I believe I've correctly added data-sort-values to all the article-initial film titles to ensure proper sorting. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography – You might consider adding links to Kevin Brownlow, Eve Golden, Terry Ramsaye, and Anthony Slide. Jimknut (talk) 18:47, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have mixed opinions about authorlinking in general, but no really compelling reason not to do so here. Done. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 22:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Support − Looks much nicer now. Sources look good, too. Jimknut (talk) 22:31, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

"scenerist" I've never heard of this phrase but our own article suggests it should be "scenarist"...
I would consider linking the word oeuvre, since you have opted to link (in my opinion) far more common words like Montreal.
"for William Fox" I would like a touch of context, maybe "American motion picture executive"?
The widths of the cols in the first table are slightly different from the second and third tables, any reason why?
Shouldn't "1915–1924" be "1915–24"?
Sortable table, mostly that means every item that's linked should be linked each time, e.g. Leo Tolstoy, Mary Murillo etc, since there's no guarantee which item will appear first.
Victor Hugo apparently hyphenated his work The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Otherwise a good piece of work. The Rambling Man (talk) 12:50, 4 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments - Looks like a strong article overall, only one or two minor concerns:

Many sources, including the American Film Institute, credit this film as Edwards's directorial debut. except the American Film Institute states Bracken as the director...?
The Celebrated Scandal [2] and Redemption (perhaps another name for Her Greatest Love [3][4]) are two other film titles I saw claimed to be directed by this fellow.
Why are original stories that don't match the name of the titled movie put in quotes and not italics? Such as seen in Her Double Life?
Under A Daughter of the Gods, you have Reissued 2 December 1917 (as Daughter of the Gods), August 1918, 15 February 1920. Is there a date for August and shouldn't it be ...August 1918 and 15 February 1920.?

Most of these are just questions of curiosity. --Lightlowemon (talk) 03:07, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Just querying a couple of suspect spellings:

Bindness of Devotion (Blindness?)
The New Magdelen (Magdalen?)

No other points. – Tim riley talk 14:55, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been archived, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FLC/ar, and leave the {{featured list candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. – SchroCat (talk) 09:19, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.