1995 FALL CINESATION SCHEDULE
Friday
10:00am Theatre Opens for registration
12:00pm Mutt & Jeff
Public Cowbow No. 1
Dynamite Dan
Pitch A Boogie Woogie
Hazel Green
2:40pm Hello Sister
Stol Flynn & Co.
With Wild Bill...
Odds & Ends
Dinner Break
7:00pm Exploits of Elaine - Chap. 13
Nitrate Trailers
Lonesome
9:10pm Trail of the Lonesome Pine
11:00pm The Wrath of the Gods
Saturday
8:30am Surprise Grab Bag
9:00am Technicolor Nitrate Trailers
The Italian
10:20pm Lost and Found Films
Lunch
1:20pm Gordon Berkow Presents
Open All Night
3:40pm Exploits of Elaine - Chap. 14
The Rainbow Trail
Hurricane Express - Chap. 7
Flyin' High
Dinner Break
8:00pm Classic Comedies
10:40pm Breakfast at Sunrise
Secrets of Chinatown
Sunday
8:30am Surprise Grab Bag
9:00am Vitaphone Short
Special Inspector
Eager Lips
11:10am Lupino Lane Shorts
Raymond Griffth Shorts
Rome Express
Vitaphone Short

FRIDAY

MUTT AND JEFF (35mm)

PUBLIC COWBOY NO 1 (1937 - Republic)
DIR: Joseph Kane; SCREENPLAY: Oliver Drake; CAST: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Ann
Rutherford, William Farnum, Champion.

Gene lives up to the film's title in his twentieth staring role for Republic. It's an action packed
adventure about modern day cattle rustlers who use refrigerator trucks, airplanes and 2-way
radios to carry out their nefarious deeds.
The goal of the singing cowboy westerns was to blend the action and the music elements to the
detriment of neither. Whenever the action needed a break, the musical numbers were inserted in
place of long dialogue scenes between shoot-outs. Of course they do not represent the "real
west" but a western world as we would like it to be and that is much of their charm today.
The plot is archetype for the Autry pictures at this time with a blending of the old and the
modern west. At the time of this film, Autry was earning about one hundred and fifty dollars per
week. His films cost the studio between fifty and seventy thousand dollars to produce and were
grossing over two hundred thousand dollars. Autry soon discovered the value of his services
and by the end of 1937 he had renegotiated his contract and was receiving $12,500 per film. At
the time of this film, Autry was the most popular cowboy star in the world and the fourth most
popular movie star. (35mm)

DYNAMITE DAN (1924 - Sunset Pictures)
DIR/SCREENPLAY: Bruce Mitchell: PHOTOGRAPHY: Bert Longenecker; CAST: Kenneth
McDonald, Boris Karloff, Diana Alden.

Boris is the villain again in this British story of a boxer who must rescue his girl and get back
for the championship fight!
This quickie feature offered Karloff his best and largest screen role to that time and, as he later
reported, "gave me a feeling of confidence about my future career." (16mm)

PITCH A BOOGIE WOOGIE (1947 - Lord-Warner Inc)

A beautiful restoration featuring the only known footage of an authentic minstrel show, the
Winstead Mighty Minstrels and the only filmed record of Irvin C. Miller's Brown Skin Models,
a major attraction of Harlem's Apollo Theater. (35mm - Library of Congress)

VITAPHONE SHORT - Hazel Green And Co.
(35mm - Library of Congress)

INTERMISSION

HELLO SISTER (1932-33 - Fox)
DIR: Erich Von Stroheim, Alfred Wexler; SCRIPT: Erich Von Stroheim, Leonard Spigelgass;
PHOTO: James Wong Howe; CAST: James Dunn, Zasu Pitts, Boots Mallory, Minna Gombell.

A young man, looking for a good time, meets a young woman in New York. They sleep
together, she gets pregnant, there is a tenement fire and all ends happily. It would have been
much better if Von Stroheim's version had been released.
In 1930, Erich Von Stroheim took advantage of the power struggle going on at Fox to promote a one picture deal with Winfield Sheehan, then head of production. Sheehan agreed to let Von
Stroheim direct (but not star in) one film, to be completed at the cost of $300,000 and with a
business manager who would approve all purchases, contracts and agreements. Von Stroheim
chose the play "Walking Down Broadway" by Dawn Powell. It was an unsentimental story of
young people in the big city and it was loaded with streetwise sexuality, fatalism and acute
psychological character analysis. All of Von Stroheim's favorite themes.
Von Stroheim began shooting on December 31, 1931. (For complete details on the script and
production, see "The Man You Love To Hate" by Richard Koszarski.) On January 20, 1932,
Sheehan went on a "forced" vacation and Sol Wurtzel was in charge of production. Wurtzel was
not liked by many on the Fox lot (one of the Ritz Brothers once quipped "Our pictures go from
bad to Wurtzel") and he did not like Von Stroheim. He fired Von Stroheim and called for a
script revision. When Sheehan returned in the Spring of 1932, he canceled the new script and
called Von Stroheim back to work. The film was completed in 48 days and on budget.
Then the fates stepped in again. The Fox executives saw the finished film and everything began to unravel. Wurtzel was gaining power and he hated the film. The preview audience, expecting Zasu Pitts to be funny, laughed whenever she appeared. A new script was created and new scenes were shot. James Wong Howe recalled Raoul Walsh was called in to shoot the Coney Island sequence before Alfred Werker was assigned to finish shooting the new sequences. The final film is a patchwork of Von Stroheim and Werker with most of the Von Stroheim nuance gone.
The new film was copyrighted as HELLO SISTER in March, 1933. The film WALKING
DOWN BROADWAY was never copyrighted. HELLO SISTER opened to poor reviews and
business in May, 1933 and quickly disappeared into the vaults of Fox. For years it was
considered "lost" until Bill Everson discovered a print. Sadly, it was the Werker version.
The failure of WALKING DOWN BROADWAY not only ended Von Stroheim's directing
career but it reduced Zasu Pitts to a life a silly comedy. Von Stroheim had structured much of
BROADWAY around her and made her character the most complex and fully developed in the
story. That material was cut from the final film and the promise she had shown in GREED and
THE WEDDING MARCH never had the chance to flower. (16mm)

VITAPHONE SHORT - Stoll Flynn & Co. Jazzmainia Quintette
(35mm - Library of Congress)

WITH WILD BILL AND CALAMITY JANE IN THE DAYS OF '75 AND '76 --
(1915 - Black Hills Feature Film Co.)

This is a fine example of the "let's get a camera and make a movie" type of film making that
existed in the early days of motion pictures and states rights distribution. It's an all amateur
production that is not listed in the AFI catalog. This seems to be the first feature film to portray
the famous western legend and the events leading to his death in 1876.
We cannot uncover much Information about this title. The Black Hills Feature Film Company
of Chadron, South Dakota was formed in 1915 by a group of local residents and this was their
first (and probably only) feature. It was shot over a period of two weeks on actual locations
around Chadron, Fort Robinson and Deadwood South Dakota and edited in Omaha, Nebraska.
The technical support and post production work was done by the Hartman Brothers Film
Manufacturing Co. of Omaha, an offshoot of the Omaha Film Exchange, the local motion picture
distribution and equipment company.
The film premiered in Chadron, SD at the Rex Theater on September 24, 1915 and played for
three days, two shows per day, to packed houses. The Rex had a seating capacity of 300. The
original production called for a five-reeler, but it soon expanded to six reels and grew to seven
reels by the time shooting and editing were completed. The company may have been encouraged by length of THE BIRTH OF A NATION to expand beyond the original running time. This may be a fascinating film or the "turkey" of the show but it is the unusual type of fare that makes the show interesting. (35mm - Library of Congress)

ODDS AND ENDS -- A potpourri of neat stuff without any particular theme but to provide
enjoyment.
The Locket or When She Was 20 (1913-Vitagraph), John Bunny & Flora Finch.
Scrambled Eggs (1925-Educational)
Mickey Mouse Club announcement
The Mickey Mouse Club Song
Interesting Commercials
I'm Secretary To The Sultan (1949) soundie/Kay Star, Snub Pollard.
Heart Of A Co-Ed (incomplete) Deanna Durbin spoof.
Mary Goes Round (1941) The Singing Powers Models at Coney Island.

DINNER BREAK

THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (1914 - Pathe)
DIR: Louis Gasnier & George B. Seitz; CAST: Pearl White, Creighton Hale, Arnold Daly,
Sheldon Lewis

Chapter 13 -- The Devil Worshippers. In previous chapters, the sinister villain, "The
Clutching Hand" forms an alliance with a Chinese criminal gang headed by Wu Fang. In this
episode, Craig Kennedy saves the life of Wu Fang's henchman Wong Long Sin. The Clutching
Hand tries to kill Wong Long Sin with a bomb! (35mm - The George Eastman House)

SILENT FILMACK TYPE TRAILERS - Short clips specially made to be sold to patrons in the theaters. (35mm - nitrate)

LONESOME (1928 - Universal)
DIR: Paul Fejos; SCREENPLAY: Edward T. Lowe; TITLES: Tom Reed; PHOTOGRAPHY:
Gilbert Warrenton; CAST: Barbara Kent, Glenn Tryon, Fay Holderness, Gustav Partos.

This was Hungarian director Paul Fejos' first film for Universal and his most admired.
Andrew Sarris described LONESOME as "a tender love story" and Charles Higham felt that
"the film's charm is real." Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "the brilliant opening of LONESOME,
with its lightning-sharp notations of city life set against the morning behavior, rituals and jobs
of hero and heroine, suggests a potentially major talent fusing some of the metaphysical
grandiosity of a Lang or Murnau with some of the social and gestural sensitivity of an Eisinstein or Pudovkin." Dramatically it follows the concept of parallel construction while the naturalistic acting and settings suggest an early form of American neorealism before the term was fashionable.
Fejos made several more films for Universal before moving on to MGM where he directed
French and German versions of THE BIG HOUSE which were different from the original and
films in their own right. He returned to Europe where he directed several films until he
developed an interest in anthropology. He lead and filmed an expedition into the jungles of Peru
in 1939 and conducted several expeditions to the head-waters of the Amazon to film the Yagua
indians. In 1941 he became head of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research where he was a much admired administrator and encouraged communications between the various branches of anthropology. His obituary in 1963, called him, "a scholar with the temperament of an artist."
A beautiful but forgotten masterwork about love and loneliness in the city. This newly restored
print from The George Eastman House features the original synchronized score, talking
sequences and, for the first time, English titles. (35mm - The George Eastman House)

INTERMISSION

THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936 - Paramount)
DIR: Henry Hathaway; SCREENPLAY: Grover Jones, Harvey Thew, Horace McCoy;
PHOTOGRAPHY: Howard Greene, Robert Bruce; CAST: Henry Fonda, Sylvia Sidney, Fred
MacMurray, Nigel Bruce, Beulah Bondi, Spanky McFarland, Fuzzy Knight.

A railroad engineer gets involved in a mountain family feud. This film was the first outdoor
production to use the new three component Technicolor camera. The story had been filmed by
Cecil B. DeMille in 1916 and again in 1926 with Mary Miles Minter. This version was Fonda's
fourth film and made him a star while giving a big boost to MacMurray's career.
By May of 1932, Herbert Kalmus had completed his first three component Technicolor camera.
They cost $3,000 each to build but they were capable of faithfully reproducing any shade or
hue, indoors or out. However, most studios had bad experiences with the old two color process
and were not eager to embrace the new technology. Of all the studio heads, only Walt Disney
was enthusiastic and used it for his 1932 short, TREES AND FLOWERS. The film was a major
success winning an Academy Award and soon Disney signed a contract to all SILLY
SYMPHONIES and MICKEY MOUSE cartoons in Technicolor.
BECKY SHARP(1935) was the first feature length motion picture filmed in the new process
but, while it generated strong early box office, the novelty quickly fell away and it was not a
financial success. With that in mind, producer Walter Wanger and Director Henry Hathaway
resolved to film their version with an eye to the story and entertainment content. Precautions
were taken to keep the color subdued and in the end was highly successful and profitable.
Success and profit were the key words that caused Hollywood to look at the IB process more
carefully but its big splash would not occur until 1937-38.
Hugo Friedhofer contributed a rich score and the song "A Melody From The Sky" received an
Academy Award nomination. (35mm IB Tech print)

INTERMISSION

THE WRATH OF THE GODS (1914 - Mutual Film Corp)
DIR: Reginad Baker, Thomas Ince; STORY/SCREENPLAY: Thomas Ince and William
Clifford; CAST: Sessue Hayakawa, Frank Borzage, Tsuru Aoki

On the island of Sakura, legend says that Lord Yamaki's family is cursed and that if his
daughter marries, the long inactive volcano will erupt and bring death and destruction. An
American sailor is shipwrecked on the island and....!
This film, like THE ITALIAN, shows the ability of showmanship triumphing over social
prejudice. For Ince to present sympathetic Japanese at a time when anti-Japanese sentiment
was almost epidemic was very courageous. Doubly so when the story line deals with an
Oriental legend triumphing over the Western God. Ince knew a good story when it erupted in
front of him.
In January, 1914 a volcano erupted on the island of Sakuri-Jima and Thomas Ince was quick to capitalise on the world wide attention it created. By May the film was in the theaters. The film
was shot along the California coast where Ince and Baker were able to recruit thousands of
extras from the local Japanese fishing villages. Kevin Brownlow reported that even in these
modern times "the longshot of the shoreline smoking and thousands of extras rushing in panic is unparalleled. When the film opened in New York the demand for tickets was so great that
Marcus Loew presented it on a specially constructed screen in Ebbits Field. The stadium, that
seats 20,000 people, was mobbed by a crowd of 40,000. A riot broke out and police from three
precincts were called to disperse the extra crowd.
Tsuru Aoki came to America as a child in 1903 and had been prominent in Japanese theater in San Francisco and Los Angeles and had appeared in several Majestic two reelers before Ince hired her in 1913. When filming began on WRATH, ince felt her background to mundane and invented the story that she was from the island of Sakuri-Jima and had come to Hollywood to film this story of the sufferings of her people. The fact that the story takes place several hundred years in the past did not seem to bother Ince or his publicity people.
Sessue Hayakawa was considered by some critics to be the silent screen's greatest dramatic
actor. He came from Samurai stock and, when a broken ear drum caused his dismissal from the Japanese navy, he attempted hari-kari. After that failed, his family sent him to the University of Chicago where he began in amateur theatrics. He was performing Shakespeare and Ibsen in Japanese in Los Angles when Aoki saw him and suggested him to Ince who immediately after the performance signed him to a contract and starred him in WRATH.
Hayakawa and Aoki were married in May of 1914, two weeks before the premiere of
WRATH.
This print is a new, tinted restoration, (35mm - The George Eastman House)

SATURDAY

TECHNICOLOR NITRATE TRAILERS (35mm)

THE ITALIAN (1915 - Paramount)
DIR: Reginald Barker; STORY/SCREENPLAY : Thomas Ince and C. Gardner Sullivan;
CAST: George Beban, Clara Williams, J. Frank Burke.

An Italian immigrant comes to New York, looses his son and seeks revenge but must deal with
his own humanity.
THE ITALIAN really is a rediscovered masterwork and probably the best portrait of the
immigrant experience in America. It was originally titled THE DAGO and was filmed in 1914
but not released until 1915. The script, reportedly borrowed (read stole) liberally from
William de Mille's play "The Land Of The Free" and a 1913 Imp film titled THE WOP.
Thomas Ince was the driving force behind THE ITALIAN and it was relatively daring to make
a plea for compassion on behalf of the immigrants at a time when anti-immigrant sentiments
were sweeping the country. While there are few sympathetic immigrants presented in the New
York scenes, there are quite a surprising number of vicious Americans. The film is sympathetic but it is not sentimental.
The entire film was shot on the stages at Inceville in Venice, California and this helps to
explain the lack of scenes at Ellis Island or why the suburban home seems like it belongs on the West coast. But this picture is not about true reality as much as it is about the atmosphere of reality and the atmosphere of THE ITALIAN seems to be the atmosphere of a real life
documentary and the quiet subtle performances seem to have been captured by a hidden camera. In the in the early days of Hollywood Ince was a giant in the industry who, like Griffith and a few others, were able to command creative independence. Sadly, he died suddenly in 1924 and today there is little written about him or his contributions.
Like Ince, few remember George Beban. He was a noted vaudeville comedian and highly
respected Broadway actor of Northern Irish descent who commanded a wide range of dialects
but settled for a vivacious Italian type that finally brought him success. Ince travelled from Los
Angeles to New york to entice Beban to appear in his film. Beban hesitated to lower himself to
making "movies" but relented when Ince acted out the film for him. Beban received $7,000, an
unheard of percentage of the profits and all expenses paid. Beban went on to star and direct
other films (none survive), but THE ITALIAN was probably his finest performance in a career
that ended early at the age of 55 in 1928.
Ironically, the film was never shown in Italy but Francis Ford Coppola used the surviving
paper print at the Library of Congress as a guide in re-creating turn-of-the century New York
for THE GODFATHER, Part II. The Fall Cinesation is proud to present this new restoration,
made from that surviving paper print. This screening marks the first time the film has been
presented in 35mm in over 70 years. (35mm - Library of Congress)

INTERMISSION

LOST AND FOUND - A collection of surviving film fragments and restored/rescued footage
and short subjects including:

BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK (1925 - Paramount)
DIR: James Cruze; SCRIPT: Walter Woods: PHOTO: Karl Brown; CAST: Edward Everett
Horton, Ester Ralston, Erwin Connelly.
This is a satirical fantasy about a musician caught in a quandary: to marry a rich girl he doesn't love so he will have financial freedom to compose, or marry the poor girl he loves and struggle with poverty. He falls asleep and dreams that he marries the rich girl and is so harassed that he has no time for his music. He is driven to murder the rich girl and is sentenced to write popular music, which he hates. He rebels and his execution jars him awake. He is now sure that he wants to marry the poor girl he truly loves.
The bad news is that only 35 minutes of the film currently exist. The good news is the surviving
footage of this Edward Everett Horton comedy includes the "nightmare" sequence which critics
consider the high point of the film. It is a mixture of straight comedy, the grotesque and the
beautiful. Paramount announced, "There's camera magic in every reel."
(35mm - Library of Congress)

BELLE OF SAMOA (1929) erotic pre-code dance scene from Clark and McCullough
short.(35mm - Library of Congress)

COLUMBIA SCREEN SNAPSHOTS - features Mickey Mouse screen test.
(35mm - Library of Congress)

AMERICAN VENUS - Louise Brooks, American and Australian versions.
(35mm - Library of Congress)

Vitaphone Shorts:
OPERY HOUSE (ca. 1929) Lew Hearn (35mm - Library of Congress)
BLOSSOM SEELY & BENNIE FIELDS (1927) - (35mm - Library of Congress)

LA POULE AUX OEUFS D'OR (1905 - Pathe) Dance
(35mm - Library of Congress)

LUNCH BREAK

GORDON BERKOW PRESENTS
Stars Of Yesterday (1931 - Vitaphone)
Ghosts Of Hollywood (1931)
Office Steps (1930 - Vitaphone)
Hungarian Rhapsody (1930 - Fine Arts/UA)
Art Direction-Wm Cameron Menzies
Crosby, Columbo & Vallee (1931/32 - WB)
Play, Girl (1936 - Educational)

OPEN ALL NIGHT (1924 - Paramount)
DIR: Paul Bern; SCRIPT: Willis Goldbeck; PHOTO: Bert Glennon; CAST: Viola Dana, Jetta
Goudal, Adolphe Menjou, Raymond Griffith.

Menjou is the considerate husband and Dana the wife who craves a "cave man" type in this
sophisticated comedy of sex, manners and six day bicycle races. Raymond Griffith scores all
the laughs and lovely Jetta Goudal walks away with the acting honors. This is a newly restored
print from the Library of Congress.
Raymond Griffith was born to theatrical parents in 1890 and began his career at Vitagraph in
1914 as a writer but soon moved on to Sennett. He did some shorts before 1920 but mostly
remained behind the scenes developing original gags. In the 1920's, he developed a character
that was a cross between Adolphe Menjou and Max Linder and appeared in a series of films
where suaveness and unflappability triumph over calamitous events. His contract with
Paramount was canceled in 1927 after a dispute with B.P. Schulberg and permanently damaged vocal cords made the transition to sound difficult. After a wordless role of the dying soldier in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT he turned to producing at Warner's and 20th Century Fox. He left Fox in 1941 to aid the war effort and did not return to films. He died in 1957 leaving a hilarious legacy of comedic roles but an unfulfilled career.
Paul Bern is most famous as the husband of Jean Harlow, and his death in 1932 is still a
subject of controversy. His real name was Paul Levy and before coming to Hollywood, he
acted on Broadway, toured, wrote scripts for a Toronto film studio and managed a theater
owned by Joe and Nick Schenck. He had a fascination with the human psyche and emotional
maladies. He worked for Paramount and Goldwyn as a director and screenwriter. In 1926, he
became a producer at MGM and Irving Thalberg's closest associate. At Bern's suggestion,
Thalberg produced such successes as GRAND HOTEL and CAMILLE"
(35mm - Library of Congress)

INTERMISSION

THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (1914 - Pathe)
DIR: Louis Gasnier & George B. Seitz; CAST: Pearl White, Creighton Hale, Arnold Daly,
Sheldon Lewis

Chapter 14 -- The Reckoning. The suspects gather and Craig Kennedy uses a special X-ray
device to unmask The Clutching Hand, who is -- but that would be telling and ruin the surprise
that everyone is waiting for. Be there or answer to THE CLUTCHING HAND!!
(35mm - The George Eastman House)

RAINBOW TRAIL (1932 - Fox Film Corp)
DIR: David Howard; SCRIPT: Barry Connors, Philip Klein; PHOTO: Daniel Clark;
CAST: George O'Brien, Cecilla Parker, Minna Gombell, Roscoe Ates, J.M. Kerrigan,
James Kirkwood.

Another action packed O'Brien/Fox/Zane Grey western loaded with the same high production
values of the earlier RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE. In this sequel to RIDERS, O'Brien
plays the nephew of his character from the earlier film and sets out in search of himself (?).
David Howard sets a brisk pace and this new restoration highlights Daniel Clark's spectacular
photography of the Grand Canyon.
George O'Brien was a real American hero. He embodied the same high ideals as his
characters, served his country in three wars and was a genuine "nice guy" and loyal friend.
O'Brien was born in 1900, the son of the chief of police in San Francisco. He served in the
Navy in the First World War, won the lightweight boxing championship and was interested in
the acting profession. In 1922, he met Tom Mix during one of the actor's publicity tours and Mix
got him a job as assistant cameraman at Fox. John Ford liked his look and gave him a screen
test for THE IRON HORSE and George became a star.
With the coming of sound, Fox put O'Brien into a series of Zane Grey remakes with lower
budgets but strong production values which included shooting schedules in excess of one month
and excellent locations in Utah, Monument Valley, Montana, and Colorado. These strong
production values became a trademark of all George O'Brien westerns. The O'Brien/Grey
series was a huge success but in 1935, Fox let his contract lapse.
RKO quickly picked up O'Brien at the heady sum of $21,000 per picture which made him the
highest paid western star until 1938 when William Boyd's contract raised him to $25,000 per
picture. RKO also hired David Howard, who had worked with O'Brien starting with THE
RAINBOW TRAIL, as director. Jon Tuska, in his seminal book "The Filming Of The West,"
called the O'Brien/RKO series "among the finest series produced in that decade (1930's)." One
reason for the strength of the O'Brien series was that he learned from Ford the importance of the supporting characters and worked on the scripts to strengthen the secondary roles. All of the O'Brien westerns illustrate the quality that can be achieved given the combination of creativity, inspiration and care.
Tim Holt entered the series as a second lead in 1939 and when O'Brien's contract ran out in
1940 RKO decided Holt was cheaper and O'Brien's contract was not picked up. O'Brien was
not upset. He had invested wisely and was financially well off and he seemed genuinely happy
to see Holt succeed. In 1941, he rejoined the Navy, was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th and
served throughout the Pacific campaign winning several battle stars and campaign medals.
He was brought out of retirement in 1948 by John Ford for the RKO series of westerns FORT
APACHE and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON.
When the Korean War broke out, O'Brien, at the age of 51, returned to active duty with the
Navy and remained a commissioned officer and naval attache until 1964. His last acting role
was in Ford's CHEYENNE AUTUMN.
(35mm - The George Eastman House)

INTERMISSION

HURRICANE EXPRESS - (Mascot Pictures) - Chapter 7 (35mm)

FLYIN' THRU (1925 - Al Wilson Pictures)
DIR: Bruce Mitchell; SCRIPT: George W. Pyper from a story by Al Wilson; CAST: Al
Wilson, Elinor Fair, George French, Clarence Barton.

Real life aviator Al Wilson (the man who taught Cecil B. DeMille to fly), playing a
barnstorming pilot, chases evil murderer Burton across the Southwest and into Mexico in order
to clear his father's name.
Al Wilson's career spanned ten years and he acted in more films than any other professional
pilot. He was regarded as the master of the airplane-to-automobile transfer but also excelled at
the mid-air transfer, wing walking and other death defying stunts. He was able to parlay his
acrobatic skills into a string of "B" thrillers but he failed to survive the transition to sound and
his acting career ended with the silent cinema.
He continued to perform stunt work in films. On one occasion while returning from filming a
scene for HELL'S ANGELS, the prop fell off of Wilson's Fokker. Thinking he was over
unpopulated country, he bailed out to safety. He was wrong about his location and the plane
crashed into Joe Schenck's back yard. A more serious crash involved the Sikorsky S in HELL'S ANGELS where fellow stuntman Phil Jones was killed. Wilson was unable to pull the huge Sikorsky out of a dive and bailed out but Jones, who was operating the tail smoke, was unable to jump before the plane crashed. HELL'S ANGELS was Wilson's last major film work. He continued to teach stunt flying and compete in air races. He died in a mid-air collision at the National Air Races in Cleveland in 1932. (35mm - nitrate)

DINNER BREAK

AN EVENING WITH THE CLASSIC COMEDIANS
(not shown in order listed)
There It Is - Charlie Bowers
You're Darn Tootin - Laurel & Hardy
All In A Day (1920 - Pathe) Snub Pollard
In The Park - Charlie Chaplin (1915, Essanay)
Case Sound Short (with duck)
Boston Quackie - Daffy & Porky (1957, WB)
So You Want...Relatives (55) Joe McDoakes
Columbia Screen Snapshots - Buster Keaton
Four Parts (1934/Roach) - Charlie Chase
Wrong Direction (1934) - Edgar Kennedy

INTERMISSION

BREAKFAST AT SUNRISE (1927 - Constance Talmadge Prod)
DIR: Malcolm St Clair; SCREEN STORY: Fred De Gresac; PHOTOGRAPHY: Robert B.
Kurrle; CAST: Constance Talmadge, Alice White, Marie Dressler, Bryant Washburn, Paulette
Duval.

A light and diverting romantic farce filled with shimmering costumes and impressive settings.
Constance is a delight and Marie steals every scene where she appears.
Constance Talmadge was a major star of the silent screen and one of its most deft light
comedians, yet today she is almost forgotten. Many of the books devoted to the silent
performers fail to include a mention of her and others mention her in passing along with her
sister Norma! She was a major talent who controlled her own productions, managed her own
finances (with help from mother Peg) and survived to a wealthy old age. Constance reflected
the new independent women who emerged after World War I. To audiences, she was a woman of style, substance, spirit and sexuality.
Constance grew up in Brooklyn and followed older sisters Norma and Natalie to the
Vitagraph Studio in Flatbush for the wage of five dollars a day. The family moved west with
Norma and Constance found work with Griffith playing the Mountain Girl in the Babylonian
episode of INTOLERANCE. That role established her talent for comedy. By 1921, she had her
own production unit with Norma's husband Joseph Schenck as its president and distribution
through First National. Her films were immensely popular and very successful at the box office
and by the mid twenties, she had two production companies. With the arrival of sound, she
chose to retire and never made a sound film. She invested her money carefully and each of her four marriages added to her wealth. She died at age 73 in November, 1973. Most of her silent work was lost and that may explain why she is so little known or written about today.
If little is written about Constance, even less is written about Mal St Clair! He began in
Hollywood as a gag writer for Mack Sennett at 18 and was directing two reelers by age 22. He
set off on his own in 1921 and directed a variety of shorts including THE GOAT and THE
BLACKSMITH with Keaton. In 1925 he joined Paramount because they were most suited to his
style of comedy that sought subtlety and sophistication in character development and story line.
ARE PARENTS PEOPLE in 1925 established him as a major talent and in 1926 he was voted
the third finest Hollywood director by the nation's critics (the top two were Lubitsch and Von
Stroheim). Critics claimed that only Lubitsch could rival his skill at presenting sophisticated
comedy in visual terms. Initially and inexplicably, St Clair chose not to direct sound films. He
took a long holiday and when he returned to Hollywood in 1936, he was unable to regain his
footing. He ended his career directing "The Jones Family" films and some of the weaker Laurel
and Hardy entries like JITTERBUGS and THE BULLFIGHTERS. He died in 1952.
BREAKFAST AT SUNRISE was never intended to do more than entertain an audience for the
life of its theatrical run. Thanks to the careful restoration by The George Eastman House, it will
provide pleasure for many future generations. (35mm - The George Eastman House)

SECRETS OF CHINATOWN (1935 - Commonwealth Productions Ltd.)
DIR: Fred Newmeyer; SCRIPT: Guy Morton; PHOTO: William Beckway; CAST: Nick Stuart,
Lucille Browne, Raymond Lawrence.

A murderous gang of opium smuggl