Rediscovered Chaplin, Other Rarities, at Classic Film Fest

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

As usual for Labor Day weekend, I spent last Thursday through Monday in Hollywood watching rare and classic films from 9 am until after midnight in the historic Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre as part of the 46th annual Cinecon. Most of these films were loaned from various film archives and studio vaults, with very few available on video or even cable TV. In all I saw 28 feature-length films and over 20 shorts, almost everything in actual 35mm film prints. Silent films all had live musical accompaniment. Here are a few of the highlights.

The best film of the weekend, John Ford’s “Upstream” (1927), wasn’t officially on the 5-day Cinecon schedule, but was a special Wednesday night screening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Almost unknown and previously believed to be lost, “Upstream” was discovered by chance last year in the New Zealand film archives, where it had been known only by its title. A vacationing archivist looked it up and excitedly realized it was the John Ford production.

Ford directed this Fox production while the German Expressionist style of lighting and settings were in vogue, and brief descriptions indicated it was a dramatic love-triangle set in the theatre world. Within a few minutes of the film’s opening titles, however, it was obvious that “Upstream” was a hilarious satire on life in the theatre, and conceited actors in particular. Preserved with the cooperation of 20th Century Fox, the film will be made available to festivals and revival theatres over the next year, and a Fox representative promised that this delightfully atypical example of Ford’s work will be on DVD and/or BluRay shortly after.

Another recent rediscovery that’s made international news is “A Thief Catcher” (1914), a Keystone Kops short comedy starring Ford Sterling, with an uncredited and previously unknown cameo appearance by Charlie Chaplin as one of the cops. This also is scheduled for DVD release next year as part of a collection of Keystone shorts.

One of the best and best-known films shown was Harold Lloyd’s classic comedy, “The Freshman” (1925). This entertaining romantic-comedy satire on college life and college football (loosely remade by Adam Sandler as “The Waterboy”) is one of the few films of the weekend currently available on DVD.

A couple of other enjoyable romantic comedies, one a silent, one a musical, can also be found on DVD. “A Pair of Silk Stockings” (1918) is clever marital mixup starring Constance Talmadge, and the version screened at the Cinecon was a newly-restored and very sharp 35mm print made from a copy discovered in Europe, supplemented by sequences blown up from a surviving 16mm home version (the one currently on DVD).

“Double or Nothing” (1937) is a fun parable about honesty starring Bing Crosby as four common people who return a $100 bill, and then are given the chance to earn a million-dollar inheritance. This film is included in a Bing Crosby DVD box set from MCA-Universal.

Jean Harlow stars in “Bombshell” (1933), a sort of a screwball satire on Hollywood stardom and publicity departments. It turns up periodically on the Turner Classic movies channel, and is well worth catching.

Some of the best films of the weekend were saved until last, screening Monday afternoon after many festival-goers had already left for the airport. These included “Crooked Streets” (1920), an exotic adventure starring Ethel Clayton as a young woman accompanying an antiquities dealer and his family to China, where she meets a mysterious Englishman played by Jack Holt; “Career Woman” (1936), a snappy story of a young woman (Claire Trevor) returning to her narrow-minded small hometown to practice law and immediately getting involved in a scandalous murder case; and my favorite of the festival, “Cross Country Cruise” (1934).

Many people are familiar with Frank Capra’s Oscar-winning comedy “It Happened One Night,” a Columbia Picture about a runaway heiress and reporter on a bus trip. Few realize that it was just one of many bus-trip movies that year, and actually came out after the equally entertaining and unbelievably Pre-Code Universal production “Cross Country Cruise,” which starts out as a clever and often risqué romantic comedy and eventually turns into a murder mystery.

Other films that deserve wider recognition include “King of Burlesque” (1936), a very enjoyable backstage musical starring Warner Baxter, Alice Faye, and Jack Oakie; “Tennessee’s Pardner” (1916) a well-done silent version of the classic Bret Harte story starring Fannie Ward; “The Testing Block” (1920), an archetypal William S. Hart western about an outlaw who goes straight and is later threatened by a former associate; “The Case of Becky” (1915), a strange story of hypnotism and split personality starring Blanche Sweet; “Easy to Take” (1936), a pleasant romantic comedy that goes behind the scenes of radio drama and talent shows; “You Never Know Women” (1926), an interesting backstage drama about a Russian theatre troupe, directed by William Wellman; Frank Capra’s “The Way of the Strong” (1928), an interesting crime melodrama with a crook in love with a blind violinist; “From Hell to Texas” (1958), an above-average CinemaScope western directed by Henry Hathaway (with star Don Murray at the screening to discuss the film and his career afterwards); and “Mister Big” (1943), an amazingly energetic musical about teens in a performing arts high school, starring a young and charismatic Donald O’Connor with Gloria Jean, the Jivin’ Jacks and Jills, and the Ray Eberle orchestra.

Several stars appeared at the screenings of their films to speak and answer questions, including one-time child star Jane Withers, who reminisced about the entertaining “This Is the Life” (1935), a nice little story of an orphan who has become a stage star but is being exploited by her step-parents, so she runs off with a man on the run for a crime he didn’t commit. Other stars present included Marsha Hunt and Marilyn Knowlden (“Easy to Take”), Bob Scheerer (“Mister Big”), and Louise Currie, who starred in two short Columbia comedies, one with El Brendel and the other with Harry Langdon.

“Keepers of the Frame” (1999) was an informative documentary about film preservation that should be seen by anyone interested in classic films. It sometimes turns up on various cable TV channels.

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