Mobile Navigation
Every two years, the UCLA Film and Television Archive devotes several weeks in the summer to presenting films preserved and restored by its world-renowned preservation department. Our biennial Festivals of Preservation are an opportunity for Los Angeles audiences to see highlights from a century of moving images created for the large screen and the small. Some of this material is startlingly timely: wartime images of the battlefield and the homefront from World War I to Vietnam. This material covers topics that dominate today's headlines: wartime ethics (Paths of Glory), life in a city under postwar occupation (A Foreign Affair), relations between the U.S. and its European allies (Sherlock Holmes in Washington) and an agitprop documentary questioning the government's case for going to war (In the Year of the Pig).
Above and beyond that, the Festival provides an opportunity to survey the highpoints of 20th-century American popular culture. Charlie Chaplin, Felix the Cat, the Marx Brothers, Billie Holiday, Clara Bow, Andy Griffith, Bela Lugosi and Sidney Poitier will all appear onscreen. Headliners from the vaudeville stage can be seen, as can performers from San Antonio's Chicano music scene of the 1970s. Even decay has its showcase with "Remains to Be Seen." There's truly something for everyone in the 12th Festival of Preservation.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Paths of Glory (1957)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Kirk Douglas gives a powerful, no-nonsense performance as Colonel Dax, the honorable warrior who, on orders from his superiors, must lead his men on a doomed mission to wrest control of a German-held hill in World War I France. When three of the surviving soldiers are court-martialed, the good Colonel steps forward to defend them. This stark and unsparing dramatization of the French army's atrocity against its own soldiers during World War I was the first film to unite the major themes of Stanley Kubrick's career. Here the director's fondness for limning human hypocrisy and cynicism, his meticulous attention to detail, and the frequently bitter irony of his narrative are brought sharply into focus in an almost clinical gaze.
United Artists. Based on he novel by Humphrey Cobb. Producer: Kirk Douglas, James B. Harris, Stanley Kubrick. Screenwriter: Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson. Editor: Eva Kroll. Choreographer: George Krause. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready. 35mm, 86 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Preservation Grants Program
Tulips Shall Grow (1942)
Directed by George Pal.
Stop-motion animation tells the story of the invasion of the Netherlands by the Nazis, here referred to as the "Screwballs." A George Pal Puppetoon. 35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
The Scarlet Letter (1926)
Directed by Victor Seastrom (Sjöström)
Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel of fallen woman Hester Prynne persecuted by Puritans in colonial Boston has been filmed many times. This rarely seen silent masterpiece features three screen legends - star Lillian Gish, screenwriter Frances Marion and director Victor Seastrom - at the peak of their powers. Seastrom seizes on Gish's vitality as Hester Prynne, binding it powerfully to the natural world through deftly mobile camerawork until early idylls give way to foreboding chiaroscuro as the forces of Puritan Boston go to work.
MGM. Based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Screenwriter: Frances Marion. Cinematographer: Hendrik Sartov. Editor: Hugh Wynn. Cast: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Henry B. Walthall, Karl Dane. 35mm, silent, 98 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
The Scarlet Letter (1934)
Directed by Robert G. Vignola
This first sound adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's timeless novel stars flapper icon Colleen Moore as Hester Prynne along with an array of silent film personalities, making it a fascinating window onto the industry's transition to a new era. The film's greatest strength, however, is Moore herself in a powerfully nuanced performance tenuously balanced between quiet strength and self-recrimination. Special attention was paid in the restoration to refurbishing the soundtrack while the picture itself was restored from two original nitrate projection prints after extensive cleaning and repair. The result stands on its own, breathing new life into a skilled adaptation of an American classic.
Based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Screenwriter: Leonard Fields, David Silverstein. Cinematographer: James S. Brown. Editor:Charles Harris. Cast: Colleen Moore, Hardie Albright, Henry B. Walthall, Alan Hale. 35mm, 72 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Adapted from the hit play by Agatha Christie, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION is a suspenseful courtroom melodrama infused with biting wit by director Billy Wilder. Charles Laughton stars as a wily British barrister defending Tyrone Power in a murder trial. Marlene Dietrich plays Power's cold-hearted wife who has turned against her husband to become the titular "witness for the prosecution." Though Wilder may have been wary of movies based on Broadway source material - "I don't like adapting stage plays for the screen," he maintained - WITNESS nevertheless proved a popular success, and Christie herself considered it the finest film derived from one of her works.
United Artists. Based on the play by Agatha Christie. Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Screenwriter: Billy Wilder, Harry Kurnitz, Larry Marcus. Editor: Daniel Mandell. Choreographer:Russell Harlan. Cast: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester. 35mm, 116 min.
A Foreign Affair (1948)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Asked by the Office of War Information to produce an anti-Nazi propaganda film aimed at postwar German audiences, Billy Wilder proposed a fictional romance between a German woman and an American G.I. By the time he was ready to begin shooting, he and writing partner Charles Brackett had shifted the story's focus to a triangular romance between an American Army officer (John Lund), a visiting American congresswoman (Jean Arthur) and a blonde cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) who had once been the mistress of a prominent Nazi. Ironically, the film ended up banned in Germany by Occupation censors worried about the effect of Wilder's typically caustic wit, aimed here at the moral ambiguities afoot in bombed-out Berlin.
Paramount. Based on a story by David Shaw, adapted by Robert Harari. Producer: Charles Brackett. Screenwriter: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen. Cinematographer: Charles B. Lang. Editor: Doane Harrison. Cast: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell. 35mm, 116 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
No Way Out - Trailer (1950) 35mm, 3 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
The Mark of Zorro - Trailer (1940) 35mm, approx. 2 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and The Packard Humanities Institute
Penny Serenade (1941)
Directed by George Stevens
Told in flashback via musical interludes, PENNY SERENADE articulates the real struggles a couple face as they strive to attain the American dream of marriage and family. The pervasive sentimentality of the script is held in check by director George Stevens and by the passionate performances of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, along with the superb Edgar Buchanan as their trusted friend and employee. Grant, playing against type as a struggling newspaperman, shows a range of emotion unknown to most of his fans. However, the real star here is Stevens, who maintains a delicate balance between florid melodrama and heartfelt romance.
Columbia. Based on the short story by Martha Cheavens. Producer: George Stevens. Screenwriter: Morrie Ryskind. Cinematographer: Joseph Walker, Franz Planer. Editor: Otto Meyer. Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan. 35mm, 120 min.
Preservation funded by International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood; additional funding by Richard Fleischer
A Car-Tune Portrait (1937)
Directed by Dave Fleischer
The animals of the cartoon kingdom present a full-dress symphony concert. Paramount. A Max Fleischer Color Classic cartoon. Paramount. 35mm, 7 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Preservation Grants Program
Popular Science, No. J1-2 (1941)
The novelties introduced to audiences include the Pennsylvania Turnpike (the first U.S. freeway), kitchen gadgets, the electron microscope, a "cat-putter-outer" and smoke jumpers. Paramount. Producer: Douglas Fairbanks, Carlisle . Writer: Walter Anthony. Narrator: Gayne Whitman. 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
News of the Day, Vol. 12, No. 217 (1940)
(November 11, 1940) The feature story in this newsreel is the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. 35mm, 9 min.
Silent Short Film Sampler (1910-1928)
The first theatrically released films were short subjects, and for 20 years the short ruled as the mainstay in movie theaters. This program illustrates the variety of these early films, from quick moral tales such as 1911's MIKE THE MISER to bizarre over-the-top comedies like 1921's WET AND WARMER.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Mike the Miser (1911) Edison. 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by Saving the Silents, a Save America's Treasures project organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior, with additional funding by The Louis B. Mayer Foundation
War on the Plains (1912) Directed by Thomas H. Ince. Cast: Francis Ford, Ethel Grandin. 35mm, silent, approx. 20 min.
Preservation funded by Saving the Silents, a Save America's Treasures project organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior
Who Pays? Chapter 5: Unto Herself Alone (1915) Directed by Harry Harvey. Balboa Pictures/Pathé Frères. Scenario: Henry King. Cast: Ruth Roland, Henry King. 35mm, silent, approx. 30 min.
Preservation funded by Robert G. Dickson
Wet and Warmer (1920) Directed by Henry Lehrman. First National. Cinematographer: George Meehan, Charles Selby. Cast: Charles Conklin, Virginia Rappe. Silent, approx. 20 min.
Fairyland Trails (1924) 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by The Silent Society of Hollywood Heritage, Inc.
A Little Cycling Before Breakfast With Al St. John (1925) 35mm, Tinted, silent, approx. 2 min.
How It Happened (1927) Part of the "Twisted Tales" Series. Reciprocity Films/Short Films Syndicate, Inc. Based on story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Titles: Hal Hodes. Editor: Hal Hodes. Cast: Ira Young, Betty Young, Martin Decker, Henry Carter. 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
The Dancing Town (1928) No. 3 in the "Great Stars and Authors" series. Paramount. Based on a story by Rupert Hughes. Cast: Helen Hayes, Ada May Weeks, Hal Skelly. 35mm, silent, approx. 20 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Sensation Seekers - Trailer (1926) Universal. 35mm, silent, approx. 1 min.
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
Directed by Mack Sennett
With its all-star cast and fizzy blend of sophistication and flat-out slapstick, Tillie's Punctured Romance is a landmark in film history: the first feature-length comedy film ever. Comedy impresario Mack Sennett brought stage star Marie Dressler to the screen with this adaptation of Tillie's Nightmare, a 1910 Broadway comedy in which Dressler had triumphed as the title character, a country girl taken advantage of by an unscrupulous seducer. Sennett surrounded Dressler with a number of Keystone players, most notably Mabel Normand. Undoubtedly the most important bit of casting was the inclusion of Charlie Chaplin as the male lead, playing not the Little Tramp but a comically villainous seducer, one with the Tramp's insouciant demeanor, bowlegged walk and twirling cane. The film's success made Chaplin a star, but its reputation suffered over the years as it became available only in drastically re-cut and shortened versions. The Archive's restoration culls footage from over a dozen sources, resulting in a version nine minutes longer than the most complete prints previously available.
Keystone. Based on the play Tillie's Nightmare by Edgar Smith and A. Baldwin Sloane. Producer: Mack Sennett. Scenario: Hampton Del Ruth. Cast: Marie Dressler,Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Chester Conklin. 35mm, silent, 82 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Sing with the Street Singer (1933) An "Organlogue" featuring Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer. Cast: Arthur Tracy, Don Wallace, Norman Brokenshire. 35mm, approx. 8 min.
Counsellor at Law (1933)
Directed by William Wyler
COUNSELLOR AT LAW unfolds at a breathless pace in the bustling New York law offices of Simon and Tedesco. John Barrymore plays George Simon, a high-powered Jewish lawyer who has worked his way up from tenement to skyscraper. George is adored by his secretary (Bebe Daniels), but receives scant affection from his wife (Doris Kenyon), a spoiled socialite who only loves her husband for his deep pockets. This triangle dramatizes Simon's conflicted social position, highlighted by the angry young communist (played by future director Vincent Sherman) who accuses Simon of being a traitor to his class. In true pre-Code fashion, COUNSELLOR AT LAW is a tough, no-holds-barred look at the class divide.
Universal. Based on the play by E. Rice. Producer: Carl Laemmle. Screenwriter: Elmer Rice. Cinematographer: Norbert Brodine. Editor: Daniel Mandell, Maurice Pivar. Cast: John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Melvyn Douglas, Vincent Sherman. 35mm, 82 min.
True Confession (1937)
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
TRUE CONFESSION, a screwball comedy that created quite a stir with the Hollywood censors, stars Carole Lombard as Helen Bartlett, a novelist and compulsive liar who is married to an honest, but broke, lawyer (Fred MacMurray). When Helen is falsely accused of murder, she confesses to the crime in the hope of furthering her husband's career, provoking a furor that threatens to ruin both of them. Production Code chief Joseph Breen refused to approve the film on the grounds that it was a travesty of the judicial system. Ultimately, Breen's boss Will H. Hays approved the film since the scenes under scrutiny were redeemed by the film's overall "farcical nature." However, Hays warned that the "flippant portrayal of the courts of justice" still posed a danger.
Paramount. Based on the play Mon Crime by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr. Producer: Albert Lewin. Screenwriter: Claude Binyon. Cinematographer: Ted Tetzlaff. Editor:Paul Weatherwax. Cast: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel. 35mm, 85 min.
In the Year of the Pig (1968)
Directed by Emile de Antonio
Emile de Antonio liked to call himself a "radical scavenger": "radical" because his anti-establishment films were designed as political acts, and "scavenger" because his filmmaking process involved the reassembling of found footage. For this film, de Antonio examined over 1000 hours of footage to create a scathing indictment of the US war in Vietnam. Today's viewers might find the official Johnson-era rhetoric eerily familiar in clips where a senator reassures the public that "targeted bombing" is safe for civilians, or the president reproachfully asks why Americans must criticize themselves so much. IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG was greeted with stink-bomb attacks in theaters, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary.
Producer: Emile de Antonio. Cinematographer: John F. Newman, Jean Jacques Rochut. Editor: Lyn Zee Klingman, Hannah Moreinis, Helen Levitt. 35mm, 101 min.
The Connection (1961)
Directed by Shirley Clarke
For her feature film debut, director Shirley Clarke adapted Jack Gelber's Living Theatre play about New York heroin addicts. Stylistically framed as a faux cinéma vérité documentary, THE CONNECTION avoids the usual Hollywood anti-drug clichés; its junkies convey resignation and contentment as they await their next fix. Although the film was enthusiastically received at the Cannes Film Festival, it was subsequently banned by New York censors. Clark fought the ban as unconstitutional, and the ensuing legal battle kept the film out of US theaters for over a year. It is now recognized as a landmark of American independent filmmaking.
Based on the play by J. Gelber. Producer: Lewis Allen, Shirley Clarke. Screenwriter: Jack Gelber. Cinematographer: Arthur J. Ornitz. Editor:Shirley Clarke. Cast: William Redfield, Warren Finnerty, Garry Goodrow, Carl Lee, Roscoe Lee Browne. 35mm, 103 min.
A Treasury of Silent Animation
From Felix the Cat and Koko the Klown to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Disney's Alice; stop-motion dolls and dinosaurs to live-action and animation combinations; films by noted animators Hugh Harman and Ub Iwerks to less well-known individuals like Earl Hurd and Lyman Howe; and "lost" subjects by pioneers Emile Cohl and Max Fleischer to surviving fragments by Paul Terry and J. Stuart Blackton, there's certain to be something in this cartoon confection to delight enthusiasts and general audiences alike.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Theatre de Hula Hula (1917) 35mm, silent, approx. 2 min.
Preservation funded by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Les Metamorphoses Comique (1912) Directed by Emile Cohl. 35mm, silent, approx. 5 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Indoor Sports (1921) International Newsreel Corp./Universal. Based on the comic strip by "Tad.". Animation: William C. Nolan. 35mm, silent, approx. 7 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Joys and Glooms (1921) International Newsreel Corp.. Based on the comic strip by T.E. Powers. Animation: John C. Terry. 35mm, approx. 3 min.
Preserved by The Walt Disney Company
John C. Terry (1926) A Walt Disney "Alice" comedy. Winkler Pictures. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Felix the Cat Weathers the Weather (1926) A Pat Sullivan cartoon. Presented by E. W. Hammons. Bijou Films/Educational Pictures. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Sick Cylinders (1926) A Winkler Production. An "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoon. Universal. Animation: Hugh Harman, Ben Clopton. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
The Wandering Toy (1928) "Lyman H. Howe's Hodge-Podge." Conceived and edited by Robert E. Guillam. Animated and embellished by Archie N. Griffith. The Lyman H. Howe Films Co., Inc./Educational Pictures. Editor: Robert E. Guillam. Animation: Archie N. Griffith. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Bob's Electric Theatre (1906) Pathé Frères. 35mm, silent, approx. 5 min.
Preservation funded by Jere Guldin and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Jimmy Gets Pennant (1917) Directed by Howard Moss. "Motoy Comedies." Toyland Films/Peter Pan Films. 35mm, silent, approx. 5 min.
Preservation funded by Anime Weekend Atlanta and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Pathe Review, Issue 5-28 (1928) Pathé Frères. Silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by Jere Guldin
The Lost World (1925) Promotional Film and Trailer (1925) First National. 35mm, silent, approx. 5 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Fragments Surviving segments from films known and unknown, including early Vitagraph subjects, "Bobby Bumps," "Aesop's Film Fables," "Mutt and Jeff" and other cartoon series. 35mm, silent, approx. 15 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Koko Packs Up (1925) Directed by Dave Fleischer. An "Out of the Inkwell" cartoon by Max Fleischer. Red Seal Pictures. 35mm, approx. 6 min.
Preservation funded by The Silent Society of Hollywood Heritage, Inc.
Deep Sea Diving (1925) Red Seal Pictures. 35mm, silent, approx. 4 min.
Preservation funded by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
Animated Hair Cartoon, No. 21 (1927) Directed by Marcus. Red Seal Pictures. Producer: Max Fleischer. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Preservation funded by The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood
A Modern Mother Goose (1924) Issue No. 1 of the Fleischer "Funshop" series. Educational Pictures. 35mm, silent, approx. 4 min.
Preservation funded by Le Giornate del Cinema Muto
Koko's Quest (1927) Directed by Dave Fleischer. An "Inkwell Imps" cartoon by Max Fleischer. Paramount. 35mm, approx. 6 min.
"There is no film event in this city—or likely anywhere in the world—that shows as many hard-to-see but fascinating films spread over so wide a spectrum."—Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
A Night in Casablanca (1946)
Directed by Archie Mayo
The Marx Brothers apply their timeless, anarchic comedy to postwar intrigue in this parody of wartime melodramas. A cache of gold is hidden somewhere in the Hotel Casablanca, and former Nazi soldiers have already killed three hotel managers trying to find it. When Groucho Marx is hired as the new manager, he, Chico, and Harpo prove formidable matches for the dastardly thieves. The aging comedians might seem less manic - they were all well into their fifties by this time - but their humor had lost none of its genius. If the film represents the twilight of three comedic careers, it also heralds the rise of another: an uncredited Frank Tashlin wrote several of Harpo's routines.
Producer: David L. Loew. Screenwriter: Joseph Fields, Roland Kibbee. Cinematographer: James Van Trees. Editor: Gregg G. Tallas, Grace Baughman. Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Lois Collier. 35mm, 85 min.
Preservation funded by Warner Bros.
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Directed by Roy William Neill
This late entry in Universal's series of Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone is actually a madcap parody of a mystery. A slender story line sends Holmes and Watson on a cruise to Algiers with a mission to protect the young Majesty of Ruvenia from potential assassins. Providing the intrigue are not one but three sets of suspicious foreigners with a seriously flawed fashion sense, suggesting that the easiest way to spot a villain is to look for the polka-dotted bow ties. Like BEAT THE DEVIL, PURSUIT TO ALGIERS is a parody wrapped in affection, a caper where one of the villains can mutter (as he waits for an explosion), "I wish it would happen. I don't like the suspense!"
Universal. Based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Producer: Roy William Neill. Screenwriter: Leonard Lee. Cinematographer: Paul Ivano. Editor: Saul A. Goodkind. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Riordan, Rosalind Ivan. 35mm, 65 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Preservation Grants Program
The Shining Future (1944)
A War Bonds short that looks ahead to the year 1960. Warner Bros. With: Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra. 35mm, approx. 18 min. Warner Bros.. Cast: Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra. 35mm, approx. 18 min.
Preservation funded by The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS)
Please, Don't Bury Me Alive! (¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo!) (1977)
Directed by Efraín Gutiérrez
PLEASE, DONT BURY ME ALIVE! dramatically illustrates the dilemmas facing a young Chicano in Spring 1972. The protagonist, Alejandro Hernández (played by the filmmaker), has just buried his brother, who was killed in Vietnam. Caught between inadequate education and scant job opportunities, Alejandro drifts into a life of petty crime, whereupon an undercover police officer sets him up for a heroin deal, leaving Alejandro to face a biased judicial system. PLEASE, DON'T BURY ME ALIVE! is the first Chicano-directed feature film and an example of bilingual, community-based cinema. Shot in San Antonio over a four-year period on a $60,000 budget, the film grossed over $300,000 in the Spanish-language theater circuit in the Southwest. The profit allowed Gutiérrez to shoot two other features in the 1970s.
Producer: Efraín Gutiérrez. Screenwriter: Sabino Garza. Cast: Efraín Gutiérrez, Josefina Paz, David Moss, Abel Franco. 35mm, 81 min.
Preservation funded by The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS)
La Onda Chicana (The Chicano Wave) (1976)
Directed by Efraín Gutiérrez
LA ONDA CHICANA documents "La Revolución Chicana," a concert at Port Lavaca, Texas on July 4, 1976 featuring Little Joe y la Familia, Chacha Jimenez y Los Chachos, Snowball & Company, La Fabrica, Esteban ("Steve") Jordan and other pioneers of the Tex-Mex sound. 35mm, 17 min.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)
Directed by Marshall Neilan
This beloved tale of American girlhood finds the irrepressible young Rebecca plucked from the bosom of her large and happy, but fatherless, family to go live with her spinster aunts in order to pay off a mortgage. As Rebecca, Mary Pickford's mischievousness takes on a seductive edge when she is caught stealing cherries from a tree, or when she declares (via intertitle) that she can't wait till she grows up so she can marry the 30-something Eugene O'Brien. The story does not mask the hardship of rural America, with scenes of tough domestic labor, an odd subplot about a destitute and depraved family, and troubling footage of a chained "African" circus slave.
Mary Pickford Film Corp. Based on the novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin and the play by K.D. Wiggin and Charlotte Thompson. Screenwriter: Frances Marion. Cinematographer: Walter Stradling. Cast: Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien, Helen Jerome Eddy, Charles Ogle. 35mm, silent, 75 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
First Impressions (1919) 35mm, silent, approx. 2 min.
My Best Girl (1927)
Directed by Sam Taylor
This romantic comedy was her last silent film, the one in which she was paired with her future husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and her first film with director Sam Taylor. A version of the Cinderella story, it depicts a department store stock girl falling in love with the owner's son who is working alongside her incognito in order to learn his father's business. The plot isn't as important as the chemistry between the leading players and the gorgeous cinematography by Charles Rosher.
Mary Pickford Film Corp. Based on the novel by Kathleen Norris. Screenwriter: Hope Loring, Allen McNeil, Tim Whelan, Clarence Hennecke. Cinematographer: Charles Rosher. Cast: Mary Pickford, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Lucien Littlefield, Sunshine Hart. 35mm, silent, 90 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Out of the oft-told tale of Diego Vega avenging the ruin of his father, director Rouben Mamoulian creates a sparkling and intelligent film with a wicked sense of humor and a breezy elegance. Tyrone Power's spirited performance as the foppish Don Diego by day and the dashing Zorro by night has a wry, sardonic quality that fans would miss in his other forays into this genre. The rousing Alfred Newman score and the beautiful Arthur Miller cinematography highlight this delightful swashbuckler set in California during the early 1800s.
Twentieth Century Fox. Based on the serial story "The Curse of Capistrano" by Johnston McCulley. Screenwriter: John Taintor Foote, Garrett Fort, Bess Meredyth. Cinematographer: Arthur Miller. Editor: R.W. Bischoff. Cast: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Pallette. 35mm, 93 min.
The Mark of Zorro - Gag Reel and Cast Party (1940) 35mm, 3 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
U.S. Defense Bonds Trailers (1941) Four public service shorts featuring Lucille Ball, Irving Berlin, Edmond O'Brien, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. 35mm, 7 min.
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Directed by Roy William Neill
Full of the brilliant deductions that gained the detective his renown, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON also demonstrates how the American film studios supported the war effort. When a British secret agent is kidnapped and the sensitive documents he carried disappear, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to the United States to keep the documents from falling into the wrong hands. The references to World War II are rather oblique - the villain isn't German but a British mercenary, and Holmes refers only to "our enemy," not the Axis powers. Instead, the film focuses on American-British cooperation: Holmes and Watson are moved by the beauty of the Capitol building and are aided in their quest by American agents and a friendly Southern senator.
Universal. Based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Screenwriter: Bertram Millhauser, Lynn Riggs. Cinematographer: Les White. Editor: Otto Ludwig. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord, Henry Daniell. 35mm, 71 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
No Way Out (1950)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
In this, his feature debut, Sidney Poitier leapt to stardom as a doctor who runs afoul of a racist hoodlum played by Richard Widmark. NO WAY OUT proved controversial upon release for its uncompromisingly graphic exploration of racial violence. The film's progressive depiction of an African American community defending itself in the face of attack by whites prompted censors of several states to delete such scenes on the grounds they were too provocative. The NAACP, which protested the film's explicit racial epithets, condemned the deletion of the self-defense scenes, arguing that with the cuts "the film's original message [was] hopelessly lost." Joseph Mankiewicz displays his range with this pioneering social drama released the same year as ALL ABOUT EVE. The film is also notable as the feature film debut of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.
Twentieth Century Fox. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Screenwriter: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lesser Samuels, Philip Yordan. Cinematographer: Milton Krasner. Editor:Barbara McLean. Cast: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis. 35mm, 106 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation, Paramount Pictures and The Packard Humanities Institute
The Dark Mirror (1946)
Directed by Robert Siodmak
THE DARK MIRROR is a representative product of Hollywood's discovery of abnormal psychology and the techniques of psychoanalysis as subject matter during the 1940s. Psychologist Lew Ayres tries to learn which of two sisters (both played by Olivia de Havilland) is a murderer, using standard analytic procedures of the time. Director Robert Siodmak belonged to the generation of talented German-Jewish filmmakers who were forced into exile after Hitler's ascent to power in 1933. THE DARK MIRROR is one of the remarkable series of psychological melodramas he made at Universal in the '40s, drawing on the techniques of German expressionism - shadows, distortion and mirror images - to convey psychosis and emotional distress.
Universal. Producer: Nunnally Johnson. Screenwriter: Phyllis Loughton, Nunnally Johnson, Vladimir Pozner. Cinematographer: Milton Krasner. Editor: Ernest Nims. Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long. 35mm, 85 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
Ray Milland Presents an Important Message for All Americans (1951) 35mm, approx. 1 min.
Preservation funded by Treasures of American Film Archives, a National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Project, organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation
Peggy Leads the Way (1917)
Directed by Lloyd Ingraham
PEGGY LEADS THE WAY is the story of a girl (played by Mary Miles Minter) who returns home from school to save the family business, restore the local community and captivate a young millionaire - all in five reels. Minter holds a special, yet somewhat tragic, place in silent film history. Very few of her over fifty feature films survive to explain the fascination she held for an adoring legion of fans. On the stage by six and nationally known by nine, Mary was destined to become a celebrity, yet shortly after her 21st birthday, her career tarnished by her association with murdered filmmaker William Desmond Taylor, she renounced acting and retired from the screen.
American Film Co./Mutual Film Corp.. Scenario: Charles Turner Dazey, Frank Dazey. Cast: Mary Miles Minter, Carl Stockdale, Margaret Shelby, Andrew Arbuckle. 35mm, 70 min.
Up the Road with Sallie (1918)
Directed by William Desmond Taylor
Vivacious Sallie Waters (Constance Talmadge) and her aunt Martha Cabot (Kate Toncray) are out for a drive when a torrential rainstorm forces them to take shelter in a deserted house, where they are joined by two mysterious gentlemen (Norman Kerry and Thomas D. Persse). When Sallie finds a newspaper reporting that her aunt's house has been burgled and then notices that Kerry is wearing a ring with the Cabot crest, she leaps to the conclusion that she and Martha have been trapped by circumstance with two burglars. This comedy of mistaken identity is notable for Talmadge's sparkling performance and as a rare surviving film by director William Desmond Taylor.
Select Picture Corp.. Based on the novel by Frances Roberta Sterrett. Producer: Lewis J. Selznick. Scenario: Julia Crawford Ivares. Editor: Frank E. Garbutt. Cast:Constance Talmadge, Norman Kerry, Kate Toncray, Thomas D. Persse. 35mm, silent, 65 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
De-light: Making an Electric Light Bulb (1920) "Ford Educational Weekly" produced by the Ford Motor Company. Goldwyn. Producer: the Ford Motor Company . 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
A Day's Fun at Blackpool (1920) "Kineto Review." Official Urban Movie Chats of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America. Published by Kineto Company of America, Inc. Producer: Kineto Company of America, Inc. . Editor: C. Urban. 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
A Sailor-Made Man (1921)
Directed by Fred Newmeyer
Commonly designated Harold Lloyd's first feature film, A SAILOR-MADE MAN was in fact conceived as a two-reeler but was extended to twice that length because extra footage shot for the original short subject was considered too good to discard. Lloyd stars as a wealthy young idler who enlists in the navy to impress the fetching Mildred Davis and earn the respect of her hardheaded father. Brimming with inspired slapstick and bolstered by lavish production values courtesy of producer Hal Roach, the film proved a big box office hit and paved the way for the coming boom of longer-format silent comedies.
Producer: Hal Roach. Scenario: Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, H.M. Walker. Cinematographer: Walter Lundin. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Noah Young, Dick Sutherland. 35mm, silent, 50 min.
The Roaring Road (1919)
Directed by James Cruze
Wallace Reid is remembered today primarily for the scandal that followed his premature death from alcoholism and drug addiction in 1923, but he was a top box office star and probably the leading exemplar of the Arrow Collar ideal of sleek good looks combined with dashing athleticism and a breezy sense of humor. THE ROARING ROAD was one of the first films to exploit America's lasting love affair with the automobile: the climax turns on the hero's road race with a crack L.A.-to-San Francisco express train. Reid capably plays the lovesick hero, "Toodles" Waldron; but it is Theodore Roberts (Moses in DeMille's 1922 version of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) who steals the show with a roaring, cigar-chewing performance as Toodles' irascible employer and prospective father-in-law.
Paramount. Based on short stories by Byron Morgan. Producer: Jesse L. Lasky. Scenario: Marion Fairfax. Cinematographer: Frank Urson. Cast: Wallace Reid, Ann Little,Theodore Roberts, Guy Oliver. 35mm, silent, 65 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Tooerville's Boozem Friends (1921)
Directed by Ira M. Lowry. Betzwood Film Co.. Story: Fontaine Fox. 35mm, silent, approx. 20 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
The Brown's Declare War on the High Cost of Living (1920) Advertisement for Hart, Schaffner & Marx. 35mm, silent, approx. 2 min.
Classic Jazz on Television
Preservation funded by Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Stars of Jazz (August 13, 1956)
Directed by Don Whitman
STARS OF JAZZ was one of the very first television series to regularly feature live jazz music. Over the course of 130-plus programs broadcast on KABC-TV in Los Angeles and briefly on the ABC network, it was a popular showcase for nationally known jazz greats as well as up-and-coming West Coast players and singers. Only a few of the programs from 1956 are known to exist; this one features pianist Pete Jolly's trio and the magnificent Billie Holiday, who sings three songs.
KABC. Producer: James Baker. Narrator: Bobby Troup. Cast: Billie Holiday, The Pete Jolly Trio . Beta-SP, 33 min.
Theater for a Story: "The Sound of Miles Davis" (July 21, 1960)
Directed by Jack Smight
During the period in early 1959 when his classic album Kind of Blue was recorded, Miles Davis brought his group (John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley was ill and missed the date) into CBS' Studio 61 in New York to film "The Sound Of Miles Davis" for producer Robert Herridge. His first tune: a masterful version of the now-classic "So What," followed by three pieces from his 1957 Miles Ahead album, performed by Miles and an 18-piece ensemble, conducted by arranger Gil Evans.
CBS. Producer: Robert Herridge. Music Director: Gil Evans. Arranger: Gil Evans. Musical Advisor: Nat Hentoff. Host: Robert Herridge. Cast: The Miles Davis Sextet . Beta-SP, 30 min.
The International Hour: "American Jazz" (May 21 and 24, 1963)
Directed by Allen Schwartz
During the summers of 1961-65, THE INTERNATIONAL HOUR was part of an International Cultural Exchange between the five CBS owned and operated stations in the US and the broadcast facilities of 15 foreign countries. "American Jazz" was hosted by the Voice Of America's Willis Conover and recorded during a benefit performance at Chicago's Civic Opera House. Highlights include "Jumping at the Woodside" by Count Basie, Stan Getz with "C Jam Blues," the vocal acrobatics of Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan, and a scorching "I Got My Mojo Working" by the great Muddy Waters.
Producer: Robert Link. Host: Willis Conover. Cast: Count Basie, Stan Getz, Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan , Carmen McRae, Muddy Waters, Teddy Wilson. Beta-SP, 60 min.
Sid Laverents' Shorts
Former vaudevillian and retired aircraft engineer Sid Laverents has long been a legend in the amateur filmmaking community. This sampler of Laverents' films includes ONE MAN BAND (1964), MULTIPLE SIDOSIS (1970) and STOP CLONING AROUND (1980). Each film showcases Laverents' fascination with technology and gadgetry, performance and vaudeville, music and multiples. Meticulously crafted, these three delightful films represent some of Laverents' best work and serve to document his earlier days in vaudeville - only one aspect of this multi-talented man's oeuvre, but a perfect companion for the Vitaphone shorts.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and Fotokem Film and Video
One Man Band (1964) 16mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and Fotokem Film and Video
Mupltiple Sidosis (1970) 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation
Stop Cloning Around (1980) 16mm, 15 min.
The Sound of the '20s: Vitaphone Shorts (1927-29)
The Vitaphone Corporation, an enterprise created by Warner Brothers to develop sound motion pictures, filmed musicians, vaudeville acts and radio stars in its studios in New York and Los Angeles. Beside a number of popular dance bands of the day, tonight's program offers the virtuosic showmanship of Bernardo de Pace, "the Wizard of the Mandolin," and violinist Sol Violinsky, dubbed "the Eccentric Entertainer." Comedy duos Sinclair and La Marr, Mayer and Evans, and Shaw and Lee provide a taste of vaudeville, as does the short "The Night Court," starring a young William Demarest. And you won't want to miss the Police Quartette, "composed of four singing cops from Hollywood," according to the Vitaphone catalog.
Preservation funded by David Stenn
Police Quartette (1927) Production #2320. 35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by Robert Bryan Lipton
The Night Court (1927) Production #2138. 35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
Shaw and Lee, "The Beau Brummels" (1928) Production #2686. 35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs(1928) Production #2595. 35mm, 9 min
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
Sol Violinsky, "The Eccentric Entertainer" (1929) Production #709. 35mm, 7 min
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
The Roof Garden Revue (1928) Production #2627. 35mm, 9 min
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats (1929) Production #742. 35mm, 9 min
Preservation funded by Scott Margolin
Ethel Sinclair and Marge La Marr, "At the Seashore" (1929) Production #753. 35mm, 8 min
Preservation funded by David Stenn
Earl Burtnett and His Biltmore Hotel Orchestra (1928) Production #2294. 35mm, 9 min
Preservation funded by Anthony Ponaras
Ray Mayer and Edith Evans, "When East Meets West" (1928) Production #2236. 35mm, 8 min
Preservation funded by Dudley Heer
Abe Lyman and His Orchestra(1927) Production #2338. 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association
The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
Directed by Jean Renoir
Paulette Godard plays the ambitious servant whose arrival into an eccentric household of decadent French aristocrats eventually wreaks havoc. Breaking away from the leisurely documentary style found in his previous US film, THE SOUTHERNER (1945), Renoir's DIARY has a theatrically stylized continental flair. The film's subversive bitterness and subtle melodramatic nature aptly illustrate the director's brilliant interweaving of the working and elite classes. Renoir's lesser-known American films are superb examples of his beautiful craftsmanship. Perhaps producer Darryl Zanuck paid him the ultimate compliment when he said, "Jean's got a lot of talent, but he's not one of us."
Based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau and the play by André Heuse, André de Lorde and Thielly Nores. Producer: Benedict Bogeaus, Burgess Meredith. Screenwriter:Burgess Meredith. Cinematographer: Lucien Andriot. Editor: James Smith. Cast: Paulette Goddard, Hurd Hatfield, Francis Lederer, Burgess Meredith, Judith Anderson. 35mm, 87 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Preservation Grants Program
Winterset (1936)
Directed by Alfred Santell
Adapted from Maxwell Anderson's award-winning blank verse stage play, WINTERSET constructs a tale suggestive of the trial and execution of immigrants and radicals Sacco and Vanzetti in 1920s Massachusetts. Burgess Meredith, in his film debut, reprises his Broadway role as an avenging son out to prove that his father was executed for a murder he didn't commit. Eduardo Ciannelli, as the ruthless gangster responsible for the crime, chews the scenery and consumptively coughs it out. Today the film is an invaluable record of the American stage of the 1930s, including a recreation of the original Broadway set, with a massive Brooklyn Bridge rising above a tangle of shabby tenements.
RKO. Based on the play by Maxwell Anderson. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Screenwriter: Anthony Veiller, Peverell Marley. Editor: William Hamilton. Cast: Burgess Meredith, Margo , Eduardo Ciannelli, John Carradine. 35mm, 77 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
News of the Day, Vol. 16, No. 200: THE BATTLE OF PARIS! (1944) (September 8, 1944) 35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by Warner Bros.
The Second Floor Mystery (1930)
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
THE SECOND FLOOR MYSTERY is a breezy comedy-mystery featuring an early appearance by Loretta Young. Young plays Marian Ferguson, who meets the dashing American Geoffrey West, played by Grant Withers, in a London hotel. Their relationship develops through a newspaper column where they only refer to themselves by code names: "the strawberry man" and "the grapefruit lady." Per Marian's request, if "Strawberry" can publish five successive interesting letters, "Grapefruit" will meet him. He devises a murder story and finally ends the series by confessing to the crime himself, an act of imagination that lands both correspondents in hot water.
Warner. Based on the novel The Agony Column by Earl Derr Biggers. Screenwriter: Joseph Jackson. Cast: Grant Withers, Loretta Young, H.B. Warner, John Loder. 35mm, 58 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
The Bat Whispers (1930)
Directed by Roland West
Shot simultaneously in 35mm and 65mm, THE BAT WHISPERS represents a marvel of technical innovation. Previously filmed by director West in 1926, this version achieves a dynamic aesthetic through the use of startling camera movement, dramatic lighting and expressionistic sets, clearly inspired by LES VAMPIRES and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Revolving around the hunt for stolen money in an isolated mansion, THE BAT WHISPERS deftly combines dramatic flourishes with lighter moments, including a suitably hammy performance by Chester Morris as The Detective desperate to find both the money and the killer. Cartoonist Bob Kane would later cite the film as one of the seminal influences in his creation of Batman.
Based on the play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Producer: Roland West. Screenwriter: Roland West. Cinematographer: Ray June. Editor:James Smith. Cast: Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Chance Wardrobe, Richard Tucker. 35mm, 85 min.
Preservation funded by YCM Laboratories under a National Film Preservation Foundation Laboratory Archive Partnership Grant
Intimate Interviews: Bela Lugosi (1931) An interview with the star of DRACULA at his Los Angeles home. 35mm, approx. 7 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
Welcome Danger (1929)
Directed by Clyde Bruckman and Ted Wilde
In his twelfth feature, Harold Lloyd plays a police chief's meek son who gets involved in a Chinatown tong war. With the sound revolution sweeping Hollywood while the film was in production, Harold Lloyd discarded his original all-silent footage and began anew, shooting this new version in both sound and silent versions. The original version is lost, but both the sound and silent versions of the reconceived film have been preserved by the Archive. Snappier and better-paced than its sound double, the silent version screening this evening proves an enjoyable coda to a silent film career that was among the cinema's brightest.
Harold Lloyd Corp./Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.. Scenario: Clyde Bruckman, Lex Neal, Felix Adler, Paul Gerard Smith. Cinematographer: Walter Lundin, Henry L. Kohler. Editor: Bernard Burton, Carl Himm. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent, Noah Young, Charles Middleton. 35mm, silent, 105 min.
The Plastic Age (1925)
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
Clara Bow's rising status as the "It" girl of the 1920s convinced B.P. Schulberg to produce Percy Mark's best-selling novel THE PLASTIC AGE. It was a wise move for Schulberg and a career triumph for Bow, who stars as a campus "hotsy-totsy" in this tale of wild college life. Donald Keith plays an innocent, vulnerable freshman teased and pleased by Bow. His rank as a star athlete is threatened by his time spent carousing around. Also eager for Bow is handsome 20-year-old Gilbert Roland, in his first film. (Off screen, Roland and Bow were lovers.) Bare-chested, big-eared Clark Gable can be seen in a locker room scene.
THE PLASTIC AGE replaces the previously-announced MY LADY OF WHIMS
Based on the book by Percy Marks. Producer: B.P. Schulberg. Scenario: Eve Unsell, Fredrica Sagor. Cinematographer: Allen Sigler, Gilbert Warrenton. Cast: Clara Bow,Donald Keith, Mary Alden, Henry B. Walthall, Gilbert Roland. 35mm, silent, 70 min.
Preservation funded by David Stenn
Red Hair and Three Week Ends - Fragments (1928)
(1928) Directed by Clarence Badger. Paramount. Based on stories by Elinor Glyn. Cast: Clara Bow. 35mm, silent, approx. 6 min.
Remains to Be Seen
None of the films in tonight's program has been preserved by the Archive. Rather, they explore an alternative mode of "preservation." With the exception of Stan Brakhage's SONG 14, all the films in "Remains to Be Seen" take faded, scratched, blotched, corroded or disintegrating celluloid from cinemas past, and transform them into something new. But more than simply recycling found footage, the works in this program make the material decay of film their central theme. Whereas traditional preservation would seek to erase the marks of decay to return a film as closely as possible to its pristine "original" state, "Remains to Be Seen" calls attention to a different ethos of using decay to unearth new aesthetic and analytical possibilities.
Dracula and the Babysitter (1986) Directed by Donna Cameron. A faded-to-crimson 1950s Mormon morality film becomes "a red psychodrama about gambling." Canyon Cinema. 16mm, 14 min.
The Mesmerist (2003) Directed by Bill Morrison. With deft reediting of a discarded Library of Congress print of THE BELLS (1926), starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff, Morrison inverts the original's tale of murder and anti-Semitism. 35mm, 16 min.
Light is Calling (2004) Directed by Bill Morrison. Again working from THE BELLS, Morrison mines melodramatic excess from the visual tempest of decomposed emulsion. 35mm, 8 min.
The Color of Love (1994) Directed by Peggy Ahwesh. Optically manipulating a "found" Super-8 porno film, Ahwesh joins "the degraded image" with "an image of degradation" to shocking effect. Electronic Arts Intermix. Beta-SP, 10 min.
Remains to Be Seen (1989) Directed by Phil Solomon. At once achingly beautiful and suffused in mortal threat, Solomon's meditation on corporeality and death is a textural feast of chemically crackled surfaces, home movie excerpts, and ominous shots of surgery and respirator sounds. 16mm, 18 min.
Song 14 (1966) Directed by Stan Brakhage. The luminous poetry of mold (and paint and crystals) according to the late, great Stan Brakhage. 16mm (blown up from 8mm), 3 min.
From the Pole to the Equator (Dal Polo all' Equatore) (1986) Directed by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi. Pioneering Italian cameraman Luca Comerio (1874-1940) photographed European expeditions in the early 20th century to the far corners of the globe. In their haunting reworking of his footage - reproducing the damage on the original nitrate negatives - filmmakers Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi subtly reshape exotica and colonialist apologia into a devastating critique of itself. 16mm, 96 min.
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Directed by Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan's second collaboration with screenwriter Budd Schulberg after ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) is a corrosive attack on the ascendant medium of television. Andy Griffith, in his film debut, plays Lonesome Rhodes, a charismatic guitar-picking hillbilly who rises from radio performer to TV star to all-around celebrity and power-mad demagogue. Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau prove instrumental in building the Rhodes legend but are rudely disillusioned by the dark private side of their public hero. Hyperbolic, energetic, and in many ways positively prophetic, A FACE IN THE CROWD is both an indictment of the television business and a broader cautionary tale about the cult of personality in postwar America.
Based on the short story "Your Arkansas Traveler" by B. Schulberg. Producer: Elia Kazan. Screenwriter: Budd Schulberg. Cinematographer: Harry Stradling. Editor:Gene Milford. Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick. 35mm, 125 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive
Eva Marie Saint for U.S. Savings Bonds (1959)
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
LOVE ME TONIGHT is the enchanting tale of an amorous tailor (Maurice Chevalier) who woos a lovelorn princess (Jeanette MacDonald). The young director Rouben Mamoulian worked closely with songwriters Rodgers and Hart, who were known for their clever and risqué lyrics. With its naughty jokes and double entendres, sex and seduction (a favored Mamoulian theme) is the focus of the film. When the film was re-released in 1949, the Production Code Administration forced Paramount to remove some suggestive dialogue and lyrics; unfortunately, none of the excised scenes are known to have survived. LOVE ME TONIGHT is Mamoulian's masterpiece, a magical film that unfolds like a beautifully choreographed dance.
Paramount. Based on the play Le Tailleur au Château (The Tailor in the Castle) by Léopold Marchand and Paul Aumont. Screenwriter: Samuel Hoffenstein, Waldemar Young, George Marion. Cinematographer: Victor Milner. Songs: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart. Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Charlie Ruggles, Myrna Loy. 35mm, 89 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Hollywood on Parade, No. A-5 (1932) Paramount. Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Ken Maynard, Roland Young.
A Farewell to Arms (1932)
Directed by Frank Borzage
This adaptation of the classic Hemingway novel stars Gary Cooper as an ambulance driver involved in a passionate and turbulent affair with an English battlefield nurse (Helen Hayes) against the background of WWI-ravaged Italy. Generally faithful to the spirit of the book, Borzage infused his own lyrical romanticism into Hemingway's terse style. To Hemingway's chagrin, two endings for the film were shot - one happy, the other downbeat (per the original novel) - and both versions were presented to the public during the initial release. Paramount also subsequently trimmed the film from 90 to 78 minutes for future circulation. The Archive however has restored the bulk of the missing footage, as well as the film's original ending.
Paramount. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Screenwriter: Benjamin F. Glazer, Oliver H.P. Garrett. Cinematographer: Charles Lang, Jr.. Editor: Otho Lovering, George Nicholls, Jr.. Cast: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips. 35mm, 88 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association
A Farewell to Arms - Alternate "Happy" Ending 35mm, 6 min.
