Several short films directed by film pioneer Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley in Martin Scorsese’s well-received Hugo, will be featured throughout January 2012 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum’s Edison Theater in Fremont, Calif. The Méliès screenings will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 21, and 28.
On Jan. 7, the Edison Theater will show Méliès’ 1910 short The Doctor’s Secret prior to the main feature, the William S. Hart 1916 classic Western Hell’s Hinges, which also features Clara Williams (excellent in the highly recommended The Italian) and Louise Glaum, a film vamp who four years later would star in Sex. Musical accompaniment by Frederick Hodges.
On Jan. 21, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum will celebrate “seven years of showing great films” with a screening of future two-time Oscar winner Lewis Milestone’s 1928 The Garden of Eden. The romantic comedy stars one of the great beauties of the silent era, Corinne Griffith, in addition to Charles Ray, Louise Dresser, and future director Lowell Sherman (among whose credits is Morning Glory, which earned Katharine Hepburn her first Best Actress Oscar). The Garden of Eden will be preceded by several shorts, including Méliès’ The Palace of Arabian Nights (1905). Musical accompaniment by Bruce Loeb.
And finally, on Jan. 28 four Méliès shorts will precede the feature presentation: The Untamable Whiskers (1904), The Marvelous Wreath (1907), The Knight of Black Art (1908), and The Eclipse (1907). The feature film that evening, by the way, is The Ice Flood, a 1926 adventure tale directed by George B. Seitz (who would end his career directing several Andy Hardy movies), and starring popular leading players Kenneth Harlan and Viola Dana. (Dana had been a top Metro star, but by the mid-’20s, her career had gone downhill.) Musical accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis.
The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is located at 37417 Niles Blvd. in Fremont. For additional information, call (510) 494-1411 or visit the Museum’s website.
Via Thomas Gladysz’ article at examiner.com.