Kansas Silent Film Festival update

[silentfilm]

This year's Kansas Silent Film Festival was nearly snowed in. Luckily the snowstorm was the day before the festival, so at least roads west and south were somewhat clear. Unfortunately, the Mont Alto Orchestra was stranded in Hays, Kansas Thursday as the Interstate was closed. They decided to turn around because one of the band members was sick. It's like 6 degrees now, not counting the chill factor.

Bruce Lawton was nice enough to loan us the large vintage HANDS UP! banner poster that he recently discovered.

GALLOPING BUNGALOWS (1924) was a bizarre Mack Sennett short where Sunshine Hart advertises for a suitor for her daughter, Natalie Kingston. The only qualification -- you must have an impressive mustache. Billy Bevan is the right man for the job! That's pretty much the plot, although there are some funny gags concerning a ramshackle beach house that Bevan buys and is in constant danger of collapsing. The end is an all-out chase involving the fire department. It's not Sennett at his best, but some parts of the film are pretty good. Paul Gierucki and Brittney Valente said that they reconstructed this short from two different, disjointed prints and they had to get the original titles list from the Academy. **

MABEL AND FATTY ADRIFT (1916) one of the pair's best, and I've seen it many times. It is easily available on David Shepard's Slapstick Encyclopedia. Mabel never looked cuter, and Al St. John never looked more creepy. It's bizarre that "Teddy" is credited as the dog, even though "Luke" actually appears in the film. Mabel can be constantly seen calling him "Roscoe", not "Fatty". ***1/2

SPARROWS (1926) is a wonderfully gothic Mary Pickford film, her last as a child-like character. I've also seen this one many times, but it's always welcome to experience it with a live audience. Gustav von Seyffertitz really makes the film as the deviously evil Mr. Grimes, but he is evil for greed's sake, not just for pure evil's sake. Pickford wisely includes comedy and horseplay early on in the film, so that the scary parts that follow are more effective. One of director William Beaudine's best films. This film has one of the only allegorical scenes in silent films that really works, as Jesus makes an appearance and keeps the film from having to deal with disposing of a body and the grief that the other children might feel. ****

[Rodney]

Yes, not only a sick trumpet player (it was an ear infection), but being stuck for two nights, plus the prospect of more wintry weather coming on already unsafe roads, and completely full hotels in every town where we might get stranded the next night -- it was not a cheery prospect. We would love to be there, as we love those film scores and we love the Topeka audience! But I'm looking forward to a toasty fire tonight here in Colorado. A toast to the musicians taking over for our films at the last minute, and buy them a beer if you get the chance! I will when I see them next.

There was a comparative study of theaters in Kansas and New York State in a 1920s economics journal. It noted that large movie palaces in Kansas did not put nearby local theaters out of business (as was the pattern in New York), because in winter you simply could not get from one town to the next over the muddy, icy roads. It's not so bad now, but we still get flashes of that phenomenon! If only we still had passenger rail between Denver and Topeka, we'd have gotten through like the vaudevillians used to.

[Richard M Roberts]

GALLOPING BUNGALOWS (1924) was a bizarre Mack Sennett short where Sunshine Hart advertises for a suitor for her daughter, Natalie Kingston. The only qualification -- you must have an impressive mustache. Billy Bevan is the right man for the job! That's pretty much the plot, although there are some funny gags concerning a ramshackle beach house that Bevan buys and is in constant danger of collapsing. The end is an all-out chase involving the fire department. It's not Sennett at his best,

The heck it isn't, and that's nothing but the first three minutes or so you're calling the plot. That's just a surreal and nonsensical set-up to one of the most elaborate and bizarre chase scenes Director Del Lord ever did. GALLOPING BUNGALOWS is a delightful Sennett Comedy with some very impressive car stunts.

but some parts of the film are pretty good. Paul Gierucki and Brittney Valente said that they reconstructed this short from two different, disjointed prints and they had to get the original titles list from the Academy. **

You're garbling the restoration story. There were two prints used (both from my collection), one was the beautiful original material that had been somewhat disassembled into component parts, the other was a reversal of the original material made before it was disassembled which Paul used as a guide to put the original material back together in correct order. Neither print has subtitles, and those were got from the Academy and re-inserted. Paul did a great job on the restoration.

Any film that has a shot of Sunshine Hart starting to get angry that dissolves into a bulldozer then back to her as she stampedes the beach house is a classic!


RICHARD M ROBERTS (Keep warm out there)

[Gloria Rampage]

First Time I saw GALLOPING BUNGALOWS was last September's TCM Mack Sennet tribute and it instantly became one of my favorite comedies. Definatly one of the funniest. One of Del Lords best gag filled comedies. Things really get cooking when the bungalow catches fire.

Hope to see it again soon.

[Jeff Rapsis]

Rodney, you and your fellow 'Mont Altoids' were definitely missed at this year's Kansas Silent Film Festival! Still, better safe than sorry, and hope to see (and hear) you folks at next year's edition. Hope everyone's well by now. Mont Alto was missed when it was time to show films with live music, and also when it was time to sing show tunes at the afterglow.

Mont Alto's absence was only one of several mishaps this year that included festival director Bill Shaffer slipping on ice and requiring a hospital visit for stitches in mid-festival! He returned after being patched up, and later hosted the festival's annual 'Cinema Dinner' as planned, although sporting one heckuva bruised eye.

Despite all this, the festival came out a winner. All films on the program got screened with live music, and a few surprises were shown, too, including a curious silent Our Gang special effects reel that festival guest Paul Gierucki recently unearthed. Paul and Brittany Valente from Cinemuseum were welcomed for their efforts in reassembling so much work of the Sennett studios, and gave an interesting presentation about their work at the dinner.

Me, I was concerned that filling in on short notice for Mont Alto in 'Fatty and Mabel Adrift' (1916) would turn into 'Fatty and Mabel and Accompanist Adrift,' but it seemed to go okay. No one threw anything, anyway. (Except on screen.)

[NotSoSilent]

Here is what I posted under the "silent screenings" discussion of the KSFF (maybe both discussions could be merged together?):

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Although you (Mont Alto) were certainly missed, Marvin, Greg, Jeff, and Bob did a FANTASTIC job playing the films. Kudos to this talented group of professionals.

It's also important to note Bill Shaffer, president of the KSFF, took a nasty slip on the ice and split his eye right before the start of the second day. Like the pro he is, he returned to the event after being attended to in the ER. Even with a swollen and purple eye socket he was able to moderate the cinema dinner. I think he's my new hero...

Kudos to the entire KSFF group for putting together another first class event!!
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With so many things that didn't go well, everything fell nicely into place. People who needed to stepped up to the plate and put on a great event.

[silentfilm]

Jim and I made it home before the next blizzard hit, so here's a recap from the second day.

His Prehistoric Past (1914) is more interesting than funny, as it is one of Chaplin's last Keystones and he wrote and probably directed it. Mack Swain made his first of three appearances on Saturday. It's pretty much a typical Keystone with an angry husband, except transported back to the stone age. There is one classic Chaplin gag where he wants to light a cigarette, but of course there are no matches. He picks up a rock (presumably a piece of flint), but it will not light, so he picks up another and it flames right up. I don't know what the earliest use is of the "dream" bookending story, but this is certainly an early use of it. *1/2

Flying Elephants (1928) was Laurel & Hardy's last Pathé release, and they are definitely not a team in this film. I had never really liked this film before, but after watching it again after ten years and with a live audience, it was quite funny in places. Stan's character is almost Harpo-like, in that he is childlike, but also has a scissors-kick reaction when he sees a pretty cave woman like Viola Richard. They don't work together as a team at all, but the comedy still works. The "flying elephants" gag isn't that funny, but the stop-motion animation of Stan on the back of a dinosaur is funny. **1/2

The Three Ages (1923) has a reputation for being a "lesser" Keaton, but this is certainly not true. As Keaton's first feature, it was conceived as three stories intertwined as in Intolerance, but it could have been re-edited into three two-reelers if the feature bombed. The genius in the stone-aged, Roman, and modern stories is that they are all similar, but still very much grounded in their respective time period. If it had been separated into three different stories, it would not have been nearly as funny. Contest-winner and female co-star Margaret Leahy wasn't terrible, but an experienced comedienne probably would have made the film even better. ***1/2

Broncho Billy's Adventure (1911) was a restoration by the George Eastman House. Broncho Billy is actually not the main character in this one, as an over-protective tavern keeper tries to keep all cowboys away from his daughter. When she takes a shine to one of them, the tavern keeper shoots the suitor. It's up to BB to resolve things, although the local doctor A. (Agustus) Carney (using his real name) does just as much to patch things back up. This survives in great quality, and is slightly better than the average Broncho Billy one-reeler. The IMDB has a F. Gwenplaine MacEntyre's reviews of this film, and it is obvious that he actually had seen it! **1/2

Broken Ways (1913) was a late D.W. Griffith Biograph starring Henry B. Walthall as an abusive husband to Blanche Sweet. She leaves him because of the abuse and his criminal ways, and gets a job as a telegraph operator. Harry Carey takes a shine to her, but she must tell him that she is not availabe, although she won't say why. When he tries another robbery and is on the run from the law, she must decide whether or not to shield Walthall and lie to Carey. I was very impressed with this one-reeler, and the story was quite developed for the one-reel running time. ***

The Narrow Trail was a typical William S. Hart where he is the leader of a bandit gang who has to go it alone after the law gets too close. He falls in love with a local girl and decides to reform. But in an interesting twist to his formula, the girl isn't really a "good" girl, she's a dance hall girl and her father is a con man. She is just as ashamed of her past, which makes for an interesting dilemma. I found this one a refreshing departure from Hart's formula, which he repeated quite a lot during his career. ***

More tomorrow...

[Gloria Rampage]

Did you notice Sydney Chaplin as the cop who wakes Charlie up at the end of HIS PREHISTORIC PAST?

[silentfilm]

Man With a Punch (1920) was a Hoot Gibson two-reel western. Hoot finds a letter on the ground, and delivers it to the local sheriff. It turns out to be for the sheriff, from an outlaw who is planning a heist with the (crooked) sheriff. Hoot pretends that he's in with the bandits, but of course he's really a good guy. I honestly can't remember much more about this short, except that I enjoyed it -- I guess film fatigue was setting in. ***

There probably wasn't anybody more excited about the screening of Hands Up! (1926) besides me. Of course I've seen it several times and have quite a few stills from this film. It was great to see it with a big audience. Some scenes went over big, like the firing squad sequence in the beginning and the finale. Others like the captured by Indians scenes fell kind of flat, possibly because they were a little politically incorrect. Mack Swain is very effective as a confused Northern mine owner. Bruce Lawton graciously allowed the festival to display a huge advertising banner that was recently discovered. ****

Larry Stedenbach, Trever Jost and myself with Bruce Lawton's HANDS UP! banner. Photo by Nikki McKim.

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For the evening's show, guest presenters Paul Gierucki and Brittney Valente presented two of their recent restorations. During the CinemaDinner banquet, they showed their recent restoration of Chaplin's RECREATION (1914), as well as some out-takes of Mabel Normand and some later "Bathing Beauties" at the beach.

Their restoration of The Speed Kings (1913) looked fantastic. This film has the cameras closer than usual for a 1913 Keystone, so you can see the players expressions better than usual. Mabel has a crush on racer Teddy Tetzlaff (who has his name misspelled in the opening credits) and Ford Sterling is jealous. There are great moving shots of racers Barney Oldfield and Tetzlaff. Roscoe Arbuckle makes a short appearance as a race official. ***

Madcap Ambrose (1916) is another better-than-usual Keystone. Instead of the usual Keystone chaos, it has good gags featuring Polly Moran as an inept kitchen helper. Ambrose (Mack Swain again) is kind of attracted to her, but rebuffs her when he finds out she has inherited some money. As soon as Edgar Kennedy (with a full head of hair!) tries to marry her for her money, Ambrose gets on the ball. ***

Paul presented a bonus film, Our Gang At Home (1925?). This was apparently a promotional film, because it doesn't have a plot. It features the silent cast like Mary Kornman, Jackie Condon and Farina. Six of the cast are featured using multiple exposures and ultra slow-motion. I especially liked the shots with the glass floor and Farina dancing and riding a tricycle over it. Hopefully Paul and Brittney will be able to release their Our Gang DVD set eventually and everyone will get to enjoy this bizarre short. ***1/2

The Gaucho (1927) is an interesting late Douglas Fairbanks that is very similar to his Zorro movies. One big difference is female lead Lupe Velez, who is not shirking violet like his heroines usually are. She is insanely jealous of Fairbanks' gaucho bandit throughout the movie. Although Fairbanks was in his 40s and Velez was 19, their relationship still works. The film also greatly benefits from some great photography by Tony Gaudio. Gustav von Seyffertitz (from SPARROWS) is back as the villain, but this time he is not nearly as effective because his villainy is mostly by decree and not in person. ***1/2

I can't say enough about how great the musicians were this weekend. When Mont Alto was not able to appear, Jeff Rapsis, Marvin Faulwell, Phil Figgs and Greg Forman were up to the challenge of accompanying some films with little or no knowledge of the film. The addition of Bob Keckeisen on percussion really adds to the musical feeling for both dramas and comedies. It is also amazing that festival director Bill Shaffer was still able to host the Cinema Dinner a few hours after slipping on the ice, injuring his eye and taking a trip to the ER. Paul and Brittney were great guests, and it was a pleasure to visit with them after the screenings.

There should be a bunch of photos posted on the KSFF website in a few days by photographer Carol Yoho.

[Brooksie]

Nice reviews, thanks everyone!

[Gloria Rampage]

Richard M Roberts
Any film that has a shot of Sunshine Hart starting to get angry that dissolves into a bulldozer then back to her as she stampedes the beach house is a classic!

Just watched HALF-BACK OF NOTRE DAME also directed by Del Lord where he uses the bulldozer gag with one of the football players. A very funny and effective gag, but it's so much more funnier with Sunshine Hart performing the routine.

[greta de groat]

Isn't there a similar gag in The Sporting Venus involving Josephine Crowell and Lew Cody?

Greta