The society is on the move again - and this time we're heading West! Our two years at the
Capitol Hotel was our longest stay at any single location - locations that have ranged from
tiny projection rooms to a psychiatric institution!

Our new quarters are at 400 West 57th Street - on the South West corner of 57th street and
Ninth Avenue. The screening room is on the ground floor; no further details are necessary,
since as soon as you enter the front door, you are bound to run into us! This will not
necessarily be our permanent locale from now on, but if it works out, we would like it to
be, as it is still centrally located, and convenient to busses and subways.

In theory, the room should seat at least as many, and possibly more, than our old room at the
Capitol. It isn't quite as long - but it is much wider, and much higher. No, we're not
planning on stacking you in tiers - but greater height means that we can project well over
the heads of our audience, and thus eliminate the wide aisle that we have needed before.
Also, we can eliminate tops of heads on bottoms of screens -- which should be especially
good news to the charming habitué of row three whose head frequently confounds film historians
by presenting an iris effect on the screen long before that device came into being!

We don't think the room will comfortably seat the occasional outsize crowd, but fortunately
our arrangements can now be more flexible than they were at the Capitol. We know more or
less which shows can be expected to bring out an above average attendance, and for those
showings, we will of course rent a larger room elsewhere.

We'd like to thank one of our members, Mr. Lon Hannagan, for placing this room at our disposal,
and at such a nominal rental that, even after we have rented chairs, we are still operating
at our old overhead. The chairs themselves come in different price ranges, indicating we
assume, levels of comfort that can be classified as "None", "Quite good" and "Luxurious". Our
budget allowed us to settle for the middle category!

Incidentally, we glad to report that our union projectionist problem has been disposed of, and
that we can thus bring our admission down to a dollar again. We're glad that this temporary
inflation was disposed of so quickly - and thank you for bearing with us in the
difficulties.

On the whole, our past year was a successful one. We've given up the idea that this type of
film society can break even, but the losses were comparatively minor, and the pleasure of
being able to present these wonderful old silents more than compensated for it. Our two
"blockbuster" shows (in terms of attendance) were "Merry Go Round" and the Chaplin show; and
"The Bells" and "That Certain Thing" proved stronger attractions than we expected.

         Biggest fiasco of the year (financially) - our two British comedies. Those who came
liked Jack Hulbert, are still trying to de-code George Formby. Running it a close second was
"Romola", which drew slightly better but had correspondingly higher overheads. Still, we're
glad we ran them. Shows we liked doing the most were the Walthall and Griffith-Ince
composite programs; we hope to do more of this type of thing shortly.

We already have enough product lined up to last us through the year, but since the lesser
items are apt to be pulled out when a worthwhile surprise comes along, we won't mention them
all here. Definitely in store however are "Lucrezia Lombard" with Norma Shearer, "The
Wrecker" with Carlyle Blackwell and Benita Hume, Tod Browning's "The White Tiger" with
Priscilla Dean, a program of Laurel and Hardy (following them through from their individual
silent comedies, to their silent and sound work as a team) and a program of early Edison
films - from "The Adventures of Kathlyn" to one of his 1912 talkies. Erratum: please
strike out "Kathlyn" and insert "What Happened to Mary"! Then thereull be a "festival" of
Westerns of the twenties - Hart, Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Harry Carey,Fred Thomson, Tim
McCoy and others in three or four programs which will really cover, comprehensively, this
aspect of Americana. And of course there'll be Rin Tin Tin, Colleen Moore, request repeats
of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Scarlet Letter" - and anything else that's old
and worth running.

Please note that this month's shows are so arranged that we are not screening on consecutive
Tuesdays as has been our habit. This is to avoid conflict with the series of Japanese
screenings being held at the Museum of Modern Art. In February we will probably revert
to our former schedule.

                                                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Program Notes & enquiries: W.K. Everson, Manhattan Towers Hotel, 2166 Broadway, NYC 24
Committees Dorothy Lovell (Secretary) and Charles Shibuk.
                                                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Program for Tuesday January 15th., 1957, 400 West 57th Street, at 7.30 p.m.
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

TOM TOM THE PIPER'S SON   (American Biograph 1905, half-a-reel)

This filmed nursery rhyme of 1905 has no great distinction, other than being one of
the first things of its kind. It is rather stodgy in its presentation, scene stolidly
following scene in picture-book fashion, but it's an interesting sample from a period
of Biograph that is rather sparsely represented today. The sets however, are quite
pleasing; they were all built in Biograph's first small studio on the roof of 841 Broadway.

"IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT" (American Biograph, 1909, one reel)
                                                Directed by D.W. Griffith, with Marion Leonard, Mary Pickford,
                                                Kate Bruce, Mack Sennett,
It was Griffith of course who really put the Biograph company on its feet. After only a year
of direction, Griffith had already, by 1909, established himself as a fine story-teller, and
was now beginning to experiment more and more with cinematic grammar. 1909 was the year
of such outstanding Griffiths as "The Lonely Villa" and "A Corner in Wheat"; and of such
comparatively routine (for Griffith) actioners as "Leatherstocking" and "1776". "In The
Watches of the Night" stands mid-way between these two extremes. Its plot is strong stuff,
with some really stark moments; cinematically it has a few weaknesses, including the rare
one for Griffith of telegraphing its action via superfluous titles. Nevertheless, a very
interesting and worthwhile early effort from D.W.

"BOOBS IN THE WOOD" (Mack Sennett-Pathe, 1924, two reels) with Harry Langdon, Vernon
                                  Dent, Marie Astaire

What a pity that the great Langdon comedies - especially "Tramp Tramp Tramp" and to a
lesser degree "The Strong Man" - are known and appreciated by so few people. And what a
greater tragedy too that, due to mistaken faith in his own ability as a writer-director,
Langdon himself was responsible for his all-too rapid decline. Not a great comedy in
itself, "Boobs" is nevertheless an interesting blend of Sennett knockabout and Langdon
pantomime. His lovable, babyish innocence comes through beautifully in some sequences.

"SMOULDERING FIRES" (A Universal Jewel, 1924, 8 reels); Produced and
                                 Directed by Clarence brown; story by Sada Cowan,
                                 Howard Higgin and Melville Brown; asst. director:
                                 Charles Dorian; photographed by Jackson Rose; edited
                                 by Edward Schroeder; titles by Dwinelle Benthall;
                                 art director - E.E.Sheeley.
With PAULINE FREDERICK, LAURA LA PLANTE, Malcolm MacGregor, Tully Marshall, Wanda Hawley,
George Cooper, Helen Lynch; and as extras - Bert Roach, Arthur Lake, George Lewis.

"Whether we win it to hold it; or win it to lose it; or never win it at all;
the greatest thing in all the world is -- LOVE!"

From this little piece of prose - a catchline in Universal's ads - it is quite apparent that
"Smouldering Fires" is what is known as "a woman's picture". It's the first one of its
type that we've shown - and a darned good one at that. The Pauline Frederick vehicles of
the twenties were the counterparts of the Kay Francis (mid-thirties) and Bette Davis (late
thirties, early forties) dramas of the sound era, although perhaps they paralleled most
exactly the Ruth Chatterton films of the early thirties ("Female", etc.).

The plot of "Smouldering Fires" is basically familiar triangle stuff, but what a wealth of
style Clarence Brown puts into it. We've never been great Brown devotees - in the later
sound era especially, his films were far too sloppily sentimental - but here he handles
obvious material with taste, discernment, and rare polish. The camerawork is first class
and never static; when the camera itself moves, it is for a purpose. The few exteriors
are particularly well shot. The sets are tasteful and lavish (what a PLEASURE to see real
height in a movie set again in this CinemaScopic age!)- and, despite the soap opera
background, convincing. The factory looks like a busy, efficient factory, and not like the
art director's homework . Pauline Frederick herself gives a very fine performance that
doesn't date at all; Laura La Plante is as fresh and lovely as ever - and incredibly, looks
just the same today! Malcolm MacGregor, who never quite made it, is somewhat overshadowed
by these two. Bert Roach, strangely billed as an equal supporting player along with Tully
Marshall on Universal's ads, actually has a mere bit; Arthur Lake, looking ridiculously
young, is easily recognisable, and if you'll look closely, you can spot George Lewis too -
another old-timer who, albeit a bit plump and seedy, is still going strong.

"Smouldering Fires" came out late in 1924 when too much was going on for it too attract
the attention it really deserved. "Isn't Life Wonderful?" was doing great business on
Broadway - one of the critics termed Griffith "The Homer of the Screen" as a result of this
film - and "Peter Pan" was the most eagerly-awaited new film. There was also talk that
Griffith would sign with Universal and make "Show Boat" since he had had "experience with
films of the South" (!). Universal was selling its Broadway offices by advertising -
"The place where Laemmle's Luck was born is for rent!" Jazzy comedies - Evelyn Brent in
"Silk Stocking Sal" were everywhere. But if "Smouldering Fires" didn't become a
boxoffice sensation, it did attract a lot of attention in the right quarters. The Film Daily
reviewed it on Decenber 7, and called it "...an unusually fine picture ... exceptionally well
handled and splendidly directed ... one of the most entertaining pictures Universal ever
released". Jostled next to it were reviews for "Greed" (which got a mixed write-up), "Romola"
(their discerning critic agreed with our program notes!) and sundry delectable morsels with
Fred Thomson et al. On the next page was a big ad for Colleen Moore's "So Big". Those were
really the days! Universal themselves thought well enough of the film for it to
spearhead their "21 White Pictures" group (other than explaining that films were always sold in
advance in blocks, we won't try to explain the meaning of this particular group heading!) which
also included "The Price of Pleasure" with Virginia Valli and Norman Kerry, "The Clash" with
Alma Rubens and Perdy Marmont, and 18 others with Laura La Plante, Eugene O'Brien, House Peters, May McAvoy, Hoot Gibson, Reginald Denny and Jack Hoxie.

A few days after the review, a letter to Universal from an exhibition group, praising the film,
was re-printed in the Film Daily as an ad. Of course, one can never put too much stock in this
type of letter, but this one is interesting enough to reprint in part. Addressed, of course,
to Mr. Laemmle, it said:

"I want to thank you for giving to the industry a picture of modern life without cigarette-
smoking women, cocktail-drinking flappers, hip-flasks, rolled hose, and other "props" so
noticable in current attractions ........ this picture, in addition to being a wonderful drama,
cleverly produced, is certainly a relief ... from a standpoint of drama and entertainment, one
of the most entertaining pictures in many moons ... the cast is excellent, the story clean,
interesting and gripping. A word of praise for director Brown ..... he had plenty of opportunity
to resort to questionable scenes, but he availed himself of none of them - he kept the picture
clean and wholesome; in lieu of wild parties and indecent exposure, he gave us scenes to make
the most confirmed grouch laugh. This is the first time I have written you a testimonial
letter; I believed it my duty to lend my moral support to the class of film you have produced
here. The industry needs more of this kind, less of the other kind, if we are to survive. I wish
everyone connected with the industry could see this film, because it's the kind we need!

                           (S.N. Chambers of the Consolidated Amusement Company, Wichita)

(For the members who do not go for "clean, wholesome pictures", a promise that more rolled
hose and hip flasks are on the way in future programs).

The print is in fine shape, duo-tinted, and all of its 7356 feet are there - complete to the
credit announcing that this film was advertised in the Saturday Evening Post. With that
final endorsement to back up Mr. Chambers, we know you'll want to see it!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PROGRAM TWO      January 29, 7.30.

"LAW AND ORDER" (Hal Roach-Rolin, 1921; one reel; Pathe release); directed by Charles Parrott,
                           with Snub Pollard and Marie Mosquini

This one is really an oddity! It starts off with some wonderful foolery in the craziest old
tradition - and then decides to cash in on current headlines by bringing the Ku Klux Klan into
it! (The Klan was then reactivating itself). So here's the film with the other "Ride of the
Klansmen", and what a weird, vaguely distasteful, sequence it is. It doesn't quite come off,
but it's an off-beat Pollard that's well worth seeing.

"FLIGHT FOR A FORTUNE"  (Majestic-Mutual, 1914; two reels; directed by W. Christy Cabanne)
                                      Starring F.A. Turner and Signe Auen.

Made under Griffith's over-all supervision by protege Cabanne, "Flight for a Fortune" is a
well done melodrama that starts a little slowly, builds up to a really exciting finish of a
chase by motor boat and plane, These little Majestic melodramas were always solid,
well constructed and entertaining films; it's a pity that so few appear to have survived. We
have a fine print, and consider this an interesting little re-discovery.

"THE CIRCUS"  (UA-Chaplin, 1926-28; our version - 5 1/2 reels; original version 6 1/2 reels)
                      Written, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin; assisted by Harry Crocker;
                      director of photography - Hollis Totheroh; cameramen - Jack Wilson and Mark
                       Marklatt; with Allan Garcia (circus owner); Merna Kennedy (his step-daughter);
                      Betty Morrissey (the vanishing lady); Harry Crocker (Rex); George Davis (magician);
                      Henry Bergman (old clown); Stanley Sanford (chief property man); John Rand
                      (assistant property man); Steve Murphy (pickpocket); Doc Stone (prizefighter).

Since it is at least four years since we showed Chaplin's last completely silent film, it
seemed high time for a revival. Our print is substantially better than the one we showed
on that occasion; i.e., although both prints are from the same negative, our first one
had really "made the rounds" and was very much scratched and chopped up. Our current print
is brand new, and a good, sharp one - although of course with various defects present in
the negative. These defects consist primarily of the clipping short of certain scenes, and
the total elimination of odd shots. In all, there is a difference of a little less than a
reel of actual footage between this print and the original release print, but careful
perusal of Theodore Huff's meticulous description of the film in his biography of Chaplin,
indicate that nothing of great importance is out - save for the shot of Chaplin crumpling
up the piece of paper with the imprinted star, and kicking it away, just before the climax.

All of the great comedy sequences appear to be intact, and certainly the wonderful pantomime
in the chamber of mirrors, and where Charlie cleverly steals the baby's frankfurter, are
unmarred.

Spaced between "The Gold Rush" (1925) and "City Lights" (1931), "The Circus" is not top-grade
Chaplin. It is over melodramatic, over-inclined to a slapstick somewhat below Chaplin's
best level. But it is often very fine, and never less than good. Certainly the care with
which its backstage circus atmosphere is created (a similar care, and a similar atmosphere,
are evidenced in "Limelight") is unusually meticulous, and considering the many troubles
that beset Chaplin during the shooting (litigation which attached the film for a while,
divorce proceedings with Lita Grey), its overall quality is very high.

Certainly the film was a tremendous success, and if its overall standard was not of Chaplin's
best, nevertheless individual moments of pathos and comedy certainly were. One of the most
notable moments is an intriguing little dream image episode wherein Charlie blissfully
imagines himself shaming his romantic rival, all the time standing politely a few feet away
and giving no sign of the thoughts that are racing through his mind.

Merna Kennedy (seen recently in "Broadway") was an attractive, but here not very personable
or vivacious, leading lady. Although she improved quite considerably in the early days of
talkies, and had a good voice, she never progressed beyond grade "b" quickies in the early
thirties, and dropped from sight. She died from a heart-attack in 1944, still aged only 35.

Theodore Huff's biography of Chaplin contains a complete breakdown of the contents of "The
Circus", together with a detailed study of the conditions under which it was made,
Chaplin's associates on the film, and other extremely interesting data. If you haven't seen
"The Circus" before, we recommend a study of this work before you do so.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Officer 444" - episode 8. This is one of the best episodes to date, extremely lively, and
                     possibly even a little more complicated than usual. It all winds up with an
                     exciting melee in the railroad yards. With only two more chapters to go
                     before the Frog is unmasked, we are desperately looking around for prints
                     of "The Return of Officer 444" and "Son of Officer 444" so that we can keep
                     Ben Wilson and Neva Gerber with us! (Non-serial devotees will need to be
                     told here that those two sequels were fortunately never made!)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

OUR NEXT PROGRAMS:

February 19th: Paul. Czinner's "NJU" with Elizabeth Bergner, Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings
                     "The Golden Clown" (condensation) with Gosta Ekman
                     and shorts to be announced.

February 26th: The first show in our Western Cycle:
                     Tom Mix in THE STAGECOACH DRIVER
                     WILLIAM S. HART in "THE RETURN OF DRAW EGAN"; with Marjorie Wilson
                                          and the very anitithesis of Hart -
                     FRED THOMPSON in "THUNDERING HOOFS"