FRIDAY

FIGHTING DUDE (silent)
With Lupino Lane (16mm print)

MISS LULU BETT (PARAMOUNT_1921)
CAST: Lois Wilson, Theodore Roberts, Milton Sills, Clarence Burton, Helen Furguson, Mable Van Buren, Ethel Wales, Taylor Graves, Charles Ogle DIR: William de Mille, SCREENPLAY Clara Beranger
While brother Cecil astounded the nation with exotic melodramas like FORBIDDEN FRUIT and FOOL'S PARADISE, William de Mille continued with his more intimate canvasses of small town America. Zona Gale's novel was first converted into a Pulitzer Prize winning play, and then brought to the screen. The story has been streamlined and simplified, but as Variety said in it's review, "...there is no longer any doubt but that such a procedure is deemed to be essential to come with the mental scope of the general public, (Sic.)" Be that as is may, de Mille brilliantly fine tuned his cast in this domestic drama of rural life. The director's keen sense of observation and his compassion for his characters makes MISS LULU BETT a moving experience for audiences. Lois Wilson gives a beautifully textured performance as the drudge who is used by her dominant sister and brutalized by the man she loves. Only a silent film could sustain this delicate story, and it still retains it's magic today. (16mm print)

APPLES TO YOU (Hal Roach Studio)
With Billy Gilbert. (16mm print)

THE BLUE EAGLE (Fox Film Corp. - 1926)
CAST: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, William Russell, Robert Edeson, David Butler, Phil Ford, Ralph Sipperly, Margaret Livingston, Jerry Madden, Harry Tenbrook, Lew Short DIR: John Ford, SCREENPLAY: L.G. Rigby, CINEMATOGRAPHY: George Schneiderman
Not a western as you would expect from Ford and O'Brien this is a family drama set against the background of WWI and the "Roaring 20's". It has languished in the film vaults all these years because one of the reels was "lost". Because so little of Ford's work of this period is available we felt it important to bring this example to Saginaw despite its defects. (35mm print courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Library of Congress)

CARTOONS - TOM & JERRY
OLD ROCKING CHAIR TOM (1948)
QUIET PLEASE (1945 Academy Award winner)
TEXAS TOM (1950)

THE JUNGLE BOOK (aka RUDYARD KIPLING'S JUNGLE BOOK) (UNITED ARTISTS_1942)
CAST: Sabu, Joseph Calleia, Patricia O'Rourke, John Qualen, Frank Puglia, Rosemary DeCamp, Ralph Byrd, John Mather, Faith Brook, Nobel Johnson DIR: Zoltan Korda, second unit Andre de Toth, SCREENPLAY: Laurence Stallings CINEMATOGRAPHY: W. Howard Green,
This parable of innocence in a hostile world is partly Kipling and partly Stallings. Although Stallings added much to the original Mowgli stories, the tone throughout is Kipling, with his love of animals, nature and the wild. With all it's beauty, THE JUNGLE BOOK is an exciting adventure, filled with evil men, buried treasure, and a spectacular fire sequence. More spectacular still is Green's IB Technicolor photography.
The animals' performances took a great deal of patience from the production team. Kaa, the python, was an early attempt at animatronics, and was controlled by dozens of crew men manipulating hidden wires. Alexander Korda was almost scared into canceling the production when he came face to face with Shere Khan, the tiger. He crawled up on the roof of a trailer and watched the animal pace, waiting for him to come down. Much to his surprise, a trainer came and calmly led the animal away. Korda's fright was replaced by fury when he discovered that the "tiger" was actually a carefully painted dog. He ordered the dog and it's trainer off the lot, but several shots of this fake remain in the picture. This gently epic film is still a story for children of all ages, and hardly looks it's fifty years. (35mm print)

FOOTHILL FOLLIES
With Raymond Griffith.
Very early Raymond Griffith. Sadly only one reel is known to remain.
(35mm print courtesy of AFI & Library of Congress)

THE CAPTIVE (JESSE LASKY FEATURE PLAY COMPANY_1915)
CAST: Blanche Sweet, House Peters, Gerald Ward, Jeanie Macpherson, Marjorie Daw, Billy Elmer DIR: Cecil B. De Mille, SCREENPLAY Jeanie Macpherson and C.B. De Mille, CINEMATOGRAPHER Alvin Wyckoff, ART DIRECTOR Wilfred Buckland
Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille loved working in California. There seemed to be no place on earth that they could not recreate. THE CAPTIVE is an exotic tale of cross cultural kidnapping during the Balkan war. There is plenty of room for De Mille's love of sadism and sexual tension, a big battle scene, and a denouement that was a little far fetched even for 1915. Already surrounding himself with a dependable production team, De Mille is still feeling his way into the medium and only months away from making his first really great film, THE CHEAT. The director is already able to make something interesting and logical out of material that must have looked pretty improbable on paper. As an aside, this was De Mille's forth and final film with now forgotten leading man House Peters. (35mm print courtesy of Library of Congress)

SATURDAY

IB TECH NITRATE CARTOONS including Midnight Snack (1941), the second cartoon made in the Tom & Jerry series.

BLUE JEANS (A B.A. ROLFE PRODUCTION RELEASED BY METRO PICTURES _1917) Director John Collins, Scenario June Mathis and Charles A. Taylor, Cinematography John Arnold, with Viola Dana, Robert Walker, Sally Crute, Russell Simpson, Henry Hallam, Margaret McWade, Augustus Phillips
BLUE JEANS, written for the stage by Joseph Arthur, was a tried and true property when it finally made to the screen through husband and wife team Collins and Dana. They were in the midst of a series of very successful feature, although Variety complained that Dana's close ups were becoming excessive. Even Collins had trouble finding any shades of grey in this good vs evil melodrama. Dana plays June, an almost perfect copy of Anna in WAY DOWN EAST. Dana does Gish one better by convincing the community that she has married and had a child with her own brother. BLUE JEANS also contains one of melodrama's most famous finales. Collins continued to develop projects while Dana increased her box office standing by making pictures with other directors like Charles J. Brabin. It is unfortunate for her and for us that Collins was one of the victims of The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918. BLUE JEANS is one of his few surviving films. (35mm print courtesy The George Eastman House)

THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (UNITED ARTISTS_1941)
CAST: Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Ona Munson, Walter Houston, Albert Basserman, Phyllis Brooks, Maria Ouspenskkaya, Eric Blore, Ivan Lebedeff, Mike Mazurki DIR: Josef von Sternberg, SCREENPLAY von Sternberg, Geza Herczeg, Karl Vollmoler and Jules Furthman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paul Ivano, ART DIRECTOR: Boris Leven SETS BY Howard Bristol
Josef von Sternberg chose Christmas day to unveil his last major production. Thirty two film treatments of John Colton's play were submitted to the Hays office before Producer Arnold Pressburger managed to get approval to film SHANGHAI GESTURE. As with a THE SCARLET EMPRESS, SHANGHAI GESTURE is another "relentless excursion into style." John Colton's sensational 1920's melodrama was already dated and much of the action of the play worked better as sub_text. Mother Goddam became Mother Ginsling and her brothel was officially converted into a gambling den. Howard Bristol's dense, swirling designs and that this is no ordinary casino. Ivano was no stranger to cinematic decadence; he got his start as 2nd assistant cameraman on Nazimova's SALOME and worked with Valentino and Rambova on some of their more exotic projects. Una Munnson, as the proprietress of this strange hell, manipulates her customers like she arranges the wax dolls at her New Years dinner. She and Dr. Omar, a character added by von Sternberg, watch impassively as her ex_lover's daughter Poppy slips into depravity. Since Poppy is a half-caste, the taint of her blood is hinted as reason enough for her downfall. In fact, the miscegenation shocker is what made the play so scandalous. Gene Tierney's empty, petulant beauty is perfect for Poppy, a girl who lacks even the slightest moral fiber to fight against the evil that enfolds her. Mature, as "Doctor" Omar, is oily and insinuating, and gives what may be the performance of his career. This was the wrong film for a Nation getting ready for war, and the cynicism that it shows about English colonialism did not help it find an appreciative audience. THE SHANGHAI GESTURE'S cold, formal beauty looks very good today: it is the last major work of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic directors. Likee Chinese New Year?
(35mm print courtesy of The George Eastman House)

COCKEYED WORLD (FOX_1929)
CAST: Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Lily Damita, El Brendel, Lelia Karnelly,
Stuart Erwin DIR: Raoul Walsh
MGM's THE BIG PARADE, (1925) began a cycle of epic films about World War I, or as it was know then, "The Great War." WINGS, LILAC TIME, and many other war films gripped the imagination of a public that was now distanced enough from the actual events. No characters caught audience's imaginations like McLaglen and Lowe as Marines Flagg and Quirt, the two tough talking, hard drinking, womanizing heroes of WHAT PRICE GLORY,(1926). As a team, these two actors made a series of military comedy/dramas that were a great success with their fans. In 1929, director Walsh, just recovered from the accident that cost him his eye, created this sound sequel. This time it's a South Sea's Adventure, with the beautiful Lily Damita (Errol Flynn's second wife) standing in for Delores Del Rio. Early sound limitations and over familiarity make COCKEYED WORLD a little creaky today. Also missing is the fun that audiences had lip reading what McLaglen and Lowe really said in WHAT PRICE GLORY. Still, it's fun to revisit two of the periods most colorful characters. When Ford remade WHAT PRICE GLORY in the '50's, McLaglen and Lowe were really missed. (16mm print)

GORDON BERKOW will introduce a series of interesting, fun and very rare shorts.

WEST OF ZANZIBAR (MGM_1928)
CAST: Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Noland, Warren Baxter, Jacqueline Gadson DIR: Tod Browning, SCREENPLAY: Elliott Clawson
This dark and evil brew is really a tribute to all the Browning/Chaney films that had come before. Chaney plays another physical and emotional cripple, consumed with the desire to work his revenge on Ivory hunter Lionel Barrymore. Only daughter Mary Noland is saved from the fate worse than death, and escapes with a broken down Doctor that has been redeemed by love. Mary Noland is the Hollywood name for notorious ex_Ziegfeld Follies Girl, Imogene Wilson. Noland opted for a new name and new career when her sordid and violent affair with comic Frank Tinney became public property. Their relationship would have fit right in on the set of WEST OF ZANZIBAR. The whole company would have been very comfortable as neighbors of the characters in Von Stroheim's QUEEN KELLY. Walter Houston originated the Chaney role on stage, and then got his chance to recreate it on film in KONGO, (1932).
(35mm print courtesy of The George Eastman House)

WE'RE IN THE NAVY NOW
(PARAMOUNT_AN EDWARD SUTHERLAND PRODUCTION_1926)
CAST: Wallace Berry, Raymond Hatton, Chester Conklin, Tom Kennedy, Donald Keith, Lorraine Eason, Joseph W. Girard, Max Asher DIR: Edward Sutherland
SCREENPLAY: Monty Brice,
Berry, Hatton and Kennedy tear up the silver sheet in this fast paced, military comedy. Following in the wake of the first highly successful Berry/Hatton teaming, BEHIND THE FRONT, WE'RE IN THE NAVY NOW tells of a couple of palookas that end up accidentally enlisting in the service. This premise is all that's needed to propel a fast sixty minutes of film. The team of Berry and Hatton was so popular that Berry found it difficult to gain acceptance again as a single performer. WE'RE IN THE NAVY NOW is one of this team's best pictures, and was one of the big comedy successes of 1926. Gags from this film are still getting laughs on "I Love Lucy." (16mm print)

FANDANGO
With Lupino Lane (16mm print)

NUMBER SEVENTEEN (BRITISH INTERNATIONAL PICTURES_1932)
CAST: Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop, Barry Jones, Garry Marsh PRODUCER: John Maxwell DIR: and SCREENPLAY: Alfred Hitchcock CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jack Cox
NUMBER SEVENTEEN was the film made just before Hitchcock produced the film that he always considered his absolute nadir, WALTZES FROM VIENNA. Both were made for companies that were ailing financially. In fact, many films were made in Britain as "quota quickies," produced so that the big American companies could retain the English market for their films. Hitchcock, who had ushered in England's sound film era with BLACKMAIL, was still GAME was criticized as being far too talky, so his next film, RICH AND STRANGE, was almost totally without dialogue. Both films bombed, and Hitchcock approached his last film for the almost bankrupt BIP with little enthusiasm. In NUMBER 17, Hitchcock uses two locations that he would repeatedly return to; the old dark house and the train. The characters meet in an abandoned building and advance the plot as the wind whistles, shadows move, doors bang, bodies disappear, and new characters arrive. All of this is a little too literally adapted from the original, but Hitchcock keeps his tongue in his cheek. The second half involves the train, soon to be in trouble, careening through the countryside towards the film's climax. As the train, bus and ferry boat race to their various fates, Hitchcock experiments with cutting, tempo and rhythm, reveling in the melodramatic excesses of his story. He gives the cheap effects an almost toy_like look, very much in keeping with his light approach. A great moment is when the bus, filled with angry passengers, races by a sign that reads, "Stop Here for Dainty Teas." Critics and public, for the most part, missed NUMBER SEVENTEEN's drolleries. Variety, after dismissing the film, went on to complain about the deadly, slow pace of any film made in Great Britain. "Maybe," they wrote, "it's the tea." (35mm print courtesy of Kino International)

HELLHOUNDS OF THE PLAINS (GOODWILL_1927?)
CAST: Yakima Canutt, Neva Gerber, Lafe McKee, Al Ferguson, Bud Osborn,
Cliff Lyons
During the rise of Silent films, California was considered to be the Wild West. With its astonishing variety of topography, film westerns acquired a realism that was missing from the horse operas that were filmed back east. Even more attractive to fledgling producers was how cheaply Westerns could be manufactured. Studios sprang up all over California, Nevada and Arizona. Some, like Bison 101 at Inceville, were huge companies with their own resident Indian tribes. Others, like Goodwill, cranked them out quickly and
cheaply. HELLHOUNDS OF THE PLAINS is the traditional good vs evil parable, with the Hero taking on his boss' renegade son. There are the usual horse thieves and a dim heroine, but it clips along at a great rate. Yakima Canutt was already legendary in the industry for his stunt work and starred in a series of "B" action pictures for Goodwill, Bell Pictures and other independents during the high tide of silent westerns. As a leading man, Canutt vehicles were famous for unusual opening sequences. In THE IRON RIDER, also made for Goodwill, Canutt is first seen riding to rescue the heroine, at full gallop, standing on the horse's back and waving his hat. Real stardom eluded Canutt, and by the 1930's he was almost exclusively designing and performing stunts for action pictures. One of the most amazing is his driving a team of horses and buggy off a cliff in DARK COMMAND. His most famous stunt is falling off the top of a stagecoach into the team of horses, letting go and falling under the moving vehicle and being dragged until he pulls himself up the back of the coach. Canutt went on to become the dean of stuntmen, contributing to STAGECOACH, IVANHOE, BEN HUR, and having his face blown off by Scarlett O'Hara only to "double her" when she falls down the stairs later. (16mm print)

LEAP YEAR (PARAMOUNT_1921)
CAST: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mary Thurman, Lucien Littlefield, Harriet Hammond, Maude Wayne, Clarence Geldart, Winifred Greenwood, Allen Durnell, Gertrude Short, John McKinnon DIR James Cruze, SCREENPLAY: Walter Woods, CINEMATOGRAPHY: Karl Brown
One of Hollywood's great comedic talents was destroyed when Adolph Zukor and Paramount Pictures withdrew all support from Roscoe Arbuckle while he was the defendant in the now infamous rape trials. The studio's withdrawal of his films from the nation's screens seemed to support his guilt, and has perpetuated the myth that he viciously attacked starlet Virginia Rappe. When the scandal broke on September 21, Arbuckle had already finished seven feature comedies in 1921; BREWSTER'S MILLIONS, CRAZY TO MARRY, THE DOLLAR A YEAR MAN, THE TRAVELING SALESMAN, GASOLINE GUS, FREIGHT PREPAID and LEAP YEAR (only LEAP YEAR is known to have survived). The first five titles were in various stages of their runs, with GASOLINE GUS pulled after only very limited exposure. LEAP YEAR and FREIGHT PREPAID were finished, but never released in the United States. That the bosses at Paramount decided to write off Arbuckle is evident by the fact that they never bothered to copyright either picture. Unlike other Paramount stars ruined that year, (William Desmond Taylor, Wallace Reid, Mary Miles Minter,) Arbuckle continued to work. He directed or was gag man for Educational's Tuxedo Comedies with stars like Al St. John, Poodles Hanneford and Ned Sparks. He also continued to work with Buster Keaton and directed several "A" productions at MGM. (Arbuckle's second wife, Doris Deane, claims that he directed SHERLOCK, JR.) He even directed a feature for Paramount. Arbuckle finally made it back to the screen in a series of two reelers for Vitaphone's Big V Comedies in 1932. But LEAP YEAR is the last feature footage of the comedian that was as popular as Chaplin; Fatty Arbuckle. (35mm print courtesy of AFI & Library of Congress)

MIDNIGHT FEATURE

SUNDAY

SURPRISE GRAB BAG

ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR.
With Loyd Hamilton.
Reel 1 of a 2 reeler - only known existing footage of Hamilton's remake of his biggest silent hit.

THE LAST WARNING (UNIVERSAL_1929)
CAST: Laura La Plant, Montegue Love, John Boles, Margaret Livingston, Burr McIntosh, Slim Summerville DIR: Paul Leni, CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hal Mohr
Universal's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA theatre set. Director Paul Leni and company quickly maneuvers their way through this tale of a cast of actors recreating the circumstances of the death of their leading man. Now, don't you think that they would know that they are just asking for trouble? The story is based on a play by Thomas Fallon and a story by Wadsworth Camp. It is notable for its mixture of comic episodes and macabre effects achieved by ultra-mobile cameras and elaborate lighting and sets. Leni died of apparent blood poisoning before its release. Universal liked the results and this moneymaker was remade in 1939 as the tight little programmer, HOUSE OF FEAR. (16mm print courtesy of The George Eastman House)

CONDUCTOR 1492 (WARNER BROTHERS_1923)
CAST: Johnny Hines, Doris May, Dan Manson, Dorothy Burns, Byron Sage DIR: Charles Hines and Frank Griffin, SCREENPLAY: Johnny Hines
Johnny Hines was one of the many silent comedy professionals that are almost forgotten today. Hines was a very popular player who was often directed by his brother Charlie Hines. Johnny Hines was in great demand, and skilled enough to recreate George M. Cohan's title role in LITTLE JOHNNY JONES, (1923) CONDUCTOR 1492 was not considered strong enough to be released in New York alone, and came in on the top of a double bill. In this quick comedy feature, Hines plays an Irish_American streetcar conductor who ends up a hero after he saves the boss' baby, wins the girl of his dreams. Hines has a strong sense of burlesque and vaudeville humor, and he handles the "thrill" moments with real skill. CONDUCTOR 1492 is a great example of silent gag comedy at it's best. (16mm print)

CHARLEY'S AUNT (A CHRISTIE COMEDY_1925)
CAST: Sydney Chaplin DIR: Al Christie
Brandon Thomas' 1892 farce has more miles on it than the space shuttle. The combination of its gimmick, (a man dressed as a woman) and its ease of production, (ten characters, two sets,) has made this property as popular with producers as it has been with regional theatre. Al Christie directed CHARLEY'S AUNT again in 1930 with Charlie Ruggles for Columbia. There were then productions in 1940, 1941, 1954 and an Austrian version in 1963. Frank Loesser's musical version with Ray Bolger was filmed in 1951. There must be something to a role that has attracted both Jack Benny and Raul Julia. Christie and Chaplin give CHARLEY'S AUNT a sprightly interpretation in this silent version of a well loved, and well used classic.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Organists: Bob Vaughn and Mark Kotishion
Pianist: Phil Carli

NOTES: John Seville and Terry Hoover