'Black Pirate' restoration

[Mike Gebert]

Chicago is a terrific film and it's interesting to see how different it is from the later versions-- in some ways the main character, or at least the one we're supposed to identify with, is the husband, who's been shamed and shafted by Roxie's behavior and fame and seeks to reclaim his rightful place as a man. Quite a contrast with the later versions, in which he's a comic character and relatively minor in the scheme of things. Even somewhat taken out of the center of the action, Phyllis Haver is probably the best of the three screen Roxies, the one who most perfectly captures her guileless desire for attention and complete obliviousness to ordinary respectability. They probably knew the type in Hollywood...

[Penfold]

I don't know the rights ownership details, but a superb film to accompany Chicago would be Phyllis Haver's next-but-one film, Battle of The Sexes, directed by DW Griffiths but plays like a pre-code....

[Gagman 66]

I like BATTLE OF THE SEXES allot, but it's already been on DVD. How about tossing in a Colleen Moore movie instead? HER WILD OAT anyone? Or maybe a restored IRENE?

If the theme is lesser remembered comedienne's, something from Marie Presvost would be nice.

[Danny Burk]

I like BATTLE OF THE SEXES allot, but it's already been on DVD. How about tossing in a Colleen Moore movie instead? HER WILD OAT anyone? Or maybe a restored IRENE?

If the theme is lesser remembered comedienne's, something from Marie Presvost would be nice.

The Colleens are owned by WB, so it's highly unlikely that they would allow a third-party release.

[Gagman 66]

Danny,

I thought IRENE was owned by RKO? And HER WILD OAT though WB property seems unlikely to get a release from Warner's anytime soon if ever. That is why I brought these up. I'd settle for any Colleen Moore feature nicely restored, that Flicker Alley could get there hands on.

What about the prospects of Marion Davies LITTLE OLD NEW YORK, being one of the other two tttles included?

[Danny Burk]

Danny,

I thought IRENE was owned by RKO? And HER WILD OAT though WB property seems unlikely to get a release from Warner's anytime soon if ever. That is why I brought these up. I'd settle for any Colleen Moore feature nicely restored, that Flicker Alley could get there hands on.

What about the prospects of Marion Davies LITTLE OLD NEW YORK, being one of the other two tttles included?

RKO films are owned by WB (in the US, anyway; in the UK I believe they are released through Universal). Maybe TCM will run HER WILD OAT at some point, which will make it a good candidate for Archive release. But don't expect any WB-owned films to be released by third parties.

LITTLE OLD NY is a 1923 Goldwyn release. I don't know its current status; it may be P.D. since it's available via Grapevine, but then again, a Grapevine release doesn't necessarily have anything to do with current copyright status.

[Penfold]

I like BATTLE OF THE SEXES allot, but it's already been on DVD.

Certainly, but it's long out of print.....and if the transfer's been done....

[Gagman 66]

Danny,

Blast. I forgot that LITTLE OLD NEW YORK was Goldwyn. Warner's probably does own the rights then? I was thinking that the film was Public Domain for some reason.

[Mike Gebert]

Plus, I'm sure whatever David Shepard has in mind will be thematically related-- not just tossed in.

[Gagman 66]

Mike,

OK, how about THE ROAD TO YESTERDAY, or THE VOLGA BOATMAN? Both De Mille pictures, and they haven't been on DVD before. David mentioned having a Fine-Grain of YESTERDAY awhile back. That would make for a impressive releaase. It's likely though that the other two films are shorts and not features.

[Mike Gebert]

It's likely though that the other two films are shorts and not features.

Well, if the total is 200 minutes... one could be a feature.

[Rodney]

Chicago is a terrific film and it's interesting to see how different it is from the later versions-- in some ways the main character, or at least the one we're supposed to identify with, is the husband, who's been shamed and shafted by Roxie's behavior and fame and seeks to reclaim his rightful place as a man. Quite a contrast with the later versions, in which he's a comic character and relatively minor in the scheme of things. Even somewhat taken out of the center of the action, Phyllis Haver is probably the best of the three screen Roxies, the one who most perfectly captures her guileless desire for attention and complete obliviousness to ordinary respectability. They probably knew the type in Hollywood...

Not only is it interesting to compare with the later versions, but with the earlier version as well. Amos Hart is also a relatively minor part in the original play. I suspect that the producers (perhaps recalling films like "The Whispering Chorus") knew that a movie that had no characters of any moral strength would not do so well in many theaters, and elevated Amos to a more noble role -- though his principles and actions are still pretty bent by the end. Unlike the other characters, however, he worries about it.

Unsurprisingly, Roxie's faked pregnancy gambit from the play is dropped, and Roxie is not rewarded by a speaking tour at the end. But other scenes and plot lines are invented out of whole cloth, so it does end up being quite a different story.

I'm very thankful we were given the opportunity to score this one, though. We've presented our score at various venues around the country, so it's one we know pretty well. The musical selections are based on the original cue sheet, and even though I toned down the music a bit in places, it's still one of our most melodramatic. Some musicians -- based on familiarity with the musical -- have approached it as a jazz musical, but the film is distinctly not one. Our score is about 20% popular music, 30% light numbers, and 50% serious dramatic cues.

I'll post a few samples when we get them finalized, which I hope will be by the end of the week.

[Gagman 66]

Rodney,

It will be wonderful to hear the preview. Thanks much for being so generous. Really looking forward to this release. It was all so unexpected, becuse I had no heard anything mentioned about this project previously.

Just a week or two ago, I had mentioned something about scoring CHICAGO, and possibly getting it out on DVD, or on TCM, because I knew it had been recently restored. I think it was on their forum? I never actually expected it to happen though anytime soon. Hat's off to Flicker Alley, Jeff, David, You. the rest of Mont Alto and everyone else involved with this project! I have already told a number of friends and they are just as elated as I am.

[Harold Aherne]

LITTLE OLD NY is a 1923 Goldwyn release. I don't know its current status; it may be P.D. since it's available via Grapevine, but then again, a Grapevine release doesn't necessarily have anything to do with current copyright status.

I looked up this one today and Little Old New York was indeed renewed in 1951 (the earliest Davies film to be renewed, in fact). Thereafter, only Yolanda, Janice Meredith, and Quality Street went unrenewed.

Only a few of Colleen Moore's post-1922 films lacked renewals: The Nth Commandment, Slippy McGee, Broken Hearts of Broadway, April Showers (all 1923), Ella Cinders (1926) and The Scarlet Letter (1934). Hearts was apparently not registered at all, and I don't know if any copies of Slippy McGee and April Showers even exist.

-Harold

[Gagman 66]

Harold,

Thanks much for all your efforts. Much appreciated. So Warner's must have a very good print of LITTLE OLD NEW YORK, based on the clips found in the TCM Davies Documentary. And I heard the the LOC has a beautifuly restored print, maybe the same one?

Still does not answer the question as to all the Colleen Moore titles that Warner's has, and what sort of shape that they might be in?

[All Darc]

A question:

Why the 2 color technicolor process of silent era was produced prints prone to complete fadding, while the 3 strip technicolor prints from 30's never fade ???

[Christopher Jacobs]

A question:

Why the 2 color Technicolor process of silent era was produced prints prone to complete fading, while the 3 strip technicolor prints from 30's never fade ???

It was the type of dyes used. The earlier 2-color prints dyed two thin-film b&W prints that were glued together. These are the prints that are often faded red-orange. The late 2-color prints used a dye-transfer process onto clear film, like the 3-color process would do, and these often look as vibrant today as they did in the late 20s and early 30s.

Now in the rare cases when the original 2-color negatives (adjacent-images on black-and-white film) survive, new color prints can be made that will look better than was possible when they were shot.

[Paul Penna]

Specifically, the azo dyes used in the Technicolor imbibition process are inherently more stable than the organic dyes of standard color photographic emulsions.

[All Darc]

Is that possible to separate the two layers to compose the faded color print?

I reamamber about a resotrer talking about a modern technic that could remore the film base and get the film emulsion of a 35mm nitrate film. maybe it could remove separated the emulsion of each dyed (faded) B&W print that compose the coilor print. Once it's done the B&W matriz for each color (red-orange and blue-green) could render a color sequence again.

When I prepared the video master which was used for the Image laserdisc and the Kino release, I used Rohauer's color neg which had been obtained from the BFI but inserted the original titles from the b&w FGM and dumped Raymond Rohauer's various "improvements." It took about 40 hours online to do digital color correction on this 90-minute film. Rudy Behlmer had a collection of apparently un-faded original 35mm frames which give a good idea of the original color (some are well reproduced in an article he wrote for "American Cinematographer" magazine). That's amazing, because the out-takes on the Kino version are reproduced from an original nitrate color print in which not even a hint of green remained, which is why I presented them only in b&w.

David Shepard