Mary Pickford in The Poor Little Rich Girl
Kansas Silent Film Festival 2009: Feb. 27
Saturday – Feb. 28, 2009
Morning – starts at 9 a.m.
Feature: The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) Mary Pickford (65 min.)
This is the feature film that put little Mary Pickford on the map as a star. She was known before, but this one put her name above the title and fans came to see her pictures after this no matter what the title was. It was also a role that typecast her forever as a child afterwards. Even when she was 33-years old, she was still playing little girls and was known as ‘America’s Sweetheart’. This delightful yet important story is about family and the importance of family. The little girl here (Mary Pickford) has everything that money can buy except time with her parents. It was just what a war weary nation needed at the time.
Organ music by Marvin Faulwell
Special Kansas Premiere: Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies (2008 documentary by Nicholas Eliopoulos 101 min.) Film-maker will be here in person for introduction and Q & A
This new documentary traces the life and work of the legendary silent film star, movie pioneer, and keen business woman who co-created United Artists Studios. Pickford’s life (1892-1979) also parallels an even larger story, the telling of the “birth of the cinema” itself. Mary, known as “America’s Sweetheart” was the first actress to earn one million dollars during a single year, and the only star to ever receive a 50% profit share of her movies. Through restored vintage audio recordings, Pickford narrates her own story along with actor Michael York. Cameo interviews with Adolph Zukor, famed aviator Amelia Earhart, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Buddy Rogers, Lillian Gish, and rare home movies give the viewer an in depth look into the early world of American cinema.
Afternoon – starts at 1:00 p.m.
Short: Fatty & Mabel Adrift (1916) Roscoe Arbuckle & Mabel Normand (30 min.)
One of the best in a series of very funny three-reel comedies featuring Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle (who was born in Smith Center, Kansas), Mabel Normand and Al St. John. Fatty and Mabel are trying to enjoy their wedded bliss while Al (her former suitor) is trying to mess things up. Of course, their cabin slides out to sea in a thunderstorm and their world is set topsy-turvy for a night!
Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Feature: Cobra (1925) Rudolph Valentino & Nita Naldi (75 min.)
Who was the icon of seductive charm, Hollywood glamour and irresistible sexuality? Rudolph Valentino, of course and here’s proof. COBRA is Valentino’s first independent production released less than a year before his untimely death. Here, he plays the suave Rodrigo Torriani whose affairs with various women have caused his retreat from his native Italy to New York where he becomes an antique dealer. Things start to heat up again when the boss’s new wife takes an interest in Rudy. She’s played by one of the great femme fatales of the silent era – Nita Naldi and her snake-like gaze may lead to Rudy’s downfall. Handsomely produced with sets by William Cameron Menzies, gowns by Adrian and shimmering cinematography by J.D. Jennings and Harry Fischbeck, this is a grand silent movie with lots to say about the ‘Battle of the Sexes”. Ms. Naldi has inspired an internet group of media savvy business women, whom we will salute at the beginning of this film.
Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
–Brief Break
Intermission Slides from the Dave Stevenson Collection featuring Jeff Rapsis (of New Hampshire’s Wilton Town Hall Silent Film series) on piano
Short: Kidding Katie (1923) Dorothy Devore (20 min.)
Another light weight, but delightful comedy short featuring a woman in the lead. Co-stars include Babe London and Billy Bletcher. Devore was one of the great silent screen comediennes of her day.
Organ music by Marvin Faulwell
Feature: Her Sister from Paris (1925) Constance Talmadge & Ronald Colman (74 min.)
Another KSFF coup is this impressive rarely-shown comedy featuring Constance Talmadge. Part of a family of movie stars (that included Constance, Norma and Natalie), the Talmadges were a prominent force in Hollywood movies for many years. Few of their movies survive, but this is one of Constance’s very best. She plays a troubled housewife whose husband seems to take her very much for granted until she gets a visit from the title character (to whom she bears a striking resemblance). The Parisian sister teaches her American sister how to win back her husband using her ‘vampy’ techniques. This could almost be described as a Ernst Lubitsch movie without Lubitscha top-notch sophisticated romantic comedy.
Organ music by Greg Foreman
(DVD Presentation of a Restored Film)
BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT at the Kansas Silent Film Festival 2009