San Francisco Silent Film Festival line-up announced

June 2, 11:25 PMSF Silent Movie ExaminerThomas Gladysz

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A scene from Underworld, a 1927 gangster film which will be
shown at this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

By Thomas Gladysz

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which started as a single film event – has grown into a not-to-be-missed, twelve program, three day, weekend-long extravaganza packed with favorites, classics, and little known gems. Tickets are now on sale for the 14th annual Festival, which will be held at the historic Castro Theatre July 10-12.

Opening night is always a big draw, and this year should be no different. On Friday July 10th, the Festival will screen a new 35mm print of The Gaucho (1927). In this celebrated film, Douglas Fairbanks is at his rakish best as a notorious bandit whose turf is the Argentine pampas. Fairbanks wrote the film, and shares the spotlight with Lupe Velez in her first starring role. (Keep an eye out  as well for Mary Pickford as the Madonna.)

On opening night, the Mont Alto Picture Orchestra will premiere their original score for The Gaucho, which was written expressly for the Silent Film Festival. And, in what should be a treat for Fairbanks’s many fans, the Festival will also show recently restored two-strip Technicolor outtakes from The Gaucho. Film historian Jeffrey Vance, author of a well-reviewed new book on the actor, will introduce the evening.

Saturday’s line-up kicks off in the morning with “Amazing Tales from the Archives” - the Festival’s annual behind-the-scenes look at the work of film scholars and archivists. Joe Lindner of the Academy Film Archive, whose presentation on Her Wild Oat entertained last year’s audience, will screen rare shorts and fragments recently preserved by the Academy - including the trailer for a lost Constance Talmadge film, Polly of the Follies (1922), and a complete Edison short, How the Hungry Man Was Fed (1911). As well, “Amazing Tales from the Archives” will premiere the newly restored Screen Snapshots - 7th Series (1924), which features hand-tinting and rare footage of Ramon Navarro, Clara Bow, Lloyd Hamilton and others. This always appealing educational program is free and open to the public.

The next program is Bardelys the Magnificent (1927). King Vidor’s swashbuckling romance was considered lost until its recent discovery in a French vault. Now restored, the film confirms the scope of John Gilbert’s many talents. As a wryly comic and athletic lady’s man, Gilbert captivates the heart of his lovely co-star Eleanor Boardman. The story, set in the court of Louis XIII, hinges on mistaken identity, political intrigue, and personal perfidy – all the while building to a rousing conclusion. Bardelys the Magnificent will be introduced by film preservationist David Shepard, and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will provide musical accompaniment.

Bardelys the Magnificent will be preceded by a Biograph short, They Would Elope (1909). Directed by D.W. Griffith and featuring a young Mary Pickford, They Would Elope celebrates the 100th anniversary of Pickford’s entry into film. It is also one of a number of short films produced by the Biograph studio shown over the course of the weekend. Each has been recently preserved and restored by the Library of Congress or George Eastman House.

Next up on Saturday is Wild Rose (1932), a Chinese silent film. Wang Renmei (nicknamed “Wildcat” because of her unbridled performance) is the title character in writer-director Sun Yu’s tale of a mischievous country girl, a wealthy Shanghai boy (played by Jin Yan - the “Valentino of China”), and the historic events that ultimately determine their love. The film, from the Chinese Film Archive, will be presented with Mandarin intertitles and with live English translation. Yan’s widow Qin Yi, herself a celebrated entertainer in China, will introduce the program. Donald Sosin will accompany the film on piano.

Preceding Wild Rose will be a Biograph short, The Ring and the Book (1914). It is one of two Biograph shorts which feature the much loved character actor Alan Hale.

Underworld (1927) is Josef von Sternberg’s highly regarded gangster drama. This scintillating story starts out a hard-hitting crime saga as envisioned by legendary writer Ben Hecht, but quickly yields to the Sternberg touch – and in doing so, becomes a reverie on fear and desire. Cinematographer Burt Glennon (a later master of the film noir style) adds light and shadow to the story of gangster Bull Weed (George Bancroft) and his fiery and oh so sexy moll named Feathers (played by Evelyn Brent). Hecht, who demanded his name be taken off the credits, went on to win his first Academy Award for the prototypical crime story! Film noir historian Eddie Muller will introduce Underworld, and Stephen Horne will accompany it on piano.

Underworld will be preceded by a Griffith directed short, Voice of the Violin (American Mutoscope & Biograph, 1909).

Along with Griffith and F.W. Murnau, Swedish director Victor Sjöström was one of the giants of the silent era. He convinced critics the motion picture was not the bastard child of the stage, but a vital art form in its own right. That’s never more apparent than in The Wind (1928). In this masterpiece of the silent cinema, the Mojave Desert stands in for a harsh Texas landscape where young Letty (played by Lillian Gish) finds herself fighting loneliness, a violent suitor, and the relentless, punishing, choking, wind. The film also features Sjöström regular Lars Hanson, as well as special wind sound effects of the kind used in silent movie scores in the 1920s.

The Wind will be introduced by Leonard Maltin. Dennis James (the subject of an earlier examiner.com article) will accompany the film on the Mighty Wurlitzer. The Sjöström film will be preceded by two Biograph 1909 shorts, The Trick That Failed and Getting Even.

The Saturday night late show is Aelita, Queen of Mars (1924). One half agit-prop and one-half sci-fi, Aelita is a striking example of early Soviet Cinema. The film starts on Earth where dreamy inventor Los (Nikolai Tseretelli) kills his wife in a fit of jealous rage, and flees in a rocket ship to Mars - where bored, libidinous Queen Aelita (Yulia Solntseva) has been keeping an eye on him via interplanetary telescope! Romantic intrigue and political turmoil ensue. Presented in Russian with English subtitles, the constructivist set designs and costumes are well worth the price of admission. But add Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer and the (Russian invented) Theremin, as well as Mark Goldstein on the Buchla Lightning - and you have a silent film spectacular not to be missed!

Before there was Mickey Mouse, there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Sunday’s day-long program begins with a selection of rarely seen animated cartoons featuring Walt Disney’s first attempt at series of films based on a cartoon character.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was actually the creation of two men, Disney and Ub Iwerks, a long-time Disney associate who was also a two-time Academy Award winning animator, cartoonist and the creative force behind both Mickey Mouse and the much loved Silly Symphonies. The Festival will screen a selection of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons dating from 1927 and 1928. Film historian and television personality Leonard Maltin will guide viewers through this special animated program, with the help of Leslie Iwerks, granddaughter of Ub Iwerks and herself an Academy Award-nominated producer and director.

Next up on Sunday is Erotikon (1929), a Czechoslovakian film considered quite frank for the time. “Drenched in ripe sensuality that flows freely from every frame,” Erotikon tells the story of a young woman seduced and abandoned by a stranger. The 35mm print of the once controversial film, from the National Film Archive in the Czech Republic, will be screened along with a reader of the original Czech and English intertitles. The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will provide musical accompaniment. Erotikon will be preceded by Fate’s Turning (Biograph, 1914), a D.W. Griffith short.

Last year, the Festival inaugurated a “Director’s Pick” series when acclaimed Canadian director Guy Maddin introduced Tod Browning's horror-ode to unrequited love, The Unknown. It was a sensation. This year - setting a very different mood – acclaimed San Francisco director Terry Zwigoff introduces the seldom seen W.C. Fields comedy, So’s Your Old Man (1926). Directed by Gregory La Cava, the film is an early gem starring a comedian known primarily for his later work in sound film.

In So’s Your Old Man, Fields is a put-upon paterfamilias who triumphantly invents unbreakable windshield glass. But instead of acclaim, he shames his family. The comedy, recently inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry, will be introduced by Zwigoff - a longtime supporter of the Festival best known as the director of the quirky cult flick Ghost World (2001). Philip Carli will provide musical accompaniment on the piano. So’s Your Old Man will be preceded by Their First Divorce Case (1911), a Biograph short starring Mack Sennett.

An adaptation of a famous story by Edgar Allen Poe is next on the program. Luis Buñuel, fresh from his collaboration with Salvador Dalí on Un Chien Andalou, served as Jean Epstein’s assistant on The Fall of the House of Usher (1928). This tale of the psychologically deranged Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt) and his unsettlingly compliant wife Madeleine (Marguerite Gance - wife of director Abel Gance) is a triumph of atmosphere and dread. Exquisitely filmed, The Fall of the House of Usher embraces the viewer with the logic of a nightmare.

The 35mm print of The Fall of the House of Usher, from the Cinémathèque Française, will be presented with French intertitles and live English translation. Stephen Horne will accompany the film on piano. The Poe story will be preceded by the fantasy short, The Barber's Queer Customer (American Mutoscope & Biograph, 1900).

Lupe Velez makes her second appearance at this year’s Festival in the romantic drama, Lady of the Pavements (1929). This last silent film by director D.W. Griffith surprised critics of the time who felt the motion picture pioneer had lost his touch. Set in 19th century Paris, Lady of the Pavements details the love affair between Prussian aristocrat Karl von Arnim (future “Hopalong Cassidy” star William Boyd) and Spanish cabaret chanteuse Nanon (Lupe Velez). Interestingly, the film was completed as a silent, then partially re-shot as a part-talkie; it included two musical numbers as well as Griffith’s experiment with “sound modulation.”

Scholar Russell Merritt will introduce the film. The presentation will include piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin, as well as a vocal recreation of the musical numbers by Joanna Sosin. Lady of the Pavements will be preceded by the last of the Biograph shorts, The Lesser Evil (1912).

Along with screening films, the Festival will also host a number of biographers, film historians and authors over the course of the weekend. These special guests can often be found in between screenings chatting with film buffs and signing books on the theater mezzanine. The schedule of signings is expected to be announced shortly.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the artistic, cultural, and historic value of early film. The group’s annual festival gives film lovers a chance to come together, spellbound in darkness.
 

For more info: For times and ticket information for each program, visit the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website at www.silentfilm.org/event-home.html