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Friday was a good one at the Egyptian Theater. Starting with another wild and wacky chapter of The Iron Claw. This is Columbia serial directed by Laurel & Hardy director James Horne. The chapters go back and forth from really good to really bad. Actually, the really good chapters are good in the way Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda are good.

Next was Aquitted, a 1929 Columbia (very early) talkie. The leads, Margaret Livingston and Lloyd Hughes were pretty good. Sam Hardy as the crime boss was something else. Remember that often used scene from Lights of New York about taking one of the characters...............for a......ride? Sam Hardy is a student of that acting school. Calling him stiff would be a compliment.

The Sign of the Cucumber was a fun L-KO western comedy with a sheriff who happens to have an exact double who happens to be the partner of public enemy #1. The only way to tell them apart is a birthmark the exact shape of a cucumber.

Then came a 1927 Columbia feature about a ship with the captain from hell. He shanghai's his crews and horribly mistreats them, all the while keeping his beautiful daughter prisoner. Hobart Bosworth and Richard Arlen star as crew members looking for more than just a job aboard The Blood Ship. This was a big hit with the crowd. Note: Hobart Bosworth is one weird looking dude.

After the lunch break came the 1939 Columbia Charley Chase short, The Awful Goof. This was a short comedy in 3 sections, each one borrowing the plot from one of Chase's silent films at Roach. Stan Taffel let us know before hand that this comedy had not been distributed like most of the other Chase Columbias, so this may have been the first time in 79 years it had been seen by an audience. Oh, yeah, it was also hysterically funny!

Then, a great fun mystery film from the people who pay my mortgage. Murder in Trinidad, a 1934 Fox film starring Dr. Watson as a Sherlock Holmes-like character. Nigel Bruce is Lynch, sent to help solve a diamond smuggling ring with a few murders thrown in. It has a great romantic ending, with the young couple and Nigel and his pet monkey in warm embraces.

The Homemaker was well before it's time, and vintage reviews were not kind to it at all. A 1925 Universal production directed by King Baggot. Clive Brook and Alice Joyce are the Knapps, a married couple who are not happy. Clive hates his job, and doesn't seemed horribly motivated, while Alice is not having fun doing housework and keeping the 3 kids (especially little Stevie) happy and not terrorizing the neighbors. Clive gets sacked, is very depressed, and while trying to put out a fire on the neighbor's roof decides to end it all and let his life insurance take care of everything. He only paralyzes himself, and is unable to work. Alice goes to the dept. store and convinces Clive's old boss to give her a job. Well, it turns out that Alice is much better at business and Clive is much better at handling the children. The wheelchair keeps him from having to be shown doing (gasp!) housework. But everyone's never been happier. Then the awful thing happens. Clive starts to get feeling back in his legs. It could tear the family apart, but Clive and his doctor decide to make the fact that he can now walk their little secret.

The Case Against Brooklyn didn't appeal to me so I went to dinner with some Cinecon friends.

Then after a fun but unspectacular Shemp Howard Columbia short called On Again, Off Again we were back in the land of Universal 40s B musicals....and it's a wonderful land. I Can't Give You Anything But Love stars Broderick Crawford as public enemy #3, who's trying to do better. His gang boss mom, played fantasticly by Jessie Ralph, W.C. Fields mom-in-law in The Bank Dick. Brod stops by on mom's orders to thank a citizen (Johnny Downs, from Babes in Toyland) who unwittingly helped in a bank job. When he finds out that he's a songwriter, he does anything and everything (mostly illegal) to insure their success as a songwriting team. It seems Brod still has a thing for his grammer school sweeetheart and can't stop writing songs about her. This was very funny and moved a mile a minute.

The Mollycoddle was Doug Fairbanks last "modern" comedy before entering the world of costume swashbucklers. It was fun and I'm glad I stayed for it, but it was nothing spectacular.

Couldn't stay awake for Outlaws of the Orient, so I checked out for the day. If I can open my eyes tomorrow, I'll write about Saturday's offerings, especially my main reason for being here....finally seeing the "lost" Charley Chase feature, Modern Love.

Thursday at the Egyptian Theater.

They started with a program of 45 minutes of cartoons all involving people born in 1908. Nice idea, great, beautiful cartoons, but I wish they had run them on film. That's just me. The audience loved them.

Then a short bio piece on Walter Mirisch. Afterwards, Mike Schlesinger did a 30 minute Q&A with Mirisch. He was very sharp and told great stories. Mike did a great job feeding him questions. George Chakiris was there to present him with an award from Cinecon.

After that, we saw a very pretty Tech print of Mirisch's Man of the West with Gary Cooper and directed by Anthony Mann. The print had a few condition problems, but considering it's probably a 50 year old print, I over looked those. I liked the film.

Last was the UCLA/BFI restoration of Tillie's Punctured Romance. The changing of print sources was very jarring. I'm pretty sure there was some 8mm in there. But the story was much better than I ever remember it being. It didn't stop a lady across the aisle from me from falling asleep and snoring like a buzzsaw.

The Blood Ship bore a strong resemblance to The Sea Wolf. There were some nice atmospheric pans of the shanghaied crew: tough, embittered, murder in their eyes looking fellows. I've seen so many Hobart Bosworth films at Cine- festivals (yet almost never outside of festivals), I almost feel like it's not a proper movie lineup without one.

The message of The Homemaker was shockingly unexpected for its year. It was a long way into the film before I realized that it really was making the point it was making, I was so sure it was going to be another "women belong at home" story. The implausible and melodramatic plot convolutions around the husband's paralysis kept the film from being first rate, but it was a good movie and certainly a very interesting one for its decades ahead of its time view of gender roles.

I'm curious what you guys thought of "Modern Love". I love the period and part talkies hold no reluctance from me, but as much as I wanted to, I just couldn't get into this movie. Maybe I was tired -- didn't sleep well the night before. I laughed more at the Chase short the day before, than in this whole feature. I also didn't find Charley or his wife's characters terribly appealing - they both seemed sort of self-absorbed. Maybe that's the "modern" part of the marriage, but it left me a bit cold.

I couldn't stay for the whole festival, but really loved "Eagle and the Hawk" which I hadn't seen in years, and never on the big screen in 35 mm. (was this the restored print though? I didn't see where the Code edits were and if memory serves, isn't there supposed to be a scene with March and Lombard the morning-after?). I also got a big kick out of "Acquitted" and "Murder in Trinidad" -- both fun little B-pics that moved at lightening pace.

My Big Fat Cinecon Wedding

Love was in the air this Labor Day weekend. Weddings, often a mainstay plot point in was in particularly copious supply at Cinecon 44. Perhaps the other main theme of the weekend was a healthy amount of surprisingly moderne portrayals and subject matter. Oh, and beware of that quicksand!

Thanks to EB (Evil Bob), Mike, Stan, Stella and the whole Cinecon for a wonderful weekend. Jon & Phil offered exceptional accompaniment as always.

Below is a breakdown of the entirely too few films I was able to see. I’m sure other nitratevillains will offer a breakdown on the films I missed.

Film ratings range from * to ****.

Thursday August 28.

TILLIE’S PUNCTURED ROMANCE (1914 – restored.) The restored Tillie has been promised and pulled from the last several Cinecons, so this was something I really wanted to see. And while I understand the desire to screen *something* silent on Thursday night, for folks flying in from other time zones, Thursday after 10 is the single deadliest spot on the program. In six acts, there was laughter aplenty during the first two segments. During the few moments I could keep my eyes open during the final two acts there wasn’t so much as a giggle to be heard.

Cobbled together from multiple prints of varying quality, there was a real Frankenstein’s monster feel about this print which, from talking to others, bothered some folks especially in spots where it seemed to jump source material every five to ten frames. Well, Tillie has always been a more *important* film than a good one, so I didn’t mind that so much, but it seemed a shame it was not given a kinder and gentler spot on the program (**)

Friday August 29.

Short – The Sign of the Cucumber (L-Ko comedy 1917.) Pretty out-there western comedy short. Not really Ham & Bud territory but far from your typical Sennett butt-kicking slapstick. The plot (evil vs. good twin identifiable only by a distinctive birthmark) is too silly and unimportant to go into here. I found myself laughing aloud more at the oddness of it than any real cleverness or quality, but it was certainly diverting. I believe this was my first L-Ko and if this any indication of what one can expect, I’d be amenable to seeing more. (**)

THE BLOOD SHIP (1927.) I have yet to encounter a Columbia silent I didn’t like and this one came very close to love. The plot is essentially Sweeney Todd goes to sea. Hobart Bosworth lost his wife and daughter to evil *friend* sea captain Walter James. After spending 15 years in jail for a murder his friend committed, Bosworth signs up aboard his buddy’s ship to enact his revenge, unaware that his daughter is aboard ship as well. Also on hand are an impossibly young and beautiful pre-WINGS Richard Arlen and lots of other eye candy for those who enjoy the male of the species.

Most surprising was Blue Washington as one of the shanghaied crew members. I can’t remember if I have ever seen (some dialogue cards notwithstanding) a more unstereotyped characterization of a person of color in a silent film intended for white audiences. With the exception of the sight gag at the end (in which he was the joker and not the butt of) there was virtually no mention made of his race throughout the film. He was simply one of the guys.

I have asked Mike S to unearth more Columbia silents and hereby repeat that request. This film is the definition of popcorn movie. On top of that it had some good acting and interesting lighting/photography. Easily the best film I saw all weekend. (*** ½)

Short: The Awful Goof (1939) – the first wedding of the weekend for me. Charley is late for his wedding and gets into lots of scrapes with über-jealous Dick Curtis in the first of his three Columbia shorts this weekend. This is typical Columbia nonsense and a fine time-killer but Charley is starting to age which makes the whole thing seem a bit sad. (**1/2)

MURDER IN TRINIDAD (1934, Fox) Nigel Bruce (just pre-Watson) plays a faux-bumbling detective investigating, well, murder in Trinidad. Maybe it played too early in the day, but I was able to keep up with Bruce pretty much throughout, which is a rarity for me and mysteries. Bruce’s monkey (El Brendel’s friend for last year’s show?) helps provide most of the comedy and conveniently conjured quicksand helps take care of the rest. IIRC, this was promised as a pre-Code on the Cinecon site, so perhaps I had higher expectations than I should have had going it. Typical programmer worth seeing once, but not much more. (**)

THE HOME MAKER (1925, Universal.)

Full disclosure – while I admire much of King Vidor’s THE CROWD, I find that film completely uninvolving and, having seen it once, have no desire to endure that brand of misery again. So, if you worship the sprockets THE CROWD runs through, you should take the opinions given below with a healthy dose of salt.

The first half of King Baggot’s THE HOME MAKER bears a striking resemblance to the other King’s tale of an office worker’s life of quiet desperation. Following a brief wedding we fast-forward 15 years to see the husband Clive Brook an uninspired candidate for a long-promised work promotion while his wife Alice Joyce toils aware horribly bored and unchallenged at home. When Brook loses his job, he attempts suicide in a last effort to provide for his family via his life insurance policy, but succeeds only in making himself a cripple.

Here the film turns on a dime and Joyce goes out into the workforce and finds herself fulfilled in ways she never dreamed of. Meanwhile Brook discovers he has a real flair with their three children. However, in 1925 such a role reversal Mr. Mom scenario was unthinkable, even with Brook confined to a wheelchair with a hired charwoman to do the real housework. Reviews at the time were extremely critical to the film’s theme that not every square peg can fit snugly society’s round holes.

The film’s sociology and the period criticism leveled against proved far more interesting and involving than the film itself. I found the characters more archetypes than real people and there was a lot more telling than showing going on (what was the daughter’s issue and just how did the father help the children overcome their issues?) And I have to agree with the busybody next door. The youngest child, Billy Kent Schaefer, deserved to be beaten regularly with a wire hanger, even after his transformation at the hands of his stay-home dad. (**** for concept and daring, **1/2 for execution)

Short: Off Again, On Again (Columbia 1945) – Shemp Howard is getting married – a stomach-churning concept – and runs into Dick Curtis, a jealous gangster. A couple of good gags but little more. (**)

I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE, BABY (Universal, 1940) Broderick Crawford surprised and delighted us last year in TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTE and he more than surpassed himself in this outing as a New York gangster who desperately wants to be a pop lyricist – and still playing the Crawford you would expect. Howlingly funny, especially every second the scene-stealing Jessie Ralph as his no nonsense momma is on screen. Has Cinecon hit upon a sub-genre: Broderick Crawford comedies? Are there any more out there? If so, sign me up! (*** ½)

Saturday, August 30

TRIUMPH (Universal, 1917) An incomplete Lon Chaney is better than none and, the cop-out of the ending not withstanding, this was a bizarre little backstage melodrama. Lon is the terminally ill, struggling (but still rich) playwright and Dorothy Phillips the bumpkin who dreams of success upon the wicked New York stage. She is pursued by an evil mustache and the producer (William J. Dryer) it is attached to. She agrees to let the mustache have its evil way with her in return for his producing Lon’s play and starring her in same. Attempted rape, murder and lots of other nasties ensue. Sadly the last two reels are missing but we get most of the fun before the cop-out dénouement. Question - she only appeared in mufti in once scene but did anybody else notice this: When kindly trouper Helen Wright (?) comes into Phillips’ dressing room early in the film I could have *sworn* she was wearing a swastika necklace! (**1/2)

THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK (Paramount, 1933 – restored) Again, not quite as pre-code as I had hoped, but a solid WWI flying dramer of PDSD ace Fredric March and his gung-ho rival Cary Grant. March chews scenery with abandon but never crosses the line into hambone territory. Jack Oakie provides the all too necessary comedy relief. Even restored, Lombard’s performance is still of the blink-and-you-miss-her school. (***, maybe *** ½)

Short: Rootin’ Tootin’ Tenderfoot (Columbia, 1952) The disturbing teaming of Max Baer and Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom appear in this rip off of (the thankfully L&H, not Billy Haines version of) WAY OUT WEST. Dick Curtis is once again the heavy. This provided the most laughs of the three Columbia shorts of the weekend, but Baer and Rosenbloom may be the ugliest comedy team since Hamm and Bud and they don’t generate a whole lot of sparks together. (**)

MODERN LOVE (Universal, 1929) Charley Chase in a feature part-talkie. Half-talkie is probably more accurate. The first half or so is synchronized silent with a LOT of hit tunes on the soundtrack (“If You Want The Rainbow You Must Have the Rain,” “Get Out and Get Under,” etc.) Charley marries Kathryn Crawford, but she doesn’t want to give up her career or cause scandal by working while married, so the couple keep separate apartments and Charley has to be pushed aside, even when oily French designer Jean Hersholt (!) sets his sights on Ms. Crawford. Then, halfway through it switches to sound and, apart from a brief chase scene near the end it remains stagebound and in sound till the end. In typical early sound fashion, this film tries to be a semi-musical, comedy and heart-tugging romance. As a result it’s more “charming” and less knockabout than the typical Chase comedy, but Charley is better at tugging at heart strings than, say, Keaton was during this period. Still, it was more an interesting curio than a rediscovered classic. (**1/2)

SKY HIGH (Fox 1922.) I tend to avoid non-Ford westerns like the plague but I didn’t want to lose my seat, so I stayed on the promise it would run under an hour. Due to a jammed 16mm projector it unfortunately flew by at 24fps at what seemed little more than half an hour. It ran so fast I had trouble really following the plot which seemed to involve Tom Mix breaking up a ring of (Chinese!) immigrant smuggling at the Arizona/Mexico border which appeared to be conveniently and spectacularly located next to the Grand Canyon! Tom did some cool stunts but the brisk pace kept me uninvolved. I understand these things happen – and I certainly didn’t expect great things from this film, but it was still the low water mark of the weekend (*)

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (Universal 1944) like all too many boomer boy cinephiles, I grew up on the Universal horrors but even as a kid I knew this thing made no sense whatsoever. It was a hoot to see it again after so many years on a big screen with star Elena Verdugo in attendance. Thank God for that handy Transvlvanian quicksand! (**1/2)

THE POOR NUT (First National, 1927) very familiar nebbish-becomes-college-sports-hero comedy. What made this interesting was that the comedy was more character-driven than, say, THE FRESHMAN, especially when our hero Jack Mulhall shows some real athletic ability in his tryout and doesn’t mess up till later on – and for a real reason. More charm than comedy again, this was pleasant but unremarkable. (**)

Sunday, August 31

THE DEVIL’S BAIT (Balboa 1917) Hands down the weirdest film of the weekend. Satan (Gordon Sackville?) manufactures gemstones in his hellacious laboratory and scatters them throughout the earth as a means of inspiring acts of greed, theft and even murder among his hapless victims. Chief among the victims are pals Ed Brady & William Conklin who spy a ruby in India and immediately enter into a Fasolt-vs.-Fafner fight to the finish – which takes us back to America and many convoluted plot turns. This film has *everything* including hero Henry King who manages to wear more lipstick and sport a more pronounced bee-sting lip formation than any of the women in the film. We also get several shots of hell including several souls writhing in what appears to be a large co-educational hot tub. We also get multiple shots of the ruby ring in question with a superimposed image of Satan laughing maniacally within the gem.

I understand from the pre-screen introduction that the film was originally tinted although this master, compiled in the 1970s does not. I sure hope a properly tinted print is struck soon. And please, someone put this out on DVD.

Although a good reel too long, this heavy-handed Victorian morality play was a hoot from start to finish and I can’t stop talking about it. (**1/2 for content, ***1/2 for oddness/enjoyment factor)

CHAMPAGNIE FOR CEASAR (UA, 1950) Vincent Price leaves no scenery undigested in this farce of the early TV quiz shows. Ronald Colman *does* know it all and goes on a double-your-money-or-lose-it quiz show to get back at evil CEO/sponsor Price. Price then brings in Cinecon guest Celeste Holm to play Lola to Colman’s aging Joe Hardy. This too ran a good reel too long, but it was a hoot, especially every time Price was on screen. And the solution to the protagonists’ dilemma was evilly fun. (***)

And that was it for me as I had to leave the convention early to attend a Cinecon wedding of my own.

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:
THE BLOOD SHIP (1927.) I have yet to encounter a Columbia silent I didn’t like and this one came very close to love. The plot is essentially Sweeney Todd goes to sea. Hobart Bosworth lost his wife and daughter to evil *friend* sea captain Walter James. After spending 15 years in jail for a murder his friend committed, Bosworth signs up aboard his buddy’s ship to enact his revenge, unaware that his daughter is aboard ship as well. Also on hand are an impossibly young and beautiful pre-WINGS Richard Arlen and lots of other eye candy for those who enjoy the male of the species.

I have often thought that Richard Arlen's looks were greater than his talent, though for some reason he seems to improve once he gets roughed up- especially once that patent leather hairstyle gets messed up. Every good Arlen picture I've seen has him messed up just before the action starts.

TRIUMPH (Universal, 1917) An incomplete Lon Chaney is better than none and, the cop-out of the ending not withstanding, this was a bizarre little backstage melodrama. Lon is the terminally ill, struggling (but still rich) playwright and Dorothy Phillips the bumpkin who dreams of success upon the wicked New York stage. She is pursued by an evil mustache and the producer (William J. Dryer) it is attached to. She agrees to let the mustache have its evil way with her in return for his producing Lon’s play and starring her in same. Attempted rape, murder and lots of other nasties ensue. Sadly the last two reels are missing but we get most of the fun before the cop-out dénouement. Question - she only appeared in mufti in once scene but did anybody else notice this: When kindly trouper Helen Wright (?) comes into Phillips’ dressing room early in the film I could have *sworn* she was wearing a swastika necklace! (**1/2)

I haven't checked, but before the Nazis adopted it the Swastika was a popular symbol of good luck. Rudyard Kipling adopted it as his personal symbol and I once owned a so-designated "Swastika Edition" of his works.

A few more thoughts:

The Devil's Bait had a title card reading, and I quote exactly: You saved her from a fate worse than death. There is not a spark of self-awareness or irony in the entire film, let alone in that scene. Oh, and the young heroine had the late 'teens version of 'eighties big hair (all teased out into little wispy bits on the top and sides). It was remarkably unattractive. I would have liked to have seen the devil's scenes in the original red tinting, though; from the intro, it sounded eerily striking.

The Eagle and the Hawk was a real festival highlight for me, but it was indeed difficult to see where cut footage might have been. There wasn't much to raise an eyebrow at aside from a few mildly risque lines from Oakie's character.

Sky High suffered as little as any film possibly could suffer from being projected at the wrong speed. Essentially the entire film is Mix performing stunt work in the Grand Canyon. The plot consists of providing stunt opportunities.

Modern Love was a disappointment. It was mildly amusing in parts during the silent first half, the comedy portion of the film. After it switched to being a talkie, it skidded unhappily into domestic drama. The plot offered a counterpoint to The Homemaker, as the wife of Modern Love is continually disparaged by her obnoxious husband for wanting to continue her career post-marriage (she is a successful fashion designer who derives enormous personal fulfillment from her work). I was rooting for divorce or at least a 'you can keep working until the kids come' concession, but as expected it ended with her sacrificing everything and being happy about it too.

Rain or Shine was a circus story directed by Frank Capra. The version screened was an alternate silent version with a soundtrack for foreign release. I didn't care for it partly because I disliked both main characters (he was a jerk and she was an idiot), partly because of the intrusive soundtrack (lots and lots of crowd noises, sound effects, blaring circus music), and partly because it was obviously filmed as a talkie and so played oddly in scenes like the hero selling the circus to the crowd with verbal patter.

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:Question- she only appeared in mufti in once scene but did anybody else notice this: When kindly trouper Helen Wright (?) comes into Phillips’ dressing room early in the film I could have *sworn* she was wearing a swastika necklace!

In the pre-Nazi days, the swastika (usually backwards) was used by many cultures. If you go to some western art museums, you'll see that it was very popular with some American Indian tribes.

Here's my own review...


CARTOON CENTENNIALS: A selection of five classic cartoons, mostly from Warners and Fleischer. Not to get overly PC, but it was a little uncomfortable to watch Olive Oyl get punched in the face about fifty times in Never Kick a Woman. Nevertheless, these were great cartoons, and the perfect way to kick off the convention. It would've been nice to see these on film, but the video projection was excellent. ***1/2

TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE (1914): Watching previous editions, I used to think Tillie was an unfunny, sloppy mess of a movie. Now that the UCLA-BFI restoration has been done, I still think it's an unfunny, sloppy mess of a movie, but it does play better now. The pacing isn't as choppy, and the image quality is better overall. Filling in a jump splice with four frames taken from an eighth-generation dupe is probably more jarring for the viewer than the jump splice would've been, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me. This restoration includes the little "fence scene" that's missing from most of the circulating editions, and that's one of the best things in the film. Also, the restoration makes Marie Dressler's performance much more appealing and amusing than I used to think it was. Still, Tillie's Punctured Romance remains a lot like Sennett's later feature Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919): the performers are terrific, but they aren't given any material to work with (most of the comedy consists of people falling down or getting whacked on the ass), and the plot is so slight, and so sketchy, that it can't really support a film of this length. But Tillie now plays better than before, and there are moments scattered throughout the film where everything works like you'd want it to. A special treat is the return of the film's original ending, in which Marie steps out of character to take a curtain call, bringing out Normand and Chaplin to take a bow. **

ACQUITTED (1929): I always hate to get my hopes up for a 1929 talkie, because so many of them are slow and dull, but Acquitted was a nice surprise. Forget Lloyd Hughes. Margaret Livingston was the star, appearing in nearly every scene, and she delivered a perfectly natural performance. (She was also gorgeous, in spite of the widest hips in Hollywood since the retirement of Priscilla Dean.) Sam Hardy was great as the crime boss, delivering his lines with lots of early-talkie pregnant pauses. But the story and direction really made the film a success. A lot of these transitional talkies have people sitting around jabbering in banalities just endlessly-- dialogue for dialogue's sake-- but Acquitted kept moving and was interesting all the way through. ***

THE SIGN OF THE CUCUMBER (1917): This L-Ko two-reeler made Tillie's Punctured Romance look like The Freshman. Playing a dual role gave Robert McKenzie the opportunity to be twice as unfunny as he would've been otherwise, and leading lady Eva Novak was barely in the film at all. Still, there were a few ideas here that kept it from being a complete wash-out, and the climax (featuring a trick shot of an airborne and distinctly unhappy-looking mule) was imaginative. *1/2

THE BLOOD SHIP (1927): The best silent I saw at Cinecon this year. Atmospheric, tense, well-paced, it must have been written with Hobart Bosworth in mind, since it's so similar to some of his other films, without being a retread of any of them. This was an ambitious project for Columbia at the time, but it paid off, opening at New York's elite Roxy Theatre. Richard Arlen was borrowed from Paramount to provide a little love interest for the film's one female, but he doesn't really get a lot to do. It's really Bosworth's show all the way. After this screening I drove around Hollywood, hunting down some locations and running a couple of errands, and I met a crabby librarian at a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library who looks just like Hobart Bosworth, but with a blonde Colleen Moore hairstyle. I mean she looks exactly like Hobart Bosworth. It was eerie. And it couldn't have been a hallucination... I've got the new library card to prove it. ***1/2

THE MOLLYCODDLE (1920): It says a lot for Douglas Fairbanks that the film which might be his weakest silent of the 1920s is still a pretty good show. The Mollycoddle takes a long time to get out of second gear, but Doug's cheerful personality carries things along while you're waiting for the story to come to a boil. And once it does, it's got all the zip and action you were hoping for. As an added bonus, Wallace Beery gets his ass kicked, and that's always a treat to see. I thought Jon Mirsalis delivered his best score of the weekend with this. ***

OUTLAWS OF THE ORIENT (1937): Like James Whale, director Ernest B. Schoedsack somehow drove his career into a ditch in the late 1930s, unable to get any traction in spite of fairly recent box-office hits. He did make a pair of adventure pictures for Columbia in 1937, though, both of them featuring Jack Holt and Mae Clarke. I haven't seen Trouble in Morocco, but Outlaws of the Orient was a nicely entertaining picture, limited somewhat by its budget, but still with a lot to offer. Holt is great as an oil executive trying to get a drilling project done in the Gobi Desert, dealing with the managerial incompetence of his alcoholic brother, while also being shaken down by a ruthless Chinese warlord. Good location work at Lone Pine was a bonus. Maybe Mike S. can swing a screening of Trouble in Morocco for next year? **1/2

TRIUMPH (1917): This melodrama was ham and cheese all the way, the cheese being the hokey storyline, and Lon Chaney's performance qualifying as the ham. Only the first three of the film's five reels survive, and things got off to a slow start. But then it began to get involving, and then it got quite interesting, and then the footage ran out! The Academy Film Archive supplied an afterward, explaining the resolution of the plot. It all turned out to be the kind of moralistic silliness you'd expect of a 1910s drama, but that kind of thing can be a lot of fun to watch, and I think everyone in the audience was wishing we could see those last two reels. **1/2

MODERN LOVE (1929): I'm not the biggest Charley Chase fan, but I thought this was delightful all the way through. The comedy doesn't always have the snap that you'd get from his Hal Roach two-reelers, but it's nearly as good, and far better than you'd expect from a 1929 Universal part-talkie. Anita Garvin is superb, and even Jean Hersholt gets a lot of laughs. I thought the romantic and dramatic stuff worked very well, and in that respect the film is even better than anything among the Roach shorts. Charley even sings two or three songs (one of which he croons very sensitively, like Seger Ellis or somebody). It's almost a shame that he'd signed with Roach a year or so earlier on a five-year contract; if he'd been free to stay with Universal at this point, he might've built a great career for himself in features. Modern Love would've been a good start. It worked for me in every way. ***1/2

SKY HIGH (1922): I'd seen this Tom Mix picture once or twice before, and although I like Tom a lot, this film never did much for me. I wanted to stick around for House of Frankenstein, though, so I watched it again. Some sort of hideous fiasco happened in the projection booth, and the film was run way too fast, faster even than a Fractured Flickers silent movie lampoon. We were told that it went through at 24 frames per second, but it looked more like 40 to me. The five-reeler was over within half an hour! But it got me wondering: who was genuinely more athletic, Douglas Fairbanks or Tom Mix? I really don't know, but I'm inclined to go with Tom on that one. Based on my earlier viewing, I'd rate this film **.

APACHE KID (1930): There was a lot of time to kill after Sky High, so we got to see a back-up film, this Columbia Krazy Kat cartoon. It was all right, nothing special, but it was rare, especially in 35mm. **

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944): Normally at Cinecon, I skip any films from the 1940s onward, but in this case I made an exception, partly because it was a chance to see one of the grand old Universal horrors in 35mm, and partly because its delectable gyspy girl, Elena Verdugo, was going to be there in person. I'd seen the film before, and although it's long on silly and short on scary, it's still fun and fast-paced, with a great cast. Seeing Elena Verdugo was a treat, but she didn't seem to remember that much about the making of the film. She described Lon Chaney Jr.'s hairy Wolfman make-up as being "reddish-brown, with blonde highlights." So now we know. ***

SCREEN SNAPSHOTS (1942): This entry featured James Stewart with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, filmed doing a live radio sketch for servicemen. (I'd love to know what broadcast that was.) Good stuff. Now that we're done with The Iron Claw, maybe we could skip the serials and show a few of these Screen Snapshots every year? ***

THE POOR NUT (1927): This college comedy had a lot going for it, with Charlie Murray in a great supporting role, a very beautiful young Jean Arthur, and a fine screenplay. Really, the only thing wrong with it was the leading man, Jack Mulhall. He had fans in the audience, but in my opinion he was simply unappealing and miscast, and at the age of 39 he was way too old to play a college boy. He also wasn't very sympathetic, and this role really needed him to be. Even so, apart from snatches of missing footage here and there, the film held up very well. I thought this also had Phil Carli's best score of the weekend. ***

THE NINTH GUEST (1934): The only reason I stayed to watch this mystery thriller was because I really wanted to see the Charles Starrett western that was to be shown afterward. Mysteries are probably the only genre that doesn't interest me. I never watch whodunits, because I never care whodunit. But this was still quite good, with enough art deco style for half a dozen '30s films, and a solid (if far-fetched) script. Genevieve Tobin's the only actress I can think of who always looked ten years older than she really was, but who always looked great regardless. **1/2

OUTLAWS OF THE PRAIRIE (1937): I'm probably the only one here who likes westerns, so go ahead and skip to the next title. Columbia made a lot of great B-westerns in the '30s, and this Charles Starrett picture was enjoyable, at least once you get past a very queasy scene in which a villain guns down a kindly old man, and then saws the fingers off the hand of the man's young son as the boy screams endlessly. How they got that sequence past the Breen Office, I'll never know. For me, the best thing about the film was Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, who perform four western songs and do a beautiful job on every one of them. **1/2

ABIE KABIBBLE OUTWITTED HIS RIVAL (1917): A crude early cartoon, entirely devoted to showing how a smirking Jewish-stereotype character cons a blind old man out of all his money. Tasteless and unfunny, but just about perfect if you're ever booking the film program for a Klan rally. *

THE DEVIL'S BAIT (1917): This could've been a delirious classic. You get to see Satan at work in his lab, deep inside Hell, opening the window to watch people writhing in torment (hopefully those were the producers of Abie Kabibble), and inventing jewels as the centerpiece of a scheme to get human beings to wreck each other's lives. But then we get a long, drawn-out story about a bunch of people who more or less do exactly that. The problem is that it takes them so long to do it. A handful of Satan scenes and a good action climax weren't enough to save The Devil's Bait from the stilted filmmaking and stiff performances that sink so many dramas of the 1910s. **1/2

CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR (1950): Well, to be honest, the only reason I watched this was because it was still too early to get a burger at Johnny Rocket's. And as famous as it is, I'd never gotten around to seeing this film before. (Just not my era. What can I tell ya.) But it was worth the wait, and seeing it with a big crowd of rollicking Cinephiles made it all the better. The ending didn't quite work for me, and there are some slow spots here and there, but the great perfomances and a sharp, witty script made the film a real pleasure. Celeste Holm was on hand to talk about her career, but she really didn't recall very much. Her husband was with her, and he told most of the anecdotes himself. You know what other film is really great? Harold and Maude. That's all I'm gonna say. ***1/2


There were a couple of interesting things scheduled for today, but rather than give the Renaissance a couple hundred more dollars for another night's stay, and face 400 miles of hellacious Labor Day traffic, I hit the road for home after lunch on Sunday.

Cinecon 44 was pretty good. Not great, but probably better than last year. Some of the pre-announced titles didn't make the final schedule, and that was disappointing. (Understandable, though, considering the vault fire at Universal and the passing of Robert Nudelman.) I'll bet Michael Schlesinger and his connections at Sony really saved the day; there were so many Columbia films in the line-up that they could've renamed the convention Columbiacon, but that was all right. The Columbias tend to be pretty solid. Mike, if you're taking suggestions for next year, how about Whom the Gods Destroy (1934, with Walter Connolly), The Black Room (1935, with Boris Karloff), or End of the Trail (1932, with Tim McCoy)?

Many thanks to the Cinecon crew for another enjoyable weekend!



I love this town!

Harlett O'Dowd wrote: Question - she only appeared in mufti in once scene but did anybody else notice this: When kindly trouper Helen Wright (?) comes into Phillips’ dressing room early in the film I could have *sworn* she was wearing a swastika necklace! (**1/2)

As a treat for my 40th birthday I got to drive a 1914 car. It had been made by a small Detroit manufacturer called KRIT, whose proud emblem was the swastika. So there were swastikas all over the jalopy - on the hood, on the steering wheel, on the hubs. The people I rented it from run a classic car garage in Germany's black forest. Ruefully they told me that whenever they take their KRIT to classic car shows in Germany they have to put stickers over all the swastikas, as the symbol has fallen somewhat out of favour there. I believe it started as an Indian (as in India the country) sun symbol.

Thank you for all the witty reviews. They really make me want to come over to see CINECON in the future. I guess you have sold me on it.

Not to beat a dead horse, but here's a pic of Clara Bow form the late 20's:

First, thanks to Jim and others who gave us a blow-by-blow account of Cinecon as it happened. I much enjoy this sort of convention report.


Second, the swastika is pretty much of a universal symbol, appearing throughout the Indo-European group ('swastika' is one of the Indian language group's term; the German term is something like 'hackencreusz') and also Amerindian, where the direc tion of the ends has masculine and feminine connotations. Besides the occasional car company, Rudyard Kipling also used it -- although he stopped it just before his death due to its association with the Nazis.

Bob

Here's some blog entries on Cinecon, although they have not had time to write full reviews yet.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-eS9EVlEi ... M2J?p=9894

http://moviereviewstop.blogspot.com/200 ... ntion.html

I agree with at least one person on each of the films I saw that are discussed above. Others seem to have missed most of the later films so I'll add brief comments about films I didn't notice above.

I appreciated the video presentation on Walter Mirisch before his Q&A. I don't watch many films from the time of his major productions so his name didn't mean much to me before I saw it.

Damon and Pythias (1914) -- a story of love, jealousy, and war -- was a new restoration in progress. A new print turned up showing that the previously available print, the personal print of actor/future director Frank Lloyd, had sections in tinting order. James Cozart from LOC discussed the work trying to get it back in correct continuity (using a photoplay novel as an aide). I talked with him later and he was still not completely satisfied with the cross-cutting and had noticed a title out of order (as well as two people in checked shirts during the chariot race). But none of that bothered me. The only problem I had with it is that the opening credits featuring each of the important players in modern dress went on too long for each actor. (2.75/4)

The Texan (1930) made a nice companion piece to Man of the West. Gary Cooper, looking incredibly young after seeing him in the latter film, is an outlaw who is convinced to impersonate a man, heir to a Mexican fortune, who ran away from home as a boy. His 'relatives' make a big impression on him. (2.75/4)

I had seen Mammy (1930) on video in B&W and disliked it. But a restoration using a two-color Technicolor print was promised so I gave it another chance. The color didn't appear until more than half way through and was not as impressive as in some others I've seen but I still enjoyed the film significantly more than previously. (2.5/4)

Of the films I had not previously seen, my favorite was Sing, Baby, Sing (1936) primarily for the singing of Alice Faye and the comedy of Adolphe Menjou. The audience's reaction to The Ritz Brothers (in what appeared to be their Fox debut) was much better than I had previously experienced. (3.25/4)

Speedy (1928) is one of Harold Lloyd's best films and using a print with a recorded score meant that a silent could be shown after the accompanists had departed. It didn't work as well as usual for me but that might have just been seeing it near the end of a long festival.

I saw The Menace (1932) earlier this year at The Stanford Theatre and enjoyed it enough then to watch it again. Walter Byron plays a man who escaped from prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing his father. He has been burned in an oil well fire and had plastic surgery making him unrecognizable and removing his fingerprints so he decides to go home and try to clear his name. I heard someone leaving suggest that it was so bad it was shown to clear people out of the theater. But I think it is a solid B film. (2.75/4)

On the whole, I enjoyed Cinecon more than I had expected when I saw the tentative program. And I particularly appreciated the chance to see The Home Maker again.

Although today is my birthday I feel as if Cinecon was my five day party. Bob, Mike, Stan, Stella, Marvin and the rest deserve a lot of credit for the finished product. Cinecon sets the standard for festivals that all others I have been to follow. Like Ella Fitzgerald set that standard for jazz.

Initially I went for the films but after eight years it is just as much a marraige of films and friends. I started out as a volunteer and it all snowballed from there.

Regards,
Robert Richard
Toronto, Canada

Derek B. wrote: The Texan (1930) made a nice companion piece to Man of the West. Gary Cooper, looking incredibly young after seeing him in the latter film, is an outlaw who is convinced to impersonate a man, heir to a Mexican fortune, who ran away from home as a boy. His 'relatives' make a big impression on him. (2.75/4)

The Texan was adapted from a very good O. Henry short story. The screenwriter did a good job expanding on the original without losing the "O. Henry twist" that makes it memorable. I always enjoy seeing Gary Cooper in his early years for that incredible youthful intensity he had then. I also had the thought that The Texan made a good companion piece to Man of the West; a chance to see early Cooper and late Cooper in two not great, but interesting and solidly entertaining Westerns.

I wrote:I particularly appreciated the chance to see The Home Maker again.

A few afterthoughts:

There are some extended comments about The Home Maker, my favorite of the festival, in this old alt.movies.silent thread at Google groups.

Watching The Poor Nut, I wasn't completely sure whether Paul Kelly was in the cast because he had an important part but was uncredited and also his face was rounder than in his 1930s films. As I guessed, the film was made before but released after the death that resulted in his manslaughter conviction so that presumably explains his omission in the credits.

I forgot to mention that I enjoyed Marc Wanamaker's presentation on Hollywood locations. And I want to add my appreciation to those involved in organizing and running Cinecon; they did a fine job as always.

The screenings at Cinecon this year were a diverse selection as usual. I have heard criticism year after year that rarety is not such a good thing. I think of Cinecon as a treasure hunt. You never know what you will find.

The group of cartoons that opened the event were great. I will never forget Jessie Ralph's performance in I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby. A gem. The Mollycoddle was not of much interest. The Ninth Guest was stylish and odd but at least beautifully photographed. Finally got to see a Ruth Roland film. The Devil's Bait was not bad at all. I kept thinking about how savy she was in real estate off screen. Champagne For Caesar was a fun filled frolic. Vincent Price let loose and delivered and even took the attention away from Ronald Colman at times which was a miracle for this Colman admirer. Jolson in Mammy was much better than expected. Sing, Baby, Sing was a hammy disappointment. I don't get the Ritz brothers although one of them certainly had nice legs. Seeing Harold Lloyd in Speedy was a delight. Sitting in the Egyptian Theatre with an audience watching it was as good as it gets. The documentary on Hetty King the British "Drag king" was my surprise hit of the weekend. I was intrigued by this gal and her story.

The Egyptian Theatre is such a historic venue to see films at. I think I will bring a parka next year because I was chilly wherever I sat both below and in the balcony. I mentioned it to the young guy at the concession stand who gave Buster Keaton competition in the stone face category. I wonder if we will ever get to the point where cellphone etiquette is observed. People constantly checking their cells creating mini flashlights for those sitting behind them. The worst situation of the weekend was the guy sitting just ahead of Celeste Holm during Champagne For Caesar who took a call DURING the screening and proceeded to yak on the phone as he got up and passed Ms. Holm. So Vulgar. Perhaps we can hire a Jessie Ralph type next year to keep order. She could take them down if need be.

Regards,
Robert Richard
Toronto, Canada

The Cinecon banquet is one of my favorite film events of the year. After eight years of attending I have yet to reach the blase stage. I look around with awe each year and consider the film history of our guests and industry expertise present in the room. There are always surprises. I was happy to meet Patricia Hitchcock and discuss her father. With Marsha Hunt, a devoted consistent guest, I discussed her book The Way We Wore. Stan Taffel was fabulous as our emcee. Better to have someone who knows our group and guests than an outsider. Marvin Kaplan's speech for Elena Verdugo was superb. Having Jane Withers with us is like having the ultimate Hollywood cheeleader. Celeste Holm's speech was heartfelt with emotion and made me a bit misty. I would like to have music from the 20s, 30s and 40s played before the speeches begin to add to the ambience. I could do without Ian Whitcomb and his ditties. Not my cup of tea.
I consider the evening also as a celebration of the friendships made over the years and recall those who have passed on. We cinephiles are a passionate lot. I was touched by some of our seniors who give all their energy just to be able to attend each year. I think of the Cinecon people as a second family so its like a big bash before the weekend comes to an end. The banquet always goes by so quick for my liking. Until next year....

Regards,
Robert Richard
Toronto, Canada

precode wrote:With regard to projecting the cartoons on DVD: it would have been impractical to show them on film, not only because of the shipping costs involved, but also making the already busy projectionist to do changeovers every seven minutes.

Mike S.

Couldn't cartoon prints have been combined on one or two reels? That said, who knows what the availability of prints for the cartoons shown was like or would have cost.

Saturday started with the business meeting. Last year, there were lots of interesting programming ideas discussed. This year seemed to be a debate over whether to have longer dinner breaks, shorter dinner breaks, or no dinner breaks at all. Not sure who won.

Then came Triumph, a 1917 tale of life in the theater. It starts out with a young local actress meeting an actor from a touring company at the train station. Next thing you know, she's with company as the leading lady, trying to help an ill critic/playwright (Lon Chaney) get his play produced before he dies. The boss likes the girl, and agrees to produce the play, until he finds out she doesn't feel the same way. Just as it's about to get good, we get to the end of the existing footage and are told by a full screen title that the way it ends would have ticked us all off anyway.

The next film was The Eagle and the Hawk. When I used to work in master control at a Tulsa tv station in the 70s, they ran this film all the time. Although some censored scenes had been restored, it didn't seem that different from what we had run. It was better than I remembered. Maybe it was seeing it 35mm in a great theater with an appreciative audience. Frederic March was excellent as the WWI pilot who is dying a little bit every time he loses another observer from his plane. Cary is very out of character as the gung ho type who gets off on the wrong foot with his mates by shooting unarmed parachutists. As the situation slowly dawns on him, he turns out to be a heroic figure. He does a great job in this. Carole Lombard is in the film, but by the time you realize it, she's gone.

After the lunch break, we started out with a Columbia comedy short from the '50s. Rootin' Tootin' Tenderfoot is reworking of the excellent Laurel & Hardy feature Way Out West. Instead of Stan & Ollie, we have Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom and Max Baer, Sr., Jethro's father. What, you say, you didn't think they were comedians? Well, they're not! This was about the most painful 20 minutes of the weekend. I am glad I got to see it......now I never have to see it again.

Next I got to do something I've been waiting about 30 years to do. I got to see Charley Chase's "lost" feature Modern Love. I was really afraid this was going to be a stiff, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Charley and his girl (Kathryn Crawford) are waiting for his raise so they can get married. She's not too keen on the idea that marriage means leaving her job and being there with Charley's pipe and slippers every night. She convinces him to get married immediately and keep it secret, so she can keep her job in the fashion design business. A famous French designer (Jean Hersholt) come to visit and becomes enamored with the girl and wants to take her to France for 6 months and teach her "the business". She puts off Jean and her boss about the decision to go, and in the meantime throws a dinner party at her apartment for them and some other guests, including Roach favorite Anita Garvin. She decides it would be a fun idea to have her secret husband Charley act as a butler for the party and hilarity ensues. Hersholt asks the "butler" to help him with American table etiquette, and boy does he. The first half was silent with wonderful music taken from popular hits of the day. The second half was sound and the quality was very good for '29. The film didn't quite have the spirit of whimsey of the Chase shorts at Roach, but other than that, if the opening title had said Hal Roach presents it wouldn't have surprised me. Charley was very good and I think the vehicle really fit him although it did also spend a lot of time on Miss Crawford and Jean Hersholt. There was some nitrate decomp in two places for at the most 30 seconds total, not enough to dampen my spirits at all. I loved this film, and I hope the Universal finds a way to get this one out on DVD. It was worth the 30 year wait.

That was pretty much all for me on Saturday. I had seen Sky High a few years ago in 35mm at Cinevent, although I would have like to have seen Tom Mix at 30fps. I also wanted to see House of Frankenstein and the Elena Verdugo Q&A, but had other plans for the rest of Saturday.

Better late than never, I’ve managed to finally cobble together a Cinecon review from the Daughters of Naldi perspective. I’ve long realized that my own personal Scheduling Fairy is a malevolent little gnome, but this year he outdid himself, tossing family issues, weddings, birthdays, unexpected travel, a code id by hed, and the closure of Terminal One at LAX just as I deplaned all into the same week. As a result I was only able to attend Cinecon for Friday and Saturday and I still haven’t stopped whining about having to miss Champagne for Caesar on Sunday.

Since I did not attend the entire festival I did not discern the usual emergent themes, other than it was something of an Eva Novak-palooza. OK, she was in two films, but that pretty much qualifies as a palooza. I always garner much adolescent amusement from the stately California Black Oaks of (insert country here) and this year there was an extra geographic treat--the magnificent San Gabriels of Flanders!

The Sign of the Cucumber: Could there be a latent slapstick gene activating in this slapstick-impaired vamp? This was kinda funny. Not Show People by any means, but kinda funny. It had Eva Novak, a vegetable-shaped birthmark, and a little bit of animal cruelty (that wasn’t the funny part). I don’t feel a burning need to add this to my collection, but I didn’t hate it. A languid wave of the foot-long cigarette holder.

The Blood Ship: This ties with The Homemaker as my favorite of Cinecon. As it was my first Hobart Bosworth I wasn’t disturbed...or even aware of... the previously discussed similarities to the rest of the Bosworthian oeuvre. The story is sort of Sweeney Todd meets The Pirates of the Caribbean, with an unbelievably young and handsome Richard Arlen providing me with plenty of interest just by standing there...which was kind of all he did, but DAMN. Jacqueline Logan played the leaning-toward-annoying-but-not-as-bad-as-a-Griffith-film heroine. A ship full of sharp instruments and you couldn’t just accidentally shish-kebab the villainous captain? “Oops, I slipped?” Those minor quibbles aside, The Blood Ship was tense, well-paced, and atmospheric, reminding me a wee bit of Val Lewton’s similar The Ghost Ship. Two big bunches of grapes and a nap session with the bejeweled feline for this one.

The Awful Goof: The slapstick gene I don’t have, but I’m always happy to see Charley Chase. As with Hobart Bosworth I haven’t seen enough of Chase’s films to be cognizant of the borrowing from earlier work, but this short sure was funny. Poor Charley, he just can’t do anything right! Stan Taffel advised us that this may have been the first time it’s been seen by an audience since it was released. A doff of the turban for The Awful Goof.

Contemporary reviewers were not happy with The Homemaker, a 1925 King Baggot film with Clive Brook and a gorgeous Alice Joyce playing a couple miscast in their life roles as Ward and June Cleaver. Clive has an unrewarding job at the office and no motivation; Alice is trying but finds no satisfaction in scrubbing floors and baking; and the unhappiness of the parents is affecting their three children (although I agree with Harlett, it didn’t affect the youngest one enough. Ick.) Enter a plot device, and voila! Clive discovers that he’s the more skilled and patient parent, and Alice is soon climbing the corporate ladder of success. This film was a favorite with King Baggot’s biographer Sally Dumaux and despite an occasional dip into melodrama (and that really annoying kid) it’s a grown-up film with a valid message that still causes heartburn in some circles today. Two bunches of grapes and a ride in the Isotta Fraschini for The Homemaker.

Murder in Trinidad: A Pre-Watson Nigel Bruce plays a faux-dumb detective called in to investigate a (cough) murder in Trinidad. This was a pleasant programmer which looked like it might have been originally planned as a series. Given that Bruce spent the rest of his career playing a bumbler he’s surprisingly effective at dispelling the stereotype, so I felt a wee sense of loss that we didn’t get at least a few more films with Bruce playing this character. A bunch of grapes for Murder in Trinidad.

I Can't Give You Anything But Love stars Broderick Crawford playing Broderick Crawford, but this time for laughs. What gangster Broderick lacks in brains he makes up for in goals--and when those fail he has his Mom, played with scene-stealing glee by Jessie Ralph. Through another handy plot device Broderick discovers his inner songwriter and soon he and Johnny Downs are “top o’ the charts, Ma!” with songs that are no better or worse than many other pop tunes. This very funny film moved at a spanking pace and can in no way be considered Great Arte. Thank heavens for that. This film gets to borrow the fake fox fur for an evening. Maybe I’ll throw in the Prussian.

Triumph: Even an incomplete Lon Chaney is worth seeing, but Triumph got off to a slow start and then came to an abrupt end when the footage ran out. Lon has a supporting role as a dying playwright and as usual is the best thing in the film. Dorothy Phillips is the country actress who dreams of Broadway success, and William Dryer is the villain who either has the worst moustache in the history of moustaches or a caterpillar crawled onto his upper lip and died. This was sort of All About Eve without the wit and malice. A languid wave of the faux fox fur for the film, and a bunch of grapes to Lon.

The Eagle and the Hawk: I hoped for a pre-code but this was a WWI flyboy drama starring Fredric March and a playing against type Cary Grant. March plays a flying ace who is imploding due to untreated PTSD (a timely theme); March chews a bit but it works in the context of the story. Comedy relief Jack Oakie has a yen for gorgonzola and “DOOMED” tattooed on his forehead. Carole Lombard is swathed in furs and almost not there, but still manages to look unbelievably soignee. The irony of seeing Carole Lombard in a war film about planes crashing did not escape me. A small bunch of grapes for this one.

Sky High: A glitch with the projector caused this five-reel western to run at 95 frames per second, which gave me a headache. Eva Novak. Vamp leaves theater looking for liquid refreshment.

House of Frankenstein: I love the Universal horror films, but I’d never seen this one...and if I never see it again I can live with the loss. What a silly film. However, I can sure see why it was a big favorite with all the eight-year old boys who raced out to see it at the Bijou; it had all the classic Universal monsters except the Mummy, who for all I know may have been hiding behind that kitchen sink. I’m not a better person for having seen this, but I’m not any worse, either. Here, take this grape.

The Poor Nut was an acceptable entry into the college comedy genre starring a very young Jean Arthur, pleasant fluff that had faded from my memory by the next morning. The only thing I remembered was the conviction that sound films were invented for two reasons, and that those two reasons were Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. A grape or two for The Poor Nut.

I missed Sunday and Monday’s offerings, but there was a certain serendipitous irony in the fact that on Monday, while y’all were watching Al Jolson in Mammy, I was standing in the room where he died. I WIN!!

My Cinecon report is as attenuated as was my attendance but thanks to Stan, Bob, and Mike for all the hard work, and to Phil and Jon for the fabulous musical accompaniment. Cinecon is as much a social event for me as it is a chance to see rare films, so it was great fun to see Chris Snowdon, Harlett and Jim, Jim Reid, and bunches of other people I only get a chance to see once a year or so. Bruce, we missed you.

Fred

I am perplexed as to why MODERN LOVE gets referred to as a perviously lost film. I recall that it was shown at a Cinecon 25 years ago. Did it somehow get lost in the meantime?

--azjazzman

azjazzman wrote:I am perplexed as to why MODERN LOVE gets referred to as a perviously lost film. I recall that it was shown at a Cinecon 25 years ago. Did it somehow get lost in the meantime?

When I first tried to find out about it years ago, I was told only parts still existed. I think there were prints on the collector market that were silent and missing the last reel. AFIK, this is the first time it has been run virtually complete since 1929.

Tom Stathes wrote:

precode wrote:With regard to projecting the cartoons on DVD: it would have been impractical to show them on film, not only because of the shipping costs involved, but also making the already busy projectionist to do changeovers every seven minutes.

Mike S.

Couldn't cartoon prints have been combined on one or two reels? That said, who knows what the availability of prints for the cartoons shown was like or would have cost.

Most studios only keep archival prints of cartoons, and will not allow them to be cut and built up on larger reels.

Mike S.

Frederica wrote: Since I did not attend the entire festival I did not discern the usual emergent themes, other than it was something of an Eva Novak-palooza. OK, she was in two films, but that pretty much qualifies as a palooza.

Actually, if it was an anybody palooza, the award goes to Dick Curtis, who played villains in OUTLAWS OF THE PRAIRIE and all three Columbia two-reelers. I wish I could claim it was genius; nope, just dumb luck.

Mike S.
(who knows from dumb)

Unfortunately, I missed Sunday morning. I didn't feel too bad at first. since I remembered that an old cable channel used to run Champagne for Caesar every other week. What didn't occur to me was I didn't watch it any of the times it was on. I'm definately having buyer's remorse about missing that one and Celeste Holm's Q&A.

After lunch was something I would never miss. No, I'm not talking about the last chapter of The Iron Claw. I'm glad I was there to see the epic conclusion (not so much). It was fun though.

Next was Crazy House I had seen it on a DVD recorded from a Canadian cable network. That's how easy it is to get to see the Universal Olsen & Johnson films. The opening scene of O&J returning to Universal Studios is fantastic, with cameos from many of the studio's big stars. After that, it calms down to just being funny. It's no Hellzapoppin, but definately worth seeing on the big screen.

Then we had Damon and Pythias, a 1914 epic that was pretty enjoyable. James Cozart of the Library of Congress was there to explain (in detail) what was still to be done since this was a work in progress. There were a few continuity problems and a couple of missing titles. It really didn't seem to hinder my enjoyment. One thing about these sword and sandal films from this time period is I always have the feeling that half the scenes were filmed at the garden of some Los Angeles mansion.

I stayed for the first 20 minutes or so of The Texan so I don't have a valid opinion. What I saw looked good.

I was totally surprised by the first offering on Monday. I was totally unfamilar with Hetty King. This was a short documentary done around 1970 on one of the most famous British male impersonators. The first part of the film was old film and pictures, and contemporary interviews with Hetty and her sister/dresser about her career that had begun in 1888. The last ten minutes of the film was Hetty doing her act at a show in 1970. A very entertaining act and a wonderful documentary.

Next was a 20th Century-Fox musical with Alice Faye and half the character actors on the Fox lot. Sing, Baby, Sing was a fun little film with Ted Healy, Patsy Kelly, (not nearly as annoying as she usually is) Gregory Ratoff, (annoying) the Ritz Brothers (still trying to find a film where I think they are funny) and the best part of the film, Adolphe Menjou. AM plays a John Barrymore-type "serious" actor who's made too many films in a row and decides to come to NY for an alcoholic binge.
As I said, it was fun and 10 minutes after it was over I could barely remember it.

After that was Rain or Shine. This was a silent version with music & sound effects. I had never seen the sound version, but it was pretty obvious this was a sound film. It really could have used some dialogue.
Joe Cook, the star of this and the Broadway version, was very impressive with all the acrobatics when he had to become a one-man circus, but I really wanted to hear all his quips while he was doing them. The film was pretty good, but I'm looking foward to the sound version that's coming out next year on DVD.

After lunch, was Southern Exposure, a Krazy Kat cartoon was politically incorrect, but not much more.

Next came one of the big marquee titles of this Cinecon. The 2 color restoration of Al Jolson's Mammy. It actually ended up being two sequences, totaling about 10 mintues. I had never seen the film and I'm a big Jolson fan, so I enjoyed myself. One of the restored sequences was very good. The other had some bad spots in it that had been replaced with B&W footage with a sepia tint. This was a little jarring, but I could live with it.

Speedy was a great experience all around. It's one of my favorite Lloyd films, with a beautiful Lloyd Estate print and Suzanne Lloyd there to set it up for us. The Freshman was originally to be shown, but was replaced by Speedy. Since I had not seen The Freshman, (I know, it's right there on my DVD shelf) I would have liked to have seen that. I'm not complaining though. Seeing Speedy on the big screen with a good audience was awesome.

It was a great weekend with a lot of fantastic films. I can hardly wait till next year. Could use a few more comedy shorts for my taste, but that's just me.

Jim Reid wrote: After that was Rain or Shine. This was a silent version with music & sound effects. I had never seen the sound version, but it was pretty obvious this was a sound film. It really could have used some dialogue.
Joe Cook, the star of this and the Broadway version, was very impressive with all the acrobatics when he had to become a one-man circus, but I really wanted to hear all his quips while he was doing them. The film was pretty good, but I'm looking foward to the sound version that's coming out next year on DVD.

Say what? A Joe Cook film coming to DVD????

Jim