Tenth Festival of Preservation

Friday, August 18
7:30 p.m.

ONE HOUR WITH YOU
(1932) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, assisted by George Cukor

ONE HOUR WITH YOU distills the most overt features of the famous "Lubitsch touch" to their comedic essence. Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald star as the happily married Parisian couple whose infidelities are forced upon them by the rapacious flirtations of Genevieve Tobin. Chevalier's frequent asides to the audience make the film more direct in its leering innuendo than any other Lubitsch comedy of the '30s–a procession of double entendres, hidden meanings, mistaken assumptions and off-camera assignations. The final scene, with its relay of looks and pantomimed promptings, is one of the most delightful in the Lubitsch oeuvre.

Producer: E. Lubitsch. Screenplay: Samson Raphaelson. Based on the play Nur ein Traum, Lustspiel im 3 Akten (Only a Dream) by Lothar Schmidt. Cinematography: Victor Milner. Music: Richard A. Whiting, Oscar Strauss. Lyrics: Leo Robin. With: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Genevieve Tobin, Charlie Ruggles. 35mm, tinted, 84 min.

Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

THE SMILING LIEUTENANT
(1931) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

THE SMILING LIEUTENANT was Lubitsch's third musical in a row. Characteristically, his approach to the genre was a unique blend of the developing tradition of American musical comedy and the conventions of Viennese operetta remembered from his youth. Lubitsch's early sound films retained the musical integration (along with the far-fetched plot complications) of operetta, but added clever patter songs and the distinctly unoperatic delivery of music-hall performers like Maurice Chevalier. In this film, Chevalier is a Viennese lieutenant who is forced to marry a homely princess, despite his love for a beer-garden violinist (Claudette Colbert).

Producer: E. Lubitsch. Screenplay: Ernest Vajda, Samson Raphaelson. Based on the operetta Ein Waltzertraum by Felix Dörmann, Leopold Jacobson, and the novel Nux der Prinzegemahl by Hans Müller. Cinematography: George Folsey. Editor: Merrill White. Music: Oscar Strauss. Lyrics: Clifford Grey. With: Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins, Charlie Ruggles. 35mm, 88 min.

Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

Preceded by
HOLLYWOOD ON PARADE NO. B-5
(1933) With: Mae West, Cecil B. DeMille. 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by Mrs. Jack Oakie.

Saturday, August 19
7:30 p.m.

GOD'S LITTLE ACRE
(1958) Directed by Anthony Mann

GOD'S LITTLE ACRE is probably the least known of Anthony Mann's major works. This generally faithful adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's grotesque vision of a poor white Southern family would appear to stand well outside the cycles of brutal film noirs, neurotic westerns and historical epics that earned Mann his reputation as one of Hollywood 's most expressive stylists of post-war genre cinema. Yet in the film's biblical overtones, its enlarged characters driven by obsessive visions and its impulses of fratricidal revenge overtaking a divided family, Mann finds common ground for some of his most consistent thematic concerns. Producer: Sidney Harmon, A. Mann. Screenplay: Philip Yordan. Based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell. Cinematography: Ernest Haller. Editor: Richard C. Meyer. With: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Tina Louise, Buddy Hackett. 35mm, 120 min.

Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute.

THE GREAT FLAMARION
(1945) Directed by Anthony Mann

Film academic Jeanine Basinger called the title character of THE GREAT FLAMARION a "prototypical Mann hero, a man with a wounded past who carries the scar into the present." Played with moments of unexpected tenderness by Erich von Stroheim, Flamarion is an aging marksman caught in a sordid net of murder, seduction and betrayal woven by a scheming femme fatale working the vaudeville circuit with him. Von Stroheim and Mann clashed notoriously during the production of this film. Mann recalled that von Stroheim "drove me mad. He was a genius. I'm not a genius, I'm a worker." His claims notwithstanding, Mann tells the story with artful dexterity.

Producer: William Wilder. Screenplay: Anne Wigton, Heinz Herald, Richard Weil. Based on the short story Big Shot by Vicki Baum. Cinematography: James S. Brown, Jr. Editor: John F. Link. With: Erich von Stroheim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea. 35mm, 78 min.

Preservation funded by the AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program.

Sunday, August 20
7:00 p.m.

FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE
(1934) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

DeMille's fanciful picture strands four desperate characters in the Malayan jungle, then confronts them with a host of terrifying and comedic incidents. Despite its lack of box-office clout and critical acclaim (Variety wasn't sure if it was "stark tragedy, or unbelievable farce"), the film is an example of skilled craft by Hollywood luminaries at the peak of their careers. One can't help admiring a movie in which Claudette Colbert transforms herself from prim schoolmarm to jungle goddess by virtue of fierce determination and a leopard skin dress.

Screenplay: Bartlett Cormack, Lenore Coffee. Based on the novel by E. Arnot Robertson. Cinematography: Karl Struss. Editor: Anne Bauchens. With: Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland, William Gargan. 35mm, 78 min.

THE PAINTED WOMAN
(1932) Directed by John Blystone

This South Seas tale of greed, passion, sacrifice and redemption was produced before the Production Code's strict enforcement, making for its honest character portrayals and frank situations. Similarities to Somerset Maugham's "Miss Thompson"–adapted for the screen as SADIE THOMPSON in 1928 and RAIN in 1932–are evident though THE PAINTED WOMAN is not as preachy. Spencer Tracy's youthful exuberance is fun to watch, particularly in light of the more stoic roles he would go on to portray. Red-haired Peggy Shannon, hailed at the time as the new "It" girl, plays the hot tamale trying to clean up her act.

Screenplay: Guy Bolton, Leon Gordon. Based on the play After the Rain by Alfred C. Kennedy. Cinematography: Ernest Palmer. Editor: Alex Troffey. With: Spencer Tracy, Peggy Shannon, William Boyd, Irving Pichel. 35mm, 73 min.

Preservation funded by the AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program and the Venice Film Festival.

Preceded by
BALLOON LAND
(1934) A COMICCOLOR CARTOON by Ub Iwerks. 35mm, 7 min.
Preserved through Treasures of American Film Archives, a National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Project, organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Additional funding by Tom E. Murray.

Wednesday, August 23
7:30 p.m.

This program pairs the newly preserved KILLER OF SHEEP by Charles Burnett with the director's selection of a favorite film previously preserved by the Archive. Mr. Burnett says of his selection of TABU:

"I was always impressed by the pure simplicity of the story. The other quality that I like about the film is that one gets the sense that the filmmakers totally respected the subject. The story doesn't seem imposed and the camera is nicely unobtrusive. The people in the story seem so very real. There is honesty about the film. I would like to see it every now and then."

KILLER OF SHEEP
(1977) Directed by Charles Burnett

An incredible film by any measure, Charles Burnett's feature debut was recently named to the National Film Registry, making it an official American classic, if not the American BICYCLE THIEF that some have termed it. KILLER OF SHEEP is without a doubt astonishing poetry, a seamless tango of realist sting and stylized grace notes, penetrating wit and agonizing heartbreak. The film centers around Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), whose brutal job in a Watts slaughterhouse can barely sustain his family. Assaulted by penury, powerlessness and lack of opportunity, this family's humanity surfaces in their formidable daily struggle and moments of relishing beauty and hope. Producer/Screenplay/Cinematography/Editor: C. Burnett. With: Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett. 35mm, 87 min. Preservation funded by the Ahmanson Foundation in association with the Sundance Institute.

TABU: A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS
(1931) Directed by F.W. Murnau

This unique collaboration between two legends: F.W. Murnau and documentarian Robert Flaherty, tells of the love of a sun-bronzed Tahitian fisherman for a young woman whose body has been consecrated to the gods, rendering her tabu for mortal men. The filmmakers had their differences, and Flaherty ended up relinquishing control of the film to Murnau. It was Murnau's knack for the rhythms of editing, and the lyricism and simplicity of tone he achieved, that makes TABU the masterpiece it is.

Screenplay: F.W. Murnau, Robert J. Flaherty. Cinematography: Floyd Crosby. Music: Hugo Riesenfeld. With: Matahi, Reri, Jean, Hitu. 35mm, 81 min.

Preservation funded by the late Floyd Crosby.

In person: Charles Burnett (schedule permitting)

Thursday, August 24
7:30 p.m.

THE HOME MAKER
(1925) Directed by King Baggot

THE HOME MAKER explores gender role reversal and a married couple's differing quests for personal fulfillment. The husband (Clive Brook) is an impractical dreamer with a knack for raising children but no head for business. The wife (Alice Joyce) is an efficient taskmaster more concerned with clean floors than needy youngsters. She enters the job market, and wows the retail world with her innovations and congeniality. Not surprisingly, this unusual drama (even by today's standards) was developed by two women: Dorothy Canfield, a popular novelist of the '20s, and Mary O'Hara, who adapted Canfield's story for the screen.

Scenario: Mary O'Hara. Based on the novel by Dorothy Canfield. Cinematography: John Stumar. With: Alice Joyce, Clive Brook, Billy Kent Schaeffer, George Fawcett. 35mm, silent, tinted, approx. 85 min.

Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

SENSATION SEEKERS (1927) Directed by Lois Weber Lois Weber is considered by many the most important American woman director of the silent era. SENSATION SEEKERS was one of her last films, and it examines the changing gender relations of the Jazz Age, when emancipated and newly enfranchised women bobbed their hair, abandoned their corsets, and scandalously drank and smoked in public. The story charts the love affair between the decadent flapper Egypt Hagen and the upright Reverend Norman Lodge. It also presents the hypocrisy and jealousies of a small town, where the handsome minister has caused a sensation among the local women. Scenario: L. Weber. Based on the short story Egypt by Ernest Pascal. Cinematography: Ben Kline. With: Billie Dove, Huntley Gordon, Raymond Bloomer, Phillips Smalley. 35mm, silent, approx. 80 min. Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

Preceded by
THE YOUNG RAJAH–TRAILER
(1922) Directed by Philip Rosen. Scenario: June Mathis. With: Rodolph Valentino, Wanda Hawley. 35mm, silent, 1 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

MOONLAND
(Late '20s) By Neil McGuire and William A. O'Connor. With: Mickey McBan. 35mm, silent, approx. 10 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

Live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel

Friday, August 25
7:30 p.m.

SEVEN MEN FROM NOW
(1956) Directed by Budd Boetticher

Budd Boetticher's first great western was also the first in a remarkable series of collaborations between the director and his star, Randolph Scott. Scott lends iconic stature to his role as a vengeful ex-lawman hunting down the men who killed his wife. Lee Marvin plays the charismatic outlaw who teams up with Scott for his own reasons. While laced with laconic humor, Burt Kennedy's script is a model of narrative economy, a journey structure stripped down to its essential dramatic episodes. SEVEN MEN FROM NOW exploits with intelligence, simplicity and rigor the inherent expressive potential of the genre. Producer: Andrew V. McLaglen, Robert E. Morrison. Screenplay/Based on a story by Burt Kennedy. Cinematography: William H. Clothier. Art Director: Leslie Thomas. Editor: Everett Sutherland. With: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin, Walter Reed. 35mm, WarnerColor, 77 min.

Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY
(1951) Directed by Budd Boetticher

Boetticher was an apprentice matador in Mexico before he got his Hollywood break. BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY is the screen adaptation of that formative bullfighting experience. A modest studio melodrama produced by no less than cowboy icon John Wayne, BULLFIGHTER stars Robert Stack as the director's surrogate, a young American who learns the art of bullfighting from a venerable Mexican matador. Less a love story than a tribute to the mystique of the matador, the film is distinguished by bullfighting scenes that are rendered in documentary detail, with exhilarating, hard-won accuracy.

Producer: John Wayne. Screenplay: James Edward Grant. Based on a story by B. Boetticher, Ray Nazarro. Cinematography: Jack Draper. Art Director: Alfred Ybarra. Editor: Richard L. Van Enger. With: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey. 35mm, 124 min.

Preservation funded by the AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program.

In person: Budd Boetticher, Burt Kennedy

Saturday, August 26
7:30 p.m.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC
(1950) Directed by Michael Gordon

Edmond Rostand's play about big-nosed Cyrano and his unrequited love for the fair Roxanne has held the boards since 1897 because Rostand cloaked his old-fashioned dramaturgy in verse of a rich sonorousness that is as satisfying for actors to speak as it is for audiences to hear. José Ferrer clearly relished the mouth-filling lines of the familiar Brian Hooker translation and, alone among the cast, seemed to understand that Cyrano's predicament is more comic than tragic. His Cyrano does not wallow in self-pity, but takes a connoisseur's delight in the spectacle of his own suffering. Ferrer was rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar for his witty performance. Producer: Stanley Kramer. Screenplay: Carl Foreman. Based on the play by Edmond Rostand, as translated by Brian Hooker. Cinematography: Frank Planer. Production Designer: Rudolph Sternad. Editor: Harry Gerstad. With: José Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince, Morris Carnovsky. 35mm, 113 min.

This film has been preserved through a generous donation from Myra Teitelbaum Reinhard, UCLA class of '58, in loving memory of her grandfather Nathan, father Ben and uncle Harry Teitelbaum.

Preceded by
RARE HOLLYWOOD SCREEN TESTS
Mrs. Patrick Campbell
(c. 1930) George Bernard Shaw's favorite actress portrays Eliza Doolittle and Lady Macbeth, and talks about "The Importance of Beautiful Speech."

Katharine Hepburn
(1932) Hepburn appears in a scene from Philip Barry's play, The Animal Kingdom, with Colin Keith-Johnston.

Lee J. Cobb
(1937) Cobb performs a scene from the Group Theatre production, Men in White.

Also Morris Carnovsky (1937), Elia Kazan (1937) and others.

In person: Stanley Kramer

Introduced by Robert Gitt, UCLA Preservation Officer