2009 fall cinesation

THURSDAY NIGHT

THE RAVEN - (1915 - Essany Film Manufacturing Co.)
DIR & SCRIPT: Charles Brabin
CAST: Henry B. Walthall (Poe), Ernest Maupain (John Allan), Warda Howard (Virginia Clemm, Heleh Whitman, Lenore, a Spirit), Marion Skinner (Mrs. Clemm), Harry Dunkinson (Tony)
The Raven is a stylized biography of Edgar Allan Poe that reviewers have found to be a strange and uneven film. It's based on George C. Hazelton's novel and play focusing on Poe's life with cousin and wife Virginia Clemm. There is a rather abrupt ending with Poe's visit to his wife's grave with the poem "Ulalume." Walthall is certainly strong in his commanding characterization of Poe and some sources contend he got this role after playing Poe in Griffith's The Avenging Conscience. Director Charles Brabin demonstrates his early interest in dealing with off kilter subjects as he did to equally good effect in his later films like Beast Of The City and the often sadistic feel found in his last film The Mask Of Fu Manchu. The highlight in the movie is the macabre and imaginative dream imagery that highlights the writing of the famous poem. Variety called it “a pretentious effort at something artistic with masterly photography that could be improved by cutting 2,000 feet.” William K. Everson called it “stodgy with portions that are pure poetry.” (35mm - courtesy George Eastman House - preservation funded by Saving America's Treasures, The National Park Service, NEH)

PIETRO WYZEJ (US titles The Apartment Above and Neighbors) (1937)
DIR: Leon Trystan; SCRIPT: Eugeniusz Bodo, Ludwik Starski, Emanuel Schlecter: PHOTO: Seweryn Steinwurzel; MUSIC Henryk Wars
CAST: Eugeniusz Bodo (Henryk, radio speaker), Jozef Orwid (Hipilit, house owner), Helena Grossowna (Lodzia), Ludwik Sempolinski (Kulka), Stanislaw Wolinski (Hipilit's servant), Czeslaw Skonieczny (Henryk's Servant)
Two apartment house dwellers, although unrelated, share the same name. One is an older man who loves classical music while the other is younger and addicted to swing, The niece of the older man arrives and gets into the wrong apartment. Of course complications and romance arise.
In past shows we've presented Yiddish operetta filmed in New Jersey so this year we thought we'd try a Polish musical comedy made in Poland.
Eugeniusz Bodo was one of if not the most popular Polish comedian in the pre war era. He was born in Switzerland but grew up in Lodz, Poland where his father operated a cinema. By the early 1930s he had been dubbed the “King of Polish actors” and later the “King of Style.” He operated a successful café until the Nazi's occupied it at which time he made his way east to the town of Lwow in the Ukraine. Shortly after the Soviets accused him of espionage and was sent to a Soviet labor camp where he died in 1943.
Henrick Wars composed for a string of musical comedies in his native Poland and was considered comparable to Polish music as Irving Berlin was in America. He was drafted into the Polish army in 1939, was captured by the Germans, escaped and eventually made his way to America where he resumed his musical career composing songs for Bing Crosby, Doris Day, and Dinah Shore. He composed the score for Flipper and the television series Daktari.
Variety gave Pietro Wyze a brief but decidedly positive review, “Announced as the first Polish comedy film with superimposed titles in English The Apartment Above follows the general pattern of slapstick movie romances so closely as to make titles almost unnecessary. As soon as attractive Helen Grossowna arrives to visit her uncle and lands by mistake in the apartment above occupied by Eugene Bodo her uncle's pet abomination, everyone knows what is going to happen. Nevertheless, there are so many funny twists, due to rivalry between Bodo as the jazz loving radio announcer, and Orwad, in the role of a lover of the classics, that a good time is had by all in the audience. Miss Grossowna's charm consists largely in being able to act like a real human being, without resorting to too obvious aids to her natural good looks. Something not so easy to do as it sounds.” (35mm)

THE PONY EXPRESS (1925 -- Paramount)
PROD AND DIR: James Cruze; SCRIPT: Walter Woods PHOTO: Karl Brown
CAST: Ricardo Cortez (Jack Weston), Betty Compson (Molly Jones), Wallace Beery (“Rhode Island” Red), Ernest Torrence (Ascension Jones), George Bancroft (Jack Slade), Frank Lackteen (Charlie Bent), John Fox Jr. (Bill Cody), Al Hart (Senator Glen)
A rousing western about the founding of the famous Pony Express. The story concerns the machinations of Senator Glen of California, and his attempt to establish an empire combining that state with Sonora, Mexico. Bancroft and Beery steal the show.

Our version of The Pony Express is the edited Kodascope print, which seems to be the only extant version, runs some four reels shorter than the original BUT it contains ALL of the action material and practically all of the plot.

A follow-up to Cruze's own The Covered Wagon and Ford's The Iron Horse, The Pony Express is certainly the weakest of the trio, but is a spectacular and carefully made epic none-the-less. Its main trouble is its very thin story-line and the sparseness of its action. Because The Covered Wagon had an epic theme of national progress, its flimsy personal story-line hardly mattered. But the story of the forming of the Pony Express route from St. Joseph to Sacramento, while important in the overall development of the West, was of more political than pioneering interest. One doesn't have the surge of civilization on the match to give it stature; and without a stronger personal or fictional story to counterbalance, the whole thing falls a little flat. With less running time this would not be so apparent, but Paramount followed a fallacious theory in the 20's that ALL epics had to be LONG - and it ruined more of their films than one cares to remember.
Nevertheless, there is much in the film that is most impressive. Historically, it seems to be more accurate than most of its species -- even to weakening the force of its climax a little by allowing the villain to escape scot-free. Indeed, the villain comes off best of all, being promoted for his misdeeds! George Bancroft gives probably the best performance of all as Jack Slade. (Slade, a lawman who went wrong, was ultimately lynched.) The photography by Karl Brown, Cruze's favorite cameraman on The Covered Wagon and Beggar On Horseback, is particularly fine and makes the most of the excellent locations - wide expanses of prairie, and a particularly convincing reconstruction of the old relay station township, Julesburg - depicted here as it probably was, as a collection of wooden shacks in the middle of nowhere.
There's a very well-done episode of the first pony express ride across country, which shows some of the mechanics of the "trade" -- mules beating a path through the snow, and so on. And of course there's a big Indian raid for the climax, although typically of Cruze, it's short, sharp, and underplayed. Unlike Griffith and Ford who built their action sequences via pacing and editing, Cruze seemed uninterested in action as such. It was just a means to an end - to be shown as spectacularly as possible, but not something to waste any time over. With all those hordes of Indians and cavalry on hand, one wishes that Cruze could have come up with something a little more exciting -- but even so, it makes for a rousing finish.
The Pony Express opened up day and date in New York at the Rivoli and Rialto Theatres, grossing $11,000 on the first day. It proved to be a big money-maker, but figured on only one or two of the "Best Ten" lists at the end of 1925. Notes by William K. Everson -- 16mm

FRIDAY MORNING

THE HAZARDS OF HELEN (1917 - Kalem Company)
Episode 88 - THE BROKEN BRAKE
DIR: James D. Davis
CAST: Helen Gibson
This is #88 of the series which is not truly a serial since each episode is complete. In the first 48 episodes Helen was played by Helen Holmes and the director was J.P. McGowan. They were replaced by Helen Gibson and director James D. Davis for episodes 49 to the end, episode 119. The entire series was released by the Kalem company between 1914 - 1917 and were complete self-contained stories with a railroad setting. They perfected the runaway train-car with the heroine in danger story. Helen Gibson doubled Helen Holmes in the earlier episodes and wed Hoot Gibson, who also performed stunts in the series, during the three years the series was in production.

M'LISS (1918 - Pickford Film Co. dist. Paramount)
DIR: Marshall Neilan; SCRIPT: Frances Marion from a story by Bret Harte: PHOTO: Walter Stradling; ASST DIR: Alfred E. Green
CAST: Mary Pickford, Theodore Roberts (John Benson “Bummer” Smith), Thomas Meighan (Charles Gray), Tully Marshall (Judge Joshua McSnagley), Charles Ogle (Yuba Bill), Monte Blue (Mexican Joe Dominguez)
M'liss is a feisty your girl living in a mining camp with her father. She is attracted to the new school teacher and must fight to save him from a lynch mob when he is accused of murder.
This is the second of four film versions of the Bret Harte story. It started as a popular play in 1878 and was filmed first in 1915 (with Barbara Tennant), a third time in 1922 as The Girl Who Ran Wild, with Gladys Walton (Universal changed the title hoping to distance it from the superior Pickford version), and again in 1936 (the version you'll see tomorrow morning). It seems to be a perfect picture for Pickford featuring such recurring themes as a poor rural setting, murder, a trial, and rough justice although the finale features a decidedly uncharacteristic moment when "America's Sweetheart" looks on approvingly as the real crook is strung up from the nearest tree! Pickford is a pleasure to watch as the “terror” of Red Gulch running around “swearing like a trooper” as she raises hell until she meets the man of her dreams who she first meets by beaming him with her slingshot. When not running about town or robbing stage coaches she finds time to battle a large bear and a huge snake! Also opening at the same time in New York was Mile-A Minute Kendall with brother Jack and sister Lottie which The New York Times headlined PICKFORDS ARE HERE! This was the last of five Pickford films directed by Marshall Neilan and written by Frances Marion and would constitute one of the longest professional relationships and greatest levels of success he would achieve in this career.
The critics were enthusiastic with the film. The New York Times wrote “Mary Pickford is at the Strand in M'liss and it's clear she wanted to have another chance to run and jump and scramble in the woods, with plenty of opportunity for her pretty smiles and pouts, so she selected Bret Harte's story. M'liss is a little wild animal of a girl who does pretty much as she pleases in as typical a mining town as was ever typified on the screen. She is uncontrollable until she meets the new school teacher who takes M'liss under his wing for purposes of instruction and, presumably, live-happily-ever-after marriage. A murder and a lynching are introduced but they do not interfere with Theodore Roberts as “Bummer” Smith and his trained hen. Miss Pickford is, as always, near perfect and a delight.”
Variety was more delighted saying “How in the name of common sense did it happen that Mary Pickford never before appeared in M'liss? Is it possible nobody ever thought of it? It seems inconceivable she did not produce it years ago! It was made for Miss Pickford! Artcraft evidently designed the production to be an exceptional one for not only have they chosen their strongest star, an immortal author, Frances Marion as scenarist, Marshall Neiland as director, but they recruited an all-star cast. Thus the characters are familiar to readers of Harte's story are perfectly visualized by the prominent players. The tragic side of the story is subordinated to the comedy. Mary, as the untamed child of Red Gulch, who swears like a Canadian trooper, has never had a more suitable role. Her M'liss is one of the films that will endure.” (16mm)

RICH MAN'S FOLLY (1931 - Paramount)
DIR: John Cromwell; SCRIPT: Grover Jones & Edward E. Paramore Jr. from Charles Dickens' Dombey And Son: PHOTO: David Abel; MUSIC Henryk Wars
CAST: George Bancroft (Brock), Frances Dee (Ann Trumbull), Robert Ames (Joe Warren), Juliette Compton (Paula Norcross), David Durand (Brock Jr.), Dorothy Peterson (Katherine Trumbull), Anne Shirley (billed here as Dawn O'Day) (Ann as a child)
Charles Dickens' novel Dombey and Son is set in 1931 America and deals with an egotistical, driven businessman so focused on succeeding that he ignores his family.
Rich Man's Folly has the distinction of being the first feature length sound adaptation of a Dickens' novel although reimagined might be a better term. It certainly was a tailor made role for tough as nails Bancroft and Paramount trumped his performance with ads warning “He'll never love you! He may play along with you for a while . But look out! There's only one thing he loves sincerely and that's - MONEY!” and “A mighty drama of a money crazed man. Drunk with Ambition, he thinks he can buy love and happiness with Gold. But he learns the futility of worldly possessions in the face of HIS GREAT HUMAN CRISES!”
Bancroft caught the attention of Paramount when he made The Pony Express and he was able to cross over from charming villain to anti-hero in von Sternberg's Underworld the director with whom he achieved his greatest success despite the fact that he and von Sternberg did not get along (Bancroft called him “the little monster”). Bancroft's ego was out of control but he was an undisputed box office draw and a genuine star. Budd Schulberg said that he developed an inflated ego. Reportedly on the set of The Dragnet, he refused to fall down on set after a prop revolver was fired at him, saying "Just one bullet can't stop Bancroft!" He was known as “The King Of The Underworld” but by 1931with Cagney, Robinson and even Bogart appearing on the screen Bancroft was starting to slip. Photoplay magazine reported “For a time there has been a slump with the product of this player, but Rich Man's Folly may re-establish him. If the current film is box-office, and if the follow up yarn (World and the Flesh) clicks, Bancroft will remain one of the “lot's” fair-haired boys.” Neither was particularly well received and Paramount knew George Bancroft was no longer a huge star. Under his seven year contract his salary was to rise from $6,000 a week to $7,500 at the start of 1932. Lasky and Zukor controlled the purse strings and felt Bancroft was not worth such a large jump and proposed a lesser amount. B.P. Schulberg suggested George stay at $6,000 but Bancroft was insulted and insisted “I can walk over to Metro and double my salary! I'm bigger than Wally Beery!” He cleaned out his deluxe dressing room and walked off the lot. After six months of no offers Paramount offered $25,000 for six weeks work. He turned them down demanding $7,500 a week. After being out of work for a year, Schulberg offered $20,000 for five week's work and again Bancroft refused. He made Blood Money for Fox in 1933 and finally returned to Paramount as a character actor in 1936 for $250 a week. He remained a highly sought after character actor at a much more reasonable salary until he retired in 1941 for a fourteen year run as a rancher and family man until his death in 1956.
The formidable New York Times was quick to find fault with the film but not Bancroft, “After an absence of nearly ten months from the screen the stalwart figure of George Bancroft is to be seen at the Paramount in Rich Man's Folly, the narrative of which is said to have been suggested, but only suggested, by Dickens's Dombey and Son. There is nothing here that savors of Dickens's style nor are the incidents handled so that they arouse any great interest or even curiosity. In fact the development, the direction and the acting are as hard and mechanical as the strange nature of Brock Trumbull, whom Mr. Bancroft impersonates.
Pathos is attempted here and there, but it is no more moving than Trumbull's irrational antics toward the close of the proceedings are exciting. It is a tale that strikes one as though all the episodes had been voted upon at a conference, when the various ideas sounded more logical than they are in pictured form. There is hardly anything that happens that does not suggest the carpenter rather than the writer and Trumbull's selfish ambitions are harped upon until one feels that the film is little more than a test of patience.
Part of this picture is maudlin, part is annoying and most of it is hopelessly illogical. However, Mr. Bancroft is the same tower of strength he was in his old silent film, The Pony Express, but one does not feel that his performance in this up-to-date work is anything as impressive as that offering of the old days. The rest of the cast do as well as possible considering the dialogue and action” (16mm)

Lunch

THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL (1917 - Walton Inc.)
DIR: Leopold D. Wharton; SCRIPT: Gardner Hunting & Leopold Wharton; PHOTO: Ray June & Levi Bacon
CAST: Doris Kenyon (Prudence Carrington Ware/ Prudence Martling), Paul Gordon (George Ware), Thomas Holding (Rev. Arthur Dean), F.W. Stewart (The "Vulture" of the trail), Edgar L. Davenport (Albert Carrington), Hans Robert (Charles Carrington, wayward brother of Prudence), Louise Hotelling (Marie)
A man believing his wife is unfaithful casts her and their child out. The child is abandoned, the husband and wife lose their memories, there is robbery, violence and death before all is set right in the Klondike goldfields. This may be the strangest film at this year's show!
The Wharton brothers are probably best remembered for their serial productions which may explain the preponderance of plot points displayed in this film. Leopold Wharton had gone to Ithaca New York in 1913 to film a football picture for Essanay. He saw possibilities in the picturesque hills, cliffs, valleys and waterfalls of the Finger Lakes and he, in conjunction with his actor brother Theodore, started Wharton Inc in 1914 and produced The Perils Of Pauline, The Exploits Of Elaine, The New Exploits Of Elaine, and The Romance of Elaine all with Pearl White as well as other titles with Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, Warner Oland, and Irene Castle. The company ceased producing motion pictures in 1919. The brothers never worked together again.
The scenes of the prospectors beginning their journey on the “Great White Trail” were very effectively filmed in the gorges and valleys above Cayuga Lake. 142 men from the Ithaca area and students from Cornell were used in the scene at the Chilkoot Pass according to the Ithaca Daily News in March 1917. Additional photography was done on location in the Adirondacks at Alaska City neat Port Henry New York. It was a large outdoor set built by a colorful character named “Caribou Bill” in 1915 to be used by Eastern film companies filming Alaskan scenes and the Wharton's went there when snow came late to the Ithaca area and delayed shooting in that location.
Philip Carli played the film in Ithaca and had this to say, “I played The Great White Trail last night in Ithaca to 1600 people! The film's rather wild and bewildering -- Leopold Wharton wrote an extremely complicated serial-like scenario, he and brother Theodore directed it and initially released it at 8 reels, and then they cut it to 5 due to distribution difficulties (they were handling it themselves). The result is ultimate and excessive melodramatic compression, like packing an atomic bomb in a small cardboard suitcase: characters pop in and out sequentially, disgrace and/or violent death happens every five minutes or so, a baby is mislaid in a fit of insanity, there are beatings (one of which causes amnesia and another cures it), shootings, attempted white slavery, several chases, and a fire, plus THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL (the Chilkoot Pass simulated by Taughannock Falls just outside Ithaca). All this in seventy minutes. A couple drove up from New Jersey to see it, can you imagine!! I think it'll do all right in Massillon this fall.”
With that in mind and at the suggestion of D.J. Turner I'm including his brief synopsis so you'll be prepared for every twist and turn: “It's very busy/action packed with some humour and coincidences galore. It looks like Back To God's Country and The Grub-Stake combined.
Against her father's wishes, Prudence Carrington marries George Ware rather than the Reverend Arthur Dean. When George sees her with Charles he does not realize it is her brother and turns her out with their child Marie, believing her to be unfaithful. Half demented, Prudence hides the baby in a basket in the woods where it is found by the Reverend Dean's dog.
Dean brings up the child and Prudence, suffering memory loss, goes to the Klondike as a nurse. Dean also travels to the Klondike to minister to the gold miners. George, having learned of his wife's innocence, travels to the Klondike to find her but he too loses his memory when he is hit on the head by a lawless character called the Vulture.
Now fourteen years old, Marie has also arrived in the Klondike. The Reverend Dean is killed by a stray bullet but the Ware family is reunited after George is hit on the head again (by the same person using the same weapon) and a baby boot in his possession is matched to a baby boot in Marie's possession.”
Maybe losing several reels was not a bad idea and that's what Variety thought as well. “Leonard D. Wharton, who wrote and produced this picture must have thought he was at work on another serial for which the brothers are justly famed. But The Great White Trail isn't a serial and at eight reels it seems to be 2,500 feet too long. When it is cut and a lot of that continual string of mushers passing over the Alaskan trail chopped out and someone with a real sense of continuity has gone over it and whipped the real action into shape, it will be a corker! The story is old fashioned melodrama with thrill after thrill but these are separated by long scenes of pretty snow that become tiresome. It's a family affair who are torn apart by a misunderstanding and must pass through a number of most harrowing experiences before all ends happily which will please all audiences. The cast is uniformly fine with Miss Kenyon performing most effectively.” (35mm - courtesy Library and Archives Canada)

THE MIND READER ( 1933 - Warner Bros.)
DIR: Roy Del Ruth; SCRIPT: Robert Lord & Wilson Mizner; MUSIC Bernhard Kahn & Felix Mills (both uncredited); PHOTO: Sol Polito
CAST: Warren William (Chandra Chandler), Constance Cummings (Sylvia Chandler), Allen Jenkins (Frank Franklin), Natalie Moorhead (Mrs. Austin), Mayo Methot (Jenny), Clarence Muse (Sam), Earle Foxe (Don Holman)
I can't believe that in all these years we haven't presented a Warren William film. We'll make up for that failure now with this excellent tale with Warren at his slimy best as a medicine show grafter who moves into high society. To quote Leonard Maltin “It's a constantly witty treat, capped by a great closing line from Jenkins.”
Warren William ranks as a major film rediscovery of the past twenty years, although he was never lost. A perennial second-tier actor in A-budget pictures, we were familiar enough with him as Caesar in Cleopatra (1934) and in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). More geeky film fans would remember him from a small role in The Wolf Man (1941) or as Michael Lanyard in the very long-running Lone Wolf series. He had been on stage for years, made a few silents (under his real name, Warren Krech), but he was not regarded as a major talent by film historians who had been unfamiliar with his more obscure works.
What was forgotten about William's career is that he was actually a star in B-budget pictures before the Production Code was re-enforced. It is in these pictures that William is really given a chance to shine. It seems Warners/First National wasn't especially picky about subject matter so long as the films were cheap and made a profit, and William fit the bill. He created a genre all to himself, in which he played the leading character, generally someone so reprehensible that the audience was waiting for his comeuppance in the final reel. Many of these films, being B pictures, didn't make it to television very often until Ted Turner bought the collection in the 1980s. There are a whole raft of great First National Warren William pictures from this Pre-Code era: The Mouthpiece (1932) in which he plays a crooked lawyer based on the real crooked lawyer William Fallon; The Dark Horse (1932), in which he plays a Karl Rove-like political advisor; The Match King (1932), in which he plays a character based closely on Swedish match monopolist Ivar Kreuger; Employees' Entrance (1933) as a nasty department store manager; Bedside (1934) as a quack, money grubbing doctor. MGM even did a one-off on the William genre and made Skyscraper Souls (1932), which has the First National feel with MGM gloss. William did many other supporting and starring roles during this period, but these are the true rediscovered gems of the past few years. Alas, the renewed Production Code (July 1934) killed off the prospects for more interesting films, and William was stuck in formula pictures within a few years, playing Perry Mason, Philo Vance, and a very bad Sam Spade.
The Mind Reader is one of the best of the Warren William films, given the presence of an excellent supporting cast. William plays The Great Chandra, a fake psychic who defrauds people by a number of clever means. His loyal assistant, Frank Franklin, is the great Allen Jenkins, one of the best sidekicks ever to be on the screen. Chandra scams people ruthlessly, milking money out of them with Frank manning the details behind the scenes. Of course, Chandra's abilities are entirely fraudulent, and sometimes his advice is so bad that it drives people to suicide (Mayo Methot actually does so on-screen!) Still, he is utterly convincing to some gullible believers, including lovely Sylvia Roberts (Constance Cummings). Chandra initially hides his chicanery from Sylvia, but when she discovers it, his silver tongue convinces her to become complicit in his crimes. It all gets more complicated from there, and the fun is to see just how rotten William can get.
The New York Times enjoyed the film and singled out William by saying “Much dependence is placed on Warren William to carry the picture over the hurtles and he delivers in his usual capable manor” (16mm) notes by Eric Grayson

Dinner

HER NIGHT OF ROMANCE (1924 - Constance Talmadge Film Co. - Dist First National Pictures)
DIR: Sidney Franklin; SCRIPT: Hans Kraly; PHOTO: Ray Binger & Victor Milner
CAST: Constance Talmadge (Dorothy Adams), Ronald Colman (Paul Menford), Jean Hersholt (Joe Diamond), Albert Gran Sam Adams), Robert Rendel (Prince George), Sidney Bracy (Butler), Templar Saxe (Dr. Wellington), Emily Fitzroy (nurse)
Coleman is an impoverished British lord who impersonates a doctor in order to woo ailing American heiress Talmadge. The lord is in it for love, but his business associate, Hersholt, smells money.
Anita Loos, in her biography of the Talmadge sisters, wrote “Joe Schenck produced another disaster in 1924, Her Night Of Romance by Hans Kraly,” but quickly responds that “Joe then called John (Emerson) and me to the rescue which we accomplished with Learning to Love.” Since she also considered Her Sister From Paris, which was an outstanding success at last year's Cinesation, to also be a disaster I'm not sure how highly to value Miss Loos' opinion. This feature promises to have the same bubble and charm that Connie brought to her other films.
The New York Times certainly found the film enjoyable. “A lively pictorial farce-comedy, with the fair and effervescent Constance Talmadge opened this week. It is called Her Night of Romance, and is jolly enough to cause one to forget the winter's snow and chilling blasts. Hans Kraly, who wrote the scenarios for Deception and Passion, and was co-author of Three Women with Ernst Lubitsch, is responsible for the story.
In this vehicle Miss Talmadge is gay and charming, affectionate and coy, always making the most of her expressive eyes. Ronald Colman, who will be remembered for his clever work in "The White Sister," gives an easy and natural performance as a young English Lord, who is introduced as an impoverished caller on a money-lender, eager to borrow another one thousand pounds. Mr. Kraly frequently takes the line of least resistance in building up his situations. This may be pardonable in such a light entertainment. Nevertheless he succeeds in giving opportunities for many novel touches, which have been aptly and adroitly handled by the director, Sidney Franklin. The settings and scenic effects in this picture are convincing, with reproductions of English railroad trains, the country home and the hotel rooms. Jean Hersholt is splendid as the money lender. His ease of manner and his constantly changing expressions made the characterization quite natural and most interesting. Albert Gran is imposing and amusing as the heiress's father. All in all it's a jolly comedy!”
Variety was also impressed saying “Her Night Of Romance proves to be one of the most delightful of the comedy-drama type of pictures that Constance Talmadge has starred in in some time. The last series of this ingénue's pictures have more or less fallen down at the box office but this one bids fair to again raise the status of Constance as a drawing card. It is a good story with just enough a touch of sex to get it over. There are any number of amusing situations that get to the audience and there are plenty of laughs scattered throughout.
Miss Talmadge figures as the wealthy young woman who, to avoid fortune hunters, sends a picture of herself, made up as a decidedly unprepossessing young woman, to the newspapers. Mr. Colman is rather a giddy nobleman, who gets "tight as a lord" at night, but is bright and happy next morning. It is not surprising when he falls in love with Dorothy, little thinking that she is an heiress. The situations are delightful with one of the best being when Miss Talmadge's father, believing her married to Mr. Colman despite his protests to the contrary, pushes his new son-in-law into his daughters boudoir with a pleasant “good-night, kids.”
Miss Talmadge handles the role assigned exquisitely and Ronald Coleman, opposite, is possibly the best leading man she has had in some time. He acts with an ease of manor, yet with an assurance that is compelling. There is only one thing that might be desired and that would be to see the treatment Lubitsch would have given the story had he handled it. (35mm - courtesy Library of Congress)

SCREEN SOUVINERS (1936 - Paramount)
Oscar nominated for Best Short Subject.

THIS WAY PLEASE (1937 - Paramount)
DIR: Robert Florey; SCRIPT: Grant Garrett, Seena Owen, Howard J. Green; PHOTO: Harry Fischbeck; MUSIC: Boris Morros;
CAST: Charles �Buddy� Rogers, Betty Grable, Ned Sparks (Inky), Jim & Marion Jordan (Fibber McGee & Molly), Porter Hall (SJ Crawford), Rufe Davis (Sound Effects Man), Mary Livingstone (Maxine Barry)
Buddy Rogers gets top billing but this film belongs to Betty and Ned. She's an aspiring singer/dancer trying to get a job in a movie theater stage show and Ned's the sarcastic PR man trying to help her career while dodging Mary Livingstone's suggestions of marriage.
This film was Buddy Rogers last film for Paramount and Betty Grable's first which may explain why Rogers gets so little screen time. Betty's dancing is terrific and her personality shines even more than in the later Fox musicals. Altogether it's a neat, trim little package that gives Grable a chance to shine and allows Rufe Davis a chance for a specialty number that nearly steals the show. As with so many Paramount's of the period, Fibber McGee and Molly are tossed in for name value but they're fun and add some bounce when Betty's not on screen. And Molly's laugh is infectious.
Both The New York Times and Variety found the film slow and pedestrian with little to recommend it and while Bill Everson was not overwhelmed he found much to like and points up many of the film's merits. �This Way Please is an example of a film where the delights of individual; components far outweigh the collective whole. It's quite fresh and unpredictable, almost daring the standardized plot complications to get in the way of the fun. Robert Florey sets up his usual unique compositions, camera angles and smooth editing patterns: the art deco sets glisten; Betty Grable is absolutely charming: the presence of several radio comics of the period is interesting if not overwhelmingly hilarious: and the zany gags in the projection room anticipate these in Hellzapoppin' by quite a few years. Flory amplified and added a great deal of himself: the takeoff on The General Died At Dawn, one of Paramount's biggies from 1936, seems a typical Florey invention. He even manages to have Akim Tamiroff kid his own role but has to make do with reasonable facsimiles for Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper. Florey was always happier with melodrama but plunked down into unfamiliar territory like this really shows what a good director could do with standard fare like this. Many of Paramount's �B� musicals of the thirties were abysmal, and in the hands of a more routine Paramount director would have been just a time-killer. Florey gives it life and sparkle (with some help from Grable and Sparks). This film is the first to really exploit the photogenic qualities of the Grable legs and to angle the cameras to make the most of them. (Grable is so appealing and so effective in so many of these minor Paramount musicals that one wonders why her talent was so unrecognized there). Even the New York Times and Variety reviewers seemed not to notice Grable while waxing enthusiastically over the animal imitations of Rufe Davis and seemed to regard him as the find of the year! (What a pity that both never discovered the Weaver Brothers and Elviry. An endorsement there might have changed the whole future of Republic Pictures!) Anyway, from the above one shouldn't expect too much. Just enjoy this sprightly and friendly little film.� (16mm)

THE ERIC GRAYSON SHOW: ( notes by Eric Grayson)

The Treasurer's Report (1928) Robert Benchley
So what, you say! This is common! Yes, it is, in the Rohauer "restoration" that is commonly seen on video. This is one of the great early talkie shorts with Benchley doing a hilarious rendition of a nervous speaker giving a bad speech. If you haven't seen it, then you should, because it still plays well with modern audiences. The good news here is that this is mostly an original 1929 diacetate 35mm print. The negative for this short was lost in a fire in the late 1940s and the restoration that Raymond Rohauer did was pretty awful. Rohauer's lab work was so poor that a bug's leg got stuck in the duping aperture, and it obscures about 20% of the picture during the last half of the short. But not here! This is the way it was meant to be seen, in real Movietone format without the top and bottom lopped off! The credits and close of this short were missing when I acquired it, so I replaced them with the standard Rohauer version. You can tell for yourselves just how bad the lab work was. Thankfully, it's only onscreen for a few seconds. (10 min.)

Ernie Kovacs on-set from Our Man in Havana (1959)
You might think this is common, too, but it isn't. Kovacs shot Our Man in Havana in Cuba with an all-star cast. This is a silent reel of footage that was shot with all the cast and crew, including Maureen O'Hara, Alec Guinness (minus wig), Noel Coward, Ralph Richardson, and many others. A good portion of it consists of Kovacs hamming it up for the camera and working out a skit in which he "smokes" a cigar under water, a gag he used a couple of years later in his ABC specials. This is the only print of this film known to exist anywhere and the first public showing ever. (5 min.)

Long Fliv the King (1926) Charley Chase, Martha Sleeper, Max Davidson, Oliver Hardy
This is available on video in a compilation, but this is an original Kodascope. Charley plays a death-row inmate who marries Sleeper to become the king of the mythical country Thermosa. His death sentence is overturned unexpectedly, so he travels to the country with his beefeater (Davidson). Everyone is trying to kill him, including Oliver Hardy in an outrageously bogus mustache. It may not be the best of the Chase shorts, but it's a fun romp all the same. Watch for the gag with Max Davidson not willing to test Charley's ham. (20 min.)

For Your Information (1944) Corey Thomson
Yes, it's that most requested piece, a WWII VD film. This one shouldn't bother even the most squeamish, and it has the extra advantage of being in original Kodachrome. This is from the Royal Canadian Air Force and is clearly aimed at people who need to be told the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. (15 min.)

Jasper's Minstrels (1945) George Pal
Judging by feedback, these shorts tend to be some of the most popular with Cinesation attendees, so here is another one, in lush color. In this one, Jasper is instructed by his Mammy to return the deacon's coat. The pesky scarecrow, wanting the nice coat, convinces Jasper to let him borrow it so he can tell the story of his days as the emcee of a minstrel show. We are then shown wonderful Pal-style animation of African American performers of the day doing minstrel songs, including "Carry Me Back to Old Verginny" and "Dixie." Please remember that the racial content was normal by the standards of the time. (8 min)

Hansel and Gretel (1951) Ray Harryhausen
This is actually on video if you look hard enough, but not in a beautiful original Kodachrome print. Harryhausen had worked on some of the later George Pal Puppetoons and a few of the Private Snafu cartoons. He decided that he wanted to go out on his own after the war, so he shot a series of Mother Goose stories in the garage at his parents' house. This is one of the last ones. These were sold directly to schools in the burgeoning post-war educational market, and they were reprinted even into the early 1980s. Most of the surviving prints are either beaten to death or red as a beet, so this is a rare opportunity to see a decent print from the original issue. (10 min)

SATURDAY MORNING

SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS:

FINDING HIS VOICE (1929 - Western Electric Co, Inc.)
DIR: F. Lyle Goldman, Max Fleischer; SCRIPT: W.E. Erpi [Charles Wisner Barrell]; Animation: Al Eugster
CAST: Talkie, Mutie, Sound Engineer
Max Fleischer was commissioned by the Western Electric Company (Westrex) to produce a film explaining, in laymen's terms, how the mechanics and science of putting soundtracks on films worked. This film was the result.
"W.E. Erpi" was a pseudonym for Western Electric, Electrical Research Products Inc. and an inside joke. ERPI, was the marketing and sales division of Western Electric, which in turn was the manufacturing division of AT&T.

DUMB PATROL ( 1931) - Hugh Harman-Rudolf Ising Production, Vitaphone Pictures - Dist by Warner Brothers)
PROD & Dir: Hugh Harmon, Rudolf Ising; ANIMATION Isadore 'Friz' Freleng, Max Maxwell

SMILE, DARN YA, SMILE! (1931 - Hugh Harman-Rudolf Ising Production, Vitaphone Pictures - Dist by Warner Brothers)
DIR: Rudolf Ising; PROD: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising; ANIMATION: Isadore 'Friz' Freleng, Max Maxwell
CAST: Foxy, Roxy, Hippo, Hoboes
It's Half Musical, Half Cartoon. It sounds like the hippo is nagging in gibberish. It's actually a reversed track and when reversed again, she's clearly saying "Susie heard one of those Atlantic bells! Whataya think?"

PICTURE PEOPLE Vol #2 HOLLYWOOD SPORTS (1941 - RKO Pictures)
DIR & SCRIPT: M. Clay Adams

The second in RKO's "Picture People" series deals with Hollywood stars and their sports activities and opens with a sequence involving Gale Patrick and her baseball team warming up in Hollywood Park. From there to: Guy Kibbee teaching his son the art of wrist-movement in angling; and Gilbert Roland, Rudy Vallee and Nat Pendleton play tennis while Constance Bennett, Billie Burke and Claire Trevor cheer them on.

MABEL'S DRAMATIC CAREER (1913 - Keystone Film Company)
Dir: Mack Sennett
Cast: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett, Ford Sterling, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
A young man falls in love with his mother's kitchen maid, Mabel. But his mother objects and arranges for him to meet another more suitable young woman. Mabel confronts the young woman, and is dismissed. Mabel soon finds a new job in the movies.

PILLARS OF SOCIETY (1916 - Fine Arts Film Co. - Dist Triangle Film Corp.)
DIR: Raoul Walsh; SCRIPT: D.W. Griffith
CAST: Henry B. Walthall (Karsten Bernick), Mary Alden (Lona Tonnesen), Juanita Archer (Betty), George Beranger (Johan Tonnesen), Josephine B. Crowell (Karsten's Mother), Olga Gray (Madame Dorf)
A prominent shipping magnate, in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that he fathered an illegitimate daughter, plans to murder his brother-in-law as part of a cover-up.
This story based on a the play Samfundets stotter (Pillars Of Society) by Henrik Ibsen is our second feature of the show to feature Henry B. Walthall and to concern itself with shipbuilding. Walthall, as always, creates a fine portrait of a basically decent man beset by fatal flaws in his character in this story of social hypocrisy and political corruption. It's also an interesting and rather dour subject for Walsh who would become synonymous with action in his later sound films but was probably more interested in honing his skills as a director than about the types of films he was making. Walsh was learning his craft at Triangle directing numerous two reelers. This was his first full length feature and his last film for Griffith and Triangle. He took it over after, as he puts it, �after the original director, poor devil, hit the laughing water� and finished it under Griffith's personal direction before leaving for greener pastures at the Fox studios in New York. The Thanhouser Co. had produced a short film of the play in 1911, and Douglas Sirk would direct a German adaptation of it in 1935 for Ufa. Some reports of the time indicate the film was actually shot in 1915 but was shelved for a year due to poor audience response to the film version of Ibsen's Ghosts, released by Majestic Motion Picture Company and also staring Henry B. Walthall, earlier in 1915.
Variety gave the film a brief but decidedly positive review saying �Pillars Of Society, released today is an adaptation of Ibsen's work well directed by R.A. Walsh. Like all Ibsen works it is morbid in theme and its psychology shows the weakness of man. The plot is scant having a dearth of drama. It is, however, ingeniously handled, magnificently acted and directed with excellent photography. This feature will pass nicely on any program.� (35mm - courtesy Library of Congress)

Lunch

PLEASURE CRUISE - (1933 - Fox Film Corp.)
DIR: Frank Tuttle; SCRIPT: Guy Bolton & Horace Jackson; PHOTO: Ernest Palmer; MUSIC: Louis DeFrancesco
CAST: Genevieve Tobin (Shirley Poole), Roland Young (Andrew Poole), Ralph Forbes (Richard Taversham), Una O'Connor (Mrs. Signus), Herbert Mundin (Henry), Minna Gombell (Judy Mills), Theodor von Eltz (Murchison), Frank Albertson (Alf), Arthur Hoyt (Rollins), George K. Arthur (Bellboy)
One of the last pre-code features this one deals with sex and marital infidelity as it skips along to its delightful conclusion.
The pre-20th Century Fox films are difficult to get a handle on, mainly because it's impossible to get a print of many. In 1935 Darryl Zanuck and Joe Schenck had merged 20th Century Productions with Fox Film Corp. to secure their own studios, distribution exchanges, and theaters. The Fox productions were of little use to them except for remake rights and the negatives were put into storage in a Los Angeles warehouse. The warehouse caught fire a few years later and the highly flammable history of the company was gone in a matter of minutes. Many titles were spared thanks to some dupe negatives and release prints stored elsewhere but the bulk of ordinary product was lost. Through the years some have been found in a variety of places both likely and unlikely.
Most of the surviving Fox films do not suggest many lost masterpieces after the plague of plodding Fox dramas booked by film groups for their rarity and not entertainment value. A delightful comedy such as Pleasure Cruise comes as a refreshing surprise when many promising pre-code Fox titles have reneged after the fourth reel. Indeed, it could almost pass for a Lubitsch marital comedy of the period thanks to the cast and Frank Tuttle's stylish direction.
Frank Tuttle began directing at Paramount's Astoria studios in the twenties and went west when sound arrived. In the late 20s and early 30s Frank Tuttle showed great promise as a director. When Paramount wanted to turn the recently completed silent The Canary Murder Case (1929) into a talkie, it was given to Tuttle. Not only did he have to invent ways to add sound to already completed scenes and intercut dubbed footage with new sound shots, he was faced with having to �dub� an actress in both sight and sound, substituting Margaret Livingston for Louise Brooks. For The Big Broadcast (Paramount, 1932) Tuttle used special effects and animation to add touches of surreal comedy. In Pleasure Cruise he delights in using the camera to create a startling image from an ordinary one. For one rainy exterior scene, an impressionistic soft shot of a puddle resolves itself into a sharp mirror of the characters on the sidewalk. Scene transitions are frequently done over images that match internal visual elements of shapes and light patterns. Like Mamoulian and von Sternberg some of these effects can be so deliberate as to seem as much egotistical excess as cinematic style. When he returned to Paramount he became Bing Crosby's favorite director but never rose to the promise of his earlier pictures. Given a juicier script such as This Gun For Hire he would just miss the bull's eye.
Pleasure Cruise keeps things moving when most Fox films meandered around the swamp and an exceptionally strong cast, headed by two fellow Paramount veterans aids Tuttle. In fact, Roland Young and Genevieve Tobin play variations on their roles in One Hour With You of a jealous husband who suspects his wife of infidelity. This time the husband pushes the wife into taking a cruise alone as a �marriage vacation,� then hides out as a barber on board so he can discourage possible suitors including Theodore von Eltz, Arthur Hoyt and Ralph Forbes. Meanwhile Young has to dodge Una O'Connor who is convinced he is a prince in disguise. O'Connor had made her Hollywood debut in Fox's Cavalcade earlier in 1933, but her best remembered role that year was in Universal's The Invisible Man where she became an immediate favorite of director James Whale. Herbert Mundin, another leftover from Cavalcade, is the senior barber whose hair tonic bottle full of gin is rapidly depleted as he tries to figure out what his assistant is up to.
Screenwriter Guy Bolton had partnered with P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome Kern for several hit Broadway musicals in the mid-teens and landed at Fox in time to script Delicious for Gaynor and Farrell. The film's basic premise would not have been permissible under Joseph Breen's enforcement of the production code, let alone the last half hour in which Roland sneaks into Genevieve's cabin. The rest may not be quite as light or sophisticated as Lubitsch but it certainly gets away with everything it can until you can't be certain who knows who did or did not do what with whom. (Got that? Never mind, you'll see what I mean.)
If you think of Fox Films as Warner Baxter flavored soporifics Pleasure Cruise ought to come as a stimulating pre-code comedy-with a little sex�and apologies to Preston Sturges. (16mm) Notes by Dave Snyder

A TRIP THROUGH THE PARAMOUNT STUDIO (1927 - West Coast Theaters Inc.)
This nine minute short features shots of the studio and a great many of its stars.
(35mm print preserved and provided by The Library of Congress.)

THE DOWN GRADE (1927 - Gotham Productions - dist. Lumas Film Corp.)
DIR: Charles Hutchison; SCRIPT: Welles W. Ritchie: PHOTO: James Brown
CAST: William Fairbanks (Ted Lanning), Alice Calhoun (Molly Crane), Charles K. French (Mr. Lanning), Guinn �Big Boy� Williams (Ed Holden), Jimmy Aubry (The Runt)
It's a railroad picture, short on character and long on action. In this one a young man and his girl race to thwart bandits form destroying his father's rail line.
Independent productions were like automobile companies, they abounded in the first thirty years of the twentieth century and then slowly faded in number over time. William Fairbanks was a product of that system. He worked early, and briefly, in his career at Columbia when he starred in two films in1924 both with one of our favorites Eva Novak in The Fatal Mistake as a reporter and in Tainted Money as a lumber baron's son, he finished his stint with the studio in 1925 as a playboy in A Fight To The Finish. But most of his films were for B and B- outfits like Ben Wilson Productions, Perfection Pictures, Phil Goldstone Productions, Western Star Productions and Gotham Productions which were distributed on States Rights basis. He tended to end up in Westerns and crime melodramas playing characters named Duke Steel and �Speedy� Rocket. In this film he plays Ted Lanning which seems too mundane for a two-fisted action hero.
He was born in 1924 and has 65 silent films listed to his credit. He was born Carl Ullman and was a cowboy in his youth so it seems natural he wished to become an action star in the movies. Another fact pointing to his career choice was his last name, Ullman, which was very close to Douglass Fairbanks original last name of Ulman and offered hope that he would be associated with his idol, the far more charismatic Fairbanks. He entered the movies in 1916 as a stunt double, worked with William S. Hart in Wolf Lowry in 1917, moved on to a short stint with Triangle under director Lambert Hillyer in secondary rolls, did a stint in the Navy in WW I and returned to become a star in Goldman and Wilson quickies starting in 1920. He worked steadily throughout the 1920s. He ended his career playing supporting roles at MGM in Spoilers of the West (1927) and Wyoming (1928) starring Tim McCoy directed by WS Van Dyke. Also for Van Dyke he appeared supporting Ralph Forbes in Under The Black Eagle in 1928. His last film was The Vanishing West in 1928 receiving sixth billing after Yakima Canutt for Mascot. His career was on the downslide and the coming of sound allegedly forced his retirement. He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 1945.
Director Charles Hutchison had an interesting career. He was a multitalented threat as actor, director, screenwriter, stuntman, and producer/production manager. He appeared in 49 films between 1914 and 1944, directed 33 and functioned as screenwriter for four. He tended to perform his own stunts and was considered a master of motorcycle thrills. Sometimes billed as Charles Hutchinson, this pioneering serial star was more frequently credited under his given name of Hutchison. Born in the last decade of the 19th century, Hutchison attended Western University, then worked briefly for Marshall Field before embarking upon an itinerant acting career in vaudeville and stock. He was still in his twenties when, in 1913, he made his movie debut with the Triumph Film Company, eventually settling at Pathe and later with small companies distributing through Lumas Film Corp. He became an independent producer in the early 1920s, turning out serials, two-reel comedies and inexpensive programmers, working frequently with William Fairbanks. Though his producing career faded with the coming of sound, Hutchison kept his hand in directing and acting until his retirement in 1941. Charles Hutchinson/Hutchison was married to his frequent leading lady Edith Thornton. (35mm - courtesy Library of Congress)

TAKE THE HEIR (1930 - Screen Story Syndicate - dist. Big 4 Film Corp.)
DIR: Lloyd Ingraham ; SCRIPT: Beatrice Van; PHOTO: Allen Siegler
CAST: Edward Everett Horton (Smithers), Dorothy Devore (Susan), Frank Elliott (Lord Tweedham), Edythe Chapman (Lady Tweedham, Otis Harlin (John Walker), Kay Deslys (Muriel Walker), Margaret Campbell (Mrs. Smith-Bellingham)
A valet impersonates his inebriated boss and falls for a beautiful young maid but complications arise when a notorious gold-digger, who thinks the butler is the wealthy young man he's impersonating, sets her sights on him.
Once again we've uncovered another Edward Everett Horton title from the vaults. This is actually an all silent version of a part talkie and for the first of six times he plays a butler and gets the girl at the end. It's always nice to see Horton as a leading man without all the affectations he became associated with in most of his sound films, Man In The Mirror being a nice exception where he plays both a meek husband and his more forceful alter ego. This film was produced by Screen Stories Syndicate which seems to have been created for the production of this one film with distribution handled by Big 4 Film Corp. on a states rights basis. While he was working on this film he was also busy producing and acting in The Nervous Wreck with friend Franklin Pangborn at the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles which he leased in order to produce his own plays.
The supporting cast is filled with old timers, character actors all, in their younger days or one other real star, Dorothy Devore, in her last film. Born Alma Inez Williams in Fort Worth, she got her start entertaining in musical theater, vaudeville, and nightclubs as a teenager. She broke into movies in the Lions and Moran comedies' at Universal and moved on to playing tiny, mischievous gals in the romantic Al Christie comedies into the early 1920s. She made several successful features like Know Thy Wife (1918) for Christie and 45 Minutes To Broadway (1920) with Charles Ray but one and two reelers were her love and she returned to them whenever possible. She was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1923 and married theater owner Albert Wylie Mather in 1926. She was considered one of the most talented comedians of the 20s but with the completion of Take The Heir she retired at the ripe old age of 29 and passed away in Woodland Hills, California at age 77.
Frank Elliott began his career with It's No Laughing Matter in 1915 and worked steadily through to his last A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum in 1966. In many cases they were small rolls, often uncredited, in major films and some bigger parts as the quality of the films dropped but still he remained active. Edythe Chapman was 46 when she came to Hollywood in 1909 from the New York stage with husband actor James Neill. They were favorites of Cecil B. DeMille appearing in Manslaughter (1922), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The King Of Kings (1927). She would make two more films after this before retiring in 1930. Cherubic, pop-eyed character actor Otis Harlan came to films in the 1920s after extensive legitimate-stage and vaudeville experience. He was most often cast as a semi-regular in the Reginald Denny comedies at Universal. In 1929, he played Captain Andy in the first film version of Show Boat (1929). Most of his talkie assignments were bits, albeit memorable ones, including Starveling in A Midsummer's Night Dream (1935) but may be best remembered for his voice acting as �Happy� in Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937). Otis Harlan was the uncle of silent-movie leading man Kenneth Harlin. (35mm - courtesy Library of Congress)

Dinner

THE IMPRACTICAL JOKER (1937 - Fleischer Studios -Dist. Paramount)
Starring Betty Boop, Grampy
Betty enlists Grampy's aid in dealing with Irving the Imbecile Idiot.

CENTENNIAL SUMMER (1946 - Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.)
DIR: Otto Preminger; SCRIPT: Michael Kanin; PHOTO: Ernest Palmer; MUSIC: Alfred Newman; SONGS: �Centennial," "Free America," "Railroad Song," "The Right Romance," "Up with the Lark" and "In Love in Vain" music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Leo Robin; "All Through the Day," music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; "Cinderella Sue," music Jerome Kern, lyrics E. Y. Harburg.
CAST: Jeanne Crain (Julia Rogers), Cornel Wilde (Philippe Lascalles), Linda Darnell (Edith Rogers), Dorothy Gish (Harriet Rogers), William Eythe (Ben Phelps), Walter Brennan (Jesse Rogers), Constance Bennett (Zenia Rogers)
A lush musical set against the background of the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. Sisters Crain and Darnell fall in love with Wilde while singing Jerome Kern songs, supported by an Alfred Newman score, and the richness of IB Tech.
Since the late 1930s many of Fox's musicals contained a period theme but they were mostly frothy concoctions staring Betty Grable and Alice Faye mixing hummable old tunes with some mediocre new songs and some gaudy production numbers which were quickly poured into theaters. There was no pretense of art or sophistication and even less interest in re-creating American life. That changed after M-G-M released Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944 to glowing reviews and huge business. Not surprisingly, Centennial Summer was an imitation of St. Louis only now the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876 became the center of the story with a family caught up in the excitement of the coming spectacle. The film is pleasant and colorful in IB Tech but the script lacks the depth of St. Louis and the direction of Otto Preminger, who had never directed a musical before, lacks warmth and real heart.

The film's title card reads, "Jerome Kern's Centennial Summer." When Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the rights to Albert E. Idell's best seller in 1943, it apparently did not intend to make the property as a musical, as indicated by early 1944 screenplays in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library. By late 1944, however, the project had been turned into a musical. According to documents in the Jerome Kern file of the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, also located at UCLA, Kern was contracted in late January 1945 to supply the music for ten songs for $100,000. With Kern's approval, Leo Robin was engaged to write lyrics. Robin's fee was $40,000. According to a modern source, friction developed between Robin and Kern, because the lyricist was taking too much time. Both Oscar Hammerstein II and E. Y. Harburg were subsequently assigned to contribute lyrics to keep the project on schedule. One song written for the film, "Duettino," was not used, but was later published as "Two Hearts Are Better Than One," with lyrics credited to Robin. However, studio documents credit Johnny Mercer with the song's lyrics. Alfred Newman received an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Centennial Summer, and "All Through the Day" won the Academy Award