Rarities in Hollywood

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

The first week of September I spent in California for the 47th annual Cinecon classic film festival, where I saw 25 short films and 28 full-length features at the Hollywood Egyptian Theatre over Labor Day weekend. The majority were rare 35mm prints from archives and studio vaults, spanning the years 1910 through 1961, plus a 2002 documentary about the short-lived but revolutionary Cinerama widescreen process. A select few can be found on home video with some searching, and a few may turn up on cable TV, but most can only be seen at festivals like this. Below are a few of the highlights
. “Hands Up!” (1926) - Raymond Griffith is sometimes called “the fifth of the four great silent comedians.” This Civil War comedy is one of his best films, with Griffith as a dapper Confederate spy racing a Union spy to reach a goldmine out west. There he falls for the miner’s two daughters, who both also fall for him, leading to a highly unusual and unexpected resolution!

“Practically Yours” (1943) - This excellent Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert WWII romantic comedy-drama is reminiscent of Preston Sturges in its affectionate cynicism about wartime sentiment. To tell much more would give away some plot points better learned in a first viewing of this film that deserves to be far better-known.

“East Side, West Side” (1927) - Veteran Alan Dwan directed this very Germanic drama of city life rich and poor, with a boxing story, nightclubs, gangsters, building construction, and cross-class romance. George O’Brien delivers one of his best screen performances and there are new thrills every couple of reels, from shipwrecks to subway cave-ins to the Titanic sinking!

“Glamour Boy” (1941) is a well-above average behind-the-scenes Hollywood comedy with 20-year-old Jackie Cooper as a has-been child actor hired to coach new child actor (Darryl Hickman) and falling for singing starlet Susanna Foster. She’s hired to replace temperamental star Brenda Lee, but her romance with Cooper causes various complications finally resolved by the end. It’s all very entertaining, and nice to see Cooper watching scenes of himself in “Skippy” from a decade earlier.

“Stormy Weather” (1943) is full of absolutely fantastic musical performances throughout from leads Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Lena Horne, not to mention Fats Waller, Cab Callaway, and more, but especially the spectacular Nicholas Brothers finale. It’s a must-see for any jazz and swing lovers, despite the sketchy script and weak acting, and luckily can be found on video and occasional TCM broadcasts.

“Diplomacy” (1926) Blanche Sweet, Neil Hamilton, Matt Moore, and Gustav von Seyffertitz star in a slick, wonderfully edited Marshal Neilan melodrama of international spies, impoverished aristocrats, and a secret treaty that serves as the story’s Maguffin. The film’s unexpectedly facile editing helped reduce the need for subtitles, with numerous meticulously-timed cuts from the master shots of action to closeups, reactions, cutaways, and inserts to let the viewers in on exactly what they needed to know without resorting to words.
“Cinerama Adventure” (2002) is an informative and engrossing documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the spectacular interlocked three-film Cinerama process to create an extra-wide image. The overwhelming success of its public debut in 1952 quickly inspired Hollywood to switch to widescreen production to compete with television. This film is included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray of the restored “How the West Was Won” (1963), the second of only two dramatic films made in the process. The filmmakers were present at the screening and announced that the other six Cinerama films are now being restored, and several will appear soon on Blu-ray.

“Moon Over Her Shoulder” (1941) stars Lynn Bari, John Sutton, and Dan Daily Jr in a highly engaging romantic comedy of a radio marriage psychologist who can’t realize his own wife’s needs. After encouraging her to pursue hobbies, she winds up falling for a boat skipper, but complications escalate amusingly.

“Hollywood Story” (1951) started off the festival Thursday night, starring Richard Conte, Jim Backus, and Fred Clark in a familiar but entertaining movie industry plot of an old unsolved studio murder mystery, with cameos by several silent stars. Co-star Julie Adams was at the screening and spoke about the film and her career afterwards.

“The Mad Martindales” (1942) is an unfairly neglected little domestic comedy-romance with Jane Withers, Jimmy Lydon, Gig Young (still billed as “Byron Barr”), George Reeves, and Alan Mowbray about overspending architect whose two daughters tryi to save the family house and reputation as bill collectors descend. It’s interesting to see child star but now teenage Withers develop into a romantic interest for a change, and with a young Gig Young, no less! Both Jane Withers and Jimmy Lydon were present and reminisced energetically after the screening!

“The Coward” (1915) is a Civil War drama starring Charles Ray that’s a bit slow starting, but impressively staged, shot, and edited, with relatively restrained performances for 1915. Action picks up once the war begins, and it’s especially fascinating to realize the film was made only 50 years after the war ended. Several main plot points were borrowed by Buster Keaton nearly a decade later for “The General.” An earlier restoration of “The Coward” (showing a bit more damage than this lovely 35mm print) can be found on the DVD “Civil War Films of the Silent Era.”

“The Hope” (1920) is a reasonably involving melodrama set in Britain and India involving a loan shark’s daughter and a scheming fortune-hunting officer, and a parallel romance of a young officer (Jack Mulhall) and heiress (Marguerite De La Motte). This was one of several silents shown that happened to survive in near-perfect condition, looking almost as if it was just made!

A few other films of interest included “Beauty’s Worth” (1922), “The Brasher Doubloon” (1947), “College Rhythm” (1934), “The Night Mayor” (1932), “An Arabian Night” (1920), “By Right of Purchase” (1918), “Le Bonheur” (1934), and more.

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