This was my sixth Cinecon, and I’ve loved every one that I have attended. However, this one seemed to have more really great films than the others that I have attended. There were a few warhorses like
HOT WATER and
WAY OUT WEST, but the audience loved these. I wish that one of the Hollywood newsreels had been replaced by a cartoon or a serial, and
DRUMS OF JEOPARDY was not good at all, but besides that I was very happy with all of the films presented. Bob Birchard, Stan Taffel, Jim Harwood, Marvin, Stella Grace and the rest of the Cinecon crew do an outstanding job every year. Phil Carli, Frederick Hodges and Jon Mirsalis provided outstanding accompaniment all weekend. I could have spent a whole day in the dealers’ room, but I ran out of money pretty quickly. I loved having slightly longer breaks for meals, as it allowed for more time to visit with Nitratevillians and archivists.
The only advice I have for the Cinecon staff is to
Just keep on doin' what you're doin'
Although it's leading me to ruin..
(With apologies to Wheeler and Woolsey)
Artistry in Rhythm (1944) was a mostly great musical short. Stan Kenton and his orchestra had three numbers, plus they accompanied several other singers. The female trio was kind of creepy, but the Anita O’Day was really great singing about her tabby cat. ***
Always a Bridesmaid (1943) featured the Andrews Sister in a musical about a "Lonely Hearts" club. Patrick Knowles was a district attorney's investigator trying to find out who in the club was scamming the members. He gets Grace McDonald to fall for him, but she might be in on the scam too. Besides great music from the Andrews Sisters, there is lots of great dancing from "The Jivin' Jacks and Jills". Billy Gilbert is his usual blustery self in comic relief. **1/2
Drums of Jeopardy (1923) was a stinker melodrama from independent studio Truart. Elaine Hammerstein was OK as the heroine. Hero Jack Mulhall disappeared for a good thirty minutes in the middle of the film. It was supposed to make us doubt that he was the hero, but it just made him look weak. Wallace Beery chews up the scenery as the Russian Revolutionary baddie trying to steal back two drummer figures that are supposed to be very expensive. Poor Phil Carli did his best on the piano to make this exciting. *
15 Maiden Lane (1936) was a Sol Wurtzel-produced/Allan Dwan-directed Fox B-movie that was the best of the night. Jewel thieves are stealing expensive diamonds, and the insurance company keeps having to pay an informant to get them back. Niece Claire Trevor decides to track down the jewel fences on her own. Caesar Romero is both charming and slimy as another jewel thief, but Lloyd Nolan doesn't get to do much as the Burglary detective. This film really moves and has a lot of snappy dialogue. If it ever shows up on the Fox Movie channel, don't miss it! ***1/2
JUST AROUND THE CORNER (1934) was a GE informercial produced by Warner Brothers. It features a jaw-dropping performace by Bette Davis as the perfect housewife who uses GE appliances all through her house. Husband Dick Powell brings home his boss Warren William and his wife for the weekend. Davis is actually just fine in her role, but it is hard to believe that she would enjoy playing a very ordinary housewife who is hawking appliances. Cameo by Joan Blondell. **1/2
Dangerous to Know (1938) was a gangster drama directed by Robert Florey. Akim Tamiroff plays Steve Recka, a mob boss who usually gets what he needs out of local politicians by intimidation, rather than by having them bumped off. Unfortunately, he craves respect, and nobody but his loyal mistress, Anna May Wong, shows him any respect. He masterfully manipulates bankers, politicians and the police, until his attraction to young Gail Patrick becomes his undoing. Although billed first, Anna May Wong's part in the film is relatively minor, until the last 15 minutes when her character determines the outcome of the film. Director Florey fills the film with expressive close-ups and low angle shots, and Wong's performance really shines in the end. Anthony Quinn is good as Tamiroff's henchman. This is a Paramount gangster film, so the gangsters are a lot classier than their counterparts at Warner Brothers. Don't miss this if you get a chance to see it. ***1/2
DOLLARS AND SENSE (1920) is a slight drama that is one of the few Madge Kennedy films that still exists. She plays a showgirl who loses her job and is starving. A kind bakery owner, Kenneth Harlen, gives her some food. Madge convinces him to hire her as an employee. Unfortunately, Harlen is giving away all of his food to the poor, and losing a lot of money. He’s also in poor health. Madge is able to help him out. **
GROOVIE MOVIE (1944) This is a Pete Smith Specialty short, and lead dancer Jean Veloz was in attendance. It you watched this short and your feet were not tapping to the beat, you better check your pulse because you might be dead. Besides featuring some amazing jitterbug dancing, there were some great shots of the dancers from underneath a glass floor. ***
YOU’RE NEXT (1919) was a slapstick comedy short by unknown comic Marcel Perez. While there were a few good gags in this short, it was really memorable for all of the behind the scenes shots of filmmaking. Perez’ girl friend gets a job at a movie studio, so Perez tries to get hired on also. He is a failure as a prop man, camera man, and every other job he attempts, as he wrecks scenes, ruins camera shots and destroys scenery. The most amazing gag is when the director doesn’t believe that Perez can be funny, so Perez lays down in the street and lets a car run over his head! Since this is a comedy, he’s not hurt of course. **1/2
WILD BILL HICKOK (1923) was a slightly better than average William S. Hart western. Hart opens the film with an explanation saying that he’s not going to try to look like the real Hickok at all. After a terrific gun battle with an outlaw gang that is trying to hijack a stage, Hart/Hickok decides to hang up his guns for good. Years later in Dodge City, an outlaw gang is intimidating the townsfolk, especially a lady that rode in on the stage with her “weakling” husband. Hart can take no more, so he takes on the gang single-handedly, although Calamity Jane, Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday are also characters in the film. **1/2.
GENTLE JULIA (1936) Tom Brown plays a shy boy who wants to court the beautiful Marsh Hunt, but is foiled at every turn by a stockbroker from New York City. The film was really tailored for child actress Jane Withers, but it is about Hunt’s character. The mark of a great actress is someone who can turn an ingénue role into a real character, and Marsha Hunt was fantastic in this film. A very sweet film. ***
Sensation Seekers (1927) was Lois Weber's final directorial effort for Universal, and one of the last in her career. Billie Dove is a rich, young adult who is alienated from her parents. Her mother rarely leaves the house, and her father never comes home, as he has a mistress. Billie's character enjoys partying with her friends, until she is arrested in a raid on a speakeasy, and has to spend some time in jail. Raymond Bloomer plays a new minister in town, and he bails Billie out of jail, and tries to help her get her life straightened out.
Miss Dove really turns in a great performance here. She is trapped in a town where the "good Christian" townsfolk judge her (and the new minister), and her friends don't really care about her either. She's also torn because she is attracted to the minister, yet she has no interest in being a preacher's wife. Of course the minister is attracted to her also (who wouldn't be!), and this puts his career in jeopardy. Bloomer is also conflicted, but his performance isn't in the same league as Billie's.
When it looks like all is lost, Dove agrees to run off with her former boyfriend on a yacht and get married. It is sunk in a terrible storm and Billie and the boyfriend are abandoned by the yacht's crew. Miss Dove is pounded by thousands of gallons of water in the terrific climax -- proving that she wasn't just an good-looking actress that wore a lot of pretty clothes. I've only seen a few of her films, but this is definitely one of her best performances. ***1/2
BILLY AND HIS PAL (1910) was a Gaston Méliès film that was shot in San Antonio, Texas. It is one of a handful of Méliès films from the Star Film Ranch. Francis Ford (John’s brother) is a cowpuncher. He is courting a young lady, when a Mexican man in a big sombrero gets mad because he wants the lady for himself. Several Mexicans kidnap the cowboy. Luckily Billy, a young boy (although clearly played by the female Edith Storey) runs to get help. *1/2
DIAMOND JIM (1935) starred Edward Arnold is a railroad equipment salesman who works his way up from poor to very rich in the late 1800s. He discovers singer Lillian Russell and helps her to become a star, but realizes that he doesn’t love her. Next he meets Jean Arthur, and is smitten. Although they are friends, Arthur is actually in love with Caesar Romero and can’t bear to tell Arnold. The screenplay by Preston Sturges is funny in many places and sad in a few.
***SPOILER*** Interestingly, the film has an interesting way for Diamond Jim to end his life at the end. ***END SPOILER***
One of the best films of the weekend. ***1/2
BLONDE OR BRUNETTE (1927) was an amusing comedy featuring Adolphe Menjou. He’s tired of Paris women who party and drink all of the time. He travels to the country, where he meets the sweet and blonde Greta Nilssen. They get married, and unfortunately move to Paris, where she becomes a flapper who parties and drinks all of the time. They divorce, and Menjou marries Arlette Marchal, his brunette best friend. Unfortunately, everyone is afraid to tell Nilssen’s grandmother, fearing that she will have a heart attack if she learns that her daughter is divorced. When Menjou is forced to spend the weekend with Nilssen and the grandmother’s house, things get funny when he has to sneak between the bedrooms of the two. This was funny, but Hal Roach did this much better. ***
GIRL OVERBOARD (1937) featured Gloria Stewart as a model who was fleeing her abusive boss on a cruise ship. As the ship is departing, the boss accosts her and another former model there. The other model apparently murders the boss, but Stewart is not aware of this. Unfortunately, the ship catches fire and sinks, and the only person who can clear Stewart of the crime dies. She helps Walter Pidgeon’s son to safety, so Pidgeon, who happens to be the district attorney, welcomes her into his home. He is in quite a spot when the police decide to arrest Stewart for the murder. This is a better-than average B-movie elevated by good performances. **1/2
BACKSTAGE ON BROADWAY (1930) featured scenes of showgirls practicing Broadway shows. There was a brief clip of Fred and Adele Astaire dancing together. It was interesting, but not very cinematic. *1/2
HOT WATER (1924) is never listed as one of Harold Lloyd’s best films, yet it is quite funny. When TimeLife sold this film on VHS and 16mm film, they only excerpted the first two thirds, as the complete film kind of plays as three two-reel comedies. It’s a change of pace for Lloyd, as it is his only feature where he is married throughout the film. I’ve seen it several times before. The first brilliant sequence involves Harold’s trip home on a streetcar. He has to carry a lot of groceries, plus he won a live turkey at the grocery store. The next sequence involves Harold’s delight at getting a new car. He wants to just take wife Jobyna Ralston for a ride in it, but his mother-in-law, and two brothers-in-law insist on coming. In another hilarious sequence, the car narrowly misses several accidents before it is wrecked. The final sequence involves Harold believing that he has accidentally killed his mother-in-law. When watched on video, this sequence falls flat and is not convincing. However, with a large audience roaring with laughter, the sequence was revealed to be just as funny as any other Lloyd feature. ***1/2
WAY OUT WEST (1937) isn’t Laurel & Hardy’s best feature, but it is pretty close to being their best. This is a UCLA restoration from several years ago. The film looks incredibly sharp, and it sounds wonderful too. I give the boys extra credit for making a period film (it is a western) and making it so funny. I had seen this at least five or six times before, but I still loved the film and so did the audience. ****
THE COVERED SCHOONER (1923) I honestly don’t remember much about this Monty Banks comedy, other than a gorilla (really a guy in a gorilla suit) gets loose on a ship that Monty was shanghaied on. It also included a cartoon sequence. *1/2
THE GOOSE WOMAN (1925) Louise Dresser gives the performance of her life as a formerly famous singer who has lost her career and her self-respect. Her career cratered after she had a son (apparently out of wedlock). She lives in a run-down shack with a bunch of geese. Her neighbor is murdered, and she is suddenly popular with the police and newspaper reporters because she witnessed the crime. Since no jury would believe an old hag, they clean her up so that she is presentable again. Unfortunately, her testimony seems to implicate her son. Jack Pickford plays the son, and I’d have to say that he played the part well and wasn’t as annoying as usual. This was easily the best silent drama of the weekend. ****
I didn’t watch
WALK, DON’T RUN, as I caught the documentary
PALACE OF SILENTS (2012). This documentary by director Iain Kennedy tells the story of the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. The banquet room for this screening was packed – I was one of at least 40 people standing in the back. I already knew the story of the theater, but enjoyed the film anyway. There were a lot of home movies of the Hamptons when they were younger. The story of how Lawrence Austin got control of the theater, and how he was murdered there a few years later, was riveting. Luckily the Cinefamily group is running the theater as a revival house, and they still feature silent films a few times a month. I would say that it was a bit long and the transitions from one part of the story to another seemed to slow the film down. ***1/2
The
BERT WHEELER HOME MOVIES (1930s) were mildly interesting. However, he was pointing the camera most of the time, and not in front of it, so we mostly got to see shots of his vacations.
HIPS, HIPS, HOORAY! (1934) was a good Wheeler and Woolsey comedy. The first half was very, very funny. The second half, dealing with a cross-country road race, was a bit cartoony and had a lot of cheap-looking back-projected shots. Dorothy Lee and Thelma Todd round out a great comedy ensemble, as W&W try to promote the girls’ flavored lipstick brand. The only problem is that they are terrible salesmen, and they don’t have any money to finance the effort. Dorothy sings some good songs with W&W too. ***
UPSTREAM (1927) is a John Ford silent programmer about a group of actors at a theatrical boarding house. There are no Irish jokes, not much drinking and no barroom brawls that we would expect from John Ford. However, this is a really good movie. Earle Foxe plays a third of a knife-throwing act. He is not a very good actor, but he has a famous last name. All of the actors in the boarding house are struggling to pay the rent. Foxe’s female partner is also in love with him. Based solely on his famous name, he gets a job playing Hamlet in England. Emile Chautard is very good as an elderly actor who coaches Foxe to prepare him for his new gig. Foxe is totally self-absorbed, and forgets all about his compatriots. ***
THE SPIDER (1945) is a B-movie film noir crime drama. It is shades of THE MALTESE FALCON, as a lady hires private detective Richard Conte to simply pick up an envelope for her. His secretary has the letter, but she is murdered and Conte is the chief suspect. African-American actor Mantan Moreland is his sidekick, and provides some good comedy bits in when they need to move the body. Although set in New Orleans, director Richard Webb can’t seem to get the audience into feeling like they are in New Orleans. Faye Marlow is the lady who hires Conte, but she is just a starlet and doesn’t help the film much at all. This is just an average B-movie with a few good scenes. **
SCREEN SNAPSHOTS 25TH ANNIVERSARY (1953) This was definitely a low-budget newsreel. It was a bit creepy as it featured a celebrity death march of many movie stars who had died in the last 25 years. *
Robert Edeson, May McAvoy, and Ethel Wales in
The Bedroom Window
THE BEDROOM WINDOW (1924) was a very fun Paramount mystery from William de Mille. Ricardo Cortez is irate that May McAvoy’s father has forbid him to see her again. He storms over to her house and demands to see the father. Unfortunately, the father has just been murdered, and Cortez picks up the murder weapon, a gun. There is no other exit from the room, except for an open window. There is a sheer drop from the window, and it is several stories high, so there is no way that the murderer could have escaped that way. The police come and immediately haul him into jail.
Luckily, McAvoy’s aunt (in-law) Ethel Wales is a mystery writer, who’s pen name is “Rufus Jones”. She has writer’s block, and solving a real mystery is just what she needs. She has to untangle two love triangles, embezzled money, and even meets an attractive older man who is initially a suspect, but turns out to be a mystery fan. This mystery is really well done, because there are several times that the audience will think that they have it figured out, and there is no squeaky-clean character that is revealed as the murderer at the end. Ethel Wales is a hoot as the amateur detective. ***
The Joe McDoakes program was excellent, with director Richard Bare and actress Phyllis Coates. The two had been briefly married (7 months), and continued to work together after their divorce. I had seen
SO YOU WANT TO BE PRETTY (1956) before – it is a remake of Charley Chase’s
MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE. Joe and his wife are both ugly and have horrible buck-teeth. They leave on separate vacations, and both have their teeth fixed and plastic surgery performed so that they are beautiful. After the bandages are off, they meet in a bar and immediately have an affair with each other. The homecoming scene is priceless, as Joe tries to get Phyllis out of the house before his wife (Phyllis) gets home. During the Q&A, director Bare said that he had not heard of
MLAM, but possibly George O’Hamlin had.
SO YOU WANT TO PLAY THE PIANO (1956) was also hilarious, as Phyllis loves the beautiful piano music that their neighbor plays all the time. George is jealous, so he gets conned into paying for piano lessons. There is a hilarious scene where everyone else walking through the house, even the maid and the cat, sits down at the piano and plays it beautifully while George looks on dumbfounded. And what a great name for a pianist, Gregor Flatorsharpsky! ****
THE CIRCUS MAN (1914) was an early Jesse L. Lasky feature. The plot starts off with the story of two brothers, somewhere in the South of the USA. One brother tricks the other brother out of his inheritance. Then he murders their father, and frames the other brother for the crime. The innocent brother escapes and hides out in the circus as a clown to avoid capture. This feature is very much in the old style of storytelling, where the titles announce what will be happening on the screen before we are shown it. There is a second subplot concerning circus owner Theodore Roberts being jealous about the attentions shown to his wife by another man. However, this subplot is very difficult to follow. As the innocent brother was cleared 20 minutes before the film ended, the audience has a difficult time figuring out what is going on with this subplot. The photography was beautiful, and the print looked great, except for some nitrate decomposition in the last reel. Interestingly, all of the black servants were portrayed by genuine African-Americans, except for the bad brother’s sidekick, who truly looked awful in black-face makeup. *1/2
FEARLESS FAGIN (1952) was a really sweet film. It was based on a true story about a circus clown who worked with a gentle pet lion. When he is drafted into the army, he can’t find anyone to take care of his lion, and a zoo or traditional lion tamer would not be a good home for his lion, Fagin. So he hides a cage truck near the Army base and visits his lion every day. Janet Leigh is very good as a USO singer who is terrified of the lion and thinks that the soldier has a screw loose. Cinecon guest Carleton Carpenter was perfectly cast in his role. Directed by Stanley Donen, right after
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. Keenan Wynn was good as the flustered drill sergeant. Carleton said that the real Fagin only appeared in the circus act scenes. By the time the movie was made, he was too old. The rest of the time he was portrayed by a female lion with a mane attached! Much of the film was shot MOS, and looped later, so that the lion trainer could yell commands at the lion. ***
THE BLUFF (1915) was a Flying A comedy shot in Santa Barbara. Clarence Kolb and Max Dill portrayed two Dutch comedians that are dead-ringers for Weber and Fields. May Cloy is a local schoolteacher at the one-room schoolhouse. One of the comedians, I’m not sure which one, is the janitor at a chemistry lab where the chemists are trying to convert base metals to gold. He decides to make a mixture of his own, and blows up the top of the building. The scene shifts to a small town, where the two comedians and a straight man decide to bluff a bunch of investors into believing that the formula really will produce gold. When a legitimate chemist tries their formula, he discovers that it actually makes puncture-proof tires instead. This was a good idea for a comedy, but I think the film would have been much better if it was just a two-reel comedy. *1/2
HOLLYWOOD ON PARADE (1933) featured two Buster Keatons. The modern 1930s Buster was conducting a jazz band, while the other buster was conducting a gay 1890s orchestra. They argued about which music was better. There was footage of a lot of movie stars like William Powell and Carole Lombard dressed up in gay 1890s clothes, probably from a costume party. It was definitely a low-budget newsreel, but certainly worth a look. **
HELLO EVERYBODY (1933) starred Kate Smith, basically playing herself as a farmer’s daughter. Randolph Scott plays a power company worker who is supposed to buy her land so the power company can flood it with a dam, and Kate is obviously smitten with him. He is attracted to Kate’s sister Sally Blaine, and soon quits the power company to marry her and work on the farm. The film is interesting in that it’s almost 30 minutes before we get the first Kate Smith song. There are several more before the nominal plot is quickly wrapped up, as the screen-Kate gets a radio contract and moves to New York City. The most embarrassing Cinecon moment was when she dedicated a song to the “colored” orphans at an orphanage, and then sang “Picaninny Heaven” about eating watermelon and pork chops. **1/2
LADIES NIGHT IN A TURKISH BATH (1928) was one of the funniest films of the weekend, and proves that you don’t have to have a major comedian in a film to make a funny comedy. Jack Mulhall and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams are two construction workers who work on a high-rise building. Jack starts frequenting the “Ma and Pa” lunch-box stand, and his banter with very pretty Dorothy Mackaill is wonderful. Her parents, Jimmy Finlayson and Sylvia Ashton, decide to sell the business and move “uptown” to nicer digs. Their new neighbor immediately takes a shine to Dorothy. Jack and Dorothy get engaged, but they fight frequently over the neighbor’s attentions to her.
Dorothy’s mother decides to go on a diet, and we all know that when Momma goes on a diet that everybody goes on a diet. This makes Finlayson (and the dog) miserable, as there is nothing good to eat. Fin gets his wife a giant wedding anniversary cake, but of course she can’t eat it, so they quarrel.
The men head out to a “gentleman’s club” to see a hoochie coochie dancer (i.e. stripper), while the ladies retire to a Turkish bath to relax and forget about the insensitive men in their life. The men’s club gets raided by the police, so Fin and Mulhall climb in a window of the building next door, which is of course the Turkish bath full of naked women wrapped in towels. What follows is a hilarious climax. The print looked as sharp as can be. I don’t know how funny this would be on video, but the Cinecon audience roared with laughter all the way through. If you get the chance to see this, don’t miss it. ****
THE HOLLYWOOD KID (1925) was a last-minute addition. The film was recently restored by Joe Rinaudo, and apparently Paul Gierucki is also restoring this title. Filled with the typical Sennett slapstick and the barest of a plot, it shows the typical workings of the Mack Sennett lot, with Sennett himself appearing in the first few minutes. Vernon Dent plays a comedy director looking for looking for a new child movie star, and Charlie Murry’s young son gets picked. There’s a spy at the studio, and another company attempts to sign the kid first. This short is a treat due to the behind-the-scenes shots of filmmaking. There are a few cameos of Sennett stars like Ben Turpin and Marie Prevost that appear to have been taken from stock footage from previous films. **1/2
A DASH THROUGH THE CLOUDS (1912) was a Paul Gierucki/Cinemuseum restoration with recorded music by Donald Sosin. Mabel Normand is thrilled to ride in an early bi-plane with a rear propeller. It looks like she actually flew in some of the shots, rather than a stuntman, although the close ups on the plane were definitely shot on the ground. Her boyfriend is not happy about it, and is jealous of the pilot. When the boyfriend takes a business trip and gets the local Mexicans mad at him, Mabel and the pilot come to the rescue in the plane, firing revolvers from mid-air. This was a Biograph Sennett, I spotted Jack Pickford and Kate Bruce in the cast as the local townspeople. *1/2
A FISHY AFFAIR (1913) was another Gierucki restoration starring Ford Sterling. It’s difficult to tell what the plot is, although there are comic fishing scenes, and a lady has her bankroll stolen from under her mattress. In one remarkable scene, Ford Sterling catches a small alligator on a fishing line, and when he pulls it in, it is definitely alive. In another, a Keystone Kop chases a burglar through the swamp, and they jump over live alligators that snap at them. *
Unfortunately I had to leave to catch my flight, and was not able to see the rest of the films for the day. They were
SHE WANTED A MILLIONAIRE with Joan Bennett and Spencer Tracey,
STRAWBERRY ROAN with Ken Maynard, and
LOVE UNDER FIRE with Loretta Young and Don Armeche.
ndependent studio Truart. Elaine Hammerstein was OK. Hero Jack Mulhall disappeared for a good thirty minutes in the middle of the film. It was supposed to make us doubt that he was the hero, but it just made him look weak. Wallace Beery chews up the scenery as the Russian Revolutionary baddie trying to steal back two drummer figures that are supposed to be very expensive. Poor Phil Carli did his best on the piano to make this exciting. *