The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont
has an October schedule worth checking out - especially if you don't
mind a little fright. There is an early Douglas Fairbanks comedy -
before he turned swashbuckler, a quirky, forward-looking 1925 film
featuring a Tele-Visionphone (think smart-device), a downright creepy
Lon Chaney movie before Halloween, a couple of Koko the
Clown cartoons, and a film featuring two actresses who were once Louise Brooks co-star. Each is presented with live musical
accompaniment. Here's what's playing.
"Saturday Night at the Movies," with Judy Rosenberg at the piano
Saturday, October 6 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, October 6 at 7:30 pm
Douglas Fairbanks and Constance Talmadge team up in The Matrimaniac
(1916, Triangle), a romantic comedy written by the legendary husband
and wife team of John Emerson and Anita Loos. The film tells the story
of young lovers who elope but are separated before they can secure a
minister and marry - all the while, the bride's irate father and a group
of lawmen are in hot pursuit. Among the noted actors in uncredited
parts in support of Fairbanks and Talmadge are Monte Blue, Mildred
Harris, and Carmel Myers, while future great Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz) served as cinematographer. This rarely screened feature will be preceded by two shorts, The Dumb-Bell (1922, Hal Roach Studios) with Snub Pollard, and The Surf Girl (1916, Keystone) with Raymond Griffith and Ivy Crosthwaite.
"Saturday Night at the Movies" with Frederick Hodges at the piano
Saturday, October 13 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, October 13 at 7:30 pm
Virginia Valli |
Loosely based on a Broadway play by Owen Davis, Up the Ladder
(1925, Universal) is something of a curiosity, with a plot involving
the invention and use of a Tele-Visionphone. Directed by Edward Sloman,
the film stars former Essanay Chicago studio actress Virginia Valli (Evening Clothes),
Margaret Livingston (Canary Murder Case), as well as
Forrest Stanley. The remarkable in-camera special effects are by
cinematographer Jackson Rose, who also got his start at Chicago Essanay.
Also in the cast is Olive Ann Alcorn, another beauty, who despite small roles in Chaplin's Sunnyside (1919) and Phantom of the Opera
(1925), is best remembered today for the stunning nude photographs of
her taken by the Alta Studio of San Francisco. Those images, reminiscent of the Louise Brooks nudes, are still in circulation today. Up the Ladder will be preceded by two shorts, Koko’s Field Daze (1928, Out of the Inkwell) with Koko the Clown, and Mystic Mush (1920, Hank Mann Comedies) with Hank Mann and Vernon Dent.