EVERY SUNDAY

(MGM, November 28, 1936)

The Sunday afternoon concerts in the park aren’t drawing an audience so they’re going to be replaced. Judy Garland (1922-1969) and Deanna Durbin (1921-2013) (their only film together, and Durbin’s screen debut) are determined to save the day. Durbin sings opera and Garland sings hot swing. The crowds come running, literally!

Born just a few months apart, both girls were fourteen years old at the time of filming. (Undated Eastman film stock, V/A track)

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THE ROAD IS OPEN AGAIN

(Warner Bros., 1933) Directed by Alfred E. Geen. Dick Powell as himself, Charles Middleton as Abraham Lincoln, Samuel S. Hinds as Woodrow Wilson and Alan Dinehart as George Washington. Also, Shirley Temple and Deanna Durbin as themselves promoting the American Red Cross.

This rare film is a Great Depression morale booster for the National Recovery Administration, (NRA), and president Franklin Roosevelt. Dick Powell, (1904-1963), falls asleep at his piano while trying to write a song about the NRA and is visited by the spirits of presidents Washington, Lincoln and Wilson who assure him that the NRA and FDR will put the country right and that the road to prosperity will be open again. Inspired by this ghostly visit Powell sings his new song and then invites us to sing it with him.

Following “The Road is Open Again” on the same reel are a 1935 plug to support the Red Cross featuring Shirley Temple, (1928-2014), a very brief snipe asking if you have purchased war bonds to avenge Pearl Harbor, and then another Red Cross plug, this one from 1940 and featuring Deanna Durbin singing new lyrics set to the WWI song “Roses of Picardy.” (music by Haydn Wood.)  (Undated 3M film stock, variable area sound track)

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FOR AULD LANG SYNE

(Warner Bros., April 29, 1938)

Billed as a tribute to Will Rogers, this is really a fund raiser for the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital.

Internationally popular entertainer Will Rogers died in a plane crash in 1935.  In 1936 the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital was established to treat members of the entertainment industry who had contracted tuberculosis.  Soon the mission was expanded to treat any child who needed medical care.  Every year since that time the film industry has produced these films to raise money for the Rogers Hospital.  Some 4000 35mm prints were struck for these charity fund raisers in the 30s, a far greater number than was struck for the standard Hollywood commercial release at the time.  At the end of the film the theatre lights would come up and the ushers would walk through the isles with canisters to collect donations from the audience. 

In 1938 it was Warner Bros. turn to produce the Rogers fundraiser.  This edition features James Cagney, Rudy Vallee, Donald Crisp and Paul Muni as Masters of Ceremony.  They introduce performances that are actually clips from other films.  Seen are The Benny Goodman Band with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Harry James and others performing “I’ve Got a Heart Full of Music” (music by Richard Whiting) in a clip from “Hollywood Hotel,” (Warner Bros. 1937), and Dick Powell and the KCBS Texas Rangers Band singing “Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride” in a clip from “Cowboy from Brooklyn,” (Warner Bros. 1938) 

Others stars seen arriving at film premiers from archive footage: John Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, Humphrey Bogart, Mayo Methot, Lili Damita, Bette Davis, Glenda Farrell, Louise Fazenda, Errol Flynn, Hugh Herbert, George Jessel, Harmon Nelson, Basil Rathbone, Hal Wallis and Marie Wilson. 

To close the film Paul Muni asks the ushers to pass among us to take up a collection for the Hospital, then the screen fades to black while we listen to an orchestra play “Auld Lang Syne.”  (1974 Eastman film stock, variable area sound track)

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SHAW TALKS

FOR MOVIETONE NEWS

(Fox Film Corporation, June 25, 1928)  George Bernard Shaw as himself.  Cinematography by Bennie Miggins, directed by Jack Connoly and George Bernard Shaw.

This early sound newsreel from Fox Movietone gives us a glimpse of one of the great playwrights and towering personalities of the twentieth century.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who was seventy-one years old at the time of filming, was the author of Pygmalian/My Fair Lady, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Androcles and the Lion and a myriad of other works.

We first see him walking on a gravel path at his home in Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire. He feigns surprise when he “sees” us all there, and then he chats amiably with the camera. He rambles about himself, meeting a little girl on the street who wanted his autograph, and abut Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.  While he doesn’t say anything profound we do get a sense of his personality, that of a heavily bearded Puck. There is a twinkle in his eye that signals he may pull a prank on us at any moment, although he never does, unfortunately.

Talking films were very much a novelty in 1928 and both the New York Times and Variety were mesmerized by this film, saying that Fox had staged a real coup by getting Shaw onto the talking screen. Shaw agreed to do this film provided he was allowed to direct! But Jack Connoly, from the Fox Film Corporation, was there anyway to make certain that they got what they needed.  (3M film stock, variable area soundtrack)

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MICKEY’S MEDICINE MAN

(Larry Darmour Productions,  May 18, 1934) 

Mickey Rooney, (1920-2014, born Joe Yule Jr.) began his astounding film career starring in a series of kid-comedies based on the popular Toonerville Trolly comic strip. Beginning in the silent era when Rooney was barely six years old, it continued into the sound era. 

Producer Larry Darmour convinced the Yules to legally change the name of their tiny titan to Mickey McGuire, the same name as his character. 

In 1934 the then thirteen-year-old Mickey left the series.  His character was re-cast, but without his atomic personality the Mickey McGuire series soon folded.

Mickey then changed his name again, this time to Mickey Rooney, and rose to the top of the motion picture world by the end of his teen years.

In this film, Mickey and the gang need money fast and when they see a snake oil salesman they are inspired to create their own medicine and sell it.  You won’t believe the results! 

This is a 1947 reissue print with Mickey’s last name changed from McGuire to Rooney in the credits.  Other than that change, this is the original two reel version of this fun kid comedy.  (1947 Kodak film stock)

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HIGH AND DIZZY

(Hal Roach, July 11, 1920)

Harold Lloyd’s second “thrill” comedy in which, through circumstances that are best seen in the film, he ends up balancing dangerously on the ledge of a building many stories above the street. 

Lloyd plays a young doctor just out of medical college.  His practice is so slow that the telephone is covered in cobwebs from lack of use.  “The Girl,” (played by Mildred Davis, the future Mrs. Lloyd) comes to his office seeking help for her sleepwalking.  Wanting her to think he is a very busy physician Lloyd goes to elaborate (and very funny) lengths to make it seem that his office is full of patients. 

This is the 2004 restoration with all the original intertitle cards, excellent image quality and a great original musical accompaniment by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra.  (2004 ORWO film stock, variable area sound track)

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GLAD RAGS TO RICHES

(Educational Film Exchanges, Jack Hays Productions, February 5, 1933)

One of Shirley Temple’s earliest screen appearances in the “Baby Burlesk” series where all cast members are diaper-wearing toddlers.  Temple was four years old when this was filmed, and is billed fourth as Nell/La Belle Diaparina, a nightclub singer who is under the vile thumb of the lecherous nightclub owner (Eugene Butler).  She is rescued by her sweetheart, Elmer (Georgie Smith).  Also in the toddler cast are Lawrence Harris as the Policemen and Marilyn Granas (also four years old) as the Maid. 

This is the Blackhawk Films edition from the 1970s of the Screencraft Pictures re-release.  Blackhawk included a note with the film explaining that the film “has a section of distorted and faded sound near the head [and] end.  The only surviving preprint material available to us has this defect.”  The affected portion of the sound track has only music and no dialog. Blackhawk replaced that damaged part of the sound track with some newly recorded music.  (Approximately 10 minutes, 1976 Eastman stock, variable area sound track.)

THE PERFECT TRIBUTE 

(MGM, August 15, 1935) 

Highly fictionalized and reverent account of Lincoln and his Gettysburg address, based on the oft told story written by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews.  Starring Chic Sale as Lincoln, Walter Brennan as Stone Cutter, George Ernest as Solder’s Young Brother, William Henry as Soldier, Leila McIntyre as Mary Todd Lincoln, William V. Mung as Old Story Teller.

One of the great things about vintage movies is that they can open the door to parts of history that you never imagined.  This film leads us to one of the unsung heroes of WWII.  It is a fascinating story and I’ll tell you all about it at the screening!  (1965 Eastman film stock, variable area sound track)

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THE CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC 

(French title: La Petite République) A.F. Films (Les Actualites français), Madeline Carroll Productions, 1947. Commissioned by The Marshall Plan.  Directed by Victor Vicas, produced “with the assistance of the children of the Republic of Sèvres.”  Narrated in English by Madeleine Carroll, who also appears as herself.  This film was used as a fundraising tool by UNICEF.

Difficult times can produce amazing situations. WWII and the Nazi invasion of France destroyed families and shattered lives all over Europe. Countless children were orphaned and rendered homeless when their parents were either killed in the war or arrested by the Nazi’s and never returned. Many children lost arms and legs in the Allied bombings, and there were Jewish children who needed to be hidden. These were all children with desperate needs who found a home and an education at Maison d’enfants de Sèvres, (“House of the Children of Sèvres”).

The horrors of the war are only alluded to in the film we will see today. It is not mentioned that some of the children we see had survived the concentration camps, nor that some of them had British and American fathers who vanished when the war ended. All we are told in the narration by Madeleine Carroll is that these are children whose parents were deported during the war and never returned, and that these children are finding their way back to a normal life. But the past trauma of these children did not need to be explained as viewers of the late 40s would have understood.

What this film does is paint a bright and hopeful picture of the school in post-war France, and presents what is still considered a progressive pedagogy of allowing the children to study what interests them, what they find to be fun, and of allowing the children some control over the rules of their home and school.  When one considers the grim beginning of this organization, this film is even more powerful in its portrayal of a supportive atmosphere for children. As Carroll explains in the narration, they are learning that they have the right and freedom to try to make things better.

Madeleine Carroll (1906-1987) was a British-born actress who later moved to the United States where she continued to appear in films.  Today she is best known for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.”  She also appeared in “The General Died at Dawn,” “Lloyd’s of London,” “The Prizoner of Zenda,” and many other films and later on television programs. She was known for her intelligence as much as for her beauty, (she graduated from college at the age of 20).

After her sister was killed in the Blitz in October of 1940, Carroll became the Entertainment Director for the United Seamen’s Service, and assumed the name of Madeleine Hamilton to quietly become a Red Cross nurse.

Two things in this film that catch 21st century American audiences by surprise: the children drink beer at dinner, and one brief scene shows the younger children naked together in the shower. These are pieces of time from another culture over seventy years ago.  (1949 Kodak film stock, density soundtrack)

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

trailer (Warner Bros., 1935)

This original coming attractions trailer for the 1935 Warner Bros. production of Shakespeare’s play presents Olivia deHavilland (1916-2020) standing in front of a curtain telling the audience how wonderful the film is and how excited she is to have this be her first appearance in a movie.

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TALENT SCOUT

(Universal International Color Parade, 1954)  Produced by Thomas Mead, Edited by Ed Bartsch, Photographed by Irving Smith and Dan Cavelli, Narrated by Tex Antoine, Written by Allan Kitschel Jr., Directed by Arthur Cohen.

Larrain D’Essen, (1919-1970) along with her husband, Bernard (1914-1967) formed an agency that supplied animal “talent” for motion pictures, television, The Metropolitan Opera, the Broadway stage, and advertisements.  According to Larrain’s obituary in the New York Times (November 7, 1970, page 32), the D’Essens owned “lions, llamas, kangaroos and timber wolves, along with a score or more of dogs, cats and deer.  Mrs. D’Essen and her husband provided 2000 requests for animal talent, everything from a mosquito to an elephant.” In 1957 she penned “Kangaroos in the Kitchen,” a story about her animal talent agency.

In this short film Larrain and several children are seen interacting with various animals at the game farm.

Narrator Tex Antoine (1923-1983) was a popular New York television weatherman for some thirty years.

This rare film was produced in 1954 at the once popular Catskill Game Farm (in Catskill, New York).  At the time it was considered the largest private zoo in the United States, it operated from 1933 to 2006, was home to some 2,000 animals and was visited by tens of millions of people.  (Although there are no longer any animals housed there you can still visit, stay overnight and explore the vast property with most of the original buildings intact.)  There is also some footage shot on New York’s Governors Island.  (1954 Kodachrome, variable area sound track)

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LIMOUSINE LOVE

Hal roach, April 14, 1928.  Starring Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy, Viola Richard, Edna Marion and Bull Montana.

On the way to his wedding, through circumstances best described by seeing the film, Charley Chase (1893-1940) finds a nude woman in his car and its not his fiancé! It’s not bad enough that he has to ditch this woman before his fiancé discovers her, the woman’s husband is also a threat!

21st century audiences might be surprised to find a film from the 1920s dealing with nudity.  But its all handled in an hilariously chaste and frantic manner.  This falls into the class of “one of the funniest movies you’ve never seen.”

Print stuck in 2007 on Kodak film stock from the best available material.