Our plans to screen "FROM MANGER TO CROSS" and "EXTASE", announced at the last meeting, have
by no means been abandoned. However, last-minute complications made it impossible to guarantee
arrival of these two prints and thus, rather than run the risk of disappointing our members,
it was considered wiser to postpone that program temporarily. We are endeavouring to obtain
these two films for one of our January shows, and an announcement about this will be made
at the forthcoming meeting.
Our current show contains several extremely rare items, and in keeping with the festive
season, the emphasis is on light-hearted material. With the exception of the Chaplin film,
these are subjects that are very difficult to see, and our prints are in first-class
condition, so we know we can look forward to a good turnout for this program.
As announced last time, we are making an attempt to cut down quite heavy expenses in every
way possible - the less spent on unnecessary overheads, the more available for renting
better films. One of our biggest expenditures is on a very large mailing list, and while
naturally members are entitled to receive (and we are pleased to supply) advance program
notes, we do feel that many of the names on our list are of people who have but scant
interest in our activities, and seldom if ever appear at our meetings. Thus, we have
attached a simple form to the end of these notes. Those members who wish to continue
receiving notes are asked to sign them and either hand them in at the next meeting, or
mail them to W.K. Everson at the Manhattan Towers Hotel, 2266 Broadway, New York City.
Members who do not wish to continue receiving notes need not, of course, take any action,
and accordingly will be dropped from our circulation lists.
In conclusion, the Committee of the film society wishes all members the very best for
Christmas and the New Year ... here's hoping for bigger, better, older and rarer films
in 1954!
PROGRAMME: (In order of screening) MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS (one reel)
GRASS (one reel)
THE GANGSTER AND THE GIRL (two reels)
HIS TRYSTING PLACE (two reels)
Intermission
SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT (seven reels)
- - - - - - - - - -
MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS
Walt Disney's early talkie black-and-white cartoons are always a delight today. This is one
the best of his Mickey Mouse shorts - made before Disney got too cute, and before inventive
gags in cartoons were supplanted by sadistic violence.
GRASS Paramount, 1925. Produced by Mariam C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.
Photography by Ernest B. Schoedsack.
The mid-twenties provided the richest material that American cinema has
contributed to the documentary field ... Flaherty's films "Nanook of the North" and "Moana",
"Grass", "Chang", and later, "Tabu" and "White Shadows (of the South Seas [sic]) ". "GRASS"- which deals with the Baktyari tribe of North West Persia, and their twice yearly migration in search of grass -
is one of the most famous. Curiously, it is a rather detached sort of documentary, and has
little of the humanity, and the love of people, of Flaherty's films; in its own unemotional
way though, it is superlatively done and contains some of the most spectacular and genuinely
exciting sequences of any documentary film. Our version is a condensation of the original
feature - a condensation that incorporates the two primary highlights, namely the crossing
of the glacier-swollen river, and the great climax of the trek over the mountain range. These
two sequences are wonderfully photographed and edited, reaching considerable heights of
tension and excitement.
Following "Grass", Schoedsack and Cooper followed up with another great documentary, "Chang",
and the spectacle "The Four Feathers". Considering their remarkable background (and success)
with documentary, their careers following the coming of sound are rather surprising. Cooper
became associated with John Ford at the time of "The Lost Patrol", is now a partner with
Ford in Argosy Films, and is of course one of the big names of Cinerama. Schoedsack on the
other hand, launched himself into a series of hair-raising stunt "shockers" - "King Kong",
"The Most Dangerous Game", "Son of Kong", "Dr. Cyclops" and "Mighty Joe Young". With the
exception of "The Last Days of Pompeii" his other talkies were mainly infrequent "B" subjects,
and except for an expedition into Arabia in the early thirties to secure footage for Radio,
he did not return to the documentary field.
HIS TRYSTING PLACE Keystone: released November 9, 1914.
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin; with Mabel Normand,
Mack Swain and Phyllis Allen. (This film is also referred to
occasionally as "Family House".
In his year at Keystone, Chaplin made 35 films, of which the sole feature - "Tillie's
Punctured Romance" - is probably the most famous. Although this series is marked for its
rather crude slapstick and violence, many of the films contain interesting improvisation
and spontaneous charm, along with the first appearance of many of the familiar Chaplin
traits. During 1914 too, Chaplin's costume became fixed -- but not his character. His Keystonecharacterisations were basically unsympathetic, though often engaging - the
obnoxious drunk, the sharper, the blunderer, the thief and the philanderer -all of them
often cruel almost to a point of sadism. Not until the following year at Essanay did the
"real Charlie" begin to appear. "His Trysting Place" is one of the best of the Keystone
series, and certainly one of the most polished; there are some very funny moments in a
restaurant and later in a park. One of its most amusing images is of Charlie carrying a
small baby by the scruff of its rompers!
(These notes, very much condensed, are taken from the Keystone chapter of Ted Huff's
biography of Chaplin).
THE GANGSTER AND THE GIRL Ince: 1924. Produced by Scott Sidney; scenario by Thomas H. Ince
and Richard V. Spencer.
Starring CHARLES RAY, ELIZABETH BURBRIDGE, MARGARET THOMPSON,
ARTHUR JAERETT.
Whether or not "The Gangster and the Girl" was actually directed by Ince as the credits claim
is a matter that is hard to prove or disprove. Ince certainly, has acquired a reputation that
he certainly does not deserve - French and Italian magazines, devoted seriously to the film,
still run frequent tributes to Ince, revering him as a pioneer and a creative artist on a
plane with Griffith. While he undoubtedly could and did direct, he seemed mainly to hover
around in a supervisory capacity, pouncing down on the finished product with a director credit
if it turned out well, leaving well enough alone if it didn't! Certainly many of the early
William S. Hart and Francis Ford westerns credited to him were actually directed by the stars
themselves, while his epic "Civilization" was likewise directed by another.
All of that is perhaps neither here nor there, except to emphasise that one cannot, without
knowing the facts, regard this film as having been made, personally, by Ince. Regardless of
who directed it, it is a tremendously interesting film from a period which is very badly
represented in film archives. A full-blooded melodrama, it was made well before Charles Ray
established his familiar "small-town-hick" character. It is interesting to note too, that
the leading lady - Elizabeth Burbridge - switched to writing scenarios in 1929, and became
probably the most prolific of all screenplay writers for "B" westerns, turning out script after script
for Autry, Bob Steele and other sagebrush heroes at Republic, Monogram other
companies, and so far as we are aware, still going strong at it.
Mr. John E. Allen, the well-known New Jersey film collector and one-man archive, now controls
rights to this film and has been kind enough to loan the society a copy at the original
shooting script, complete with Ince's pencilled notations. This script offers such interesting
data as the facts that shooting started on May 27 1914 and was finished on June 6, 1914. The
first print was shipped from California on June 19th., and the film was in release on August
7th! Certainly this script offers proof-positive that no matter how much off-the-cuff
shooting was being done, rigid discipline was practised by some production companies. There
are but few deviations between the original and the finished film, and those deviations were
caused, by unforseeable circumstance and are duly recorded on the script. (I.e., a sequence
showing a girl arrested for shop-lifting had to be scratched because it was subsequently
impossible to shoot in a department store as planned. So instead, the versatile young lady
was arrested on the street for another offence!) The script makes interesting suggestions
for obtaining the right slum sets, insists that "a crook atmosphere" be stressed. throughout,
and indicates that if the planned individual make-up doesn't succeed in establishing the
different "types", the director should get around this by inserting additional close-ups.
Altogether this is a fascinatieg document, and we are grateful to Mr. Allen for loaning it to
us. Interested members may examine it prior to, or after, the screening.
- - - - - - - - - -
SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT A Universal Jewel, presented by Carl Laemmle. (1925, released 1926)
Directed by William A. Seiter. Script by Rex Taylor, from the original
story by Henry Irving Dodge, Lawrence Marston and Edward Paulton. Photographed by Arthur Todd.
With: REGINALD DENNY (Skinner); LAURA, LAPLANTE (his wife);
Ben Hendricks jr., E.J. Ratcliffe, Hedda, Hopper, Henry A. Barrow,
William Strauss, Lila Leslie, Betty Morrisey, Arthur Lake.
This equivalent pre-Christmas week of 28 years ego saw Broadway ablaze with interesting titles
and names - the holiday moviegoer could choose from STELLA DALLAS, THE BIG PARADE, THE MERRY WIDOW, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, EAST LYNNE, PARISIAN LOVE, WOMAN OF THE WORLD, TUMBLEWEEDS, SIEGFRIED, A KISS FOR CINDERELLA, LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN and BEN HUR. (Alas, the 1953 holiday moviegoer will have no such good fortune!) Aid that same week, the film trade was looking
at advance screenings (for only 1926 release) of the two latest Reginald Denny comedies from
Universal.
The first of them, "What Happened to Jones" (also directed by Seiter) rated rave reviews, and
was considered Denny's best to date. Then, a few days later came "SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT", and
this time the trade critics outdid themselves. "Harrison's Reports", for example, stated:
"Mr. Denny has appeared in many good comedies, but none of them equals this in entertaining
values .... it can be shown anywhere and under any conditions. It is sure to give satisfaction".
The verdict of "Film Daily" was: "Denny's best yet .. after a succession of real comedy hits,
Denny scores another knockout and you have another boxoffice hit. Surefire entertainment
you cannot afford to lose out on this one !" It is interesting to note that each and every
review commented on the film's "clean and wholesome" appeal, and its complete absence of the
vulgarity which was oharacterising so many other contemporary comedies.
"SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT", which had been made previously by Essanay in 1917 with Bryant
Washburn, Virginia Valli and Hazel Daly, is the type of slight but slick "Saturday Evening
Post" comedy which has almost completely disappeared from current cinema. (The only recent
example was the very pleasing and overlooked Republic film, "The Lady Wants Mink", a film
very much in the tradition of "Skinner". Perhaps it is no mere coincidence that it was also
produced and directed by Satter).
In plot it is slim, but full of gentle charm and fast-paced humor; it builds itself around
the old cliché that "clothes make the man, and comments on the "problems" of acceptable
social life in the twenties, the ways to "advancement" through keeping up with the boss
socially - and complications of trying to de all this on au inadequate budget. The
party sequences feature a spirited rendition of too Charleston, considered one of the film's
highlights at the time.
Incidentally, "SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT" provides an interesting example too, of the star-vehicle
series of the twenties - a typo of movie-making that has now almost disappeared. Today, the
only remaining vehicles in the strictest sense are the grade "D" catastrophes with Jungle Jim
and the Bowery Boys - and at the opposite end of the scale, the Alan Ladd, John Wayne or Doris
Day vehicles. However, no Warner salesman who valued his job would dare talk about "six John
Waynes" when signing an exhibition contract - the big vehicles today are handled strictly as
individual subjects. (The disappearance of the series films and the vehicles has come about
primarily because they had degenerated Into "B" edict, as with the Richard Arlen and Richard
Dix films of the forties, and the various "family" series, and were thus no longer considered
good financial risks). SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT show; that the vehicles of the twenties were
considered of real importance - they were given the top talent available, and packed with
production values. Laura LaPlante's film prior to this, for example was "The Midnight Sun"
- one of Universal's biggest epics, which in itself testifies to the importance of the Denny
films commercially.
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COMMITEE OF THE FILM SOCIETY: Charles Turner (Chairman); Robert G. Youngson (Program
Secretary ; Herman G. Weinberg; Bill Kenly (Musical Scores); Warren Rothenberger;
William K.Everson (Program Notes).
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