SOUVENIR 20 th ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM ($5)

October 26, 27 & 28, 2012 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF THE MARIE DRESSLER FOUNDATION

It is unbelievable that I am addressing you on this our twentieth anniversary of the annual Vintage Film Festival.

We started off in a very small manner and held our fi rst fi lm festival at the Best Western Inn. It was perhaps a grand vision that our small committee had, but it garnered enough interest that we decided to do it again… and again.

In those fi rst years we used many diff erent venues in Cobourg, the Best Western Inn, Northumberland Heights, Victoria Hall. We showed Dinner at Eight at the Park Th eatre on King Street in Cobourg.

We now use the splendid Capitol Th eatre, the Mary J. Benson Public Library in Port Hope, and Victoria Hall in Cobourg.

Our committee has grown and we have many talented and proud people who assist in putting on the Festival. Th ey choose the fi lms, set up the venues, choose interesting speakers for you, give you more knowledge of these gifted stars and make you comfortable.

We hope that you have enjoyed our silent fi lms, our talented pianists, our very special guests such as Elwy Yost, his facts on the movies, the lunches, the dinners and the classic ‘talkies’.

Marie Dressler was a very talented and resourceful actress and woman, and we are proud to carry on part of her heritage. Alma Draper and her team have chosen graduating students who are continuing their education in the Arts for bursaries through the years. In this way, Marie Dressler’s gifts are continued in this very important endowment.

Please be sure to visit the Min and Bill set and the unique Dressler Room at the Chamber of Commerce in the Dressler House at 212 King Street West in Cobourg. We are so pleased to have gathered so many mementos of Marie’s life and the men and women who have written books or donated family articles have added to the ambience of the room.

Th ank you for taking part in this year’s festival and do enjoy the fi lms and the extra festivities that mark this twentieth year.

Delphine Patchett Chair, Th e Marie Dressler Foundation

MARILYN PETERS, 1939-2012

Marilyn Peters was an enthusiastic and valuable member of the Vintage Film Festival Committee, organizing fund-raising, hosting meetings and assisting at the Friday night registration at Victoria Hall. A former business executive and co-owner of a Bay Street, Toronto, insurance brokerage, Marilyn contributed her practical knowledge to our festival. Whether she was lugging boxes of programs to Victoria Hall or greeting and chatting with guests at the Capitol Th eatre, Marilyn gave generously of her time and resources.

On our cover: Marie Dressler with the Academy Award she won for her performance in Min & Bill. Th e terms Academy Award® and Oscar® are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

- 2 - FROM THE FESTIVAL COMMITTEE CHAIR

It’s my pleasure to welcome you to our 20th anniversary Vintage Film Festival. If this is your fi rst visit to our festival, thank you for joining us; if you are a returning vintage fi lm addict, welcome home.

Th e members of the VFF Committee have done an incredible job this year. While working extra-long and hard on what we hope you’ll fi nd is a phenomenal 20th anniversary festival, they have given added energy for an ongoing and exciting strategic planning project.

We have given ourselves plans and tasks for the next fi ve years. One of our immediate jobs for the next year is to change the organization of the VFF Committee, and to recruit at least 20 volunteers from our supporters who will lend some of their time and energy to work with us on individual projects.

Might you have a few hours to help with editing the festival souvenir program? Distributing posters? Recruiting sponsors? Writing and sending out news bulletins and press releases? Establishing VFF as a friend of high school, college and university fi lm and media courses? Helping at our Sunday afternoon screenings? Working on advertising and publicity? Contributing to our Facebook and Twitter presence? Helping in any one of a dozen other ways? We hope some of you will want to join the excitement. Please talk to me or to any committee member, or send a message to me [cworsnop@vintagefi lmfestival.ca]. We’d love to have your experience and enthusiasm to help us.

Again this year, generous sponsors have helped with our two priority projects: the festival itself, and supporting students. You will fi nd these organizations and individuals listed in the program book and on the screen presentation between fi lms. If you have the opportunity, please add your thanks to ours.

Last year we partnered with 4th Line Th eatre to cross-promote our activities as they prepared a play about Marie Dressler -Queen Marie, by Shirley Barrie – which played to very positive reviews in July. You may have seen our half-page promotion in their program this summer.

Th is year we have partnered with the new owner of the Northumberland Mall Th eatres, Ken Prue, to present two fi lms in a Sunday afternoon time slot. Th e fi rst, in June, was Buster Keaton’sTh e General, and the second, last Sunday was David Lean’s Great Expectations. (2012 is the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’s birth.) We will be continuing these Sunday fi lms on an irregular schedule in future. Th e next will be Preston Sturges’s Christmas in July on December 9. Since the feature runs under 70 minutes, we will also be showing three vintage shorts, including the only fi lm that featured Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin together.

Another partner this year, the National Film Board of Canada, has generously donated NFB documentaries and award-winning fi lms for our all-day-Saturday free program at the Port Hope Public Library, across the road from the Capitol Th eatre.

Our Brown Bag lunch session was such a hit last year that it is a hot ticket this year and will become a regular festival feature. We are tremendously pleased that the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell has accepted our invitation to speak about the Oscars.

Th is year we have given two $1000 bursaries to local graduating students entering college or university to take up studies in a lm-fi related area. You will fi nd a special feature on our bursary program in this program book. We have received a $1000 donation from the Retired Teachers of Ontario ‘Service to Others’ project, and invested it in subsidies for student tickets to this year’s festival. Please make a point of welcoming those students to our vintage fi lm world.

Th ere are few pleasures greater than that of enjoying a good fi lm in a darkened theatre surrounded by people whose taste in lms fi matches your own. Our major job in the Vintage Film Festival committee is to get better each year at providing that pleasure for you.

Chris M. Worsnop Festival Chair

- 3 - PROGRAMME

Friday, October 26th Saturday, October 27th VICTORIA HALL, COBOURG CAPITOL THEATRE, PORT HOPE 4:30 p.m. Registration 9:00 a.m. Registration 5:20 p.m. Town Crier/Announcements 9:30 a.m. Th e Music Box (1932) 5:30 p.m. It Happened One Night (1934) 10:05 a.m. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 7:15 p.m. Reception 12:20 p.m. Lunch 8:00 p.m. Seventh Heaven* (1927) 1:20 p.m. Rebecca (1940) 9:35 p.m. Break 3:35 p.m. Break 10:10 p.m. Min and Bill (1930) 3:50 p.m. Wings* (1927) 11:20 p.m. Program fi nishes 6:15 p.m. Dinner 7:45 p.m. An American in Paris (1951) Reception is sponsored by 9:40 p.m. Break RBC Wealth Management – Dominion Securities. 9:55 p.m. Rashomon (1950) Catered by the Buttermilk Café. Anniversary cake by Cait’s Cakes. 11:20 p.m. Program fi nishes

Sunday, October 28th * Silent CAPITOL THEATRE, PORT HOPE Piano accompaniment to Silent fi lms will be by 9:00 a.m. Registration Andrei Streliaev. 9:30 a.m. Th e Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Note that although every eff ort is made to avoid it, the 12:40 p.m. Brown Bag Lunch Discussion - program may be subject to change without notice. Toronto Star Film Critic Peter Howell on the Academy Awards In consideration of others, please refrain from wearing 1:45 p.m. Th e Circus* (1928) fragrance, turn off your cell phone and, please, no talking 3:00 p.m. Break during the fi lms, particularly if it involves the use of the 3:15 p.m. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) word awesome. 5:25 p.m. Program fi nishes Th ank you for your understanding. Enjoy the Festival.

Marie Dressler Vintage Film Festival Free Program Saturday, October 27, 2012 – PORT HOPE PUBLIC LIBRARY

10:00 a.m. Has Anybody Here Seen Canada? A History of Canadian Made Movies 1939-1953 (1979) 11:00 a.m. Th e Railrodder (1965) 12:00 p.m. Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) 1:00 p.m. Neighbours (1952) 1:10 p.m. Th e Lost Garden: the life and cinema of Alice Guy Blaché (1995) 2:05 p.m. Churchill’s Island (1941) 2:30 p.m. White Th under (2002) 3:25 p.m. City of Gold (1957) 3:50 p.m. Stratford Adventure (1954) 4:30 p.m. Program fi nishes

- 4 - FILM SPONSORS

Th ank you to our sponsors whose generosity makes the Festival possible.

It Happened One Night Wings COBOURG WINE CELLAR/DAIRY DREAM DAVID & DIANNA HALLIDAY Seventh Heaven An American in Paris DR. THOMAS HAWKE & HELEN HAWKE/ HILL & DALE MANOR BED & BREAKFAST NOEL MILNER-MONEY CONCEPTS Rashomon Min and Bill BARBARA GARRICK PATRICK HOULIHAN Th e Best Years of Our Lives RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT – LYNN HARDY DOMINION SECURITIES RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT – Th e Music Box DOMINION SECURITIES LYNCH RUTHERFORD TOZER Th e Circus All Quiet on the Western Front NORBERT KONDRACKI GODFRAY AND DOROTHY DE LISLE Yankee Doodle Dandy Rebecca SCOTT MacCOUBREY – MOVIEBUNGALOW AND FINEWINEDINE MacCOUBREY FUNERAL HOME

OUR BROWN BAG LUNCH SPEAKER (and, of course, Uggie)

Peter Howell is the movie critic for Th e Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper, a job he’s had for the past 16 years. Before that, he was Th e Star’s rock critic for six years. He sees hundreds of movies each year and goes to the Toronto, Cannes and Sundance fi lm festivals. He is the father of three children, whom he used to take to many children’s movies – until they grew up. He is a voting member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which has an awards show called the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards that is the single best predictor of the Oscars. He is also a founding member of the Toronto Film Critics Association. His second favorite movie of all time is Th e Godfather. When pressed, Howell will admit that his favorite “guilty pleasure” movie is Caddyshack. He runs marathons for a hobby, having done 11 so far. Peter Howell (left) takes dictation from Uggie, one of the stars of Th e Artist. He was one of the fi rst journalists in North America to begin a regular Internet column, which debuted in January, 1995, under its original title “CyberPop.” Back then, nobody had heard of Google, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. He recently visited Marilyn Monroe’s tomb in Los Angeles and also “interviewed” Uggie, the canine star of Th e Artist.

Brown bag lunches are available this year at a cost of $6, which includes tax. To order (and select the sandwich of your choice), please see Vintage Film Festival Committee member Cathie Houston in the street level lobby at Victoria Hall during the Friday night reception dinner or on Saturday in the lobby of the Capitol Th eatre. Th e deadline for ordering is 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

- 5 - SCHOLARSHIP & BURSARY WINNERS OF THE PAST

1992 CALLUM MORRIS – CDCI rain-or-shine outlook has helped them weather their constant 2008 CLAIRE STEWART – East. Callum received his Bachelor touring schedule. Th e Good Lovelies won the 2010 JUNO Award Trinity College School. She is of Music Education (concentratiimg for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. Last year they featured now approaching her fi nal semester on trumpet) from McGill University at the Australian National Folk Festival. Th e Good Lovelies will at McGill University, Montreal, in 1997 and his Masters in Musical be performing at the Capitol Th eatre on December 18. working towards her Bachelor Direction from Arizona State University of Arts with a Major in Cultural in 2000. He then moved to Toronto 2003 BRENT QUIGLEY – CDCI Studies and a double Minor in Film where he served as the musical director West. Graduated from Ryerson’s New and Costuming for the Th eatre. for Michael Rubinoff ’s production of Media Program. He was nominated Claire has enjoyed designing “Evita” at the St. Lawrence Centre for for Best Music Video at the 2002-2003 costumes for several diff erent plays the Arts. Since 2004, Callum has been the resident musical Toronto International Teen Movie over the course of the last couple years and has worked with director for PCPA Th eaterfest in Santa Maria, California, where Festival. Brent went on to be a teacher three of McGill’s student-run theatre companies, as well he also teaches singing techniques. He has music-directed more at CDCI West, and now teaches in as McGill’s Mainstage productions for the Department of than 20 productions for PCPA, and has also appeared on stage. Bowmanville. English, and the Montreal Fringe Festival. She plans to apply He returned to Canada in March this year, to music-direct the to graduate school programs in both costume history/curation premiere workshop of Come From Away as part of the Canadian 2004 CHRISTINE CLEARY– St. and costume design/construction, in New York and Montreal. Musical Th eatre Project at Sheridan College. Th is month he Mary Catholic Secondary School. starts rehearsals for PCPA’s production of Th e Wizard of Oz. After travels in South America, Central 2009 JULIANA WILTON – Port America and Europe, Christine decided Hope High School. After taking a 1993 ANGELA RIDEOUT - St. Mary Catholic Secondary to focus on her own music. She plays Communications Technology course at School, Cobourg. piano, sings and writes songs. Her music Humber College, she enrolled in their has become heavily infl uenced by comedy Film & Media Production program. 1994 ROCKY O’BRIEN - CDCI East, Cobourg. Attended (similar to Flight of the Conchords) and She enters Brock University this fall to the Vocal Jazz Performance course at Humber College for two she has performed in various comedy continue her search for stories, as she’s years, performing as a soloist as well as part of the Trish Colter rooms in Toronto. Last year she was been a story-teller since childhood Ensemble. Rocky was part of the band Dynamite Steven as a approached by musician/producer Bob Wiseman (formerly of and started writing her fi rst book in drummer and also sharing lead vocals. Th e band performed at Blue Rodeo), who off ered to help to produce her own album. Grade 5. In high school, she began local venues and festivals across Ontario and in Quebec and Christine took part in last fall’s Ontario Council of Folk Festivals combining her love of stories with fi lm-making. opened for such artists as Trooper and Th e Tea Party. conference, performing alongside Bob and two other musicians in a private showroom. Now she has begun teaching voice lessons 2009 TOM HENDERSON – 1995 MARIA LISE - CDCI West, Cobourg and recently promoted her fi rst show. CDCI West. Tom attended Ryerson for News Media studies but soon 1996 RACHEL CRESSWELL – Trinity College School, Port 2005 KARLY STOTHART – St. Mary switched to Algonquin College to Hope. Attended University of Windsor. Catholic Secondary School. She entered study animation. Th ere he found the Acting For Film & Television his passion. “Imagine drawing all 1997 MEAGHEN QUINN – CDCI program at Humber College and then day and night and getting paid East. Graduated in Musical Th eatre switched her focus to Media Studies and for it,” he marvels. After a year of at University of Windsor and received Social Service Work. After her mother honing his drawing skills, Tom was a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from passed away in 2010, Karly moved to accepted into Sheridan College’s Pennsylvania State University. Studied in Los Angeles for three months. While prestige Animation Program, which he says is the only one in London, England, and at the Canadian there, she starred in a few short fi lms Canada off ering a degree and is ranked best of its kind in the Stratford Academy. Meaghen has and studied at the Th e Acting Corps world. “I am currently studying and loving every second of it. appeared and toured in many theatre in Toronto. Karly also studied at the Dean Armstrong Acting I will be applying for internships at large studios such as Pixar productions. In the past fi ve years she Studio, and has appeared in several TV commercials. and Disney in the near future, and soon you’ll be seeing me has taught Introduction to Acting and accepting my Oscar for best animated feature fi lm.” Public Speaking at various U.S. universities, as well as Movement 2006 CHRISTOPHER OLIVER – for the Actor for the University of Windsor. CDCI West. Graduated from Queen’s 2009 SCOTT LEONARD – St. Mary’s Separate School. University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Studied Th eatre Arts Production at Cambrian College 1998 LEE DODINGTON – Port Hope High School. and has been specializing in video and in Sudbury. Attended Humber College Th eatre School. fi lm for several years. He is the owner and operator of CCO Productions 2010 MELISSA MacCOUBREY 1999 YUSUN HA – CDCI West. Completed four-year course at (www.ccoproductions.ca), producing – Trinity College. Melissa continues the Ontario College of Art and Design. educational, promotional and corporate studying at Bishop’s University. At videos as well as independent short fi lms their most recent Festival, she won both 2000 MICHAEL McBRIDE – CDCI in the Northumberland area. Finding Best Female in a new play and Most East. Michael, a classical opera singer, success locally has provided Chris with the opportunity to Memorable Performance, as well as Best is now working in the Kaiserslautern begin branching into the Toronto and Ottawa markets. His Female in the Th eatreActiv Festival. Pfalz Th eater, Germany. After studying work has been featured at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, vocal performance at the University of showcased through various fi lm competitions and prominently Toronto, he received a master’s degree online and on television as part of commercial work created for 2011 CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH- from the Royal Academy of Music in his clients. SUDLOW – CDCI West. He has London. Fluent in French and German, just completed his fi rst year of lm/fi he apprenticed for two years with the 2007 ALEX YOUNG – CDCI media studies at Brock University. As Bavarian State Opera in Munich. East. Studied Broadcasting and Film a young entrepreneur, he has brought at Centennial College, where he Island Breeze Snow Cones to Cobourg 2001 GILLIAN ORMEROD – CDCI East. Studied Th eatre completed a variety of short fi lms, this summer as a means to raise funds Arts at Acadia University and teaches music at the Frankfurt radio plays and live programs. He for his continuing education. International School in Germany. entered several fi lm festivals and competitions, including the 24-Hour 2002 KERRI OUGH – CDCI East. Toronto Film Race, where his team 2011 QUINN McDERMOTT – Graduated with an Honours Degree won for best fi lm. While at school St. Mary’s Separate School. He has in Music Education from University of Alex met a small group of like-minded completed his fi rst year at Humber Western Ontario. In 2006, Kerri joined people and formed a small production company, Lost Mile College in the Applied Arts in Film Sue Passmore and Caroline Brooks to Studios, which has produced several short fi lms, corporate and Media Production, writing and form Th e Good Lovelies. It wasn’t long projects and even a viral video for the National Youth shooting workshops, editing a number before the trio was winging its way to Orchestra of Canada. Alex completed an internship at CTV of short fi lms and studying global Australia, England, the U.S. and various in the advertising and promotions department, where he now emerging media. He is now working on locations in Canada to perform country/ works as a production coordinator. He continues to write and videos for diff erent contests and a few folk music. It has been said their tireless direct short fi lms. other projects.

- 6 - 2012 WINNERS OF $1,000 MARIE DRESSLER BURSARIES

HEATHER ABRAMS Heather was on the Honour Roll throughout high school at CDCI West, Cobourg She is enrolled at Queen’s University, aiming for her B.A. (Honours) with a major in drama. Heather has set her sights on becoming an actress, with dreams of stage roles at the Stratford Festival and has spent the past two summers at the Festival’s Shakespeare School. She has appeared in Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma! and belongs to the LaJeunesse Choir.

Heather has helped raised funds for the Cancer Society; volunteered at Ten Th ousand Villages shop and created posters for an Anti-Bullying campaign at her school.

PATRICK QUIGLEY Patrick graduated from St. Mary Catholic Secondary School, Cobourg, where he’d been on the Honour Roll since Grade 10. He is enrolled in the Centennial College Broadcasting and Film program. Patrick has been a volunteer at TV Cogeco, assisting with the taping of council meetings, and is interested in editing and producing movies. Patrick created, produced and ran the school’s fi rst news magazine program. He has fi lmed school events such as talent shows, the annual Terry Fox run and assemblies.

Patrick has assisted with fundraising for the Art Show at Victoria Hall; coached the NCS softball team since Grade 9 and played and umpired for the Cobourg Legion Softball Organization for several years.

RETURNING TO THE FESTIVAL… ANDRE STRELIAEV, PIANIST Andrei Streliaev became interested in silent fi lm music after taking a course at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and since then has regularly accompanied silent fi lms in Toronto, the GTA and in Europe. Th is summer, he played onstage for two principal dancers of the National Ballet of Canada in its Mixed Program at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. He has also appeared at Cinematheque Ontario screenings, at Nuit Blanche and Organix Festivals in Toronto, “Music Inspiration Landscape” and “Attractive Organ 220” Festivals in Riga, Latvia.

Sponsored by Chris Worsnop and Les & Cathie Houston

HELP SUPPORT THE MARIE DRESSLER BURSARY AWARD BY PURCHASING A RAFFLE TICKET, OR TWO!

1st Prize: VIA RAIL Round Trip for 4 between Cobourg and Quebec City Value: $1,600 2nd Prize: Lady Bug Massage Th erapy Vouchers Value: $660 3rd Prize: Best Western & Northumberland Players Room and Th eatre Package Value: $500 4rd Prize: 2 Nights MacKechnie House B & B Value: $300 5th Prize: 2 Tickets Toronto Silent Film Festival Opening Night Value: $100 6th Prize: 2 Tickets 4th Line Th eatre Value: $85 To be drawn at Capitol Th eatre, Port Hope, on Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. TICKETS $2 EACH OR 3 FOR $5

- 7 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)  DirectedDirected by: by: FrankHenry Capra Koster

Original Originalreview reviewfrom thefrom New the New York York Times Times, , SeptemberFebruary 23, 1934,18, 1937 by: Mordaunt by Frank Hall S. Nugent

Th ere are few serious moments in It Happened One Night, a It is while she is on her way from Miami to New York that she screen feast which awaits visitors to the Radio City, and if there encounters Warne, an audacious person. To make matters more is a welter of improbable incidents these hectic doings serve interesting, the producers or the author decide that the fi ery Ellie to generate plenty of laughter. Th e pseudo suspense is kept on must have her suitcase stolen. As days go by, Warne and Ellie the wing until a few seconds before the picture ends, but it is experience the pangs of hunger and, at one period, they have to a foregone conclusion that the producers would never dare to content themselves with a meal of raw carrots. have the characters acted by Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert separated when the curtain falls. It Happened One Night is a good piece of fi ction, which, with all its feverish stunts, is blessed with bright dialogue and a In this merry romance, which is good quota of relatively restrained scenes. Although there are an adaptation of a magazine story such fl ighty notions as that of having Ellie running away from by Samuel Hopkins Adams, Peter a marriage ceremony when the guests—and particularly King Warne (Mr. Gable) and Ellie Westley—had expected to hear her say “I will”; or those depicting Andrews (Miss Colbert) enjoy Warne volleying vituperation over the telephone at his city the discomforts of a long-distance editor; there are also more sober sequences wherein Warne and bus ride; they also experience the Ellie spread cheer to the audience, notwithstanding their sorry pain of hitch-hiking and the joys adventures with little or no money. of tourist camps. Besides these glimpses, one beholds Alexander Miss Colbert gives an engaging and lively performance. Mr. Andrews searching for his daughter Gable is excellent in his rôle. Roscoe Karns aff ords no little in an airplane, expostulating with fun by his fl irtatious conduct on board a bus. Walter Connolly secretaries and sleuths because he is in his element as Ellie’s father and Alan Hale gives a robust is unable to fi nd the missing girl, portrayal of an artful owner of a fl ivver. incidentally an heiress.

Warne is one of those crack newspaper men frequently discovered in Hollywood’s spacious studios. He does not hesitate to tell his superiors in outbursts of slang precisely what he thinks of them, even though his fi nances at the time are at a low ebb. Ellie is an obstinate young person, who to spite her father has become the wife (in name only) of a dashing young man named King Westley. She fi nds herself virtually a prisoner on her father’s yacht and, in the introductory scenes, she is on a hunger strike. Soon afterward she darts from her cabin to the deck, leaps overboard and swims for Florida and freedom.

Best Picture Best Director Best Actor Best Actress Best Writing, Adaptation

- 8 - IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT USA, 1934, Directed by Frank Capra, b/w, 105 min

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Christine Sharp

Th e winner of an astounding fi ve major Academy Awards.It characterizations, such as where Peter helps Ellie remove a piece Happened One Night was based on Night Bus, a 1933 short story of hay caught between her teeth. by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Capra’s delicate touch is beautifully demonstrated with a party After a few minutes’ viewing, I wondered, is this what they mean scene, often a test of true directorial ability; such scenes in many by “Capra corn”? A spoilt heiress, Ellie Andrews, jumps from her fi lms are often merely frenetic. A sing-along party breaks out on buff oonish businessman father’s yacht and swims ashore after he a Greyhound bus with a joyous ease; the same ease that subtly tries to persuade her to “annul”, as he puts it, her elopement with fl avours so many other scenes. Th e actors appear to be having playboy “King” Westley. A smart-alecky young reporter, Peter honest-to-goodness fun. Perhaps this is an indicator of the Warne, whom she ultimately falls for while on the lam, as we general mood on set, created through confi dent and supportive know she will, appears fi rst while in a phone booth, loudly telling leadership from the director. off his boss who not only has already fi red him but has already hung up the phone as well. Th is silly piece of fluff has a lot to Filmed during the Dirty answer for, or so I thought. Today’s screening of Th irties, It Happened One It Happened One Night Night, bravely presents It Happened One Night has the reputation of virtually creating is sponsored by COBOURG the realities of the day: WINE CELLAR/DAIRY DREAM both the romantic-comedy and road-trip movie genres. I learned hoboes crowded into quickly, though, not to blame the originator for decades’ worth a passing boxcar, the of cinematic dross to follow. Just like the Walls of Jericho that line-up for showers at are such a part of the movie, all my initial prejudices came an “auto camp”, motel owners’ chronic fears about guests skipping tumbling down; these are no mere sterotypes, these are originals. out on their bills. Again, through myriad details, such as the Th e key characters – Ellie, her father, Peter, his boss, and even resounding “thunk” of a car door slamming shut – that sound the loud-mouthed, lecherous travelling salesman, Shapeley – all alone embodying the outdated term “old jalopy” for me – we evolve and grow before us, thanks to Capra’s eye for the nuances become immersed in the life of the period. It Happened One Night and tiny details that add up to fully-realised and sympathetic puts forth the optimistic premise that the gap between social classes can be bridged: depression-era escapism nonetheless.

Given the witty and suggestive script, we are fortunate that It Happened One Night was completed just before serious enforcement of the notorious Hollywood Production Code in 1934. Watch for iconic scenes that have been replicated, parodied, and paid tribute in everything from Sex and the City 2 to Mel Brooks’s Spaceballs. You will know them when you see them.

Christine Sharp, who spent most of her career in the music business, directs for the Northumberland Players, and is a member of the Northumberland Scribes and the Cobourg Public Library Board. She also sings.

- 9 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  SEVENTH HEAVEN (1927)  (ALSODirected KNOWN by: ASHenry 7TH Koster HEAVEN) Directed by: Frank Borzage Original reviewOriginal from review the from New the NewYork York Times Times, September, May 26, 1927, 18, by: 1937 Mordaunt by Frank Hall S. Nugent

In the William Fox screen version of Austin Strong's play, stairs, then they are beheld a little more tired on the third fl ight, "Seventh Heaven," which was presented last night at the Sam H. and so on until Chico proudly throws open the door of his garret, Harris Th eatre, you can once again meet those lovable charac- outside of which are the stars. He who works in the sewer chose ters—Chico, Diane, Papa Boule and Pere Chevillon—in that to dwell as near heaven as he could get! little patch of Paris within sight of the Eiff el Tower. Th is picture grips your interest from the very beginning and even though the And the way in which Chico arranges for the comfort of Diane ending is melodramatic you are glad that the sympathetic but is beautifully pictured, here a tear and then a laugh, then another self-satisfi ed Chico is brought back to his heart-broken Diane. tear and then a smile.

Th is is an exceptionally well-acted place (sic) of work and Janet It is obvious that this subject was admirably suited to the screen, Gaynor's performance as Diane is true and natural throughout. but it should also be said that Frank Borzage in directing this pro- Th is young woman was discovered by Winfi eld R. Sheehan, duction has given to it all that he could put through the medium general production manager for the Fox Film Corporation. of the camera. Th ere is Papa Boule with his taxicab that he calls Never once does she falter in her diffi cult task of refl ecting the Eloise, which happens to be one of those old vehicles that stood emotions of the character she portrays. Th ere is no eff ort to make the test of the run to the Marne. Incidentally, it is a noteworthy her unduly beautiful with a halo over her head. She is winsome sequence when the poilus [slang for French infantrymen in World from the moment one beholds her countenance. She can cry and War II] are shown commandeering all motor-driven conveyances smile simultaneously and she impresses one by her depiction of and trucks, piling into them, sticking their bayonets contemptu- faith when every day at 11 o'clock she "meets" her Chico, who is ously at the meters on the taxicabs and then the stream of auto- in the trenches. Sometimes Miss Gaynor reminds one of Lillian mobiles pouring along the narrow white roads to turn back the Gish and in other moods she resembles Lois Moran. Yet in her green-gray enemy hosts. Th is section of the fi lm aroused consider- acting there is nothing imitative, but always an earnest and suc- able applause and it merited every handclap it received. It recalls cessful eff ort to impersonate the French girl who is rescued from the valiant eff ort made by France at her darkest hour of the war. hardship and cruelty by that "very remarkable fellow," Chico. Mr. Borzage, who produced some passages of this production in Charles Farrell, who has already been seen in Old Ironsides and the French capital, reveals no little imagination in his work and Th e Rough Riders, makes a splendid Chico. Sometimes he may sometimes when it is least expected. He has a happy way of set- seem to be a little too swaggering, but what of it? Th e actions ting forth a touch of comedy at the psychological moment. Take suit the young man's agreeable bombast. You fi nd that you like the moment when Papa Boule's dear Eloise explodes. All that him, possibly just as much as you do Diane. God owed him ten is left of the taxicab is the old-fashioned horn, and Papa Boule, francs, he said, and all of a sudden half of this money appears brushing away a tear, declares that Eloise died for France. You to be repaid by Père Chevillon announcing that Chico is to be will always remember the bit where a poilu, a sewer companion promoted from his labors in the sewer to do the work of a street of Chico's, steals a chicken, and the offi cers in lieu of observing a washer. And you know, although Chico himself doesn't then, roast fowl when the dish cover is raised observe to their chagrin that the other fi ve francs is erased from the indebtedness by the nothing but a block of wood. discovery of Diane, whom Chico rescues reluctantly from her drunken sister. Albert Gran is capital as Papa Boule. In fact his portrayal is about as perfect as one could wish. Emil Chautard plays the rôle of Père One of the joyous notes of this fi lm, a masterly bit, is where Chevillon with sympathetic dignity. Gladys Brockwell is impres- Chico fi rst takes Diane to his Seventh Heaven. You see them sive in the part of Nana, Diane's drink-sodden sister. nearing the dingy-looking buildings and then they trudge up- stairs. Th ey pass the premier ètage, and the camera follows them as if you could see through the walls of the building. So, without a halt, there the two are perceived mounting the second fl ight of

Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Director, Dramatic Picture Best Writing, Adaptation

- 10 - SEVENTH HEAVEN (ALSO KNOWN AS 7TH HEAVEN) USA, 1927, Directed by. Frank Borzage, b/w, 115 min, silent VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Chris M. Worsnop

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell were called “America’s favourite Early in the fi lm, Borzage creates a convincing version of the Paris lovebirds”. Th ey made a dozen fi lms together in the seven years “Apache” life, a culture that held a long fascination for American 1927 - 1934. audiences. Chico wears the Apache uniform with its wide sash and ankle-tight pantaloons, and shows signs of the typical Apache Gaynor plays a young, destitute Parisienne, Diane, who is cruelly misogyny at fi rst. Diane is similarly a true Apache woman exploited by her alcoholic older sister. When the police threaten subjugating herself to her man. At fi rst. In 1925, Clara Bow had to arrest her for a minor crime, a hulking sewer-worker Chico helped popularize the Apache lifestyle playing an Apache dancer (Farrell) saves her by saying she is his wife. He takes her to his in her fi lm Parisian Love. In 1933 Maurice Chevalier sang the apartment on the seventh landing of a tenement – his seventh number, “I’m an Apache” in Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight. heaven – to convince the police that they are married. As life for Gene Kelly revived the Apache dance in Singin’ in the Rain, 1952, the pair graduates from poverty-stricken misery into working class a fi lm that was set in the late 1920s. stability, they conclude that the police had the Today’s screening of Frank Borzage has a reputation for telling romantic stories right idea about their Seventh Heaven with great visual skill. His stories also tend to be both spiritual relationship. In the fi rst is sponsored by DR. THOMAS and sentimental. All of those traits are clear in this fi lm. Th e month of WWI, though, HAWKE & HELEN HAWKE/NOEL street scenes early in the fi lm between Diane and Chico show on what was to be their MILNER-MONEY CONCEPTS how good acting, careful framing, clever lighting and soft focus, wedding day, Chico is together with good directing, can make dialogue redundant. drafted and immediately transported to the battle of the Marne in Borzage also has a way of delaying the payoff of a scene by his friend’s Paris taxi, one of the famous “taxis of the Marne”. prolonging shots to allow the actors to gather their emotions, or for the audience to absorb a composition. Th is is movingly Diane becomes a munitions worker and communicates with noticeable in the scenes when Chico and Diane are fi rst together Chico spiritually each morning at 11. On the day Chico is on the Paris street. perhaps mortally wounded, she senses the catastrophe, loses hope, and later agrees to marry a supervising offi cer at her factory. As for spirituality, the notions of the great big Apache man falling in romantic love with the street waif and becoming a Everything works out, though, in the end. tender, protective lover, or of the 11 a.m. rendezvous between those lovers might both have been laughed off the screen in another fi lm, but are almost convincing the way Borzage presents them. Th e sentimentality of the ending plot twist is something you will either love or deride. In its time it was not so hard to take as some may fi nd it today. Two years later, Borzage’s crippled hero (Farrell) in Lucky Star miraculously recovers from his WWI wounds in a sequence where he comes to the rescue of his true- love, Mary (Gaynor), in the middle of a blizzard. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell had a way of making anything believable in their lovebird relationships. Good for them.

Chris M. Worsnop is a member of the Vintage Film Festival committee.

- 11 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  MIN AND BILL (1930)  DirectedDirected by: by: HenryGeorge HillKoster

Original review from the OriginalNew York review Times from the, September New York Times 18, 1937 by Frank S. Nugent

Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery are teamed in an unedifying In another sequence, which aroused a good deal of loud laughter fi lm version of Lorna Moon’s novel “Dark Star,” which emerges yesterday afternoon, Min and her young charge, Nancy, played by from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio as Min and Bill. Th at Dorothy Jordan, are beheld in a runaway speed boat, which darts these two undeniably talented players do good work when the hither and thither, avoiding bridges, docks and other craft by a opportunity arises is admitted, but their eff orts are wasted on this hair’s breadth, until Min is thrown into the water and rescued by unsavory production. a handy dredge.

Th ere are times when this off ering rises to slapstick comedy, but Tragedy stalks into the closing chapter, when Min shoots and while it was the intention of the producers to make audiences presumably kills Bella, Nancy’s unfortunate mother, so that the laugh at these stretches they evidently expect the narrative they woman will not be able to carry out her threat to attend her have turned out to be taken with no small degree of seriousness. daughter’s wedding and cast disgrace upon the girl. In one episode Min (Miss Dressler), the keeper of a wretched waterfront hotel, discovers Bill (Mr. Beery), the skipper of a Th is rowdy and sometimes coarse aff air ends with Bella being fi shing boat, flirting with a female derelict known as Bella, married to a wealthy young man at about the same time that Min impersonated by Marjorie Rambeau. To describe Min’s attack on is escorted to the police station by minions of the law. Bill as going for him hammer and tongs is putting it mildly, for after having smashed up the furniture and thrown everything at It is regrettable that Miss Dressler and Mr. Beery should have him that will break, this robust woman seeks to give Bill the coup been cast for the fi rst time together in this far from pleasant fi lm. de grace with a pickaxe, and only because of her inability to throw straight is Bill’s life spared.

FOUR

- 12 - MIN AND BILL USA, 1930, Directed by George Hill, b/w, 70 min

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Joanna E. Rapf

My grandfather, Harry Rapf, produced this fi lm. His name will “Anything dark in the title sounds gloomy.” And during the not appear in the credits (producers did not take screen credit at early days of the Depression, MGM was not in the market for the time), but it was one of his best pictures, winning for Marie gloomy stories. So, after ascertaining that no one in the room Dressler an Academy Award as best actress. Rapf began his had read the book, Marion went on to tell her own story, only career in vaudeville. After working with Louis J. Selznick in New loosely based on “Dark Star”, about two rowdy characters living York and New Jersey, he joined Warner Brothers in 1921, then, on Cannery Row in 1924, he teamed with Louis B. Mayer and Irving Th alberg to form MGM, where he remained Rapf was sold on this as a natural vehicle for Marie until his death in 1948. He had the Today’s screening of Dressler and Wallace Beery, the two big stars of the reputation of being both tough and Min and Bill is sponsored by time. George Hill, Marion’s husband, was chosen to sentimental, producing such warm- PATRICK HOULIHAN direct, and Moon got $7,500, enabling her to go to RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT - a sanitarium in Arizona where, sadly, she died two hearted stories as Th e Champ (1931), DOMINION SECURITIES with Wallace Beery, Th e Possessed weeks before the picture was released. (1931), with Clark Gable and Joan Marion reports that “all of us had fun during the Crawford (whom he discovered) and Tugboat Annie (1933), also shooting of the riotous fi lm for never were there better matched with Beery and Dressler. personalities than Dressler, Beery, and [Marjorie] Rambeau,” a Broadway star who made her screen debut playing Bella, the Min and Bill has an interesting history related by its screenwriter, natural, but immoral and uncaring, mother of Nancy, whom Min Frances Marion, in her book, “Off With Th eir Heads!” She had has raised from infancy. By today’s standards, Beery and Dressler been associated with MGM since its beginnings in 1924, and is are an unlikely romantic duo, big and earthy, with tough exteriors herself something of a Hollywood legend. Gloria Swanson has hiding their hearts of gold. But they appealed to audiences in the said that “she had more muscle than most women in Hollywood early years of the Depression, perhaps because they represented because she was a gold mine of ideas – ideas that could become working people, unglamorous, hardheaded, struggling to survive. scripts that could become fi lms that could save careers, lives, and I suspect my grandfather also saw something of himself in them, corporations.” Min and Bill was one of those ideas. Lorna Moon, and he made some of their best pictures. a young Scottish writer who had come to California because of tuberculosis, wrote the novel, “Dark Star”, while in a sanitarium. Today, Min and Bill seems somewhat crude. Th e sets at times Marion helped get it published and sold to MGM. She knew seem artifi cial, the rear projection, as always, is contrived, and the it would have problems, and indeed, when the book came up characters, with the exception of Min and Bill, are “types.” It is at a story conference, the fi rst thing Rapf may have said was, clearly a pre-Code picture, set against the bootleg background of Prohibition, and there is no doubt as to Bella’s profession. Th ere is a subplot wth Nancy and her beau to balance the seamy side of the fi lm. But Min and Bill are unique. Th e depth of their scrappy relationship, their bickering and aff ection, and the meaning that Min has found in her unusual “mothering” of Nancy, are timeless and moving, and the performances of Beery and Dressler bring to life an unexcelled screen relationship.

Harry Rapf ’s granddaughter, Joanna E. Rapf, is a Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Best Actress

- 13 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  THE MUSIC BOX (1932)  DirectedDirected by:by: James Henry Parrott Koster

Original review from the NewOriginal York review Times by:, September Janiss Garza 18, 1937 by Frank S. Nugent

Th is most famous of Laurel and Hardy shorts won an Oscar the piano is a temperamental professor (Billy Gilbert) who had for Best Comedy Short Subject. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy been annoyed by them earlier. He destroys the piano in a fi t of play characters who run a transfer company. Th ey are hired to pique before discovering that his wife purchased it for him as a gift. deliver a player piano to an address that turns out to be up a very long fl ight of steps Th e whole fi lm involves the pair’s adventures Th e Music Box is classic Laurel and Hardy almost painfully bringing the piano up the steps, the piano sliding back down, the hilarious. Th e same daunting concrete stairs (which still exist pair bringing it up again -- and then being told by the postman today in the Silverlake section of Los Angeles) were used (Charlie Hall) that they could have driven it up a side road. previously by the comic duo in their 1927 two-reeler Hats Off .

Typically, the boys take the piano back down and bring it up the ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi right way, by the side road, only to fi nd that the person receiving

Best Short Subject, Comedy

‘Talkies’ Before Sound in Movies

When silent fi lms played in movie theaters, they were rarely silent. A there were rumors out of Europe that true ‘Talkies’ were on their way. single musician, or even a full orchestra, often accompanied them. For instance, Leon Gaumont from France invented the Chronophone Filmmakers knew the value of music for adding emotion to a scene in 1902 that used large phonograph horns. He also invented the and for controlling momentum in a movie. Yet, what fi lmmakers really Elgephone that used compressed air for reproduction and amplifi cation. wanted were fi lms that off ered a complete movie going experience, In Germany, Oscar Messter synchronized the camera, phonograph including actors talking, glass breaking, and wind howling, but the and projectors using electric circuits. None of these, however, became technology for ‘Talkies’ was still years away. commercially viable. Even Th omas Edison’s Kineto-phone back in America, which was briefl y in fashion in 1913-14, did not survive a Undeterred, fi lmmakers experimented with a tried-and-true method fi re in his laboratory. True ‘Talkies’ had to wait until the 1920s when for including sound in fi lms, which became quite popular in 1908-10. condenser microphones, electronic styluses and constant-speed motors Th ey hired troupes of actors who travelled from theater to theater and were invented, culminating in Th e Jazz Singer, which opened in New delivered dialogue and sound eff ects from behind the screen. One such York on October 6, 1927. company of actors was called Actologue, another Ta-Mo-Pic, while still another was Humanova Talking Pictures, and they employed as many as Nonetheless, for a brief period between 1908 and 1910, audiences were eight actors with a full array of sound making paraphernalia. treated to ‘Talkies’ in their fi lms twenty-fi ve years before sound made it into movies. As you might expect, this attempt at including sound in movies quickly went out of fashion due to the extra cost to theater owners. Also,

- 14 - THE MUSIC BOX USA, 1932, Directed by James Parrott, b/w, 29 min.

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY:Terry Foord

Th e Music Box won an academy award for Best Short Subject pit drummer’s ta-dums. In short, although still funny, it’s all a bit of 1932, which marked the introduction of this category. It was corny for contemporary audiences. Th is 80-year-old movie also also the only Laurel and Hardy movie to win an Oscar. It is demonstrates the evolution of the conventions of fi lm language. considered by many to be among the best of their more than 35 Contemporary audiences will fi nd the pace rather slow as we fi lms. A quote from the Internet Movie database (IMDb) sums “get it” more quickly because of our exposure to the vocabulary. up the plot succinctly: Another diff erence between then and now is the surprising “Like the legendary Sisyphus, deliverymen Laurel and treatment of the nursemaid. Th e main device involving the piano Hardy struggle to push a large crated piano up a seemingly and the stairs becomes tiresome after many iterations although insurmountable fl ight of stairs.” It’s not what but how that the scenes in the mansion (the piano’s destination) hold up well. matters, however. And the music score is quite eff ective.

Th e fi lm’s roots in vaudeville are It has been suggested (IMDb) that the movie clearly evident – two characters of Today’s screening of was half improvised and was made mostly as a opposite dimension and character, The Music Box is sponsored by contractual obligation between Stan Laurel and repetition, sight gags and set LYNCH RUTHERFORD TOZER Oliver Hardy and Hal Roach, whose studio was the pieces – you can almost hear the production company.

Perhaps it’s a consequence of the churn-’em-out moviemaking of the time, but there are at least fi ve continuity or other miscues. See if you can pick them out.

Terry Foord is a member of the Vintage fi lm Festival Committee.

- 15 - ALL21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) DirectedDirected by:by: Lewis Henry Milestone Koster

Original reviewOriginal from review the from New the NewYork York Times Times, September, April 30, 1930, 18, by:1937 Mordaunt by Frank Hall S. Nugent

From the pages of Erich Maria Remarque’s widely read book of young Soldiers are perceived being taken like cattle to the fi ring line and then Germany in the World War, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Carl having to wait for food. Th ere is the cook, who fi nds that he has enough Laemmle’s Universal Pictures Corporation has produced a trenchant and rations for twice the number of the men left in the company, and when he imaginative audible picture, in which the producers adhere with remarkable hears that many have been killed and others wounded he still insists that fi delity to the spirit and events of the original stirring novel. It was these soldiers will only receive their ordinary rations. Here that amiable presented last night at the Central Th eatre before an audience that most of war veteran, Katczinsky, splendidly acted by Louis Wolheim, grabs the the time was held to silence by its realistic scenes. It is a notable achievement, culinary expert by the throat and fi nally a sergeant intervenes and instructs sincere and earnest, with glimpses that are vivid and graphic. Like the the cook to give the company the full rations intended for the survivors and original, it does not mince matters concerning the horrors of battle. It is a those who have either died or been wounded. vocalized screen off ering that is pulsating and harrowing, one in which the fi ghting fl ashes are photographed in an amazingly eff ective fashion. Now and again songs are heard, genuine melody that comes from the soldiers, and as time goes on Paul and his comrades begin to look upon the Lewis Milestone, who has several good fi lms to his credit, was entrusted warfare with the same philosophic demeanor that Katczinsky reveals. But with the direction of this production. And Mr. Laemmle had the foresight when the big guns begin to boom there are further terrors for the soldiers to employ those well-known playwrights, George Abbott and Maxwell and in one of these Paul has his encounter with a Frenchman in a shell Anderson, to make the adaptation and write the dialogue. Some of the hole. Paul stabs the Frenchman to death and as he observes life ebbing scenes are not a little too long, and one might also say that a few members from the man with whom he had struggled, he fetches water from the of the cast are not Teutonic in appearance; but this means but little when bottom of the shell hole and moistens the Frenchman’s lips. It is to Paul a one considers the picture as a whole, for wherever possible, Mr. Milestone has frightening and nerve-racking experience, especially when he eventually pulls used his fecund imagination, still clinging loyally to the incidents of the book. from a pocket a photograph of the wife and child of the man he had slain. In fact, one is just as gripped by witnessing the picture as one was by reading the printed pages, and in most instances it seems as though the very impressions Raymond Griffi th, the erstwhile comedian who, years before acting in written in ink by Herr Remarque had become animated on the screen. fi lm comedies, lost his voice through shrieking in a stage melodrama, gives a marvelous performance as the dying Frenchman. It may be a little too In nearly all the sequences, fulsomeness is avoided. Truth comes to the fore, long for one’s peace of mind, but this does not detract from Mr. Griffi th’s when the young soldiers are elated at the idea of joining up, when they are sterling portrayal. disillusioned, when they are hungry, when they are killing rats in a dugout, when they are shaken with fear and when they, or one of them, becomes fed Another comedian, none other than George (Slim) Summerville, also up with the conception of war held by the elderly man back home. distinguishes himself in a light but very telling rôle, that of Tjaden. It is he who talks about the Kaiser and himself both having no reason to Often the scenes are of such excellence that if they were not audible one go to war—the only diff erence, according to the soldier in the trenches, might believe that they were actual motion pictures of activities behind the being that the Kaiser is at home. It is Tjaden who is left behind when the lines, in the trenches and in No Man’s Land. It is an expansive production youngsters swim over to the farmhouse and visit the French girls. with views that never appear to be cramped. In looking at a dugout one readily imagines a long line of such earthy abodes. When shells demolish Much has been made of the pair of boots and the soldier who wanted these underground quarters, the shrieks of fear, coupled with the rat-tat-tat them and declared, when he got them from the man who passed on, that of machine guns, the bang-ziz of the trench mortars and the whining of they would make fi ghting almost agreeable for anybody. Mr. Milestone shells, it tells the story of the terrors of fi ghting better than anything so far has done wonders with this passage, showing the boots on the man and has done in animated photography coupled with the microphone. soon depicting that while they may have been comfortable and water-tight, boots don’t matter much when a shell with a man’s name written on it Th ere are heartrending glimpses in a hospital, where one youngster has had comes his way. his leg amputated and still believes that he has a pain in his toes. Just as he complains of this, he remembers another soldier who had complained of Th e episodes are unfolded with excellent continuity and one of the the same pain in the identical words. He then realizes what has happened outstanding ones is where Paul goes home and fi nds everything changed, to him, and he shrieks and cries out that he does not want to go through including himself. He is asked by the same professor who had taught life a cripple. Th ere is the death room from which nobody is said to come him to talk to the new batch of pupils about the war. He remembers out, and Paul, admirably acted by Lewis Ayres, is taken to this chamber his enthusiasm for it when he enlisted in 1914 and he now knows how shouting, as he is wheeled away, that he will come back. And he does. Th e diff erent are his impressions since he has been stringing barbed wire under agony in this hospital refl ects that of the details given by Herr Remarque. the dangerous glare of Very lights in No Man’s Land. He knows what a uniform means, and believes that there is no glory at the front; all he has to In an early sequence there is the introduction of the tyrant corporal. say to the boys is hard and terse. He tires of the gray heads who think that Himmelstoss, who has no end of ideas to keep young soldiers on the alert, they know something about war and prefers to cut his leave short and go sometimes amusing himself by making them crawl under tables and then, back to the fi ghting area rather than listen to the arguments of those who during the day, ordering them to fall on their faces in the mud. Just as by have not been disillusioned by shells, mud, rats and vermin. reading the book, one learns, while looking at this animated work, to hate Himmelstoss. And one occasion when the audience broke their wrapt Messrs. Milestone, Abbott and Anderson in this fi lm have contributed a stillness last night was with an outburst of laughter. Th is happened when memorable piece of work to the screen. Paul and his comrades lay in wait for the detested non-commissioned offi cer, and, after thrashing him, left him in a stagnant pool with a sack tied over his head.

- 16 - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT USA, 1930, Directed by Lewis Milestone, b/w, 138 min

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Rick Kelly

Th is script is adapted from the novel written by Erich Maria Th e soldier, Paul Baumer, was played by Lew Ayres in Remarque, which is based partly on his own experiences in the his fi rst major fi lm role. He also starred in several 1930s German trenches during Th e Great War. Th e story follows movies, including the Dr. Kildare series. When the United a young man who joins the army in a patriotic fervour. Th is States entered the Second World War, Ayres registered as a patriotism morphs into misery in the harsh reality and horror of conscientious objector. MGM dropped his contract as a result. war. Even on leave, he gets little relaxation from the trenches as After the public learned of his bravery in combat as a Medical he must deal with his dying mother and the families of his dead Corpsman, he was allowed to resume his acting career, which friends. Th e fi nal scene, where he is seen reaching out to touch lasted into the 1980s. a butterfl y during a brief lull in the noise and the violence of life in the trenches, is very eff ective in emphasizing the hell that was Louis Wolheim plays the role of Sgt. Katczinsky, a father the life of the common soldier. fi gure for the young soldiers, trying to teach them how to survive. Because Wolheim looked like a prizefi ghter, he had Th is story is about a been relegated to tough-guy roles in silent fi lms. He was German but he could Today’s screening of actually a well-educated man, who taught mathematics for easily be an Allied All Quiet on the Western Front six years at Cornell University. John Wray portrays Corporal soldier. Because of is sponsored by GODFRAY AND Himmelstoss, who transforms from a mild mannered its harrowing scenes DOROTHY DE LISLE postmaster to a brutal instructor. of insane death and destruction, All Quiet Lewis Milestone won the Academy Award for Direction has been called the fi rst anti-war fi lm. Although this is an for this film. It is also worth noting that he won the very American fi lm, it is considered to be German by most of the first Academy Award for Comedy Direction (Two Arabian public. Th e director, Lewis Milestone, was born in Russia and Knights, 1927). emigrated to the USA as a child. His wartime experience in the Signal Corps helped him develop his vision of how the scenes Rick Kelly is a fi lm enthusiast who lives in Cobourg. should be presented. Th e relentless strafi ng of the trenches by machine gun fi re is a good example.

Outstanding Production Best Director

- 17 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  REBECCA (1940)  DirectedDirected by: by: Alfred Henry Hitchcock Koster

Original reviewOriginal from review the from New the New York York Times Times, September, March 29, 1949 18, by:1937 Frank by S Frank Nugent S. Nugent

Before getting into a review of Rebecca, we must say a word about the In Rebecca his cameras murmur “Beware!” when a black spaniel raises old empire spirit. Hitch has it—Alfred Hitchcock that is, the English his head and lowers it between his paws again; a smashed china master of movie melodramas, rounder than John Bull, twice as fond cupid takes on all the dark signifi cance of a bloodstained dagger; a of beef, just now (with Rebecca) accounting for his fi rst six months closed door taunts, mocks and terrifi es; a monogrammed address on movie-colonial work in Hollywood. Th e question being batted book becomes as accusative as a district attorney. around by the cineastes (hybrid for cinema-esthetes) was whether his peculiarly British, yet peculiarly personal, style could survive Miss du Maurier’s novel was an “I” book, its story told by the second, Hollywood, the David O. Selznick of Gone with the Wind, the tropio hapless Mrs. de Winter. Th rough Mr. Hitchcock’s method, the palms, the minimum requirements of the Screen Writers Guild and fi lm is fi rst-personal too, so that its frail young heroine’s diffi dent the fact that a good steak is hard to come by in Hollywood. blunders, her fears, her tears are silly only at fi rst, and then are silly no longer, but torture us too. Rebecca’s ghost and the Bluebeard But depend on the native Britisher’s empire spirit, the policy of doing room in Manderley become very real horrors as Mr. Hitchcock and in Rome not what the Romans do, but what the Romans jolly well his players unfold their macabre tale, and the English countryside is ought to be civilized into doing. Hitch in Hollywood, on the basis demon-ridden for all the brightness of the sun through its trees and of the Selznick Rebecca at the Music Hall, is pretty much the Hitch the Gothic serenity of its manor house. of London’s Lady Vanishes and Th e Th irty-Nine Steps, except that his famous and widely-publicized “touch” seems to have developed But here we have been giving Mr. Hitchcock and Miss du Maurier into a fi rm, enveloping grasp of Daphne du Maurier’s popular novel. all the credit when so much of it belongs to Robert Sherwood, His directorial style is less individualized, but it is as facile and Philip MacDonald, Michael Hogan and Joan Harrison who adapted penetrating as ever; he hews more to the original story line than to the novel so skillfully, and to the players who have re-created it the lines of a Hitch original; he is a bit more respectful of his cast, so beautifully. Laurence Olivier’s brooding Maxim de Winter is a though not to the degree of close-up worship exacted by Charles performance that almost needs not to be commented upon, for Mr. Laughton in Jamaica Inn. What seems to have happened, in brief, is Olivier last year played Heathcliff e, who also was a study in dark that Mr. Hitchcock, the famous soloist, suddenly has recognized that, melancholy, broken fi tfully by gleams of sunny laughter. Maxim is in this engagement, he is working with an all-star troupe. He makes the Heathcliff e kind of man and Mr. Olivier seems that too. The real no concession to it and, fortunately, vice versa. surprise, and the greatest delight of them all, is Joan Fontaine’s second Mrs. de Winter, who deserves her own paragraph, so here it is: So Rebecca -- to come to it fi nally – is an altogether brilliant fi lm, Rebecca stands or falls on the ability of the book’s “I” to escape haunting, suspenseful, handsome and handsomely played. Miss du caricature. She was humiliatingly, embarrassingly, mortifyingly shy, Maurier’s tale of the second mistress of Manderley, a simple and a bit on the dowdy side, socially unaccomplished, a little dull; sweet, modest and self-eff acing girl who seemed to have no chance against of course, and very much in love with – and in awe of – the lord of every one’s—even her husband’s—memories of the fi rst, tragically the manor who took her for his second lady. Miss du Maurier never deceased Mrs. de Winter, was one that demanded a fi lm treatment really convinced me any one could behave quite as the second Mrs. evocative of a menacing mood, fraught with all manner of hidden de Winter behaved and still be sweet, modest, attractive and alive. meaning, gaited to the pace of an executioner approaching the fatal But Miss Fontaine does it—and does it not simply with her eyes, block. Th at, as you need not be told, is Hitchcock’s meat and brandy. her mouth, her hands and her words, but with her spine. Possibly it’s unethical to criticize performance anatomically. Still we insist Miss Fontaine has the most expressive spine – and shoulders! – we’ve bothered to notice this season. Th e others, without reference to their spines – except that of Judith Anderson’s housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, which is most menacingly rigid – are splendidly in character: George Sanders as the blackguard, Nigel Bruce and Gladys Cooper as the blunt relatives, Reginald Denny as the dutiful estate manager, Edward Fielding as the butler and – of course – Florence Bates as a magnifi cent specimen of the ill-bred, moneyed, resort-infesting, servant-abusing dowager. Hitch was fortunate to fi nd himself in such good company but we feel they were doubly so in fi nding themselves in his.

Best Picture Best Cinematography, Black and White

- 18 - REBECCA USA, 1940, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, b/w, 130 min

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: George Atto

In 1939, the American fi lm producer David O. Selznick invited like that he would not wish to be with her. But as the plot Alfred Hitchcock to come to the United States. With the threat develops and Max begins to share some of his fears and despair, of war in Europe, Hitchcock was pleased to bring his family to the relationship becomes much more a shared one, and there North America. Initially, Selznick wanted Hitchcock to make a is evidence of a good deal more passion. We even see them movie about the Titanic, but eventually settled on one based on kissing intimately. the best selling novel Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Today’s screening of By 1939, Hitchcock was a well Rebecca revolves around three main characters: a rich Rebecca is sponsored by established and much admired widower, Max de Winter (Laurence Olivier), his young MOVIEBUNGALOW AND director in the UK (Th e and naive second wife ( Joan Fontaine) and a sinister FINEWINEDINE 39 Steps, Th e Lady Vanishes, housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers ( Judith Anderson). Th ere and Th e Secret Agent among is also a fourth, unseen, presence, Max’s fi rst wife, the others), In his fi rst foray into deceased Rebecca. the US, Hitchcock had to work with a producer, Selznick, who was very much a hands-on participant in the fi lms he produced. As with the novel, the fi lm begins with the well-known opening It was Selznick who had bought the fi lm rights to Rebecca, line, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. Manderley outbidding Hitchcock, and Selznick who wanted a much more is de Winter’s opulent country estate, which his new wife literal interpretation of the novel than did Hitchcock. In addition, (whose name we are never told), is expected to manage with the Selznick saw himself as a capable screenwriter and fi lm editor. sophistication and competence displayed by the late Rebecca. To make things more diffi cult, she is constantly judged and found Hitchcock and Selznick also had to deal with the Film Production wanting by Mrs. Danvers. As the fi lm progresses, it becomes clear Code of the Hays Offi ce over at least two major themes that were that all is not well with Max, and there are secrets in his past, present in the novel. In the novel, it is suggested that Max de particularly concerning the life and death of Rebecca. Winter shot and killed Rebecca, but the Code would not allow for a murderer to escape punishment. Accordingly, in the movie, It is interesting to note the way in which Hitchcock develops Rebecca dies accidentally. Th e second issue was the relationship the relationship between Max and his new bride. Initially it is between Mrs. Danvers and the late Rebecca. In the novel, there quite paternal. His response to her wish to appear more mature are certainly lesbian undertones, and it is to Hitchcock’s credit that – “thirty in a black dress and pearls” – being that if she were they are still implied in the fi lm. Hitchcock was able to remain fi rm in his vision of Rebecca in spite of Selznick’s interference. After this movie, Selznick declared that Hitchcock was the only director to whom he could give a free hand.

Th e Academy namedRebecca Best Picture for 1940. It was not only a triumph for Hitchcock as his fi rst US-made movie, but also for Selznick, who became the only producer to have won in two consecutive years, the fi rst for Gone With Th e Wind.

Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for Best Director in his entire career, though he was nominated fi ve times. Th e Academy did eventually award him, in 1967, the Irving Th alberg Memorial Award for his body of work, after he had worked for almost 30 years in Hollywood.

George Atto is a member of the Vintage Film Festival Committee.

Florence Bates, who plays the unpleasant Mrs. van Hopper in Rebecca, was one of the fi rst two women admitted to the State Bar in Texas. She was born Florence Rabe in San Antonio, Texas, in April, 1888, and died in 1954. She was a businesswoman as well as a lawyer and was 47 years old when she enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse in California. She never achieved stardom but had a thriving career in character roles, often playing a dowager.

- 19 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  WINGS (1927)  DirectedDirected by: by: William Henry Wellman Koster

Original reviewOriginal fromreview the from New the New York York Times Times,, September August 13, 1927, 18, 1937by: Mordaunt by Frank Hall S. Nugent

Amazing air duels and an impressive stuff y of aviators are depicted John Monk Saunders is responsible for the story, which aside in Wings, Paramount’s epic of the fl ying fi ghters of the World War, from the climax of having ( Jack) Powell, the hero, eventually which was launched last night in the Criterion Th eatre. After the bring down the plane in which is his friend, is a conventional exhibition of the fi rst half of this absorbing subject, commander narrative that serves its purpose as a background for the Richard E. Byrd was noticed in the lobby talking to Jesse L. Lasky remarkable scenes in the air. Some of the incidents are based on and the words of the hero of the North Pole and transatlantic memorable occurrences during the Great War, notably the one in fl ights evidently pleased the producer. As the Commander turned which Powell plunges through the air seeking vengeance on the to re-enter the theatre he remarked: “And I wouldn’t say so if I enemy for having, as he then thinks, slain (David) Armstrong, didn’t think it.” And there were scores of others who found the his buddy. He tears over the German lines, scatters troops, brings realism of the episodes highly exciting, not excepting a young down hostile airmen; he swoops over the enemy trenches, catches offi cer of Uncle Sam’s ying fl force who declared loudly: “Th at crash German soldiers on the highroads, causes automobiles with in No Man’s Land was a real bust-up.” staff offi cers to crash over inclines and sets fi re to several sausage balloons. Each time an airplane hurtled in fl ames to the earth there If the audience was thrilled by some of the scenes in the fi rst part was a doleful hooting behind the screen. When the aviators are of the production, the subsequent chapters must have proved ever about to take-off and the propellers are set in motion, the sound of more stimulating, for in the course of these sequences William A. whirring motors makes these stretches all the more vivid. Wellman, the director, has adroitly spliced actual war scenes with those fi lmed in this country specially for the production. Th ere Th e last chapter, that concerned with the return of Powell to his is an underlying idea throughout some of the episodes that the home in this country, is, like so many screen stories, much too motto of the gallant warriors of the clouds was: “Let us eat, drink sentimental, and there is far more of it than one wants, In most and be merry, for tomorrow we (may) die.” of the scenes in which he appears, Charles Rogers, as Powell, gives a sterling performance. He is especially clever in the Paris Th is feature gives one an unforgettable idea of the existence of episodes, where he is supposed to be so inebriated that he fancies these daring fi ghters—how they were called upon at all hours of the bubbles burst from everything that sparkles. Clara Bow, bright- day and night to soar into the skies and give battle to enemy planes; eyed and attractive, does her bit to add to the interest of this their light-hearted eagerness to enter the fray and also their reckless photoplay. Richard Arlen as Armstrong is undoubtedly earnest conduct once they set foot on earth for a time in the dazzling life of in his acting, but there are moments when his head-shaking the French capital. Th e glimpse of the young uniformed men in the becomes a trifl e tedious. “Gunboat” Smith, the ex-pugilist, Folies-Bergere and other places are pictured as they often happened is excellent as a Sergeant, who fi nds sometimes that physical to the fi ghters of all the allied nations. persuasion is necessary. Th e Magnascope, which give a picture twice the usual size, is used to a great extent in this fi lm.

Best Picture

- 20 - WINGS USA, 1927. Directed by William Wellman, b/w, 144 min, silent VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Anonymous, Toronto Silent Film Festival

Secure as the Academy Award’s fi rst Best Picture winner, Wings at most, supporting actors at the time. If the romantic elements has nevertheless been woefully ignored on every top fi lm list since don’t always hold up, the growing camaraderie between Jack and then. Th e handsome Charles Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen, and the David has a moving authenticity. Th e depth of male bonding hottest female star of the day, Clara Bow, combined with innovative has led some to interpret their dramatic fi nal scene together as action scenes, produced one of the year’s best fi lms. Its rave reviews indicating repressed homosexual desire. and long lineups also made it one of the most successful fi lms of the late 1920s, playing for years both as a silent with live music Although Wings is conventional in its story and characters, and sound eff ects and in its re-release in the early 1930s with an Wellman clearly felt at ease to experiment with his camera by attached soundtrack. including multiple moving shots throughout – from a swinging shot in the opening minutes to a long tracking shot through the Wings lives up to its reputation in most respects but disappoints Folies Bergère. It’s in the aerial sequences that the camerawork in others. Th e plot’s full of coincidence and contrivance, but those shines brightest. Some of the most beautiful shots give us clear shortcomings are more than made up for by the grand show in the views of the planes taking off from far above, the camera- sky. Th e striking aerial combats, using original Spad VIIs, Fokker movement strikingly synchronized with the ever-increasing pace of D.VIIs, and MB-3s cutting through the clouds, is what’s cherished the planes lifting off the ground. today. Th e crashes, staged by ace stunt pilot Dick Grace, are real, too; no back projection here. Wellman also felt confi dent enough to embrace risqué Today’s screening of material, including a brief fl ash of a topless Clara, and gorier Th e restoration’s full Wings is sponsored by than expected battle violence. Th e fi lm’s hefty $2 million grandeur, complete with DAVID & DIANNA HALLIDAY budget was supplemented by donations of $16 million special colouring eff ects, ably worth of equipment, planes and manpower by the U.S. showcases the bold aerial military. Wellman, who had fl own with the French Lafayette sequences but also exposes some of the dramatic weaknesses. Th e Escadrille, a squadron of American pilots, purposely cast Arlen story centres on two young pilots, the everyman Jack (Rogers) for his experience in the Royal Flying Corps Canada and Rogers who runs around in a hotrod, and David (Arlen), the son of the learned to fl y expressly for the production. Th is realism allows us town’s wealthiest family. Th e tension between the two isn’t so much to see them in the cockpits in close-up while the world spins and economic as romantic. A love-struck Jack is blind to the aff ection drops behind them. that Sylvia ( Jobyna Ralston) has for David and is also willfully oblivious to his markedly besotted neighbour, Mary (Bow). Th at It is ultimately this unadorned realism that sets Wings apart from Jack doesn’t notice Mary’s charm and beauty makes him seem a today’s CGI-laden action movies and makes it such a delight to bit of an idiot, even by romance movie standards of the day. As the revisit. We can never recreate what those 1927 audiences felt, but top-billed player, Clara Bow appears in less than a quarter of the we can have our own experience in which original fi lm-making fi lm and was clearly there for her star power: her two co-stars were, feels suddenly new—as fresh and as cutting-edge as it was then.

WHERE IMAGES AND MUSIC DO THE TALKING April 4 - 9, 2013 Passion of Joan of Arc - World Premiere of New Score King Vidor's masterpiece - The Crowd All Keaton Night - Railrodder & The General accompanied by Australia's renowned Viola Dana Quartet 1000 Laffs-comedy shorts Silent Japanese masterpiece - Tokyo Chorus Mary Pickford Birthday Celebration www.torontosilentfilmfestival.com

- 21 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)  DirectedDirected by:by: Vincent Henry Minnelli Koster

Original reviewOriginal fromreview the from New the New York York Times Times, September, October 3, 1951, 18, by: 1937 Bosley by CrowtherFrank S. Nugent

Count a bewitching French lassie by the name of Leslie Caron and unrepressed magic evolves. Th en, in the nal,fi bursting ballet, and a whoop-de-do ballet number one of the fi nest ever put upon which is done to a brilliant score of Gershwin music orchestrated the screen, as the most commendable enchantments of the big, with his “American in Paris” suite, the little dancer and Mr. Kelly lavish musical fi lm that Metro obligingly delivered to the Music achieve a genuine emotional splurge. It is Mr. Kelly’s ballet, but Hall yesterday. An American in Paris, which is the title of the Miss Caron delivers the warmth and glow. picture, likewise the ballet, is spangled with pleasant little patches of amusement and George Gershwin tunes. It also is blessed And a ballet it is, beyond question – a truly cinematic ballet – with Gene Kelly, dancing and singing his way through a minor with dancers describing vivid patterns against changing colors, romantic complication in the usual gaudy Hollywood gay Paree. designs, costumes and scenes. Th e whole story of a poignant But it is the wondrously youthful Miss Caron and that grandly romance within a fanciful panorama of Paree is conceived and pictorial ballet that place the marks of distinction upon this lush performed with taste and talent. It is the uncontested high point Technicolored escapade. of the fi lm.

Alongside this crisp and elfi n youngster who plays the Parisian Beside it such musical conniptions as Mr. Kelly and Mr. Levant girl with whom the ebullient American of Mr. Kelly falls in love, giving out with “Tra-La-La,” or Mr. Kelly doing a dance to “I the other extravagant characters of the romance seem standard Got Rhythm” with a bunch of kids, or Mr. Levant performing and stale, and even the story seems wrinkled in the light of her all the key jobs in a large symphonic rendition of Concerto in F freshness and charm. Mr. Kelly may skip about gaily, casting the are purely coincidental. And Georges Guetary’s careful oozing favor of his smiles and the boon of the author’s witticisms upon of Gallic charm in “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” and “’S the whole of the Paris populace. Nina Foch may cut a svelte Wonderful” could well be done without. As a matter of fact, some fi gure as a lady who wants to buy his love by buying his straight of these numbers leave the uncomfortable impression that they art-student paintings. And Oscar Levant may mutter wryly as a were contrived just to fi ll out empty spaces in Alan Jay Lerner’s pal. But the picture takes on its glow of magic when Miss Caron glib but very thin script. is on the screen. When she isn’t, it bumps along slowly as a patched-up, conventional musical show. However, all things are forgiven when Miss Caron is on the screen. When she is on with Mr. Kelly and they are dancing, it is superb. Why this should be is fairly obvious. Miss Caron is not a beauteous thing, in the sense of classic features, but she has a sweet face and a most delightful smile. Furthermore, she has Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color winsomeness, expression and youthful dignity—and she can Best Cinematography, Color dance like a gossamer wood-sprite on the edge of a petal at dawn. Best Costume Design, Color Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture When she and Mr. Kelly fi rst meet in a Paris cafe, the previous Best Picture routine of bonjours and voilas and mais ouis is forgotten. Candor Best Writing, Story and Screenplay and charm invade the picture under Vincente Minnelli’s helpful wand. And when they dance on a quai along the river, in hush of a Paris night, to “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” the romance opens

- 22 - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS USA, 1951, Directed by Vincent Minnelli, 113min VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Allison Beula

At the 1951 Academy Awards ceremony, it would be reasonable Gene Kelly believed from the start that the role of the lead female to say that few were thinking that the fi lm An American In had to go to an authentic Parisian girl, and it was he who scouted Paris stood a chance against such heavy Best Picture contenders and discovered young ballet dancer Leslie Caron. She was only such as A Streetcar Named Desire, A Place In Th e Sun, and Quo 16 when he fi rst saw her dance, and after he fl ew back to Paris to Vadis. However, when the winner was called, the fi lm not only discuss making a screen test for the fi lm (she claimed she only met won, but picked up an additional fi ve Oscars (Art Direction, with Kelly to “be polite” as she was not really sure who he was), Cinematography, Costumes, Music and Story/Screenplay) she was hired and truly became an overnight star. Gene saw her as making it the winner of six statuettes. Even more incredibly, a his protégé and, by her own account, he became a mentor, a friend, seventh, an Honorary Oscar, was awarded. “To Gene Kelly in and a “big brother” to her. He was 38 while she was just 19 at the appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and time of fi lming. Kelly had hoped to shoot the lmfi on location in dancer, and specifi cally for his brilliant achievements in the art of France but the budget was not approved. But the art direction at choreography on fi lm,” read the citation. MGM was so sophisticated that both Minnelli and Kelly felt they could create an impressionistic Irving Berlin dropped by the set during fi lming. When Today’s screening of Paris based on the paintings that he heard the creative team’s plan to end the fi lm with An American In Paris were the inspiration for the fi lm, a 17 1/2-minute ballet he quipped, “I hope you know is sponsored by HILL & DALE which they did. what you’re doing!”. Apparently they did. MANOR BED & BREAKFAST A recent documentary made on Th e musical boasts a stellar team. It starred Gene Kelly, the “Making of…” revealed many who already had appeared in such hits as For Me and My Gal, interesting tidbits about the process. Actress Nina Foch (Milo) Anchors Aweigh and On Th e Town, to name a few. It was directed says that during fi lming she came down with a terrible case of by the brilliant Vincente Minnelli, who was responsible for the chicken pox, which halted production for three days. At numerous musicals, including Meet Me In St Louis and Ziegfeld this time it was still undecided how to showcase the musical Follies. And to top it all off , the music for the fi lm would be by piece An American In Paris, so while on hold, the artistic team the legendary Gershwins, featuring George Gershwin’s title-song came up with the concept of the ballet to end the fi lm. She said homage to Paris (written by him about his personal experience afterwards they all thanked her for becoming ill. living and painting in France). Prolifi c musical producer Arthur Freed, head of the famous MGM “Freed Unit”, championed the Oscar Levant, the actor and accomplished musician, had been a project, believing fully in the overwhelming talents of the team he friend of George Gershwin’s and was cast with the knowledge had assembled. Th e fi lm was in fact Freed’s idea, he had wanted that the role of Adam had been written with him in mind. He to title a musical by the same name as George Gershwin’s famous and Gene were said to have had some major clashes on the set, musical piece and worked out the details with George’s brother including a row over how the song “By Strauss” was to be played, and partner, Ira Gershwin, over a weekly game of pool. (George each wanting a specifi c rhythm (Gene won). passed away suddenly at the too young age of 38 in 1937). Ira was a fan of the idea, with the stipulation that the fi lm contain only When the fi lm opened in October of 1951 it was hailed by Gershwin pieces, not just the title song. critics and audiences alike and became not just a simple “movie musical” but a true piece of art, much like the masters it was Having no story line to work from, Freed turned to Broadway inspired by. writer Alan Jay Lerner, who had the shows Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon under his belt (along with partner Frederick Loewe). On a personal note, I had the great pleasure of attending the Th e team would soon go on to write Broadway/fi lm hits such as 2011 Turner Classic Movies Opening Night Gala of the TCM My Fair Lady, Gig, and Camelot. Classic Film Festival for the World Premiere of the 60th Anniversary Restoration of An American in Paris, which played at Grauman’s Chinese Th eatre in Hollywood. I walked the red carpet into the theatre and sat one row in front of Gene Kelly’s family and got to see a wonderful live interview with star Leslie Caron (who still looks beautiful 60 years later!) and best of all, I got to see the fi lm projected onto a legendary screen with a legendary audience.

Allison Beula is a director, choreographer and performer as well as a theatre/dance/fi lm instructor.

- 23 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  RASHOMON (1950)  DirectedDirected by: Akira Henry Kurosawa Koster

OriginalOriginal review review from fromthe Newthe New York York Times Times, DecemberSeptember 27, 1951,18, 1937 by: Bosley by Frank Crowther S. Nugent

A doubly rewarding experience for those who seek out unusual the willingness of the wood-gatherer to adopt a foundling child, fi lms in attractive and comfortable surroundings was made despite some previous evidence that he acted selfi shly in reporting available yesterday upon the reopening of the rebuilt Little the case. Carnegie with the Japanese fi lm, Rashomon. For here the attraction and the theater are appropriately and interestingly As we say, the dramatic incident is singular, devoid of conventional matched in a striking association of cinematic and architectural plot, and the action may appear repetitious because of the artistry, stimulating to the intelligence and the taste of the patron concentration of the yarn. And yet there emerges from this picture in both realms. – from this scrap of a fable from the past – a curiously agitating tension and a haunting sense of the wild impulses that move men. Rashomon, which created much excitement when it suddenly Much of the power of the picture – and it unquestionably has appeared upon the scene of the Venice Film Festival last autumn hypnotic power – derives from the brilliance with which the and carried off the grand prize, is, indeed, an artistic achievement camera of director Akira Kurosawa has been used. Th e photography of such distinct and exotic character that it is diffi cult to estimate it is excellent and the fl ow of images is expressive beyond words. alongside conventional story fi lms. On the surface, it isn’t a picture Likewise the use of music and of incidental sounds is superb, and the of the sort that we’re accustomed to at all, being simply a careful acting of all the performers is aptly provocative. observation of a dramatic incident from four points of view, with an eye to discovering some meaning – some rationalization – in the Machiko Kyo is lovely and vital as the questionable wife, conveying seeming heartlessness of man. in her distractions a depth of mystery, and Toshiro Mifune plays the bandit with terrifying wildness and hot brutality. Masayuki Mori is At the start, three Japanese wanderers are sheltering themselves icy as the husband and the remaining members of the cast handle from the rain in the ruined gatehouse of a city. Th e time is many their roles with the competence of people who know their jobs. centuries ago. Th e country is desolate, the people disillusioned, and the three men are contemplating a brutal act that has occurred Whether this picture has pertinence to the present day – whether outside the city and is preying upon their minds. its dismal cynicism and its ultimate grasp at hope refl ect a current disposition of people in Japan – is something we cannot tell It seems that a notorious bandit has waylaid a merchant and his you. But, without wife. (Th e story is visualized in fl ashback, as later told by the bandit reservation, we can say to a judge.) After tying up the merchant, the bandit rapes the wife that it is an artful and and then—according to his story—kills the merchant in a fair duel fascinating presentation with swords. of a slice of life on the screen. Th e Japanese However, as the wife tells the story, she is so crushed by her dialogue is translated husband’s contempt after the shameful violence and after the with English subtitles. bandit has fl ed that she begs her husband to kill her. When he refuses, she faints. Upon recovery, she discovers a dagger which she was holding in her hands is in his chest.

According to the dead husband’s story, as told through a medium, his life is taken by his own hand when the bandit and his faithless wife fl ee. And, fi nally, a humble wood-gatherer – one of the three men refl ecting on the crime – reports that he witnessed the murder and that the bandit killed the husband at the wife’s behest. At the end, the three men are no nearer an understanding than they are at the start, but some hope for man’s soul is discovered in

Honorary Foreign Language Film

- 24 - RASHOMON Japan, 1950, Directed by Akira Kurosawa, b/w, 88 min. VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Ken Prue

Akira Kurosawa was a cultural Shogun. His 1950 fi lm, Rashomon, Toshiro Mifune, part of Kurosawa’s ensemble) is accused of opened the West to Japanese movies when it won the Golden killing a samurai and raping his wife. In the retelling of the court Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival and the Best Foreign trial it becomes apparent that all of the court testimonies are Language Film at the 24th Academy Awards. Although contradictory. Th e bandit, the “rape victim wife” and the dead Rashomon did not play widely in theatres in the West, the fi lm, its man (through a medium) each tell a diff erent truth which casts labyrinthine plot and the fi lmmaker himself became watershed themselves in a better light, and the woodcutter, a witness, tells infl uences in critical circles internationally. Even today, six yet another version, yet all concur that the bandit did the murder. decades after release, Rashomon has a 100 per cent approval rating At issue seems to be the role the victim played in the incident. on the online critical aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes. Kurosawa’s groundbreaking cinematic techniques played subtly with light and shadow, refl ecting metaphorically the open or Kurosawa was an ardent student of fi lm. He loved the fi lms of closed hearts of the actors themselves. the silent era and the French avant-garde wave of the 1920s. His style was a stewpot of international infl uences and he developed In a strange climactic plot twist, the priest claims to have lost his craft as Japan was coming out of its isolation in the wake faith in humanity because of everyone’s duplicity and self- of World War II. His research was a kind of cultural foraging. serving nature, only to have it restored by a simple act of human Th rough his work he was opening Japan to itself as much as he kindness on the woodcutter’s part. was opening Japan to the world. His pioneering work in lighting, cinematic technique and storytelling made him a director to be Th e convoluted plot, innovative use of set, lighting and emulated, as George Lucas emulated him when he crafted Star cinematography won Kurosawa universal praise for his artistry. Wars around Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress. Recognized at Venice and the Oscars by the fi lmmaking elite, Rashomon was not just Kurosawa’s international coming out; it Rashomon was the fi lm in which Kurosawa began to pull all of his made him standard-bearer for the new Japanese cinema. Th is ideas about fi lm art together. Th e story is set in a forest was not simply a recounting of a glade outside the gates of an ancient holy city (Kyoto) bandit’s ambush of a couple from and is adapted from a centuries old oral story, “In A Today’s screening of contradictory perspectives. It was a Rashomon is sponsored by Grove”, fi rst published in 1915, by Japanese author cinematic tour-de-force commentary BARBARA GARRICK Ryunosuke Akutagawa. on the human condition.

Rashomon opens with a priest, a woodcutter, and a In his autobiography, “Something peasant taking shelter from the rain near a large city gate. Th e Like An Autobiography”, Kurosawa said: “Human beings are priest and the woodcutter are discussing a sensational murder unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. Th ey and rape trial in which they have testifi ed. A bandit (the famous cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. Rashomon portrays such human beings – the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for fl attering falsehood going beyond the grave—even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most diffi cult to redeem. Th is fi lm is like a strange picture scroll that is unrolled and displayed by the ego.”

Rashomon will be available on Blu-ray on November 6 from the Criterion Collection. Congratulations to the Vintage Film Festival on its discriminating programming.

Ken Prue is the owner of Northumberland Mall Th eatres and a friend of the Vintage Film Festival.

- 25 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)  DirectedDirected by:by: William Henry Wyler Koster

OriginalOriginal review review from from the theNew New York York Times, , NovemberSeptember 22, 1946,18, 1937 by: Bosley by Frank Crowther S. Nugent

It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be Especially in the readjustments of the sailor who uses prosthetic wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative “hooks” and of the airman who faces defl ation from bombardier entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought. Yet to soda-jerker is the drama intense. Th e middle-aged sergeant such a one opened at the Astor last evening. It is Th e Best Years fi nds adjustment fairly simple, with a wife, two grown-up kids and of Our Lives. Having to do with a subject of large moment – the a good job, but the younger and more disrupted fellows are the veteran home from war – and cut, as it were, from the heart-wood ones who really get it in the teeth. In working out their solutions of contemporary American life, this fi lm from the Samuel Goldwyn Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most studio does a great deal more, even, than the above. It gives off a beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we warm glow of aff ection for everyday, down-to-earth folks. have had in fi lms.

Th ese are some fancy recommendations to be tossing boldly forth And by demonstrating frankly and openly the psychological blocks about a fi lm which runs close to three hours and covers a lot of and the physical realities that go with prosthetic devices they have humanity in that time. Films of such bulky proportions usually done a noble public service of great need. turn out the other way. But this one is plainly a labor not only of understanding but of love from three men who put their hearts It is wholly impossible – and unnecessary – to single out any one of into it – and from several others who gave it their best work. the performers for special mention. Fredric March is magnifi cent William Wyler, who directed, was surely drawing upon the wells of as the sergeant who breaks the ice with his family by taking his his richest talent and experience with men of the Air Forces during wife and daughter on a titanic binge. His humor is sweeping yet the war. And Robert E. Sherwood, who wrote the screen play from subtle, his irony is as keen as a knife and he is altogether genuine. a story by MacKinlay Kantor, called “Glory for Me,” was certainly Th is is the best acting job he has ever done. Dana Andrews is giving genuine refl ection to his observations as a public pulse-feeler likewise incisive as the Air Forces captain who goes through a these past six years. Likewise, Mr. Goldwyn, who produced, must gruelling mill, and a newcomer, Harold Russell, is incredibly fi ne as have seen this fi lm to be the fulfi llment of a high responsibility. All the sailor who has lost his hands. Mr. Russell, who actually did lose their eff orts are rewarded eminently. his hands in the service and does use “hooks,” has responded to the tactful and restrained direction of Mr. Wyler in a most sensitive style. For Th e Best Years of Our Lives catches the drama of veterans returning home from war as no fi lm – or play or novel that we’ve As the wife of the sergeant, Myrna Loy is charmingly reticent and yet heard of – has managed to do. In telling the stories of three Teresa Wright gives a lovely, quiet performance as their daughter veterans who come back to the same home town – one a midde- who falls in love with the airman. Virginia Mayo is brassy and aged sergeant, one an air offi cer and one a sailor who has lost both brutal as the latter’s two-timing wife and Cathy O’Donnell, a new, hands – it fully refl ects the delicate tensions, the deep anxieties and young actress, plays the sailor’s fi ancée tenderly. Hoagy Carmichael, the gnawing despairs that surely have been experienced by most Roman Bohnen and Ray Collins will have to do with a warm nod. such fellows who have been through the same routine. It visions For everyone gives a “best” performance in this best fi lm this year the overfl owing humors and the curious pathos of such returns, from Hollywood. and it honestly and sensitively images the terrible loneliness of the man who has been hurt – hurt not only physically but in the recesses of his self-esteem.

Not alone in such accurate little touches as the fi rst words of the sergeant’s joyful wife when he arrives home unexpectedly, “I look terrible!” or the uncontrollable sob of the sailor’s mother when she fi rst sees her son’s mechanical “hands” is this picture irresistibly Best Actor in a Leading Role aff ecting and eloquent of truth. Best Actor in a Supporting Role It is in its broader and deeper Best Director understanding of the mutual embarrassment between the Best Film Editing veteran and his well-intentioned Best Music, Scoring of a loved ones that the fi lm throws its Dramatic or Comedy Picture real dramatic power. Best Picture Best Writing, Screenplay Honorary Award

- 26 - THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES USA, 1946, Directed by William Wyler, b/w, 168 min.

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Vicki Sturtevant

If you were looking for a balanced analysis of the strengths and Th e male leads, three distinct generations, have extraordinary weaknesses of William Wyler’s masterpiece, Th e Best Years of Our chemistry despite their very diff erent acting styles. If Russell has Lives, you’ve come to the wrong place. Th is is a wonderful movie an engaging rawness, then March is an old pro, full of sly nuance and I love it madly. It is touching and elegant and beautifully and comfortable as an old shoe with perfect wife Myrna Loy. constructed.Th e characters are good and decent people, but never Between them, Dana Andrews is hunky, as he should be, and the prudish, prim, or idealized. Th ey are great company, and despite identity crisis he faces as an Air Force hero fallen from the sky the longish running time, I always miss them when the movie into a trivial civilian world can be read in his broad shoulders, ends. deep voice, and stoic bearing. He still looks like a superhero, even when he’s selling perfume at the fi ve-and-dime or strolling Th e fi lm follows three veterans returning from World War II to in a scrapyard of discarded planes. the fi ctional midwestern town of Boone City. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is a heroic Air Force captain, eager to get home to his Th is is a movie about people feeling out-of-place in their wife (Virginia Mayo), a good-time-girl he married on impulse surroundings, so keep an eye out, too, for cinematographer just before his deployment. Al Stephenson (Frederic March), Gregg Toland’s signature deep-focus work, which frames the nursing a drinking problem exacerbated by the war, is coming distant background as crisply as the foreground. We see all the home to his wife of 20 years (Myrna Loy) and a world that has little details of life, people drowning in the mundane, as when moved on without him. And heroic Fred is hemmed in by trivializing things like fi nally, small-town football hero Today’s screening of perfume, children’s toys, and ice cream sodas. Th e nalfi Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) The Best Years of Our Lives is sequence is a wedding (I won’t tell you whose), and brings is coming home with hooks sponsored by LYNN HARDY all the characters back together in a suburban home, well- where his hands used to be, RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT - scrubbed children gathered around a piano, ladies in hats uncertain how he will be greeted DOMINION SECURITIES sipping punch. Th is is what the men were fi ghting for, but by his high-school sweetheart, also exactly what they fi nd alienating about being home Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell). Th e extraordinary Russell, a real after the trauma of war. Toland’s deep focus brings us images amputee and war veteran, does beautiful work in this role, but that link the characters together, integrate them into a group. A he is clearly not a professional actor, and his raw, unpolished real live happy ending, this fi nal scene isn’t only about the bride performance keeps the human cost of war grounded in the and groom, but a whole community fi nding its way back to real and the now. In the scene where Homer shows Wilma the optimism, awkwardly, slowly, but together. process of taking off his prosthetics to go to bed, the long tutorial is a moment of fl esh-level reality amid the fiction: “Th is is when Vicki Sturtevant is a fi lm professor and author of a book about Marie I know I’m helpless. My hands are down there on the bed.” But Dressler, “A Great Big Girl Like Me”: Th e Films of Marie Dressler. just as Homer is the conscience of the fi lm, it is also Russell’s obvious courage, his lack of self-consciousness, and his contagious sense of humor that repeatedly stop the movie from tipping over into bathos.

- 27 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  THE CIRCUS (1928)  DirectedDirected by:by: Charles Henry Chaplin Koster

Original reviewOriginal fromreview the from New Th e NewYork York Times Times, September, January 9, 1928, 18, 1937 by: Mordaunt by Frank Hall S. Nugent

Charles Spencer Chaplin’s latest cure for melancholy now is to be It is quite a little while before the Tramp (Chaplin) puts in his seen at the Mark Strand. Th is fi lm was off ered for the fi rst time appearance, but as soon as the swinging cane, the old bowler last Friday at a midnight showing before a gathering that evinced and the spavined feet were seen at the opening show the no little enthusiasm in spite of the hour and the fact that many spectators were thrown into a high state of glee. A pickpocket persons had either come from witnessing plays or acting in them. slips a stuff ed wallet into the Tramp’s capacious pocket, and the Mr. Chaplin did not choose on this occasion to leave his California Tramp, a minute or so later, is perceived watching frankfurters retreat for the launching of this comedy, which is entitled “Th e and rolls. Little does he know of the wealth in his trousers. It Circus.” He sent a telegram which was read to the audience. In it is here that Chaplin makes people who were thinking about the Grimaldi of modern days declared his new production to be their appearances forget themselves in sheer joy. Th e Tramp sees the outstanding achievement of his fun-making career. an infant looking over his father’s shoulder and holding a roll. Th e Tramp proceeds to make the baby smile and soon the child “Th e Circus” is likely to please intensely those who found something extends the roll and the Tramp takes a bite. Th en he reaches for slightly wanting in “Th e Gold Rush,” but at the same time it will the mustard and plasters the youngster’s roll with it and while the prove a little disappointing to those who revelled in the poetry, the audience is thrown into a state of ecstasy, Chaplin bites off the pathos and fi ne humor of his previous adventure. Chaplin’s pictures mustard end. bring to mind the Scotsman who said that all whisky was good but that some brands were better than others. Chaplin never fails to Nobody will forget in a hurry that portion where the Tramp is tickle one’s fancy. He lifts the masks from the dejected or the cynical told by the Circus Manager to give a pill to a horse. He puts the and discovers faces wreathed in merriment. tube in the horse’s mouth and is about ready to blow, when the horse blows fi rst, with consequences that are at least momentarily Th is current off ering is the box-offi ce side of the life of Chaplin disturbing even to the Tramp. of Hollywood. It is a wild series of incidents that are more like his earlier fi lms than either “Th e Gold Rush” or “Th e Kid.” Call Th e adventuresome Tramp, who is funny when he does not intend it slapstick if you will, but this exponent is able to set forth old to be and, to the Circus Manager, quite pathetic when he tries to ideas with a toothsome sauce. Chaplin can throw a blueberry pie be comic, fi nally discovers that he has precipitated himself into a so that in the action there is a degree of suspense. When in “Th e lion’s cage. Th e Tramp at fi rst looks satisfi ed, then he sees the lion Circus” he looks hungry it is so infectious that he makes you want and his one thought is to be quiet. While he is tiptoeing toward a piece of his roll. When he is sad he makes you forget that this is the door the bolt slips down, and the Tramp is cornered. Th e lion only a farce, and you are sad with him. When he is in danger, you fl icks its tail and moves its jaws, while the Tramp stands against the hope for his rescue. He makes you forget his queer moustache, side of the cage unwilling to make a movement that might possibly his absurd clothes and his waggle, by his clever pantomime. A disturb the sleeping animal. An impertinent little fox terrier turns movement here gives you a paragraph, and another action, fl ashed up to add to the Tramp’s anxiety, and although the prisoner shakes without the need of a title, informs you of a portent or a hope. It his fi nger and makes silent threats, the dog continues barking. Th e is done so glibly that there is never the slightest doubt as to the lion is perceived slipping his tongue over his jowls, causing one meaning Chaplin wishes to convey. to think that he is both thirsty and hungry, though still dozing. Merna, the attractive heroine, appears, and just when it is thought Th ere are passages in “Th e Circus” that are undoubtedly too that the Tramp is going to be released, she faints. Th e Tramp tosses long and others that are too extravagant for even this blend of the lion’s drinking water through the bars over the girl, and then humor. But Chaplin’s unfailing imagination helps even when the lion, with a good long yawn, showing a fi ne supply of teeth, the sequence is obviously slipping from grace. Nevertheless, it slowly turns over and wriggles around on his back. Somehow or is surprising that a clown of such brilliance should permit one other the lion is not in a fi ghting mood, and therefore when he episode to fade out leaving you hungry for more and then give looks at Chaplin he decides to continue his siesta, which inspires you an overdose. courage in the Tramp’s breast. Merna recovers and she opens the door, and, to her surprise, the Tramp, instead of darting out of the Once, at least, in “Th e Circus” Chaplin fi nds himself endeavoring cage, stays inside assuming the pose of a conqueror. But that is to better his previous idea, and through trying to avoid repeating only for a second or so, for the lion again makes a movement and what he did in “Th e Gold Rush” the result is tame by comparison. no human being has ever left a cage with greater celerity than this Tramp does. Excellent, indeed, is the fi rst fl ash of “Th e Circus.” A star comes to the screen; soon this turns out to be a paper hoop, which, when it is ripped apart, aff ords a jagged frame through which you see the sawdust ring in full action and a mixed group in the seats.

- 28 - THE CIRCUS USA, 1928, Directed by Charles Chaplin, b/w, 71 min. (silent)

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Chris Worsnop

If Charlie Chaplin seems a little sadder than usual in this fi lm, he with the audience who roar with laughter at all his gaff es. When should be excused. Few producers/directors/ writers/actors have he tries his skill on the tight-rope, his confi dence in the safety- gone through as many setbacks as Chaplin experienced in getting tether keeps him aloft, even after the tether lets go and a swarm of Th e Circus to the screen. monkeys gets in on his act.

Th e fi lm was shot in 1926, a year after the release of Th e Gold And of course Charlie Rush. Chaplin had to deal with the loss of the fi rst four weeks Today’s screening of falls for a beautiful young of shooting on Th e Circus because of shoddy lab work on the The Circus is sponsored by woman (Merna Kennedy) NORBERT KONDRACKI original negative. He had deep trouble with the Internal Revenue and inevitably, tearfully Service over allegedly unpaid taxes of more than a million dollars. gives her up to another man, A gale had destroyed the circus tent before shooting began, and even smoothing the way for them to be together. Finally comes the later a fi re at the Chaplin studio destroyed the circus ring set. Some familiar long shot of the Tramp alone again, reviewing the situation circus wagons were stolen from the location of the fi nal sequence. before moving dustily away from the camera with his characteristic Chaplin’s second wife, Lita Grey, fi led for divorce and tried to attach little shrug and an optimistic spring in his walk. the assets of the studio, preventing shooting for eight months and delaying the fi lm’s release until 1928, just after the fi rst sound lms fi Th e Circus and its predecessor, Th e Gold Rush (1925), are part of the had appeared in theatres. Chaplin smuggled the negatives out of the gold standard of Chaplin’s comedy. Chaplin returned to both fi lms studio so they wouldn’t be seized. Who wouldn’t be sad? to release new versions with his own musical soundtrack. In the 1942 version of Th e Gold Rush, he removed the intertitles and added Still, the fi lm was very successful, and Chaplin was up for four his own voice as narrator. Th e modern version of Th e Circus was Academy Awards in 1929, one for each of his four roles in the released in 1970. production. Th e Academy decided to give him a special award for “versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing”, Critics have written plenty about this fi lm, some of them remarking and dropped his name from the other nominations. that it lacks the social conscience of Chaplin’s greater pieces. Phooey! I like best this point of view, from critic, Walter Kerr: Chaplin kept Th e Circus out of circulation for 40 years after its fi rst “With his stature elevated to near-Olympian heights by Th e Gold release, partly because of all the bad memories and partly because he Rush, he had grown self-conscious as a comedian. In order to cope felt it didn’t live up to his expectations. with the problem, he decided to dramatize it. He would make a comedy about the consciousness of being funny.” Th e fi lm’s story is pure “Little Tramp”. Charlie is hired to do a job he is not capable of doing, but bumbles his way through it because Chris M. Worsnop is a member of the Vintage Film Festival committee. of his own innocence. When he is not trying to be funny as a clown in the circus, he is hilarious, but he bombs when he tries. As an assistant to a magician he is an utter disaster, but a complete hit

Special Award

- 29 - 21(+81'5('0(1$1'$*,5/  YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)  DirectedDirected by:by: Michael Henry Curtiz Koster

Original reviewOriginal from review the from New the New York York Times Times, September, May 30, 1942, 18, by: 1937 Bosley by Crowther Frank S. Nugent

Yankee Doodle Dandy rode into town last night on a whole lot And it is a hummer of a life! It starts on July 4, 1878, in more than a pony; it rode on the star-spangled crest of one of the Providence, R. I., when the red and squawling Georgie fi rst fanciest build-ups that Broadway has ever known, not to mention hitched his wagon to the stars and stripes. And it follows the the glowing reputation of one of “the Street’s” most beloved sons. fortunes of the Cohan family—the famous Four Cohans, Folks who are looking for something propitious to decorate today vaudeville specialists—through their picturesque trouping around would do well to try for a seat at the Hollywood Th eatre. For the country, the fi rst break of saucy George as “Peck’s Bad Boy,” there, at the scene of last night’s “$5,000,000 première,” you will his teaming with Sam H. Harris and the production of “Little fi nd as warm and delightful a musical picture as has hit the screen Johnny Jones,” and it traces his rising fortune to the World War in years, a corking good entertainment and as aff ectionate, if not and the writing of “Over Th ere.” Th en it digresses pleasantly into as accurate, a fi lm biography as has ever – yes, ever – been made. the fi ctitious afternoon of the family’s life, and takes up for a climax with Cohan receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor No need to tell anybody who the subject of this sparkling picture from President Roosevelt. is. Th e public has been well advised for months that Warner Brothers were fi lming the life of George M. Cohan, with all the Without question, the most solidly entertaining portion of the old Cohan songs and bits from his memorable shows. And the fi lm is that which has to do with Cohan’s early bouts with the fact that cocky James Cagney would play the leading role has stage and the sumptuous reproductions of bits from his early been a matter of common knowledge and of joyous anticipation shows. Here Mr. Cagney excels, both in characterization and all around. So the only news this morning is that all has come out jubilant song and dance. His handling of “Yankee Doodle Boy” fi ne. Th e picture magnifi cently matches the theatrical brilliance and “Give My Regards to Broadway,” from “Little Johnny Jones,” of Mr. Cohan’s career, packed as it is with vigorous humor and must be – with all due respect – quite as buoyant as Mr. Cohan’s honest sentiment. And the performance of Mr. Cagney as the one own. And one priceless dialogue he plays with Eddie Foy Jr., and original Song-and-Dance Man is an unbelievably faithful representing the elder Foy, couldn’t have been better if Mr. Cohan characterization and a piece of playing that glows with energy. had played it—and written it—himself.

True, Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, the script-writers, But the complementary intimate family story is also appealing, have taken some liberties with Mr. Cohan’s life. Th ey have juggled too, largely because of the warm-hearted portrayal of the elder facts rather freely to construct a neat, dramatic story line, and they Cohan by Walter Huston. He and Mr. Cagney, as father and have let slip a few anachronisms which the wise ones will gleefully son, create the image of a deep attachment which has the very spot. But, as the late Sigmund Lubin once put it, they’re yours at breath of life in it. And the episode wherein is recounted Mr. no extra cost. And, of course, Mr. Cohan had the last word. He Cohan’s composition of “Over Th ere” is tremendously moving in said okay, let them go. its simplicity. Th ere is not a maudlin note struck in the lm.fi And the only elaborate fl ag-waving is done in one gaudy production And the story as now presented is that of a lusty trouper, a sequence based on the song, “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” showman who earned in the theatre a lasting place in our nation’s Hall of Fame. Indeed, the picture begins with Cohan being called Th e abundance of further pleasures is endless. Th ere is Irene to Washington while playing the role of President Roosevelt in Manning playing Fay Templeton and singing “Mary Is a Grand the musical show “I’d Rather Be Right.” At the White House he Old Name” and “So Long, Mary,” fi t to make any oldster cry. meets the President (an unprecedented trick for the screen) and Th ere are the excellent performances of Joan Leslie as Cohan’s to him is told, in fl ashback, the wonderful story of this Yankee romantic prompter, Rosemary DeCamp as his mother, Richard dandy’s life. Whorf as Sam H. Harris, and countless others, not to forget Captain Jack Young’s tastefully restrained and surprisingly realistic impersonation of the President. Indeed, there is so much in this picture and so many persons that deserve their meed of praise that every one connected with it can stick a feather in his hat and take our word – it’s dandy!

Best Actor in a Leading Role Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Best Sound, Recording

- 30 - YANKEE DOODLE DANDY USA, 1942, Directed by Michael Curtiz, b/w, 126 min

VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW BY: Ross Pigeau

Th ere is a moment inYankee Doodle Dandy where a major theatre than Yankee Doodle Dandy. Propaganda? Of course, but producer describes George M. Cohan, the Broadway star and it is star-spangled propaganda that looks great and wears its impresario about whom the movie is a (very loose) biography, as intentions proudly on its sleeve. “the whole darn country squeezed into one pair Th e fi lm also allowed James Cagney to demonstrate his skills Today’s screening of of pants.” You need look Yankee Doodle Dandy as a song-and-dance man, skills that were rarely seen because no further for a better is sponsored by he had been typecast in tough guy, gangster roles. Cagney summary of this rousing, SCOTT MacCOUBREY – trained long and hard to duplicate Cohan’s dancing style, unapologetically patriotic MacCOUBREY FUNERAL HOME employing Cohan’s choreographer and dance director, Johnny fi lm that refl ects the ideals Boyle, to help him. Th e stiff -legged, coiled-spring approach of a young nation during a that Cagney demonstrates in Yankee Doodle Dandy is in sharp turbulent time in its history. Nor is there a better description for contrast to the fl uid, sophisticated styles of Fred Astaire and James Cagney’s delightful energetic and shameless performance. Gene Kelly, yet its athleticism is never in doubt. Just watch the Both Cagney and America are on display in this musical, a fi lm brief but magnifi cent tap dancing sequence down the stairs of that could only have been made in Hollywood at a time when the the White House at the end of the fi lm. Cagney’s eyes never nation, and Cagney, needed Hollywood most. look down as his feet become a blur of motion, making the 13-second scene look eff ortless and natural. For his performance Yankee Doodle Dandy began fi lming the day after Japan bombed as George M. Cohan, Cagney won his only Academy Award. Pearl Harbor, and a few days before Hitler declared war on the United States. In a story told years later by Joan Leslie, the Yankee Doodle Dandy is extremely well crafted. From the brilliant actress who plays Cagney’s wife, Mary, the news of Pearl Harbor black-and-white cinematography of James Wong Howe to the prompted Cagney and the movie’s director, Michael Curtiz, to costume designs by Milo Anderson and the lush sets of Carl Jules make a vow in front of the cast and crew that their fi lm become Weyl, the fi lm exudes quality and high production values. the rallying cry for a country at war. In this they succeeded. No movie has fl own more American fl ags, displayed more marches, For a fi lm shot entirely in the studio and on the back lots of sung more patriotic songs, and thumped its chest more loudly Warner Brothers, the razzle-dazzle of Broadway and the glitter of New York City are wonderfully recreated. Today’s audiences may fi nd the glitz and unabashed fl ag-waving diffi cult to stomach, but Yankee Doodle Dandy represents Hollywood fi lm making, as a vehicle for entertainment, at its peak in the 1940s. It deserves to be enjoyed for its energy, its childlike enthusiasm and its masterful execution.

Ross Pigeau is a member of the Vintage Film Festival Committee.

- 31 - 2012 VINTAGE FILM FESTIVAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chair: Chris Worsnop Programme Editor: Michael Hanlon

Members: George Atto Web Master: John Draper Alma Draper john@vintagefi lmfestival.ca John Draper Terry Foord Website: www.vintagefi lmfestival.ca Michael Hanlon www.mariedressler.ca Lynn Hardy Phyllis Hendry Book printed by: Cathie Houston 334 Spring Street Rick Miller Cobourg, ON K9A 3K4 Ross Pigeau www.readyprint.ca Sharron Wharram-Spry t: 905.372.8888 f: 905.372.9104

M D MARIE DRESSLER FOUNDATION BOARD F

Honorary Chairman: Barbara Garrick Scholarship Co-ordinator: Alma Draper

Chairman: Delphine Patchett Memorabilia: Cecilia Nasmith

Vice-Chairman: Murray Dillon Member: Gael Moore

Treasurer: William Patchett Webmaster: John Draper

Financial Director: Adrian Langhorne Vintage Film Festival Chair: Chris M. Worsnop

- 32 - - 33 - NOTES ______

Art Direction

Art direction is responsible for the overall visual appearance of a fi lm scheduling of prep and wrap as well as overall quality control. Th e art and how that fi lm communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts director is the link with construction, special FX, property, transportation features and psychologically appeals to a target audience. Th e art and location departments. director makes decisions about the visual elements used, what artistic style to use and when to use motion. Various artists working on a fi lm An Oscar was presented for Best Art Direction at the very fi rst Academy develop specifi c parts or scenes, but it is the charge of an art director to Award ceremony to William Cameron Menzies for his excellent work supervise and unify the vision. on two fi lms, Th e Dove (1927) and Tempest (1928). Art direction is not only honoured by the Academy Awards each year, but is also honoured Th e art director in the hierarchical structure of a fi lm art department annually by Th e Art Critics’ awards. works directly below the production designer, in collaboration with the set decorator, and above the set designers. A large part of the art Th e next movie you watch, try to notice the way the colours and textures director’s duties include administrative aspects of the art department. in a fi lm’s setting aff ect your emotional impact of a scene. You will then Th ey are responsible for assigning tasks to the art department begin to appreciate all the hard work and thought art direction has coordinator and keeping track of the art department budget and contributed to the making of a wonderful fi lm.

- 34 - NOTES ______

- 35 - Cameco

Cameco is a strong supporter of the arts in Port Hope and Cobourg. This year’s donation to the Vintage Film Festival has allowed the VFF Committee to grant a second bursary of $1000 to a local student going from high school to further studies in the media arts.

The Northumberland branch (District 30) of the Retired Teachers of Ontario is proud that its ‘Service to Others” programme has given funds for the Vintage Film Festival to subsidize student attendance at the Vintage Film Festival. The grant has funded almost 90 day passes and single-film passes to young film enthusiasts from local high schools.

- 36 -