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Men in War (1957)
“The UCLA Festival of Preservation doesn’t have a motto, but if it did it might be, ‘Give me your tired films, your huddled masses of forgotten and decaying cinema, and I will breathe fire into them and set them free.’” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
After a successful premiere at the Billy Wilder Theater in March 2015, the UCLA Festival of Preservation hit the road in September and will continue to tour North America in 2016. Audiences at select venues have the unique opportunity to see these newly restored films in 35mm on the big screen. The tour is currently at Rochester’s Eastman Museum, and will continue at International House Philadelphia in January.
While the Archive has restored many beloved Hollywood A-pictures, it is also committed to restoring a wide range of materials – including works that were underappreciated at their initial release, smaller independent films that have fallen by the wayside, and titles by established filmmakers that have been overshadowed by other recognized masterworks. “UCLA Film & Television Archive has always endeavored to preserve a broad range of materials," notes Archive director Jan-Christopher Horak, "reflecting not only the breath and depth of our collections, but also to represent film history as much as possible without historical preconceptions.”
Among the highlights of the tour is Men in War (1957), director Anthony Mann’s only war film. While the film was well-received in Europe, it was met with indifference in Eisenhower’s America and deemed offensive to “the dignity of commissioned and non-commissioned officers” by the U.S. Army. Avoiding familiar Hollywood conventions, Mann’s depiction of the harsh realities of the Korean War was ahead of its time, and has been cited by the director as one of his best works. At the Billy Wilder Theater, actor L.Q. Jones explained, “It ain’t pretty, and it’s not enjoyable. But it’s something that a writer, a director, and 2 or 3 other men really wanted to say; and they said it. It doesn’t have the curlicues of most war pictures… It’s one of those pictures that when it first comes out doesn’t seem to work and then it will start kind of behind the scenes to pick up steam and this one has done that.”
Watch actor L.Q. Jones and Archive director Jan-Christopher Horak discuss Men in War (1957):
Another title worthy of rediscovery is director J.L. Anderson’s independent Spring Night, Summer Night (1967), a lyrical portrait of rural America. Declared by Village Voice as “the missing link between Shadows and The Last Picture Show,” the film was dropped from the 1968 New York Film Festival and subsequently re-edited and released as a bastardized version. The Archive-restored version is Anderson’s original cut, ready to take its place among the pantheon of American independent cinema. At the other end of the cinematic spectrum is the Poverty Row horror film White Zombie (1932). Starring Bela Lugosi as a nefarious sorcerer who holds a young woman spellbound, the film is significant as the progenitor of the zombie film genre. Carefully reconstructed from five different prints, this new restoration gives audiences a chance to witness Lugosi's inimitable, hypnotic gaze on the big screen once again.
Watch Archive head of preservation Scott MacQueen discuss White Zombie (1932):
View the 2015 - 2016 UCLA Festival of Preservation tour schedule >
– Nicole Carroll
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