"Providing our audience not only with rare big-screen access to cinema’s greatest classics and treasures, but also the even rarer opportunity to see them projected from beautiful, pristine celluloid prints..."—Pacific Cinémathèque, Vancouver
As director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, it is my great pleasure to introduce the 14th iteration of the UCLA Festival of Preservation, when the Archive presents films preserved by its world-renowned preservation department. The Festival again offers a veritable mixture of the ancient and the modern, silent masterpieces and sound diversions, fictional shorts and full-length documentaries.
We open this year's Festival with John Cassavetes' masterpiece, A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and close with a very special presentation of Edward S. Curtis' In The Land of the Head Hunters (1914), a fictional documentary shot on location with indigenous North Americans.
Between these poles of American independent cinema, viewers will have plenty of opportunity to see premieres of restored classic Hollywood films by many of the industry's greatest auteurs, including Josef von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Joseph Losey, Frank Borzage, Cecil B. DeMille and Edgar G. Ulmer. We are particularly proud of our sole foreign film, Gamperaliya (1964), the first independent film from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).
We also pay homage to the UCLA Film & Television Archive's vast collection of American television with a special evening of programs, featuring the Everly Brothers in "Johnny Cash Presents The Everly Brothers Show."
It must be said that without crucial, ongoing financial support, our preservation and programming activities would, quite simply, come to a halt. All of our preservation work and public programs--including this Festival--are funded by donations from government agencies, foundations, corporations and individuals. We are proud to acknowledge those organizations and individuals who have given generously.
Dr. Jan-Christopher Horak
Director
UCLA Film & Television Archive
NOTE: 12 films from the Archive's 14th Festival of Preservation will tour North America after the Los Angeles event. Some of the cities scheduled for the tour are: New York; Washington, DC; Chicago; Columbus, OH; Houston; and Vancouver, BC.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and GUCCI
A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974)
Directed by John Cassavetes
Over 30 years after its self-distributed release, screenwriter-director John Cassavetes' masterpiece retains the power to shock and unnerve for its raw, often harrowing depiction of a blue-collar Los Angeles family on the rocks. At its trembling heart, Gena Rowlands' performance as Mabel Longhetti, wife of everyman Nick (Peter Falk) and mother of three, stands as a virtually unmatched tour de force. As a woman struggling to reconcile who she thinks she should be--as wife, mother, lover--with the anarchic spirit she really is, Mabel is the kind of complex woman's role that is still all too rare in Hollywood's output.
Faces International Films, Inc.. Producer: Sam Shaw. Screenplay: John Cassavetes. Cinematographer: Mitchell Breit. Camera: Mike Farris. Editor: David Armstrong, Sheila Viseltear, Beth Bergeron. Music: Bo Harwood. Cast: Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands, Katherine Cassavetes. 35mm, 155 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE SALVATION HUNTERS (1925)
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg's first film—shot for less than $4,800 on location in San Pedro, Chinatown and the San Fernando Valley—was possibly Hollywood's first "independent" production. The gritty realism of its locations, the lack of artifice in its story and the lower depths of its characters shocked audiences and the industry alike. The film remains thoroughly modern. Sternberg's images thrive on composition and stasis. His ending resolves nothing and yet everything is different. The Salvation Hunters made a star not only of Sternberg, but also of Georgia Hale, who would play opposite Chaplin in The Gold Rush (1925).
Academy Photoplays. Producer: Josef von Sternberg. Screenwriter: Josef von Sternberg. Cinematographer: Edward Gheller. Editor: Josef von Sternberg. Cast: George K. Arthur, Georgia Hale, Bruce Guerin, Otto Matiesen, Nellie Bly Baker. 35mm, 72 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
OIL: A SYMPHONY IN MOTION (1933)
Directed by M.G. MacPherson
Oil was produced by a Los Angeles collective of amateur filmmakers, called "Artkino," who here attempted a lyric documentary from the point of view of the oil itself. Cinematographer: Jean Michelson. 35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
YOUNG AMERICA (1932)
Directed by Frank Borzage
The typical Borzage film of the early ‘30s was characterized by pictorial lyricism and a tender portrayal of young lovers who found poetry and beauty in the midst of poverty. In Young America, Borzage's usual pair of lovers was replaced by two male school chums in their early teens, Art Simpson (Tommy Conlon) and Edward "Nutty" Beamish (Raymond Borzage, the director's nephew). Borzage so invests their friendship with chaste ardor and transformative power that the young actors easily outshine stars Spencer Tracy and Doris Kenyon as a married couple who take responsibility for Art after a scrape with the law.
Fox Film Corp/Frank Borzage Production. Screenplay: William Conselman. Cinematographer: George Schneiderman. Editor: Margaret Clancy. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Doris Kenyon, Ralph Bellamy, Tommy Conlon, Raymond Borzage. 35mm, 71 min.
Preservation funded by Twentieth Century Fox
SONG O' MY HEART (1930)
Directed by Frank Borzage
The great Irish tenor John McCormack made his talking picture debut in this sentimental drama about a disconsolate concert singer who retires to a country village until the unexpected return of his former sweetheart and her two children inspires him to resume his career. In English-speaking countries, the film was released in an all-talking version, but a special version with additional songs and silent intertitles instead of spoken dialogue was prepared for international release. We will screen the talking version in its entirety, followed by excerpts from the international version.
Fox Film Corp.. Scenario: Tom Barry, Sonya Levien. Cinematographer: Al Brick. Camera: Tom Clifford. Editor: Margaret Clancy. Cast: John McCormack, Alice Joyce,Maureen O'Sullivan, J. M. Kerrigan. 35mm, 85 min.
THE FILM PARADE & VITAGRAPH TREASURES
Years before he began work on his groundbreaking The Film Parade, J. Stuart Blackton had previously etched his name in cinematic history as a founder of the Vitagraph Company of America. The Archive has preserved a number of the surviving
Vitagraph films, including the two titles selected for this program.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE FILM PARADE (1934)
Directed by J. Stuart Blackton
Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-minute feature calledThe Film Parade that was shown in New York and favorably reviewed by Variety in 1933. He continued tinkering with the film for the rest of the decade, and later filmmakers and distributors used Blackton's footage for stock or to produce their own variously titled and truncated versions. The Archive has completed restoration of the original 1933 version in 35mm, with tinted sequences and Blackton's heartfelt narration.
Screenplay: J. Stuart Blackton. Cast: Marian Blackton, Violet Blackton, Margerie Bonner, J. Stuart Blackton Jr., J. Stuart Blackton. 35mm, 70 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
HER CROWNING GLORY (1911)
Directed by Laurence Trimble
An early entry in the series of John Bunny/Flora Finch comedy vehicles, Her Crowning Glory derives its plot from a facetious twist of the Samson and Delilah story. Vitagraph. Cast: John Bunny, Flora Finch, Helene Costello, Mae Costello, Edith Halleran. 35mm, silent, 16 min.
Preservation funded by Cinema 89
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1911)
Directed by William Humphrey
A Tale of Two Cities (1911) was one of several pioneering efforts by the Vitagraph, a.k.a. "Big V," to break away from the then industry-standard one-reeler to produce films of feature length. The studio successfully released the film in one-reel parts over the span of a week to test the public's appetite for longer and more complex narrative fare. Critics of the day lauded their efforts and suggested to theatre owners that the three parts be shown together, spurring Vitagraph to release their next three-reel literary adaptation (Vanity Fair, 1911) as one contiguous feature film. A Tale of Two Cities stars Maurice Costello (whose daughter plays the mischievous little girl in Her Crowning Glory) and Florence Turner, and helped launch the careers of Norma Talmadge, James Morrison and Lillian Walker.
Vitagraph. Based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Screenplay: Eugene Mullin. Cast: Maurice Costello, Florence Turner, Leo Delaney, Charles Kent, William Humphrey. 35mm, silent, 53 min.
"More than ever, [the Festival] offers a wide range of genres, periods and interests, including the avant-garde, documentaries (like Emile de Antonio’s still-vital Point of Order), music shorts (the Vitagraph Follies return!), newsreels, silents, film noir (Joseph Losey’s The Prowler), chicano indies and Hal Roach slapsticks, but also, perhaps more shockingly, films we thought had never left us." —LA Weekly
Preservation funded by the Film Noir Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE PROWLER (1951)
Directed by Joseph Losey
Set in a shadowy post-war Los Angeles, The Prowler focuses on a wealthy but neglected housewife (Evelyn Keyes) who spends her evenings alone, with only her husband's voice on the radio for company. When she's spooked by a peeping tom, a calculating cop (Van Heflin) answers the call, turning her ordered life upside down.The Prowler was the third of five films Losey made in Hollywood, and the most critically and commercially successful. The following year Losey was officially blacklisted and soon embarked on a career abroad where he eventually earned a reputation as a European auteur.
Horizon Pictures, Inc.. Based on a story by Robert Thoeren and Hans Wilhelm. Producer: Sam Spiegel. Screenplay: Hugo Butler, Dalton Trumbo. Cinematographer:Arthur Miller. Editor: Paul Weatherwax. Cast: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katharine Warren, Emerson Treacy. 35mm, 92 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE HOODLUM (1951)
Directed by Max Nossek
This briskly paced, low-budget, B film noir features quintessential tough guy, Lawrence Tierney, in a most fitting role as Vincent Lubeck, an angry, brooding, habitual criminal, who after five years in the joint is released on parole to live with his mother and brother Johnny (played by Tierney's real life brother, Edward). Sent to work at the family gas station, Vincent grows bitter and restless, and begins plotting his escape from the menial labor of his humdrum life. Completely void of fear, pain and compassion, Vincent has no qualms about destroying everyone and everything in his path.
Jack Schwarz Productions, Inc. / Eagle-Lion Classics, Inc.. Producer: Maurice Kosloff. Screenplay: Sam Neuman, Nat Tanchuck. Cinematographer: Clark Ramsey. Editor:Jack Killifer. Cast: Lawrence Tierney, Allene Roberts, Marjorie Riordan, Lisa Golm, Edward Tierney. 35mm, 63 min.
Preservation funded by Anarchists' Convention
BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984)
Directed by John Sayles
For his fourth feature, John Sayles gave the well-worn sci-fi trope of the alien a revitalized punch with African American actor Joe Morton starring as a visitor from beyond the stars. After ditching his malfunctioning spaceship at Ellis Island, Morton's mute newcomer, known only as "The Brother," navigates the customs of Manhattan's residents while searching for a place to call home. From his initial refuge in a Harlem bar, he encounters a cross section of earthlings who read him--and the world--through a puzzling prism of race, class and ethnicity, a scenario Sayles taps for both brilliant comedy and commentary.
A-Train Films / Cinecom Pictures. Producer: Peggy Rajski, Maggie Renzi. Screenplay: John Sayles. Cinematographer: Ernest R. Dickerson. Editor: John Sayles. Cast: Joe Morton, Rosanna Carter, Ray Ramirez, Yves Rene, Peter Richardson. 35mm, 108 min.
Preservation funded by Anarchists' Convention
RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS 7 (1980)
Directed by John Sayles
Made several years before director Lawrence Kasdan's better known The Big Chill (1983), John Sayles' directorial debut is a sometimes funny, sometimes melancholy look at the lives of a group of formerly radical friends, who gather for a reunion in New Hampshire 10 years after they were arrested in Secaucus, New Jersey while driving to a demonstration in Washington, D.C. Sayles, in what has become his trademark style, underplays the drama of these rather ordinary lives, giving us a group portrait of persons settling uncomfortably into the middle class existences they once abhorred. Lacking Chill's melodrama, what emerges is a film about a baby boomer generation growing old before its time.
Salsipuedes Productions. Producer: William Aydelot, Jeffrey Nelson. Screenplay: John Sayles. Cinematographer: Austin de Besche. Editor: John Sayles. Cast: Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp. 35mm, 110 min.
Preservation funded by The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation
PARTING GLANCES—TRAILER (1986)
35mm, 2 min.
"A HAL ROACH SILENT SAMPLER"
Any discussion of early comedy will inevitably include Hal Roach. Whether directing, writing or producing, Roach enjoyed success with a number of leading comedians, such as Charley Chase. But for every household name, there were other less well-known players whose appeal also contributed to Roach's success. Chase's brother, James Parrott, for instance, starred in a number of Roach shorts, while names such as Glenn Tryon, Arthur Stone and Eddie Boland are overlooked because of the difficulty of seeing their films on screen. Accordingly, this program features the work of those unsung Roach comedians who deserve a second, if not a first, look. Total running time: approx. 136 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
AMONG THOSE PRESENT (1921)
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer
Lloyd's familiar glasses character is found telling tall stories, and riding even taller in the saddle. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Screenplay: Hal Roach, Sam Taylor. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, James Kelly. 35mm, approx. 30 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE BOY FRIEND (1928)
Directed by Fred Guiol
Max Davidson's crazy behavior fails to scare away a potential suitor for his daughter but manages to open the floodgates for all to join him. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Screenplay: Leo McCarey. Cinematographer: Len Powers. Editor: Richard Currier. Cast: Max Davidson, Bill Elliot, Marion Byron, Edgar Kennedy. 35mm, approx. 20 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theater Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive
CHARLEY MY BOY (1926)
Directed by Leo McCarey
Charley Chase was one of the bigger stars for Roach, and continued making shorts like this one into the sound years. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Cinematographer: Harry Gersted. Editor: Richard Currier. Cast: Charley Chase, Katherine Grant. 35mm, approx. 25 min.
Funding provided by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
JAILED AND BAILED (1923)
Directed by J.A. Howe
For those who may have forgotten, the brother of Charley Chase (known here as James Parrott) also starred in comedic shorts before permanently adopting the director's role. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Cast: James Parrott, Jobyna Ralston, George Rowe. 35mm, approx. 11 min.
Preserved by The Stanford Theater Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive
JUST A GOOD GUY (1924)
Directed by Hampton Del Ruth
Known primarily as a western sidekick in the sound years, Arthur Stone delivers a quintessential Roach performance which will remind modern audiences of Pee Wee Herman. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Cinematographer: Frank Young. Editor: T. J. Crizer. Cast: Arthur Stone, Olive Borden, Fay Wray, Kewpie Morgan. 35mm, approx. 25 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
LONG PANTS (1926)
Directed by Fred Guiol
Like James Parrott, Glenn Tryon would go on to direct in later years after serving his time in Hal Roach shorts. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Cast: Glenn Tryon, Blanche Mehaffey. 35mm, approx. 25 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
THE NAKED EYE (1957)
Directed by Louis Clyde Stoumen
Director Louis Clyde Stoumen's evocative documentary on the art and history of photography begins with a quote from Ecclesiastes--"Truly the light is sweet..."--before a quick recounting of the medium's 100-year technical development. From there, Stoumen sharpens focus with extended narrative sequences on key artists. Alfred Eisenstaedt and Weegee are each featured while the second half is largely devoted to Edward Weston. In addition to traditional live-action footage, Stoumen, who taught film production classes at UCLA, brought scores of stills to life using a technique he called "photographic animation," predating Ken Burns' signature style by decades.
Camera Eye Pictures, Inc.. Producer: Louis Clyde Stoumen. Screenwriter: Louis Clyde Stoumen. Cinematographer: Louis Clyde Stoumen. Editor: Louis Clyde Stoumen. Cast: Raymond Massey, Weegee , Edward Weston, Brett Weston, Cole Weston. 35mm, 71 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
THE BRIDGE: A TRUE STORY OF A TROUBLED CHILD (1958)
Directed by Louis Clyde Stoumen and Abram D. Murray
Stoumen's short dramatic film about an emotionally troubled boy. Camera Eye Pictures, Inc.. Producer: Bernice Block. Screenplay: Alan Marcus. Cinematographer: Edward R. Martin. Editor: Harry Robin. Narrator: Robert Ryan. Cast: Hugh Corcoran, Biff Elliot, Beverly Dvorett. 35mm, approx. 27 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
WEDLOCK (1950)
Directed by Louis Clyde Stoumen and Ed Spiegel An experimental short co-directed by Stoumen while he was a graduate student at USC. 35mm, 4 min.
Preservation funded by The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation with additional support provided by the members of Outfest
PARTING GLANCES (1986)
Directed by Bill Sherwood
In 1985, while the gay community seethed over the Reagan administration's indifference to AIDS, writer-director Bill Sherwood filmed this charmingly quirky piece that gracefully placed a human face on the epidemic. Over the course of 24 hours, lovers Michael (Richard Ganoung) and Robert (John Bolger) emotionally joust as Robert prepares to leave for overseas. A quasi-autobiographical character, Michael confronts his separation anxiety with ironic fortitude as he faces Robert's departure and the illness of his ex-lover and best friend, Nick, vividly played by Steve Buscemi. A meditation on the complexities in all relationships, Sherwood's film is also an atmospheric valentine to New York City.
Rondo Pictures. Producer: Yoram Mandel, Arthur Silverman. Screenplay: Bill Sherwood. Cinematographer: Jacek Laskus. Editor: Bill Sherwood. Cast: Richard Ganoung,John Bolger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, Kathy Kinney. 35mm, 90 min.
"CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST'S FIRST GAY PARADE" (1970)
Directed by Pat Rocco. 16mm, 13 min.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation, The Packard Humanities Institute and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
SILENT AND EARLY SOUND FILMS FROM THE HEARST METROTONE NEWS COLLECTION (1919-30)
Co-presented with Sony Pictures and Research Video
The UCLA Film & Television Archive recently completed a project funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation. With this funding, some of the oldest and most endangered newsreels in the collection have been preserved and restored. The newsreels include both silent era and sound newsreels from the first year of sound production (1929-30). Highlights from the silent era will include an obituary for President Theodore Roosevelt and the newsreel story "Women Besiege Capitol To Urge Suffrage Bills." Sound era selections will feature such titles as "Coolidge Reviews Bay State Fete" and "Edison Welcomes ‘Brightest' Boys." 35mm, approx. 100 min.
Preservation funded by Sony Pictures Entertainment
"JOHNNY CASH PRESENTS THE EVERLY BROTHERS SHOW" (ABC, 7/8/70-9/16/70)
Directed by Marty Pasetta
The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, had guested on many music and variety shows by the time they became TV headliners with this summer-replacement series in 1970. Though it lasted only three months, "Johnny Cash Presents The Everly Brothers Show" rides high on the Everly's engaging personalities, gorgeous harmonies and rapport with fellow musicians. The Archive has compiled a selection of highlights from seven of the show's 10 broadcasts, including musical numbers by Don and Phil, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder. This program also includes a compilation of the Everly Brothers pre-1970 TV appearances, featuring many of their early hits.
Executive Producer: Harold D. Cohen, Joe Byrne. Producer: Bernie Kukoff, Jeff Harris. Writer: David Pollock, Elias Davis, Mike Settle, Jeff Harris, Bernie Kukoff, Allyn Ferguson. Music: Jack Elliott. Host: Don Everly, Phil Everly. Beta-SP, A Halcyon Productions Presentation, 90 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
POINT OF ORDER! (1963)
Directed by Emile de Antonio
Point of Order! is at once a landmark in political cinema and an incendiary aesthetic statement. Constructed entirely from CBS kinescopes of the controversial 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, the film famously eschewed both expert testimony and narration. Said a characteristically blunt Emile de Antonio, narration is "inherently fascist and condescending." But like the best of the concurrent direct cinema works, Point of Order!'s attitudes are constructed in its edit: a surface-level "objectivity" that is, in reality, brilliantly fabricated. The result is not just a searing indictment of McCarthyism, but an exposé of the fissures in American democracy as filtered through the new medium of television.
Point Films. Producer: Emile de Antonio, Daniel Talbot. Screenwriter: Emile de Antonio. Editor: Robert Duncan. 35mm, 97 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
SUNDAY (1961)
Directed by Dan Drasin
A stunning document of the police crackdown on a peaceful demonstration of folk singers in Washington Square Park in 1961. 35mm, 17 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and the Franco American Cultural Fund, a partnership of the Directors Guild of America; Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique; the Writers Guild of America, West; and the Motion Picture Association of America
SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR (1948)
Directed by Fritz Lang
Like many Hollywood woman's melodramas, Fritz Lang's The Secret Beyond The Door begins with a plot twist: a young woman marries a man she barely knows and soon suspects he's trying to drive her insane. Gothic themes of madness, mixed with Freudian psychoanalysis were particularly en vogue in the late 1940s and the story here affords Lang the opportunity to indulge in expressionist shadowscapes as well as his long-standing interest in architecture and its metaphoric connotations. Ultimately, however, the film is less about psychoanalysis, than about Stanley Cortez's beautifully photographed post-modern pastiche of gothic and expressionist imagery.
Diana Productions, Inc. / Universal. Based on a novel by Rufus King. Producer: Fritz Lang. Screenplay: Silvia Richards. Cinematographer: Stanley Cortez. Editor: Arthur Hilton. Cast: Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil, Natalie Schafer. 35mm, 99 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
POPULAR SCIENCE, VOL. J7-5 (1948)
Subjects include the influence of airplane design on cars, the use of flying discs to illustrate aerodynamics and the completion of the "Big Eye" at Caltech's Mt. Palomar observatory. 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Society for Cinephiles
LENA RIVERS (1914)
Directed by Unknown
This version of the classic drama Lena Rivers by Cosmos Features was one of a pair released in 1914 (the other from Garrison Films) yet it appears to be the only version still in existence. What also makes the Cosmos version unique is its use of comedy--as in the portrayals of the Slovendyke siblings by actors Charlie De Forest and Carolyn Rankin--to balance out the drama's heavy-handedness. As a result, the film offers modern audiences something more than just a window into the social mores of the past: Namely, laughs!
Cosmos Feature Film Corp.. Based on the novel by Mary Jane Holmes and the play by B. Poynter. Screenplay: Beulah Poynter. Cast: Beulah Poynter, Lizzie Conway,Robert Tabor, Charlie De Forest, Charles Hutchinson. 35mm, 60 min.
Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE (1916)
Directed by William D. Taylor
One of the few surviving works of silent-era director William Desmond Taylor, this melodrama revolves around an unsuspecting housewife, Alida Armstrong (Florence Rockwell), who tragically finds herself a homeless social outcast when the truth about her bigamist husband is revealed. Enter widower-farmer James Holcroft (Forrest Stanley), whose need for a housekeeper compels him to propose a loveless marriage of convenience to the hapless Alida. This unlikely pair discovers their path to happiness fraught with danger, although Taylor wisely alleviates the story's darker overtones with delightful scenes of humor and rustic charm.
Paramount Pictures. Based on the novel by E. P. Roe. Screenplay: Julia Crawford Ivers. Cast: Florence Rockwell, Forrest Stanley, Page Peters, Lydia Yeamans Titus, Howard Davis. 35mm, 50 min.
Preservation funded by Rich Correll
CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK (1930)
Directed by Melville Brown
By 1930, NBC's "Amos ‘n' Andy" was a radio phenomenon broadcasting six nights a week to over 30 million listeners. With interest bordering on a national craze, anticipation for the team's heavily promoted film debut was high. Photoplay predicted, "Fifty million Amos ‘n' Andy fans [would] mob the theaters to see their idols for the first time." Viewed three-quarters of a century later, the film offers an invaluable glimpse into the complex, indelicate racial dynamics of the Depression era. The film is also notable as the Hollywood feature debut of composer and bandleader Duke Ellington.
RKO. Producer: William LeBaron. Screenplay: Bert Kalmar, J. Walter Ruben, Harry Ruby. Cinematographer: William Marshall. Editor: Claude Berkeley. Cast: Freeman F. Gosden, Charles J. Correll, Sue Carol, Irene Rich, Ralf Harolde. 35mm, 71 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Preservation Grants Program
POINTED HEELS (1929)
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
A "backstage" musical of the early sound era, Pointed Heels is a must see for two reasons. The first is William Powell, displaying all his suave appeal as a dapper Broadway producer. Although he doesn't get the girl, Powell is a delight to watch. The second reason is Helen "Sugar" Kane, the Broadway singer who became the uncredited model for Betty Boop. In a rare screen role, Kane here interpolates her signature "boop-boop-a-doop" in the numbers "Ain'tcha?" and "I Have to Have You." This preservation also includes a two-color Technicolor sequence, not an uncommon occurrence at the time.
Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.. Based on the short story by Charles William Brackett. Scenario: Florence Ryerson, John V. A. Weaver. Cinematographer: Rex Wimpy. Editor: Jane Loring. Cast: William Powell, Fay Wray, Helen Kane, Richard Skeets Gallagher, Phillips Holmes. 35mm, 61 min.
Preservation funded by Cecilia de Mille Presley, The Ahmanson Foundation, David Stenn, the National Film Preservation Foundation, The Packard Humanities Institute, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Joseph Drown Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
"BEHIND THE SCENES IN HOLLYWOOD"
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is home to many unusual films showing Hollywood from the inside. This program will showcase some of the more interesting items from this unique collection of screen tests, home movies, newsreel footage and industrial films. Films to be shown include a screen test from 1932 featuring Ronald Colman, home movies of Mary Pickford, a promotional film by Max Factor, newsreel footage of Cecil B. DeMille speaking at Brigham Young University, home movies of Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin's 77th birthday party, Bob Hope joking with President Johnson and many more. 35mm, TRT: 100 min.
"My personal favorites every Festival fall into the treasures-from-the-attic category. What could be better than to sample the eclectic collection of rarities, oddities and one-offs that the Festival manages to rescue from the far corners of the Archive's staggering holdings?" —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS (1931)
Directed by Raoul Walsh
What Price Glory, a WWI dramedy directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe, was a blockbuster for Fox Film Corporation in 1926. Three years later, the studio re-teamed the director and stars with two sound sequels, The Cock-Eyed World (1929) and the later Women of All Nations. This third installment features plenty of pre-Code salaciousness with McLaglen and Lowe reprising their roles as two randy marines, Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, who spar over women (including the gorgeous Greta Nissen) in every port, from Nicaragua to Brooklyn.
Fox Film Corp.. Producer: Wm. Fox. Screenwriter: Barry Conners. Cinematographer: Lucien Andriot. Editor: Jack Dennis. Cast: Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Greta Nissen, El Brendel, Fifi D'Orsay. 35mm, 72 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation and the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
NOT EXACTLY GENTLEMEN (A.K.A. THREE ROGUES) (1931)
Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
UCLA Graduate Ben Stoloff's light-hearted comic Western centers on Ace, Bronco and Bull--three petty criminals on the run who encounter the not-exactly-guileless Lee Carleton (Fay Wray) on the eve of the Dakota land rush of 1877. Wray's Carleton proves the perfect counterpoint to the roguish trio and their protective instincts take over when an evil saloon owner tries to steal her gold claim. The mayhem that ensues culminates in a hilariously protracted horse and wagon stampede that must be seen to be believed. Slapstick veterans Lew Cody and Eddie Gribbon provide further comic relief while Wray and Victor McLaglen share a smoldering chemistry.
Fox Film Corp.. Producer: Wm. Fox. Screenwriter: William Conselman, Dudley Nichols. Cinematographer: Daniel Clark. Editor: Clyde Carruth. Cast: Victor McLaglen, Fay Wray, Lew Cody, Robert Warwick, Edward Gribbon. 35mm, 61 min.
Preservation funded by David Stenn
ACCENT ON GIRLS (1936)
Directed by Fred Waller
A swing music short starring Ina Ray Hutton and her all-girl band, the MeloDears. Screenwriter: Milton Hockey, Fred Rath. 35mm, 7 min.
Preservation funded by the family and friends of Todd Isroelit, and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
HELPMATES (1932)
Directed by James Parrott
Ollie enlists Stan's help in cleaning up his house after a wild party, with predictably catastrophic results. Hal Roach Studios. Producer: Hal Roach. Screenplay: H.M. Walker. Cinematographer: Art Lloyd, Richard C. Currier. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Bobby Burns, Robert Callahan, Blanche Payson. 35mm, 20 min.
Preservation funded by The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS)
RUN, TECATO, RUN (A.K.A. RUN, JUNKIE, RUN) (1979)
Directed by Efraín Gutiérrez
Run, Tecato, Run is the last of three low-budget social problem films by Efraín Gutiérrez--all restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Gutiérrez--the first Chicano feature director--not only starred in these films, but developed a grass-roots distribution strategy that allowed him to outperform Hollywood releases in several cities. Based on true incidents, Run, Tecato, Run depicts a junkie's efforts to get off heroin in order to reclaim and raise his daughter. Produced for $60,000, the film explores the connections between the Vietnam War, drug addiction and crime--juxtaposing these against Mexican American family, culture and spirituality.
Chicano Film Enterprises. Producer: Josephine Faz. Screenplay: Efraín Gutiérrez. Cinematographer: Josephine Faz, Efraín Gutiérrez. Editor: Efraín Gutiérrez. Cast: Efraín Gutiérrez, Arturo Castillo, Josie Gutierrez. 35mm, 86 min.
Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute and The Stanford Theatre
GAMPERALIYA (1964)
Directed by Lester James Peries
A seminal work in Sri Lankan cinema, Gamperaliya launched "a revolution, not only in the way films were made, but also in the content," according to producer Anton Wickramasinghe. Based on the novel by Martin Wickramasinghe, the film focuses on Piyal, a teacher and member of the new rising middle class, who falls in love with the daughter of his village's leading aristocratic clan. Defensive positions are assumed and the girl's parents insist upon a marriage to a stuffed shirt of her own class. For its elegant style, Gamperaliya has been compared to Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy."
Cinelanka Ltd.. Based on a novel by Martin Wickremasinghe. Producer: Anton Wickremasinghe. Screenplay: Regie Siriwardena. Cinematographer: William Blake. Camera: Gamini Fonseka. Editor: Sumitra Gunawardana. Cast: Punya Heeendeniya, Henry Jayasena, Wickrema Bogoda, Trelicia Gunawardena. Presented in Sinhala dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 120 min.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
RUTHLESS (1948)
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
Director Edgar G. Ulmer's complex psycho-melodrama Ruthless is undoubtedly worthy of rediscovery. A flashback-structured tale of a sociopath's remorseless drive for station and wealth, Ruthless (often referred to as Ulmer's Citizen Kane) employs a relentless undercurrent of emotional violence. As relayed in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Ulmer envisioned his feature as "a Jesuitic morality play… a very bad indictment against 100 percent Americanism--as Upton Sinclair saw it." The film's chilling, malevolent tone is personified in a starkly muted performance by lead--and frequent screen cad--Zachary Scott.
Eagle-Lion Films. Based on a novel by Dayton Stoddart. Producer: Arthur S. Lions. Screenwriter: Alvah Bessie, S.K. Lauren, Gordon Kahn. Cinematographer: Werner Janssen. Editor: Francis D. Lyon. Cast: Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, Lucille Bremer. 35mm, 104 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
NEWS OF THE DAY VOL. 19, NO. 257 (1948)
"Red crisis stirs nation!" 35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
POPULAR SCIENCE, VOL. J6-5 (1947)
Subjects include the bathroom of the future, a one-man haybaler and "V-2" rocket research at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. 35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation
THE BUCCANEER (1938)
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
One of the rarest of Cecil B. DeMille's sound films, The Buccaneer mines a little tapped vein of American history--the War of 1812--for a rousing bit of homegrown spectacle. Fredric March stars with devilish swagger as Jean Lafitte, the French pirate transformed into an American folk hero for his exploits at the Battle of New Orleans--all for the love of an American aristocrat (Margot Grahame), as DeMille tells it. Alongside March, Hollywood newcomer Hungarian actress Franciska Gaal stars as Gretchen, a shipwrecked waif plucked from the sea by Lafitte, while Akim Tamiroff steals the show as Lafitte's lovably brusque cannoneer.
Paramount Pictures. Based on a novel by Lyle Saxon. Screenwriter: Edwin Justus Mayer, Harold Lamb, C. Gardner Sullivan. Cinematographer: Victor Milner. Editor:Anne Bauchens. Cast: Fredric March, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Margot Grahame, Walter Brennan. 35mm, 124 min.
Preservation funded by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation
GRETCHEN COMES ACROSS (1938)
A short promotional featurette for Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer. Cast: Cecil B. DeMille, Franciska Gaal, William H. Pine. 35mm, 11 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
BARCAROLLE (1934)
A Technicolor travelogue subject featuring views of Venice, set to the classical music piece with symphonic orchestra under the direction of Rosario Bourdon. 35mm, 6 min.
Preservation funded by the Bay Area Video Coalition's 2007 MediaMaker Award
"LEGACIES FROM THE ONE ARCHIVES"
The ONE Archives began in 1942 when writer-activist Jim Kepner created a private collection of gay-related materials in New York. The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives now thrives as the world's largest research library on LGBT heritage and concerns. In early 2007, ONE deposited its collection of rare film and videotape with the Outfest Legacy Project at UCLA. This evening's program presents highlights from a portion of that collection, in conjunction with a discussion hosted by Joseph Hawkins, president of ONE Archive's board of directors, about ONE's crucial role in preserving LGBT history.
35mm, 16mm and video, approx. 120 min.
Preservation funded by The David Bohnett Foundation with additional support provided by The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation and the members of Outfest
WORD IS OUT: STORIES OF SOME OF OUR LIVES (1977)
Directed by Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, and Lucy Massie Phenix
Quite possibly as relevant today as it was on its debut over 30 years ago, Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives is widely considered the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity. Offering a vastly different perspective on gay and lesbian identity in America than the common views of the time, the film presents 26 diverse gay and lesbian individuals, who with profundity, honesty and humor, describe their struggle to live a decent life in America, despite prejudice, discriminatory laws and society's unwillingness to treat them with respect and equality.
Mariposa Film Group. Producer: Peter Adair. Cinematographer: Peter Adair, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver. Editor: Peter Adair,Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver. Cast: John Burnside, Sally M. Gearheart, Elsa Gidlow, Harry Hay, Tede Mathews. 35mm, 135 min.
"VITAPHONE VARIETIES 1927-1931"
Recognizing the growing audience for Vitaphone shorts and the difficulty of seeing these unique artifacts on the big screen, the Archive presents a reprise program of Vitaphone shorts that haven't screened in a Festival since the early 1990s. For those not in the know, the Vitaphone Corporation produced thousands of shorts featuring musicians, vaudeville acts and radio stars between 1926 and 1930, recording the soundtracks on large phonograph discs for playback in theaters. When sound-on-disc technology became obsolete, Vitaphone shorts began to fade into oblivion. Tonight's program offers an eclectic mix of Vitaphone short subjects that celebrates the often raucous talents that have made these shows must-see events. 35mm, TRT: Approx. 110 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
OHMAN & ARDEN (1927) Production #553. 7 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
JOSEPH E. HOWARD, AMERICA'S POPULAR COMPOSER (1928) Production #2596. 9 min.
Preservation funded by Hugh Hefner
THE OPRY HOUSE (1929) Production #834. 9 min.
Preservation funded by Robert G. Dixon
TEX MCLEOD "A ROPE AND A STORY" (1928) Production #2694. 8 min.
Preservation funded by Hugh Hefner
TAL HENRY AND HIS NORTH CAROLINIANS (1929) Production #732. 9 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
ALWAYS FAITHFUL (1929) Production #3334. 11 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
LOU HOLTZ "IDLE CHATTER" (1929) Production #954. 7 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
RED NICHOLS AND HIS FIVE PENNIES (1929) Production #870. 7 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
PAT O'BRIEN "CRIMES SQUARE" (1930) Production #1146. 10 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
BEN BERNIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA (1930) Production #958. 9 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
HELEN MORGAN "THE GIGOLO RACKET" (1931) Production #1255-1256. 21 min.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS (1914)
Directed by Edward S. Curtis
Almost a decade before Robert Flaherty immortalized the Inuit people in Nanook of the North (1922), Edward S. Curtis filmed In the Land of the Headhunters with an indigenous North American cast. Like Flaherty's "documentary," Headhunters was both a reflection of contemporary life among the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia as well as a fiction that combined melodramatic elements with tribal customs: Motana, the son of a chief, must battle an old medicine man for the right to marry Naida, who has been promised by her father to the tribe of the headhunters. Around this plot, Curtis stages many authentic ceremonies, including the tribe's potlatch ceremony.
Seattle Film Co.. Screenwriter: Edward S. Curtis. Cinematographer: Edmund August Schwinke. 35mm, approx. 70 min.
