With this show, we're glad to welcome you to our new quarters, which are far and away the best
w e have occupied since we started out, as a small group, at Film Counsellors some years ago.
Here we have an attractive projection room, neat and business-like, and - essential in the
Summer months before us - air-conditioned. 322 East 44th Street is five or six minutes' walk
from Grand Central Station, and a 42nd Street cross-town bus will land you within two blooks
of our location. (We are between First and Second Avenues). Our new headquarters should prove
much more comfortable to our members than our old; to us they are more convenient in that all
the projection equipment is already installed, and does not have to be transported back and
forth. We have more room and pleasanter surroundings, and this too should help to create a
more enjoyable social atmosphere. But, like all good things, it has to be paid for. Our
running expenses per show will be literally doubled. Naturally, we have no intention of
raising our admission price -- but we do ask the support of our members in maintaining a good
turnout for each show. ln recent weeks, the audiences have been good - and as long as we can
maintain a good hard core of 50 people at each show, we should be able to break even. As we
have pointed out before, the society is quite literally run solely for the benefit of the
members. And too, we are anxious to retain our status as a small group, genuinely interested
in film, rather than a large group, only casually interested. So, once again, the existence of
the society under increased costs depends wholly on the continued interest and support of
our members.

One last point: our projection room is also used occasionally as a film studio, and fire
regulations are strict. One of the clauses in our agreement stipulates a "No Smoking" ruling.
We are sure that this won't cause our members any undue concern, especially as there is
nothing more irritating than columns of smoke swirling up in front of a screen in a smallish
projection room. Thank you - and we hope you like our opening show to "inaugurate" our new
home.

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MANON LESCAUT    UFA, l926. Directed by Arthur Robison, sets by Paul Lea. Adapted from the
                           tragic/ romance by Abbe Prevost, and the opera by Massenet.

The Cast: Manon Lescaut (LYA DE PUTTI): Des Grieux (Vladimir Gaidarow); Micheline (Marlene
Dietrich); Marshal Des Grieux (Eduard Rothauser); Marquis de Bli (Fritz Greiner); The Son of
de Bli (Hubert Von Meyerinck); Manon's aunts (Frida Richard, Emilie Kurs); Susanne (Lydia
Potechina); Tiberge (Theodora Loos); Lescaut (Sigfried Arno); Claire (Trude Hesterberg).

While "Mason Lescaut" is admittedly not a great film, it is a thoroughly fascinating one and,
today, a very rare one. Our print, supplied by Capt. George Mitchell, may well be the only 16mm
copy in existence, since it was blown up from a 9.5 print. Primarily the film is interesting as
an example of the collaboration of directors Arthur Robison ("Warning Shadows") and Paul Leni ("Waxworks", "The Cat and the Canary"). Leni had a fine gift for set designing, and his is
probably the more important contribution to the film - the reconstructions of Paris streets and
docks, of mansions and gaming houses, and especially of a prison for women, are really
remarkable. The involved story is condensed quite ably into three reels, although inevitably
it takes a little following, especially in the actionful climax. Subtitles are in French.
Dietrich's role is small, but important - and a far-sighted director took pains to include a
scene in which the famous legs could be displayed! Lya de Putti here was at the height of her
popularity in Germany, made the role of Manon, with its stress on torrid love scenes, was
ideally suited to her particular talents, demonstrated so ably a little earlier in "Variety".
The same year that "Manon Lescaut" was made, Lya journeyed to America to appear in Griffith's
"The Sorrows of Satan", "God Gave me Twenty Cents", and other pictures for First National,
Paramount and Universal. Later too, she appeared with Lars Hansen in the British version of
"The Informer".

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"EXTASE"   1932-3, Czechoslovakia.    Written and directed by Gustav Machaty for Elekta Film
                                                      Slavia. Photography: G. Stalick. Art Director: A. Chemel
                                                      Starring HEM LAMARR withs Andre Knox, Pierre Nay, R. Rogos.
                                                      (Note: Albert Mog and Leopold Kramer appeared in the Czech
                                                      version only; the "Eddy Heisler" referred to in the credits
                                                      of the film is, of course, Hedy Keisler!

If ever a film existed that needed no introduction at all, "EXTASE" is that film. Ever since
the film's production, it has been engulfed in a storm of controversy concerning (a) its
alleged notoriety, and (b) its legal ownership. The legal matters were, in fact, settled only
last month when the lawyers finally decreed that Machaty himself did own all rights. As for
its notoriety, this has been sparked constantly through the years by censorship squabbles over
reissues, and rehashings of the old stories concerning Fritz Mandl's attempts to buy up all the
prints following his marriage to Hedy, and his failure to pry one loose from Mussolini!

Despite all this, the film's somewhat doubtful reputation is quite undeserved. The film's one
really strong sex sequence - the beautifully handled seduction episode - is scarcely ever
mentioned. The nudity sequence remains in the foreground, only one assumes, because LaMarr was
the protagonist. It is quite a short sequence, and one that Machaty hardly inserted for purely "exploitation" reasons.
                  Nudity in film is actually far more common than is generally supposed - even in
the American cinema, though primarily in the silent period of course. Yet several semi-nude
shots of Maria Alba in the recently reissued talkie "Mr. Robinson Crusoe" raised not a murmer,
and one never hears mentioned the two or three reels of nude material in Fedor Ozep's "Amok". (Admittedly, the film is banned here in America, but it has been widely shown all over Europe,
including England). Machaty's films were, it is true, somewhat preoccupied with sex, and they
were often highly erotic in a luxurious and stylised way (especially his German film "Nocturne",
a little gem of eroticism!) but they approached pornography and suggestiveness much less than
such current American films as "Man on a Tightrope", "Carnival Story" and others, which seem
wholly preoccupied with over-suggestive and shallow adolescent sex.

"EXTASE" is quite certainly a leader in that rare (and now obsolete) classification, the
film-poems. Photographically it is superb, though possibly a little dated now in its concern with
cutting for cutting's sake, and in its continual symbolism. Writing about it in "The Film Till
Now", Paul Rotha remarks: "Perhaps the only Czech film of the period to achieve a reputation
outside its land of origin was Gustav Machaty's extraordinary "Extase" which unhappily became
known more for its shots of Hedy Lemarr in the nude than for its very real qualities of good
film-making. It reveals a powerful yet deeply sensitive approaoh to the psychological study of
a sex-frustrated young wife. With much of its action shot in natural surroundings, Machaty's
direction was as good as anything being made in Europe in the thirties. His use of editing to
build up moments of high tension, such as the automobile drive to the level-crossing, his sense
of movement and embolism and his very delicate handling of situations that could easily have
became laughable, put him with the best directors or the period. Its attempt to create a sound
track which would be easily translatable for international markets by having only one sequence in
direct synchronous speech is worth analysis, as indeed was its ingenious use of off-screen sound.
The photography was superb".

(Continued on page three)

THE THEODORE HUFF MEMORIAL FILM SOCIETY               June 22. 1954
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"EXTASE"

Following our program notes on the above film, with the remark that the
existence of a second nude sequence seemed unlikely, an urgent memorandum
was received from Herman G. Weinberg. Since in such matters Mr. Weinberg's
word is law, we reprint his comments intact for the record:--

"I just read your program notes on "Extase" and you made it seem as if my
allegation that in one version Miss Lamarr was also nude in the cabin scene,
was the result of wish-fulfillment on my part.
         Witnout necessarily denying that as a possibility, the fact is (which
you omitted to state) that the man who told me he saw it was a Czech, now
living in New York, who was co-producer of "The Golem" made by Duvivier in
Prague and who knew Machaty very well and who saw the scene as described with
his own eyes. Or so he claims. It could be that he too, was a mesmerised
victim of wish-fulfillment, before me. Anyway, his name for the record is
Frank Kassler and I will be glad to produce him to the Film Society as
proof, should it be required of me. Maybe it's like the Hindu rope-trick.
No one has actually ever even it. Many however, know others who have seen it.
will you mention this to the members at the night of the showing - in partial
vindication of my not wishing to "pull the Film Society's leg" - as the saying
goes?".

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