1994 FALL CINESATION SCHEDULE
Friday
10:00am Theatre Opens for registration
12:00pm The Magic Box
Goonland
1:00pm Exploits of Elaine - Chapter 1
VistaVision & Misc.
1:30pm The Devil Horse
2:00pm The Cohens & Kellys in Paris
3:20pm Stage Struck
7:00pm Exploits of Elaine - Chapter 2
7:20pm Gordon Berkow Presents
8:30pm The Great Gabbo
10:20pm The Man Who Laughs
Saturday
8:30am Surprise Grag Bag
9:00am Baby Rose Marie
Twilight Zone
The Art of Love
Cleopatra
10:10am No Mans Law
11:30am Exploits of Elaine - Chapter 3
Orson Welles
Some "Stolen Clips"
1:00pm Riders of the Purple Sage
2:00pm Exploits of Elaine - Chapter 4
2:20pm Cleopatra
2:45pm Cobra Woman
4:00pm Hurricane Express
4:20pm As In A Looking Glass
5:00pm Woman Untamed
Dinner Break
Popeye
Exploits of Elaine - Chaper 5
8:35pm Bottoms Up
10:20pm Back to God's Country
11:45pm Black Moon
Sunday
8:30am Surprise Grab Bag
9:00am The Struggle
9:10am Shining Adventure
10:15am Exploits of Elaine - Chapter 6
10:40am Jack Straw
11:45am The King Steps Out
FRIDAY
THE MAGIC BOX (1951-British Lion) DIR John Boulting; SCREENPLAY Eric Ambler; PHOTOGRAPHY Jack Cardiff; CAST Robert Donat, Maria Schell, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Rutherford and most of the British acting community.
(35mm Courtesy of The George Eastman House)
Members of the world film industry have always had a firm, if sometimes inaccurate, sense of their own history. And who can blame them? From the earliest production companies onward, their nickel dropping public was fascinated with film and film makers. One early company filmed their studio burning to the ground, then patched in a brief plot and released it to huge acclaim the following week. Soon, film history was being shaped and manipulated by dozens of periodicals and an army of film critics. Publicity departments were quickly born, and learned to control, for the most part, the industry's image. Important sounding Film Boards and Academies were established with the usual flood of dinners and awards. Behind the flashing klieg lights, the public continued to be fascinated with the people who made the movies.
One of the earliest names in Motion Picture history was William Friese-Greene, England's nineteenth century cinema pioneer who got lost in the patents shuffle and died in obscurity. In the years previous to his death, he had developed several motion picture cameras and projectors, and was then arrested for bankruptcy and jailed. On his release he continued to develop various inventions that included color films and a stereoscopic system. Unfortunately, all of his discoveries were either impractical or premature. He dropped dead while delivering a speech to a bored and indifferent audience at a film industry convention. Needless to say, he died penniless.
THE MAGIC BOX was created for 1951's Festival of Britain by a join effort of the British film industry. The best possible light was put on what is, after all, a pretty depressing story. Filmed in Technicolor, the film features just about every actor on the British Isles at the time. More of a pageant than a biography, THE MAGIC BOX is an excellent example of how the film industry wants to be remembered. The previous owner of the 35mm IB Tech print did a little adjusting to film history; they cheerfully cut out about 40% of the feature's footage. We're not sure what remains, but THE MAGIC BOX is a well meaning tribute to early filmmakers, and a colorful way to begin CINESATION V.
(35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House
GOONLAND (1938-Fleischer Studios)
Popeye cartoon (35mm)
DIR: Louis Raisner and George B. Seitzp; SCENARIO Charles W. Goddard and George Seitz, from the stories by Arthur B. Reeve; CAST Pearl White, Creighton Hale, Arnold Daly, Sheldon Lewis, Floyd Buckley, Edwin Arden, Ramon Owens, Lee Roy Barker, Bessie Warton.
Chapter Titles: 1) The Clutching Hand 2) The Twilight Sleep 3) The Vanishing Jewels 4) The Frozen Safe 5) The Poisoned Room 6) The Vampire
Along with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, the star that excited the most interest in the early days of movies was serial queen Pearl White. The Missouri born girl was a naturally gifted athlete who after failing to gain a foothold in the New York theater, found employment with several of the new studios, including The Powers Film Company, Lubin Film Company, Crystal Film Company and Pathe. While at Pathe her athletic prowess and natural exuberance encouraged the company to cast her in their first serial, THE PERILS OF PAULINE. These two reel films, each made with the same leading characters, were a great success with film goers, who returned bi-weekly to see what new scrapes the leading lady found herself in. The series eventually ran to twenty episodes, and attracted international attention. Pearl White became the first female action superstar, and was celebrated in songs, parodies, and by writers like Vincente Ibanez, who's "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and "Blood and Sand" would appear on the silent screen in the coming decade.
Naturally, the producers were eager to repeat their success and soon a new serial, THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE, was ready to send out to the theaters. Repeating PAULINE's success, ELAINE was popularly known as "The Clutching Hand" after the film's nefarious villain. The new films were based on the stories of Arthur Benjamin Reeve, who's character, "Craig Kennedy," was known as the American Sherlock Holmes. This scientific detective was the subject of twenty six books and many magazine stories. The character's popularity made the material perfect for Pathe and White.
They succeeded beyond their expectations. With THE NEW EXPLOITS OF ELAINE and THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE, these characters entertained and mystified their fans for a total of thirty six episodes, and were in production until the end of 1915. They must have been doing something right, because the films kept running well into the 1920's. We are proud to present the first six episodes, with the promise of more next year. And in spite of what you may have heard from Betty Hutton, no PAULINE or ELAINE episode ever had a traditional cliff hanger ending.
(35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
VistaVision TRAILERS (35mm)
THE DEVIL HORSE (1932-Mascot Pictures) Chapter ?? (35mm print)
THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN PARIS (1928-JEWEL-UNIVERSAL)
DIR: William Beaudine; CAST George Sidney, J. Farrell MacDonald, Vera Gordon, Kate Price, Gertrude Astor.
One of the most successful of these multi-cultural combinations was THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS (1926). Based on the play "Two Blocks Away" by Aaron Hoffman, these fictional families were a great success with film goers. Over the next eight years the Cohens, the Kellys, and an assortment of friends and relatives, traveled to Africa, Atlantic City, Scotland, and, naturally, Hollywood. Some of the cast changed over the years, but their fans remained faithful until the last attempt, THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN TROUBLE (1933).
THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN PARIS is the second film in the series, and one of the best. Audiences particularly enjoyed Sidney and MacDonald as the always bickering heads of the two clans. Family comedy has become a staple of the sit-coms, but these little comedies have a charm and verve that still amuses today.
(16mm print)
STAGE STRUCK (1925-Paramount)
DIR: Allan Dwan; based on a story by Frank R. Adams; SCENARIO Forest Halsey and Sylvia La Varre; CAST Gloria Swanson, Lawrence Gray, Gertrude Astor, Marguerite Evans, Ford Sterling.
elaborate dream sequences, elegant sets, and of course, the famous Swanson wardrobe. STAGE STRUCK in no exception: This 35mm print contains the original two strip Technicolor footage. So sit back and enjoy being one of those wonderful people out there in the dark.
(35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
STAGE STRUCK was her seventh film with her favorite director Allan Dwan, with whom she had been working with comparative autonomy at Paramount's Astoria Studio. It was her last big hit for Paramount. After two
more features she left the studio, in spite of a record breaking salary offer from studio head Adolph Zukor. She joined United Artists, where production problems, poor financing and Joseph P. Kennedy cut her career short, in spite of successes like SADIE THOMPSON. Swanson and Dwan made only one more film together, the unfortunate WHAT A WIDOW!
STAGE STRUCK reveals the Swanson that her audience liked best. This jolly comedy has her as a slave in a beanery, determined to keep the interest of her boyfriend Lawrence Gray. Swanson features went out with all the trimmings.
DINNER BREAK
GORDON BERKOW PRESENTS
Another great collection of never to be forgotten??? shorts highlighted by the classic silent
LOW TIDE staring Ned Sparks. (16mm prints)
THE GREAT GABBO (1929-Sono-Art)
DIR: James Cruze; SCREENPLAY F. Hugh Herbert from a story by Ben Hecht; CAST Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compton, Margie Kane
There is always something ominous about a ventriloquist's dummy, particularly when it is manipulated by Erich von Stroheim. This story about a failing, insane vaudeville performer had cobwebs on it even in 1929, and the cheap, technically crude production obscured von Stroheim's poignant and detailed performance for audiences and critics. By making this film for poverty row studio Sono-Art, both von Stroheim and director Cruze marked themselves as washed up in Hollywood. Even after it failed, von Stroheim still liked the property and later tried to acquire the film rights for a remake. It was another project that he never completed. The rights to THE GREAT GABBO had been purchased by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
(35mm print courtesy of Library of Congress)
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928-Universal)
DIR: Paul Leni; SCENARIO J. Grubb Alexander, from the novel by Victor Hugo; PHOTOGRAPHY Gilbert Warrenton; CAST Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Olga Baclanova, George Siegmann, Brandon, Hurst, Cesare Gravina, Stuart
Holmes, Josephine Crowell, Same de Gasse, Edgard Norton, Torben Meyer, Nick de Ruiz, Julius Molner, Zimbo the Dog
Director Paul Leni had an intense dedication to dramatic design. Originally an artist and designer, he worked with such theatrical greats as Max Reinhardt. He began in film in 1914 as an art director, and two years later began directing as well. Leni quickly became one of the leading directors of film expressionism with features like BACKSTAIRS and THREE WAX MEN. Leni continued to work as art director in most of the German films he directed. In 1926 he arrived at Universal, where his first film, THE CAT AND THE CANARY, was a smash hit with critics and audiences.
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS was, unfortunately, one of Paul Leni's last films. Originally completed in April of 1927, it was held back as not to overlap with his first film. Preparations for release of the film were again postponed when in the autumn, Warner Brother's THE JAZZ SINGER made studios look seriously at sound film making. THE MAN WHO LAUGHS went back into production. The following spring the film was released to great success with a musical score, sound effects and an unmemorable theme song, "When Love Comes Stealing."
Leni had no chance to master the new technology. After THE LAST WARNING, a part talkie, he died of blood poisoning, and the American film industry lost one of it's most unusual and exotic talents.
(16mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
SURPRISE GRAB BAG
BABY ROSE MARIE - A Vitaphone Short (35MM Library Of Congress)
ONCE UPON A TIME (1961)
DIR: Norman Z. McLeod; SCREENPLAY Richard Matheson; CAST Buster Keaton, Jesse White, and George E. Stone
A charming tale of time travel from THE TWILIGHT ZONE tv series which brought Norman McLeod out of retirement and showcased Keaton's talent. (16mm print)
THE ART OF LOVE - Pitchman film.Selling a book to both sexes to stamp out ignorance and make everyone a better lover.
CLARK & MCCULLOUGH - IN A PIG'S EYE (1934-RKO)
NO MAN'S LAW (1927 - Hal Roach/Pathe)
DIR: Fred Jackman; PHOTOGRAPHY George Stevens and Floyd Jackman; CAST REX, King Of The Wild Horses, Jimmy Finlayson, Oliver Hardy, & Barbara Kent
The Hal Roach Studio is best remembered for its highly successful comedy features based on realistic characters and storylines. However, being a all purpose studio, Roach needed a variety of film genres to enrich his output and with westerns being popular, Roach produced a variety of them featuring Rex, King Of The Wild Horses. NO MAN'S LAW, a story of claim jumping and murder, is notable for three distinct features; the camera work of future director George Stevens, and the appearance of lovable Oliver Hardy as a truly evil villain; and the chance to see Jimmy Finlayson go skinny dipping and get "taken for a ride".
Academy Award winning director George Stevens began his career as a camera assistant in 1921. By 1924, he had moved onto the Hal Roach lot and by 1927 was shooting features and shorts. The majority of the Laurel and Hardy shorts between 1928 and 1930 were photographed by Stevens and in 1930, he moved into the director's chair with a number of shorts in the "Boy Friends" series. In 1932, he moved to Universal and his last film for that studio was THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN TROUBLE, the least successful film in the series. He moved to RKO in 1933 and established himself as a major director with ALICE ADAMS, SWING TIME, DAMSEL IN DISTRESS and GUNGA DIN.
By the time NO MAN'S LAW was released, Oliver Hardy had appeared with Stan Laurel in only two released Roach comedies and had not yet clicked with the public as a team. They would make three more films together before clicking in DO DETECTIVES THINK, released in November, 1927.
And what of Rex? In 1924, Elinor Glyn may have said it best when she stated emphatically that "Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, Rex, the Wonder Horse, and the doorman at the Ambassador Hotel are the only possessors of "it" in Hollywood!" So enjoy the company of a major silent sex symbol.
(16mm print)
ORSON WELLS - Television Commercial
(35mm print courtesy George Eastman House)
CLIPS FROM THE PROJECTION BOOTH
A projectionist's favorite scenes from favorite films-B&W and IB Tech. (35mm)
LUNCH
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (1931-Fox)
DIR: Hamilton McFadden; from the novel by Zane Grey; CAST George O'Brien, Marguerite Churchill, Noah Berry, Yvonne Pelletier, Stanley Fields .
Rough and tough actor George O'Brien was an immediate success after director John Ford pulled him out of obscurity and cast him in the classic film, THE IRON HORSE. As the former heavyweight boxing champion of the Pacific fleet during World War I, his strength and athletic ability made him ideal for action pictures. Entering the industry as an assistant cameraman, he quickly became a skilled stunt man and bit player. By 1927, he was a popular leading man working in films of high quality like Murnau's SUNRISE. With his rugged good looks, and attendant studio publicity that nicknamed him "The Chest," it was inevitable that he would find a permanent niche in Western films.
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE had been adapted for the screen twice before; once in 1918 with William Farnum and in 1925 with Tom Mix, who did not find the hero to be suitable for his screen personality. The film has a more complex plot than most films of it's type, and it's really amazing to see how much action and adventure can be put into fifty eight minutes. Stampedes and avalanches aside, O'Brien had good reason to remember this picture. Two years later he married RIDER's leading lady Marguerite Churchill. (35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (Chapter 4)
(35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
HURRICANE EXPRESS (1932 - Mascot Pictures) - Chapter 6 (35mm print)
COBRA WOMAN (1944-Universal)
DIR: Robert Siodmak; SCREENPLAY Richard Brooks and Gene Lewis, based of a story by Scott Darling; CAST Maria Montez, John Hall, Sabu, Lon Chaney Jr, Mary Nash, Edgar Barrier, Lois Collier.
Universal Studios really hit their stride during the second World War with an endless series of gaudy Technicolor fantasies. The best of these starred Maria Montez and swimming champion Jon Hall as the dashing, overheated lovers. So popular did this team become that the government recruited them to appear only in the most important cities on war bond tours. With the European market cut off by the conflict, Hollywood turned to South American audiences, and the Puerto Rican Montez lead Universal's effort, and helped establish the studio as the home of the exotic adventure film.
Maria Montez was truly the queen of Technicolor, and COBRA WOMAN shows her off to wonderful effect. Always eager to give good value, Universal cast her in two roles, then threw in a dynamite supporting cast, a volcano, snake worshipers, and a story filled with action, romance, and lines that have been misquoted ever since. We are very lucky to have an original nitrate print and the Temple's big screen to present one of the best examples of what is still called "Glorious Technicolor." (35mm print)
AS IN A LOOKING GLASS (1913 - Monopol Film Company)
DIR: & SCRIPT Stanner Taylor; CAST Marion Leonard
A dark, avant-garde short film featuring an amazing gallery of unpleasant characters, unsavory situations and advanced cinematography. The husband and wife team of Taylor and Leonard had both worked at Biograph before moving to Monopol.
(35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
Silent films were nothing if not adjustable. It was a simple matter to recut, retitle and send product out into the marketplace again, usually disguised as a new film. If a studio was lucky enough to have employed a bit player that later became a star, the actor's billing would move up over the title. If the audience was lucky, the producer managed to dig up some out-takes to paste in, but usually all the changes were handled by the publicity department.
THE WOMAN UNTAMED has a rough and obscure history. Producer Elmer J. McGovern bought the film a year after it's original unspectacular release. Tinted and toned, with new inter titles and a few continuity problems, WOMAN UNTAMED was immediately recognized by the trade papers as a re-tread. Nor were they impressed with the star, Mme. Doraldina. In a time when exotic names like Petrova, Bara, and Nazimova were flaming on the silver sheet, she was found lacking. Dancer Doraldina, who had co-starred with Warner Oland the previous year in Pathe's THE NAULAHKA, was a famous New York cabaret performer who was unable translate whatever made her special onto the screen. Very little is known about her save that she was born in San Francisco in 1888 and that her original name was Dora Saunders. She became successful in the New York cabaret world of the teens and made several films, most of which do not survive today. Doraldina also worked under the name of Mlle. Dorilinda and is reported to have died in 1936. In THE WOMAN UNTAMED she plays a seaman's daughter who, as a castaway on a island, is mistaken by the natives as, you guessed it, a Goddess. A mutiny, a wealthy young lover for the leading lady, and plenty of solo dance sequences make THE WOMAN UNTAMED an improbable and enjoyable 65 minutes.
The film presented on the Temple screen will be the original copyright version from 1918, with the unhappy ending. Have those hankies ready! (35mm print courtesy of Library of Congress)
DINNER BREAK
(35mm print)
POPEYE THE SAILOR (1933-Fleischer Studio)
The first Popeye cartoon, with Betty Boop. (35mm)
EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (Chapter 5)
BOTTOMS UP (1934-Fox)
DIR: David Butler; SCREENPLAY DeSylva, Butler, Sid Silvers; PHOTOGRAPHY Arthur Miller; CAST Spencer Tracy, John Boles, Pat Peterson, Herbert Mundin, Sid Silvers, Harry Green, Thelma Todd
How often do you get to see a Spencer Tracy musical? Actually, BOTTOMS UP was designed to introduce English star Pat Peterson to American audiences. Tracy emerges with the calm, masculine presence that would center so many films during the next thirty years. Tracy was just three features away from becoming a major contract player at MGM, Pat Peterson made her way back to England, and Fox Films would soon be absorbed by Twentieth Century and Daryl Zanuck.
BOTTOMS UP is another one of the tuneful little comedies that made the period so memorable. Audiences never seem to lose their fascination with the backstage politics of Hollywood and the people who struggle to work there. It's engaging score and bevy of beauteous chorines make it a pleasure watch. (35mm print courtesy of George Eastman House)
BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY (1919 - Shipman-Curwood Co. /Dist: First National)
DIR: David Hartman; PHOTOGRAPHY Joseph Walker and Dal Clawson; SCREENPLAY Nell Shipman from a story, Wapi, The Walrus by James Oliver Curwood; CAST Nell Shipman, Wheeler Oakman, and Wellington Playter.
While a few women made their mark on the Hollywood film industry of the 1920's, Nell Shipman is unique in that she is the only one who functioned in the capacity of actress, writer, director, and producer of her own films. Sadly, because she worked outside the studio system, her films are less polished than they might have been but no less entertaining or unique, as viewers of last years SOMETHING NEW can attest. Shipman began her career in 1906 at the age of fourteen, and worked for Vitagraph in the mid-'teens as an actress/writer. She gained great popularity with her staring role in James Curwood's GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE WOMAN (1915) and became known as the "God's Country Girl". After Vitagraph demoted her to three reel shorts, Shipman joined with Curwood to form Shipman-Curwood Producing Company wherein Curwood would write only for their company and Shipman would act in Curwood based material.
BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY is probably Shipman's most famous film. The story involves a savage dog tamed by a woman's gentle touch, who repays her with help in her hour of need. It was a perfect vehicle to showcase Shipman's acting talent and her love of the great outdoors and nature's creatures. The title was changed from The Pulse Of The Earth and Our Lady Of The Big Snows to BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY in order to remind the public that Shipman was the "God's Country Girl" and tie in with the earlier success of GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE WOMAN.
The film was distributed by First National and was booked into the Capital Theater in New York, then the worlds largest theater, in December, 1919 with special music and a song composed by Paul Sarazin, head of the First National music department. It went on to successful screenings around the world and in Japan, audiences lined up to pay a record $4.00 admission price. The release marked the end of Shipman's marriage to Ernest Shipman and the end of the Shipman-Curwood Company.
(35mm print courtesy of National Archives of Canada)
BLACK MOON (1934-Columbia)
DIR: Roy William Neill; SCREENPLAY Wells Root; PHOTOGRAPHY Joseph August; CAST Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Dorothy Burgess, Cora Sue Collins, Arnold Korff, Clarence Muse, Lumsden Hare.
From Dorothy Burgess' opening demonstration of progressive child care to the final escape from the West Indies, you can't stop wondering how Tod Browning missed this one. This entry into the now mercifully vanished "White Goddess of the Jungle" genre has superior photography, some interesting cutting, lava pits, native dances, incessant drums and a story that lurches fearlessly forward. The cast plays it absolutely straight and looks a bit lost at times, with the exception of Griffith actress Madame Sul Te Wan, who is terrific in an unbilled and largely silent role as the native nanny. Except for an odd tendency to pull the plug in the middle of some of the action sequences, BLACK MOON is a interesting way to spend 68 minutes and a fine sequel for COBRA WOMAN.
(35mm print courtesy Columbia Pictures, Michael Schlesinger)
SURPRISE GRAB BAG
THE STRUGGLE (1913 - NYMPC/Bronco)
DIR: Thomas Ince
(35mm print courtesy of Library of Congress)
THE SHINING ADVENTURE (1925 - Astor Pictures)
DIR: Hugo Ballin; CAST Percy Marmount, Mabel Ballin, & Ben Alexander.
Not all film actors were stars or bit players. Many players had long careers as leading men and women, lending their talents to countless films without ever becoming a Valentino or a Swanson. One of the period's popular leading men was Englishman Percy Marmont. His film career began far away from Hollywood, while on tour in South Africa in 1913. After his Broadway debut in 1917, he made his way to California, where he established himself as a elegant romantic lead in dozens of silent films. In 1928 he made his way back to England, where he resumed his stage career. He continued to find work in films, and appeared in many popular British features, including RICH AND STRANGE, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
That Percy Marmont appears in THE SHINING ADVENTURE is one of the few things we can say for certain about this film. Although this title is listed in the American Film Institute Catalogue, neither the New York Times or Variety reviewed the film, and a search through the trade papers of the period revealed no information beyond the fact that it concerns the misappropriation of money intended for charity. It was an early release by Astor because the company did not begin until 1925. It was produced by a woman, Madeline Brandise, and directed by Hugo Ballin, a highly respected painter/mural artist and sometime film director. Mary Ballin (Mary Croft) had been married to Hugo since 1909. Secure in the knowledge that at least one of the members of our distinguished audience knows all about this film, we will not attempt any wild guesses about content or quality, and leave you to discover, with us, the mysteries of THE SHINING ADVENTURE.
EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (Chapter 6)
JACK STRAW (1920-Paramount) DIR. William C. de Mille; CAST Robert Warwick, Carol McComas, Charles Ogle, Irene Sullivan, and Monte du Mont.
Another delightful comedy drama from the assured hand of Cecil's older brother William, based on a 1908 stage production by Somerset Maugham. This one concerns a romance that starts in Harlem and crosses to California and involves deception, waiters, diplomats and mythical kingdoms all tied up in a tidy 5 reels.
This was the same year that William contributed the script to Cecil's WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE.
The AFI catalog reports that Paramount remade this film in 1926 under the title THE WAITER FROM THE RITZ staring Raymond Griffith, directed by James Cruze. There is no evidence that it was ever released. Anybody know about this? (35mm courtesy of The Library Of Congress)
DIR: Josef von Sternberg; PHOTOGRAPHY Lucian Ballard; LIBRETTO Sydney Buchman; SCORE Fritz Kreisler; LYRICS Dorothy Fields; CAST Grace Moore, Franchot Tone, Frieda Inescort, Walter Connolly, Raymond Walburn, Victor Jory, Elizabeth Risdon, Nana Bryant, Thurston Hall
Columbia Pictures seemed to be studio that took advantage of talent on the way up and on the way down. On the way up was Metropolitan opera Diva Grace Moore. Columbia gave Moore her second shot at screen stardom with LOVE ME TONIGHT, a smash hit for which studio head Harry Cohn spent an unheard of two hundred thousand dollars of Columbia's money. Money had been freely spent on Moore's first try at MGM, but she came off as stately and stodgy in A LADY'S MORALS and NEW MOON with fellow opera star Lawrence Tibbet. Three years later, looking pounds thinner and at least ten years younger, Moore became the first screen singer who successfully made opera entertaining for film audiences.
On the way down was director Josef von Sternberg. After a brilliant beginning with THE SALVATION HUNTERS, he achieved enormous popular success with THE BLUE ANGEL, MOROCCO, and THE SHANGHAI EXPRESS. As one of Paramount's leading directors, he was allowed, along with discovery Marlene Dietrich, to create a series of films of great style and imagination. Their creations became more and more obscure to audiences until their last effort, THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN, the negative of which was burned at an official ceremony attended by Spanish officials, who were deeply offended by von Sternberg's dark vision of their country.
THE KING STEPS OUT is a witty and delightful piece of Viennese pastry. Sumptuously designed and beautifully photographed, it one of the best examples of traditional operetta on film. Included in the excellent cast is Walter Connolly, who gives a baroque performance as the King of Bavaria, and Herman Bing, who is the only possible choice for Pretzelberger. For your convenience, waltzing will be permitted in the lobby at the conclusion of this film.
(35mm print courtesy Columbia Pictures/Library of Congress)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Orgainists: Bob Vaughn, Mark Kotishion & Phil Carli
Pianist: Phil Carli
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