Why Be Good? 1929

[Eric Cohen]

...When you can be great. Just screened at Chicago Film Festival (50th anniversary), the restored Why Be Good? '29 w. the original Vitaphone score was shown on the big screen. It had been seen in LA and discussed in Silent Screenings:
http://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f ... on#p139135" target="_blank
and also
http://ladailymirror.com/2014/09/09/mar ... -jazz-age/" target="_blank

I missed reading those posts before the movie, so was also looking for Harlow and concur that she's on a roof patio bench with a lucky guy's head in her lap. I also spotted Phil Harris in the front of the Boiler Room bandstand drumming his little old heart out. The last jazz band featured was black and saxophone great Johnny Hodges is right there. I await others to confirm or deny this.
The screening was introduced by Michael Kutza who reminisced about meeting and conspiring with Chicago socialite Colleen Moore on creating the festival, and David Robinson, who added context. He feels she isn't as well-known because of the poor survival rate of her silent films and theorized that at some time after Moore gave MOMA her 1st National prints, Warners reclaimed them as their property and then eventually lost/discarded them. Just a theory.
I bet Why Be Good? will be considered the best of her surviving "flapper" pictures. I loved the music score, "the roaring 20s" ambience, the intimate scenes with her mother that are so rare in Hollywood movies. I thought Neil Hamilton was terrific and he and she had great chemistry. A good thing because there's a lot of kissing in this movie, Not the take-me kind representing something else but genuine romantic smooching. I most of all liked the film's message: Though prone to excess and misunderstanding, people are basically good-natured.

[aldiboronti]

How I would love to see this movie!

Seth Winner dubs the disc to reel 1 of the 1929 film "Why Be Good?"

[Gagman 66]

Thanks much for the review. There are several screenings coming up. Both WHY BE GOOD? and SYNTHETIC SIN will be seen at the Film Foru7m in New York next month. Here is an ad.



As for Colleen's reputation, it certainly doesn't help that even LILAC TIME isn't available on DVD. And none of her First National Silent features have made it to TCM yet. I would be happy even with a premiere of IRENE or TWINKLETOES? Certainly had hoped to see HER WILD OAT by now. I'm sure Percherine Ragtime Orchestra would be interested.

[Ann Harding]

It's coming out on Warner Archive on the 28th October. That was fast!

[smokey15]

That's fantastic news! I can't wait to buy it.

[pathe16mm]

I don't see it at Warner Archive for pre-order. Should it show up in another day or two?

[vitaphone]

As stated above, it will be posted on Tuesday October 28th. They don't do pre-orders.

[drednm]

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!

[azjazzman]

As stated above, it will be posted on Tuesday October 28th. They don't do pre-orders.

Actually, they do.

[Gagman 66]

Christine, Ed, Everyone,

Wow! I'm ecstatic to say the least. This release is ahead of a TCM Premiere? That's amazing. Ideally it would have been nice if Colleen had at least one film premiere during Silent Stars month in November.

[Roseha]

Great news, thanks for the alert! Can't wait to see this film.

I just ordered Why Be Good? from the TCM shop. While I was there I also ordered Madam Satan which I got for 20% off with this promo code:

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/shop.tcm.com?c=6271014

[Gagman 66]

By the way, THE COSSACKS with Robert Israel's new score was also released today! TCM has an opening on the schedule for December 21st yet to be announced, maybe WHY BE GOOD? will debut then? It would be nice to get either Jeff Codori or Ron Hutchinson as a guest host when it does premiere.

[JFK]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleen_Moore#Later_years
"Many of Colleen Moore's films deteriorated but not due to her own neglect, after she had sent them to be preserved at the Museum of Modern Art. Some time later, Warner Brothers asked for their nitrate materials to be returned to them. Moore's earlier First National films were also sent, since Warners later acquired First National. Upon their arrival, the custodian at MOMA, not seeing the films on the manifest, put them to one side and never went back to them. Many years later, Moore inquired about her collection and MOMA found the films languishing unprotected. When the films were examined, they had decomposed past the point of preservation. Heartbroken, she tried in vain to retrieve any prints she could from several sources without much success."

http://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs ... 4.pdf?2010
pdf version of 1944 press release

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 WEST 53RD STREET, NEW YORK 19, N. Y.
TELEPHONE: CIRCLE 5-8900
FOR RELEASE THURSDAY;JUNE 15, 1944
html version of 1944 press release

Page 1
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 WEST 53RD STREET, NEW YORK 19, N. Y.
TELEPHONE: CIRCLE 5-8900
FOR RELEASE THURSDAY;JUNE 15, 1944
COLLEEN MOORE FILMS ACQUIRED BY MUSEUM OF MODERN ART FILM LIBRARY
The Museum of Modern Art announces the gift of a collection of fifteen films starring Colleen Moore. The collection has been pre-sented to the Museum's Film Library by Miss Moore herself and includes her most famous motion picture FLAMING YOUTH which epitomizes the Age of the Flapper. Previous gifts made to the Film Library by former motion picture stars of collections of their pictures include those of William S. Hart, the late Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd and Mary Plckford. The Film Library's collection, which includes most of the outstanding pictures made between 1895 and 1940, totals upwards of 17,000,000 feet of film.Iris Barry, Curator of the Film Library, says of the Colleen Moore gift:"Best remembered of Miss Moore's films is FLAMING YOUTH which in 1923 created a considerable furor by its depiction of the morals of the younger generation, their familiarity with cocktails and petting parties. In this and subsequent films Miss Moore, who popularized the Dutch bob, was the living symbol of the Flapper: FLAMING YOUTH itself was to the early 'twenties what Joan Crawford's DANCING DAUGHTERS was to the close of the decade. Following the immense success of FLAMING YOUTH, Miss Moore became a top box-office star and made in rapid succession a number of pictures ranging from the serious SO BIG based on the Edna Ferber story through WE MODERNS (1926), NAUGHTY BUT NICE (1927), THAT'S A BAD GIRL (1928) and ORCHIDS AND ERMINE(1927) in which the part of a cigar-smoking midget was played by a little boy of five later to be known as Mickey Rooney."Colleen Moore, born in Port Huron, Michigan, in 1902, made her debut in films under contract to David Wark Griffith and is said to have appeared in the great Babylonian crowd scene in his INTOLERANCE,though her first picture for him was THE BAD BOY (1917) with Robert Harron. It was followed by LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE (1919) for Selig, SO LONG LETTY (1920) for Christie Comedies, while she also appeared as Tom Mix's sweetheart in a typical Northwest Mountle subject, THE CYCLONE (1920) for Fox. The films which Miss Moore has presented to the Museum of Modern Art Film Library are as follows:
LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE (1919, Selig)..... IRENE (1926, Fox)
HER BRIDAL NIGHTMARE (1919, Christie)..... TWINKLE TOES (1927, First National)
SO LONG LETTY (1920, Christie)
COME ON OVER (1922, Goldwyn).................LILAC TIME ('"" 1928)
BROKEN CHAINS (1923, Goldwyn).................SYNTHETIC SIN ( "" 1929)
FLAMING YOUTH (1923, First National).................WHY BE GOOD? ( '"" 1929)
SO BIG (1925, First National).................HAPPINESS AHEAD ('"" 1928)
SALLY (1925, First National).........................HER WILD OAT('"" 1928)

[drednm]

Wow. I thought she had donated the films in the 60s.... but otherwise the sad story is the same....

[Bob Furem]

Why Be Good and Cossacks now available from Warner Archive.

[missdupont]

Many people have posited David Robinson's theory about why her prints have such a terrible survival rate long before now. Robert Cushman, then the Photograph Curator at the Herrick, told me that exact same thing seven years ago. I've heard it from others as well.

[smokey15]

I just ordered WHY BE GOOD from the Warner Bros Archive website. I looked at TCM's website for it and the DVD was
$3.00 more. I wonder why their cost is more?

[dr.giraud]

Watched the new Why Be Good DVD last night. Image and sound quality are excellent. Fun film, and thank God it's a silent and not a part-talkie: Plenty of fluid camera work matched with a great Vitaphone score.

[bobfells]

I just ordered WHY BE GOOD from the Warner Bros Archive website. I looked at TCM's website for it and the DVD was
$3.00 more. I wonder why their cost is more?

Perhaps because TCM needs to make its cut.

[drednm]

How did you get your copy so fast??????

[drednm]

Watched tonight. Wondrous! Congrats to ALL involved in the herculean effort to restore this marvelous film. Let's hope there are more Colleen Moore films in the "pipeline." She deserves to be rediscovered and to reclaim her place among the silent greats.

[smokey15]

I just finished watching "Why Be Good" a few minutes ago. The DVD arrived yesterday. I'm happy to say that the picture is wonderfully clear. The soundtrack is also very clear; no stratches or rough edges. I'm very happy to own
this movie. I sure wish other rare films such as this would be put on the market after they've been restored.
There are too many films which have been restored only to sit in vaults for the occasional showing at a film festival.

This movie has also made me eager to see other Colleen Moore films. She is amazing! She's really the epitome of the
jazz age gal. Are there any more of her silents which are available on the market for sale?

[s.w.a.c.]

Are there any more of her silents which are available on the market for sale?

There are copies of her version of The Scarlet Letter out there of varying degrees of quality. Haven't seen the Alpha Video version, but it should probably be avoided. There's also an Alpha release of Ella Cinders, but I'd try and find it elsewhere.

Grapevine Video has released a few Colleen Moore titles. Little Orphant Annie comes to mind, as well as The Busher, starring Charles Ray, which I believe also came out in a set of baseball-themed silents released by Kino. Here's their complete list. (They also have Broken Hearts of Broadway, Ella Cinders and Scarlet Letter.)

[Brooksie]

Grapevine put out Orchids and Ermine (1927) a few years ago, but I think it's out of print. Perhaps you could find a second hand copy.

Stay away from the Sunrise Silents version, unless you like to pretend you're watching a film underwater through a dirty dishcloth.

[Eric Cohen]

Grapevine Video currently has these Colleen Moore titles:
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/colleen_moore.html" target="_blank

and lots of director William A. Seiter silents:
http://www.grapevinevideo.com/william_a_seiter.html" target="_blank

reelclassicdvd.com has Ella Cinders with a Ben Model score:
http://www.reelclassicdvd.com/silent_era.htm" target="_blank

[WaverBoy]

In the past, Grapevine has released IRENE, ORCHIDS & ERMINE and TWINKLETOES, but they no longer offer these gems. I'm glad I got while the getting was good. And I can't wait to get my copy of WHY BE GOOD?, which I just ordered. Now I'm ready for some SYNTHETIC SIN.