Happy birthday Louise Brooks

Happy birthday to Louise Brooks. The silent film actress, Denishawn dancer, and best-selling author of Lulu in Hollywood was born on this day in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1906. She graced this world for 28,758 days.

Brooks' birth even made the Associated Press' Today in History syndicated feature, as seen in the Pattaya Mail, and English Language newspaper from Thailand!

Snapshots from the New Mission theater in San Francisco

My wife and I had a blast at the Alamo Drafthouse / New Mission theater where we saw Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks on the big screen. I also signed books and DVDs for new fans of the film. Here are a few snapshots from the evening, which I was told had sold-out!

I love their neon!

Thank you to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for co-sponsoring this event and for asking me to participate. Thank you Lucy, Peter and Anita.

Today / tonight: Diary of a Lost Girl with Louise Brooks screens in San Francisco

Tonight, in San Francisco, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema will screen the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. Start time is 7 pm. The event is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

And what's more, yours truly will be there in the theater lobby selling and autographing copies of the Diary of a Lost Girl book and DVD / Blu-ray both before and after the show.

In 2010, I edited, wrote the introduction, and published the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl, the sensational & controversial 1905 book that was the basis for the 1929 film. My efforts were praised by the likes of Louise Brooks biographer Barry Paris, film historian Leonard Maltin, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle critic Jack Garner, and others. (More info about the book can be found HERE.)

And, last year, in 2015, my audio commentary to the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. My efforts were likewise praised by film historians James L. Neibaur and Glenn Erickson, and critics from DVDtalk, blu-ray.com, and elsewhere. I recommend both the book and the movie highly. I hope to see some of you at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema.

Louise Brooks and the New Mission Theater

Tomorrow evening, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema will screen the  Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. It marks the first time the 1929 film will have been shown at this historic San Francisco theater. It does not, however, mark the first time a Brooks' film will have been shown at the New Mission. (More information about this event can be found HERE.)

From cinematreasures.org: "The Mission Theatre was opened in 1907. It was a narrow theatre on the west side of Mission Street, between 21st Street and 22nd Street. It was renamed Premium Theatre in 1911 and renamed Idle Hour Theatre in mid-1913. In 1916, the architectural firm Reid Brothers reused the original theatre as an entrance lobby to their newly built auditorium of the 1,500-seat New Mission Theatre that sits on Bartlett Alley, behind the Mission Street storefronts. It opened May 6, 1916 with Mary Pickford in Poor Little Peppina....  The entire building was now in a Spanish Colonial Revival style and the auditorium had 1,500 seats, all in the orchestra level. On November 15, 1917, a balcony was added, which was said to have 1,000 seats. In 1918 a 300-seat second balcony was added. In 1932, for the Nasser Brothers circuit, architect Timothy Pflueger transformed the theatre especially the outer lobby, marquee, and 70ft blade sign, into an Art Deco style wonderland with 2,012 seats. After closing as a movie theatre in the 1980’s, the former New Mission Theatre spent the next 25 or so years virtually unaltered as a furniture store."

In 2012, Alamo Drafthouse announced plans to convert the New Mission Theatre into a five auditorium dinner & drinks cinema. A few years later, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema opened, on December 17, 2015, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

As can be seen above, in the 1920s the New Mission was part of a thriving Mission street theater district. The New Mission was a popular "neighborhood theater," showing second run fair for a couple of days at a time, especially Paramount films.

The New Mission (and its sister theater, the New Fillmore) had a relationship with Paramount, and that's why so many of Brooks' films showed at the two theaters. In fact, the only two of her Paramount films which didn't show at the New Mission were The City Gone Wild (1927) and The Canary Murder Case (1929). One other Brooks' silent which didn't show there was Just Another Blonde, a First National release. Here is which Brooks films showed at the New Mission and when it showed.

The Street of Forgotten Men
New Mission in San Francisco (Oct. 12-14, 1925)

The American Venus
New Mission in San Francisco (May 27-28, 1926)

A Social Celebrity
New Mission in San Francisco (July 3-4, 1926)

It’s the Old Army Game
New Mission in San Francisco (Sept. 4-5, 1926)

The Show-Off
New Mission in San Francisco (Oct. 23-24, 1926)

Love Em and Leave Em
New Mission in San Francisco (Mar. 12-13, 1927)

Evening Clothes
New Mission in San Francisco (May 16-18, 1927)

Rolled Stockings
New Mission in San Francisco (Dec. 19-21, 1927)

Now We’re in the Air
New Mission in San Francisco (Jan. 30 – Feb. 1, 1928)

A Girl in Every Port
New Mission in San Francisco (July 3-5, 1928)

Beggars of Life
New Mission in San Francisco (Jan. 19-20, 1929)

It Pays to Advertise
New Mission in San Francisco (May 14-15, 1931)

When You’re in Love
New Mission in San Francisco (May 11-13, 1937 with Too Many Wives)

Though Diary of a Lost Girl was released in Germany in 1929 and shown all over the world in the early 1930's, the film was not shown in the United States until the mid 1950's. It made its San Francisco Bay Area debut at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley on September 10, 1972, on a bill that included with The Last of the Mohicans and Madame du Barry. [In case you are wondering, Pandora's Box was first shown in the SF Bay Area at Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey sometime between Aug. 2 and Aug. 5, 1962, as part of the Peninsula Film Seminar. This historic event was organized by James Card, who attended with film prints in hand. Also in attendance was Pauline Kael, poet Jack Hirschman, and others.]

For the records, here is an exhibition history of Diary of a Lost Girl in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any and all additions and corrections are welcome.

Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Sept. 10, 1972 with The Last of the Mohicans and Madame du Barry); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Feb. 15, 1978); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley with Hoopla (Apr. 12, 1981); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 12, 1983); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 5, 1985 as part of the series “A Tribute to Louise Brooks (1906-1985)” with Lulu in Berlin); San Francisco Cinematheque at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco (October 2, 1986 with The Dream Screen); Castro in San Francisco (Jan 22, 1987 with Sadie Thompson as part of “Vamps” series); Castro Theater in San Francisco (Nov. 8, 1988); Castro in San Francisco (May 11, 1992 with Pandora’s Box); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Nov. 5, 1999 as part of film series “Revivals & Restorations”); Castro in San Francisco (Jan. 14, 2002 American premiere of restored print, as part of the Berlin & Beyond Festival); Jezebel’s Joint in San Francisco (Dec. 8, 2002 as part of SF IndieFest Microcinema); Stanford in Palo Alto (Aug. 4, 2006); Castro Theater (July 17, 2010 as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival); Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library in San Francisco (Nov. 14, 2010); Alamo Drafthouse (Nov. 12, 2016).

Incidentally, I'll be in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission signing Diary of a Lost Girl books and DVD before and after the film. This marks my first appearance at this venue.

Children of Divorce with Clara Bow coming to DVD & Blu-ray

Great news for all you flappers, shebas & sheiks

Almost 15 years after the release of its first publication, Flicker Alley, in partnership with the Blackhawk Films® Collection, is proud to celebrate 50 fully-published titles with the Blu-ray/DVD world premiere of Children of Divorce, starring Clara Bow and Gary Cooper.

FormatBlu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition (NTSC)
RegionAll: A,B,C/0
DirectorFrank Lloyd and Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
FeaturingClara Bow, Gary Cooper, Esther Ralston
ComposersMont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Year1927
LanguageEnglish
Length71 minutes
UPC6-17311-6758-9-8

More info HERE.

The film begins in an American "divorce colony" in Paris after the First World War, where parents would leave their children for months at a time. Jean, Kitty, and Ted meet there as children and become fast friends. Years later, in America, when wealthy Ted (Gary Cooper) reconnects with Jean (Esther Ralston), the two fall deeply in love, vowing to fulfill a childhood promise to one day marry each other. But true love and the most innocent of plans are no match for the scheming Kitty—played by the original Hollywood “It” girl, Clara Bow—who targets Ted for his fortune. After a night of drunken revelry, Ted wakes up to find he has unwittingly married Kitty. This unfortunate turn of events, however, carries with it the traumatized pasts of the three players, whose views of marriage have been shaped as children of divorce.

Sourced from the original nitrate negative held by the Library of Congress, as well as their 1969 fine grain master, this new restoration of Children of Divorce was scanned in 4K resolution, and represents over 200 hours of laboratory work by the Library of Congress in order to create the best version possible. Though some deterioration remains, this is the first time the film has ever been released on home video, allowing audiences to enjoy a rare viewing of classic performances from two of early cinema’s most recognizable stars.

Flicker Alley is delighted to reach the milestone of its 50th publication with Children of Divorce. This Blu-ray/DVD dual-format edition features a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and was made possible thanks to the Blackhawk Films® Collection, Paramount Pictures, and the Library of Congress.

This title is currently available for PRE-ORDERS ONLY. If purchased, the item will be shipped on or before the official release date of DECEMBER 6, 2016.

Bonus Materials Include:

    “Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl” – Narrated by Courtney Love, this hour-long film documents the life of the woman who would become the icon of the flapper era, from her tragic childhood to her tumultuous personal life as Hollywood’s first sex symbol.

    Souvenir Booklet – Featuring rare photographs; an essay by film preservationist and Clara Bow biographer David Stenn; notes on the production of the documentary by producer-director Hugh Munro Neely; and a brief write-up about the music by Rodney Sauer, score compiler and director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood

Pola Negri is, without doubt, one of the most interesting and (relatively speaking) little appreciated stars of the silent era. She was a major star in the United States in the 1920s, as well as in Europe, where earlier she had risen through the ranks of the Polish and German film industries. In fact, Negri was so big in America (she was both hugely popular, and, she had a BIG personality) that many up and coming stars were compared to her. Negri was sophisticated, worldly, and alluring. Early on, Louise Brooks was once described as a "junior vamp" a la Negri.

I've long been interested in the Polish-born Negri. And my interest was rekindled after having seen a restoration of the Malcom St. Clair directed A Woman of the World (Paramount, 1925), starring Negri, at last year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It was funny and enjoyable, and Negri was simply terrific. I can't wait till the restoration is released on DVD, hopefully sometime soon.

Recently, I finished reading a new book on the actress, Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood, by Sergio Delgado. The book was published by McFarland, a long standing publisher of books on the silent film era.

From the publisher: "Femme fatale Pola Negri (1897-1987) was one of the great stars of the silent film era, an actress whose personal story of hardships and successes, loves and tragedies is more compelling than most Hollywood dramas. Yet today she is largely overlooked, her name tarnished by myths and scandals. Taking a fresh look at her life and career, this book debunks the myths and gossip, presenting a candid portrait of one of the silent screen's most sensational leading ladies. Rare photographs are included, along with in-depth discussions of her films."

As it is, Delgado's book serves as an introduction to the actress and her films. And as just that, I enjoyed it. It is a good read. However, all along I was hoping for something more, something more in depth -- especially in regards to Negri's European years.

As the author admits, his sources for Negri's are somewhat problematic: they are the various, publicity-driven movie and fan magazines of the day, like Photoplay, as well as Negri's own book, Memoirs of a Star, which was published in 1970 and was described at the time of its release (as relayed by the author) as "fiction."

Delgado as much as admits these sources are not always to be trusted, but then writes a book based almost exclusively on them. That left me frustrated.

That's why I was left wondering, time and again, where were the Polish or German or French sources? Negri was born and raised in Poland, worked there and in Germany making some of her best and worst movies (including some with Ernst Lubitsch), and later lived on and off in France. Certainly there is a Continental paper trail of some sort? In Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood, the European incidents in Negri's life and the films she made in Europe are described almost always through the eyes of the American press, or the star's own "suspect" memoirs.

Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood is not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it. And, I suggest you get this book, and check it out on your own. Pola Negri was a fascinating if not temperamental personality, as well as a good actress. That, certainly, comes across in Delgado's new book. Heck, who else can claim or did claim to have had affairs and been engaged to BOTH Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino?

[In the meantime, if you want to learn a little more about Negri, start with her Wikipedia page, or the 1987 obituaries which appeared in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Along with her now out-of-print Memoirs, which were published in 1970, a more recent account of the actress's life can be found in Pola Negri: Hollywood's First Femme Fatale by Mariusz Kotowski. First published in Poland as Pola Negri: Legenda Hollywood in 2011, the book was issued here in the United States by the University Press of Kentucky in 2014.]

Election results at movie theaters in 1928

With the 2016 election upon us, its worth noting that back in 1928 one could go to the movies and be kept informed of election results! This, of course, was long before television, and while radio was still in its infancy.

The 1928 election, which took place on Tuesday, November 6th, pitted industrialist businessman and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (a Republican) against New York state governor Al Smith (a Democrat). Hoover won in a landslide; and within a year, the stock market crashed and the economy sank into a depression. But that's getting ahead of the story.

Wanting not to loose anxious patrons who might otherwise stay home to learn election results, movie theaters across the country promised to keep their patrons informed of the results "by wire."  Over the years, I have found a number of newspaper advertisements which promised moviegoers the latest election results if they come to their theater. Simply look for the words "election night" on the following advertisements.

In the first ad below, featuring the Al Jolson film, The Singing Fool, and the Louise Brooks film, Beggars of  Life, the election night announcements reads, "Get national, state, county returns while you enjoy a show in a comfortable seat. Come early -- stay late. Come to either theater for the news first."

Kansas City, Missouri

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - with "Special Returns by Post-Gazette wire"

St. Louis, Missouri

NOW THAT YOU'VE READ THIS BLOG POST, GO OUT AND VOTE,
IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO!

In Honor of Film Preservationist David Shepard

Later Today, the American Film Preservationist David Shepard will be honored at a special event at Dartmouth College. Shepard has done as much as anyone to both preserve and promote our film heritage, especially the silent era.

At the event, the famed DVD producer and historian of silent classics speaks to his tireless work to preserve world cinema. Recent restorations by Shepard include Raoul Walsh’s early gangster saga, Regeneration (1915) with Philip Carli’s piano music, all of Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay and Mutual comedies, and Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 with Ciné Salon’s Bruce Posner. More information about the event can be found HERE.

A special tribute video featuring fellow film archivists and historians Serge Bromberg, Leonard Maltin and Kevin Brownlow was made to mark the occasion.

As is evident from the video above, David Shepard is greatly admired by his fellow archivists, preservationists, film historians, and film buffs. That admiration come across in this snapshot, which I took in 2010. For a film buff (such as myself), this was a magical moment. Pictured here is a photograph of colleagues - from left to right that's Kevin Brownlow, Diana Serra Cary (aka Baby Peggy), David Shepard, and Leonard Maltin.

Born in 1940, and raised in New Orleans and the suburbs of New York, David Shepard has had a lifelong love of film, having devoted most of his life to film preservation. Through teaching and shcolarship, through his company, Film Preservation Associates, through his ownership of the Blackhawk Films library, and through his film and video restoration efforts, Shepard has long worked behind the scenes helping save early films. Just as importantly, Shepard makes these films available to the home video market, first through laserdisc and VHS formats, and now through high-quality DVD releases, "where the clarity and beauty of these early motion pictures can really be fully appreciated."

In the words of Mike Mashon, Head, Moving Image Section, Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, “David is a giant in the field of film preservation, one of those rare talents who exemplifies the scholar’s rigorous research, the archivist’s attention to detail and the fan’s unabashed love and enthusiasm for movies.”

I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with David Shepard for more than a decade. He is a fine fellow. I appreciate having seen the films which he has preserved and brought to DVD as well as the silver screen. I also enjoyed reading and treasure my autographed copies of his books on movie legends King Vidor and Henry King. I was also honored to have my picture taken with David Shepard earlier this year.

David Shepard's involvement with silent film also extends to Louise Brooks, and whose now lost 1927 film, The City Gone Wild, he almost saved.

In his 1990 book, Behind the Mask of Innocence, Kevin Brownlow wrote about an incident in the 1970s. “David Shepard, then with the American Film Institute’s archive program, had a list of 35mm nitrate prints held in a vault Paramount had forgotten it had. He asked me which title I would select, out of all of them, to look at right away. I said The City Gone Wild. He called Paramount to bring it out of the vaults for our collection that afternoon. The projectionist went to pick it up. ‘O, there was some powder on that,’ said the vault keeper ‘We threw it away.’ … He tried to rescue it, even from its watery grave, but a salvage company had carted it off by the time he got there.”

For more about David Shepard and all that he has done, check out these interviews.

Northwest Chicago Film Society: A Conversation with David Shepard

Digitally Obsessed: A Conversation with David Shepard

Silents are Golden: Interview with David Shepard

Louise Brooks, at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and 16th Street

In the 1920s, movies were advertised in all manner of ways -- in newspapers and magazines, on posters and handbills, in window displays, and even by individuals walking down the street wearing a sandwich boards. And like today, they were also advertised on billboards.

In the past, I have seen only one image of the billboard promoting a Louise Brooks' film, namely The Canary Murder Case, as it appeared in a distant and grainy photograph in a Winnipeg, Manitoba newspaper.

Recently, I came across something very special -- a photograph of a billboard promoting A Social Celebrity in Kansas City, Missouri. To me, it is a remarkable image, as it is not in a downtown setting (as in the Canary Murder Case image I had seen), but rather, in a city neighborhood. What's more, I found the image on an African-American history website -- the Black Archives of mid-America, which leads me to guess but not know for sure that the neighborhoods depicted below were African American neighborhoods. [It's not surprising that Brooks films were advertised in Black neighborhoods. In fact, I have come across a handful of instances when Brooks films were shown in theaters that catered to African Americans, one in Harlem, and one in Baltimore.]

Here is the first image I found, followed by a close-up of the billboard itself.

The billboard depicted above promotes a showing of A Social Celebrity at the downtown Newman Theater in Kansas City, commencing the week of May 1. One might ask, "Why was this picture taken?" Most likely, I would guess, to prove to Paramount or the film's local distributor or exhibitor that the film was in fact advertised as per an agreement.

I also happened to come upon another photograph from the time (all of which were credited to the Merritt Outdoor Advertising Co.) which depicts another billboard promoting A Social Celebrity in Kansas City! It's the on the far right. This photo is set at Broadway and 35th Street.

Just as I began to wonder it there had been a city wide campaign to promote the film, I came across another image of a billboard promoting A Social Celebrity. This one located at 15th and Holmes Streets in Kansas City.

And here is another, where the billboard is on the left of the three billboard construct. This picture was shot 4025 Troost Avenue.

I found four more images of billboards promoting A Social Celebrity, including the picture below. Unfortunately, this photograph, which is typical of the others, shows the billboard either distant or obscured (here behind a tree at the corner of Independence Avenue and Maple Boulevard). Nevertheless, that makes eight photographs of eight billboards promoting the same showing of A Social Celebrity.

Incidentally, the Newman showed many of Brooks' films when they were first released. The Newman was a major first run theater in a major metropolitan area. In fact, it was the "largest motion picture theater to be built in the downtown district and the most costly theater of any sort" erected at the time in Kansas City. Seating capacity was 2,000. There was also a big organ installed.

Named after Frank L. Newman and opened in 1919, the Newman theater was later sold to and operated by Paramount Pictures starting in 1925, when Newman left to manage theaters in Los Angeles for the Famous Players-Lasky Film Corporation. After another change of name and a renovation in 1969, the theater was closed for good and demolished in 1972. Here is a vintage postcard view of the theater.

These historic billboard images got me wondering. If they exist for one film in one city, where are others like them from other major cities? The search continues....

I wasn't able to find much about Frank Cambria's Garden Festival, which was the opening act for A Social Celebrity at the Newman in Kansas City. Seemingly, he/it was a traveling act, turning up in 1926 in Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis and elsewhere. When Cambria's Garden Festival was staged that same year in Brooklyn ahead of the Richard Dix's film, Let's Get Married, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described it as "a lovely presentation, staged in good taste and has as its theme song Schubert's Serenade."

Incidentally, I did find a few other images depicting billboards for other films starring the likes of Norma Shearer, Zasu Pitts, Helen Chadwick and others. Here is one of them, for the Priscilla Dean, Lon Chaney film Outside the Law at the Liberty theater. (Another image I came across, of a four billboard construct, depicts both Outside the Law and A Social Celebrity. That image is the fourth image from the top, though the billboard for Outside the Law is a hard to make out.)

New 2K Restoration of Beggars of Life Heading to Theaters

BIG news: Kino Lorber Repertory has just announced that a new restoration of the 1928 William Wellman-directed film, Beggars of Life, will be heading to theaters and festivals sometime next year. Based on the 1924 autobiographical novel by Jim Tully, the film stars Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, and Richard Arlen. This is a new 2K restoration from materials held in the archives of the Library of Congress. Not known is whether or not this new restoration will include an of the film's original audio elements, which are thought to have been lost (but in fact may not be, completely).

Additionally, a Blu-ray release is expected to be announced for next year. According to knowledgeable sources, Beggars of Life is one of a handful of Paramount-produced silent films considered for release. Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

This is BIG news. And not only because Beggars of Life is Louise Brooks' best American silent film, a designation otherwise held by default by the Howard Hawks directed A Girl in Every Port (1928). It's fun, but not really so significant of a work, despite the high regard it is held in France.

Why is Beggars of Life big news? Because with this restoration and revival comes renewed attention to Brooks entire body of surviving work. For years, Louise Brooks was a largely forgotten actress remembered, if at all, only for her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929). Once that film was established as a masterpiece, Brooks other G.W. Pabst directed film, Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), soon followed. Brooks moved from a one-hit actress to an actress with two great films to her credit. In the last few years, Prix de Beaute has also found favor, and now Brooks is known for what she accomplished with her "European trilogy." And now comes recognition for Beggars of Life, a fourth film, further putting Brooks front and center in film history. Now, if only The Show Off (1926) or Love Em and Leave Em (1926) would come back into circulation to round things out..... or one of her best lost films, like The City Gone Wild, were to be found.... or....

ADDENDUM: I for one would like to see Beggars of Life released on Blu-ray with the equally gritty The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), Brooks first film.

Today: "Lost Creatures," new play about Louise Brooks, in Denver, CO

Lost Creatures, a new play about Louise Brooks by Melissa McCarl, will be staged for the first time later today in Denver, Colorado. (A public reading of the play was given last year.) Here are the details about this new project.

WORLD PREMIERE -- Thursday, November 3 at 7:30 PM MDT -- The play runs November 3rd through November 19th, 2016

Directed by Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski
Starring Mark Collins as Kenneth Tynan,  Billie McBride as Louise Brooks, and Annabel Reader as Lulu 

About the play: Lost Creatures follows the evening in May of 1978 when British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan met his long time cinematic idol Louise Brooks. He travels to her dingy little apartment in Rochester, NY where she has sequestered herself for many years. He is there ostensibly to write a profile on Brooks for the New Yorker, but he discovers that they are kindred spirits, and in spite of an age gap of twenty years, theirs becomes an unlikely love story discovered through a marathon dialogue about sex, philosophy, art, and criticism. There is also a silent third character, Lulu, (based on Louise’s role in her most famous silent film Pandora’s Box) who drives the action of the play.

Set/Sound Design-Darren Smith
Light Design-Emily Maddox
Costume Design-Susan Lyles
Stage Manager-Lauren Meyer

Venue: The Commons on Champa, 3rd Floor Studio, 1245 Champa Street. Support provided by The Next Stage NOW

About Melissa McCarl: Author of Painted Bread, a full-length play named Best New Work by the Denver Post, about the tumultuous life of Frida Kahlo (recently produced by the Aurora Fox.) Commissioned by the Mizel Arts Center to write Poignant Irritations, celebrating the unorthodox life and love of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Commissioned by the Curious Theatre Company to write for the War Anthology directed by Bonnie Metzgar of the Public Theatre. Winner of the Steven Dietz award for the one act Carlene Yakkin’. Melissa has been named best local playwright by Westword newspaper and the Denver Post.


Those interested can check out an interview profile of Lost Creatures actor Mark Collins. The former Boulder, Colorado theatre critic is playing renowned theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in Melissa Lucero McCarl's play.

TONIGHT: Prix de beauté in 35 mm at the Kennington Biograph / Cinema Museum in London

The UK premiere of the restored silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown tonight in 35 mm at the Kennington Biograph / Cinema Museum in London. This special screening, part of "Silent to Sound in Europe," is an event not to be missed! More information can be  found HERE. And what's more, the great Stephen Horne will accompany the film.

According to the Kennington Biograph webpage, "This event is presented in conjunction with the AHRC-funded project ‘British Silent Cinema and the Transition to Sound’. Using clips from British, French and German films, historian Geoff Brown investigates the turbulent European scene in the period of transition, 1929/1930. Studios struggled to shift from silent feature production to films that talked, sang, and made noises. Britain briefly won the technological advantage, but which country used the technology most imaginatively? The feature in the second half will be the UK premier of the original restored silent version of Prix de Beauté (1930), featuring Louise Brooks, courtesy of Cineteca Bologna. Doors open at 18.30, for a 19.30 start. Refreshments will be available in our licensed cafe/bar."

Prix de beauté was, in fact, one of the very first French sound films, and not without reason, music and sound are recurring thematic, visual and auditory motifs in both the silent and the sound versions film.

Spooky film history books for Halloween

I know people, myself included, who, every Halloween watch classic horror films movies like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). I just watched the latter for about the tenth time—it still satisfies. I also watched the terrific UK thriller, The Clairvoyant (1935), with Claude Rains and Fay Wray. If you haven’t seen it, find a copy. I predict you’ll love it.

With Halloween just a few days away, there’s no better time to pick up some horror-themed film history. Might I recommend two recently released books from BearManor Media? One is London After Midnight: A New Reconstruction Based on Contemporary Sources, by Thomas Mann. It is an intriguing work of literary-filmic archeology.

Tod Browning’s silent horror film, London After Midnight (1927), starring Lon Chaney, has intrigued silent movie fans for decades. The movie is considered lost, and remains one of the most famous and sought after of all lost films. Every April 1st, it seems, somebody announces they have found it. Eureka!

The last known copy of London After Midnight was destroyed in a vault fire in 1967. Today, all that remains are surviving film stills, an illustrated novel, scripts, and other ephemera which give some feel for the actual film; however, gaps in the plot and other inconsistencies and missing elements leave viewers wondering how the actual film unfolded. (This, despite the fact that Turner Classic Movies aired a valiant reconstructed version, using the original script and film stills, in 2002.)

In London After Midnight: A New Reconstruction Based on Contemporary Sources, Mann offers a reconstruction based on his transcription of a rediscovered 11,000-word fictionalization of the film published in Boy’s Cinema, an English publication, a year after the film was released. Mann’s detailed comparison of surviving sources sheds new light on various “unsettling” aspects of the film, like the discovery of a second murder victim, a plot element not in the final film. Mann’s transcription of the story is included in the new book.

Another intriguing book from BearManor Media is Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays by Gary D. Rhodes. Here, noted film scholar and Bela Lugosi authority Gary D. Rhodes brings to light two of Ed Wood’s unproduced scripts for the famed Dracula star, namely The Vampire’s Tomb and The Ghoul Goes West. Rhodes is ably assisted by horror movie expert Tom Weaver, Lugosi biographer Robert Cremer, and Hollywood historian Lee R. Harris. Each dig deep into these unfilmed films, and in doing so, unearth all manner of previously unknown information and visual artifacts. Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays reproduces the two screenplays, and puts these horrific treasures on exhibit for the first time.

Another recent title well worth checking out is Expressionism in the Cinema, edited by Rhodes and Olaf Brill. Published by Scotland’s Edinburgh University Press (and available in the United States), this wide-ranging collection reworks the canon of Expressionistic cinema—which means it goes beyond the handful of German titles likely familiar to film buffs.

The book’s fifteen essays revisit key German films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), and The Hands of Orlac (1924), and also provide new consideration of more obscure titles like Nerven (1919), The Phantom Carriage (1921) and other films produced outside Germany—notably in France, Sweden, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere.

For me, the real eye opener is Rhodes’ contribution to the book, “Drakula halála (1921): The Cinema’s First Dracula.” Yes, you read that right. There was a “Dracula film” before F. W. Murnau’s classic Nosferatu (1922), and before Tod Browning’s familiar Dracula (1931).

Drakula halála, or Dracula’s Death (sometimes translated as The Death of Drakula—following the Hungarian spelling), is a Hungarian horror film written and directed by Károly Lajthay. Like London After Midnight, it is presumed lost.

Drakula halála tells the story of a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum, where one of the inmates claims to be Count Drakula. Echoing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the woman has trouble determining what is real and what is not, and whether the inmate’s visions are real, or merely nightmares. The film stars Paul Askonas as Dracula, with Carl Goetz as the "funny man" or "meat man." At the other end of the decade, Goetz played the important role of Lulu's pimp in the expressionist-tinged Pandora's Box.

Though the plot of Drakula halála does not really follow the narrative found in Bram Stoker’s famous novel, Dracula (1897), the film marks the first screen appearance of the vampire character we know as Count Dracula.

Released the following year, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (translated as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror) was in fact an unauthorized adaptation of Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to Stoker’s novel (for instance, “vampire” became “Nosferatu,” and “Count Dracula” became “Count Orlok”). In his fascinating essay, Rhodes argues that Drakula halála beat Nosferatu to the punch. Or should I say, it got the first bite.

A variant of this piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

A Magical Mystery Tour: New Book Surveys Jules Verne on Film

As a kid, two of my favorite sci-fi flicks were Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and Mysterious Island (1961). Whenever they came on TV, I was sure to watch—because as a kid, that was the only way I or just about anyone could see their favorite films. This, of course, was well before video tape and DVDs and the internet hurtled us into the future and changed everything.

A hidden place and a lost land, where in each noble characters used bravery and wit to battle strange creatures and adverse circumstance: I loved each of those stories because they took me somewhere else, somewhere elusive and fantastic beyond the regularity of suburban Detroit, where I grew up. For me, there is something resonant, almost mythic about those two film stories. Off course, I didn’t feel that way back then—I just loved the sheer adventure. Today, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Mysterious Island remain favorites, and as an adult I have watched them more than a few times, having purchased the DVDs. (These two films, like other Verne stories, have been filmed on more than one occasion. I have watched the more recent remakes, but don’t find them as satisfying.)

What those two films have in common is that both were based on books by Jules Verne (1828-1905), the great French novelist often called the “Father of science fiction.” Along with Shakespeare and Agatha Christie, Verne is one of the most translated authors in the world. And, it’s not surprising, he is also one of the most filmed authors. Going back to the earliest years of the silent era, more than 300 film and television adaptations of Verne’s stories have been made. The most recent are an animated Japanese film, The Lost 15 Boys: The Big Adventure on Pirates’ Island (2013), and a French production, Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (2014).

Each of these adaptations and many others are surveyed in Brian Taves’ fascinating new book, Hollywood Presents Jules Verne: The Father of Science Fiction on Screen (University Press of Kentucky). Film buffs and science fiction enthusiasts, as well as anyone drawn to steam punk will want to own a copy.

Besides Journey to the Center of the Earth and Mysterious Island, how many of us have not seen one or another version of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea or Around the World in Eighty Days (out of which sprang such immortal characters as Captain Nemo and Phileas Fogg)? Each is included in this Taves’ book, along with less familiar film adaptions of works like From the Earth to the Moon, Michael Strogoff, Master of the World, and others. They’re all here, feature films, box-office hits, low budget productions, shorts, serials, television shows and miniseries.

Taves knows of what he writes. He is author of a handful of books popular culture and film history (including highly recommended studies on directors Thomas Ince and Robert Florey - the director of the 1937 Louise Brooks' film, King of Gamblers), and works as a film archivist with the Library of Congress. Over the last 30 years, Taves has also written numerous articles on Verne, and co-authored The Jules Verne Encyclopedia (1996). Taves is currently editing “Jules Verne - The Palik Series,” stories and plays by the author never before translated into English, produced by the North American Jules Verne Society and published by BearManor Media.

If you’ve never seen Journey to the Center of the Earth (the 1959 version, starring James Mason, and with Pat Boone in his finest role) or Mysterious Island (the 1961 version), search out a copy today. Also, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (the 1954 version, with Kirk Douglas and James Mason) is also quite good.

And while you are at it, sign up to follow Taves work. He is always into something interesting.

A variant of this piece first appeared on Huffington Post

Diary of a Lost Girl screens in San Francisco on Nov 12

Saturday, November 12, 2016, 7:00 pm, Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS A SILENT NIGHT AT THE ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 25, 2016) —The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents an evening of silent film with live musical accompaniment, in collaboration with the Alamo Drafthouse, on Saturday, November 12. G.W. Pabst’s DIARY OF A LOST GIRL, starring the sublime Louise Brooks and based on a famous book of the time, will screen at 7:00 pm in the large auditorium of the Alamo Drafthouse’s beautiful new theater at the New Mission. Notably, this very theater screened many of Brooks American silent films in the 1920's.

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (Germany, 1929, 112 minutes) will be accompanied live by The Musical Art Quintet, with score by Sascha Jacobsen. The Musical Art Quintet is made up of Sascha Jacobsen (bass/composer/bandleader), Anthony Blea (violin), Phillip Brezina (violin), Charith Premawardhana (viola), and Lewis Patzner (cello).

Tickets are $15, available in advance and at the door. Buy tickets here:
https://drafthouse.com/sf/show/diary-of-a-lost-girl-with-the-musical-art-quintet

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record. SFSFF has been presenting live cinema events in the Bay Area since 1996 and has gained popular and critical success. SFSFF presents A Day of Silents at the Castro Theatre on December 3rd and its 22nd annual festival, June 1–4, 2017. For more information, visit silentfilm.org

Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission
2550 Mission Street, San Francisco

Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers

Earlier this year, when Kino Lorber released the five-disc Pioneers of African-American Cinema, J. Hoberman wrote in The New York Times, "From the perspective of cinema history — and American history, for that matter — there has never been a more significant video release.” Inspired by the enthusiastic grassroots support that enabled the creation of the project, Kino Lorber has decided to expand the foundation of Pioneers with a new, equally ambitious project: PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS.

Like Pioneers of African-American Cinema, this new project will be a deluxe five-disc box set, with a booklet of historical essays, film notes, and photos. And, as before, we are mounting a Kickstarter campaign to help defray the massive up-front production costs of such a huge undertaking.

Presented in association with the Library of Congress (and drawing from the collections of other world-renowned film archives), Pioneers will be the largest commercially-released video collection of films by women directors, and will focus on American films made between 1910 and 1929—a crucial chapter of our cultural history.

By showcasing the ambitious, inventive films from the golden age of women directors, we can get a sense of what was lost by the marginalization of women to “support roles” within the film industry.

The collection will be comprised of new HD restorations of both the most important films of the era, but also the lesser-known (but no less historically important) works: short films, fragments, isolated chapters of incomplete serials. The five-Blu-ray box set will include approximately twenty hours of material—showcasing the work of these under-appreciated filmmakers, while illuminating the gradual changes in how women directors were perceived (and treated) by the Hollywood establishment.

Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is executive-produced by filmmaker and actress Illeana Douglas (Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Ghost World), and produced by BretWood, who previously produced Pioneers of African-American Cinema, as well as restorations of films of Buster Keaton, D.W. Griffith, Erich von Stroheim, and many others for Kino Lorber. The selection of films will be curated by Shelley Stamp, Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of two award-winning books, Lois Weber in Early Hollywood and Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon.

Please visit their Kickstarter page for lots more information and consider making a contribution.

Louise Brooks Oddities #9, the last

In my ongoing research, I come across all sorts of material which is a little odd or unusual, and sometimes entertaining. Here is something I found about a week ago. It is an interview with the Nobel Prize winning Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez which appeared in the Brazilian edition of Playboy back in 2013. And, as I have underlined in red, the noted writer mentions Louise Brooks!

I wonder if the interviewer or Márquez knew that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is a huge Louise Brooks fan?