NitrateVille.com

The latest edition of The Silent Treatment announced that a film restoration of the Clara Bow-Charles "Buddy" Rogers film, Get Your Man (1927) has been restored. Does anyone know if this has been a restoration of the entire movie or only what had been regarded as the surviving reels (allegedly reels 2 and 3 are missing from a total of 6)? Next, does anyone know if there will be a DVD available from this restoration?

Screens twice this month at MoMA, in 35mm. Restored by LoC, with hunks of the missing footage bridged with stills and titles.
As far as a release, well it's a 1927 Paramount...

Ben

I have a copy of the cue sheet, which lists the total footage. I added up all the timings and put the total time against the footage and got a running speed of...100 ft/min, or 27 fps.

Ben

Yesterday I attended the afternoon screening of Get Your Man at MoMA and enjoyed it a great deal. Always fun to see Clara in something new—new to me, that is—and she pairs well with Buddy, who is billed as Charles Rogers in the opening credits, without even a ‘Buddy’ in quotes. He’s as appealing as ever, but essentially plays straight man to Clara. She’s the whole show, although unsung character actor Harvey Clark has some nice moments as the aging suitor Clara toys with (rather cruelly, I felt). Bow biographer David Stenn introduced the screening, and observed that director Dorothy Arzner demonstrated a special affinity for Clara in this film, and seems to have instructed her to dial down her performance a notch or two, to good effect. Mr. Stenn also fielded questions afterward in a lively and informative Q&A session.

The unfortunate thing, of course, is that about a third of the movie is missing. I was there with friends, and afterwards we all ruefully agreed that, based on the stills in the reconstructed portion, the missing footage must have been the high-point of the picture. As reel one concludes, Clara and Buddy, having already met cute, encounter each other in a wax museum and start to tour the place together. That’s where the footage ends. According to the title cards, they’re so busy flirting they don’t realize the place has closed, and they get locked in overnight. We can only imagine the hijinks that ensue, although the stills used in place of live action footage provide some clues.

Today I checked the file devoted to Get Your Man at the Performing Arts Library, and found some contemporary reviews that provide an extra detail or two. One clipping from an unidentified newspaper, written by a critic who was unimpressed with the film, said the following:

“A series of scenes in a waxworks show in Paris might have been pictured to far better advantage. This chapter is frequently spoiled by the fact that the spectator, if over the age of 5, is not actually blind as to what is going to happen. You know that the stodgy old attendant with the feather duster is going to mistake Miss Bow and Charles Rogers for wax exhibits and so when he dusts them off you are not exactly thrown into wild fits of laughter. Dorothy Arzner, the director of this comedy, has at least succeeded in conjuring up some amusement out of a few of the wax effigies, which are in most cases portrayed by flesh and blood players made up to look like wax figures.”

Maybe we wouldn’t have been thrown into fits of wild laughter, but I’d still like to see that sequence! On the other hand, two-thirds of a Clara Bow movie is a lot better than nothing, and I do appreciate the work that went into this restoration. It was a fun screening, and good to see that the auditorium was packed.

I caught today's screening at MOMA, and would completely concur - it was great fun to see Clara Bow, but I suspect the best part of the film is the part that's missing.

I saw the restored Get Your Man again at Film Forum last night, one of the grand finale offerings in their now concluded series “It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies and Vamps.” In a sense, I enjoyed it more the second time around. Now I know exactly where the surviving footage leaves off, and where it resumes, and which parts of the story are filled in with the restoration team’s stills and explanatory title cards. Thus, it was possible to savor the surviving footage in a more focused way, without the unpleasant surprise and disappointment of discovering what’s missing. (You might say this was the Glass Half Full screening.)

Anyhow, yes, Clara is vivacious and charming, and I could appreciate what Mr. Stenn said last fall about her comparatively restrained performance. She could convey so much with her body language, her eyes, and little twists of her mouth. Arzner knew how to get the best out of her. She’s terrific here.

Okay, I’d still love to see that wax museum sequence, and I fervently hope it turns up some day, but in any case, what survives of this flick is Clara at the pinnacle, Miss Bow in her prime.

Hope this shows up on DVD at some point!

As was mentioned here in passing, Film Preservation Associates has licensed for release on Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming through Flicker Alley, another 1927 Paramount: CHILDREN OF DIVORCE with Clara Bow, Gary Cooper and Esther Ralston. It's directed by Frank Lloyd with uncredited but apparently substantial additional directing by Josef von Sternberg. The film is complete and looks very good (our source was Paramount's 4K scan); it's presently in the hands of Mont Alto for scoring. As CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is a fairly short film, there will be another feature-length film with it, not yet finally selected.

David Shepard

DShepFilm wrote:As was mentioned here in passing, Film Preservation Associates has licensed for release on Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming through Flicker Alley, another 1927 Paramount: CHILDREN OF DIVORCE with Clara Bow, Gary Cooper and Esther Ralston. It's directed by Frank Lloyd with uncredited but apparently substantial additional directing by Josef von Sternberg. The film is complete and looks very good (our source was Paramount's 4K scan); it's presently in the hands of Mont Alto for scoring. As CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is a fairly short film, there will be another feature-length film with it, not yet finally selected.

David Shepard

Yes indeed, very much looking forward to that. Any chance of that other feature film being GET YOUR MAN?

Wm. Charles Morrow wrote:It was a fun screening, and good to see that the auditorium was packed.

Exciting news about Children of Divorce and Get Your Man. It's nice to see Clara Bow has a large following. I detect a lot of enthusiasm for her on Facebook.

Fantastic news indeed about CHILDREN OF DIVORCE, long one of my most-want-to-see films. Even better news, potentially, about getting a foot into Paramount's door.

How long does the wax museum scene in "Get Your Man" go on for? I only ask because the copy of the film I have shows a wax museum scene which goes on for quite a while and I wondered how much more there is to it?

At last CHILDREN OF DIVORCE coming to DVD and even Blu-ray! First read about this a couple weeks ago or so on Facebook. Any idea if COD will be paired with another Clara Bow film? Maybe DANCING MOTHERS or HULA? I just assume it will be another Paramount Silent? If not, LILAC TIME anyone??? The connection of course being Coop.

Can we expect more Paramount titles from them in the future? THE SPANISH DANCER, THE COVERED WAGON, ZAZA, FORBIDDEN PARADISE, STAGE STRUCK, LORD JIM, A KISS FOR CINDERELLA, OLD IRONSIDES, HOTEL IMPERIAL, SENORITA, BARBED WIRE, and DOOMSDAY, are just a few titles that come to mind. A Paramount deal with Flicker Alley may finally be our best chance of seeing a release of the 1926 BEAU GESTE? I know, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

Seeing as the restored Get Your Man was not included in Flicker Alley's release of Children of Divorce, perhaps it could accompany the future Kid Boots release. In any case, I was wondering which release of Mantrap is preferable in terms of picture quality – the 35mm print used in the now-OOP National Film Preservation Foundation 2011 DVD, or Grapevine's 2K transfer on BD released just a year ago (listed as "Blu-ray DVD-R")? Does anyone have the latter? It features a score from David Knudtson, whereas the 2011 DVD has a score by Stephen Horne. Is one preferable to the other? I hope to see Mantrap get a proper BD release from its restoration via Flicker Alley like Children of Divorce.

Source: http://www.grapevinevideo.com/mantrap-bluray.html" target="_blank

Keatonesque wrote:Seeing as the restored Get Your Man was not included in Flicker Alley's release of Children of Divorce, perhaps it could accompany the future Kid Boots release. In any case, I was wondering which release of Mantrap is preferable in terms of picture quality – the 35mm print used in the now-OOP National Film Preservation Foundation 2011 DVD, or Grapevine's 2K transfer on BD released just a year ago (listed as "Blu-ray DVD-R")? Does anyone have the latter? It features a score from David Knudtson, whereas the 2011 DVD has a score by Stephen Horne. Is one preferable to the other? I hope to see Mantrap get a proper BD release from its restoration via Flicker Alley like Children of Divorce.

Source: http://www.grapevinevideo.com/mantrap-bluray.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

I haven't seen Grapevine's release, but I'd be awfully surprised if it's from 35mm. There were very good 16mm prints available as "collector's items" (i.e. not from official sources), and Grapevine probably used one of those.

Danny Burk wrote:

Keatonesque wrote:Seeing as the restored Get Your Man was not included in Flicker Alley's release of Children of Divorce, perhaps it could accompany the future Kid Boots release. In any case, I was wondering which release of Mantrap is preferable in terms of picture quality – the 35mm print used in the now-OOP National Film Preservation Foundation 2011 DVD, or Grapevine's 2K transfer on BD released just a year ago (listed as "Blu-ray DVD-R")? Does anyone have the latter? It features a score from David Knudtson, whereas the 2011 DVD has a score by Stephen Horne. Is one preferable to the other? I hope to see Mantrap get a proper BD release from its restoration via Flicker Alley like Children of Divorce.

Source: http://www.grapevinevideo.com/mantrap-bluray.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

I haven't seen Grapevine's release, but I'd be awfully surprised if it's from 35mm. There were very good 16mm prints available as "collector's items" (i.e. not from official sources), and Grapevine probably used one of those.

That's what I assumed, yes. I have the DVD and it's definitely 16mm. This means that the best quality release print for Mantrap is now OOP. Perhaps it will have a proper BD release from the 35mm within the next few years, assuming IT and Hula get the same treatment.

I'm not positive of this, but I don't believe that Paramount has any rights to IT. Blackhawk sold prints ages ago, when no silent Paramounts were otherwise licensed, and the DVDs that were released awhile ago were not part of any Paramount licensing package.

Surely someone here knows - is IT public domain, and if Paramount no longer has rights, is it due to expiration of story rights on the Glyn novel?

Danny Burk wrote:I'm not positive of this, but I don't believe that Paramount has any rights to IT. Blackhawk sold prints ages ago, when no silent Paramounts were otherwise licensed, and the DVDs that were released awhile ago were not part of any Paramount licensing package.

Surely someone here knows - is IT public domain, and if Paramount no longer has rights, is it due to expiration of story rights on the Glyn novel?

If IT were public domain, would IT not have gotten a new restoration with its first BD release in the pipeline by now? Unless there are rights issues associated with the Milestone release that included the Carl Davis score. Someone's sitting on it.

It was renewed by Paramount Pictures Corp. on 22 March 1954. While I don't know for certain, Killiam Shows may have (or previously had) some kind of long-term license that allowed them to distribute the film. The Brownlow-Gill version shows both Photoplay and Killiam as presenters, in association with Thames, and the end credits have Killiam as a copyright claimant along with Photoplay. There's also a 1978 copyright notice by Killiam for the "sound version", even though the Photoplay doesn't use the same score. FP-L/Paramount's copyright and renewal notices are there as well.

Of that, make what you will!

--HA

Thanks, Harold. It's certainly odd that Blackhawk would have released this one Paramount title and no more, and likewise for the DVD versions!

Thankfully, in another decade, all this copyright madness and confusion will hopefully be history.

Blackhawk released IT (1927) because they had a licensing agreement with Killiam. Most of the Killiam prints that they sold were D.W. Griffith Biographs or short films from the teens. They also sold Killiam abridgements from famous silents like Phantom of the Opera, Blood and Sand, and The Black Pirate.