Starve.Org White Noise Usenet Archive: "Re: Cinefest status report"

> Bruce Calvert wrote:

> > It's been a week, and nobody's posted a review yet! What were the best and
> > worst? Come on, you've been able to catch up on your sleep!

> > Bruce Calvert
> > (Who's already heard from Jim Reid that YOU'D BE SURPRISED was really funny.)
> > (remove the xspam to reply)
> > Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
> > http://home.attbi.com/~silentfilm

> Seriously, what is up with that?? We've been more than patient.

> Frederica

Alright, Alright. Jeez, some of us had to come right back from the
convention and meet deadlines and make up for being gone. Maybe more of
you should just go to Cinevent and we wouldn't have to give you a report
in the first place..

Well, kudos once again go out to Steve Haynes, Dave Snyder, John
Stingley, Art Graves, Ron Larimore, and all of the Cinevent committee
for another Cinevent well done. A wonderful weekend in lovely Columbus
of fine film watching, good eating and drinking, and Cinephile company.
The film program here is always well balanced with a combination of rare
titles and good titles that haven't been run in years that need to be
seen again and this year was no exception to that. Excellent
accompianment was provided by Messr's Phillip Carli and David Drazin.

Here's a quick rundown of the titles I saw:

SWINGTIME JOHNNY (Universal 1944) Yeah, I know it was Directed by Eddie
Cline, and is one of Clyde Bruckman's last screenplay credits, but I'm
just not an Andrews Sisters fan (they work too hard to fight for
attention and never come close to the Boswell Sisters for close-order
harmonies). I tried to watch this, just creeping out to the dealers room
when the sisters started warbling, but it lost me. Just another
Universal Wartime musical, and not even on the level of PRIVATE BUCKAROO
(in which I can tolerate the Andrews Sisters because there's enough
Shemp Howard to balance it. ).

ELLA CINDERS (First National 1926) this Colleen Moore classic has been
much discussed, so what more need be said except it was a beautiful
Kodascope print, and Phil Carli played it. Anyone being introduced to it
for the first time saw it in prime circumstances.

DR BULL (Fox 1933) I wanted to see this John Ford-Will Rogers with an
audience, just to confirm my idea that its still as dreary as it is to
watch alone. It was. I am gradually coming to the conclusion that the
three Ford-directed Will Rogers pictures do not deserve the reputation
they have. They are rather leaden-paced, and suffer from the fact that
Ford was never a great comedy director and his leanings toward the
over-maudlin.

I have never been a great fan of DR BULL or JUDGE PRIEST (although I
still have a soft spot for STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND as it was the first
Rogers feature I ever saw and it's definitely the best of the three).
George Marshall was much better at keeping the film moving around Rogers
ad-lib style of acting, and both LIFE BEGINS AT FORTY and IN OLD
KENTUCKY are better than any of the Ford-Rogers films. Now will somebody
show DAVID HARUM again?

CITY GIRL (Fox 1930) The last and least known of F.W. Murnau's Fox films
ironically survives in the silent version that is truly Murnau's work
for the most part and not the butchered sound version in which the
talkie sequences were directed by someone else. I have always loved this
movie,which is far less stylized than SUNRISE (because Murnau is using
real locations ), but no less powerful. Essentially, WHITE GOLD, THE
WIND, and CITY GIRL all have the same plot (city girl weds farmer and
has trouble adjusting to her new life), and all three films do
intresting variations on the theme. But I've always thought CITY GIRL
was the best of the three (with THE WIND a close second).Great
performance by Mary Duncan in the title role, and good work by Charles
Farrell, David Torrence, and Dick Alexander. This film deserves more
attention than it gets and it was good to see it at a Cinephile
convention again. Good score by David Drazin.

YOU'D BE SUPRISED (Paramount 1926) I was suprised at the frankly tepid
response this Raymond Griffith film seemed to get at this showing. It is
definitely not Griffith's best surviving picture, it's single
set-drawing room mystery setting would work better in a talkie, and
Griffith's coroner-detective character is a little too self-amused and
above it all for the good of the story, but the Cinevent audience seemed
to be a bit on the unresponsive side. Maybe I'm wrong, but the laughs
were coming few and far between from this crowd. Phil Carli did his
usual bang-up job at the piano.

CHANGE OF HEART (Fox 1934) I gave this Janet Gaynor-Charles Farrell
picture a start (after-all, it did have Ginger Rogers in it) and it did
seem more lively than some of their teamings, but the late hour of the
showing did me in. The film was following these four (along with James
Dunn) somewhat-overage college graduates on their way to the Big Apple,
but I went off to bed before they were there long.

EXIT SMILING (MGM 1926) This great Beatrice Lillie silent has now been
shown at Cinecon, Cinefest, and Cinevent, and deserves every showing
that it can get. Lillie is simply marvelous in this Sam Taylor-directed
comedy classic. When is TCM going to get off they're collective butts
and score and run this! Jack Pickford gives good support(although I
still think he's a squirrly-looking little bugger) and Harry Myers is a
good villain who has a great seduction scene with Lillie, who did not
make anywhere near enough films. (Phil Carli at the piano).

THE LAST OUTLAW (RKO 1936) Okay, I'm a bit biased about this one ( I was
the one who bugged `em to run it), but I;ve always found this Harry
Carey to be an underrated little modern( by 1936 standards)
western-comedy. John Ford purists belittle it because it was Ford's
story and Christy Cabanne directed it, I say Cabanne did a great job
and didn't sledgehammer the comedy aspects like Ford would have and
since this was smack dab in the middle of Ford's pretentious period, I'm
not sure Ford would have over done the whole thing.
What we've got with THE LAST OUTLAW is Harry Carey in one of his best
roles as the bank robber released from prison after 25 years to face
modern society and the loss of the old west. And other vets like Hoot
Gibson and Henry B Walthall (in one of his more relaxed and un-tragic
later roles as the Sheriff who originally arrested Carey and now is his
best friend) giving great support. It's a nice, low-key sometimes
humorous, sometimes touching little picture that got a great reaction
from the Cinevent audience.

THE DEVIL WITH HITLER/THAT NATZY NUISANCE (Hal Roach 1942-44
respectively) Lets just say the Three Stooges did Hitler better in
two-reels. I'm glad I saw these two Roach streamliners, and Bobby Watson
did a great Hitler, but there was only a good gag about every seven
minutes and with the extra length both films came off more weird than
good. Best moments: Charley Rogers playing Goebbels in the second one,
and Der Fuhrer singing to himself while he he was painting ('Do I have
my ol' paint brush? yes I have my ol' paint brush!) in the first.

I did a pass on the Wexner 35mm showings in lieu of sleep (I'd also seen
all the films shown in 35mm before), but reports were that SO THIS IS
AFRICA(Wheeler and Woolsey at 9:00 am? eh-eh.), MAN BITES LOVEBUG (good
Charley Chase Columbis) and THE GANGS ALL HERE (also a bit much when
sleep-deprived.) looked wonderful.

The Charley Chase show was well received, as was, suprisingly, the
Sheldon Lewis version of DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1920) which, with
sympathetic accompianment by Phil Carli, actually nearly managed to
nearly look like a competent movie.

MR DYNAMITE (Universal 1935) was a fun little Universal programmer with
Edmund Lowe and Jean Dixon (doing a great Ruth Donnelly impression) in a
Thin-Man clone that was also based on a Dashiell Hammett story. Alan
Crosland showed again that he was a good talkie director whose career
was on an upswing until his life was tragically cut short the following
year.

That was all I saw. Having been stuck with a terribly early flight out
on Monday, I missed THE LONE WOLF KEEPS A DATE (dang-it)which I wanted
to see. But all-in-all, a good program. One must also once-again
compliment Cinevent for having the best program book of all the
conventions, beautiful three-color cover and incredibly well-written
program notes.

There, Happy now?

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Frederica wrote: