Strictly Vintage Hollywood

Napoleon vu par Abel Gance

2012-01-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

The countdown has begun and I've been remiss in tooting the horn about this exciting event.

In recent news, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival announced that Turner Classic Movies (TCM) have become a sponsor of this exciting event. They've also released a beautiful poster for the event (which will soon be available for purchase - yay).

If you've not yet seen the trailer, here it is again!

Makes the mouth water, doesn't it?

Presented as a grand epic silent film should be seen, this is a not to be missed event. The Oakland Paramount is a splendid venue, a full orchestra conducted by the composer Carl Davis and the film itself painstakingly restored by Kevin Brownlow and Photoplay Productions, it's going to be glorious.

I'm especially looking forward to meeting so many silent film affcionados from across the globe. Many have only "met" online and it will be fun to gather, toast and share a great experience.

Tickets can be ordered here. Don't miss out, this is an epic event!

The Thin Man in San Francisco - February 21, 2012 Event

2012-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Emily Leider, author of MYRNA LOY: THE ONLY GOOD GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD will show movie clips and give a talk on February 21, 2012 at 7:30 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco.

NICK AND NORA’S SAN FRANCISCO

on February 21, 2012

7:30 PM; reception prior at 7:00

San Francisco Jewish Community Center

Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center
3200 California Street, San Francisco

Presented by the San Francisco Historical Society and Museum

SF Historical Society Members: Free
Non-Member Tickets: $5.00

“Nick and Nora’s San Francisco” will focus on three figures: Dashiell Hammett, the former Pinkerton detective and San Francisco resident who wrote THE THIN MAN and created the sleuthing characters Nick and Nora Charles; actor William Powell, who played Nick in the 1934 MGM movie version, which spawned five sequels; and Myrna Loy, the actress who portrayed Nora in all six Thin Man films. Illustrated with film clips and photographs, Leider will discuss Hammett’s relationship with Nick, Nora and San Francisco, and the experiences of Powell and Loy in San Francisco while filming AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936) and SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN (1941), the two Thin Man movies actually shot (in part) in San Francisco. Leider will touch on San Francisco’s reputation as a “wet” city during Prohibition, and on the impact of Repeal in 1933 on the audience for THE THIN MAN.

Your's truly will be there, no bones about it.

William Desmond Taylor

2012-01-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

February 1, 2012 will be the 90th anniversary of the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor. Interest in the Taylor case has spawned several books (or varying quality) and Bruce Long's excellent and incredibly thorough and informative site (http://www.taylorology.com/). Bruce has also authored William Desmond Taylor: A Dossier.

There is a new (to me) website/blog for the forthcoming documentary/docu-drama. Here's the poop from the website:

Who Killed Bill?’, a drama-documentary on the life and murder of Hollywood Silent Era director, William Desmond Taylor, will air on Newstalk on Saturday May 12 & 13, 2012.
Born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner in Carlow, Ireland, Taylor had an extraordinary life prior to his arrival in a burgeoning Hollywood. Taylor went on to become Head of Production at Players-Lasky (Paramount) Studios and direct over 60 movies before he was murdered under mysterious circumstances at the age of 49. His unsolved murder would have cataclysmic repercussions for the industry.
‘Who Killed Bill?’, written & directed by Marc-Ivan O’Gorman, dramatises the events that occurred immediately after the discovery of his body in his home in Los Angeles. It also features interviews from Hollywood history experts such as, Marc Wannamaker and Kevin Brownlow.

Having recently seen one of Taylor's rare extant silents, it's a real pity his demise and the mystery surrounding it have overshadowed a man who was quite a fine director.

Happily, if you're in Ireland in May 2012, there will be Taylorfest to look forward to.

William Desmond Taylor was an immensely successful Hollywood actor & director of the Silent Era. He acted in 27 movies, directed over 60, and, at the time of his death, was the head of production at Paramount Studios.
2012 is the 140^th anniversary of his birth and to celebrate the occasion, Taylorfest (May 18-20) presents, in his hometown of Carlow, a selection of his classic films, performances of scenes from his extraordinary life, talks from world experts, celebrity appearances and much more.

For updates on Taylorfest join our Facebook page by clicking HERE or Follow Taylorfest on Twitter by clicking HERE

Tis the Season for Christmas Movies

2011-12-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes me want to stay home and watch old movies than over a long holiday. Christmas is always fun because of the holiday themed classics I love to revist every season like good old friends.

Babes in Toyland 1934 with Laurel and Hardy
A Christmas Carol 1938 MGM's adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story with Reginald Owen in his only starring role.
The Shop Around the Corner 1940 James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in this lovely film.
Remember the Night 1940 (I need to see this one)
The Night Before Christmas 1941 Tom and Jerry in a wonderful MGM cartoon.
Holiday Inn 1942 Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds.
The Man Who Came to Dinner 1942 Monty Wooley as the curmudeon and interfering Sheridan Whiteside. Bette Davis is his foil and girl Friday and Ann Sheridan is simply hilarious and not to be missed.
Christmas in Connecticut 1945 a delightful romp with Barbara Stanwyck at her comedic best.
It's a Wonderful Life 1946 I find this Capra classic hard to get through, the fault lies with me. But the scene with H.B Warner and Bobby Anderson (as the young James Stewart) brings me to tears every single time.
The Bishop's Wife 1947 It's not Christmas to me unless I watch this lovely film.
Christmas Eve 1947 I've not seen this in eons and really must see if I can find it.
Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Edmund Gwenn is the Kris Kringle of everyone's dreams. His rapport with the young Natalie Wood is charming. It's still a delight for the holidays.
We're No Angels 1955 Bogart and Peter Ustinov, 'nuff said.
A Christmas Story 1983 All Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB gun. I love this movie, absolutely.

Since it's the season, here are some seasonal celebrity holidays cards to entertain.

Holiday greetings to Clifton Webb and his Mother Maybelle from Greta Garbo (Garbo often sent correspondence using her pseudonym Harry Brown)

Handwritten and hand-crafted holiday greetings from Mr. Orson Welles to Mrs. Welles (Rita Hayworth).

A holiday card that was sent to Marlon Brando by a big fan, Clara Bow.

Holiday greeting from W.C. Fields

I'll state my resolution for the new year right now, to watch more movies and blog a whole lot more because I do enjoy it. Hope those of you who pass by and give this blog a read enjoy it, too.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season for the remainder of 2011. I send you all warm regards and wishes for peace and prosperity in the new year.

Happy Birthday Georges Melies

2011-12-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Image courtesy KINO LORBER

Because we would not have cinema today without your brilliant, creative spirit. Thank you for all the wonderful bits of magic. I raise a glass to you today, Sir. Your imagination and creativity still inspire today, not so amazingly over 100 years later.

For the uninitiated, here are a few of his films to marvel at and enjoy.

Artistry of the Credit Roll #6

2011-12-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Captain Blood

1935

(Warner Brothers)

Media History Digitation Project - Please Help

2011-12-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Research today is far and away a very different animal than it was even five years ago. Digitation is the real wonder of the internets, really and truly it is. Searchable PDFs rather than blinding yourself scrolling through page after page after bloody page of microfilm. It's a wonder!

Who would have thought that a huge number of newspapers would be digitized, available for use either for free or by a nominal subscription rate? Free at your local public library (via Proquest) or pay online at places such as Newspaperarchive.com.

One of the greatest free sites is Internet Archive and my absolute favorite spot for silent film research is the Media History Digital Archive. Thousands of pages of hard to find periodicals such as Wids Daily, Photoplay and other periodicals I never even heard of, all scanned and fully searchable, all for FREE.

While using this is FREE to anyone who happens along, it does cost some money and loads of time for the periodicals to be scanned, processed and uploaded. They're asking for our help. The goal is pretty modest ($5000) if you ask me and well worth a donation of $10, $20, $50 or more if you can afford it.

Donations may be made via the MHDA website or a dedicated effort at the Domitor site. What is Domitor?

DOMITOR, the international society for the study of early cinema, is an association for people interested in cinema from its beginnings to 1915. The organization strives to explore new methods of historical research and understanding by promoting the international exchange of information, documents, and ideas. Recognizing that the work of the world's film archives has made accessible a growing body of early films and research materials pertaining to early cinema, Domitor also seeks to promote close relationships between scholars and archivists. Domitor is not an acronym: it revives the name that the father of the Lumière brothers once proposed for their projector of motion pictures.

From the Domitor website's donation page:

The Media History Digital Library (MHDL), a non-profit initiative dedicated to digitizing collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access, has recently made a commitment to scanning periodicals, documents, and materials from the early period (1890s to 1915). Domitor will take the lead in raising funds for this important venture.

MHDL's early cinema project comprises at least 50,000 pages of material, including Moving Picture World (much of 1912-1918 is already online); all six volumes of the 1912 US vs MPPC trial transcripts; catalogs from Kleine, Biograph, and others; and house organs, such as Universal Weekly (1912-1915). Other materials, such as foreign-language publications, are also on the horizon. Not only will these be accessible wherever there is an internet connection, but in much better (and downloadable!) versions than are currently available through interlibrary loan.

So Domitor is calling on its membership—or any interested party—to raise the funds needed for this stage of the project. Our goal is to raise $5000—enough to put 50,000 pages online by this summer—by January 1, 2012. So please click on the paypal link ~~below~~ and give generously. All contributions are fully tax deductible.

I use this resource more times than I can count, I gave and hope you will consider making a donation, too. $5000 for 50,000 pages of material is a pittance to pay for such an important resource. Please, do your bit and give generously!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

I've got plenty to be thankful for in 2011. Good friends, lots of good movies and what I hope is a good attitude.

Thanksgiving, for me, is the official start of holiday themed movie viewing. While I will never willingly watch Plymouth Adventure ever again, here's a little Thanksgiving treat from one of my favorite holiday films from 1942, Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds and Fred Astaire.

Bing singing I've got plenty to be thankful for with the wonderful Louise Beavers.

I'm thankful that there are some readers here who have stuck around given my irregularity in posting. While it's a tad early to make any resolutions in the new year, I will resolve to work harder and post more. You have no clue how many draft posts there are awaiting completition in the queue! In any case, thanks for reading and commenting when warranted.

Lastly, here's an odd bit of cheesecake that is holiday themed. Let's hope that because Esther Williams is presenting a crown to this bird that he was spared being the dinner and got to live out his days on the MGM backlot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi - A Perfect Partnership

2011-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi were not only co-stars, they were good friends. Valentino and Naldi shared a wonderful partnership onscreen in three films. We celebrate their partnership in 2012 with a calendar featuring some wonderful stills from Cobra, Blood and Sand and A Sainted Devil. The calendar also features a couple of candid shots of Rudy and Nita off screen.

Click below for a full preview. The calendar is 13x19, spiral bound and handsome in glorious black and white! $25.00 the perfect gift for any silent film fan.

Lulu has a 25% off coupon code through Nov. 30th: enter this code at checkout: NOVPHOTOS25

Let me also take a moment to shamelessly self-promote my book Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol, once more. Blurb is currently running a promotion (good through November 28th) for 20% off the cover price. Simply enter LYNDA22 at checkout (remember to use ALL CAPS) and the discount is yours.

Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol by Donna L. Hill | Make Your Own Book

Do Your Bit for Film Preservation

2011-11-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Want to make a donation for a really worthy cause? Want to get something really wonderful in exchange? Something you can enjoy for the next twelve months? If the answer is yes, I have the perfect feel good thing for you.

The Silent Film Benefit Calendar courtesy of Rodney Sauer (fearless leader of the Mont-Alto Motion Picture Orchestra) and designer of the annual calendar.

The 2012 edition is the special "Animal Edition" and how can you resist it, it's got Rin Tin Tin, Brown Eyes from Buster Keaton's Go West and a herd of others, a veritable who's who from the silent era.

While visiting Mont-Alto's website you can also order other fun items such as CD's and DVDs featuring the excellent Mont-Alto Orchestra. Ideal gifts that are perfect for the silent film fan's Xmas list, yes, Black Friday starts now!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

Joan and I hope that your Halloween is spooktackular!

RIP Barbara Kent - One of the Last Actors from the Silent Era

2011-10-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

It's time for me to join the online chorus and comment on the passing of former actress Barbara Kent. She was an actress for only a few years and by all accounts lived a full and happy life after she retired from the screen. She died last week at the age of 103 with the distinction of being one of the last surviving actors of the silent era. (LA Times Obit; New York Times Obit). We're counting down former silent film players much as people noted the passing of the WWI veterans in the past. Not too many remain from the silent era and the last of the WWI veterans are gone. Kent has been little remembered outside the silent film community. She left a couple of wonderful performances including 1927's Flesh and the Devil, 1928's Lonesome and 1929's The Shakedown.

Garbo and Gilbert so dominate Flesh and the Devil, it's hard to remember Kent as the young girl who did not get her man. Her charm in that film is quite evident, she was a pretty little thing. Paul Fejos' Lonesome is a touching and wonderful film and it's really difficult to get to see it. Really crappy gray-market bootlegs do not do the film any justice and are more than a little bit illegal. Lonesome is really worth seeking out on the big screen, heck, I'm dying to see it on the big screen. (Anyone at the SF Silent Film Festival listening? Can we get it, can we, huh?) Lonesome is one at the very top of my wish list for a big screen event.

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Barbara Kent and James Murray in The Shakedown on the big screen during the 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. You can read the program notes at their online archive. It was the sleeper hit of the weekend for me and is still a film I want to see again. I remember Kent being charming and pretty, which is pretty much all that was required in this film.

Here's my recap of the film from and earlier blog post:

The Shakedown 1929 William Wyler: James Murray, Barbara Kent and Jack Hanlon.

This was the best film of the weekend for me. This was a small film, a programmer and William Wyler’s second film. It was, in short, a revelation. That Wyler could pretty much come out of the box and give us a film that moved at breakneck speed and tell a story with such slim and easily hackneyed material in such an entertaining fashion shows what a raw talent he was. The film also showcased what a tragic loss was the career of James Murray. I’d only seen him in King Vidor’s 1928 film The Crowd. He’s affecting in that film. In The Shakedown he is even more moving, more natural. This illustrated to me all the more how tragic that his career was so short and his end so swift. Murray’s scenes with young Jack Hanlon as the orphaned boy are great, very natural camaraderie between the two and blossoming into a very heartfelt father and son-like affection. Murray and Hanlon’s tears were real, so too were mine. Barbara Kent, who is one of the few silent players still with us, had little to do but to look pretty. She did that well. Harry Gribbon mugged and did his scenes with the boy to great effect. I came away so pleased with the film. It’s a sleeper and was my favorite of the weekend. A programmer that hit a home run out of the ballpark and into McCovey Cove.

As mentioned above, veterans of the silent film era number only a scant few these days. Mickey Rooney and Diana Serra Cary aka Baby Peggy come to mind immediately. We can't keep them here, but we can remember them, especially if their films survive for our enjoyment. Barbara Kent was not Clara Bow, nor even Colleen Moore, but she was for a time, a real charmer on screen with a few really wonderful films to remember her by. Thanks for everything and Godspeed.

On the Bedside Table - Myrna Loy The Only Good Girl in Hollywood

2011-10-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

Emily W. Leider, author of Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino and Becoming Mae West has penned a biography of one of my favorite actresses who began in the silent era and blossomed in the talkies. Order at Amazon.com.

I've been slow to read this, much to my chagrin. I've not wanted to put the book down. It's that good, yes, it is really THAT good.

One wishes they could write as elegantly and as engagingly as Emily Leider does about the subject of her latest biography, Myrna Loy. Leider's impeccable research coupled with her elegant prose make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Myrna Loy is a much beloved star from Hollywood's golden age. Publicity at the time declared her to be a perfect wife on screen and it was assumed she was as much off screen as well. Leider informs us this was not the case. Leider chronicles Loy's life and film career with just the right touch. There is a nice balance between the biography and the chronicle of the film career. Unlike so many other biographies of the last few years, this is not padded out with recaps of film plots. Leider's prose, in so many ways, reflects or mimics the manner, the lightness, the quirkiness of Loy's own voice as she tosses off quips with William Powell. It's a pure delight to read.

Loy's life was very full and really devoid of scandal like so many other stars of the day. Perhaps this might make people overlook Loy as the subject of a biography. They should not, Leider's excellent detective work uncovers some secrets that Loy kept under wraps or only hinted at in Loy's own excellent autobiography Being and Becoming. Leider also fills us all in on Loy's interesting life as an activist. Myrna Loy was really much more, much deeper than Nora Charles and this book tells you why. I'm beyond grateful she portrayed Nora Charles as delightfully as she did, but I'm more grateful to read about and learn from her life off screen. Not a perfect wife, but quite a life. If you're a fan of Myrna Loy and her films, this is a must read.

I forgot to add a comment on the judicious use of photos in the book, most are shots I'd not seen. Some incredible portraits, like the Ted Allan portrait used on the cover.

Fifty Years Fifty Films - The Eagle (1925)

2011-09-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Rudolph Valentino’s final two films under his Paramount contract in 1924 Monsieur Beaucaire and A Sainted Devil, were less than successful. The fans were apathetic and Valentino had lost his box office mojo.

Valentino’s contractual obligations to Paramount were now completed and he was soon set up to produce his first independent film under the banner of Ritz-Carlton Productions. Number one on the docket was The Hooded Falcon; the story was penned by his wife, Natacha Rambova.

In the summer of 1924 the Valentinos left for a European vacation/shopping trip for props and brocades for the costumes for The Hooded Falcon. Before departure they left the scenario in the hands of June Mathis for a rewrite.

Upon their return from Europe in the fall, the pair found Mathis’ treatment wanting and they ended their professional, and, for a time, personal relationship. The head and pocketbook of Ritz-Carlton, J.D. Williams, insisted that it would be more cost efficient to film Cobra prior to The Hooded Falcon. The company needed some cash coming in with a new release. Neither was happy with the idea of Cobra, but had little choice since The Hooded Falcon was not ready to go into production. Natacha began work on her own project entitled What Price Beauty and left Valentino to work on Cobra.

The excessive cost for The Hooded Falcon was due, for the most part, to the lavish spending in Europe. The Valentinos had spent close to one third of the slated budget for the completed film before a single frame was shot. Hooded Falcon appeared to be cursed. After Cobra was in the can, the Valentinos and J.D. Williams parted company on not so friendly terms. In short, Williams fired them and dissolved the company. Nothing came of The Hooded Falcon except for some smoldering costume shots of Valentino sporting a mustache and goatee.

The Hooded Falcon

Valentino signed on with United Artists and John Considine (father of Disney Legend Tim Considine) was to act as producer for his films. UA had, in fact, earlier hinted about inviting Valentino when he broke with Paramount in 1922. Three years later he was welcomed into the fold. A lavish dinner was held at the Ambassador to celebrate Valentino’s addition to the roster of stars. Production of The Eagle was started in the early spring of 1925. A lot was riding on The Eagle, Valentino knew it, too. Rudolph Valentino was very badly in need of a box office hit.

UA welcomes Valentino

The Eagle is based loosely on a Pushkin story Dubrovsky. Considine employed Hans Kraly to fashion the tale into a scenario suitable for Rudolph Valentino. Kraly is better remembered for his work with Ernst Lubitsch and his later work including The Patriot in 1930 (for which he won an Academy Award). Later, Kraly was also nominated for the adapted screenplay of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and for Original Screenplay for the Deanna Durbin film One Hundred Men and a Girl in 1937. Kraly’s scenario blended the Pushkin story with touches hinting at The Mark of Zorro and came up with a winning scenario. There is just enough action, just enough romance and a nice dose of tongue in cheek humor that makes the film breeze along.

The sets were designed by William Cameron Menzies. Certainly they were no more historically accurate than the sets for the later gothic and uber-bizarre The Scarlet Empress (Hans Dreier). Menzies hinted at Russia with a California Romantica twist. Historical accuracy to the period was not exactly uppermost or really appropriate for this romantic fantasy. This was not what Valentino’s female fans went to the pictures for.

Louise Dresser in the 1934 Scarlet Empress

Valentino and Banky were opulently costumed by a then relatively unknown Gilbert Adrian. Adrian got his start with Natacha Rambova and Valentino designing for Cobra and the costumes for the aborted The Hooded Falcon. He would go on to do the costumes for Rambova’s previously mentioned film What Price Beauty (not released until 1928) as well as Valentino’s final film The Son of the Sheik. Adrian is best remembered for his stunning work at MGM in the 1930’s.

Vilma Banky - costume by Adrian

Valentino is given ample opportunity to show not only his romantic skills, but also his wry comedic side in this film. He plays three roles: Dubrovksy, the Cossack, the bandit/Robin Hood by the moniker the Black Eagle and impersonates French tutor Marcel LeBlanc. Fans were less familiar with the lighter side of Valentino. This film really contains one of his most engaging performances. Light on his feet and quick-witted, this hero finds it more and more difficult to maintain or follow through on his vow of vengeance as his ardor for the daughter of his enemy grows. Valentino took pride in doing his own stunts and he suffered a slight injury during filming which was reported upon in various newspapers.

Vilma Banky on loan from Samuel Goldwyn shines and shows a real rapport with Valentino on screen. The barrier of language did not hamper the on-screen chemistry. Publicity for the film played up the language differences in a series of charming stills showing Valentino and Banky poring over dictionaries in attempts to communicate. Banky proved herself to be not only a beauty, but a charming and witty character. Banky’s on screen chemistry would be very much in evidence in Valentino’s final film, The Son of the Sheik.

Director Clarence Brown was responsible for the casting of Louise Dresser as Catherine the Great. Dresser was fresh off the success of her tour de force turn in The Goose Woman. Brown related to historian Kevin Brownlow:

Louise Dresser was great as the Goose Woman. I paid her three hundred and fifty dollars as week. I used her again as Queen Catherine in The Eagle, for Schneck, and this time I paid her three thousand a week!

This truly was luxury casting. The role of Catherine is not exactly large, but Dresser makes the most of her delightful seduction scene with Valentino. She clearly enjoyed her turn as the royal vamp.

In a smaller role and in another bit of luxurious casting, favorite villain Gustav Von Seiffertitz is seen briefly in a cameo as Catherine’s butler. Von Seiffertitz as well as Estelle Taylor (Mrs. Jack Dempsey) were cast for Valentino’s third UA film on the life of Christopher Columbus. It was set to begin filming after Son of the Sheik. Considine had also secured the talents of Charles Rosher to lens the film. Sadly, Valentino died before production would begin.

Brown lines up a shot as Valentino watches

Valentino, himself, indulged in a little friendly nepotism casting his good friend Mario Carillo as the “real” Marcel LeBlanc.

One can admire the performances of each of the stars, but one also has to credit their rapport with and the direction of journeyman Clarence Brown. Brown got his training under Maurice Tourneur and blossomed on his own with films such as Smoldering Fires and The Goose Woman. Brown and Valentino got along famously given their love of all things mechanical. Valentino also shared a special rapport with Brown’s young daughter Adrienne. Many candid shots taken during filming illustrate that they both were quite taken with one another. Brown’s light directorial touch is evident throughout the film. A little bravura must also be noted in Brown’s, now famous, tracking shot along the grand dining table. It was so good Brown used it again in Greta Garbo’s Anna Karenina (1935).

Adrienne Brown poses for a portrait with Valentino and his dog Mirza

The camera was manned by veteran George Barnes and assisted by Dev Jennings. There is great depth of focus in many shots; shadows are used effectively and romantically. Exteriors of the film were shot in the Griffith Park area.

Valentino was not in a happy place in his personal life during the filming of The Eagle. His marriage to Natacha Rambova was breaking apart. It seems clear he took some refuge from his personal troubles during the shoot. He enjoyed the company of many visitors, old friends and new. UA co-founder Douglas Fairbanks took the opportunity to visit the set for some publicity shots; Marion Davies a good friend of Valentino, stopped by; Bebe Daniels friend and former co-star paid a visit, as well. Erich von Stroheim visited and posed very obligingly sporting dueling pistols with a bemused Valentino. Valentino’s close friend, the Spanish painter Federico Beltran-Masses was staying at Falcon Lair painting two portraits of Valentino. He later painted portraits of Marion Davies, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. He spent many happy days visiting the set looking like he was having the time of his life.

The filming completed in early summer, United Artists worked quickly and got the film ready for release on November 8, 1925. Valentino traveled to New York for the premiere at the Mark Strand Theater and then made his way to London for the premiere at the Marble Arch Pavilion. Valentino was joined by his brother Alberto and family in London. Both brothers look natty in their tuxes at the premiere.

Alberto and Rudy at the London premiere

A report in Variety stated that in Philadelphia, many of the local dailies panned the film. This did not deter the crowds from flocking to see the film; Variety also reported that the film did $27,000 in a single week in Philly. In 1925 this was not exactly chump change with admission prices on average between .10, .27 and .40.

Other reviews from across the country indicated the film was for the most part a winner. A short sampling reveals the film garnered some wildly varying reviews:

In Cleveland, the Times reviewed:

Rudolph Valentino in a type of picture which gives him an opportunity to prove the reason of his former popularity as the sheik of the screen. To say that he redeems himself in the eyes of the movie fan, would be putting it in mild terms. Valentino not only proves he can act, but that he is a trained athlete as well.

Valentino still had a harder time in Detroit, shades of the Mineralava Tour! Three papers had three different opinions:

The Detroit Free Press:

Ruddy (sic) doesn't have a great deal to do in the way of thrilling stunts, and at times the action drags.

The News:

Directed with some of the cunning of Lubitsch and acted in better grace and manner than Valentino has exhibited since his first big coming out party.

And finally, the Times:

In this production, Valentino works as he never has before, thrills as a daring bandit hero and grows more passionate than ever in his love making.

PHOTOPLAY reviewed the film and grudgingly gave it a pass:.

Rudolph Valentino changes his personality three times in his new picture and each one is dashing and fascinating and very Valentino. First, he is a young lieutenant of the Czarina's regiment, brave and handsome and desired of Catherine. When he deserts because he objects to "boudoir service," young Dubrovsky becomes a bandit, the Black Eagle, seeking to avenge a wrong done his father.

Next we see Rudy impersonating a French tutor in the house of his enemy, teaching the enemy's beautiful daughter. Dubrovsky falls in love. Shall he break his oath of vengeance?

The story really begins when Dubrovsky becomes the Black Eagle. The finish is weak and the characters not well drawn. Vilma Banky is Sam Goldwyn's gift to the screen. You will like Rudy and Vilma and the picture, in spite of its faults.

PICTURE PLAY also seemed ultra nit-picky in their review:

Rudolph Valentino after a short absence returns to the screen in "The Eagle." He has evidently determined to treat himself to the best this time, for he is directed by Clarence Brown, who superintended the making of "The Goose Woman," and he is supported by Vilma Banky and Louise Dresser.

With these advantages, it is only natural to expect "The Eagle" to be an intelligent, pleasant and finished picture, and it is just that and nothing more. Only the very greedy could ask for more, and I am sure that almost everyone will be pretty well satisfied with what Mr. Valentino has chosen to serve, but for some strange reason, the spark that brightened his first picture, "The Four Horsemen," has never flared up in anything that he has done since then.

Just what has died in his acting is hard to say. He seems to try conscientiously to revive it, whatever it is, but he lacks vitality. Of course, I'm not one that believes that actors burst into being overnight, and it may be that his sudden and victorious debut in "The Four Horsemen" was a pure bit of luck. However, "The Eagle" is by all means the best of his pictures since.

The story is of the love affair of a lieutenant of the Russian royal guard who refused the Czarina's more-than-tentative offer and is sentenced to death for scorning her. The plot that follows is a pretty complicated affair, and combined with the Russian names, would, if put end to end, reach from Picture-Play to The Literary Digest.

Vilma Banky is beautiful and natural as Mischa (sic), but Clarence Brown has not brought out the talent which she showed in "The Dark Angel," nor did Miss Dresser have much opportunity as the Czarina. Playing opposite a male star is really no job for a woman. After all, woman's place is in the home.

In the New York theater where I saw this picture, the aisles, lobby, and house were packed with people during its entire run, which only goes to prove that I am too fussy, and that Mr. Valentino's hold on the public can still be accepted without question.

Anyway, the picture is well worth seeing, and I don't think you’d regret devoting an evening to it.

So, history records that the film was well received, but not the smash hit everyone had hoped for. That smash hit they were looking for would come later, and sadly, Valentino would not live to see it.

J.D. Williams negotiated distribution of Cobra through Paramount/Lasky and released Cobra on November 30, 1925. For the record, Cobra was not well received and sank like a stone.

Valentino charms Vilma Banky

Happily, in the modern age one can view The Eagle dispassionately and enjoy the film for what it was, a delightful bit of entertainment. As I stated above, Valentino fans (even if you’re not) are treated to a thoroughly enjoyable film. Valentino shows much warmth and charm in his role(s), he clearly relished the action sequences as well as the scenes with the beautiful Vilma Banky.

Banky was fresh from the success of her American film debut, The Dark Angel for Goldwyn co-starring Ronald Colman. She was also very successful in the lighter and more dramatic moments of the film. Her blond beauty complimented Valentino. It is no wonder she was signed on for The Son of the Sheik.

Clarence Brown also benefited from the success of this film, he moved on to MGM and stayed for over 20 years from silent to sound.

For a full rundown of the intertitles, you can visit one of my favorite websites, intertitle-o-rama (http://intertitleorama.webs.com/eagle.html).

The Eagle is available on DVD (the Paul Killiam/Blackhawk Films print) Amazon link Carl Bennett's wonderful and informative site, SilentEra, has a run down of the various available versions here: http://www.silentera.com/video/eagleHV.html

Sadly, the most perfect and complete version is not available to be seen on DVD and is rarely screened. I keep hoping and pestering that the Photoplay Productions restoration will be shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I’m a glass half full kind of person and keep hoping!

There is also a nearly complete version to see on youtube here

Fifty Years/Fifty Films is my non-time-critical journey through the first fifty years of films. I'll be watching films that I've never seen or will be revisiting some very old friends. My original goal was to do this for the last six months of 2009 and you can see how well that went.

Emily Leider - Upcoming Myrna Loy Book Events

2011-08-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of Emily Leider's biography of Myrna Loy, Myrna Loy The Only Good Girl in Hollywood. If you're in or around San Francisco, you have several opportunities to attend some grand events and screenings and to meet Emily and obtain an autographed copy of this much anticipated book.

Friday, October 7, 2011 at 6:00, Mechanics Institute Library, 57 Post St., San Francisco, 4th floor. Screening of the 1932 movie “The Animal Kingdom,” with Myrna Loy and Leslie Howard. Emily will introduce the film and will sign books after the movie. Doors open at 5:30 and sandwiches and drinks are available then. For a reservation call (415) 393-0114.

Friday, October 14, 2011 at 6:00, Mechanics Institute Library, 57 Post St., San Francisco, 4th floor. Screening of the 1933 movie “Penthouse,” in which Myrna Loy morphs from a call girl into a lady. Emily will sign books after the movie. Doors open at 5:30, as above, and a reservation is advised (415) 393-0114.

The Mechanics will screen two more Myrna Loy movies on the next two Friday nights, Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, at 6:00. These will “Manhattan Melodrama,” a 1934 film (which won an Academy Award for Best Story) starring Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and William Powell, and on 10/28 ‘Love Crazy,” a very silly 1941 comedy with William Powell. Emily will NOT be introducing or signing books at these last two screenings; the movies are great fun and you should go anyway.

Thursday, October 27, at 7:00, a talk and book signing at Bookshop at West Portal, 80 West Portal Ave., San Francisco.

Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30, a talk, clips show and screening of the 1936 comedy “Libeled Lady,” co-starring Myrna Loy, William Powell, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy, at The Barn, Hollywood Heritage Museum, 2100 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles. Reservations necessary; call (323) 874-2276. Hollywood Heritage website will have details and online tickets soon.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 7:30, “Nick and Nora’s San Francisco,” a talk with movie clips. Presented by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, 3200 California Street, San Francisco.

I'm looking forward to attending at least two of the local events, the Nick and Nora's San Francisco event is particularly appealing.

Remembering Rudolph Valentino

2011-08-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

It seems he has always been with us....just out of reach, traveling the world, having just stepped away. His films remind us of a distinct personality and physical presence whenever they are shown. This man came before us, and will remain long after us. 'Immortal' is too haughty: 'Transcendent' is my word choice for Rudy's lasting appeal. - M. Pierce

I could not have said it better myself, hence the quotation above. Today is the 85th anniversary of Valentino's untimely passing. Many will have gathered at Hollywood Forever to mark his passing and celebrate his life and legacy. Others will celebrate and observe a quiet moment or watch one of his films.

85 years later, why do so many still care and commemorate Valentino? What is his lasting appeal?
It may be that intangible "star quality" or the lasting regret of his early demise, just as his career was back on the upswing. Everyone I've spoken with has a different answer, each is as unique as it is valid.

Valentino the actor on screen represents a dream, a fantasy. In this day in age, we all still need fantasy, even in what some feel is an antiquated format. Unless you;ve seen a silent film as it should be presented, you cannot understand the incredible magnetism of stars of the era nor the engrossing way a silent film sucks you in and is all enveloping. Valentino was a magnetic performer. My favorite of his films is The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Valentino gives a performance that stands the test of time, not overplayed and the sly breaking through the fourth wall in the Tango Palace in Paris is one of many moments that make the film special to me.

Valentino the man is revealed in so many ways in simple photographs. An animal lover, a car buff, a fitness buff, a friend, a simple man, a man in love. In his 31 short years, Valentino lived his life to the fullest. He was not always a wise man nor a nice man. He was human, he made mistakes, some terrible, some poor choices in judgement. But, in viewing him from the window of many photos, I see him as a man who endured terrible tragedy and still found joy in his life. Again, he was a human as we all are. People during his lifetime often forgot this. His legend was so wrapped up in the fantasy of the characters he portrayed during his peak of popularity, Valentino the man was ignored. Today this is very different, people are eager to learn who was this man named Rudolph Valentino.

In a little pictorial tribute on this day of memory, here are a few favorite photos of Rudolph Valentino.

Rudolph Valentino circa 1918 (Nelson Evans photographer)

Valentino portrait circa 1920 (Maurice Goldberg photogtapher)

Valentino circa 1923 (Russell Ball photographer)

Louise Dresser and Valentino in the 1925 film The Eagle (Nealson Smith photographer)

Valentino and Natacha Rambova pose for the Mineralava Tour in 1923 (James Abbe photographer)

Natacha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino at their Hollywood home "Whitley Heights" in 1922
(James Abbe photographer)

Valentino, it would seem, will never be forgotten.

Top Ten Reasons to See Abel Gance's Napoleon in 2012

2011-07-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

10. As of this posting, there are no plans to release this restored version on DVD or Blu-Ray. You wanna see it and you gotta see it on the big screen!

9. The GORGEOUS Oakland Paramount Theater.

Image swiped from Ron's Log (click to enlarge and be awestruck)

8. To hear the score performed live and conducted by the composer, Carl Davis.

7. To learn how to pronounce Albert Dieudonne correctly from Kevin Brownlow himself.

Albert Dieudonne as Napoleon (courtesy Photoplay Productions)

6. To meet many other like-minded film geeks from all over the country and, indeed, the world.

5. To experience a silent film as it was always meant to be experienced.

Title Lobby Card from the 1927 US Release

4. To see a remarkable performance by Vladimir Roudenko.

Vladimir Roudenko (courtesy Photoplay Productions)

3. It's a once in a lifetime experience and a helluva movie.

2. The triptychs baby!

(courtesy Photoplay Productions)

1. Kevin Brownlow!

***

Abel Gance's 1927 epic Napoleon will be screened as a "Live Cinema" event at the Oakland Paramount Theater. Presented by The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and Photoplay Productions (in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, and the British Film Institute). This is a once in a lifetime event.

Tickets for Napoleon are available online at Ticketmaster.

This n That

2011-07-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

This n That is my monthly posting on old news, new news and various tidbits that strike my fancy.

In case you've not read about this, maybe you've had your head burined in the sand? Kevin Brownlow's massive restoration of the Abel Gance epic Napoleon will screen at the Oakland Paramount Theater in March/April 2012. Carl Davis will be on hand to conduct his score for the film with the Easto Oakland Symphony Orchestra. Four performances only, in the SF Bay, no other dates for the US are planned. Tickets can be had at Ticketmaster.

***

In the 1920s, Diana Serra Cary was known as "Baby Peggy." Signed to a million dollar contract at age five, this child actress was once one of the biggest little film stars in the world. At this special event, Cary will speak about her remarkable life in Hollywood more than 80 years ago, her recent work as a writer and film historian, and her lifelong love of books and reading.

Diana Serra Cary will be in conversation with arts journalist Thomas Gladysz. A short Baby Peggy film will also be shown. More info at the SFPL website.

This special event will take place in Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library. A book signing with Diana Serra Cary will follow.

***

Milton Sills Alert! I make no secret of my love for Milton Sills. Sadly, I cannot be in LA for the screening of the 1928 film The Barker (also featuring Douglas Fairbanks Jr - equally hubba hubba)

Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre (in LA)

The Silent Treatment Series: THE BARKER (1928)

Dir. George Fitzmaurice, 1928, 35mm, 80 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive)

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 - 8:00 PM

$10 / free for members

http://www.cinefamily.org/films/the-silent-treatment/

It’s hard to imagine that the majority of films from the silent era, despite their level of cinematic innovation and critical acclaim, could all but vanish from our narrowing narrative of film history. The Barker is the exemplar of lost classics — originally a hit play on Broadway, and adapted for the screen in 1928 with a stellar cast including the likes of burgeoning stars such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Betty Compson (who received an Academy Award nomination for her performance). Such was the film’s success that it merited two further high-profile remakes in 1933 and 1944, plus a syndicated Lux Radio Theater adaptation. And somehow, a film that managed to remain in the public consciousness for nearly two decades has disappeared. The Cinefamily and The Silent Treatment are proud to launch this picture back into the limelight with a spectacular 35mm print so crisp that it’ll leave the images lingering in your mind long after the curtains close. The film has a hopeful take on the troubles of modernization, when the greatest carnival barker in the world turns his back on the antiquated biz, only to rediscover his passion through the exploits of his city-bound son. Come participate in the resurrection of this fantastic film, and let your mind reel at the thought that something this good could go missing for so long! The evening’s feature is also one of the first films to utilize the “Vitaphone” process, so get ready to also experience a restored version of its original music/effects/minimal dialogue track!

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Soviet Film Posters (many from the silent era) have been on display in New York at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. The exhibition ends July 30th, but you can view the posters by clicking the link on this page marked "images." Some wild poster art, including several Soviet posters for Harold Lloyd films like Safety Last and Buster Keaton. Fabulous exhibit that I wish I could have seen in person.

***

Have you purchased a DVD and absolutely loathe the score? What do you do? Do you watch the film in silence? Do you grit your teeth and watch it anyway with a score that neither fits the film or your taste? I admit, I'm rather traditional in my silent film score taste. Well, you have another option to remedy a silent film headache. Ben Model, acclaimed historian and performer has created altscore.com with modestly priced and wonderful alternate scores for many films on DVD. The scores can be downloaded to your iPod, PC or burned on a CD to synch with the film. Check it out!

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Ronald Colman will be the star of the day during TCM's Summer Under the Stars on August 4th. Scheduled are three silent films with the divine Ronnie. The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish, Kiki with Norma Talmadge (directed by Clarence Brown) and Her Night of Romance with Constance Talmadge. Don't miss them!

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The Silent Treatment is a quarterly newsletter that relates to silent film. TST is also the presenter/promoter for the monthly silent film screenings with Cinefamily and The Silent Movie Theater mentioned above. Brandy and Steve do great work and if you want to keep yourself in the loop, the newsletter is free and delievered to your email inbox. Back issues are downloadable at the TSTNews website. Always free and always worth a read!

***

Lastly, I've been offloading bits and pieces of memorabilia, including some really nice vintage postcards of Rudolph Valentino. You can check out my eBay auctions here or search for the seller ID rudyfan. More good movie stuff and decorative pieces and some vintage jewelery (including bakelite) will be posted soon.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Recap - Part 2

2011-07-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Mary McLaren in Shoes

Saturday, July 16
Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams featuring J.B. Kaufman & Russell Meritt
Variations on a Theme with silent film musicians and composers

Sadly, I had freaked myself out to such a degree over making sure I got exactly the Napoleon tickets I wanted, I stayed home and camped on Ticketmaster in true geek fashion and skipped the Laugh-O-Grams and the Variations on a Theme programs. Then I met some fellow geeks for lunch before the Mauritz Stiller.

The Blizzard
Mauritz Stiller’s film The Blizzard was a simple tale of love and madness with a really huge herd of reindeer thrown in and an excellent tracking action sequence of the hero of the story being dragged across the ice by a rampaging reindeer. The poetic hero spent the remainder of the film not recovering until the magic of music heals him and brings us a happy ending. My pithy comments above do not do justice to the film. Yes, the plot seemed rather silly, even from the well regarded and revered Selma Lagerlöf. All that being said, I found myself moved and touched by the end of the film. The action sequences were thrilling and thrillingly filmed. The sensitive scoring by the Matti Bye ensemble lifted and supported the film.

The Goose Woman
I've waited 30+ years to see this film. It was SO worth the wait. The plot of the film might be considered a tad hackneyed, but who cares when you’re watching a tour de force performance by Louise Dresser? In what can only be called a very brave actor, Louise Dresser spends much of the film, sans makeup and a complete and utter mess of a woman. In fact, I think she was made up to look far worse. Behind the makeup or lack thereof, in her eyes, you see every emotion of hate, self loathing, tenderness and she barely moves a muscle. It’s epic and awe inspiring. Jack Pickford also shines as her illegitimate son. He tries to be understanding and a good son, especially when he is reviled by his own mother. You can see the family resemblance, Jack Pickford’s face morphs into his sister Mary’s at time. You see that Jack had some real talent, and not simply as a womanizer and drinker as he was in his off screen life. Constance Bennett has little to do except look pretty and be the object of affection. That said, you can see glimpses of the glamorous screen presence she would become in the 1930’s. Stephen Horne accompanied the film. This was my pick of the weekend (so far). It was the film I most wanted to see and it did not let me down. Kevin Brownlow did not steer any of us wrong with this one.

Mr. Fix-It
Previously considered a lost film, Mr. Fix-It was restored with the aid of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the contributions of The Goessel Family Foundation. We can thank them all for this, Mr. Fix-It may not be top drawer Fairbanks, but, it was 100% delightful and vintage pre-swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks. While Doug appears a little old (mostly due to make-up) to be a young collegian, once he hits US shores, the action rarely stops. Even with all the speed bumps in the road, he manages to make good on his promise to fix things up for a happy ending.

The Woman Men Yearn For
Lacking in stamina, I skipped this and the wonderful Mont-Alto score. I regret it, but I will have the opportunity to screen the film for a proper review. Reports from all were that Marlene was luminous and Mont-Alto was wonderful.

Sunday, July 17
Amazing Tales from the Archives II featuring Kevin Brownlow
Initially announced to have Kevin speak about 50 years of restoration, he really did that anyway in chronicling his journey of discovery through Abel Gance’s Epic Napoleon. Kevin narrated during clips, stills and some wonderful rare footage of Abel Gance circa 1965 was shown. Kevin cribbed from his 1980 era book Napoleon and it only served to whet the collective appetites of the audience for the complete restoration to be shown in 2012. At least that is what it did for me.

Shoes
This was my first film with Mary McLaren. I only knew of her, really, from her tragic later years, impoverished in a home that was beyond condemned. Having met her in 1980 at a memorial service for Rudolph Valentino, I recognized in this young delicate woman the same beautiful eyes, cornflower blue. In this film, as the put upon heroine, she was luminous, beautiful and sad. Her performance was subtle and her communication of heartbreak was intense. A young girl, the sole support of her family longs for a new pair of shoes. Her salary is controlled by her mother and portions are wasted by her wastrel of a father. Unable to stand it any longer, she sells herself to a cabaret singer (portrayed sleazily by William V. Mong) to obtain the shoes. Filmed on location in Los Angeles, it was a tad preachy, but nonetheless effective. The drama was only heightened and almost was overwrought by the mighty Wurlitzer under the capable hands of Dennis James. We had the added bonus of the introduction of the film by Robert Byrne, who helped restore the film. The before and after clip reel was astonishing.

Wild and Weird featuring David Sheppard
This was a preview of a new Flicker Alley release produced by David Sheppard. A collection of weird and wonderful short films. This included the most beautiful print I’ve ever seen of The Red Spectre and one of my favorite early Vitagraph films The Thieving Hand. Avant Garde and just plain bizarre films were shown and accompanied with a percussive beat by the Alloy Orchestra. Friends know I am rather traditional in my approach to music that accompanies silent films, in this Alloy hit the right notes (or drums). It was a loud and very fun program. And this ended the festival for me.

Due to taking the Friday off from work to attend, I had to make it a very early night for the Monday to come. I do regret missing He Who Gets Slapped, but it’s a film I’ve seen several times and have seen previously on the big screen.

I’m biased because I am a local, but I do love the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and I am already looking very much forward to what the summer will bring in 2012. The volunteers, the staff, Anita Monga, Stacey Wisnia and the Castro Theater are all to be commended, it was a great weekend.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Review - Part 1

2011-07-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

I do plan to post some individual and much more detailed reviews of films in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is the first part of the overall run down of the 16th Annual festival.

The 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival is now but a memory. I’ve just now recovered from taking an extra day off work to attend the festival. In a continuing tradition, I missed a few movies I should not have missed during the three and a half days.

Opening Night, Thursday, July 14

Upstream

I saw Upstream at the Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles last year and thought it was a so-so programmer. Initially I had not intended to attend the opener and I’m rather pleased I had a change of heart. The Donald Sosin Ensemble provided a delightful new score for the film which, to me, lifted the ordinariness of the plot to a slightly higher level of comedy. I noticed, as well, some very funny digs at John Barrymore. Do not be misled, great silent arte this isn’t. That said, the film is fun and has a happy ending after a few bumps in the road. It was an enjoyable beginning to the weekend. If you did not know this was directed by John Ford, I do not think you’d be able to tell otherwise.

Napoleon
The trailer for the 2012 screenings of Napoleon was met with rapturous applause, including shouts from yours truly. Tickets are purchased and I can cardly wait!

Sunrise

I love Sunrise, it is one of my favorite silent film. I am sure this is true for many a silent film fan. Having seen a preview of the new score by Giovanni Spinelli, it was not an experience I was looking forward to. So, I skipped it using the excuse that I had had a hard day at work and wanted to go home and crash. This was true to a degree, but I also am too much of a traditionalist to was a more orthodox score for a film I dearly love. I quizzed a few people the next day and it was 5-1, 5 absolutely hating it (“I sat with my fingers in my ears”) to 1 who thought it was an interesting take (“not a sentimental note”).

Friday, July 15

Amazing Tales from the Archives I

I always enjoy the archive programs and wish that they were longer, the time always flies. The presentations this year were a tad longer and all fascinating. It began with Ken Fox who worked on the restoration of the Douglas Fairbanks Mr. Fix-It. He took us through the journey of how they recreated the titles for the film, down to the accuracy of matching the font (a wonderful font called Pabst, yes, same as Pabst Blue Ribbon beer). Jan-Cristopher Horak of UCLA presented on the puzzle of finding out where a film was originally produced. A biblical film that was distributed in the US via a distributor of spiritual films for screening in churches and no clue on where it was made nor it’s cast or original title. Anthony L’Abbate of Eastman House taught us how to identify film clips via a number of methods. Finally, Melissa Levesque of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences showed some of the clips acquired from Lobster Films that still needed some identification. You can help in that effort by visiting here.

Huckleberry Finn

Director William Desmond Taylor is better remembered for his murder in 1922 (still unsolved) than as a director. Many of his films are lost, happily, his 1920 version of Huckleberry Finn still does exist. The star really was the wonderful and very natural Lewis Sargent as Huck. Not entirely true to the story, but a swift paced and engaging film. Shot on location in Northern California subbing for the mighty Mississippi. Donald Sosin provided lively accompaniment.

I Was Born, But…

I skipped the Ozu’s 1932 film in favor of a leisurely meal with some friends.

The Great White Silence

A friend speculated that there were probably many in the audience who might not have known the unhappy outcome of this film. The beautiful photography was accompanied by an equally magnificent and beautiful score by the Matti Bye Ensemble. The moving vistas, the penguins and the build up to the doubly tragic ending was almost overwhelming. It was a beautifully constructed film and scored sensitively.

Il Fuoco

Sadly, I skipped Il Fuoco. I have an opportunity to view it again and I will report on it in detail once I’ve screened it.

Days 3 and 4 to be continued!

Pordenone - Il Giornate del Cinema Muto 2011

2011-07-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

I just receiveed my invitation to Pordenone for the 2011 Silent Film Festival. Alas, I already know I won't be in attendance. This is #1 on my bucket list.

Some very interesting things in the lineup. Looks like Photoplay Productions will present The Wind with Carl Davis conducting his score. The Kertész before Curtiz looks very interesting. I was just watching My Brother is Coming from 1919 at the Europa Film Treasures site. A nice bit of synchronicity!

Two words: Italian Divas!

Here's the lineup:

To celebrate three decades of rediscovery and restorations of the national cinema, and Italy's 150th unification anniversary, we present "People of Italy's Golden Age", with programmes devoted both to superstars and to less-known personalities, including Francesca Bertini, Pina Menichelli, Nino Oxilia, Febo Mari and the galaxy of clowns of the first decade - Cretinetti, Polidor, Kri-Kri, Robinet and friends.

"Shostakovich and the Factory of the Eccentric Actor" focuses on the association of the composer and the film-makers Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, which began with the unparalleled marriage of music and image in NEW BABYLON and ODNA. This is a rare opportunity to see all the surviving work of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor (FEKS), unique in Soviet cinema for its vitality, originality and audacity. NEW BABYLON will provide the festival's gala opening show.

Although NEW BABYLON has often been performed before, this performance can be claimed as definitive. After the debacles of the first performances, Shostakovich's score was lost for 45 years, until 1975, when Gennadi Rozhdestvensky found a set of orchestral parts in the Lenin Library, Moscow, and adapted a suite from the score. Subsequently other, fuller copies of the original orchestral parts became available; but it was not until this century, thanks to the work of the Paris-based Shostakovich Centre, that the most complete versions of the score, as well as Shostakovich's own much-corrected manuscript (the original of which is in the Glinka Museum, Moscow) became freely available. Mark Fitz-Gerald, who began his studies of the score twenty years ago, has been able to extensively revise his work in preparing the new Naxos recording, and with assistance from another fine Shostakovich scholar, Pierre-Alain Biget, has brought the score and its synchronisation to a new level, at which Shostakovich's genius can finally be fully appreciated. A second film in the FEKS programme, THE OVERCOAT, after Gogol, will be accompanied by a new score for quartet by Maud Nelissen.

More films from the vast and largely unexplored treasury of Soviet silent films can be seen in a presentation of Georgian cinema, including the remaining two films from the oeuvre of Lev Push - a gifted director, prevented from direction after 1930, whose name was virtually unknown until last year's Giornate.

"Kertész before Curtiz" surveys the little-known European career of a Hungarian, who, as Michael Curtiz, was to become a major Hollywood director. His special gifts for narrative and character are already evident in his rare surviving Hungarian films and the operetta stories and spectacles he made in Vienna after emigration in 1919.

The popular "Canon Revisted" series this year includes an orchestral show, with Günter Buchwald conducting Chaplin's own accompaniment to THE CIRCUS. Other "Canon" titles include Marcel l'Herbier's ELDORADO, Joe May's ASPHALT and Friedrich Ermler's FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE.

A dramatic rediscovery featured in the Early and Transitional Cinema series is Robert William Paul's 1896 THE SOLDIER'S COURTSHIP, which has been regarded as a key work in film history, as the first British fiction film - and indeed one of the world's first fiction films. Believed lost for almost all its 115 years, a fine print recently surfaced in the Roman archive of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and will be premiered at the 2011 Giornate. Also in this series are two more programmes from the Corrick Collection, and a centenary programme which explores the exceptional narrative qualities of the films of the American Thanhouser Company.

A small but selective programme to celebrate the American National Film Preservation Foundation's DVD issues of early Westerns will include screenings of W.S.Van Dyke's LADY OF THE DUGOUT (1918), Victor Fleming's MANTRAP (1926) and the little-known SALOMY JANE (1914), directed by Lucius Henderson and William Nigh.

Other highlights of this year's Giornate: a special series to commemorate the centenary of the great polar expeditions of 1911-12; Japanese silent animation film; the recently re-assembled full series of Walt Disney's 1922 LAUGH-O-GRAMS; and a special selection of early films depicting the experience of going to the cinema drawn from the collections of EYE, Amsterdam.

The closing show will be a full orchestral performance of Victor Sjostrom's THE WIND (1928), with Carl Davis conducting his own score.

More details on the programme will be posted on the Giornate website as they become available (www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it).

Kevin Brownlow Discusses Abel Gance and Napoleon circa 1980

2011-07-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

In what will be a monthly, (or semi monthly) posting about the upcoming US Premiere of the restored Napoleon, I'm going to begin with a bit of video capturing Kevin Brownlow. Though the film was playing to packed houses at the time this interview was filmed, I think it would be not inaccurate to say that Kevin was still in mid-restoration of Gance's 1927 epic film.

Napoleon will screen at the Oakland Paramount on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012. Kevin Brownlow will introduce the film and Composer Carl Davis will conduct the Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra live at each screening.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is presenting the film in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and BFI.

You can buy tickets through ticketmaster. Seriously, do not hesitate, this really will be a once in a lifetime event.

Napoleon vu par Abel Gance

2011-07-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you have only a nominal interest in film, you've probably already heard the news that in March/April 2012 the complete (or current) restoration of Abel Gance's 1927 epic Napoleon will be screening as a "Live Cinema" event at the Oakland Paramount Theater. Presented by The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and Photoplay Productions (as well as American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, and the British Film Institute), the film will be screened with Carl Davis conducting the East Oakland Symphony Orchestra. This is a once in a lifetime event.

Abel Gance's Napoleon from San Francisco Silent Film Festiv on Vimeo.

Okay, you have watched the trailer, you can buy tickets through ticketmaster. Do not hesitate, this really will be a once in a lifetime event.

The complete press release from the SFSFF (dateline July 14) is reproduced below:

SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL TO PRESENT

ABEL GANCE’S LEGENDARY MASTERPIECE NAPOLEON

AT OAKLAND PARAMOUNT, MARCH 24, 25, 31 & APRIL 1

U.S. PREMIERE OF COMPLETE RESTORATION

BY ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNER KEVIN BROWNLOW & BFI

U.S. PREMIERE OF ORCHESTRAL SCORE BY CARL DAVIS,

WHO WILL CONDUCT THE OAKLAND EAST BAY SYMPHONY

(July 14, 2011—Bastille Day) The San Francisco Silent Film Festival announces today that it will present the U.S. premiere of Abel Gance’s legendary NAPOLEON in its complete restoration by Academy Award®-winning historian, documentarian and archivist Kevin Brownlow, in four special screenings at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012.

The Brownlow restoration, produced with his partner Patrick Stanbury at Photoplay Productions in association with the BFI, is the most complete version of Gance’s masterpiece since its 1927 premiere at the Paris Opéra.

The SFSFF screenings also mark the U.S. premiere of the renowned orchestral score, written over 30 years ago (and twice expanded since), by Carl Davis, who will conduct the Oakland East Bay Symphony.

The spectacular presentation at the 3,000-seat, Art Deco Oakland Paramount will be climaxed by its finale in “Polyvision”—an enormous triptych, employing three specially installed synchronized projectors, that will dramatically expand the screen to triple its width. The logistics and expense of screening Napoleon properly with full orchestra and special equipment have made it nearly impossible to mount. Gance’s Napoleon hasn’t
been screened theatrically in the U.S. with live orchestra for nearly 30 years and there are no plans to repeat the SFSFF event in any other American city.

Says Stacey Wisnia, Executive Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, “This will be ‘the cinema event of a lifetime’ and for once that’s not just hype, considering that we may never have another chance to see Napoleon presented on this scale, and with Carl Davis’ magnificent score. But we’re also referring to the lifetime of passion that Kevin Brownlow has devoted to bringing Abel Gance’s original vision back to life.”

Mr. Brownlow, who last year became the first film historian ever honored with a special Academy Award, became fascinated with Gance’s film when, as a schoolboy in the 1950s, he ran two 9.5mm reels he had stumbled upon at a street market. “I was stunned by the cinematic flair,” says Brownlow. “I was exhilarated by the rapid cutting and the swirling camera movement. What daring! I had never seen anything comparable—and I set out to find more of it.” That determination led to a lifelong quest.

The first major Brownlow/BFI restoration culminated in a screening at the Telluride Film Festival in 1979, with 89-year-old Gance watching from a nearby hotel window. Under the auspices of Francis Ford Coppola and Robert A. Harris, a version of this restoration, accompanied by a score composed by Mr. Coppola’s father Carmine, was presented to great acclaim at Radio City Music Hall and other venues in the U.S. and around the world in the early 1980s. Mr. Brownlow and the BFI did additional restoration work in 1983.

The current restoration, completed in 2000 but not previously seen outside Europe, reclaims more than 30 minutes of additional footage discovered since the 1979 screening and visually upgrades much of the film. This unique 35mm print, made at the laboratory of the BFI’s National Archive, uses traditional dye-bath techniques to recreate the color tints and tones that enhanced the film on its original release, giving a vividness to the image as never before experienced in this country.

Each screening of the 5 1/2-hour epic will begin in the afternoon and will be shown in four parts with three intermissions, including a dinner break. Tickets will be available online through the SFSFF website, www.silentfilm.org, beginning July 18.

Abel Gance’s NAPOLEON is being presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and the BFI. Technical services will be provided by Boston Light & Sound.

Founded in 1994, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has showcased the finest films of the silent era as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen with live music composed and performed by accomplished artists. While its annual July festival remains its flagship event, the SFSFF now produces special events throughout the year.

Says Robert Byrne, SFSFF board president, “This extraordinary presentation of Gance’s masterpiece is a major cultural coup, not just for our festival, but for the whole Bay Area.”

Sad Farewell - The Red Vic in San Francisco

2011-07-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Image http://www.sfgate.com/

The San Francisco Chronicle confirmed that the funky indie theater The Red Vic is closing down at the end of July. So sad, they've just hit their 30th anniversary.

According to the article linked above, they'll be having sales of their collection of movie posters and assorted memorabilia. The space will be absorbed and another rep movie house in SF closes the doors.

Thank goodness we still have The Balboa and The Castro!

Sad face today.

This n That

2011-06-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Some fabuous double bills coming up at the Castro Theater in late July and early August to honor film composer Max Steiner

July 29
MILDRED PIERCE (1945) + THE LETTER (1940)

July 30
CASABLANCA (1942) + TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

July 31
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

August 1
NOW VOYAGER (1942) + DARK VICTORY (1939)

August 2
WHITE HEAT (1949) + ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938)

August 3
THE BIG SLEEP (1946) + KEY LARGO (1948)

August 4
KING KONG (1933) + THE SEARCHERS (1956)

More info to be found at The Castro's Website.

***

Begin commercial announcement: I've got an eBay store open that currently is selling vintage 1920s postcards of Rudolph Valentino. More movie memorabilia will be listed soon, as well as non-movie items such as vintage picture frames, costume jewelry, bakelite and other ephemera. You can check it out by visiting Golden Gate Goodies. We're cleaning out the closets! End of the commercial announcement.

***

There's a new blog online by my favorite Cultural Archeologist, Thomas Gladysz. City Brights is located on the SF Chronicle's website, you can find it here. As always there will be plenty of good reading.

***

There is another new (old) blog that is well worth mentioning. Larry Harnisch of the Los Angeles Times has been posting all sorts of fascinating LA history at The Daily Mirror (formerly hosted on the LA Times website). It's got a new home and new contributors here. Do pay it a visit, there is some wonderful content as Larry "Reflects on Los Angeles History."

***

Speaking of LA ... Do not miss the excellent lineup of films screening at the LA County Museum over the summer. LACMA's lineup has me drooling and absolutely green envious! Check it out here.

***

My book Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol - His Life in Photographs is now one year old. What a wonderful year it has been! To say the book has suceeded beyond my wildest dreams is an understatement. It's been received with open arms, the feedback has been great and sales are still going strong. Who knew??

A new website for the book is currently under construction. The purpose of the new website devoted solely to The Silent Idol is to further promote the book and to share some goodies that did not make the final cut as well as some fun multimedia. Nothing online at the moment, you will eventually find it at http://www.silentidol.com/. Don't forget that the book may be ordered at amazon.com as well as the link to blurb's website above.

***

A free screening of The Son of the Sheik will be at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library in the Koret Auditorium. Sunday, July 10th at 2:00 - 5:00 pm Come see Valentino at his best! I will be there and would love to meet other "rudyfans."

Don't forget to pay a visit to the exhibits celebrating silent film at the library on display through the summer (descriptions below cribbed from Thomas' blog):

"Reading the Stars" is on display in the Steve Silver room (4th floor) of the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library through August 28th. It is part of a SFPL celebration of the silent era called "Shhhhh! Silents in the Library."

Other exhibits are devoted to "Downtown Movie Palaces of the 1920s" and "The Silent Screen in the City." The latter looks at some of the many movie stars who visited San Francisco or made films here in the Bay Area.

"Shhhhh! Silents in the Library" coincides with the 16th annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which takes place July 14-17 at the Castro Theater. A display of past posters from the Festival are also on display at the SFPL.

***

The San Franciso Silent Film Festival will be happening on July 14-17 at the Castro Theater. It's an event I look forward to every year. I hope to have a few more posts on a couple of the films this weekend. I'm anxious to talk about the premiere of Douglas Fairbanks' Mr. Fix-It as well as the Marlene Dietrich silent Women Men Yearn For.

That's it for this week!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival - A Look Forward to Day 4

2011-06-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

Day 4 and the closing day of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will begin with a presentation by my hero, Kevin Brownlow. Amazing Tales From the Archives II, he'll present a program on 50 years of film preservation. Kevin is a wonderful speaker and I am anxious to not only hear but to see his program.

***

Shoes

Accompanied By: Dennis James

(USA, 1916, 60 mins, 35mm)

Directed By: Lois Weber
Cast: Mary MacLaren, Harry Griffith

Without question, Lois Weber was the most important woman director of the silent era. She began her career in 1908 when a “long” film lasted 20 minutes, and directed her last feature a quarter century later in 1934, well into the sound era. During that span she directed (and often acted in) more than 140 films, many of which were critical as well as popular successes. Weber saw film not only as entertainment, but also as a means for exploring the important social issues of the time. Abortion, birth control, capital punishment, religious hypocrisy, the living wage, child labor, prostitution, and white slavery were all topics Weber addressed in her films.

It would be a mistake to dismiss Lois Weber as a woman on a soapbox, though. Her films were well scripted, well acted, and highly popular. In 1916 she was the highest paid director at Universal and her films were among the most successful produced by the studio. Weber is less well known today due in large part to the fact that only a handful of her films still survive and even fewer are available for viewing. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of EYE Film Insituut Nederland, a “new” and important title from Weber’s canon is reemerging from the darkness

SHOES was released to the American public in June 1916 during the height of the social reform movement. Weber directed and released an astonishing 19 films that year, many of which were highly controversial and often subjected to cries for censorship. The only known surviving copy of SHOES was a heavily deteriorated nitrate print residing in the collection of EYE Film. In 2008 the institute undertook a three-year project to restore the feature and return it to the screen. The print film was digitally scanned combined with fragments from another source, and then digitally corrected to the extent possible. English titles were recreated based on translation from the Dutch titles and the original color tinting was recreated by matching the source material. The final result of this preservation effort is a new film negative that serves as a preservation element for the film, and of course a brand new 35mm allowing SHOES to be shared with the world.

Print courtesy of EYE Film Instituut Nederland

***

Wild and Weird: Short Film Favorites with New Music

Accompanied By: Alloy Orchestra

(77 mins, digital)

This collection of shorts from the silent era demonstrates the wonder of early special effects, still dazzling after 100 years!

Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend d. Edwin S. Porter
Edwin S. Porter’s adaptation of a well-loved Winsor McCay character follows the “fiend” on his hallucinatory travels after rarebit gorge. (1906, USA, 9 min.)

Red Spectre d. Ferdinand Zecca
A demonic magician living in a mysterious cavern conjures up and toys with young women, until he is opposed by a good spirit. (1907, France, 9 min.)

The Acrobatic Fly d. Percy Smith
F. Percy Smith’s demonstration of a talented housefly, a.k.a. The Balancing Bluebottle. (1910, USA, 3 min.)

The Thieving Hand d. Edwin S. Porter
A one-armed man gets an artificial limb at the Limb Store, but the new arm has a mind of its own. (1908, USA, 6 min.)

Princess Nicotine d. Paul Panzer
This reverie, also known as The Smoke Fairy, has mischievous fairies besting a sleeping smoker. (1909, USA, 5 min.)

Arthème Swallows his Clarinet d. Ernest Servaès
This surrealistic short has music-lover Arthème continuing to play his clarinet even after an accident involving a falling piano causes him to swallow it! (1912, France, 4 min.)

Cameraman’s Revenge d. Wladyslaw Starewicz
A story of jealousy and revenge starring beetles! Starewicz’s genius at stop-motion animation has never been surpassed. (1912, Russia, 13 min.)

Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend: The Pet d. Winsor McKay
After eating rarebit, a man dreams that his wife’s insatiable pet keeps growing and growing until it threatens the entire city! (1921, USA, 10 min.)

Filmstudie d. Hans Richter
A Dadaist wonder! (1926, Germany, 5 min.)

Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra d. Robert Florey
This brilliant and deeply funny short tells the story of what happens to one man’s dreams of stardom in the Dream Factory. (1928, USA, 13 min.)

Digital print courtesy of David Shepard

***

The Nail in the Boot

Accompanied By: Stephen Horne

(USSR, 1931, 54 mins, 35mm)

Directed By: Mikhail Kalatozov

Cast: Alexandre Shaliashvili, Siko Palavandishvili

THE NAIL IN THE BOOT was to be the last film made in Georgia by the future author of THE CRANES ARE FLYING and SOY CUBA (I AM CUBA): it was to be eight years before he was able to direct another film. Made for the “Samkhedrofilmi” (Military Film) studio, it was intended as a so-called defensive-military and agitation-propaganda (agitprop) film, with the message that slipshod workers are saboteurs causing damage to national defence, and with the aim of ideologically educating the audience to oppose future enemies. The film had an alternative title, THE HOMELAND IS IN DANGER.

As its main title indicates, the plot is inspired by the universal folk anecdote “All for the sake of a horseshoe nail”. The first part of the film takes place on a battlefield. A soldier is dispatched to notify divisional headquarters that the armored train is faced with destruction and urgently needs aid. On the way, his foot is injured by a nail sticking out of the sole of his boot, and he fails to reach headquarters in time. The train is lost. The second part of the film is a courtroom enquiry into the action of the protagonist, at which different aspects of the story emerge.

The least of the criticisms leveled against Kalatozov was that this plot was confusing for the audience. The main attack was more fundamental and crushing. Kalatozov was accused of being carried away by formalistic pursuits and of destroying the logical narrative by ideological and other errors. Formalism was now a permanent stigma upon him. V. Katinov, in Proletarskoe Kino (1932, issue 5), charged: “When making THE NAIL Kalatozov did not apply the revolutionary method of dialectical materialism to his theme, but proceeded from formalistic aestheticism.”

Today, almost 80 years later, we may feel that the Communist Party was to some extent justified in complaining that Kalatozov had not met the required ideological criteria. His first concern is seeking the visual concept of the film, and only then what the State requires from him as a Soviet artist. THE NAIL IN THE BOOT, rather than calling for mobilization and battle with the conventional enemy, inspires sympathy with a loyal man who risks being subjected to oppression. The sentiments are expressed by subtle cinematic means and brilliant use of the potential of the materials available to Kalatozov in the early days of his creative life. If he failed the Communist Party’s exam, he triumphs in the higher exam of time and history. —Excerpted from a piece by Nino Dzandzava in the Giornate del Cinema Muto catalog

Print courtesy of Gosfilmofond

***

He Who Gets Slapped

Accompanied By: Matti Bye Ensemble
(USA, 1924, 95 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Victor Sjöström
Cast: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Ruth King

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED is a Hollywood film of a Russian play, made by a Swedish director—the great Victor Sjöström, star of Bergman’s WILD STRAWBERRIES (1958). It is also the first film made by the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. These are all good historical reasons for studying it, and for expecting something special.

Sjöström is here paired with Lon Chaney, the silent era’s greatest character star, and a master of the grotesque. The director reins in Chaney’s excesses and coaxes from him an eloquent, restrained, yet hugely powerful performance. Chaney plays Paul Beaumont, an aspiring scientist who loses everything in one horrific day—his theories are stolen, he is disgraced before his peers, and his wife scorns him in favor of the man who robbed him. Each horror culminates in a slap to the face. Beaumont cracks, begins to laugh, and the next time we see him he’s employed as a circus clown and known only as HE. And then the film’s true story begins.

Chaney is in love again, with a beautiful equestrienne (a young Norma Shearer). But she’s in love with a handsome young circus star (John Gilbert), but her sleazy father is about to promise her hand to… but I won’t give it away. Over the course of the narrative, HE will face his original trauma once more, for real, and overcome it, after a fashion.

Chaney’s character, HE, obsessively revisits his own trauma, re-enacting the slap that ended his first life, again and again, for the delectation of the circus audience. As an exploration of emotional masochism, HE WHO GETS SLAPPED is an extraordinary work, far removed from the romantic glitz MGM would make its stock-in-trade.

Beyond the film’s bizarrely powerful narrative and tantalizing psychological undertones, there’s the technique. Sjöström was master of the match-dissolve, where one image bleeds into another, creating an expressive juxtaposition. This film is unique in MGM’s output, unique in its director’s work, unique in film history. It’s the film that tells us what life is (with a single image!), the film that matches the laugh of the clown to the snarl of a lion, and the film that creates a great love story from a tale as artificial as the whiteface makeup of a clown. —Excerpted from David Cairns’s Senses of Cinema

Print courtesy of George Eastman House

Individual tickets and festival passes may be purchased online at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website.

See you there!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival - A Look Forward to Day 3

2011-06-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Laugh-O-Grams from Disney

Accompanied By: Donald Sosin

(USA, 60 mins)

Presented in coordination with the Walt Disney Family Museum

Disney author and historian JB Kaufman will introduce a wonderful selection of Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams from 1921–23, which have been recently preserved by The Museum of Modern Art.

In 1915, Disney founded the Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, inviting some of animation’s future greats, including Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng, and Rudolph Ising, to create fairy tale cartoons. This program features six of these tales: Little Red Riding Hood (aka Grandma Steps Out), Jack the Giant Killer (aka The KO Kid), Puss in Boots (aka The Cat’s Whiskers), Goldie Locks and the Three Bears (aka The Peroxide Kid), The Four Musicians of Bremen, and Newman Laugh-O-Grams. Goldie Locks and Jack the Giant Killer were thought lost for many years, until animation historian Cole Johnson found the titles in MoMA’s collection, misidentified under alternate titles.

***

Variations on a Theme: Musicians on the Craft of Composing and Performing for Silent Film
(70 mins)

The Festival Musicians discuss and debate their craft in this lively panel, moderated by Jill Tracy.

Program includes members of Matti Bye Ensemble, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Alloy Orchestra, and Dennis James, Giovanni Spinelli, Stephen Horne, and Donald Sosin

***

The Blizzard

Gunnar Hedes Saga

Accompanied By: Matti Bye Ensemble

(Sweden, 1923, 73 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Mauritz Stiller
Cast: Einar Hanson, Mary Johnson, Pauline Brunius, Hugo Björne, Stina Berg

Mauritz Stiller’s free adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Selma Lagerlöf’s romantic melodrama has been described as ‘second-tier’ among the silent films, which make up the ‘Golden Age’ of Swedish cinema (1917–1924), partly because of its incomplete status, with some 680 meters missing from the original. Whilst the lost pictures cannot be retrieved, the Swedish Film Institute has effected a restoration of the film, authentically color-tinted, with all its intertitles reassembled, even for scenes, which no longer exist. The result is a perfectly coherent narrative, with what Jon Wengström of the SFI calls the ‘juicy stuff’ (such as a spectacular reindeer sequence) still intact, revealing what might be the most intensely beautiful, intriguing and ambitious of Stiller’s ‘saga’ films, impeccably composed and designed, and blessed with Julius Jaenzon’s stunning photography, which includes hallucinatory special effects on a par with Victor Sjöström’s THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE. The story tells of a dreamy young man (the exceptionally handsome Einar Hanson) who, groomed to take over the family business, rejects his duty, is injured and becomes deluded, and is nursed back to health and sanity by love and music. Without doubt, a ‘first-tier’ film. —Clyde Jeavons, BFI London Film Festival

Print courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute

***

The Goose Woman

Accompanied By: Stephen Horne

(USA, 1925, 80 mins, 35mm)

Directed By: Clarence Brown
Cast: Louise Dresser, Jack Pickford, Constance Bennett, Marc McDermott

Based on the short story by Rex Beach, the plot of THE GOOSE WOMAN would have resonated with audiences of the mid-1920s by dramatizing a key component of the notorious 1922 Hall-Mills murder case—namely, a witness nicknamed “the Pig Woman” who gave unreliable testimony during the investigation in an attempt to solicit media attention.

Directed by Clarence Brown, the movie depicts the tale of Mary Holmes, a former prima donna who tragically lost her singing voice while giving birth to an illegitimate son, Gerald. Unable to move beyond this moment of great misfortune, she has descended into a life of crushing poverty and alcoholism, and bitterly blames her only child for the loss of her true love: celebrity. When a murder is committed next door to her derelict ranch, Mary hatches a plan to generate publicity for herself in the local press, unintentionally snaring Gerald as the prime suspect in the case. Fatefully, she is confronted with a decision that will determine her son’s destiny—and ultimately, her own.

Brown’s signature use of symbolism is clearly evident throughout the film (most notably in an early scene where Gerald accidentally breaks his mother’s only recording of her famed singing voice) and displays a deft hand guiding the moments of comedy that periodically relieve the story’s dramatic tension. Jack Pickford plays the role of Gerald with a reserved and nuanced performance, while Constance Bennett is impressive as Gerald’s fiancée Hazel, displaying some early signs of the innate screen charisma that would make her a star in the 1930s. But it is Louise Dresser who commands the picture with her portrayal of Mary and her astonishing transformation from disheveled harridan into a woman redeemed by the power of love.

Ultimately, critics and audiences alike favorably received the film, and Brown would again team with Dresser in his next film (the Rudolph Valentino hit THE EAGLE) before achieving greater fame at MGM directing the likes of Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. THE GOOSE WOMAN would be remade in 1933 as THE PAST OF MARY HOLMES featuring Helen McKellar and Jean Arthur. —Steven K. Hill, UCLA Film and Television Archive

Print courtesy of UCLA Film And Television Archive

***

Mr. Fix-It

Accompanied By: Dennis James

(USA, 1918, 65 mins, 35mm)

PREMIERE of this restoration!
Directed By: Allan Dwan
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Wanda Hawley, Marjorie Daw, Frank Campeau, Leslie Stuart

This sparkling 1918 romantic comedy from director Allan Dwan catches Douglas Fairbanks on the cusp of superstardom. Fairbanks stars as Remington, aka Mr. Fix-It, a happy-go-lucky American at Oxford whose school chum, Reginald Burroughs (Leslie Stuart), has been called back to the States by his starchy, upper-crust aunts (Ida Waterman, Alice Smith, Mrs. H.R. Hanckock) and uncle (Frank Campeau) whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Reginald knows his snobbish family will never approve of his English fiancée (Marjorie Daw), so Remington offers to go in his place, impersonating Reginald long enough to (hopefully) change everyone's minds. “Reginald” arrives in America to find his aunts have arranged for his marriage to an unhappy debutante (Margaret Landis), but he soon finds a true love of his own when meets Mary (Wanda Hawley), a poor orphan who has been left to care for her much younger brothers and sisters. As the irrepressible MR. FIX-IT sets about playing matchmaker while untangling numerous romantic complications, what begins as a genteel comedy-of-manners culminates in a fast-paced chase across tenement rooftops and down through the city streets, showcasing just the kind of physical derring-do that would soon make Fairbanks the biggest male movie star in the world.

George Eastman House’s preservation of MR. FIX-IT began in the early 2000s using the only known copy of the film in existence: a fully tinted nitrate print that had arrived at Eastman House as part of the Roberto Palme Collection. From this rare element a duplicate negative and color positive print of the film were made, but like many U.S. silent films exported for international distribution, the original English language intertitles had been replaced with a foreign language translation. Thanks to generous funding provided by William and Nancy Goessel, the Goessel Family Foundation and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, all 160 titles have now been painstakingly restored to English and printed using the original typeface and design. After remaining virtually unseen for decades, MR. FIX-IT is once again ready for the big screen. —Ken Fox, George Eastman House

Print courtesy of George Eastman House

***

The Woman Men Yearn For

Accompanied By: Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
(Germany, 1929, 85 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Kurt Bernhardt
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Kortner, Frida Richard, Oskar Sima

Several years before Joseph Von Sternberg swathed her in leathers and feathers for his dances of passion and power in SHANGHAI EXPRESS and THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN, and mere months before donning the silk panties and top hat of THE BLUE ANGEL, Dietrich [in THE WOMAN MEN YEARN FOR] gave a performance that looks completely recognizable in terms of her later films. Without question, her charisma is in full flower, suggesting that she brought rather more to Sternberg than is usually acknowledged. Dietrich works her trademark stillness, economy and intensity, with all the centrality of a star, and from her striking entrance, she is photographed like a star, yet Bernhardt’s silent film was forgotten in the rush to talkies and the excitement of THE BLUE ANGEL, and Marlene herself was content to forget it.

A rhapsodic whirl of infatuation, the triangle plot ostensibly takes place in France, but it conveys a dreamlike feeling of its characters drifting together by chance. As Henry Leblanc, a young industrialist pressured into a strategic marriage with the daughter of a wealthy tycoon, the only way to stave off bankruptcy of his family's steel business, the tall, lanky Uno Henning combines strength with an appealing vulnerability. This Swedish actor has an air of boyishness, underscored by an early scene depicting him as a mama's boy, implying that in some sense he is not completed as a man, as virginal as his bride, the better to show him being blindsided by eros.

Boarding the train that will take the couple on their honeymoon to the Riviera, Henry suddenly sees a window shade lifted, revealing Dietrich gazing at him with a look that changes both their lives. Like twin searchlights crossing in the night sky, they lock eyes, unable to break their charged look, and unable to move or speak. This is not a seduction, yet the love-with-a-stranger tension between them seems as intimate as the sex act itself. It also provides the key to convince us that he would renounce all his obligations, deserting his bride on their very wedding night. Finally her male companion enters the frame, breaking the spell as he pulls down the shade. Who is she? Who is the man who accompanies her? What is this couple’s dynamic? As her suspicious companion Karoff, the monocled Fritz Kortner acts both possessive and possessed... —Excerpted from a piece by Robert Keser in Bright Lights Film Journal

Print courtesy of Murnau-Stiftung

Individual tickets and festival passes may be purchased online at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website.

Artistry of the Credit Roll #5 - Auntie Mame

2011-06-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

Auntie Mame

1958

(Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.)

And the Oscar goes to......

2011-06-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

Clifton Webb's Membership Card 1966

The Margaret Herrick Library is a mecca for all kinds of film reasearch and film studies. One of the fun things recently added to the Academy website is a database of acceptance speeches for Academy Award winners. My goodness how things have changed! Back in the day, acceptance speeches were fairly brief and to the point. Unlike todays litany of names being thanked from parents to babysitters as well as the caterer who served at your last party. (Okay, call me jaded)

Not all years and all winners are represented. I'm devastated that George Sanders did not give an acceptance speech for his award for his work in All About Eve as the delicious Addison deWitt.

In any case, this is one of many fun features on the Academy website. A complete searchable database of past winners and nominees is useful and online.

The Academy also has a youtube channel showing acceptance speeches and other favorite moments like the infamous streaker.

Here are a few samples from the database of acceptance speeches:

Year: 1947 (20th) Academy Awards

Category: Actor in a Supporting Role

Film Title: Miracle on 34th Street

Winner: Edmund Gwenn

Presenter: Anne Baxter

Date & Venue: March 20, 1948; Shrine Civic Auditorium

EDMUND GWENN:

Whoow! Now I know there's a Santa Claus. Oh, you may laugh, ladies and gentlemen. It's not so easy to be certain, you know. He's a most elusive little fellow. He turns up in all sorts of places under all sorts of names and disguises. First time I ever met him he told me his name was George Seaton. And wonderfully, George Seaton has his revenge by bringing him to life. About a year and a half ago he suddenly turned up in Culver City and told me his name was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. That was the day Metro agreed to loan me to Fox to make the picture. And now I think it's time Santa Claus added a word to his name. I think he ought to call himself Santa Claus, Incorporated. Santa Claus, Inc. Inc.! For then he would embrace all you wonderful, kind people who have done me the honor of making me stand here tonight. Thank you, all of you, for making the evening of my life such a happy one. Thank you.

Year: 1947 (20th) Academy Awards

Category: Actor
Film Title: A Double Life
Winner: Ronald Colman
Presenter: Olivia de Havilland
Date & Venue: March 20, 1948; Shrine Civic Auditorium

RONALD COLMAN:

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy and very proud and very lucky. Lucky because I know I wouldn't be standing on this stage tonight without the grand contributions of so many others. A great script and a great part from Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. The wonderful help of George Cukor, Michael Kanin and Bill Goetz. And I'm not forgetting a splendid cast and all the departments that gave their skill and talents to making this picture. So, to all of them especially, my deepest gratitude. And to you, ladies and gentlemen, my warmest thanks.

© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

***

Year: 1942 (15th) Academy Awards

Category: Directing
Film Title: Mrs. Miniver
Winner: William Wyler (not present; accepted by his wife, Margaret Tallichet Wyler)
Presenter: Frank Capra
Date & Venue: March 4, 1943; Ambassador Hotel, Cocoanut Grove (banquet)

MARGARET TALLICHET WYLER:

Thanks so much, everybody. It makes me very happy to accept the award for Willy. I wish he could be here. He's wanted an Oscar for a long time and I know it would thrill him an awful lot to be here. Probably as much as that fight over [unintelligible] did. Thank you so much.

© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

San Francisco Silent Film Festival - A Look Forward to Day 2

2011-06-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

The second day of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival begins with Amazing Tales From the Archives I. UCLA will be in the house to talk about restorations, fragments and show clips of projects in progress. A free program, I always look forward to getting hints at what might be in the pipeline and seeing the little bits that are all that is left of films I'd dearly love to see.

Huckleberry Finn

Accompanied By: Donald Sosin
(USA, 1920, 85 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: William Desmond Taylor
Cast: Lewis Sargent, George Reed, Gordon Griffith, Edythe Chapman, Thelma Salter

Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is one of the most famous American novels of the 19th century. First published in 1884, the book has never been out of print. The character of Huck Finn has appeared in over 40 films starting with the 1917 version of TOM SAWYER, and was most notably played by Mickey Rooney and Eddie Hodges in THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1939 and 1960 respectively). But the first film version of HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920), after its initial released, passed into film history and with the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920s would be forgotten and almost lost forever.

William Desmond Taylor (1872–1922) who was under contract to Famous Players-Lasky (which would later take the name of its distribution company of Paramount Pictures) had directed TOM SAWYER (1917) starring Jack Pickford and THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1918). So Taylor was the logical choice to direct HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Lewis Sargent as Huck started his film career only a few years before with Fox Films, in ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP. An actor with a lot of presence and charm, Sargent was a perfect Huck Finn. Wanting to be as faithful to the novel as possible, Taylor went on location to Mississippi to shoot the film. Upon its release in February of 1920, HUCKLEBERRY FINN was both a critical and commercial hit.

Less than two years after finishing HUCKLEBERRY FINN, William Desmond Taylor was dead. His body was discovered lying on the floor of his living room by his butler on the morning of February 2, 1922 with a bullet wound in the back. A major investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department followed, but to this day the murder remains unsolved. Like most people who worked in silent film, his body of work is fragmentary at best. Taylor directed 64 films in the nine years he was working in Hollywood. As of this writing only 18 are known to exist.

Print courtesy of George Eastman House

***

I Was Born, But...

Accompanied By: Stephen Horne
(Japan, 1932, 90 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Tatsuo Saito, Tomio Aoki, Mitsuko Yoshikawa

There are a handful of silent, black-and-white old movies that have the power to make all the subsequent advances in the medium look redundant. When you watch, say, Charlie Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS or THE GENERAL by Buster Keaton, you are aware of such complete mastery of the emotional and narrative possibilities of cinema that color and sound seem like so much distraction and filigree. Everything you could possibly want is here, and indeed the addition of anything else would only subtract from the perfection of the art.

I WAS BORN, BUT...” a silent feature from 1932 directed by Yasujirô Ozu, is such a movie. Ozu, who died in 1963, is best known to American cinephiles for his post-World War II dramas like TOKYO STORY and EARLY SPRING, delicate and rigorous stories of family life and generational tension in a changing Japan. The exquisite precision of Ozu’s shooting style is certainly evident in I WAS BORN, BUT... The mood, however, is comic, at times boisterously so, and the setting is a world where relations—among classes, between parents and children—seem fixed rather than fluid.

Which is not to say that there is no conflict. There is both overt and implicit violence, only some of it cushioned by the giddy energy of slapstick. And beneath the “Our Gang” schoolboy antics that make up much of the action is a clear-eyed and humane critique of inequality and authority.

The children—in particular Aoki, who was a big star in Japan at the time thanks to his appearance in Ozu’s STRAIGHTFORWARD BOY are equally adept at using broad pantomime to unlock the complexities of group relations and individual psychology. Everything in this film is utterly believable, so much so that at times it seems almost anecdotal, a sweet little anthology of kids doing the darnedest things.

That it is more—a small masterpiece, perfect in design and execution—almost goes without saying, but the film’s profundity and its charm go hand in hand. —Excerpted from the New York Times article by A.O.Scott

Print courtesy of Janus Films

***

The Great White Silence

Accompanied By: Matti Bye Ensemble
(UK, 1924, 106 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Herbert Ponting

A hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was official photographer and cinematographer Herbert Ponting, and the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since. Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife—including the characterful Adélie penguins. Those things he was unable to film he boldly recreated back home. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole—from the trials of the caterpillar-track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment—giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition. Ponting used his footage in various forms over the years and in 1924 he re-edited it into this remarkable feature, complete with vivid tinting and toning. The BFI National Archive—custodian of the expedition negatives—has restored the film using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced the film's sophisticated use of color. The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life and shows the world of the expedition in brilliant detail. A happy scene of Scott and his team in a tent demonstrating how they would cook and sleep on their race to the Pole—the same tent that would be their tomb—is particularly poignant. —Bryony Dixon and Robin Baker, BFI National Archive

Print courtesy of the British Film Institute

***

Il Fuoco

Accompanied By: Stephen Horne
(Italy, 1915, 51 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: Giovanni Pastrone
Cast: Pina Menichelli, Febo Mario

Pina Menichelli’s diva in Giovanni Pastrone’s IL FUOCO is pure, unadulterated femme fatale. Like most dive of the Italian cinema of this era, she moves sinuously and elegantly, giving herself more to the camera than to the man she seduces. But unlike many of the other dive, in this role she is untouched by fatal disease, uncanny apparitions, or even by a blemished reputation. For once, the woman is as much an artist as the man. When writing a poem inspired by the sunset, she spies a young painter (Febo Mari) who seems to come close to capturing (with her help) the right tinge of red, and proceeds to initiate her seduction. She is a practiced predator. Her owl headgear, clenched teeth, and parted lips reveal an animalistic instinct to hunt but not to devour her prey. Rather, her pleasure is to pounce on her little field mouse of a painter, toy with him, and then toss him away. After she orchestrates his creation of a masterpiece with her as its subject—a daring and kitsch nude portrait modeled on Cabanel’s “The Birth of Venus”—she will have no further use for him.

Bypassing the familiar spectacle of female suffering, but not, as might be expected, by turning to any consequent pathos for the male, IL FUOCO offers the pleasurable spectacle of a diva whose only love is herself. Menichelli’s poet takes pleasure in her own taking of pleasure. Pleasing herself despite a pronounced disdain for her pleasure’s ostensible object, she performs a very pure kind of narcissism. All her seductive movements are activated by a counterforce that simultaneously pushes away what she must nevertheless attract–if only in order to be able to throw it away and exalt in herself alone. Italian silent dive are known for their convoluted, tortuous gestures, but to watch Menichelli quickly seduce her young field mouse and then just as quickly get rid of him is to truly understand the counterforces of attraction and repulsion. In a wonderful final touch of realism, the artist notices a mole on her breast and adds it to the painting. Displeased, Menichelli’s poet rubs it out, once again “correcting” his art, perhaps because it mars the ideal beauty of her nude but perhaps also because it would make her recognizable to the public. She seeks both recognition and anonymity. In the end, the only possible tinge of regret this diva will show will be yet another gesture of narcissism: to touch this mole on her breast in memory of a passion consumed by fire. —Linda Williams, Giornate del Cinema Muto

Print courtesy of Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino

Individual tickets and festival passes may be purchased online at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival - Upstream and Sunrise

2011-06-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

Opening Night for the 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival promises to be a wonderful evening.

The evening begins with the San Francisco Premiere of the recently re-patriated John Ford silent Upstream.

Upstream

Accompanied By: Sosin Ensemble

(U.S.A., 1927, 61 mins)

Directed By: John Ford

Cast: Nancy Nash, Earle Foxe, Grant Withers, Lydia Yeamans Titus, Raymond Hitchcock

Screening with the short WHY HUSBANDS FLIRT - new preservation premiere

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens on July 14 at the Castro Theatre with this spectacular restoration of a film directed by John Ford that was long believed lost.

UPSTREAM (1927) is one of 75 American films recently discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive. These “lost” films will be preserved over the next several years at five major American archives, including the Academy’s, in collaboration with the National Film Preservation Foundation. UPSTREAM is the first of the features to be preserved and screened for the public. The preservation work was carried out by Park Road Post Production in Wellington, New Zealand, under the direction of Twentieth Century Fox and the Academy Film Archive.

UPSTREAM focuses on a love triangle involving an egotistical actor (Earle Foxe) and a young couple (Nancy Nash, Grant Withers) who partner in a vaudeville knife-throwing act. The film is from an interesting chapter in the career of Ford, as he admitted that during this time he was strongly influenced by the work of German director F.W. Murnau, who had immigrated to the United States to make films for the Fox studios, enabling Ford to study his working methods first hand.

The Donald Sosin Ensemble (pianist/composer Sosin with featured players from the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra) will accompany UPSTREAM as well as another discovery from the New Zealand Archive—a short comedy by Al Christie with Dorothy Dane and Bobby Vernon, WHY HUSBANDS FLIRT(1918). The film has recently been restored thanks to Frank Buxton.

Print courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

WHY HUSBANDS FLIRT preservation funded by Frank Buxton and Cynthia Sears

Print courtesy of George Eastman House

Following Upstream will be the beloved classic, Sunrise directed by F.W. Murnau. Sunrise is arguably one of the greatest silent films ever made. It is a film held in high esteem by many historians, archivists and film fans (myself included).

Sunrise

Accompanied By: Giovanni Spinelli

(U.S.A., 1927, 94 mins, 35mm)
Directed By: F.W. Murnau
Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
Accompanied by Giovanni Spinelli on electric guitar

Presentation in association with Paolo Cherchi Usai

Silent cinema is the art form that died too young: "Not ripe for replacement," aesthetician Rudolph Arnheim wrote in 1930, three years after THE JAZZ SINGER broke the sound barrier, silent film “had not lost its fruitfulness, but only its profitability.” Indeed, many of the most innovative silent movies were produced in the mode's last days: Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, Sjöström’s THE WIND, Vertov’s THE MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, Dovzhenko’s EARTH, and Murnau’s SUNRISE.

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (1888-1931), a protégé of the great German theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt, was a formidable technician and arguably the supreme cine-aesthete of the 1920s: painter of light, choreographer of camera movement, and maestro of mise-en-scène. Murnau’s 1924 visual tour de force, known in the U.S. as THE LAST LAUGH, was one of the first (and few) silent features made without the benefit of intertitles. Following this international success and Murnau’s ambitious 1926 FAUST, movie mogul William Fox brought the “German genius” to Hollywood and gave him the key to the studio.

SUNRISE was shot silent, with very few titles, and released in late 1927, with a synchronized musical soundtrack. The early reviews were sensational; the grosses were not. Thirty years later, the ultimate cinephile magazine Cahiers du Cinéma declared Murnau’s first American movie “the single greatest masterwork in the history of cinema.” It's an assertion as reckless, romantic, and extravagant as the movie itself. —J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

Print courtesy of Criterion Pictures USA

Individual tickets and festival passes may be purchased online at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website.

On the Bedside Table - Colleen Moore

2011-06-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, not on the bedside table just yet. Publication is Spring 2012.

Jeff Codori of The Colleen Moore Project has finished his biography of flapper star Colleen Moore. Jeff chronicled the long process of writing and publishing this book and I'm thrilled for him to have just about reached the finish line. I've been patiently watching his site and waiting for the completed book.

The book will be published by McFarland and you can pre-order it here.

From McFarland's wesbite:

Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was one of the most popular and beloved stars of the American silent screen. Remembered primarily as a comedienne in such films as Ella Cinders (1926) and Orchids and Ermine (1927), Moore’s career was also filled with dramatic roles which often reflected greater societal trends. A trailblazing performer, her legacy was overshadowed by the female stars that followed her, notably Louise Brooks and Clara Bow.

An in-depth examination of Moore’s early life and film career, the book focuses on the ways in which her family and the times in which she lived influenced the roles she chose. Included are forewords written by film historian Joseph Yranski, a friend of the actress, and by Moore’s stepdaughter, Judith Hargrave Coleman.

About the Author

Jeff Codori is the creator of the Colleen Moore Project, a website devoted to strengthening the actress’s place in cinematic history, and to finding new sources of information about her.

Rudolph Valentino Son of the Sheik Screening in San Francisco

2011-06-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Save the Date: July 10, 2011 at 2:00pm
The Place: San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium (100 Larkin Street, San Francisco)

In conjunction with the Reading the Stars exhibit in the library (4th and 6th floors), the SFPL will screen Valentino's 1926 film The Son of the Sheik. The full line up of Shhhhhh Silents exhibits can be found here.

The Son of the Sheik was Rudolph Valentino's final film and a delightful film it is. Valentino is cast in a dual role of Ahmed the son and Ahmed Ben Hassan the elder sheik (originally portrayed by Valentino in the 1921 film, The Sheik). Young Ahmed falls in love with a dancing girl Yasmin (Vilma Banky) and believes he has been betrayed by her once he has been captured and torutured by a band of thieves. Young Ahmed takes his revenge and it takes a few rousing fights and miscommunications to set things straight before there is a happy ending. Agnes Ayres makes an appearence reprising her role from The Sheik as Lady Diana. Montague Love co-stars as the baddie Ghabah the Moor and Karl Dane as Ahmed's loyal friend Ramadan. Directed by George Fitzmaurice and E.M. Hull's novel The Sons of the Sheik was adapted by Hans Kraly and Francis Marion. This Arabian fantasy has plenty of action, romance and humor packed into roughly 60 minutes.

I will introduce the film and also present a slideshow utilizing images that did not make the cut in my book Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol. With the abundance of riches at my fingertips, space prevented some, some were images I wished I'd been able to find and others came into my hands after publication. It's an enjoyable glimpse into Valentino's world. I will also have copies of the book on hand for purchase and autographing.

Thomas Gladysz of the Louise Brooks Society and editor of the Louise Brooks edition of Margaret Boehme's 1905 novel Diary of a Lost Girl will also be on hand to sign copies of his book. Thomas has also curated the Reading the Stars exhibition.

The Son of the Sheik is one of Valentino's most engaging films and hope to see you there!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2011 - Be There or Be Square

2011-05-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

He Who Gets Slapped will close the 2011 Festival

The schedule for the 2011 San Francisco Silent Film Festival:

Opening Night, Thursday, July 14

7:00 pm Upstream

9:15 pm Sunrise

Friday, July 15
11:00 am Amazing Tales from the Archives I
2:00 pm Huckleberry Finn
4:15 pm I Was Born, But…
7:00 pm The Great White Silence
9:30 pm Il Fuoco

Saturday, July 16
10:00 am Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams featuring J.B. Kaufaman
12:00 noon Variations on a Theme with silent film musicians and composers
2:00 pm The Blizzard
4:00 pm The Goose Woman
6:30 pm Mr. Fix-It
8:30 pm The Woman Men Yearn For

Sunday, July 17
10:00 am Amazing Tales from the Archives II featuring Kevin Browlow on fifty years of Film Preservation.
12 noon Shoes
2:00 pm Wild and Weird featuring David Sheppard
4:30 pm The Nail in the Boot
7:30 pm He Who Gets Slapped

I'm very excited about the lineup this year and will be posting on the scheduled films and activities over the next couple of days.

Festival passes or single tickets may be purchased online from the SF Silent Film Festival Website.

Reading the Stars - Exhibit at The San Francisco Public Library

2011-05-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

Thomas Gladsyz of the Louise Brooks Society has curated several literary exhibitions in the SFPL. I'm proud to have donated some Valentino material for the upcoming exhibition.

Here is Thomas' announcement:

At least one vintage book featuring Louise Brooks will be featured in "Reading the Stars," an exhibit of books, magazines and other vintage reading material published during silent film era which will be on display at the San Francisco Public Library. All of the material - published during the Teens, Twenties, and early Thirties - pertain to the movies.

"Reading the Stars" is part of a small constellation of exhibits and programs titled "Shhhhhhh! Silents in the Library." The exhibits run June 25 through August 28 in the Main branch of the SFPL, on the Fourth Floor and Sixth Floor History Center Exhibit Space.

If you plan on coming to town to attend to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, don't miss this chance to take a look at these library exhibits. I curated "Reading the Stars," and it is the fourth exhibit in about 12 years which I have helped put on. Additional details to follow. More info at http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1006779101

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Preview - The Great White Silence

2011-05-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

The official announcement of the complete schedule for the 2011 San Francisco Silent Film Festival is imminent. Mark your calendars for July 14th-17th at the Castro Theater.

One of the films that has been announced is The Great White Silence. The performance at the SFSFF will be accompanied by the fabulous Mattie Bye Ensemble.

The film has been restored and re-scored by the British Film Institute. The BFI has posted a fabulous 13 minute video piece on the scoring and the film. I'm really anxious to see this on the big screen.

The official blurb from the SFSFF website:

The Great White Silence (1924)

A hundred years ago, cinematographer Herbert Ponting joined Captain Robert F. Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic as official photographer. Ponting not only captured the magnificent vistas and charming wildlife, but documented camp life and scientific work as well. In 1924, he edited the footage into this extraordinary feature complete with vivid toning and tinting. The British Film Institute has recently restored the film using modern techniques to recreate the dazzling color and brilliant detail of the original.

You can buy your fesitval pass online here.

With any luck I will have more on the upcoming festival posted this weekend. With even more luck, once the festival is finished I will have photos to post that will have been taken with a vintage 1915 era brownie camera (my new fun project).

On the Bedside Table - Hollywoodland by Mary Mallory

2011-05-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am very excited about the newly published book (today!) on Hollywoodland by a good friend of mine, Mary Mallory. I've got mine on order and can't wait to get it on the bedside table to read. Hollywoodland chronicles the story of how the Hollywood(land) sign came to be and the neighborhood that was built around the now iconic image that represents Hollywood.

Mary Mallory is a film historian, photograph archivist, and a member of the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Studio City Neighborhood Council. She serves on the Board of Hollywood Heritage, Inc., for which she also acts as a docent at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Hollywood Heritage, Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation of the historic built environment in Hollywood and to education about the early film industry and the role its pioneers played in shaping Hollywood's history.

Mary recently was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times regarding her new book:

My book is an Arcadia Publishing book detailing the history in photographs of the neighborhood of Beachwood Canyon originally known as Hollywoodland.

Hollywoodland extends from 2690 N. Beachwood Drive up towards Mt. Lee and the Hollywood Sign (this was originally in Hollywoodland before being donated to the Department of Parks and Recreation in 1945). The book details the early history of Beachwood Canyon, the construction of the development, amenities, histories of many of the homes and architects, a history of the Hollywood Sign, listings of famous residents, and a chapter on movies filmed up there.

It is based on Hollywood Heritage’s S. H. Woodruff Collection (one of the developers of Hollywoodland) and other Hollywood photograph collections, photos from Bison Archives, the Margaret Herrick Library, me, and others, and all profits got to Hollywood Heritage.

I made the suggestion to the HH Board, on which I serve, that we should try to do something with the Woodruff Collection, and since I made the suggestion, I got to do it. I’ve always wanted to do a book, and especially one on Hollywood history.

I learned so much about the architects, homes, and residents. It was fun, but I continue to research. I just walked most of it recently trying to get photos of the original homes, trying to identify homes with photos we have.

A Vamp Goes to the TCM Festival - Guest Blog Report

2011-05-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

My good friend Joan attended some of the TCM Festival last weekend. Here's her take on what she saw and how much fun she had. This is a cross-posting from Nitrateville (excellent message board if you do not know about it).

The Second Annual TCM Film Festival has ended and it is time for your Spokesvamp to issue an official Daughters of Naldi report on the proceedings. The City of Angels put on a big smiley-face for the festival, providing a light Santa Ana that tamed our cranky Spring weather, giving us warm weather during the day and balmy breezes to rustle the palm trees in the evening. Unhappily, these winds also adversely affect the Spokesvamp’s coiffure: she often looked like Sparky, Queen of the Electricity People.

The Festival was well-attended, mostly by out-of-towners who appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely, racing up and down Hollywood Boulevard snapping photos of themselves standing by the stars of their favorites, quaffing the best martinis in town at Musso and Frank’s, and happily chatting with fellow film buffs about the cinematic treats in store.

The TCM Film Festival is an embarrassment of riches for the classic film buff. Films run at several venues, often with talks and interviews taking place concurrently at “Club TCM.” Your Spokesvamp found herself ensconced on the horns of a dilemma more than once; she was forced to choose between seeing Bette Davis in Now, Voyager or Kay Francis in British Agent, Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap or esteemed film historian Kevin Brownlow, and Hayley Mills in Whistle Down the Wind or esteemed film historian Donald Bogle. For the record I went with Bette rather than Kay, and Hayley beat out both esteemed film historians. Never have I so resented the legal strictures against cloning.

I was on the guest list for some films, and I opted not to purchase a pass and to “fly standby” for the other films I wanted to see. Ergo, I missed out on one of my choices (Night Flight), a failure that caused me first to sulk and then to consume several pounds of fudge purchased from that disastrously placed candy shop in the Hollywood and Highland complex. A pass for next year’s festival is a must.

Golddiggers of 1933: Color me embarrassed, I’d never seen this film before. Quelle cast! Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers, and Warren William, with Busby Berkeley’s “out-there” choreography, it doesn’t get precodier than that. It sags a bit in the middle, but I’ll put up with pretty much anything from a film with Joan Blondell and Warren William in it. The print shown was not a good one; not bad enough to affect my enjoyment, but I noticed it, and it irritated me. A bunch of grapes.

Now Voyager: I’ve seen this film a zillion times and so have you, so I’ll skip the plot reprise. As far as I’m concerned, Now Voyager is perfect, so seeing it on the big screen with a theater full of equally appreciative fans was a huge treat. At Bette's Cinderella moment, when she appears for her first time after her stay at Camp Valium, wearing that chic Orry-Kelly suit and the fabulous spectator hat, the audience clapped enthusiastically; when Bette tells Paul not to ask for the moon, a collective sigh tinged with wobbly sobbing floated through the theater. Hearing the film was also an epiphany. I suddenly understood why Bette Davis complained about Max Steiner’s scores. The music is magnificent, but it is so overwhelming in the theater setting one almost hears Bette saying “Oh Jerry, let’s not ask for the moon...Jerry? JERRY?? I SAID LET’S NOT ASK FOR THE MOON!!” As we filed out of the theater, dabbing our eyes with our lace hankies, the woman in front of me said “Every time I see that movie, I want to start smoking.” A bunch of grapes, a wave of the foot-long cigarette holder, and a drive in the Isotta Fraschini for Now, Voyager.

The Merry Widow: TCM’s showing of Erich von Stroheim’s film was produced by Patrick Stanbury, introduced by Kevin Brownlow, and accompanied by Maud Nelissen and “The von Stroheim Virtuosi,” playing Nelissen’s score. The print was the best currently available, but I don’t get Mae Murray so the film itself left me cold. Did I mention this was one of the best silent film musical performances I have ever heard? Knockout. No, really. Thank you, TCM, for bringing Maud Nelissen to Los Angeles. A snuggle from the bejeweled feline for The Merry Widow. Maud Nelissen gets the keys to the Isotta Fraschini.

The Parent Trap: My filthy secret is out--yes, I am a Hayleyholic! And as I discovered at the festival’s showing of The Parent Trap, I am not alone. The Egyptian Theater was packed to the rafters and the lady herself got two Big Standing O’s from her happy fans. TCM created a beautiful montage from Hayley’s many performances over her five decade long career (I assume this will be shown on television in the future) and Leonard Maltin interviewed the star, still an attractive and soignée woman. The Parent Trap also needs no plot reprise from me. Greate Arte it ain’t and thank heavens for that: it’s charming, fun, and it entertains. Hayley is at her most mischievous, and Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara have great chemistry and give relaxed, twinkle-in-the-eye performances. The cast includes supporting stalwarts Una Merkel, Charlie Ruggles, and Leo G. Carroll (who almost steals the film as the cleric with an unseemly taste for good liquor and a malicious sense of humor). As a plus, the film boasts beautiful mid-century design in settings and costumes-- it’s sort of Mad Men only with people you like. A drive in the Isotta Fraschini, a doff of the turban, a nose-touch from the bejeweled feline, and a whole vineyard full of grapes. It’s Hayley, dammit.

The Cameraman: Buster Keaton’s late silent classic, accompanied by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks in a rollicking score that had me wanting to boogie in the aisles. This time around I focused on things other than Buster: Eddie Gribbon’s marvelous performance perfectly complementing Buster’s stoicism, the sheer thespic genius of Josephine the monkey, omg is Buster nekkid in that swimming pool?, and my favorite moment--Buster’s eyes, rising from the pool, targeting the substantial woman in the tent-like bathing suit. I never fail to hear the theme from Jaws in my head during that scene. A handshake from the uniformed Prussian and a hearty wave of the foot-long cigarette holder.

Whistle Down the Wind: Another Hayley film, yippee! Whistle Down the Wind is a 1961 British film, based on a novel written by Hayley’s mother, Mary Hayley Bell, and directed by Bryan Forbes. It was filmed on a shoestring budget on a farm in soggy Lancashire, with a cast of the cutest darned kids you’ve ever seen in one film, all talking in impenetrable accents. As Cari Beauchamp pointed out in her excellent interview with Mills after the film, it was Alan Bates’ first movie, but Hayley was already a seasoned professional. It’s not one I’ll race to see again, but it’s good, and worth your time. A nice bunch of grapes for Whistle Down the Wind.

TCM always has interesting pre- and post-film graphics; those used at the festival were wonderful, with definite mid-century feel to them, although the bouncy balls made me come over all 1968 and Jimi Hendrix-like. They were groovy. Big thanks to TCM, their schedulers and planners, and their cheerful and helpful volunteers and staffers, for a fun three days. This Daughter of Naldi is already looking forward to next year.

Rudolph Valentino Birthday Event - May 11th

2011-03-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

May 11th is the revised date. Mark your calendars!

The Board of the Hollywood Heritage has invited me to participate in an Evening at the Barn Event to celebrate Rudolph Valentino's 116th birthday.

On the docket from me will be a presentation of rare shots of The Sheik Offscreen and I expect a Q&A session. On display will be some incredible Valentino memorabilia from the collection of my good friend Tracy Terhune (http://www.valentinoforever.com/). he's got the best collection of personal, autographed and just some amazing items all related to Valentino. If you are in LA, don't miss this opportunity to see some primo stuff on display.

An abdiged version of Blood and Sand will be screened with Rudolph Valentino and the 88 American Beauties.

I'll have copies of my book Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol on hand for sale and to be autographed.

Hope to see some LA peeps there, it's going to be a fun evening!

Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Peggy Ann Garner and Elizabeth Taylor in Jane Eyre

First, there was her overwhelming beauty. A heart shaped face, delicate beauty like the most exquisite china doll. From her earliest appearances on film, as in Jane Eyre, you could not take your eyes off this gorgeous child.

Second, she was as S-T-A-R. She epitomized the glamour of old Hollywood and the swank of the swinging 1960’s. She relished it and so did we!

Third, she grew into a fine actress. Not much was required of her beyond her spectacular beauty in so many of her films. As she was nurtured by the likes of George Stevens and her dear friend Montgomery Clift for A Place in the Sun, her depth as a performer grew. Hardly perfect, she gave 100% and left some fabulous performances that will live on as classics long after my generation is long gone from this earth.

A Place in the Sun

She was a gusty woman, an earthy lady by all reports. She could swear a blue streak and delighted in it. When it was required, she could be one of the boys. She was more than the sum of her legendary career. She lived her life to the fullest; she had her demons and conquered most of them. She survived more marriages and had at least one great love in her life. She was a loving mother and grandmother. She was an intensely loyal friend. She had tremendous courage. She’s a person I wish I had the chance to know.

Her death was not unexpected; she nearly died so many times. Her life was plagued by ill health of all sorts as well as addictions, accidents and a brain tumor. She gave so much with a real and truly generous heart, it’s no wonder it gave out at last.

We’re fortunate to have so many films to remember her by, the fun, the campy, and the truly fine. This is all wonderfully delicious gravy.

For me, I keep turning back to the words courageous and loyal. As much as I love her films, it is that which I will always remember her. Elizabeth Taylor took her fame and twisted it into something to do something truly good. The creation of AmFar and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the worldwide good it has done for AIDS research and AIDS patients is a tremendous legacy to leave. She tried very hard to give where it mattered most to her. Before ill health prevented her, she traveled the globe for her cause and donated countless millions and gave of her heart and time. When she accepted her Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she said "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame." She was no saint and I am sure would raucously laugh at the hint of it. She did what she believed in. That's admirable.

RIP Liz, I think I’ll watch Cleopatra, it’s such good fun. Sleep well and thank you.

Diva Meets Diva

2011-03-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a posting on a Yahoo Group dedicated to my favorite soprano of the 1950s and 1960s Renata Tebaldi, here is a wonderful photo of Diva meeting Diva. Gloria Swanson and Renata Tebaldi and I first assumed was taken at the Old Met Opera House. Upon reflection, this looks like a costume Tebaldi sported for the Verdi's Falstaff. This will date the photo to be circa 1958 at the Chicago Lyric Opera under Carol Fox. Both Divas looks absolutely terrific.

I love how Tebaldi looks absolutely delighted to be chatting with Swanson. I am sure Swanson thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The cast for this Falstaff is truly mouth watering, along with Tebaldi as Alice, Anna Moffo as Nanetta, Giulietta Simionato as Mistress Quickly, Anna Maria Canali as Meg Page, Tito Gobbi as Falstaff, Cornell MacNeil as Ford, the divine Tulio Serafin conducted. To have been a fly on the wall that evening!

Gloria Swanson, of course, was a long standing opera fan who had a close friendship with one of my other favorite sopranos, the soprano nicknamed "the Caruso in Petticoats," Rosa Ponselle.

Myrna Loy - The Only Good Girl in Hollywood

2011-02-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the header image, Myrna is no stranger to this blog. So many wonderful films, so many great performances. This is why I'm thrilled to announce here that Myrna Loy The Only Good Girl in Hollywood by Emily Leider (author of Becoming Mae West and Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino) will be published in October 2011 from the University of California Press. I'm very much looking forward to reading this new biography.

Amazon link to pre-order the book is here.

Myrna Loy The Only Good Girl in Hollywood Emil y W. Leider From the beginning, Myrna Loy’s screen image conjured mystery, a sense of something withheld. This first-ever biography of the wry and sophisticated actress best known for her role as Nora Charles, wife to dapper detective William Powell in The Thin Man, offers an unprecedented picture of her life and a movie career that spanned six decades. Opening with Loy’s rough-and-tumble upbringing in Montana, the book takes us to Los Angeles in the 1920s, where Loy’s striking looks caught the eye of Valentino, through the silent and early sound era to her films of the thirties, when Loy became a top box office draw, and to her robust post–World War II career.

Biographer, poet, and memoirist Emily W. Leider is the author of Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, among other books. 384 pp. 49 b/w images (W) $34.95 cloth (£24.95) 978-0-520-25320-9

For the Love of Film (Noir) - The Art of Noir

2011-02-17T10:32:00.001-08:00

There is a lot of love for Film Noir judging by the number of incredible postings for the blogathon. It's come to my attention via a FaceBook post that while there is a lot of love for Film Noir, the number of donations are not keeping pace with the number of bloggers. This is a real shame!

Before we get to the simple goodies of this post, let me ask again, plead with you to do your bit and donate $5, $10, $15 or $20 to support the Film Noir Foundation. Even in these economically challenging times a few dimes will save something we can't easily replace. We can't save every single precious frame of film noir, but we can try. I'm a glass half full person, please help!

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by donating some much needed loot. The paypal link will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Fundraising blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation. Please do your part, read, enjoy and donate a few bucks.

Believe me and Mr. Marlowe, you do not want Mike Mazurki showing up on your doorstep if you don't donate. He won't be looking for Velma this time.

Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, here's some eye candy for you.

Half Sheet for Nightmare Alley

One Sheet for Nocturne

One Sheet for White Heat

Title Lobby Card for Sudden Fear

Half Sheet for This Gun For Hire

Stone Litho 3-sheet for Dark Passage

Insert for The Maltese Falcon

One Sheet for Johnny O'Clock

Lobby Card for Born to Kill

One Sheet for Murder My Sweet

Half Sheet for The Big Sleep

For the Love of Film (Noir) - Dark Passage

2011-02-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I'm incredibly fortunate to live in San Francisco and I love movies that are set and filmed in my hometown. Like other dark cities in which so many film noir are set, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles; San Francisco in black and white lends itself to film noir beautifully. Filled with back alleys, dark passages, deep shadows and then the fog all lend an aura of mystery and suspense to the San Francisco noir films. Dark Passage is one of my favorite films with some beautiful location shooting in and north of the city.

Dark Passage is also unique in that the first third of the film, we do not see the protagonist at all. We view the film from his vantage point. Similar to, and as troublesome as 1947's Lady in the Lake, the gimmickery of the camera perspective does not always work. It fares less well in Lady in the Lake since I find the effect annoying. In Dark Passage it is more engaging, drawing you in rather than continually taking you out of the film, at least it is to me. The plot is somewhat convoluted and a better recap than mine can be found here.

By 1947, Dark Passage is an atypical Bogart role since he’s not really a tough guy nor is he a gumshoe. Bogart’s Vincent Parry is an innocent victim, perhaps not a perfect man, but as we learn early on, he is not a murderer. He seems somewhat weak and is certainly desperate as he escapes from San Quentin Prison. He’s dependent on the kindness of strangers and gets a remarkable amount of help for a guy on the lam from the law. Our first glimpse of Parry is, in reality, a doctored photo of the director Delmer Daves.

Bacall’s Irene is also atypical, not as sharp her previous roles. She’s given a softer edge and is a woman of some means. Not a tough one, at least not on the outside. She's warm, welcoming and speaks with a soft voice. Here is the face of a woman in love, can you blame him?

Bogart comes on the scene in shadow in the back of Sam's cab. Soon, he will have a "new" face and not surprisingly, it's the face of Bogart. Heavily bandaged and groggy from the anesthetic, but it is Bogart. Parry returns to the apartment of his friend George, a musician, only to find him dead on the floor with his crumpled horn as the murder weapon. Parry, naturally, picks it up and his fingerprints are all over it.

Knowing he can't stay there, he makes the lonely and long climb up Telegraph Hill to Irene's art deco apartment building at 1360 Montgomery (still standing). Collapsing in the doorway ringing the buzzer, Irene rescues him for a second time and nurses him back to health. He learns that he is now wanted for George's murder and assures Irene that he is innocent.

Irene's old flame Bob (Bruce Bennett) and acquaintance Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorhead) pay an inopportune visit. Madge is panicked as she was the witness who testified against Vincent Parry and is convinced he is out to take his revenge upon her. Irene manages to get rid of the pair.

7 days pass and at long last, Parry and his new face are revealed. He's healthy enough to make his departure again from Irene's doorstep. He's determined to find the murderer and has no idea he's being followed. He's determined to keep Irene out of harm's way and they part.

Parry checks into a hotel and finds his nemesis is the cheap blackmailer, Baker, who first picked him up in Marin after he escaped from San Quentin. Demanding money, and knowing Irene has it, Baker loads Parry into his jalopey to go shakedown some funds. Parry stalls Baker as they drive around the city and end up at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Parry snatches Baker's pistol and in the struggle, Baker falls to his death. Parry's luck is not holding out too well and the body count attributed to him is rising. It is clear to Parry based on Baker's comments that the real criminal is Madge Rapf and he sets out to see her.

Madge fancies herself a woman that is desired and is also always looking for a new bit of fun. That's how Parry comes to the door, armed with chocolates and charm and saying Bob sent him. Madge turns on the charm but it does not take long for her to relaize this guy is no stranger, she does not recognize the face, but the eyes are familiar. Realizing at last that Vincent Parry has come to call, in her twisted manner, Madge falls/jumps through the window of her apartment further implicating Parry for her murder as well. Moorhead steals the picture at this point, her harried, fearful manner is so reminiscent of her Mrs. Henry Stevenson in the radio play Sorry Wrong Number. Her fall from the Hyde Street apartment is a shock and Parry escapes (unbelievably) via the fire escape and just walks away.

Parry decides now it's far too hot for him in San Francisco and calls Irene and tells her, he's off to South America, to Peru. If she can make it when things cool down, he'll be there waiting. Dissolve to a nightclub with latin rhythms and we see Irene sashaying as only Bacall can do, to the waiting Parry and a presumed happily ever after. The club looks a bit like Rick's from Casablanca.

It's a strange noir entry, the plot is really no more convoluted than the unfathomable The Big Sleep. It's somewhat dreamlike as the later Vertigo would be. I love this film for the location filming, the cable cars, the climb up to Coit Tower (and believe me it's not an easy climb, but worth it) and the Golden Gate Bridge. For me it's almost a love letter to the city I love. Yes, filled with dark passages, dark corners and shadows of Dashiell Hammett, it does not take too much hard looking to find that in Fog City Bogart and Bacall are still here.

Please do your bit and donate $5, $10, $15 or $20 to support the Film Noir Foundation. Even in these economically challenging times a few dimes will save something we can't easily replace. We can't save every single precious frame of film noir, but we can try. I'm a glass half full person, please help!

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by donating some much needed loot. The paypal link will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Fundraising blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

For the Love of Film (Noir) - The Maltese Falcon

2011-02-15T08:26:00.000-08:00

Original dust jacket art for the 1931 novel.

In 1930 the novel The Maltese Falcon was published. The gritty gumshoe Samuel Spade would pass into legend and inspire generations of readers. Warner Brothers bought the rights and the first film adaptation of the novel would come to the screen in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez as Spade and Bebe Daniels as Miss Wonderly.

Title Lobby Card from the 1931 version

The film was "remade" in 1935 as Satan Met a Lady with Warren William and Bette Davis. The plot was twisted so much by the writer assigned to the project that it's quite a different film and it's also a comedy. As charming as Warren William is (especially as Philo Vance or Perry Mason) he's not the Sam Spade of my dreams.

1941 US 1-sheet
Warner's art department used publicity stills from High Sierra for Bogart
and pasted Mary Astor's head on Ida Lupino!

The 1941 (and 3rd) remake by John Huston is widely considered to be the best version out there. It's certainly one I *never* tire of; each repeat viewing fills me with delight and awe. Huston's script is tight, taut and very witty. Huston took such care with the script and his notations much as Hitchcock did with his storyboarding on hos own films. There was little wiggle room to make edits from Huston’s vision. It is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Not a single wasted frame.

The cinematography by Arthur Edeson (who started in the silent era) is dark, moody and spectacular.

The cast is absolutely letter perfect.

In a series of really stupid career moves, tough guy George Raft turned down the lead of Samuel Spade (he also nixed High Sierra and Casablanca) much to the benefit of rising Warner contract player Humphrey Bogart. Of course, hindsight being 20/20, trying to imagine Raft as Spade today is almost laughable. Bogart was already riding the crest of success from his performance in High Sierra. His Sam Spade is wiry, cagey, tough, not one who suffers fools and is “not as crooked as he appears to be.”

Peter Lorre as the delicious and effete Joel Cairo. One can almost see the cloud of gardenia following him. Stage actor Sydney Greenstreet made his film debut as Caspar Gutman and what a film debut it is. A less stagey actor than John Barrymore (at this point in his long career) Greenstreet’s mannerisms and vocal inflection bring a smile. No matter how nasty he is underneath, you cannot but help liking this greedy man.

Contract player Lee Patrick shone as the all-knowing Effie Perrine. “You worry me Sam.” Gladys George was wonderful as the pathetic and very adulterous Widow Archer. She being Sam’s latest squeeze; a squeeze that he dearly wants nothing more to do with.

A fabulous publicity shot for The Maltese Falcon Bogart and Lee Patrick

The smaller parts are rounded out with Elisha Cook Jr. as the gunsel Wilmer. Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer. Ward Bond as Tom Polhaus and Barton MacClane as Lt. Dundy. In a surprising bit of casting, Huston’s father, the great Walter Huston blessed the project with an unbilled cameo as Captain Jacoby. Huston’s cameo is something that eluded me for what must have been my first 15 viewings of the film, I am ashamed to admit. Now I wonder how I ever missed it was him.

This leaves us with the Brigid O’Shaunnessy of Mary Astor. Bogart’s Spade says it best of all, “You’re good, you’re very good. I think it’s the throb you get in your voice when you say ‘Be generous Mr. Spade.’” Astor was not first choice, thankfully Geraldine Fitzgerald turned it down.

"I’ve always been a liar.”

The film has been on the festival circuit for decades, it’s constantly played on Turner Classic Movies, it’s been issued on VHS, LaserDisc, and multiple DVD releases, now including a blu-ray. It is a film that is universally loved, it’s a landmark film noir. It is a factory made film of such quality, it’s something one thinks that could only have been made in the golden age of the studio era.

The film has inspired in revivals and reissues a plethora of poster art, some of which are shown here. It’s a film that continues to fascinate, delight and inspire. If you’ve seen it, once, twice, thirty times, imagine NOT being able to see it. This is why film preservation is so very important. This is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Be sure to check out fellow blogathoner at limerwrecks who has a post related to the Falcon, today, too.

Japanese Reissue poster from the 1980s

1941 Window Card

Original release French poster

A fabulous German Festival poster from the 1970s

A postwar Belgian poster (note the approval stamp)

A postwar French Reissue

Australian Daybill

A few goodies from your humble blogger's collection, including a Maltese Falcon.

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by donating some much needed loot. The paypal link will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

If you want to join the Film Noir Foundation, your donation can be made at the following levels:

Gunsel up to $49 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL electronic newsletter (e-mail address required)

Muscle $50 - $99 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL. the most recent Noir City poster and souvenir-edition festival program.

Henchman $100 - $249 All of the above plus a Film Noir Foundation T-shirt. (Please specify size and men's vs. women's in the PayPal note.)

Torpedo $250 - $499 Receive all of the above plus a signed first edition of Eddie Muller's novel, The Distance.

Kingpin $500+ The whole shebang plus a series pass to NOIR CITY 9 in San Francisco in 2011 and recognition in the souvenir program.

Fundraising blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

For the Love of Film (Noir) - Faces of Film Noir #1

2011-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Claire Trevor

Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews in Laura

Ida Lupino smoldering dangerously in The Man I Love

Brian Donlevy and Victor Mature in Kiss of Death

Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man

Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes in Johnny O'Clock

Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past

Humphrey Bogart and "the stuff that dreams are made of."

If you want to join the Film Noir Foundation, your donation can be made at the following levels:

Gunsel up to $49
Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL electronic newsletter (e-mail address required)

Muscle $50 - $99
Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL. the most recent Noir City poster and souvenir-edition festival program.

Henchman $100 - $249
All of the above plus a Film Noir Foundation T-shirt. (Please specify size and men's vs. women's in the PayPal note.)

Torpedo $250 - $499
Receive all of the above plus a signed first edition of Eddie Muller's novel, The Distance.

Kingpin $500+
The whole shebang plus a series pass to NOIR CITY 9 in San Francisco in 2011 and recognition in the souvenir program.

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by donating some much needed loot. The paypal link will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Fundraising blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

For the Love of Film (Noir) - Dives you need to visit

2011-02-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

Links you need to visit during the blogathon. This is only a partial list, check with our hosts for a complete list of participating bloggers.

Born to Kill a favorite film I won't be blogging about and

someone else SHOULD.

The Facebook page for the Film Preservation Blogathon. The Faceboook page has a nifty paypal link here and your donation will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Our Hosts, Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren who put so much work into getting the blogathon organized and who write so eloquently about films we love.

The Film Noir Foundation's Donation Page to put your money where your mouth is and here to read all about Film Noir and the annual NoirCity festival.

Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy.

Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder

Ed Howard of Only the Cinema
Patricia Schneider at The Lady Eve’s Reel Life
Vanwall Green at Vanwall’s Land
Sam Juliano of Wonders in the Dark
Joshua Ranger of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
Donna Hill at Strictly Vintage Hollywood
Ben Kenigsberg at Time Out Chicago
David Steece of Randomaniac
Beth Ann Gallagher at Spellbound
Peter Nellhaus at Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee
Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde
Bill Ryan at The Kind of Face You Hate
Betty Jo Tucker of Reel Talk Movie Reviews
R.D. Finch at The Movie Projector
Peter Gutierrez
Bob Fergusson at Allure
Steve-O at Film Noir of the Week and Back Alley Noir
Brian Darr at Hell on Frisco Bay
DeeDee at Darkness to Light
Hilary Barta at Limerwrecks
Hedwig Van Driel at As Cool as a Fruit Stand
Paula Vitaris at Paula’s Movie Page
Jacqueline T. Lynch at Another Old Movie Blog
Tinky Weisblat of In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens
Doug Bonner at PostModern Joan
Kevin Olson at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies
Gareth at Gareth’s Movie Diary
Meredith of Or Maybe Eisenstein Should Just Relax
Java Bean Rush
John Greco of Twenty-Four Frames
Vince Keenan at VinceKeenan.com
Ivan G. Shreve of Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Darren at The Movie Blog
Brandie of True Classics: The ABCs of Classic Film
Mat Viola of Notes of a Film Fanatic
Joe Thompson from The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion
Bill Wren of Piddleville
Ms. Zebra of Germans Like Heavy Make-Up

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by clicking here and donating some much needed loot. The Faceboook page has a nifty paypal link here and your donation will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Fundraising blogathon For the Love of Film (Noir) is hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

For the Love of Film (Noir) - A Sneak Peek

2011-02-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

A sneak peek of things to come For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon.

One of my favorite Joan Crawford films, Sudden Fear.

Faces of Film Noir

Photos of a few of my favorite actors and actresses associated with Film Noir.

and, finally, Sunset Boulevard.

Fundraising blogathon For the Love of Film (Noir) is hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event

2011-02-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

Falling in love again, what am I to do?

Charles Chaplin in The Adventurer in which he romances Edna Purviance

John Gilbert and Lillian Gish romance in La Boheme (directed by King Vidor)

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event is happening just shy of Valentine's Day this year. February 12, 2011 at the Catro Theater.

Love is in the air and I can't help it!

Birgitte Helm ready for some romance in L'Argent

From the SF Silent Film Festival Press Release:

Complete Winter Event Program:
Our early program It's Mutual (1:00 pm, $15) is a collection of sparkling shorts by Charlie Chaplin, made during his stint at the Mutual Film Corporation where he honed his craft and became the genius director we think of today. The shorts - The Pawnshop, The Rink, and The Adventurer - contain some of the funniest moments ever put to screen, and are a glimpse into the development of this master of cinema. And supplying the perfect accompaniment to Chaplin's brilliance will be Donald Sosin at the baby grand piano. 35mm film prints from the David Shepard Collection.

Continuing our tradition of presenting world-class blockbusters at the Winter Event afternoon show, we present Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent (3:30 pm, $15) accompanied by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

The evening show, La Bohème (8:00 pm, $17) is devoted to the one of the themes movies have excelled at from the beginning - the love story! This eternal romance set in bohemian Paris of the 1830s has been filmed many times, but King Vidor's classic starring Lillian Gish as Mimi and John Gilbert as Rodolphe is the definitive version. New 35mm print courtesy of Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive. The Master of the Mighty Wurlitzer, Dennis James, will accompany this perfect Valentine's weekend fare.

At 6:30 there will be a Winter Event Celebration Party ($20) on the Castro's mezzanine. Delicious hors d'oeuvres, hearty drinks, and pleasing conversation to be had by all! The extraordinary Michel Saga will serenade on the barrel organ, singing songs of old Paris.

For tickets and more information, please visit the Silent Film Festival.

For the Love of Film (Noir) - Feb 14-21, 2011

2011-02-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Film Preservation Blogathon - For the Love of Film (Noir) will run the week of February 14 through February 21, 2011. It's not too early to make a donation while you wait for all the good stuff that will be posted during the week of the blogathon.

Your donation to the Film Noir Foundation can be made at any dollar amount when you hit the paypal link on their site or you can become a rod carrying member at the following levels:

Gunsel up to $49 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL electronic newsletter (e-mail address required)

Muscle $50 - $99 Receive the NOIR CITY SENTINEL. the most recent Noir City poster and souvenir-edition festival program.

Henchman $100 - $249 All of the above plus a Film Noir Foundation T-shirt. (Please specify size and men's vs. women's in the PayPal note.)

Torpedo $250 - $499 Receive all of the above plus a signed first edition of Eddie Muller's novel, The Distance.

Kingpin $500+ The whole shebang plus a series pass to NOIR CITY 9 in San Francisco in 2011 and recognition in the souvenir program.

Please make your donation to support film preservation and the make the gun molls of film noir happy by clicking here and donating some much needed loot. The paypal link here will make you eligible for some grand raffle prizes!

Fundraising blogathon For the Love of Film (Noir) is hosted by Ferdy on Films, etc., and The Self-Styled Siren to benefit the Film Noir Foundation.

Here is a partial list of bloggers who've made the commitment to blog (myself included):

Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder
Ed Howard of Only the Cinema
Patricia Schneider at The Lady Eve’s Reel Life
Vanwall Green at Vanwall’s Land
Sam Juliano of Wonders in the Dark
Joshua Ranger of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
Donna Hill at Strictly Vintage Hollywood
Ben Kenigsberg at Time Out Chicago
David Steece of Randomaniac
Beth Ann Gallagher at Spellbound
Peter Nellhaus at Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee
Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde
Bill Ryan at The Kind of Face You Hate
Betty Jo Tucker of Reel Talk Movie Reviews
R.D. Finch at The Movie Projector
Peter Gutierrez
Bob Fergusson at Allure
Steve-O at Film Noir of the Week and Back Alley Noir
Brian Darr at Hell on Frisco Bay
DeeDee at Darkness to Light
Hilary Barta at Limerwrecks
Hedwig Van Driel at As Cool as a Fruit Stand
Paula Vitaris at Paula’s Movie Page
Jacqueline T. Lynch at Another Old Movie Blog
Tinky Weisblat of In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens
Doug Bonner at PostModern Joan
Kevin Olson at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies
Gareth at Gareth’s Movie Diary
Meredith of Or Maybe Eisenstein Should Just Relax
Java Bean Rush
John Greco of Twenty-Four Frames
Vince Keenan at VinceKeenan.com
Ivan G. Shreve of Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Darren at The Movie Blog
Brandie of True Classics: The ABCs of Classic Film
Mat Viola of Notes of a Film Fanatic
Joe Thompson from The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion
Bill Wren of Piddleville
Ms. Zebra of Germans Like Heavy Make-Up

Farewell Old Friend - The Silent Movie Blog

2011-01-31T16:17:00.000-08:00

After 3 years of witty, visually stunning and often bust a gut hilarious postings, The Silent Movie Blog is going silent. Iris and fade out, the end.

Thanks to Chris Snowden for 3 fun-filled years, time sure flies when you are having fun. He's shutting down the blog to get to some things that have been back-burnered too long. He's still running Unknown Video and we'll simply have to guess what's coming.

Before it's too late, you can see a few postings he's left up and see what you've missed if you've not been there before. Tempus Fugit!

Virginia Rappe on Film

2011-01-13T08:58:00.001-08:00

The Danish Film Institute has posted filmographical details and the complete 1919 short His Musical Sneeze, featuring Lloyd Hamilton and Virginia Rappe, with a jaunty score by Ben Model. This is a rare glimpse of Virginia Rappe on film, since very few of the comedies in which she was featured survive. This film is also important as the producer was Rappe's fiance Henry “Pathe” Lehrman. The film is directed by Jack White.

You can view the film (and if you understand Danish, read the titles) here: scroll down, the filmviewer is on the lower right of the page. It can be viewed full screen.

Virginia Rappe is best remembered as the actress who died after Roscoe Arbuckle's 1921 Labor Day party in San Francisco. Joan Myers is currently working on a manuscript about the case and has researched Rappe extensively. See this post for example. Myers' forthcoming book is one I am most anxious to read, the bits I've been privy to have been relevatory, to say the least!

Happy New Year - Jean Harlow

2010-12-29T10:44:00.001-08:00

Since I probably won't have the next post up until after the new year, Happy New Year and welcome 2011!

2011 already brings us a new gift, a gorgeous coffee table book on the blonde bombshell Jean Harlow. You can pre-order it here.

The press blurb states:

In these pages, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team to present the most beautiful--and accurate--book on Harlow ever produced. With more than 280 rare images, the authors not only make a case for Harlow as an Art Deco artifact, they showcase the fabulous places where she lived, worked and played from her white-on-white Beverly Glen mansion to the Art Deco sets of Dinner at Eight to the foyer of the Café Trocadero. Harlow in Hollywood is a must for every film buff, Harlow collector, and book lover. Like Harlow herself, Harlow in Hollywood is irresistible

I am sure this is 100% accurate. Mark Vieira's books are nothing but top drawer productions and his collection is incredible, matched with the collection of the preeminant collector of Jean Harlow, Darrell Rooney, this will be a wonderful book to grace your bookshelves and your coffee table for years to come.

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-22T15:57:00.001-08:00

Best wishes for the season to the wonderful people who follow, comment and read this very irregular blog. It's been stop and go and intermittant, at best. Thanks for sticking with me.
The number of unfinished posts in the blogger dashboard almost outnumber the live posts. I hope to do better in 2011.

2010 has been a wonderful year for me, seen many good films, some great films and some not so great films. Cinematically it's been fun and I am looking forward to 2011 with renewed cinematic vigour.

On a personal and probably egotistical note it has been a very gratifying year with the publication and warm reception of my long labored over book on Rudolph Valentino. Sales have far exceeded my expectations and reviews from the likes of Leonard Maltin and so many webmasters, fellow Valentino fans and other independent reviewers has given me a rather swelled head. All in all, I still think it was a job well done and I think Valentino would not have minded too much.

Here's to a happy, healthy and wonderful holidays to each one of you. May 2011 be an even more wonderful year and a peaceful year, too.

Nita Naldi Website

2010-12-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Nita Naldi now has a new presence on the web. The old website run by Gloria Bowman was originally hosted by Yahoo/Geocities. Yahoo killed off Geocities last year. So with the help of some boon companions and friends of Nita, we gathered together some of Gloria's original material and spent the last year hunting Nita Naldi down. Not only did we find out a lot about Nita (who never talked about her personal life) but we found Nita had some living family. They've seen the site and have approved and sanctioned it.

I make no secret Nita is my favorite of the silent vamps and you can find her now at http://www.nitanaldi.com/.

Viva Nita Naldi!

For the Love of Film - The Sequel

2010-11-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

Mark your calendars, get your fingers busy, put your thinking caps on! Film Preservation Blogathon 2011 is coming soon.

I love noir and my head is already spinning with ideas for posts. Most important will be the donation link, let's all beat last years totals!

Paramount Pretties #5

2010-10-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

America's Sweetheart
and the first Million Dollar Baby, Mary Pickford.

The film fans of today probably do not recognize nor can they fathom the importance of Mary Pickford to film history. She was one of the very first "movie stars" before the phrase had been coined and before film stars were known by name. She was a tough as nails businesswoman (along with her mother) and negotiated her contracts with an iron-gloved fist. She was the most popular woman in the world, all over the world for nearly 20 years. She is remembered as being typecast as the "girl with the curls" but Pickford's range went far beyond playing children.

Her charm, her spunk and her appealing nature can be seen in countless films like Pollyanna.

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire

2010-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

Been scarce around here lately. Between the Valentino memorial in August and Cinecon over Labor Day, I've been a busy person. I will get a Cinecon review up very soon, even though it's been over for a while and might be a bit stale.

I've also decided that I have a second book in me and I've chosen a worthy subject. Worthy to me, at least. The peeps I've querried seem to agree.

The person in question and the subject of my second book will be the young lady on the far left, Dorothy Gish. Dorothy always seems to be lost in her more famous sister Lillian's shadow. The time has come for Dorothy to come out from that shadow and shine on her own.

Since this project differs markedly from Rudolph Valentino: The Silent Idol, I've decided to post on the progress of researching a biography here. Like the Valentino website has done over the year, I am hoping that an online presence for Dorothy will bring some information, good leads, material and just what else, who can say?

As mentioned on this blog before, I like Dorothy and I hope in researching her life I will continue to like her. She seems to have been quite a personality and was much beloved. Beloved by her elder sister and a legion of friends.

So here I am, jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I think it's going to be fun. I'll still be here, taking breaks and watching movies. I'm hoping to track down a few more of Dorothy's films. I've still got that Fifty Years, Fifity Films thing to do...

Kevin Brownlow - Honorary Oscar Recipient

2010-08-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Kevin Brownlow (image courtesy www.fiba-filmbank.org)

The news that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be honoring Kevin Brownlow with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement spread like wildfire all over the internet yesterday. The reaction from film fans, film buffs, authors, filmmakers, historians, preservationists and scholars across the globe was instant and unanimous, that of unbridled joy. I can think of no other figure with regard to silent film, the need for preservation and the recording of its history to be more influential than Kevin Brownlow. I can think of no other historian, documentarian, filmmaker or author, each of which is a hat worn by Brownlow, that is more deserving of such a lifetime achievement award.

The Academy summed up Brownlow thusly:

Brownlow is widely regarded as the preeminent historian of the silent film era as well as a preservationist. Among his many silent film restoration projects are Abel Gance’s 1927 epic “Napoleon,” Rex Ingram’s “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (1921) and “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924), starring Douglas Fairbanks. Brownlow has authored, among others, The Parade’s Gone By; The War, the West, and the Wilderness; Hollywood: The Pioneers; Behind the Mask of Innocence; David Lean; and Mary Pickford Rediscovered. His documentaries include “Hollywood,” “Unknown Chaplin,” “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow,” “Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius” and “D.W. Griffith: Father of Film,” all with David Gill; Brownlow also directed “Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic” and “Garbo,” the latter with Christopher Bird.

The Academy is correct, but really, Brownlow's influence runs so much deeper, in ways that cannot be counted by the listing as above which feels as dry as the IMDB.

In the cinematic circles in which I travel, I'm fairly confident that if it were not for Kevin Brownlow, not one of us would be here blogging, writing, researching or preserving films. The influence and power of this humble and incredibly generous man is like a force of nature.

Brownlow beguiled us with the "book I did not want to write" The Parade's Gone By. He astonished us with the massive and landmark documentary Hollywood. He brought us The Unknown Chaplin, a key that unlocked some of the mystery of how Chaplin formed and perfected his character of the "Little Tramp" and honed his comedic genius. With D.W. Griffith The Father of Film, he paid homage to one of the earliest pioneers of cinematic language in one of the most moving documentaries I've ever seen. His documentaries on Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are second to none (and like the landmark Hollywood not on DVD). Not content to focus only on the output of Hollywood, the facsinating Cinema Europe The Other Hollywood tells the story of what fine work was going on across the pond. The founding of Photoplay Productions with the late David Gill and Patrick Stanbury has resulted in preservation and documentary work that is the gold standard. Photoplay strives to present silent films in the way they should be seen, as "Live Cinema."

Brownlow's "trilogy" of books the previously mentioned The Parade's Gone By, as well as The War the West and the Wilderness, and Behind the Mask of Innocence are (to me) three volumes that are required reading for anyone with even the most basic interest in film history and silent film. Do not for a moment think that this "history" is dull. It most assuredly is not. Like the subjects Brownlow interviewed, the words leap off the pages and are as engaging as they are delightful. So, too, are the stories. Brownlow interviewed just about everyone who was still alive and willing to talk about silent films including the larger than life figures Allan Dwan, King Vidor, Gloria Swanson, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mary Pickford, Clarence Brown and Louise Brooks. He did not stop with the "big names" he spoke with everyone, including family members, stuntman Harvey Parry, editors Grant Whytock and Margaret Booth and to the people who played for the films in the movie palaces like Chauncy Haines and Gaylord Carter and everyone else in between to capture what seemed to be the joy of making these films. All of these interviews have been preserved and that alone is worthy of an Oscar.

Then there is his work on Abel Gance's Napoleon. As a young film collector, a reel of film he picked up sparked a lifelong passion and a lifetime restoration project. His earlier restoration of this film brought acclaim to it's director/producer Abel Gance. His passion and continuing work has resulted in a film that is nearly complete. The latest version of Napoleon is well over 5 hours long.

Brownlow's own films, It Happened Here and Winstanley add more fuel to the fire of his achievements.

He is a man who is curious about all aspects of film from the film stock used, to the machine that makes it and the machine that screens it. He's a critic, he's a fan and he's a geek in the nicest sense of the word. He is generous to a fault with his material and is always willing to help someone else with their projects. I can attest to this generosity personally with regard to my own book. He's truly humble about his accomplishments and perhaps a little embarassed by the acclaim, veneration and respect with which he is regarded by the film geeks like me. I get tongue tied every time I talk to him and turn into a silly fangirl. He can't know all the personal stories, but he must realize that his work has changed lives. It changed mine and I am profoundly grateful.

That the Academy has chosen to recognize him for his achievements is a wonderful thing. I applaud the Academy and the Board of Governors for this decision. I applaud Kevin Brownlow for all his achievements, past, present and those in the future. Bravo!

San Francisco Silent Films Festival Winter Event - Save the Date

2010-08-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

Save the date! February 12, 2011 has been announced for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event.

No, the program has not been announced. We can speculate and I hear some whispers, but nothing concrete.

Charlie Chaplin Musical to premiere in La Jolla

2010-08-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

Robert McClure and Ashley Brown (photo by Chris Schwartz)

La Jolla Playhouse will present the world-premiere musical Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis, book by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan and directed by Michael Unger, from September 7 - October 17, 2010 in the Mandell Weiss Theatre. Opening night is scheduled for Sunday, September 19 at 7:00 pm.

Playing the role of "Charlie Chaplin" will be Robert McClure, who recently starred as "Princeton" in the Broadway and national touring productions of Avenue Q. Ashley Brown, who originated the title role in the hit Broadway musical Mary Poppins, will portray "Oona." The full cast includes LJ Benet (You Again, Diary of a Wimpy Kid) as "Young Sydney," Jenn Colella (Broadway's Urban Cowboy, The Times They Are A-Changin') as "Hedda Hopper," Eddie Korbich (Broadway's The Drowsy Chaperone, The Little Mermaid) as "Karno," Janet Metz (original company of Falsettoland, Playhouse's Harmony) as "Hannah," Brooke Sunny Moriber (Broadway's Follies, The Wild Party) as "Mildred," Ron Orbach (Broadway's Chicago, Laughter on the 23rd Floor) as "Mr. Chaplin," Roland Rusinek (Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera, A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden) as "Alf," Jake Schwenke (title role in Broadway's Billy Elliott) as "Young Charlie/Jackie," Matthew Scott (Broadway's Jersey Boys, A Catered Affair) as "Sydney" and William Youmans (Broadway's Wicked, Playhouse's Dracula the Musical, Randy Newman's Faust) as "Older Charlie." The ensemble includes Aaron Acosta, Courtney Corey, Matthew Patrick Davis, Justin Michael Duval, Sara Edwards, Ben Liebert, Alyssa Marie, Jennifer Noble, Kürt Norby, Carly Nykanen, Jessica Reiner-Harris and Kirsten Scott.

The creative team includes: Christopher Curtis (Dave the Musical), composer, lyricist and co-librettist; Thomas Meehan (Tony Award winner for Hairspray, The Producers; Playhouse's Cry Baby), co-librettist; Michael Unger (world premiere of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), director; Bryan Perri, music director; Warren Carlyle (Broadway's Finian's Rainbow, A Tale of Two Cities), choreographer; Alexander Dodge, scenic designer; Linda Cho, costume designer; Paul Gallo, lighting designer; Jon Weston, sound designer; Douglas Besterman (Playhouse's Dracula, the Musical), orchestrator; Gabriel Greene, dramaturg; Frank Hartenstein, stage manager; and Dan Kamin, Script Consultant and Physical Comedy Specialist.

Charlie Chaplin came to America an unknown and left amidst scandals and controversy. In between, he became one of the best-loved and most famous entertainers in the world. From the gritty streets and smoky music halls of London to movie screens across the globe, Limelight goes behind the camera to show how a comic genius found soaring success and later fell from grace. This thrilling world-premiere musical provides a captivating close-up on the man who changed motion pictures forever.

Tres interesting, no? Thanks to Tref for the heads upon this!

Early Warner Brothers Studios

2010-08-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

I make no secret of the fact that my favorite studio producing films in the 1930s and 40s was Warner Brothers. They certainly made some damn fine silent films, too! Warner Brothers have more films in my personal top twenty than any other studio. Even the lamest programmer has something to recommend to me. The look, the feel, the grit and the snappy dialogue of a Warners film is unmistakable, as unmistakable as a Max Steiner or Erich Wolfgang Korngold score.

An important new book on the studio covering the early years of the brothers Warner from the early silent days on up to through the 1950s is covered in Early Warner Bros. Studio by E.J. Stephens and Marc Wanamaker.

Since 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio's magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB's earlier homes along Hollywood's "Poverty Row," the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB's pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers--Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner--scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.

The authors will be signing copies of the book at Larry Edmunds Bookshop which is the oldest remaining movie book store on Hollywood Boulevard.

Thursday, August 12- 7:00 p.m.
Larry Edmunds Bookshop
6644 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
(tel) 323-436-3273
Info@larryedmunds.com

More than just a book signing, part of the evening plans will include a slide show of photos of Early Warner Bros. Studios as well as a discussion with the authors about the book.

Rudolph Valentino Visits Disneyland

2010-08-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the blog Main Gate Admission, we've got evidence of Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Banky at the Main Street Cinema at Disneyland. I remember going to the Main Street Cinema when I was a kid, but all I can remember seeing are the cartoons (and that it was usually nice and cool in there). Rudy and Vilma did not play the Main Street Cinema for long, we'll save that story for another blog post one of these days.

Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol in Hollywood

2010-08-03T17:00:00.001-07:00

Be there or be square!

It's a thrill to be able to announce that I will be signing copies of Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol
at Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Blvd.

If you can make it, I'd love to meet you. Always a pleasure to meet "rudyfans" old friends and new.

August 21, 2010 at 7:00pm
Larry Edmunds Bookshop
6644 Hollywood Blvd.

There will also be a short screening of some Valentino rarities in the shop and I understand some very wonderful memorabilia will also be on display.