VideolTV: Humor/Comedy Hollywood to Astoria with Cartoons That Time Forgot: Face to Face: Actresses of Hecht and MacArthur The Van Beuren Studio the Silent Screen This highly entertaining retrospective is "Will you acceptthree hundred per week to Between the years 1928 and 1936 the now 1 Silent screen acting was part pantomime, comprised ofmore-than50 video works in work forParamountPictures? Allexpenses nearly forgotten Van Beuren Studio pro- part seduction, part magic act. Thanks to which comedy and conceptual art merge paid. The three hundred is peanuts. Mil- duced some of New York's most eccentric the dramatic power of the closeup, the to take on a variety of forms. The tapes, by lions are to be grabbed out here and your and extraordinary animation. Directors power to magnify emotion, the screen some four dozen artists, span more than a only competition is idiots. Don't let this get George Rufle and George Stallings, layout image became an icon, anda new genera- decade-virtually the entire history of the around." Thus Herman J. Mankiewicz sum- man Joseph Barbera, and animators Izzy tion of faces defined a new style ofperfor- video art form-and range from the tech- moned BenHecht to Hollywood, launching Klein, Frank Tashlin, BillLittlejohn, Shamus mance. Drama and melodrama, comedy nologically primitive but conceptually ele- one of the most phenomenal careers in Culhane and Jack Zander were only some and romance: everything on the silent gant work of pioneers William Wegman and screenwriting. Soon much of Hecht's best of the animation greats who passed screen depended on the human face. Willie Walker to more recent pieces which work was being done in collaboration with through, but the ravages ofre-distribution Norma Desmond was right: they didn't play upon the conventional forms ofbroad- his old writing partner Charles MacArthur, by home movie releasers and TV syndica- need sound. This glamorous panorama of cast TV. VIDEO/TV:HUMOR/COMEDY was and together they mastered the Hollywood tors effectively eradicated the Van Beuren silent performance features ten of the most curated by John Minkowskyand is distrib- idiom. But when their imaginations out- Studio from popular memory. Yet the work famous screen actresses ofthe 1920s. Stay uted by Media Study/Buffalo with support grew the West Coast studios, they set up of the Van Beuren cartoonists intersected tuned for part two of our survey (great from the National Endowment for the Arts their own production unit at Astoria. Here, intriguingly with therapid innovations that actors of the silents) next season. and the New York State Councilon theArts. half a century ago, the team wrote, pro- were sweeping through the burgeoning Screeningsat Astoria are the onlyNew York duced anddirected fourofthe most outra- sound-cartoon industry. The approximately Piano accompaniment arranged and played by City presentation of this unusual and very geous pictures everassembled. Our Fifti- sixty films collected in this four-part redis- Curtis Salke. special series. Each evening's program is eth Anniversary tribute brings backall four covery are like unearthed "missing links"in approximately two hours long. and pairs each with one oftheir best Holly- animation history. Programmed by Greg wood efforts. Ford with special thanks to Jan Kucik. Each program approximately 100 mins. PROGRAM I: Friday, March 23, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, 7:30 p.m. CRIME WITHOUT PASSION (1934) INTRODUCTION: THE VAN BEUREN Mae Murray in THE MERRY WIDOW Alla Nazimova in SALOME (1922) and VIDEO PIONEERS and and GUNGA DIN (1939) IRREGULARS (1925) Alice Terry in THE MAGICIAN (1926) MUSICAL/COMEDY PROGRAM 11: Saturday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, .307 p.m. Saturday, May 12, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1% 7:30 p.m. ONCE IN A BLUE MOON (1934-36) "AESOP'S FABLES" AND Lillian Gish in THE SCARLET LETTER Gloria Swanson in ZAZA (1923) PARODY: CULTURAL TV STATION and BARBARY COAST (1935) THE EARLY BLACK-AND-WHITES (1926) and Greta Garbo in A WOMAN and Pole Magri in FORBIDDEN OF AFFAIRS (1928) PARADISE (1924) PROGRAM III: Friday, March 30, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 13, 7.30 p.m. Friday, May 4, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 16, 7:30 p.m. THE SCOUNDREL (1935) and THE ODD AND THE OUTRAGEOUS Marion Davies in JANICE MEREDITH LIKELY STORIES and THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) (1924) THE MAGIC BOX Friday, April 14, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. Prints courtesy of MCAAlniversal, RKO General Pictures, Columbia PROGRAM IV: Saturday, March 31, 7:30 p.m. Pictures Industries, the American Film Institute, MGM/UA, the George Saturday, March 17, 7:30 p.m. SOAK THE RICH (1.435-36) and "RAINBOW PARADES" AND LATER Clara Bow in IT (1927) and Joan Eastman House, the Library of Congress, and William K . Everson . VARIATIONS Crawford to OUR DANCING SHORT TAKES, ONE-LINERS AND THE FRONT PAGE (1931) All programs subject to change without notice . TALKING HEADS and DOCUCOMEDY DAUGHTERS (1928) PROGRAM 111: Astoria with Soglow's pantomimic LITTLE KING. This caval- Hate, will introduce the film and discuss Stroheim's VideolTV: Humor/Comedy Fri . Mar. 16, 7:30 p.m . Hollywood to cade ofstarsfeatures Van Beuren's ambitious Tech- handling of stars like Murray and Swanson . 1: PROGRAM LIKELY STORIES nicolor projects including Fontaine Fox's Toonerville Saturday, April 24 7:30 p.m. Fri. Mar. 9, 7:30 p.m. Hecht andMacArthur Folks Mitchell Kriegman Likely Stories . Lillian Gish in THE SCARLET LETTER (1926, VIDEO PIONEERS Friday, March 23, 7:30 p.m. Tony Oursler The Weak Bullet Saturday, April 7 7:30 p.m. 80 mins.) and Greta Garbo in A WOMAN OF Nam June Paik The Selling of New York CRIME WITHOUT PASSION (1934, 72 mins .) "AESOP'S FABLES"AND THE EARLYBLACK- AFFAIRS (1928, 108 mins") Directed bySwedish Willie Walker Lure Detour Maniacal triallawyer Claude Rains gets his comeup- William Wegman The Best of William Wegman AND-WHITES These are the best of Van Beuren's import Victor Seastrom, Miss Gish delivered one of pance in this stylishtale ofmurderand mayhem . Also ambience, easy muta- hermost elegant and understated performances in Ant FarmITR . Uthco The Eternal Frame FABLES, with a nonsensical THE MAGIC BOX GUNGA DIN (1939, 117 mins.) Often seen in bility and haphazard supernaturalism thatparalleled thisrarelyseen Hawthorne classic. Soon after, Garbo severely cut prints, this is the first showing of the Alan Lande From Your Radiation the Fleischers' TALKARTOONS and BETTY helped redefine the image of an MGM star when MUSICAL/COMEDY American Film Institute's newly restored version . Clarence Brown directed her in this steamyMichael Willie Walker Life With Video BOOPS. Rare AESOP'S FABLES like FAMILY Pier Marton Guitar Piece Directed by George Stevens. SHOE and ANIMAL FAIR, and Tom and Jerry's Arlen adaptation. John Gilbert co-stars. Michael SmithlMark Fischer Secret Horror Kit FitzgeraldlJohn Sanborn Ear To The Ground Saturday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. diverse careers as Egyptologists (MAGIC cap Friday, May 4, 7:30 p.m. Songs for Swinging Larvae Mitchell Kriegman Turkey Dinner ONCE INA BLUE MOON (1934-36, 68 mlnsJ MUMMY) and baby-sitters (PUZZLED PALS) Marion Davies in JANICEMEREDITH (1924, Graeme WhiflerlRenaldo off this compendium of strange black-and-white and the Loaf Brad Stensberg Video Rover Chaplinesque clown Jimmy Savo leads a circus 118 minsJ William Randolph Hearst saw Marion the Russianrevolution . cartoons. Twinart Instant This/Instant That Ed Tannenbaum Prov. Video Dating Service troupe through the middle of as the ideal heroine of period romance, and pro- This very strange film, once denounced as unreleas- a series ofelaborate costumes forher athis One Minute Movies James Hartel Captured Tool Friday, April 13 7:30 p.m. duced Graeme WhiflerlThe Residents able, has an elaborate musical score by George OUTRAGEOUS Tonight's 127th Street studio. Here Marion helps George Willie WalkerITR. Uthco The Real Long Ranger THE ODD AND THE Julia Heyward Intimate Parade Antheil. Also BARBARYCOAST (1935, 97mins.) program presents cartoons that are truly bizarre, Washington andPaul Revere wintheAmerican Revo- Ernest Gusella Art Punks; Scale Flop A lustytaleofold San Francisco, pairing Miriam Hop- sometimes astonishing for theiroffhand surrealism lution (Hearst style). Exquisite period design by PROGRAM IV: kins andEdward G. Robinson underthe direction of Kenn Beckmanl"Blue" Song of the Street of the (the airborne boats, trains and barnyard beasts of Joseph Urban. Sat . Mar. 17, 7:30 p.m . Howard Hawks. their ethnic and racial stereo- Gene Tyranny Singing Chicken SKY SKIPPERS); Saturday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. SHORT TAKES, ONE-LINERS AND TALKING HEADS types (the astounding Jewish and Chinese carica- Laurie AndersonlDavidson Gigliotti Language Is A Virus Friday, March 30, 7:30 p.m. Clara Bow in IT (1927, 72 mins .) and Joan Tim Maul/Davidson Gigliotti Soho ; Empire State THE SCOUNDREL (1935, 75 mins .) Noel Cow- tures of LAUNDRY BLUES); their unbridled sex- DAUGHTERS Tony Oursler Till Ye Know Me chasing afteragiggly bevy Crawford in OUR DANCING Teddy Dibble Secrets I'll Never Tell; Admiration; ard slithers through the worldof the shallow and the ualcontent (the Little King (1928,97 minsJ Hollywoodstudios helped define Michael SmithlDavidson Gigliotti Giddi Up Travel Agent The Role Model superficial. An occult viewoflife among the literati, ofharem girlsin SULTAN PEPPER); theirunusual bypromoting heroines in PENCIL the "newwoman" ofthe 1920s Dale Hoyt Dancing Death Monsters ; spiked with fashionable cynicism and sentiment . design motifs (cartoons-within-cartoon whose sexualitywas vibrant and aggressive. Clara Teddy DibblelPeter Keenan The Cough The Deviant MANIA); and their freakish fantasy locales (the out- The Kipper Kids Eight Days a Week Also THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934, 91 Bow spoofs her own image in this dime-store-to- Louie Grenier Pass Debris ; Caught; I Play Real minsJ Director Howard Hawks breezes through landish gnomic HolyWarsofJoys"versus "Glooms" Well ; Winners/Losers yacht-club free for all.