RICH MAN’S FOLLY – George Bancroft, Frances Dee

Rich Man’s Folly (1931)
Direction: John Cromwell
Screenplay: Grover Jones and Edward E. Paramore Jr.; from Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son
Cast: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, David Durand, Juliette Compton, Dorothy Peterson
 

Directed by the respected John Cromwell and based on Charles Dickens‘ Dombey and Son, Rich Man’s Folly features George Bancroft as a ruthless, egotistical shipping tycoon whose only concern is his work, all the while grooming his young son so he’ll one day take over the family business. In the meantime, the rest of family is completely ignored.
That is the kind of role Bancroft did best: Larger-than life, driven, and arrogant men who usually meet a towering, humbling defeat in the final reel. Also in the [...]

THE PONY EXPRESS – Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez

The Pony Express (1925)
Direction: James Cruze
Screenplay: Walter Woods; from Woods and Henry James Forman’s story
Cast: Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, George Bancroft, Ernest Torrence, Wallace Beery, Al Hart
 

The Pony Express is a rousing James Cruze Western depicting the founding of the Pony Express with a backdrop of political ambitions concerning a senator’s plans to get California to secede from the United States so he can build his own empire.
A great cast and Cruze’s direction keep this one interesting — even though Ricardo Cortez in a period film seems woefully out of place and pretty Betty Compson’s role is more or less that of an ingenue, merely requiring her to look good while reacting to the things going [...]

Cinesation 2009

Mary Pickford, Thomas Meighan in M’Liss

Cinesation 2009 is currently taking place at the Lincoln Theater in Massilion, Ohio. The four-day festival, which ends on Sunday, will screen a number of hard-to-find titles, including:

James Cruze’s 1925 political-historical Western The Pony Express, starring Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft in a tale of powerlust and media manipulation. Hey, sounds like life in the early 21st century? Well, that’s a mere coincidence, as The Pony Express is set in mid-19th-century California, a time when Sen. Glen (Al Hart) and his Knights of the Golden Circle scheme to have the state secede from Union, annex another chunk of Mexico, and form a new empire.
The 1918 Mary Pickford vehicle M’Liss, in [...]

UNDERWORLD Screening

Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook in Underworld

Josef von Sternberg’s 1927 crime classic Underworld will be screened on Friday, June 19, at 8 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The Alloy Orchestra will perform their score for the film, starring Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent, and George Bancroft. This will be the Boston-based orchestra’s only Los Angeles performance of Underworld this year.
Underworld, called the precursor — or at least the most notable precursor — of the gangster genre of the 1930s, features a ruthless mobster (Bancroft), his mistress (Brent), and his lawyer (Brook). Inevitably, romance and bullets ensue.
In 1929, at the first Academy Awards ceremony, Underworld won an [...]

STAGECOACH Screening

Stagecoach is the next 1939 best picture Oscar nominee to be screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939.” Directed by John Ford, and starring John Wayne and Claire Trevor, Stagecoach will be presented on Monday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The film will be introduced by John Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford.
Beginning at 7 p.m., the evening will also feature the second and third chapters of the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, starring Buster Crabbe and Constance Moore, in addition to the animated short The Film Fan, [...]