CINEFEST 2013 reports
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:52 pm
Okay, I've finally written up all of last weekend's Cinefest movies (except the one that I didn't stay up to see, foolishly and falsely assuming I could get an extra couple hours of sleep).
It was a very good weekend of films overall, some very good titles, some reasonably entertaining titles, and a few worth-seeing-once titles. As usual, there were a few stars (especially Walter Catlett this year) who showed up in several different films, and several films that contained similar themes, genres, or plot elements. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday were all 16mm film screenings in the hotel. Saturday morning and afternoon were again all 35mm prints (except for one digital movie) at the historic Palace Theatre, and Saturday night back at the hotel was all digital presentations in various formats (one of which wouldn't work).
CINEFEST 2013 CAPSULES
======================
Thursday
--------
SUMMER DAZE (1932) **
Moderately amusing Paramount two-reeler with Karl Dane and George K. Arthur on a camping trip with Marjorie Beebe and Aileen Cook. A few funny gags highlight a routine sitcom.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (1934) ***
All-but-forgotten but very pleasant romantic comedy set during the Revolutionary War. Francis Lederer stars as a Hessian soldier who wants to defect to the Americans and takes refuge at the home of Joan Bennett, who with her father Charles Ruggles is not happy with the strict Puritan policies of their village. The film enjoys using this situation to poke wicked fun at the Hollywood Production Code.
AN INCOMPETENT HERO (1914) ** 1/2
Roscoe Arbuckle directed and stars in this okay Keystone comedy.
A BUSY NIGHT (1916) ** 1/2
Marcel Perez is virtually unknown today, but has some nice bits playing numerous roles in this slapstick comedy.
DOUGH-NUTS (1917) ** 1/2
Chaplin imitator Billy West does a very good job of imitating the style of Chaplin's Essanay and late Keystone comedies here, supported by Oliver Hardy and Leo White, among others.
OUTS AND INS (1916) ** 1/2
Harry Watson Jr as "Musty Suffer" is rather an acquired taste but has some amusing gags here in a food-service automat. The beautiful print quality helps it immensely.
UNDER A SPELL (1925) ***
This Universal one-reeler also had very nice print quality as well as nice slick production values. Alice Howell and Bert Roach star in this often wild farce about a woman whose husband is hypnotized into thinking he's a monkey and gets loose on the streets.
Trailer Mania (Fox 1930s-50s) ***
An hour's worth of classic trailers is always fun to watch, and some of these were for films featured later at Cinefest.
WILD BEAUTY (1927) ** 1/2
This standard horse-race picture is well-done but about as predictable as they come, except for its focus on the romance between a wild stallion and the Arabian thoroughbred named Valerie that a rancher brings home from France after WWI.
THE WHIP (1917) ***
Though there are some confusing continuity gaps due to missing footage, this Maurice Tourneur horserace melodrama is visually stunning and well-edited.
HONEYMOON TRIP (1931) ** 1/2
Al St. John gets married but his buddy Walter Catlett tags along from the wedding through the honeymoon, getting in the way and being generally obnoxious. Directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, the situation would probably have worked better as a mid-1910s silent. As a talkie it's more annoying than funny.
QUEENIE OF HOLLYWOOD (1931) ***
Also directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, this fun story of three struggling actresses mistaken for royalty when they try to get a job as hotel maids was one of the best shorts of the weekend.
MY BOY (1921) ***
Jackie Coogan essentially reprises his title role from THE KID in this pleasing sentimental melodrama that doesn't have the Chaplin charm but nevertheless packs in plenty of heartfelt emotion. A little immigrant boy whose father died in France and his mother died on the boat to America risks deportation but is adopted by a crusty old sea captain who can no longer find work.
THE DEATH HOUSE (1931) * 1/2
This William J Burns murder mystery is no better but no worse than most of the rest of them.
SO NEAR, YET SO FAR (1912) ** 1/2
An all-star cast enact this D. W. Griffith short about a young man hopelessly in love with a girl he can never seem to meet until circumstances ultimately lead to their getting together. A bit slow to start (despite some missing opening footage), it picks up quite a bit around halfway through.
THE FOUNDLING (1916) *** 1/2
Early Mary Pickford feature interesting for its foreshadowing of themes she’d repeat in later films like SUDS and SPARROWS, among others, but also because it was destroyed in a 1915 fire shortly after being completed and was entirely refilmed in time to be released in January 1916. Sent to an orphanage because her struggling artist father doesn't want to care for her, she's later adopted by a woman so she can work at her rundown boardinghouse. Meanwhile her father has become successful and the orphanage matron tells her niece to pose as the artist's daughter.
A Song in the Dark (1920s-30s) ***
Richard Barrios introduced a fourth year of two sets of clips from rare and/or classic early musicals, several in two-color Technicolor. The first batch was interesting but the second batch was more entertaining overall.
PASSPORT TO HEAVEN (1941/45) - missed!!-
I thought I should skip this to get some extra sleep before the first feature of the morning, but the three cups of coffee I had at dinner kept me awake until after 2 am, so I might as well have stayed down and watched it anyway!
Friday
------
THE MERRY MONARCH (1932) ** 1/2
Certainly an interesting curiosity, both visually and as a peculiar sociopolitical fable. Sidney Fox doesn't have a lot to do, especially in the first half, but what she does is fun to watch. Emil Jannings has perhaps the lightest and most entertaining character of his career, a far cry from the heavy melodrama he's noted for. The film's biggest problem is the ways it tries to stretch the far-fetched plot of a one or two-reeler into an hour-and-a-half feature.
THE FULLER GUSH MAN (1934) ***
Entertaining madness as Walter Catlett visits his putative girlfriend's home to ask for her hand but her family literally acts crazy to scare him away (at her request).
LADIES OF LEISURE (1926) ***
Cute Columbia Pictures romantic comedy from with a touch of melodrama, starring Gertrude Short trying to woo bachelor playboy T. Roy Barnes while her brother loves her best friend, who has an ominous secret past.
CAMP MEETIN' (1936) ** 1/2
Diverting all-black RKO musical short spotlighting numbers by the Hall Johnson Choir against a thin plot of a preacher trying to reconcile discrepancies in the congregation's finances.
KING OF THE KONGO ch. 5 (1929) **
Newly restored episode of the low-budget part-talkie serial episode that was probably as campy in 1929 as it is today (although it would likely make more sense in context with the rest of the episodes).
BOLSHEVISM ON TRIAL (1919) ***
An effective and well-made propaganda film setting up the ideals of communist philosophy and revealing how its flaws lead to repressive totalitarianism by showing a group of socialists moving to an island to live in a utopia of brotherhood. Spurred on by an ambitious agitator, things soon degenerate into a nightmare. Based on the 1909 novel by Thomas Dixon, the film updates references to include the recent Russian revolution, whose results would parallel many of the film's plot points over the following years.
El Brendel Home Movies (1940s) ***
Interesting behind-the-scenes look at movies El Brendel worked on, all original footage and mostly in lovely 16mm Kodachrome.
THE ICE FLOOD (1926) ***
Predictable but fun northwoods action melodrama from Universal Pictures with Viola Dana and Kenneth Harlan. I'd seen this before, but it was still fun, especially with Jon Mirsales' rousing score.
ZWEI HERZEN IM DRIVEIRTEL TAKT (1930) ***
It's been awhile since Cinefest ran a foreign talkie without subtitles, and this was the one for this year. A printed libretto made it easy to follow the simple story of a composer with writer's block inspired by a girl he meets to write the show's hit song, but she leaves without telling her name and he then forgets the song (though she's already memorized it). A better-than-high-school knowledge of German would help with some of the dialogue's comic subtleties, but the showy filmmaking style is an obvious influence on later Hollywood musicals (notably Lubitsch).
SAMMY'S SCANDALOUS SCHEME (1915) ***
Very entertaining domestic comedy of boyfriend upset with girlfriend's obsession by Charlie Chaplin. Sadly the end is missing, so we never get to see her reaction when he decides to pay her a visit posing as Chaplin.
HAM AND THE MASKED MARVEL (1916) **
One of the better Ham & Bud comedies is marred a bit by missing footage.
NEARLY SPLICED (1916/21) **
Early Leon Errol short (his first) showing his attempt to get to his wedding in time is moderately entertaining.
MUGGSY IN BAD (1917) **
Odd and rather disjointed husband-wife conflict comedy, with missing footage.
DIZZY DAISY (1924) ** 1/2
Fun, action-packed slapstick Louise Fazenda short.
RABBIT FIRE (1950) ****
One of the best Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd-Daffy Duck hunting cartoons.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932) ***
Clive Brook fine if a bit low-key in the title role matching wits with Ernest Torrence as Moriarty in an effective and moody version of the stage play by Fox Films.
THIS RECKLESS AGE (1932) *** 1/2
Well-done comedy-drama about the generation gap and middle-class family life during the Depression. The effective cast includes Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Frances Dee, Charles Ruggles, Richard Bennett, and Peggy Shannon, in a story of free-spirited children not living up to the expectations of their parents but finally rallying to support the family in a crisis. The first half of the seems very close in subject and spirit to “Make Way for Tomorrow,” made five years later, and the last half bears some strong similarities to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” made 14 years later.
Saturday
--------
35mm at Palace Theatre
THREE WOMEN (1924) ***
Ernst Lubitch provides more melodrama than his usual comic touch but it's still a fairly entertaining story of a gold-digging gigolo who marries a rich widow and then goes after her daughter.
SPORTS OF MANY LANDS (1928) ** 1/2
This one-reel travelogue showcased outdoor sports in lovely two-color Technicolor.
Technicolor Fragments ***
Tantalizingly brief clips from numerous 1929-30 Technicolor productions, mostly musicals, that otherwise have survived only in black and white, if at all.
AFFINITIES (1922) ***
This early Colleen Moore comedy looks like it would be a lot of fun, but after its opening few minutes it's missing the middle hour until we get to see some heavily decomposed fragments of the beginning of the last reel.
COME ON OVER (1922) ***
Fun early Colleen Moore vehicle about Irish immigrants coming to New York, finding work so they can send for relatives, and helping out fellow Irishmen in their new country.
Billy West comedy (c. 1919) ** 1/2
This unidentified one-reeler missing its opening title has West doing his usual Chaplin impersonation.
THE NICKEL SNATCHER (1920) ** 1/2
This fast-paced Hank Mann comedy set mostly on a trolly car is moderately amusing in its anarchy.
FIDELITY (1911) **
The title of this Gertrud Norman melodrama refers to the St. Bernard that belongs to a poor little girl, but is sold to a wealthier family. Meanwhile the girl accidentally sets her house on fire and dies, and the dog visits her grave.
ROUGH SAILING (1923) ** 1/2
This Poodles Hanneford comedy was moderately entertaining but easily forgettable (obviously, as I've already completely forgotten what happens in it!).
THE DESERT SCOUT (1925) ***
This was one surviving reel of a surprisingly ambitiously produced two-reel Denver Dixon western with pioneers and an Indian attack. We can only hope the rest of the film is found.
PRETTY SOFT (1919) ** 1/2
This Hallroom Boys comedy seems to be a lot of fun, but again is missing a reel, so it's hard to tell what's really going on at times.
A CLOSE SHAVE (1929) ** 1/2
This late Mack Sennett again survives as only the first of two reels, but there are some funny bits in the barbershop.
IT'S A FRAME-UP (2013) ** 1/2
Cinephile Michael Schlesinger wrote, produced, and directed this loving tribute to 1930s black-and-white comedy shorts. An Abbott & Costello and/or Laurel & Hardy-like pair get a job in an art gallery where mayhem naturally ensues after they're entrusted to mind the store by themselves. The two leads, Nick Santa Maria and Will Ryan, have a nice on-screen chemistry and really get into the spirit of the story as "Biffle and Shooster," and Robert Picardo has some nice bits as an Arthur Housman drunk, but the rest of the cast often seems more like they're intentionally trying to camp it up.
WHY BRING THAT UP? (1929) ***
Rare and surprisingly well-made early talkie backstage drama that chronicles the career of popular blackface vaudeville comedians George Moran and Charles Mack (who play themselves) and was directed by theatre veteran George Abbott. Plenty of fluidly moving camera shots belie the myth that all early talkies were static, and Moran & Mack give fine, reasonably naturalistic performances.
THE WOMAN DISPUTED (1928) *** 1/2
Henry King and Sam Taylor co-directed this slick, well-mounted romantic love-triangle melodrama set in World War I Austria. Norma Talmadge stars as a prostitute who reforms after a strange man commits suicide in her apartment. Gilbert Roland is the Austrian officer who falls for her and helps get her a respectable job with best friend Arnold Kent, a Russian officer (and cousin of the suicide) who also falls for her. Then the war breaks out and the men are now on opposite sides, with all sorts of complications developing.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HELEN OF TROY (1927) last reel
[DVD WOULD NOT PLAY!]
THE SMILE WINS (1928) *** (DVD)
A recently rediscovered Our Gang silent short that introduces Farina to the gang in an unexpectedly dramatic story with some gags inserted to lighten it up instead of a bunch of comic bits strung along a thin plotline.
PARTNERS AGAIN (1926) ** (DIGITAL COPY)
Despite its rarity, copied from the sole known print and surviving only in 8mm, this was probably the least entertaining of the weekend's movies, a tedious comedy based on a stage play featuring the apparently popular Potash and Perlmutter characters, played by George Sidney and Alexander Carr. Though directed by Henry King, of all people, the pacing of the predictable sitcom situation is often dragged to a standstill by numerous titles to get across the supposedly comic dialogue exchanges.
BEHIND THE DOOR (1919) *** 1/2 (DIGITAL COPY, would be **** restored in HD w/tints)
World War I submarine melodrama with an unusual flashback structure that begins in 1925, dealing with an American sea captain of German heritage who swears gruesome personal vengeance after his wife is kidnapped and raped by a German U-boat commander. This movie is an in-progress restoration that is still missing a reel and a few brief scenes that it is hoped exist in an incomplete copy discovered in Russia.
THE QUARTERBACK (1926) *** 1/2 (DIGITAL COPY)
Richard Dix and Esther Ralston star in a well-written and nicely-acted Paramount Picture about college football and romance that has some interesting, highly effective variations on the standard plot, plus some impressive camera shots and editing. Director Fred Newmeyer had been co-director on Harold Lloyd's THE FRESHMAN the year before and there are some obvious parallels. The copy shown was the full rare 8-reel theatrical release rather than the 5-reel Kodascope.
Sunday
------
WAKE UP AND LIVE (1937) ***
A fun musical comedy set in the world of network radio, ostensibly about the friendly feud between Walter Winchell and Ben Bernie (who play themselves) but really a showcase for various musical performances and a cute romantic comedy vehicle for Jack Haley and Alice Faye. Haley is a vaudeville veteran who has mike fright on the air, but Faye tutors him after he accidentally sings in front of a live mike that is broadcasting over the air becomes an immediate but unknown sensation.
SAILORS BEWARE (1933) ** 1/2
This two-reel Paramount comedy short is a standard but enjoyable romp with Eugene Pallette and Walter Catlett as sailors and Dorothy Granger as a crafty crook trying to find the sailor who owns a winning lottery ticket.
Three Justin Herman "Paramount Pacemaker" shorts:
--I COVER THE EVERGLADES (1951) ***
Interesting look at a small-town Florida newspaper editor/reporter.
--HURRICANE HUNTERS (1953) ** 1/2
A look at the weather bureau's method of tracking hurricanes by plane.
--WALK IN THE DEEP (1955) ** 1/2
A look at a "bends"-damaged Greek sponge diver in Florida
THE GILDED CAGE (1916) ** 1/2
Attractive Alice Brady stars as a princess raised in a convent who must suddenly become queen when her parents are assassinated, but she disguises herself as a peasant to find out her people's attitudes and falls in love with a renegade prince who has renounced the aristocracy and become a dangerous subversive according to her wicked and scheming prime minister. Diretor Harley Knoles' filmmaking style seems more like a 1913 production than 1916, but the film is reasonably effective despite its trite ruritanian plot.
HIGH STAKES (1931) ***
Lowell Sherman directed and stars in this competent adaptation of a hit stage play about a drunken would-be writer who tries to save his older brother Edward martindel from a disastrous marriage to gold-digging Mae Murray. Murray is actually quite enjoyable as the scheming woman and Karen Morley is very good as the faithful secretary who loves Sherman.
SOUTH RIDING (1938) ****
Arguably the best film of the weekend was the final one shown, a British social drama and soap-opera produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Victor Saville. The fine ensemble cast stars Ralph Richardson and Edna Best with Edmund Gwenn, Ann Todd, John Clements, and a 14-year-old Glynis Johns. It’s a portrait of the political and personal lives of a half-dozen small-town Yorkshire council members with a representative cross-section of British types and philosophies dealing with various issues that concern their county’s well-being as well as private ambitions.
It was a very good weekend of films overall, some very good titles, some reasonably entertaining titles, and a few worth-seeing-once titles. As usual, there were a few stars (especially Walter Catlett this year) who showed up in several different films, and several films that contained similar themes, genres, or plot elements. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday were all 16mm film screenings in the hotel. Saturday morning and afternoon were again all 35mm prints (except for one digital movie) at the historic Palace Theatre, and Saturday night back at the hotel was all digital presentations in various formats (one of which wouldn't work).
CINEFEST 2013 CAPSULES
======================
Thursday
--------
SUMMER DAZE (1932) **
Moderately amusing Paramount two-reeler with Karl Dane and George K. Arthur on a camping trip with Marjorie Beebe and Aileen Cook. A few funny gags highlight a routine sitcom.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (1934) ***
All-but-forgotten but very pleasant romantic comedy set during the Revolutionary War. Francis Lederer stars as a Hessian soldier who wants to defect to the Americans and takes refuge at the home of Joan Bennett, who with her father Charles Ruggles is not happy with the strict Puritan policies of their village. The film enjoys using this situation to poke wicked fun at the Hollywood Production Code.
AN INCOMPETENT HERO (1914) ** 1/2
Roscoe Arbuckle directed and stars in this okay Keystone comedy.
A BUSY NIGHT (1916) ** 1/2
Marcel Perez is virtually unknown today, but has some nice bits playing numerous roles in this slapstick comedy.
DOUGH-NUTS (1917) ** 1/2
Chaplin imitator Billy West does a very good job of imitating the style of Chaplin's Essanay and late Keystone comedies here, supported by Oliver Hardy and Leo White, among others.
OUTS AND INS (1916) ** 1/2
Harry Watson Jr as "Musty Suffer" is rather an acquired taste but has some amusing gags here in a food-service automat. The beautiful print quality helps it immensely.
UNDER A SPELL (1925) ***
This Universal one-reeler also had very nice print quality as well as nice slick production values. Alice Howell and Bert Roach star in this often wild farce about a woman whose husband is hypnotized into thinking he's a monkey and gets loose on the streets.
Trailer Mania (Fox 1930s-50s) ***
An hour's worth of classic trailers is always fun to watch, and some of these were for films featured later at Cinefest.
WILD BEAUTY (1927) ** 1/2
This standard horse-race picture is well-done but about as predictable as they come, except for its focus on the romance between a wild stallion and the Arabian thoroughbred named Valerie that a rancher brings home from France after WWI.
THE WHIP (1917) ***
Though there are some confusing continuity gaps due to missing footage, this Maurice Tourneur horserace melodrama is visually stunning and well-edited.
HONEYMOON TRIP (1931) ** 1/2
Al St. John gets married but his buddy Walter Catlett tags along from the wedding through the honeymoon, getting in the way and being generally obnoxious. Directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, the situation would probably have worked better as a mid-1910s silent. As a talkie it's more annoying than funny.
QUEENIE OF HOLLYWOOD (1931) ***
Also directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, this fun story of three struggling actresses mistaken for royalty when they try to get a job as hotel maids was one of the best shorts of the weekend.
MY BOY (1921) ***
Jackie Coogan essentially reprises his title role from THE KID in this pleasing sentimental melodrama that doesn't have the Chaplin charm but nevertheless packs in plenty of heartfelt emotion. A little immigrant boy whose father died in France and his mother died on the boat to America risks deportation but is adopted by a crusty old sea captain who can no longer find work.
THE DEATH HOUSE (1931) * 1/2
This William J Burns murder mystery is no better but no worse than most of the rest of them.
SO NEAR, YET SO FAR (1912) ** 1/2
An all-star cast enact this D. W. Griffith short about a young man hopelessly in love with a girl he can never seem to meet until circumstances ultimately lead to their getting together. A bit slow to start (despite some missing opening footage), it picks up quite a bit around halfway through.
THE FOUNDLING (1916) *** 1/2
Early Mary Pickford feature interesting for its foreshadowing of themes she’d repeat in later films like SUDS and SPARROWS, among others, but also because it was destroyed in a 1915 fire shortly after being completed and was entirely refilmed in time to be released in January 1916. Sent to an orphanage because her struggling artist father doesn't want to care for her, she's later adopted by a woman so she can work at her rundown boardinghouse. Meanwhile her father has become successful and the orphanage matron tells her niece to pose as the artist's daughter.
A Song in the Dark (1920s-30s) ***
Richard Barrios introduced a fourth year of two sets of clips from rare and/or classic early musicals, several in two-color Technicolor. The first batch was interesting but the second batch was more entertaining overall.
PASSPORT TO HEAVEN (1941/45) - missed!!-
I thought I should skip this to get some extra sleep before the first feature of the morning, but the three cups of coffee I had at dinner kept me awake until after 2 am, so I might as well have stayed down and watched it anyway!
Friday
------
THE MERRY MONARCH (1932) ** 1/2
Certainly an interesting curiosity, both visually and as a peculiar sociopolitical fable. Sidney Fox doesn't have a lot to do, especially in the first half, but what she does is fun to watch. Emil Jannings has perhaps the lightest and most entertaining character of his career, a far cry from the heavy melodrama he's noted for. The film's biggest problem is the ways it tries to stretch the far-fetched plot of a one or two-reeler into an hour-and-a-half feature.
THE FULLER GUSH MAN (1934) ***
Entertaining madness as Walter Catlett visits his putative girlfriend's home to ask for her hand but her family literally acts crazy to scare him away (at her request).
LADIES OF LEISURE (1926) ***
Cute Columbia Pictures romantic comedy from with a touch of melodrama, starring Gertrude Short trying to woo bachelor playboy T. Roy Barnes while her brother loves her best friend, who has an ominous secret past.
CAMP MEETIN' (1936) ** 1/2
Diverting all-black RKO musical short spotlighting numbers by the Hall Johnson Choir against a thin plot of a preacher trying to reconcile discrepancies in the congregation's finances.
KING OF THE KONGO ch. 5 (1929) **
Newly restored episode of the low-budget part-talkie serial episode that was probably as campy in 1929 as it is today (although it would likely make more sense in context with the rest of the episodes).
BOLSHEVISM ON TRIAL (1919) ***
An effective and well-made propaganda film setting up the ideals of communist philosophy and revealing how its flaws lead to repressive totalitarianism by showing a group of socialists moving to an island to live in a utopia of brotherhood. Spurred on by an ambitious agitator, things soon degenerate into a nightmare. Based on the 1909 novel by Thomas Dixon, the film updates references to include the recent Russian revolution, whose results would parallel many of the film's plot points over the following years.
El Brendel Home Movies (1940s) ***
Interesting behind-the-scenes look at movies El Brendel worked on, all original footage and mostly in lovely 16mm Kodachrome.
THE ICE FLOOD (1926) ***
Predictable but fun northwoods action melodrama from Universal Pictures with Viola Dana and Kenneth Harlan. I'd seen this before, but it was still fun, especially with Jon Mirsales' rousing score.
ZWEI HERZEN IM DRIVEIRTEL TAKT (1930) ***
It's been awhile since Cinefest ran a foreign talkie without subtitles, and this was the one for this year. A printed libretto made it easy to follow the simple story of a composer with writer's block inspired by a girl he meets to write the show's hit song, but she leaves without telling her name and he then forgets the song (though she's already memorized it). A better-than-high-school knowledge of German would help with some of the dialogue's comic subtleties, but the showy filmmaking style is an obvious influence on later Hollywood musicals (notably Lubitsch).
SAMMY'S SCANDALOUS SCHEME (1915) ***
Very entertaining domestic comedy of boyfriend upset with girlfriend's obsession by Charlie Chaplin. Sadly the end is missing, so we never get to see her reaction when he decides to pay her a visit posing as Chaplin.
HAM AND THE MASKED MARVEL (1916) **
One of the better Ham & Bud comedies is marred a bit by missing footage.
NEARLY SPLICED (1916/21) **
Early Leon Errol short (his first) showing his attempt to get to his wedding in time is moderately entertaining.
MUGGSY IN BAD (1917) **
Odd and rather disjointed husband-wife conflict comedy, with missing footage.
DIZZY DAISY (1924) ** 1/2
Fun, action-packed slapstick Louise Fazenda short.
RABBIT FIRE (1950) ****
One of the best Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd-Daffy Duck hunting cartoons.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932) ***
Clive Brook fine if a bit low-key in the title role matching wits with Ernest Torrence as Moriarty in an effective and moody version of the stage play by Fox Films.
THIS RECKLESS AGE (1932) *** 1/2
Well-done comedy-drama about the generation gap and middle-class family life during the Depression. The effective cast includes Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Frances Dee, Charles Ruggles, Richard Bennett, and Peggy Shannon, in a story of free-spirited children not living up to the expectations of their parents but finally rallying to support the family in a crisis. The first half of the seems very close in subject and spirit to “Make Way for Tomorrow,” made five years later, and the last half bears some strong similarities to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” made 14 years later.
Saturday
--------
35mm at Palace Theatre
THREE WOMEN (1924) ***
Ernst Lubitch provides more melodrama than his usual comic touch but it's still a fairly entertaining story of a gold-digging gigolo who marries a rich widow and then goes after her daughter.
SPORTS OF MANY LANDS (1928) ** 1/2
This one-reel travelogue showcased outdoor sports in lovely two-color Technicolor.
Technicolor Fragments ***
Tantalizingly brief clips from numerous 1929-30 Technicolor productions, mostly musicals, that otherwise have survived only in black and white, if at all.
AFFINITIES (1922) ***
This early Colleen Moore comedy looks like it would be a lot of fun, but after its opening few minutes it's missing the middle hour until we get to see some heavily decomposed fragments of the beginning of the last reel.
COME ON OVER (1922) ***
Fun early Colleen Moore vehicle about Irish immigrants coming to New York, finding work so they can send for relatives, and helping out fellow Irishmen in their new country.
Billy West comedy (c. 1919) ** 1/2
This unidentified one-reeler missing its opening title has West doing his usual Chaplin impersonation.
THE NICKEL SNATCHER (1920) ** 1/2
This fast-paced Hank Mann comedy set mostly on a trolly car is moderately amusing in its anarchy.
FIDELITY (1911) **
The title of this Gertrud Norman melodrama refers to the St. Bernard that belongs to a poor little girl, but is sold to a wealthier family. Meanwhile the girl accidentally sets her house on fire and dies, and the dog visits her grave.
ROUGH SAILING (1923) ** 1/2
This Poodles Hanneford comedy was moderately entertaining but easily forgettable (obviously, as I've already completely forgotten what happens in it!).
THE DESERT SCOUT (1925) ***
This was one surviving reel of a surprisingly ambitiously produced two-reel Denver Dixon western with pioneers and an Indian attack. We can only hope the rest of the film is found.
PRETTY SOFT (1919) ** 1/2
This Hallroom Boys comedy seems to be a lot of fun, but again is missing a reel, so it's hard to tell what's really going on at times.
A CLOSE SHAVE (1929) ** 1/2
This late Mack Sennett again survives as only the first of two reels, but there are some funny bits in the barbershop.
IT'S A FRAME-UP (2013) ** 1/2
Cinephile Michael Schlesinger wrote, produced, and directed this loving tribute to 1930s black-and-white comedy shorts. An Abbott & Costello and/or Laurel & Hardy-like pair get a job in an art gallery where mayhem naturally ensues after they're entrusted to mind the store by themselves. The two leads, Nick Santa Maria and Will Ryan, have a nice on-screen chemistry and really get into the spirit of the story as "Biffle and Shooster," and Robert Picardo has some nice bits as an Arthur Housman drunk, but the rest of the cast often seems more like they're intentionally trying to camp it up.
WHY BRING THAT UP? (1929) ***
Rare and surprisingly well-made early talkie backstage drama that chronicles the career of popular blackface vaudeville comedians George Moran and Charles Mack (who play themselves) and was directed by theatre veteran George Abbott. Plenty of fluidly moving camera shots belie the myth that all early talkies were static, and Moran & Mack give fine, reasonably naturalistic performances.
THE WOMAN DISPUTED (1928) *** 1/2
Henry King and Sam Taylor co-directed this slick, well-mounted romantic love-triangle melodrama set in World War I Austria. Norma Talmadge stars as a prostitute who reforms after a strange man commits suicide in her apartment. Gilbert Roland is the Austrian officer who falls for her and helps get her a respectable job with best friend Arnold Kent, a Russian officer (and cousin of the suicide) who also falls for her. Then the war breaks out and the men are now on opposite sides, with all sorts of complications developing.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HELEN OF TROY (1927) last reel
[DVD WOULD NOT PLAY!]
THE SMILE WINS (1928) *** (DVD)
A recently rediscovered Our Gang silent short that introduces Farina to the gang in an unexpectedly dramatic story with some gags inserted to lighten it up instead of a bunch of comic bits strung along a thin plotline.
PARTNERS AGAIN (1926) ** (DIGITAL COPY)
Despite its rarity, copied from the sole known print and surviving only in 8mm, this was probably the least entertaining of the weekend's movies, a tedious comedy based on a stage play featuring the apparently popular Potash and Perlmutter characters, played by George Sidney and Alexander Carr. Though directed by Henry King, of all people, the pacing of the predictable sitcom situation is often dragged to a standstill by numerous titles to get across the supposedly comic dialogue exchanges.
BEHIND THE DOOR (1919) *** 1/2 (DIGITAL COPY, would be **** restored in HD w/tints)
World War I submarine melodrama with an unusual flashback structure that begins in 1925, dealing with an American sea captain of German heritage who swears gruesome personal vengeance after his wife is kidnapped and raped by a German U-boat commander. This movie is an in-progress restoration that is still missing a reel and a few brief scenes that it is hoped exist in an incomplete copy discovered in Russia.
THE QUARTERBACK (1926) *** 1/2 (DIGITAL COPY)
Richard Dix and Esther Ralston star in a well-written and nicely-acted Paramount Picture about college football and romance that has some interesting, highly effective variations on the standard plot, plus some impressive camera shots and editing. Director Fred Newmeyer had been co-director on Harold Lloyd's THE FRESHMAN the year before and there are some obvious parallels. The copy shown was the full rare 8-reel theatrical release rather than the 5-reel Kodascope.
Sunday
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WAKE UP AND LIVE (1937) ***
A fun musical comedy set in the world of network radio, ostensibly about the friendly feud between Walter Winchell and Ben Bernie (who play themselves) but really a showcase for various musical performances and a cute romantic comedy vehicle for Jack Haley and Alice Faye. Haley is a vaudeville veteran who has mike fright on the air, but Faye tutors him after he accidentally sings in front of a live mike that is broadcasting over the air becomes an immediate but unknown sensation.
SAILORS BEWARE (1933) ** 1/2
This two-reel Paramount comedy short is a standard but enjoyable romp with Eugene Pallette and Walter Catlett as sailors and Dorothy Granger as a crafty crook trying to find the sailor who owns a winning lottery ticket.
Three Justin Herman "Paramount Pacemaker" shorts:
--I COVER THE EVERGLADES (1951) ***
Interesting look at a small-town Florida newspaper editor/reporter.
--HURRICANE HUNTERS (1953) ** 1/2
A look at the weather bureau's method of tracking hurricanes by plane.
--WALK IN THE DEEP (1955) ** 1/2
A look at a "bends"-damaged Greek sponge diver in Florida
THE GILDED CAGE (1916) ** 1/2
Attractive Alice Brady stars as a princess raised in a convent who must suddenly become queen when her parents are assassinated, but she disguises herself as a peasant to find out her people's attitudes and falls in love with a renegade prince who has renounced the aristocracy and become a dangerous subversive according to her wicked and scheming prime minister. Diretor Harley Knoles' filmmaking style seems more like a 1913 production than 1916, but the film is reasonably effective despite its trite ruritanian plot.
HIGH STAKES (1931) ***
Lowell Sherman directed and stars in this competent adaptation of a hit stage play about a drunken would-be writer who tries to save his older brother Edward martindel from a disastrous marriage to gold-digging Mae Murray. Murray is actually quite enjoyable as the scheming woman and Karen Morley is very good as the faithful secretary who loves Sherman.
SOUTH RIDING (1938) ****
Arguably the best film of the weekend was the final one shown, a British social drama and soap-opera produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Victor Saville. The fine ensemble cast stars Ralph Richardson and Edna Best with Edmund Gwenn, Ann Todd, John Clements, and a 14-year-old Glynis Johns. It’s a portrait of the political and personal lives of a half-dozen small-town Yorkshire council members with a representative cross-section of British types and philosophies dealing with various issues that concern their county’s well-being as well as private ambitions.
