2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation V: RUTHLESS, Vitaphone Varieties
Schedule and synopses from the UCLA Film & Television Archives press release.
Saturday, April 18
7:30 p.m.
Preservation funded by The Film Foundation
RUTHLESS (top photo)
(1948, Edgar G. Ulmer)
Director Edward G. Ulmer’s complex psycho-melodrama Ruthless (1948) is undoubtedly worthy of rediscovery. A flashback-structured tale of a sociopath’s remorseless drive for station and wealth, Ruthless (often referred to as Ulmer’s Citizen Kane) employs a relentless undercurrent of emotional violence. As relayed in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Ulmer envisioned his feature as “a Jesuitic morality play… a very bad indictment against 100 percent Americanism—as Upton Sinclair saw it.” The film’s chilling, malevolent tone is personified in a starkly muted performance by lead—and frequent screen cad—Zachary Scott.
Eagle-Lion Films. PROD: Arthur S. Lyons. SCR: Alvah Bessie, S. K. Lauren, Gordon Kahn. Based on the novel “Prelude to Night” by Dayton Stoddart. CINE: Werner Janssen. ED: Francis D. Lyon. CAST: Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, Lucille Bremer.
35mm, 104 min.
Feature preceded by:
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
NEWS OF THE DAY VOL. 19, NO. 257
(1948)
“Red crisis stirs nation!”
35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
POPULAR SCIENCE, VOL. J6-5
(1947)
Subjects include the bathroom of the future, a one-man haybaler and "V-2" rocket research at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.
35mm, 10 min.
*IN PERSON: Arianne Ulmer Cipes, daughter of director Edgar G. Ulmer.
Sunday, April 19
2:00 p.m. •note later screening this same day
Preservation funded by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation
THE BUCCANEER
(1938, Cecil B. DeMille)
One of the rarest of Cecil B. DeMille’s sound films, The Buccaneer mines a little tapped vein of American history—the War of 1812—for a rousing bit of homegrown spectacle. Fredric March stars with devilish swagger as Jean Lafitte, the French pirate transformed into an American folk hero for his exploits at the Battle of New Orleans—all for the love of an American aristocrat (Margot Grahame), as DeMille tells it. Alongside March, Hollywood newcomer Hungarian actress Franciska Gaal stars as Gretchen, a shipwrecked waif plucked from the sea by Lafitte, while Akim Tamiroff steals the show as Lafitte’s lovably brusque cannoneer.
Paramount Pictures. PROD: Cecil B. DeMille. SCR: Edwin Justus Mayer, Harold Lamb, C. Gardner Sullivan. Based on the novel “Lafitte the Pirate” by Lyle Saxon. CINE: Victor Milner. ED: Anne Bauchens. CAST: Fredric March, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Margot Grahame, Walter Brennan.
35mm, 124 min.
Feature preceded by:
Preservation funded by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation
GRETCHEN COMES ACROSS
(1938)
A short promotional featurette for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Buccaneer.
CAST: Cecil B. DeMille, Franciska Gaal, William H. Pine.
35mm, 11 min.
Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation
BARCAROLLE
(1934)
A Technicolor travelogue subject featuring views of Venice, set to the classical music piece with symphonic orchestra under the direction of Rosario Bourdon.
35mm, 6 min.
Sunday, April 19
7 p.m. •note earlier screening this same day
Preservation funded by the Bay Area Video Coalition’s 2007 MediaMaker Award
“LEGACIES FROM THE ONE ARCHIVES”
The ONE Archives began in 1942 when writer-activist Jim Kepner created a private collection of gay-related materials in New York. The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives now thrives as the world’s largest research library on LGBT heritage and concerns. In early 2007, ONE deposited its collection of rare film and videotape with the Outfest Legacy Project at UCLA. This evening’s program presents highlights from a portion of that collection, in conjunction with a discussion hosted by Joseph Hawkins, president of ONE Archive’s board of directors, about ONE’s crucial role in preserving LGBT history.
Total running time of film and video: approx. 45 min.
*IN PERSON: Don Kilhefner, Lillian Faderman, Malcolm Boyd, Mark Thompson, Joseph Hawkins.
Friday, April 24
7:30 p.m.
Preservation funded by The David Bohnett Foundation with additional support provided by The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation and the members of Outfest
WORD IS OUT: STORIES OF SOME OF OUR LIVES
(1977, Mariposa Film Group: Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix)
Quite possibly as relevant today as it was on its debut over 30 years ago, Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives is widely considered the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity. Offering a vastly different perspective on gay and lesbian identity in America than the common views of the time, the film presents 26 diverse gay and lesbian individuals, who with profundity, honesty and humor, describe their struggle to live a decent life in America, despite prejudice, discriminatory laws and society’s
unwillingness to treat them with respect and equality.
Mariposa Film Group. PROD: P. Adair. CINE/ED: P. Adair, A. Brown, R. Epstein, L. M. Phenix, V. Selver. CAST: John Burnside, Sally M. Gearheart, Elsa Gidlow, Harry Hay, Tede Mathews.
35mm, 135 min.
*IN PERSON: director Nancy Adair.
Saturday, April 25
7:30 p.m.
“VITAPHONE VARIETIES 1927-1931”
Recognizing the growing audience for Vitaphone shorts and the difficulty of seeing these unique artifacts on the big screen, the Archive presents a reprise program of Vitaphone shorts that haven’t screened in a Festival since the early 1990s. For those not in the know, the Vitaphone Corporation produced thousands of shorts featuring musicians, vaudeville acts and radio stars between 1926 and 1930, recording the soundtracks on large phonograph discs for playback in theaters. When sound-on-disc technology became obsolete, Vitaphone shorts began to fade into oblivion. Tonight’s program offers an eclectic mix of Vitaphone short subjects that celebrates the often raucous talents that have made these shows must see events.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
OHMAN & ARDEN
(1927, Production #553)
35mm, 7 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
JOSEPH E. HOWARD, AMERICA’S POPULAR COMPOSER
(1928, Production #2596)
35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by Hugh Hefner
THE OPRY HOUSE
(1929, Production #834)
35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by Robert G. Dixon
TEX McLEOD “A ROPE AND A STORY”
(1928, Production #2694)
35mm, 8 min.
Preservation funded by Hugh Hefner
TAL HENRY AND HIS NORTH CAROLINIANS
(1929, Production #732)
35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
ALWAYS FAITHFUL
(1929, Production #3334)
35mm, 11 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
LOU HOLTZ “IDLE CHATTER”
(1929, Production #954)
35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the Library of Congress and UCLA
RED NICHOLS AND HIS FIVE PENNIES
(1929, Production #870)
35mm, 7 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
PAT O’BRIEN “CRIMES SQUARE”
(1930, Production #1146)
35mm, 10 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
BEN BERNIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
(1930, Production #958)
35mm, 9 min.
Preservation funded by the American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Grants Program
HELEN MORGAN “THE GIGOLO RACKET”
(1931, Production #1255-1256)
35mm, 21 min.
*Total running time of films: approx. 110 min.
*IN PERSON: Robert Gitt, Preservation Officer, UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Sunday, April 26
7 p.m.
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation
IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS
(1914, Edward S. Curtis)
Almost a decade before Robert Flaherty immortalized the Inuit people in Nanook of the North (1922), Edward S. Curtis filmed In the Land of the Headhunters with an indigenous North American cast. Like Flaherty’s “documentary,” Headhunters was both a reflection of contemporary life among the Kwakwaka’wakw people of British Columbia as well as a fiction that combined melodramatic elements with tribal customs: Motana, the son of a chief, must battle an old medicine man for the right to marry Naida, who has been promised by her father to the tribe of the headhunters. Around this plot, Curtis stages many authentic ceremonies, including the tribe’s potlatch ceremony.
Seattle Film Co. SCR: E. S. Curtis. CINE: Edmund August Schwinke.
35mm, approx. 70 min.
*Live musical accompaniment will be provided.
2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation Schedule I: A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation Schedule II: THE PROWLER
2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation Schedule III: SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR
2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation Schedule IV: BEHIND THE SCENES IN HOLLYWOOD
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VENUE: The Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024 (courtyard level of the Hammer Museum)
TICKETS: Advance tickets are available for $10 at www.cinema.ucla.edu. Tickets are also available at the box office starting one hour before showtime: $9, general admission; $8, Cineclub members, students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members with ID; $7, Cineclub members who are students or seniors.
FREE admission to “Johnny Cash Presents The Everly Brothers Show” on April 1.
PARKING: After 6 p.m., $3 in the lot under the Billy Wilder Theater. Enter from Westwood Blvd., just north of Wilshire.
INFO: www.cinema.ucla.edu / 310.206.FILM
Photos: Courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archives
Click on the images to enlarge them.
UCLA Festival of Preservation 2009 – Recommendations
Douglas Fairbanks’ THE THIEF OF BAGDAD and THE IRON MASK Screening
SARI’S MOTHER, SICKO: Contemporary Documentaries Screening
THE CAKE EATERS Sneak Preview at the Egyptian Theatre
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Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
Hugh Hefner has many credits for his support and donation to the UCLA Festival Proservation Project. Tal Henry, Jr. thanks all of the personel that made the Tal Henry and His North Carolinians Orchestra possible for showing on the night of April 25, 2009. I would like to thank Hugh Hefner personally for his contributions to the Film Industry.
I have a 400 page book of the pictorial history of Tal Henry and His North Carolinians as they were more than a regional small town band. Colored photos and articles will proof to be extremely interesting to students, the elder, ageless group what enjoys music in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s. It’s a book for engaging in the wonderful past history through out the country. In the end, one will find that Tal Henry was booked at the same famous theatres, ballrooms, casinos, parks, auditorium and other venues.
Sara R. Henry and Tal Henry, Jr.