Lon Chaney’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Halloween Screening

The 1925 silent classic The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney (above) in the title role, will be screened on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2:30 pm at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. This Halloween Special presentation by the Los Angeles Theatre Organ Society will feature live musical accompaniment on a Wurlitzer theatre organ restored with the support of the Peter Lloyd Crotty Charitable Fund.
Directed by Rupert Julian, The Phantom of the Opera is perhaps Lon Chaney’s best-known movie role. At about that time, Chaney became a contract player at MGM, where he would star in a number of highly successful productions, some of which have popped up on Turner Classic Movies.
Based on Gaston [...]

Paul Crifo, Lon Chaney’s Great-Grandson at Academy Exhibitions

Poster artist Paul Crifo poses in front of the In the Heat of the Night poster at the opening of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences‘ new exhibitions "Art of the Movie Poster: Illustrated One-sheets and Design Concepts from the Paul Crifo Archive" and "Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, 1920-1936," on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.
Photos: Greg Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Ron Chaney poses next to great-grandfather Lon Chaney’s original makeup kit.

Ben-Hur items

Paul Crifo

Best Films – 1927

Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
FILM
Breakfast at Sunrise
d: Malcolm St. Clair; scr: Fred De Gresac, Gladys Unger
The Enemy
d: Fred Niblo; scr: Willis Goldbeck, Agnes Christine Johnston; titles: John Colton
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Hans Kräly; titles: Marion Ainslee, Ruth Cummings
The Unknown
d: Tod Browning; scr: Waldemar Young; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
The Valley of the Giants
d: Charles Brabin; scr: Gordon Rigby
 

George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor in Sunrise
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The Cat and the Canary
d: Paul Leni; scr: Alfred A. Cohn, Robert F. Hill; titles: Walter Anthony
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Love of Jeanne Ney
d: G. W. Pabst; scr: [...]

Best Films – 1925

Ramon Novarro and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
 
FILM
Ben-Hur
d: Fred Niblo (assisted by Christy Cabanne, Alfred L. Raboch, B. Reeves Eason); scr: Carey Wilson, Bess Meredyth, June Mathis; titles: Katherine Hilliker, H. H. Caldwell
The Big Parade
d: King Vidor; scr: Laurence Stallings, Harry Behn; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
Her Sister from Paris
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Hans Kräly
Lady Windermere’s Fan
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Julien Josephson; titles: Maude Fulton, Erik Yorke
The Merry Widow
d: Erich von Stroheim; scr: Benjamin Glazer, Erich von Stroheim; titles: Marian Ainslee
 

Battleship Potemkin
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Bronenosets Potyomkin / Battleship Potemkin
d: Sergei Eisenstein; scr: Nina Agadzhanova, Sergei Eisenstein; titles: Nikolai Aseyev, Sergei Tretyakov
 

Renée Adorée, John Gilbert in The Big Parade
ACTOR
John Gilbert
The Big Parade
 

Constance Talmadge, Ronald [...]

Best Films – 1924

Erich von Stroheim’s masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made, Greed remains a powerful indictment against the deadly sin of the title. Based on Frank Norris‘ McTeague, the film revolves around the misdeeds of a California dentist (Gibson Gowland, center), his miserly wife (ZaSu Pitts, left), and her former lover (Jean Hersholt, not in the above picture), all of whom sacrifice their selves to the all-powerful God of Dollar Bills. Stroheim’s initial cut had 47 reels, though eventually Greed was pared down to 10 reels (approximately 2h15m). That is all that is known to survive from the original film. But in spite of the drastic cuts, many of Stroheim’s magnificently perverted excesses are very much [...]

Best Films – 1920

Though no masterpiece, The Mollycoddle is a surprisingly enjoyable romp starring Douglas Fairbanks as an effete, upper-class nonentity who discovers both his manhood and his red-white-and-blue Americanness before the final fadeout. His leading lady is a minor actress named Ruth Renick, but one barely notices her. The director is Victor Fleming, best known for Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, but The Mollycoddle is truly all Fairbanks’.
 
FILM
The Last of the Mohicans
d: Maurice Tourneur, Clarence Brown; scr: Robert Dillon
The Mollycoddle
d: Victor Fleming; scr: Douglas Fairbanks, Thomas J. Geraghty
What Happened to Rosa?
d: Victor Schertzinger; scr: Gerald C. Duffy
 
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Conrad in Quest of His Youth
d: William C. de Mille; scr: Olga Printzlau
Outside the Law
d: Tod Browning; scr: Lucien Hubbard; [...]

Best Films – 1919

Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess in Broken Blossoms
FILM
Broken Blossoms
d, scr: D. W. Griffith
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
d: Robert Wiene; scr: Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz
The Hoodlum
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Frances Marion
 
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The False Faces
d, scr: Irvin Willat
The Sentimental Bloke
d: Raymond Longford; scr: Raymond Longford and (possibly) Lottie Lyell
 
ACTOR
Richard Barthelmess
Broken Blossoms
Werner Krauss
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Thomas Meighan
Male and Female
Arthur Tauchert
The Sentimental Bloke
 
ACTRESS
Lillian Gish
Broken Blossoms
Lillian Gish
The Greatest Question
Mary Johnson
Herr Arnes pengar / Sir Arne’s Treasure
Mary Pickford
Heart o’ the Hills
Mary Pickford
The Hoodlum
Gloria Swanson
Male and Female
 
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Lon Chaney
Victory
Conrad Veidt
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Josephine Crowell
The Greatest Question
Lila Lee
Male and Female
Clarine Seymour
The Girl Who Stayed at Home
 
CINEMATOGRAPHY
G. W. Bitzer
Broken Blossoms
G. W. Bitzer
The Greatest Question
René [...]