Summer Cinema is back at MSUM

It’s June already, with Hollywood’s summer release schedule well underway, but next Monday also marks the return of MSUM’s Summer Cinema series in Weld Hall, after a couple of dormant years. Eight consecutive weeks of movies begin at 7:30 p.m. each Monday from June 8 through July 27, as usual split equally between classic films from the sound era and silent era.

This time the series is co-sponsored by the Red River chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society, whose members will perform before all the screenings on the “Mighty Wurlitzer” that is permanently installed in the Weld Hall auditorium, and of course will accompany each silent movie live while the 16mm film print is projected on the big screen. All movies will be shown on real film, not video. Local film specialists are currently being lined up to introduce each film, including Tony McCrae, Matt Olien, Tony Adah, and HPR’s own Greg Carlson and myself.

Kicking off the revived series is the endearing family comedy from 1947, “Life With Father.” William Powell, Irene Dunne, and a young Elizabeth Taylor star in the true story that was first a popular book and then a hit Broadway play. Directed by Warner Brothers veteran Michael Curtiz, the film got Oscar nominations for Powell’s strong performance, for its color cinematography, its Max Steiner music score, and its color art direction.

On June 15 is the season’s first silent, the fun Harold Lloyd comedy “Grandma’s Boy” (1922). This film marked Lloyd’s transition from shorts to feature-length films and helped put him in the ranks with the legendary Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton among silent screen comedians. The plot has Harold as a shy, cowardly boy whose grandmother’s stories of his ancestors inspire him to become heroic.

June 22 is the original 1950 version of the film noir classic “D.O.A.” (later remade twice, most notably with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan). This time Edmond O’Brien stars as an accountant who discovers he has been poisoned and has 24 hours to find the killer. Director Rudolph Maté, who started as a cinematographer in Germany and France, has a strong visual sense and makes the most of the moods set by this film’s cinematographer, Ernest Laszlo.

June 29 is a silent that spotlights America’s Sweetheart and first female superstar, Mary Pickford, who became not only her own producer but co-founder of United Artists studios (along with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith). Pickford’s petite form and flowing curls allowed her to play little girl roles well into her 30s. “Little Annie Rooney” (1925) was one of the last of those roles before she stuck to characters closer to her age (she’d do one more the following year). However, even at age 32 she’s able to carry off the title role believably—a spunky slum kid who teams up with her brother to solve her father’s murder, with plenty of comedy, melodrama, and sentiment along the way. It’s a pleasing distillation of all the trademark elements her audiences expected, although is essentially a formula retread of what she’d done before.

July 6 is one of movie-legend John Wayne’s better westerns, “The Angel and the Badman” (1947), which is the first film he also produced as well as starred in. It’s a nice human story of a wounded gunfighter who is helped by a Quaker family and becomes torn between changing his outlook and continuing his violent ways for revenge.

July 13 is another western of sorts, but is actually more of a period action-adventure, and also happens to be the film that inspired the creation of the “Batman” character. “The Mark of Zorro” (1920) is the first film of the famous character who is an effete wealthy playboy by day and a daring masked avenger by night. Silent screen superstar Douglas Fairbanks (husband of Mary Pickford) had risen to fame in contemporary action comedies, but decided to change his image to that of swashbuckling adventurer with this film. It was such a hit that he never went back. The rest of his career he became even more famous for his costumed, larger-than-life heroes like Robin Hood, the Black Pirate, the Thief of Bagdad, the Gaucho, and more, always with a strong sense of humor amidst the daring-do.

July 20 is quite possibly the best of the many films made about the vagabond French poet François Villon, “The Beloved Rogue” (1927). Legend of stage and screen John Barrymore (grandfather of Drew) throws himself into the role with carefree abandon. German actor Conrad Veidt (better known as Major Strasser in “Casablanca”) is superb as superstitious King Louis XI, and Mack Swain (notable as Chaplin’s sidekick in “The Gold Rush”) makes a great sidekick to Barrymore. High production values and strong direction make this comedy adventure a delight.

This year’s Summer Cinema series ends July 27 with “The Inspector General,” a 1949 Technicolor musical comedy version of a satiric Russian play by Gogol. Danny Kaye has one of his most memorable roles as an illiterate entertainer who is mistaken for a visiting official by the corrupt bureaucrats of a small Russian town. As has been traditional at the last film of MSUM’s summer series, refreshments will be served after the screening.