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| What This Book Tells Will Surprise You Plenty. Go Get It. |
Ad/Odds: Drews Delight in New Book, Mac/Eddy a 60's Happening, Cooped Up Lost World Watchers, and What Got Looked At Twenty Years Back
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| They Go Way Back but Still Are Funny for My Money |
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| Forget Bonnie and Clyde or The Graduate During the Sixties. This Was the Goods. |
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| Says Projectionist: My Cigar's Gone Dead, Pal. Got a Light? |
17 Comments:
Sidney Drew directed and stars in "A Florida Enchantment" (1914), a very strange and literally provocative movie. Does the book discuss it?
It opens as a standard polite comedy .Drew's character is identified as "a young doctor" (intentional joke?) with a pretty young fiancee. The fiancee and her blackface maid, under the titular enchantment, both slowly turn into men and establish new male identities. The movie unfolds as if this was an innocent drawing room farce. Then, near the end, Drew's character abruptly turns into a manic Charley Aunt for a slapstick wrap-up. It's as if this were a live play bombing, and director Drew decided to run onstage in a dress.
Farr's book covers all the Drew films in gratifying detail.
I had an airline 16mm print of THE FOUR MUSKETEERS. The death/execution of Milady, the villain, was missing.
Your post about Eddy and MacDonald reminds me of a retrospective in Boston years ago. During the summer months the Boston Public Library held weekly screenings that were open to the public, with no admission charged. The first was a series of Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals. These were so popular that the series was repeated the following summer. Instead of bringing the same films back the third time around, the film librarian opted instead for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, dubious about their appeal in the wake of Astaire and Rogers but hoping for the best.
Imagine his surprise when the attendance surpassed the Astaire-Rogers audiences, with standing-room-only crowds in the auditorium.
The follow-up was a series of Irving Berlin musicals. The librarian really wanted to include ON THE AVENUE, only to be told by the rental agency that Mr. Berlin himself personally withdrew the film from circulation. Undaunted, the librarian wrote a formal letter to Mr. Berlin, asking permission to show the film. Mr. Berlin consented, and everyone in the audience (myself included) had a delightful time.
Incidentally, I'm happy to report that I am related to Jeanette MacDonald and her sister Edith (known to movie buffs as Marie Blake and to TV fans as Blossom Rock of The Addams Family. (I'm also related to Johnny Mack Brown, for what that's worth!)
I salute your wide-open choice of movies, and keeping track of them, too. My choices tend to be pre-1960, usually pre-1940, with emphasis on 65-75 minute features to cram in even more. My own blog often gets around to the obscure stuff I believe worth talking about, and I'm astounded how many there are -- and it doesn't include the ones I don't mention. I find as I get older that if a movie doesn't spark my interest after the first reel, it's time to switch it off.
I had a gorgeous tech IB airline 16mm print of Paint Your Wagon, which I screened many times back in the late 70's, early 80's. Years later, when it became available on video, I couldn't believe how much was missing from that shortened print (which actually retained an intermission title!), as I recall, a couple of songs and a few unimportant scenes. Being the bloated show it was, it was probably a better edit!
Scott, where did your librarian locate a print of ON THE AVENUE? Did Berlin's people supply it? I recall that as being an exceedingly rare title on 16mm.
Mt friend Bill Wootten In Statesville rented a week's worth of Deanna Durbin features for a local art guild's salute to Deanna. This was around the mid-seventies, and the programs were well attended and much-liked. I'm wondering if any Durbin films were revived anywhere theatrically during this time period. If not, they sure should have been.
Hey Kevin, somewhere in deep storage I have the 1968 list of watched movies. Soon as it resurfaces, which it surely will because I know it's not lost, just misplaced, I'll include same in an upcoming Ad/Oddities.
Prospect of watching PAINT YOUR WAGON truly scares me, so I never have.
Was this foolish narrow-mindedness on my part like with other features ducked as persistently?
Richard M. Roberts shares some thoughts about this week's subjects:
John,
I concur in your recommendation of Rob Farr's Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew book, a great read about an unjustly and important early comedy team that also has a pretty good foreward by some tall guy.....what's his name?
It took the passing of years to develop an appreciation for MacDonald and Eddy. I preferred Jeanette singing in her lingerie and paired with Maurice Chevalier rather than being MGM'ed and post-coded into stodginess, but over the years I ended up watching their films usually to check them off some other actor's list who had appeared with them: John Barrymore in MAYTIME (1937), Jimmy Stewart in ROSE MARIE (1936), the remnants of Buster Keaton's mostly-deleted and unbilled part in NEW MOON (1940), and a boatload of comedians in THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1938). And by the time I had gone through those titles, I realized I didn't mind Jeanette and Nelson at all, and that their films were perfectly entertaining in their own right.
Airline prints were indeed ubiquitous in collectors circles in the 70's and 80's, and one problem with them was the fact that the films could indeed be trimmed to fit a specific flight time. I had a nice IB Tech airline print of 1776 that was missing a song and scene or two as well, though it may have also been just the general release version that had been considerably cut from the original preview and road-show version which I had been fortunate to see in the theater. PAINT YOUR WAGON was also rather trimmed in it's general release.
BTW John, you should have no fear of watching PAINT YOUR WAGON, I saw it in it's original roadshow release too and have always enjoyed it just fine. Just gird yourself for Clint Eastwood singing and all will be well.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
I recall a lot of airline prints being printed on mylar stock, a lot of those subject to scratching, so I was apprehensive about taking any that could not be screened in advance.
In initial release "1776" lost the song "Cool Cool Conservative Men", reportedly because it offended Jack Warner's friend Richard Nixon. After both gentlemen passed, the song was restored with a bit of fanfare.
Dan Mercer has more details about the in-flight "Lost World" show:
The celebrated first in-flight motion picture showing took place on April 6, 1925 aboard the Imperial Airways “City of Washington,” a Handley Page W8F airliner with three-engines, biplane configuration, and seats for 12 passengers. The flight was from London to Paris and took two hours and twenty minutes, so there was time enough for a complete showing of “The Lost World.” Imperial Airways prohibited smoking on their flights, but that is almost beside the point. Given the extraordinary measures theaters then took to show nitrate prints safely, it would have required a special kind of madness to stage such a stunt on a largely fabric and wood airplane. A bit of turbulence, a jam in the hot projector—projected image of film being consumed—then the projectionist pushing past the passengers to assure the pilot and co-pilot, “We’ve had it, mates!” I understand that First National released a shortened Kodascope version of the film on 16 mm safety film in February 1925, so there is the possibility that that was the one used for the show, though I can only guess from the picture of the film equipment being put on board whether it was 35 mm or 16 mm. If it was the Kodascope version, however, this would also have been the first example of a shortened print used for an in-flight showing.
John, the print of ON THE AVENUE -- like everything else the film librarian rented, his was a 16mm venue -- came from Films Incorporated. They absolutely would not let ON THE AVENUE out because it was restricted by Irving Berlin. This was in the mid-1980s, when Berlin was in his late nineties, and Berlin made a lot of people happy that night. I also applaud the librarian, who went the extra mile to approach Irving Berlin personally.
Dan Mercer came across some really neat old Hollywood home movies:
You might enjoy these home movies, which were donated many years ago by a woman called Lauretta Edlund to the UCLA Film & Television Archive, but which have just become available:
https://www.facebook.com/UCLAFTVArchive/videos/poolside-with-the-stars-of-1930s-hollywood-%EF%B8%8Flauretta-edlund-home-movies-santa-mo/1713608583008751/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwDshqcXCqY
Edlund was the sister (or niece, depending on the source) of Lady Sylvia Ashley, who married Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., the swashbuckling star of silent films, in April 1936. A title card reads "All walking scenes directed by SYLVIA." Fairbanks and such friends as Charles Chaplin and Fred Astaire are featured in the clips. Merle Oberon, who is also in many of them, had come to California in 1936 to do "Beloved Enemy" for Goldwyn, which received its theatrical release on December 25, 1936. LIFE, which featured the movie, included pictures of the new British star with her American friend, Norma Shearer, who is also in some of the clips. So, a reasonable estimate of the time period of these home movies would be around the summer of 1936.
"Merle and David" refers to Oberon and David Niven, her beau at the time. The clip, "Norma, Merle, and Benita," shows Norma Shearer, looking quite lovely, Benita Hulme, and a perky Merle Oberon.
Astaire, stylishly dressed as ever, evidently wore his toupee only in performance.
Fairbanks, who would die on December 12, 1939 of a heart attack, had been suffering from congestive heart failure for several months prior to his death. In these clips, however, he seems quite robust, wrestling with dogs and mimicking Astaire's steps.
It would appear that never was there a time when Chaplin was not "on."
Possibly the star who appeals to me most is Fay Wray, who appears in the complete collection, found under the second link.
What's especially interesting is how these people act when a home movie camera is turned on. They were movie stars and acted for a living before the camera, but let the camera be an 8 mm home movie one, and they frolic and cavort and try to do funny things just like regular people would have done then. One who doesn't, though, is Fay Wray, who appears very much as herself, from what I've read about her, as someone intelligent and thoughtful and gentle.
The home movies were taken on Kodachrome and the color is sadly faded for most of the clips. I think that they're terrific despite that, but would love to have them restored to their original appearance.
Kodachrome film does not fade, some of these home movies were unfortunately overexposed when they were shot, whomever was shooting is shooting at the wrong F-stop.
But they are amazing home movies. Did anyone notice Chaplin is playing tennis with Groucho Marx at one point, and Paulette Goddard is there with Chaplin in some of the later footage. And we see Eddie Cantor and Daryl F. Zanuck in some of the last footage shown.
It's nice to see Fairbanks Sr looking happy and relaxed in the footage, we hear so much gossip about how sad and unhappy he was being married to Ashley, perhaps some of this footage shows that gossip to be just that.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
On my very first night on the internet I searched for silent film comedy. One of the hits led me to a site called MUGSHOTS. So well made and VERY informative. This initial stand for silent film comedy on the internet was started by Rob Farr. I'm am so glad I printed the website on paper for it is long gone now. Later I found out Rob attended the Liberty Tent of the Sons Of The Desert in Englewood, Colorado, which I helped found some fifty years ago. We named it the Liberty Tent after the country's bicentennial. Nearly 30 years later he showed me how to navigate the Madison Building reading room at the LOC, a help I have never forgot. Having been acquainted with Rob for many years, I can assure you anything he writes about silent film comedy you can hang your hat on. His writing style is engaging and not dry historical dissertation. I highly recommend buying this book even if you are not into the subject matter. Rob helped found Slapticon for which he shall see the kingdom of heaven.
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