Alternative Film Guide

The 28th edition of Cinefest will be held from March 13–16, 2008, in Syracuse, NY. As per the Cinefest website, the mini-festival features "great films to fill the four glorious days from the vaults of the world’s greatest libraries and obscure specialties we are noted for from private collectors!"

The (tentatively) scheduled films all seem fascinating, even if in large part because they’re so rare.

Among them are two with the striking Pauline Frederick: Smouldering Fires (1925), a Clarence Brown-directed drama (co-starring Universal’s top female star, Laura La Plante) that received great acclaim upon its release, and Wayward (1932), an early talkie in which Frederick supports Paramount star Nancy Carroll; and one Norma Talmadge vehicle, The Lady (1925), in which Talmadge suffers — and how she suffers — as a woman wrongly separated from her beloved son. (At RKO, The Lady was remade as The Secret of Madame Blanche [1932], with Irene Dunne.)

[The cover on the left is from Sunrise Silents' Smouldering Fires disc, which also includes short subjects, a newsreel, one episode from the 1917 serial Mystery of the Double Cross, and a 1922 Mary Alden vehicle called Disposing of Mother.]

Also, Lillian Gish’s first talkie, One Romantic Night (1930), in which she is courted by Rod La Rocque and Conrad Nagel, and supported by inveterate scene-stealer Marie Dressler (this romantic comedy taken from Ferenc Molnár’s play would be remade in 1956 as The Swan, with Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, and Louis Jourdan); Dorothy Lamour’s official screen debut, The Jungle Princess (1936), in which she (as a woman named Ulah with a tiger as a pet) dons the obligatory sarong (or some sort of facsimile); and the Alice Faye musical You’re a Sweetheart (1937).

Plus a couple of British silents: Shooting Stars (1927), a tale of love and deception co-directed by Anthony Asquith (with, as per the IMDb, A.V. Bramble, whom I’d never heard of), and starring Brian Aherne (who’d move to Hollywood in the 1930s), and Adrian Brunel’s The Vortex (1928), based on a Noel Coward play, and starring Britain’s biggest male star of the era, Ivor Novello.

Of the listed films, I’ve seen only one: Mervyn LeRoy’s Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), an early talkie in which Alice White — who rapidly faded from the scene — plays a rising star who learns that Hollywood is a Tough Town. She is supported by Blanche Sweet, who should know. By 1930, Sweet’s two-decade film career was all but over. That’s quite possibly why she’s so effective as a has-been in the film, memorably singing the ditty "There’s a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood." (See below.)

Thus far, the listed Cinefest titles (all subject to change) are:

(Note: Due to collector Rusty Castleton’s death, a handful of the titles listed below — not sure which — have become unavailable.)

• SHOOTING STARS (1927) Dir. Anthony Asquith, A.V. Bramble with Brian Aherne
• YOU’RE A SWEETHEART (1937) with Alice Faye, George Murphy
• BOUGHT (1931) with Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, Richard Bennett
• ONE ROMANTIC NIGHT (1930) with Lillian Gish, Rod La Rocque, Conrad Nagel, Marie Dressler
• TOO MANY BLONDES (1941) with Rudy Vallee, Lon Chaney Jr., Shemp Howard
• SMOULDERING FIRES (1925) Dir. Clarence Brown with Pauline Frederick, Laura La Plante
• WAYWARD (1932) with Nancy Carroll, Richard Arlen, Pauline Frederick, John Litel
• SHOWGIRL IN HOLLYWOOD (1930) Dir. Mervyn LeRoy with Alice White, Jack Mulhall, Blanche Sweet. Guest Stars Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Loretta Young, Noah Berry Sr. & Jr.
• MARRIED? (1926) with Owen Moore, Constance Bennett
• PAMPERED YOUTH (1925) with Cullen Landis, Ben Alexander (25-minute shortened version blown up from 9.5mm)
• THE VORTEX (1928) with Ivor Novello, Willette Kershaw, Frances Dolbe
• VAGABONDING THE PACIFIC (1926) with John Barrymore
• WILD HORSE MESA (1925) with Jack Holt, Noah Beery, Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• ROBBER’S ROOST (1932) with George O’Brien, Maureen O’Sullivan, Reginald Owen
• ONLY SAPS WORK (1930) with Leon Errol, Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Stuart Erwin
• WOMAN TO WOMAN (1929) with Betty Compson, George Barraud
• BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN (1939) with Wallace Ford, Stuart Erwin, Jimmy Lydon
• THE JUNGLE PRINCESS (1936) with Dorothy Lamour (photo), Akim Tamiroff, Ray Milland

35mm presentation at the Palace Theater includes

• QUEEN HIGH (1930) with Ginger Rogers, Frank Morgan, Charles Ruggles
• THE LADY (1925) Dir. Frank Borzage with Norma Talmadge, Brandon Hurst
• A PHILISTINE IN BOHEMIA (1920) with Rod La Rocque, Edna Murphy
• THE STOLEN VOICE (1915) with Violet Horner, Robert Warwick
• THE VIOLIN OF M’SIEUR (1914) with Etienne Girardot, Clara Kimball Young, James Young, Shep the Dog
• GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE KODACHROME PARTY FILMS

Piano accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis, Philip Carli, and Gabriel Thibadeau.

A Sunday morning auction is expected to attract Leonard Maltin, the Library of Congress’ Mike Mashon and James Cozart, the George Eastman House’s Pat Loughney, Caroline Yeager, and Ed Stratmann, and others.

As per the Cinefest website, "registration or admission fee is required of each person attending Cinefest. Cinefest 28 screenings begin at 9:00 am on Thursday, March 13th and will run through 5:00 pm Sunday, March 16th. Pre-registration cost for each person before February 5th is $65.00, after February 5th, $70.00 for all four days. Remember, pre-registration discount cutoff date is Monday, February 5th. On a daily basis, the registration cost is $25.00 per day. Your ticket, as purchased, will admit you to all activities at the Holiday Inn during the four-day run of the Cinefest - all film screenings, dealer rooms, etc.

"This year’s 35mm screenings will be Saturday morning, March 15th at the newly restored Palace Theater. The fee is $25.00 and includes bus transportation from the hotel to the Palace Theater and back to the hotel at the conclusion of the 35mm program."

 

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