Press release

Kino Classics Releases 
1984  Version of Fritz Lang's

Metropolis

Restored by Academy Award-winning Composer  Giorgio Moroder
 

New York City, NY - October 7, 2011 - Kino Classics is proud to make available Giorgio Moroder's famed version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis in theaters, Home Video and VOD, starting in October 2011 - with a Blu-ray and DVD street date set for November 15, 2011.
 
In 1981, three-time Academy  Award Winning composer Giorgio Moroder began a three-year endeavor to restore  the science fiction classic Metropolis directed by  Fritz Lang (Spies). During this process, Moroder made the controversial  decision to give the film a new, contemporary score, adding songs from Pat  Benatar, Billy Squier, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Jon Anderson and  others, to the film's soundtrack. 

In addition to the new score, footage  that, at the time, had been missing from available editions of the movie, was  edited back into the film. Intertitles were also completely replaced with  subtitles, and sound effects, as well as color tinting, were
added to the film. 

The result not only helped popularize Fritz Lang's classic, but also introduced  silent cinema to an entire generation of MTV viewers and young moviegoers.  Moroder's restoration became an instant classic, even if it raised some  controversy among silent cinema scholars and long-standing fans of Fritz Lang's  work.

Now, more than 25 years since its original release, a new HD transfer was created from one of the few remaining prints available, and Kino Lorber is presenting this unique and now widely celebrated edition of Metropolis in the best possible quality - just as it was seen in its original release in August 1984.

Released under its original title, Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis is scheduled to play in over 75 theatrical markets nationwide. Starting on October 7, 2011 the film arrives in Los Angeles for a week-long run at Cinefamily, and a week later (Oct. 14), it arrives at New York's Sunshine Cinema (Landmark) for a two-day, midnight run. 

For a complete theatrical list, visit the film's page on the Kino Lorber web site (or click here).
 
After this limited theatrical run, Kino Lorber will release Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis on DVD and Blu-ray, both on November 15, 2011. The DVD comes priced at $29.95 and the Blu-ray at $34.95.

Kino's DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film will feature a personal message from Giorgio Moroder, as well as the Moroder-produced documentary "The Fading Image," about the behind the scenes of this restoration and  this version's celebrated (also also, controversial) scoring. Furthermore, the  first pressing of this release's DVD and Blu-ray discs will arrive with a foil-embossed packaging and slip case.

 "I began a three-year endeavor to restore Metropolis with an eye towards introducing it to new audiences," says Giorgio Moroder, who has finally allowed a film distribution company to release his acclaimed restoration. "It  was 1981, and by then Metropolis had almost disappeared from circulation. Now,  my good friends at Kino Lorber have created a new digital transfer,  from one of the few existing prints, in order to present Metropolis to you as it  was seen in 1984."
 
"I'm  a huge fan of classic science fiction," says Eric D. Wilkinson, Vice President  of Home Entertainment Sales and Distribution at Kino Lorber, "... and Giorgio  Moroder's version of Metropolis was my introduction to  this historic silent film."

 Kino Lorber's CEO Richard Lorber also adds: "Metropolis is cinema in its most visionary and spectacular form, and this film's restoration was in itself an epic story. Moroder's version was the missing link in a rich genealogy, leading up to last year's The Complete Metropolis, so I'm thrilled that Kino Lorber can make this available on all our platforms."


Official website at www.kino.com/metropolis.


GIORGIO MORODER PRESENTS METROPOLIS
GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION
LANGUAGE: English
LABEL: Kino Classics

TOTAL RUNNING  TIME: 82 mins.
AUDIO: Original 2.0 Stereo, & new 5.1 mix



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Advance DVD press release

Kino Classics Proudly Presents the Blu-Ray and DVD Release of 

Buster Keaton's Go West (1925) and Battling Butler (1926)  

 
Two Silent Comedy Classics  

Available for the First Time on  Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber!

Mastered from 35mm Nitrate Prints  Preserved by the Library of Congress
  

New York, NY - September 2, 2011 - Kino Classics, the new label from Kino Lorber  specializing in classic and silent film, is proud to announce the release of two  silent comedy classics from Buster Keaton: Go West (1925) and Battling Butler (1926).

This special set showcases two of  Keaton's lesser-known films, newly mastered in HD from 35mm nitrate elements preserved by the Library of Congress.

Kino has previously brought five of Mr. Keaton's feature-length films (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr., Three Ages and Our
  Hospitality), as well as all 19 of his independently-produced short
  subjects (Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923), to the
  Blu-ray format.

These two gems from one of silent comedy's masters  come packaged together (on Blu-ray and DVD) in a 2-disc Ultimate Edition loaded  with special features, including a 1923 short comedy from Hal Roach's "Dippy Do  Dads" series also titled Go West; a 60-minute audio recording of Buster  Keaton working out ideas for a script proposal of the
Western TV series Wagon Train; excerpts from a screenplay written by Keaton for an  unproduced remake of Battling Butler; a stills gallery from the  original 1922 Broadway production of Battling Butler, and more!

Kino Classics' Blu-ray is priced at $34.95, and the DVD is priced at $29.95. Both are available by the street date of September 27th.

With his trademark deadpan demeanor and his gift for inventive visual humor, Buster Keaton's unique brand of comedy has proven to be a timeless source of laughter and an enduring influence upon several generations  of screen comics.


In Go West, Keaton plays an idealistic young  man known as "Friendless," who rides the rails to a dude ranch, forms a  sentimental attachment with an especially lovable cow, and, in the film's  breathtaking climax, finds himself at the center of a cattle stampede through  the streets of Los Angeles.

GO WEST (1925): "...rich and uproarious, with countless novel  comedy twists." - Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times (Oct. 26, 1925)


Based on a popular stage musical, Battling Butler stars Keaton as a pampered socialite who pretends to be  a famed prizefighter in order to impress his girlfriend's bullying brothers. 

Once begun, however, the charade is not easy to end, and Butler--aided by his  personal butler (Snitz Edwards)--must endure physical training, sparring, and,  unless he can stop it, a title bout with the "Alabama Murderer."

BATTLING BUTLER (1926): "A typical Buster Keaton farce...Mr. Keaton  lives up to
his name as an excellent screen fun-maker"- Mordaunt Hall, The New York
Times (Aug. 23,  1926)


Special Features:
* Go West (1923, 12 Min.), a western-themed comedy short produced by Hal Roach, starring the "Dippy Do Dads," a troupe of trained monkeys
* A rare 60-minute audio recording of Buster Keaton hashing out a script proposal for the western TV series "Wagon Train" (courtesy of Bob Borgen)
* Excerpts of the screenplay for an unproduced remake of Battling Butler, written by Keaton in 1947
* Gallery of photographs from the 1922 stage production of Battling Butler
* Two galleries of production stills


Go West (1925) and Battling Butler (1926)

Director: Buster Keaton

Genre: Silent Comedy

BluRay SRP: $34.95
DVD SRP: $29.95

 Street date: September 27, 2011 

US / B&W with color tints / Not Rated / 1.33:1 / Silent  with English
intertitles / 183 mins. total

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Press release

THE  ARTIST

Opens in the USA on November 23, 2011
 
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
Written by Michel  Hazanavicius

Starring: Jean Dujardin,  Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, and Missi  Pyle

           
Hollywood 1927.

George Valentin  (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar.

The advent of the talkies will  sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion.

For young  extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major
movie  stardom awaits.

THE ARTIST tells the story of their interlinked destinies.


Website: Theartistmovie.net

Link to Official trailer/Story Page:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/theartist/
Link to Homepage:
http://trailers.apple.com/


Genre: Musical, drama
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company (Limited theatrical release)
Produced by:Thomas Langman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/weinsteinco
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/WeinsteinFilms

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Advance DVD press release

KINO CLASSICS RELEASES SOVIET FILM
 
THE CIGARETTE GIRL OF MOSSELPROM (1924)

BY DIRECTOR YURI ZHELYABUZHSHY

USA DVD release set for Aug. 30, 2011!



New York, NY - August 16, 2011 - Kino Lorber is proud to release on DVD a brand-new restoration of the Soviet classic The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (1924), directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky (The Emperor's New Clothes).

Mastered from 35mm elements restored by the Cinémathèque De toulouse, in cooperation with L'Immagine Ritrovata and the Foundation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma, this classic film will finally become available on DVD on August 30, 2011, with a SRP of $29.95. 

Exploding the myth that the Soviet silent cinema was limited to political propaganda, Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky's The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom is a playful romantic comedy set on the streets of 1924 Moscow, occasionally peeking behind the scenes of the Mezhrabpom-Rus Studios.

Yuliya Solntseva stars as a tobacco vendor on the sidewalk outside Moscow's Mosselprom Trade Center, who must juggle the attentions of three disparate suitors: a young cameraman, a romantic and slightly zany bookkeeper, and a wealthy American industrialist.


The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom 
(1924) - USSR - 

Running time: 112 min.

B&W / 2.0 Stereo
Full-frame (1.33:1)

Directed and photographed by YURI ZHELYABUZHSKY

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Advance DVD press release

KINO INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF 

THE BUSTER KEATON SHORT FILMS (1920-1923) 

ON BLU-RAY AND DVD 
 

New York, NY - May 3, 2011 - Kino International is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection (1920-1923).

This marks the first time that these 19 classic short comedies, produced between 1920 and 1923, will be available in the Blu-ray format, as well as the first time that all of these films will be released in the US in a single package.

The Blu-ray set is priced at $49.95, and the DVD is priced at $34.95. Both are available on July 12, 2011.

These celebrated comedies come to Blu-ray and DVD in a splendid three-disc ultimate edition, with all 19 shorts remastered in HD from archival elements. The set is loaded with special features, including The Men Who Would Be Buster (consisting of clips from silent comedies by other comedians that show the influence of Keaton's work), alternate and deleted takes, a video tour of Keaton's filming locations (by John Bengtson, author of Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton), and a series of visual essays on individual films written by leading scholars of silent comedy.  

This three-disc set presents Keaton's short films in chronological order (The High Sign, while released in 1921, was actually the first short film Keaton produced, but it was held back from release for about a year). Select titles are presented in both standard and digitally enhanced versions. This special set will also contain a booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered (co-authored with Eleanor Keaton).

Kino has previously brought five Keaton films to Blu-ray (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr., Three Ages and Our Hospitality).  Buster Keaton in The Goat (1921)

"The nineteen comedy shorts made by Keaton between 1920-1923 afforded him a laboratory in which he enjoyed the freedom to experiment with and explore his own comedic impulses, as well as refine his screen character, his conceptions of film structure, and his use of the camera and editing as comedy devices. During this frenetic period of his career, Keaton was utterly devoted to his work. He later remarked, 'When we made pictures, we ate, slept, and dreamed them.' The films remain a testament to his single-minded vision. Unsentimental and cynical, with touches of the bizarre and the surreal, they remain - alongside Charles Chaplin's twelve Mutual-Chaplin Specials of 1916-1917 - the greatest collection of comedy short subjects produced in the entire silent-film era." - Jeffrey Vance  

 
Disc One:

The High Sign
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1920/21  B&W   19 Min.

One Week
1920  B&W   24 Min.

Convict 13
1920  B&W   19 Min.

The Scarecrow
1920  B&W   18 Min.

Neighbors
1921  B&W   19 Min.

The Haunted House
1921  Color Tinted   20 Min.

Hard Luck
1921  B&W   21 Min.

 
Disc Two:

The Goat
1921  B&W   23 Min.

The Playhouse
1921  B&W   23 Min.

The Boat
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1921  B&W   23 Min.

The Paleface
1922  B&W   20 Min.

Cops
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1922  B&W   18 Min.

My Wife's Relations
1922  B&W   17 Min.

 
Disc Three:

The Blacksmith
1922  B&W   21 Min.

The Frozen North
1922  B&W   17 Min.

Day Dreams
1922  B&W   23 Min.

The Electric House
1922  Color Tinted   23 Min.

The Balloonatic
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1923  B&W   22 Min.

The Love Nest
1923  Color Tinted   20 Min.   

 
SPECIAL FEATURES

•Newly mastered in HD from archival elements
•Fifteen visual essays, illustrated with clips and stills, written by various Keaton experts, including Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney, and Patricia Eliot Tobias
•A series of brief alternate/deleted shots from The Goat, The Blacksmith, Day Dreams and The Balloonatic, and an alternate title sequence from Cops.
•The Men Who Would Be Buster, a collection of clips from slapstick films influenced by Keaton's work, including:
◦the complete film Only Me (1929, starring Lupino Lane, which is an elaboration upon The Playhouse)
◦a lengthy excerpt of Be Reasonable (1921, starring Billy Bevan, an elaboration of the police chase from The Goat, and it may or may not have influenced Keaton back again, on Cops, which was released 3 months later)
◦brief excerpts of White Wings (with Stan Laurel) and Oh Baby! (with Charley Chase).
•Eight-page booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered.
•Four visual essays on the films' locations by Silent Echoes author John Bengtson
•Character Studies (ca. 1925) - a gag film starring Carter DeHaven, with cameos by Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and others
•Seeing Stars (excerpts) - a 1922 film featuring cameos by Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and others.


Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection (1920-1923)

Directors: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline, Malcolm St. Clair
Genre: Silent Comedy

US / 1920-1923 / Black & White and Color - Tinted / 386 minutes

 
 About Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is the newly formed company that combines the resources, staffs and libraries of Lorber Films, Alive Mind and Kino International, bringing together industry pioneers Richard Lorber and Donald Krim to create a new leader in independent film distribution.  
 
 
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DVD promo release

KINO RELEASES NEWLY MASTERED

THE BLACK PIRATE (1926),

STARRING DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, ON BLU-RAY


New York, NY - November 11, 2010 - Kino International is proud to release for the first time on Blu-ray a newly mastered edition of Douglas Fairbank's classic swashbuckler film, THE BLACK PIRATE (1926). Mastered from a 35mm negative, this special Kino edition carefully recreates the authentic palette of two-strip Technicolor (comprised of varying blends of green and orange), so that modern viewers can savor the photography.

The blu-ray edition of THE BLACK PIRATE is now available with two interchangeable music tracks, including the film's original score composed by Mortimer Wilson and conducted by Robert Israel in 1996; a second organ score, by Lee Erwin, is also available.

As special features, this Kino blu-ray also brings an exclusive audio commentary track by film historian Rudy Behlmer, and the complete "talkie" version of the film (i.e. minus intertitles), with orchestral score and narration by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (75 min., B&W).

Other special features include 18 minutes of film outtakes, with an audio commentary by Mr. Behlmer, and an extra 29 minutes of outtakes (but without any audio).

Kino's THE BLUE PIRATE blu-ray will be available December 14, 2010.


Riding the crest of popularity after his hit films The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), the silent cinema's greatest adventure hero crowned his accomplishments with THE BLCK PIRATE, a big production shot on 2-strip Technicolor.

The sole survivor of a ship pillaged by buccaneers, Michel (Fairbanks) poses as the mysterious Black Pirate and infiltrates a nest of bandits. He mounts an elaborate ploy to earn their trust, reclaim the ship and rescue a kidnapped princess (Billie Dove). Like a Robert Louis Stevenson adventure come to life, THE BLACK PIRATE ripples with customary intrigue and a rapid succession of brilliantly inventive stunts.


Special Features
· Restored two-strip Technicolor version, mastered in HD
· Original 1926 score by Mortimer Wilson, conducted by Robert Israel (1996)
· Organ score by Lee Erwin
· Audio commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer
· Complete "talkie" version, minus intertitles, with orchestral score and narration by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (75 min., B&W)
· 18 Minutes of outtakes, with commentary by Rudy Behlmer
· 29 Minutes of additional outtakes, courtesy of the Library of Congress
· Photo gallery

U.S. 1926 Color 95 Min. 1.33:1 1920x1080p

Directed by Albert Parker
Produced by Douglas Fairbanks
Screenplay by Jack Cunningham
Story by Douglas Fairbanks
Photographed by Henry Sharp

With Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Donald Crisp, Sam De Grasse, Anders Randolf, and Tempe Pigott


Kino Lorber
Kino International


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Press release

SERGEI EISENSTEIN'S
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

NEW 35mm RESTORATION AT FILM FORUM-NYC
JANUARY 14 - 20, 2011 - One Week Only!


New York, NY - Dec. 28, 2010 - Kino International, a theatrical releasing arm of Kino Lorber Inc., is proud to announce a new 35mm restoration of Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece Battleship Potemkin (1925), now set to run at New York's Film Forum from January 14-20 (one week). Showtimes daily are 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 6:00, 7:30 & 9:00.

There's one maggot in the meat too many for the already fed-up sailors of the armored warship Potemkin, as 1905 Czarist Russia verges on (pre-Bolshevik) revolution. One of the genuinely exciting legends of the cinema, Eisenstein's epic revolutionized screen editing, treatment of violence, and propaganda: the Battleship Potemkin incident, conceived as a single episode of a planned pageant on the 1905 revolt, in celebration of its 20th anniversary, comprised only one-half page of the original script. The devastating "Odessa steps" sequence, conceived by Eisenstein only when he arrived on location, is still perhaps the most famous, anthologized, and imitated in film history.

Potemkin was edited in less than three weeks, the finishing touches being made to the final reel as the first was already being projected at the premiere. Voted in 1958 by an international jury of 117 film historians as "the best film of all time," though Soviet-sponsored "restorations" in ensuing decades destroyed the rhythm of Eisenstein's editing by "step printing" the images to conform to sound speed.

This new 35mm print featuring all of Eisenstein's 1,374 shots, now included for the first time since the 1925 Moscow premiere, and Edmund Meisel's original score performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra, vividly restores Potemkin to a version you've never seen in film class - one closest to what was viewed at its first screenings, when Charlie Chaplin was not alone in calling it "the best film in the world."
 
70 min | 1925 | b&w

RESTORED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ENNO PATALAS IN COLLABORATION WITH ANNA BOHN.

PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK - MUSEUM FUR FILM UND FERNSEHEN SUPPORTED BY BUNDES ARCHIV, BERLIN; BFI, LONDON; GOS FILMOFOND, MOSCOW; FILM MUSEUM, MUNICH

A Kino International Release
From Kino Lorber, Inc.

The Film Forum repertory calendar is programmed by Bruce Goldstein
For more information, links and showtimes, visit www.filmforum.org

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MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

 Lillian Gish

November 26–December 13, 2010

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

 
American film actress Lillian Gish (1893–1993) enjoyed a seventy-five-year career with roles in over one hundred films—about half of which are included in the Museum's collection—including such landmark works as her debut film, An Unseen Enemy, a Biograph short made in 1912 by D. W. Griffith; and her last silent picture, The Wind (1928).

Though she is frequently characterized as a waifish portrait of fragility, Gish’s characters in films such as Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1922), The Scarlet Letter (1926), and The Night of the Hunter (1955) embodied female resilience in the face of abandonment, persecution, and mortal peril.

This retrospective, drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, presents a rare opportunity to examine the breadth of Gish’s career and represents MoMA's early and steadfast dedication to collecting seminal works of film history.

Organized by Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with MoMA’s publication of Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art.
 
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit our Film Exhibitions.

Film Admission:         $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.

The public may call (212) 708-9400 for detailed Museum information.

Visit us at www.moma.org
 

SCREENING SCHEDULE

Lillian Gish
November 26–December 13, 2010

Friday, November 26 

6:30    Early Roles
This program highlights Lillian Gish’s film debut as well as her acting tutelage under American Mutoscope and Biograph director D. W. Griffith.  Program 72 min. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.

 An Unseen Enemy. Incomplete. 1912. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Edward Acker. With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Elmer Booth, Robert Harron. The Gish sisters play victims to their larcenous maid. 14 min. T2.

The Musketeers of Pig Alley. 1912. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. With Gish, Walter Miller, Elmer Booth. In this view of “New York’s Other Side,” Gish’s “Little Lady” is caught in the middle of a feudal war between gangsters. 16 min. T2.

A Misunderstood Boy. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by W. Christy Cabanne. With Gish, Robert Harron, Kate Bruce, Lionel Barrymore. A boy (Harron) flees from vigilantes in this comedy set in the old West. 14 min. T2.

A Timely Interception. Incomplete. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by W. Christy Cabanne. With Gish, Robert Harron, W. Chrystie Miller, Lionel Barrymore. A farmer’s daughter (Gish) postpones her wedding in order to lend money to her uncle (Barrymore) who was recently fired from the oil fields. However, oil turns out to be their saving grace. 14 min. T2.

The Lady and the Mouse. 1913. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Hyde. Gish plays a young woman who shows sympathy to both mouse and man. Her compassion is repaid when a benefactor helps her sick sister. 14 min. T2.


Saturday, November 27

4:00    Later Biograph Shorts
Lillian Gish matures in her later Biograph shorts, branching out to play both seductresses and saintly mothers.  Program 80 min. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.

Just Gold. Incomplete. 1913. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. With Gish, Lionel Barrymore. Four brothers try their luck at gold prospecting, but the one who stays home with Gish ends up the luckiest. 15 min. T2.

A Woman in the Ultimate. 1913. USA. Directed by Dell Henderson. Screenplay by William E. Wing. With Gish, Charles Hill Mailes, Henry B. Walthall. A departure in style from Gish’s earlier films, this unconventional Biograph short experiments with sophisticated filmmaking techniques in a story about a young woman tormented by confidence men. 16 min. T2.

The Mothering Heart. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Hazel H. Hubbard. With Gish, Walter Miller. Made merely nine months after Gish’s debut, she gives her first breakthrough performance in this short playing a betrayed wife and grieving mother. 23 min. T2.

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith, Henry Albert Phillips. With Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh. A prelude to Griffith’s later battle epics, this short reinforces the image of the motherly Gish. 26 min. T2.


7:30    Hearts of the World
1918. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith (as M. Gaston de Tolignac).
With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Robert Harron. Preceded by documentary battlefield footage filmed by (and starring) Griffith, this unabashedly patriotic World War I epic, at times comedic with clever and pithy intertitles, stars Gish and Harron as Americans living in France as the war breaks and their love sparks. Separated by tragedy, Gish’s emotional intensity eclipses the chaos around her as she and Harron literally claw their way back to each other and demonstrates her development in just a few short years since her debut. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 138 min. T2.


Sunday, November 28

2:00    A Romance of Happy Valley
1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith (as Capt. Victor Maurier). With Gish, Robert Harron. A boy in Kentucky (Griffith’s birthplace) is tempted by the big city despite having the love of a loyal and longing sweetheart at home (Gish). Gish played the simple country girl in a series of Griffith films that showcase naïve purity in characters that display unending devotion and faith. These characters were free of the trappings of torment and turmoil that often typify Gish’s other collaborations with Griffith. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 73 min. T2.


3:30    The Greatest Question
1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by William Hale. With Gish, Robert Harron. This supernatural morality tale again casts Gish in the character of the dutiful country girl who suffers for the sake of those she loves. After the death of her parents, Gish is adopted by Harron’s family, but poverty forces her to leave them and work for a treacherous couple. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 81 min. T2.


Wednesday, December 1

4:00    True Heart Susie
1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Marian Fremont. With Gish, Robert Harron. The epitome of the “plain and simple girl,” Susie (Gish) sells her beloved cow Daisy to secretly pay the college tuition of William (Harron), the oblivious love of her life, who goes on to marry someone else. Although undertones of the martyr figure reverberate throughout many of her roles, this overt portrayal of sacrifice, one of her more restrained and naturalistic performances, highlights Gish’s peerless ability to communicate longing. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 68 min. T2. 


7:00    Broken Blossoms, or The Yellow Man and the Girl
1919. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. Based on the story “The Chink and the Child,” by Thomas Burke. With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp. This anti-immigration treatise and doomed love story pairs Gish with Barthelmess, a remarkable collaboration that Griffith would later perfect in Way Down East. The chemistry between the actors serves to balance the intense psychological and physical torture inflicted upon Gish in both films. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 88 min. T2.

 

Thursday, December 2

 

4:00    Way Down East
1920. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Anthony Paul Kelly, based on the play by Lottie Blair Parker. With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman.

Arguably Griffith’s masterpiece, this apotheosis of the Gish-Griffith collaborations incorporates all of the actress’s signature onscreen personas: the simple country girl, the madonna with child, and the abandoned woman. Tricked out of her virginity and robbed of her innocence, Anna (Gish) endures multiple tragedies before redemption at the hands of her literal savior, David (Barthelmess). Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 150 min. T2.
  

7:00    Orphans of the Storm
1922. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. Based on the play The Two Orphans, by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon. With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut. The French Revolution is the backdrop for Gish’s last film with Griffith, and one of her final collaborations with her sister Dorothy. Lillian plays the familiar role of sister’s keeper—in this case, she becomes separated from a blind Dorothy and must fight her way back to her sister as the political upheaval unravels and a spurned advance threatens to send Lillian to the guillotine. New York premiere of MoMA’s new 2009 preservation. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 142 min. T2.

 

Friday, December 3

 

4:00    The Scarlet Letter. 1926. USA. Directed by Victor Sjöstrom. Screenplay by Frances Marion, based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. With Gish, Lars Hanson. Gish’s clout helped bring Hawthorne’s scandalous novel to the screen. Although playing legendary literary sinner Hester Prynne may seem out of character for Gish, her chaste Hollywood persona provided a compelling foil for the conflicting motivations of this complex character—mother, lover, and adulterer—and lent depth to Sjöström’s adaptation. This was Gish’s personal print of the film, which the longtime champion of film preservation generously donated to MoMA. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.76 min. T2.

 

Saturday, December 4

 

1:30    The Wind. 1928. USA. Directed by Victor Sjöström. Screenplay by Frances Marion, based on the novel by Dorothy Scarborough. With Gish, Lars Hanson. Gish’s farewell to her silent era pits her against man, nature and herself. An object of multiple men’s affections, Gish’s Letty, a genteel Southern girl transplanted to the wanton Wild West, is punished with madness for the sin of seduction. Silent, with music and sound effects. 72 min. T2.

 

4:00    His Double Life. 1933. USA. Directed by Arthur Hopkins. Screenplay by Hopkins, Clara Beranger, based on the novel Buried Alive and the play The Great Adventure, both by Arnold Bennett. With Gish, Roland Young. Gish’s second sound film, though rarely noted among the highlights of her career, is an overlooked comedic gem. The film takes advantage of the amusing contrast between the steady and steadfast Gish and the skittish and irresolute Young, who plays a successful but agoraphobic painter caught up in a case of mistaken identity. 68 min. T2.  

 

Sunday, December 5

 

2:00    Duel in the Sun. 1946. USA. Directed by King Vidor. Screenplay by David O. Selznick, Oliver H. P. Garrett, based on the novel by Niven Busch. With Gish, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore. After years on the stage, Gish’s return to film came in the form of supporting roles. In this epic Western, Pearl (Jones) is a woman torn between two brothers. Gish plays the doting and kind mother of the feuding siblings, and the unrequited lover of Pearl’s late father. The film’s exquisite compositions, rendered in glorious Technicolor, are reminiscent of Renaissance oil paintings. 135 min.T2.

5:00    The Trip to Bountiful
1953. USA. Directed by Vincent J. Donehue. Screenplay by Horton Foote, based on his play.
With Gish, Eileen Heckart, John Beal. In this made-for-television adaptation of Foote’s play, Gish gives an exquisite performance as an elderly woman tormented by memory and the golden days of her past—a role that she had also played on stage. The Trip to Bountiful encapsulates Gish’s eminent acting career in the mediums of theater, television, and film. 60 min.T2.

 
Monday, December 6 

4:00      The Night of the Hunter
1955. USA. Directed by Charles Laughton. Screenplay by James Agee, based on the novel by David Grubb. With Gish, Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters. A murderer in preacher’s clothing preys on two children with a lucrative secret. The babes find refuge in Gish’s gun-toting Rachel Cooper, a nouveau madonna with an adopted flock of wayward and forsaken children. 92 min. T2.
 

Wednesday, December 8

4:00    The Whales of August
1987. USA. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Screenplay by David Berry, based on his play. With Gish, Bette Davis, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern. Featuring screen veterans in their twilight performances, The Whales of August casts Gish and Davis as sisters who encounter new love and recall old memories while living out their golden years in the seaside Maine cottage where they came of age. Gish’s final film encapsulates a career of playing strong leading women as her quietly ferocious Sarah serves as caretaker to her curmudgeonly sister. 90 min. T2.  

 

7:00    Later Biograph Shorts
Lillian Gish matures in her later Biograph shorts, branching out to play both seductresses and saintly mothers.  Program 80 min.Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.

 Just Gold. Incomplete. 1913. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith. With Gish, Lionel Barrymore. Four brothers try their luck at gold prospecting, but the one who stays home with Gish ends up the luckiest. 15 min. T2.

A Woman in the Ultimate. 1913. USA. Directed by Dell Henderson. Screenplay by William E. Wing. With Gish, Charles Hill Mailes, Henry B. Walthall. A departure in style from Gish’s earlier films, this unconventional Biograph short experiments with sophisticated filmmaking techniques in a story about a flapper tormented by confidence men. 16 min. T2.

The Mothering Heart. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Hazel H. Hubbard. With Gish, Walter Miller. Made merely nine months after Gish’s debut, she gives her first breakthrough performance in this short playing a betrayed wife and grieving mother. 23 min. T2.

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch. 1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith, Henry Albert Phillips. With Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh. A prelude to Griffith’s later battle epics, this short reinforces the image of the motherly Gish. 26 min. T2.


Thursday, December 9

4:00    Hearts of the World. 1918. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith (as M. Gaston de Tolignac). With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Robert Harron. Preceded by documentary battlefield footage filmed by (and starring) Griffith, this unabashedly patriotic World War I epic, at times comedic with clever and pithy intertitles, stars Gish and Harron as Americans living in France as the war breaks and their love sparks. Separated by tragedy, Gish’s emotional intensity eclipses the chaos around her as she and Harron literally claw their way back to each other and demonstrates her development in just a few short years since her debut. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 138 min. T2.

7:00    His Double Life. 1933. USA. Directed by Arthur Hopkins. Screenplay by Hopkins, Clara Beranger, based on the novel Buried Alive and the play The Great Adventure, both by Arnold Bennett. With Gish, Roland Young. Gish’s second sound film, though rarely noted among the highlights of her career, is an overlooked comedic gem. The film takes advantage of the amusing contrast between the steady and steadfast Gish and the skittish and irresolute Young, who plays a successful but agoraphobic painter caught up in a case of mistaken identity. 68 min. T2.  

Friday, December 10

4:00    A Romance of Happy Valley
1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Griffith (as Capt. Victor Maurier). With Gish, Robert Harron. A boy in Kentucky (Griffith’s birthplace) is tempted by the big city despite having the love of a loyal and longing sweetheart at home (Gish). Gish played the simple country girl in a series of Griffith films that showcase naïve purity in characters that display unending devotion and faith. These characters were free of the trappings of torment and turmoil that often typify Gish’s other collaborations with Griffith. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 73 min. T2.   

6:00    The Greatest Question. 1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by William Hale. With Gish, Robert Harron. This supernatural morality tale again casts Gish in the character of the dutiful country girl who suffers for the sake of those she loves. After the death of her parents, Gish is adopted by Harron’s family, but poverty forces her to leave them and work for a treacherous couple. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 81 min. T2.

8:00    True Heart Susie. 1919. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Marian Fremont. With Gish, Robert Harron. The epitome of the “plain and simple girl,” Susie (Gish) sells her beloved cow Daisy to secretly pay the college tuition of William (Harron), the oblivious love of her life, who goes on to marry someone else. Although undertones of the martyr figure reverberate throughout many of her roles, this overt portrayal of sacrifice, one of her more restrained and naturalistic performances, highlights Gish’s peerless ability to communicate longing. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 68 min. T2.


Saturday, December 11

1:30    The Night of the Hunter
1955. USA. Directed by Charles Laughton. Screenplay by James Agee, based on the novel by David Grubb. With Gish, Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters. A murderer in preacher’s clothing preys on two children with a lucrative secret. The babes find refuge in Gish’s gun-toting Rachel Cooper, a nouveau madonna with an adopted flock of wayward and forsaken children. 92 min. T2.

4:00    Way Down East
1920. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Screenplay by Anthony Paul Kelly, based on the play by Lottie Blair Parker. With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman.

Arguably Griffith’s masterpiece, this apotheosis of the Gish-Griffith collaborations incorporates all of the actress’s signature onscreen personas: the simple country girl, the madonna with child, and the abandoned woman. Tricked out of her virginity and robbed of her innocence, Anna (Gish) endures multiple tragedies before redemption at the hands of her literal savior, David (Barthelmess). Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. 150 min. T2.

7:30    The Scarlet Letter
1926. USA. Directed by Victor Sjöstrom. Screenplay by Frances Marion, based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. With Gish, Lars Hanson.

Gish’s clout helped bring Hawthorne’s scandalous novel to the screen. Although playing legendary literary sinner Hester Prynne may seem out of character for Gish, her chaste Hollywood persona provided a compelling foil for the conflicting motivations of this complex character—mother, lover, and adulterer—and lent depth to Sjöström’s adaptation. This was Gish’s personal print of the film, which the longtime champion of film preservation generously donated to MoMA. Silent, with musical accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.76 min. T2.


Sunday, December 12 

2:00    The Whales of August
1987. USA. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Screenplay by David Berry, based on his play.
With Gish, Bette Davis, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern.

Featuring screen veterans in their twilight performances, The Whales of August casts Gish and Davis as sisters who encounter new love and recall old memories while living out their golden years in the seaside Maine cottage where they came of age. Gish’s final film encapsulates a career of playing strong leading women as her quietly ferocious Sarah serves as caretaker to her curmudgeonly sister. 90 min. T2.  


Monday, December 13

4:00    Orphans of the Storm
1922. USA. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith.
Based on the play The Two Orphans, by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon.
With Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut.

The French Revolution is the backdrop for Gish’s last film with Griffith, and one of her final collaborations with her sister Dorothy.

(screens with An Unseen Enemy and The Lady and the Mouse). 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Press release

KINO INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES THE BLU-RAY AND
DVD RELEASE OF CLASSIC KEATON COMEDY

OUR HOSPITALITY (1923)

New York, NY - January 18, 2011 - Following the release of four previous Buster Keaton titles (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr. and Three Ages) in the Blu-ray format, Kino International is proud to announce the release of Keaton's Our Hospitality (1923), coming to Blu-ray and a special 2-disc DVD edition.

This period comedy about two feuding families in the South is co-directed by Keaton and John G. Blystone. Blu-ray and DVD special editions packed with features, including a rare discovery: a 49-minute alternate cut of the film without its comedy gags. This was believed to have been made by Keaton himself, so he could test the plot's durability without the comedy elements.

This edition also features two music tracks, including the Carl Davis orchestral score (never before released in the US) in 5.1 stereo, a "making of" documentary, a special short comedy, and more. The Blu-ray is priced at $34.95, and the 2-disc DVD is priced at $29.95. Both are March 22, 2011.

Buster Keaton stars as Willie McKay, a young man who is traveling back to his family's homestead on his 21st birthday to collect an inheritance. En route, he falls in love with a girl (Natalie Talmadge), whose family - the Canfields - just happens to be involved in a terrible feud with the McKays.

When the Canfields realize that Willie is the last surviving member of the McKay family, they decide to finish the feud once and for all. As a consequence, Willie unwittingly finds himself as a guest in their home, and quickly realizes that he must use his wits in order to get out alive!

The film includes one of Keaton's most spectacular stunt pieces: a thrilling, last-minute rescue above a treacherous waterfall that remains one of his most celebrated scenes.

The special features found on this Blu-ray and DVD are:

Two music tracks - a score composed by Carl Davis and performed by the Thames Silent Orchestra (5.1 DTS-HD and 2.0 LPCM), and a score compiled by Donald Hunsberger (2.0 Dolby).
 "Making Comedy Beautiful" - a short documentary on the making of the film written by Patricia Eliot Tobias with David B. Pearson, detailing Keaton's move into full-length narrative feature films.
 Hospitality - the alternate 49 minute cut of the film discovered by historian Paul Gierucki in 2008, believed to have been made by Keaton to see the film before all the gags were inserted in order to test the durability of the plot. Featuring an explanatory introduction and an organ score by Lee Erwin.
 The Iron Mule - a 1925 short comedy starring Al St. John that uses the model train built by Keaton for Our Hospitality, and features a cameo by Keaton himself. Music by Ben Model.
2 Galleries - Photos & Snapshots - consisting of poster art and stills, and production photos that provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of the film.
 

OUR HOSPITALITY

Directors: Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
Country: US
Genre: Silent/Comedy

1923 / 75 min. / Tinted B&W / 1.33:1

__________________________________


KINO RELEASES
TWO CLASSIC BUSTER KEATON FILMS on BLU-RAY DVD

SHERLOCK JR (1924) AND THREE AGES (1923)

New York, NY - October 27, 2010 - Kino International is proud to release for the first time on Blu-ray one of the most visually inventive silent comedies ever made, Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JR. (1924). In this masterwork from the silent era, Keaton stars as a movie theatre projectionist, who dreams of becoming a super-sleuth and in one breathtaking sequence, literally steps into the screen to bring his fantasies to life. 
 
In addition to SHERLOCK JR., Kino is releasing on the same Blu-ray disc another Keaton comedy that plays upon the conventions of cinema: THREE AGES (1923). This 63-miniute silent comedy is a clever spoof of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, where a man's primal quest for love is played out in the Stone Age, Ancient Rome, and the Jazz Age. 


Both films in this collection have been mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements, authorized by the Buster Keaton Estate.

Kino's SHERLOCK JR. AND THREE AGES Blu-ray disc will become available t the general public on November 16, 2010, with a SRP of $39.95. The same disc is also being issued in High-def on DVD, with a SRP of 29.95.

Offering fast-paced slapstick as well as a brilliant deconstruction of the filmmaking process, Kino's SHERLOCK JR AND THREE AGES blu-ray release is the third classic Buster Keaton disc to be released by Kino in High-definition in the last 12 months - the other two being Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) and The General (1926).


SHERLOCK JR.
· Music by The Mont Alto Motion Picture - Orchestra in 2.0 stereo & 5.1 surround
· Music by the Club Foot Orchestra (2.0)
· Vintage jazz score compiled by Jay Ward
· Audio commentary by film historian David Kalat

· Documentary short on the making of the film, written by film historian David B. Pearson
· Visual essay on the film's locations by Silent Echoes author John Bengtson

U.S.   1924   B&W   45 Min.

Directed by Buster Keaton

Produced by Joseph M. Schenck
Screenplay by Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell and Clyde Bruckman
Photographed by Byron Houck and Elgin Lessley

With Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton
Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra


THREE AGES
· Music arranged and directed by Robert Israel in 2.0 stereo
· Organ score by Lee Erwin
· A second piano score

· Man's Genesis (1912): a nine-minute excerpt of the D.W. Griffithprehistoric romance that inspired Keaton's parody
· Visual essay on the film's locations by Silent Echoes author John Bengtson
· Three Ages re-cut as a trio of stand-alone short films.

U.S.   1923   B&W   63 Min.

Directed by Eddie Cline and Buster Keaton
Produced by Joseph M. Schenck
Screenplay by Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell and Clyde Bruckman

With Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, and Wallace Beery

Photographed by Elgin Lessley and William McGann
Music arranged and directed by Robert Israel

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Press release

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art presents

MoMA Presents: More Cruel and Unusual Comedy:
Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film Part 2

October 6-14, 2010

Silent-era slapstick highlighted social, cultural, and aesthetic themes that continue to be central concerns around the world today; issues of race, gender, propriety, and economics have traditionally been among the most vital sources for rude comedy.

Drawing on the Museum’s holdings of silent comedy, acquired largely in the 1970s and 1980s by former curator Eileen Bowser, Cruel and Unusual Comedy presents an otherwise little-seen body of work to contemporary audiences from an engaging perspective.

The series, which first appeared in May 2009, continues with films that take aim at issues of sexual identity, substance abuse, health care, homelessness and economic disparity, and Surrealism.

On October 8 at 8PM, Ms Bowser will address the connection between silent comedy and the international film archive movement, when she introduces a program of shorts that take physical comedy to extremes of dream-like invention and destruction.

Audiences today will find the vulgar zest and anarchic spirit of silent slapstick has much in common with contemporary entertainment such as Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, MTV's Jackass and the current Jackass 3-D feature.

A majority of the films in the series are archival rarities, often the only known surviving version, and feature lesser-remembered performers on the order of Al St. John, Lloyd Hamilton, Fay Tincher, Hank Mann, Lupino Lane, and even one, Diana Serra Cary (a.k.a. Baby Peggy), who, at 91, is the oldest living silent film star still active.

All films are from the U.S. and are silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, with Steve Massa, film historian, and Ben Model, film historian and accompanist.

Screening Schedule

More Cruel and Unusual Comedy:
Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film Part 2
October 6-14, 2010

Wednesday, October 6

8:00 Class War: How the Other Half Lives

Bunny and the Bunny Hug (aka Bunny Dips Into Society). 1913. Vitagraph Company. Directed by Wilfrid North. With John Bunny, Earle Williams, Leo Delaney, Ned Finley, Leah Baird, Miss Heyward.

Bunny becomes the mascot of some rich playboys and wins over their girlfriends. 11 min.

Luke’s Shattered Sleep. 1916. Pathé. Directed by Hal Roach. With Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard, Charles Stevenson, Fred C. Newmeyer, Sammy Brooks, Bud Jamison, Earl Mohan Noah Young, Harry Todd, Gus Leonard.

Luke rules the roost at his flophouse. 13 min.

Time Flies. 1926. Lupino Lane Comedy Corp. Educational Pictures. Directed by Jess Robbins. With Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino, Virginia Vance.

A panhandler finds a valuable watch, making him the envy of high and low life alike. 15 min.

Sweetie. 1923. Century Film Co., Universal Pictures. Directed by Alf Goulding. With Baby Peggy, Jerry Mandy, Louise Lorraine, Max Asher, James T. Kelly, William Irving.

A spunky child of the streets hustles the immigrant population of a Lower East Side neighborhood. 18 min.

The Vagrant. 1921. Mermaid Comedies, Educational Pictures. Directed by Hugh Fay, with Lloyd Hamilton, Hugh Fay, Tom Wilson, Lige Conley, Irene Dalton, Frank J. Coleman.

A homeless man relies on wit and nerve to survive against the police and the public.

This burlesque of life on the street recalls Chaplin’s Easy Street (1917). Hamilton’s attack on the feet of passersby was praised in original reviews. 18 min.

Program approx. 75 min.

Thursday, October 7

4:30 Unsocialized Medicine: The Health Care Crisis

Bunny Backslides. 1914.Vitagraph Company. Directed by George D. Baker. With John Bunny, Flora Finch, Josie Sadler, Charles Eldridge.

Forced into a diet camp, Bunny romances a plus-sized food addict. 6 min.

A Professional Patient. 1917. Vitagraph Company. Directed by Sidney Drew. With Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, Donald McBride, Bobby Connolly.

A down on his luck man takes a job promoting painless dentistry. 12 min.

The Snow Cure. 1916. Keystone Film Company. Directed by Arvid E. Gillstrom. With Alice Davenport, James Donnelly, Marie Manley, Fritz Schade, Ford Sterling, Slim Summerville, Frank Alexander, Otto Fries, Bert Gillespie, Harold J. Binney, Coy Watson Sr., Bruno the bear.

At a health spa, only Mack Sennett could imagine, large men chase each other around a pool and down a toboggan run to escape a rampaging bear. 8 min.

Naughty Nurses. 1920. Arrow Film Corp. Hank Mann Comedies. Directed by undetermined. With Hank Mann, Madge Kirby, Vernon Dent.

Piano movers end up as the patients of pretty nurses. 20 min.

Good Night Nurse. 1929. Educational Pictures. Directed by Lupino Lane/Henry William George. With Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino, Fay Holderness, Eleanor Fredericks, Muriel Evans.

A bizarre medical exam lands Lane in a hospital ward. 15 min.

Program approx. 61 min

8:00 Altered States: Under the Influence

Mabel’s Married Life. 1914. Keystone. Directed by Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand. With Chaplin, Normand, Mack Swain, Charles Murray, Harry McCoy, Alice Davenport, Alice Howell, Wallace MacDonald, Eva Nelson, Hank Mann.

A husband who would rather drink than fight meets his match. 12 min.

Mystery of the Leaping Fish. 1915. Triangle/Keystone. Directed by Christy Cabanne, John Emerson. With Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love, A.D. Sears, Alma Rubens, Charlie Stevens, George Hall.

A burlesque of Sherlock Holmes as a cocaine addicted junkie, with story by Tod Browning and titles by Anita Loos. 26 min.

How Dry I Am. 1919. Rolin Film Company. Snub Pollard Comedies. Pathe. Directed by Charles Parrott. With Snub Pollard, Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Mildred Davis, Noah Young, Eddie Boland, Gaylord Lloyd.

A travelling medicine show brings illegal alcohol to a hotel filled with flirtatious guests. The film is incomplete and ends abruptly. 6 min.

The Gum Riot. 1920. Arrow Film Corp., Hank Mann Comedies. With Hank Mann, Madge Kirby, Vernon Dent, Jess Weldon, Jack Richardson.

Whiskey laced gum causes a riot with prohibition suffering patrons of a restaurant. 20 min.

What a Night. November 30, 1924. Jack White Corp., Educational Pictures. Mermaid Comedies. Directed by Norman Taurog. With Lige Conley, Otto Fries, Louise Carver, Clem Beauchamp, Phil Dunham, Al Thompson, Jack Lloyd, Bert Young.

Two drunks trigger a home invasion comedy. 12 min.

Program approx. 76 min.

Friday, October 8

4:30 Gender Benders: Masculine Women/Feminine Men

Rowdy Ann. 1919. Christie Comedies. Directed by Al E. Christie. With Fay Tincher, Eddie Barry, Katherine Lewis, Harry Depp, Al Haymes, George B. French, Edgar Blue.

As tough as any cowman, Ann is sent back East to learn how to be a lady. 20 min.

Hearts and Flowers. 1919. Mack Sennett. Paramount Pictures. Directed by Edward Cline. With Louise Fazenda, Ford Sterling, Phyllis Haver, Billy Armstrong, Jack Ackroyd, Kalla Pasha, Edgar Kennedy, Bert Roach, Charles Lynn, Eva Thatcher, Virginia Fox, Sybil Sealy, Sennett Bathing Beauties.

A smarmy roué romances a flower girl he thinks is rich. 20 min.

Shanghaied Lovers. 1924. Mack Sennett. Pathé. Directed by Roy del Ruth. With Harry Langdon, Kalla Pasha, Alice Day, Andy Clyde, Tiny Ward, Joe Young, George Cooper, Gordon Lewis, Eli Stanton.

Kidnapped by pirates, a newly married couple engages in cross-dressing aboard the ship to protect themselves from the advances of a brutish captain. 15 min.

A Sorority Mix-Up. 1927. Bray Productions. Sunkist Comedies. Directed by Joseph Basil. With Buddy Messinger, Anne Porter, Madelynne Field, Henry Roquemore, Mr. X (chimp), Alice Belcher, the Sunkist Bathing Beauties.

Girl school hazing leads to human and animal drag. 14 min.

Crushed. 1924. Hamilton Comedies. Educational. Directed by Fred Hibbard. With Lloyd Hamilton, Dorothy Seastrom, Blanche Payson, Robert McKenzie, Louise Carver, Mark Hamilton, Jack McHugh, Tommy Hicks.

After misadventures on the subway, effete Ham ends up married to bossy Amazon Blanche Payson, who surprises him with a brood of brats. 15 min.

Program approx. 90 min.

8:00 The Surreal Life: Dallying with the Absurd

Some Hero. 1916. Eagle Film Company. Tweedledum Comedies. Directed by Billy Dunn. With Manuel Fernandez Perez (aka Marcel Fabre), Babette Fabre (aka Nilde Barrachi).

When Tweedledum’s girl is kidnapped by bad men, he springs into action. 11 min.

A Schoolhouse Scandal. Dec 7, 1919. Fox Film Corp. Sunshine Comedies. Directed by Eddie Cline. With Slim Summerville, Ethel Teare, Tom Kennedy, Polly Moran, Harry Booker, Jack Cooper, James Donnelly, Francis Carpenter.

A surrealistic stew of airplanes, tornadoes, trick mirrors, and underwater car repair. Footage was recycled for the studios’ 1920 release Hold Me Tight. 15 min.

Kiss Me Quick. 1920. Directed by John G. Blystone. Fox Sunshine Comedy. With Clyde Cook, Blanche Payson, Bobby Dunn, Frank Alexander.

Clyde is in hot water with his Amazon wife and her tough sailor brother, culminating in a wrestling match and escape by airplane. Also known as Don’t Tickle. 17 min.

All Wet. 2 September 1922. Fox Film Corp. Al St. John Comedies. Directed by Al St. John, with Al St. John, Otto Fries, Ford West, Sy Jenks, Tiny Ward.

A newly married couple find that their seaside home is too close to the water in this remake of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s Keystone short Fatty and Mabel at Drift (1916). The surrealistic undersea and rapid growth visual effects were greeted as a refinement of the slapstick form. This may be the first film Arbuckle directed anonymously after his infamous sex scandal.

20 min.

Egged On. 1926. R. C. Pictures Corp. Whirlwind Comedies. Directed by Charles Bowers, Harold L. Muller. With Bowers, Winifred Leighton.

An inventor of unbreakable eggs hatches himself a brood of infant Model T automobiles. 19 min.

Introduced by Eileen Bowser. Program approx. 72 min.

Saturday, October 9

2:00 The Surreal Life: Dallying with the Absurd (See Friday, October 8)

8:00 Gender Benders: Masculine Women/Feminine Men (See Friday, October 8)

Sunday, October 10

2:00 Class War: How the Other Half Lives (See Wednesday, October 6)

Thursday, October 14

4:30 Altered States: Under the Influence (See Thursday, October 7)

8:00 Unsocialized Medicine: The Health Care Crisis (See Thursday, October 7)

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