2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (Part 2 of 2)

I've been so busy at work that I haven't had time to keep this blog updated.  I've seen 40 films since the SF Silent Film Festival (July 12 to 15).

My favorite film of the festival was The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna.  Brigitte Helm of Metropolis is the titular Nina Petrovna, the mistress of a Russian Army colonel.  Reminiscent of the intrigues of Dangerous Liaisons, Petrovna and the Colonel (Warwick Ward) alternately toy with the affections of a young and earnest Lieutenant (Franz Lederer).  What starts as a simple flirtation, spirals out of control as the Lt. appears to experience love for the first time, Petrovna is reborn by the young man's purity of heart and the Colonel seeks revenge.  As the film progresses, Petrovna transforms herself from a wealthy man's mistress into a poor man's true love.  However, the machinations of the Colonel combined with the Lieutenant's desperation result in Petrovna's ruination.  The title could refer to the lie which started the whole affair or the lie Petrovna tells to release the young man from the chains of love.

Although resembling a few von Sternberg and Louise Brooks films, The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna has a certain unique flourish to it which I attribute to Ward's performance as the third lead.  Helm grounds the film in a solid performance.  Comparing Nina Petrovna to the films von Sternberg or Brooks is high praise in my book.  The screening was greatly enhanced by the score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Speaking of Brooks, her Pandora's Box was probably the most impressive film of the festival.  If Nina Petrovna is 1A, then Pandora's Box is 1B only because I had high expectations going into the screening.  Once again, Louise Brooks commands the screen.  Was there ever a role in which Louise Brooks did not shine?  Brooks is Lulu, a woman with many male (and one female) admirers and few inhibitions.  Lulu's descent into the demimonde begins when her new husband dies as a result of a botched double suicide.  Convicted of murder, Lulu escapes her prison sentence (with the aid of her son-in-law no less) but not her fate. Lulu and her band of admirers take refuge in a seedy ship/casino where she barely escapes being sold into white slavery.  Ending up in London, Lulu has a climactic encounter with a Jack The Ripper character.

The synopsis is light on details because the highlight of Pandora's Box is Brooks' spellbinding performance.  Unbelievably radiant, Brooks/Lulu uses her charms to lead men to their destruction.  But rather than a femme fatale, Lulu's as much a victim of her own charms as the men she attracts.  Lulu attracts men with such a strong pull of magnetism that they wreak havoc on themselves and Lulu.  Not unaware of the effect she has on men, Lulu is an ambiguous character.  Perhaps not fully deserving of the sympathy she evokes from the audience, Lulu is nonetheless viewed through a prism normally reserved for tragic heroines.

Pandora's Box is also notable for some of the set pieces.  There is a sequence at the theater/circus where the characters navigate an obstacle course of backstage movements which was as impressive a display of blocking as I can recall.  The squalid ship and wretched garret in London were textbook examples of mise-en-scène.

Whereas Nina Petrovna was a pleasant surprise, Pandora's Box met all my lofty expectations.

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A handful of films were quite good but, in my opinion, a step below Nina Petrovna and Pandora's Box.  

It wasn't until a few days before the screening of Docks of New York that I realized I had not previously seen the film.  Having confused Underworld with Docks of New York, it was only until I read the festival program that I realized the plot synopsis did not match my recollection of "Docks of New York."  A quick search of this blog confirmed my suspicion.  So it was that I made hasty plans to see Docks of New York and I'm grateful that I did.

At times, it becomes obvious I've seen too many films.  The plot Docks of New York begins with burly Bill Roberts, a coal stoker (George Bancroft) jumping off the docks to save a soiled dove (Betty Compson) from drowning.  Thwarting a suicide attempt, Roberts quickly wins Mae's (Compson) heart and the two have an intense night which reveals Roberts to be less brutish than first appearance and buoys Mae's spirits.  That premise - man saves woman from suicide and then quickly romances her is almost a trope but I can't quite place the films Docks of New York remind me of...and no, I'm not thinking of Vertigo.

Von Sternberg gives Compson the Full Dietrich - close-ups with soft lighting...all the better to emote with.  However, Compson is no Dietrich and the Dietrichesque character is split between Compson and the more audacious role of Bill's wife (played by the noted Russian actress/celebrity Olga Baclanova).  Yes, Roberts has a wife but the love story is between Roberts and a down-on-her luck whore.  For my tastes, Mae was too much a victim and Baclanova's role was too small to move the needle.

Docks of New York is more a paean to the masculinity of George Bancroft which in the role of Bill Roberts was considerable.  Rough and tough and lacking sentimentality, Roberts (as well as Docks of New York)  forces its way into your heart.  The film is also notable for a few of the sets - the boiler room on the ships and the raucous dive bar on the dock where Roberts holds court.

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Stella Dallas was unabashedly maudlin but undeniably effective.  Overshadowed by the Barbara Stanwyck production (1937), the silent Stella Dallas covers familiar ground.  Stella (Belle Bennett) is the overprotective and gauche mother of Laurel Dallas.  Having married Stephen Dallas (Ronald Coleman) when he was at a vulnerable point in his life, Stella and Stephen separate and ultimately divorce as Stephen's fortunes and self-respect bounce back.  Once he reunites with his childhood love, the pieces are in place for Stella's tragedy.

As Laurel makes her debut in high society, she learns that her mother is ridiculed for her fashion faux pas (her application of make-up was particularly garish) and questionable companions.  Wanting to spare her mother's feelings, Laurel attempts to retreat with her mother to their small hometown.  However, Stella is aware of the embarrassment she causes Laurel and is prepared to make the ultimate maternal sacrifice.

Belle Bennett is more than adequate as the brassy Stella and carries the bulk of the film on her shoulders.  16 year old Lois Moran is impressive as Laurel and provides the crucial counterpoint to Bennett's attention-grabbing performance.  Jean Hersholt also shines as the graceless alcoholic who is the source of several of Stella's problems.  Ronald Coleman isn't quite as effective without "the voice" but certainly doesn't hurt the film.  Douglas Fairbanks Jr. has a small and largely ornamental role as Laurel's handsome boyfriend.

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The Canadian starred Thomas Meighan & Mona Palma as a reluctant married couple.  Although the title refers to Meighan's character, it's Palma as his wife who has the meatier role.  As a sheltered Englishwoman left destitute by her parents' deaths, Nora makes her way to Alberta to live her older brother.  Conflicts with her sister-in-law (Dale Fuller in attention grabbing performance) push Nora into marrying Frank (Meighan) in order to escape her sister-in-law's wrath & ridicule.

The Cameraman is one of Buster Keaton's most famous films so I won't waste time & space on the plot.  I laughed heartily during the screening.

Wings was more enjoyable than the screening with Dennis James' accompaniment at the Stanford earlier this year.  No offense to Mr. James but the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra added some sound effects to the airplane scenes which was surprisingly effective.  Being familiar with the plot, I was able to concentrate more on the original It Girl and boy did she have It!  Unlike Louise Brooks' sensitive and soiled sensuality, Clara Bow was a bundle of energy packaged in effervescent roles.  Playing a more mischievousness and cuckolding role Mantrap, it seems clear that Bow's élan vital was not going to shine through regardless of the role.  Clara Bow was the best thing about Wings and Mantrap; both of which had a lot to admire but space and time prevent me for elaborating.

Little Toys also seemed similar to a film I've seen before.  The gulf of 79 years and different cultures keeps me from fully appreciating the Ruan Lingyu film...or for that matter, Ruan Lingyu herself.  Too overtly melodramatic for my tastes, Little Toys is the final film I found worthwhile...not fully satisfying but still special in that how often are Ruan Lingyu performances screened?

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The Loves of Pharaoh (directed by Ernst Lubitsch)and The Spanish Dancer were bid budget epics which left me mostly bored.  I will say that seeing the European actor Emil Jannings (best known as the professor in Blue Angel) playing an Egyptian pharaoh was a bit of hoot.  Completely missing from The Loves of Pharaoh was the famed "Lubitsch Touch."

The Overcoat is the third adaptation of the Gogol short story which I've seen in the past few years.  My favorite was an ACT production set to music without any spoken dialog.  Although seven years ago, I can still recall it.  My second favorite was a 1952 Italian film from an Italian Neo-realism series at the PFA  in 2010.  This silent version was my least favorite.  Disjointed, replacing the surreality of the  plot with the surreality of the images and not least of which starting more than an hour late, I dozed off but even when awake, I could not engage with the film.

Finally, Erotikon was a comedy I found lacking.  I can't say I actively disliked the film but I didn't laugh much.  If I had it all to do over again, I wish I would have skipped The Overcoat and Erotikon.  The "other" Erotikon was my favorite film on the 2009 SF Silent Film Festival and this year's Erotikon was one my least.

Sight and Sound's Top 10 Greatest Films

While I'm still composing my thoughts about the films of the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I wanted to write a little about Sight and Sound's Greatest Film survey.  Published by the British Film Institute (BFI), Sight and Sound conducts a survey of critics, academics, etc. regarding the greatest films.   The survey is conducted every decade (2012, 2002, 1992, etc.).  I won't comment on the films which made the list or their relative ranking or even the films omitted.  Instead, I was amazed at how many of the top 10 films are available for viewing in the near future or have been screened in the recent past.

The Top 10 Greatest Films according to Sight and Sound are:

10.   8½
 9.   The Passion of Joan of Arc
 8.   Man With a Movie Camera
 7.   The Searchers
 6.   2001: A Space Odyssey
 5.   Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
 4.   The Rules of the Game
 3.   Tokyo Story
 2.   Citizen Kane
 1.   Vertigo

At the Castro Theater alone, you can see four of the top 10 this month!  Citizen Kane screens tonight at 8 PM.  Sunrise plays next Sunday (August 12) at 3:20 PM and 7 PM.  2001 has a two day run on August 26 and 27.  Vertigo plays over the Labor Day Weekend in 70 mm.

The Rules of the Game screens November 27 at the PFA as part of their Grand Illusions series.

I saw The Searchers last summer at the Castro.  I saw Tokyo Story two summers ago at the Viz.  I've seen The Passion of Joan of Arc twice in the past few years, most recently in December 2010 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.

Man With a Movie Camera was accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra at the 2010 SF Silent Film Festival. I can still remember that memorable performance as the frenetic pace of the music perfectly matched Vertov's quick editing technique.

I seem to recall 8½ playing at the Castro in the last year or so.  If there was a screening at the Castro, I didn't attend it nor a 2009 screening at the PFA.

I've seen all 10 of the films; 6 of them since I started this blog.  I know I've seen Vertigo & Citizen Kane on the big screen prior to starting the blog.  The two films I have not seen on the big screen are 2001 and 8½.  I remember 2001 as one of the first films I watched when my family got a VCR in the 1980s.  I was fascinated by it and have watched it several times since then.  I can't recall when I saw 8½; I suspect it was on television.  

The entire Top 50 film list can be seen here as well as the Top 10 list from a survey of 358 directors including "Woody Allen, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Quentin Tarantino, the Dardenne brothers, Terence Davies, Guillermo del Toro, Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas, Michael Mann, Guy Maddin, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Leigh, Aki Kaurismäki..."

2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (Part 1 of 2)

I saw 13 films at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival from July 12 to 16 at the Castro Theater.  That's one more than I saw last year.  According to my notes, the festival screened 18 programs last year but only 17 this year.  Considering how much they slipped the schedule, that was a blessing in disguise.  More on that later.

The 13 films I watched were:

Wings starring Buddy Rogers & Clara Bow; with Gary Cooper; directed by William A. Wellman; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; (1927)
Little Toys starring Ruan Lingyu; directed by Sun Yu; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Donald Sosin; (1933)
The Loves of Pharaoh starring Emil Jannings; directed by Ernst Lubitsch; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Dennis James; (1922)
Mantrap starring Clara Bow; directed by Victor Fleming; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; (1926)
The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna starring Brigitte Helm & Francis Lederer; directed by Hanns Schwarz; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; (1929)
The Spanish Dancer starring Pola Negri & Antonio Moreno; with Wallace Beery & Adolphe Menjou; directed by Herbert Brenon; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Donald Sosin with Jim Washburn and Greg Smith on guitar; (1923)
The Canadian starring Thomas Meighan & Mona Palma; directed by William Beaudine; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; (1926)
Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks; with Francis Lederer; directed by G.W. Pabst; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble; (1929)
The Overcoat starring Andrei Kostrichkin; directed by Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra; (1926)
The Docks of New York starring George Bancroft & Betty Compson; with Olga Baclanova; directed by Josef von Sternberg; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Donald Sosin; (1928)
Erotikon starring Anders de Wahl; directed by Mauritz Stiller; silent with Swedish intertitles; live reading by Frank Buxton; live accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble; (1920)
Stella Dallas starring Belle Bennett & Alice Joyce; with Ronald Colman & Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; directed by Henry King; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; (1925)
The Cameraman starring Buster Keaton & Marceline Day; directed by Edward Sedgwick & Keaton; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; (1928)

Wings was preceded by a portion of a Clara Bow short called Red Hair which was in color and showed off Bow's red hair.  Apparently, her hair was beyond titian; closer I Love Lucy.  Red Hair was a 1928 feature film but is considered lost.  The only known portion of the film to exist is the technicolor segment which was shown.  The entire clip last two minutes at most.

Prior to Mantrap, they screened Twin Peaks Tunnel (1917).  The film is a documentary of the excavation of the Twin Peaks Tunnel which opened to the public in 1918.  I cannot recall who narrated the film.

For those unfamiliar with the public transit system in San Francisco, the Twin Peaks are two prominent hills in San Francisco.  They form a natural barrier that divides the City.  In 1918, the MTA (or its predecessor) opened a railway tunnel under Twin Peaks.  The Forest Hill and West Portal Muni Metro Stations resulted from the Twin Peaks Tunnel.  Forest Hill Station was originally called Laguna Honda Station as can be seen from carved lettering on the facade of the station.

There was also a Eureka Valley Station near the present day Castro Station.  That station closed in the early 1970s as the Muni Metro Tunnel under Market St was constructed.  The Muni Metro Tunnel merged with the Twin Peaks Tunnel so that the tunnel entrance is no longer visible from the street level.  The main clues regarding the existence of the Twin Peaks Tunnel is that as you are going outbound from Castro Station, the tracks veer up and to the right.  The Eureka Valley Station platform is also visible from the train when you are in the tunnel although I've never been able to see it.  I don't take the Metro past Castro Station very often though.  Also, near Market and Eureka streets, one can see the remnants of the stairs leading from the sidewalk to the Eureka Valley Station.

In addition to my other interests, I'm a bit of a railroad history enthusiast.  Speaking of old railway tunnels, there will be a test of Muni's E-Line which will run from 4th St. & King in SoMa to Jones and Beach on August 26 and 27.  Muni is trying to put the line into service in time for next year's America's Cup,  However, the more exciting aspect of the project is a second phase which would make use of an abandoned railway tunnel and extend the E-Line to Ft. Mason Center.  If you keep taking Beach St. until it ends near Aquatic Park, you will see the railroad leads to a tunnel which is blocked by large metal door.  This railway was used in the construction and operation of the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition which developed the area from Ft. Mason to the Palace of Fine Arts.  Also used extensively during WWII when Ft. Mason was a military embarkation point, I believe the tunnel was in use until the 1970s.  In Dirty Harry, there is a scene where Harry is being run all over town to get to payphones in time to receive a kidnapper's call.  I believe he is running through the Ft. Mason Tunnel when he is confronted by two toughs looking to take the ransom money.

Back to the 2012 SFSFF.  Before The Cameraman, they screened a digitally restored version of Georges Méliès' A Trip to The Moon (1902).  It was narrated by Paul McGann.

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Before I write about the films, I have severe criticism of the festival.  Pandora's Box was close to 90 minutes before starting.  I had seen noon & 2:30 PM screening that day (Saturday) which started more or less on time.  The SF Silent Film Festival must have the worst on-time record of any festival in the Bay Area...and that's before this year's issues.  I skipped the 5 PM screening (South) to have dinner with a friend whom I had invited to see Pandora's Box.  We arrived about 6:30 PM  for a 7 PM showtime.  The line already wrapped the corner to 17th Street and turned the corner again onto Hartford Street.  We took our place at the end of the line...and waited...and waited.  Eventually, a volunteer came out saying a "crashed soundboard" was the cause of the delay but had no estimate as to when the theater would open.

As the delay approached an hour, many in the crowd (including my companion) groused about the delay.  It didn't help matters that it was getting cold and windy.  There was no explanation as to why a "crashed soundboard" kept people outside.  Complaints arose as some people in line knew that there were people from the previous show in the theater.

In my opinion, Pandora's Box was a net failure despite being my favorite film of this year's festival.  Although the restoration looked great and the Matti Bye Ensemble's soundtrack was fantastic, the late start was more than most in the line could forgive.  To make matters worse, instead of cutting down the pre-film speeches; Anita Monga blithely shrugged off the delay and had the team behind the restoration speak.  Sometimes (frequently?) the festival planners and cineastes are too insular.  The average attendee wasn't interested in the restoration and was more anxious to see the film.  Although they appreciated the musical accompaniment, I don't think it made up for the 60+ minute delay.  If my companion was any indication, I think the average attendee will be leery of planning an evening around a silent film with live musical accompaniment in the future.

One of the major goals of the festival is to introduce people to the world of silent films and allow them to see the films as they were meant to be seen - in a theater with a live musicians.  I don't think delaying the showtime by 90 minutes was part of the original silent film experience.

Having gone to the festival for many years, I know that delays are part of the package.  I don't recall such a long delay in the past but could empathize.  This year, I lost empathy.  The day after Pandora's Box, I skipped the first screening at 10 AM and showed up for the noon screening of The Docks of New York. The festival had already slipped the schedule by about 30 minutes!

I don't know what the cause was on Sunday but I hunkered down for the whole day because I was afraid to leave the theater.  I later heard or read (I cannot recall or find the source) that the 10 AM screening (The Mark of Zorro) was run at a slower frame rate than originally intended.  Regardless of the reason, they never caught up with the schedule  The rest of the films on that Sunday started about 30 minutes late.

The SF Silent Film Festival needs to schedule more time between screenings so they can recover from the seemingly inevitable delays.  They cram in too many screenings per day. Given their history of late starts due to technical problems, I have to wonder if they are giving average patrons the impression that silent films screenings are fussy and prone to delays.

Zorro and More

As I mentioned yesterday, I saw The Mark of Zorro at the Stanford earlier in the year (Sunday, April 15).  The fact that I waited three months to write about it makes it seem as though I knew the film would screening at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) exactly 3 months later.  I did not know that and it is pure coincidence.

The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery; directed by Fred Niblo; silent with intertitles; accompanied by Dennis James; (1920)

I guess I should say a few words about the SFSFF which runs from Thursday, July 12 to Sunday, July 15 at the Castro Theater.  The first thing I noticed is how many of the films at SFSFF were screened at the Stanford earlier this year.  Stella Dallas, Wings and The Mark of Zorro played at the Stanford on February 17, February 24 and April 15, respectively.  I was able to watch the latter two films.  Josef von Sternberg's Docks of New York played at a PFA retrospective in 2009 at which time I saw it with Judith Rosenberg on piano. 

Of the 16 paid admission programs at this year's SFSFF, I've already seen three and only missed a fourth because I was busy attending Indiefest which I later regretted.  I thought I had seen more but a fifth program consisting of Felix the Cat cartoons reminded me that I have seen Felix the Cat Woo Whoopee multiple times on two occasions - once in 2008 and again in 2010. 

SFSFF is also featuring Erotikon which was my favorite from the 2009 SFSFF.  That Erotikon was a 1929 Czech film directed by Gustav Machatý; this year's Erotikon is a 1920 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller.  If I see it, it'll be the third Stiller film in 20 months for me following Blizzard (2011 SFFSF) and Sir Arne's Treasure (San Francisco Film Society; December 2010). 

Also, the description for South, sounds a lot like The Great White Silence which played at the 2011 SFSFF.  Great White Silence chronicled Robert Falcon Scott expedition to the South Pole while South appears to do the same for Ernest Shackleton’s more famous journey to the South Pole.

There is much that is familiar but not duplicative in this year's SFSFF.  Little Toys with Ruan Lingyu, Mantrap with Clara Bow, The Spanish Dancer with Pola Negri & Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks interest me the most.

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Having seen a handful of Fairbanks action films, I didn't think The Mark of Zorro compared well.  I liked The Black Pirate and especially Gaucho better.  Fairbanks had a certain joie de vivre in those films which was not consistent in Zorro. 

Zorro was made in 1920 whereas Black Pirate and Gaucho were made in 1926 and 1927, respectively.  It could be that Fairbanks had not yet perfected his screen persona.   In Zorro, Fairbanks spends much of the screen time as Don Diego - a boorish fop, amateur magician and scion to his family's fortune.  Fairbanks shows quite a bit range between Zorro & Diego and a fair amount of talent for comedy.  However, nothing can compare with his acrobatics and roguish grin.  A little more Zorro and a little less Diego would have better suited my tastes.

Still, it is tough to criticize Fairbanks.  He gets off one of the best lines as Diego.  When Señorita Lolita Pulido and her family are accosted by the evil governor, Diego is livid.  Diego promises to give the governor a stern talking to...after he wakes from his siesta. 

Mind Wanders, Eyes Close, Feet Walk

I've been posting like crazy for a week now and I've cut my backlog to single digits. 

Sometimes I see a film I don't like.  It happens less frequently than one would think given how many films I see.  When this happens, my mind usually wanders.  Sometimes I'll go to sleep.  On rare occasions, I walk out.  Since I paid admission, I usually feel I that I should stay for the entire screening.

Strange Illusions starring James Lydon; directed by Edgar G. Ulmer; (1945)
The Day He Arrives; directed by  Hong Sang-soo; Korean with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Khrustalyov, My Car!; directed by Aleksei Guerman; Russian with subtitles; (1998)

Strange Illusions was part of PFA series called Dark Past: Film Noir by German Emigrés which was an eight films series in March & April.  Cinequest and the SF Asian American Film Festival conflicted with several of the films.  I only saw one film in the series.  I had previously seen three of the other films in the series including one of my favorites noirs - Criss Cross with Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo. 

The film I most regret missing from the PFA series is Dark City which was Charlton Heston's debut film.  I chose to see the Mark of Zorro at the Stanford Theater that evening.  Dennis James (who is to the Stanford Wurlitzer what Judith Rosenberg is to the PFA piano) accompanied the film.  Although I don't regret seeing Mr. James accompaniment nor the film, if I had known James and Mark of Zorro would team up again at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I would have skipped the April screening at the Stanford.  Mark of Zorro screens at 10 AM on Sunday, July 15 at the Castro Theater.

The Day He Arrives played at the 2012 San Francisco International Film Festival and then opened for a one week run at the Viz/FSC.

Khrustalyov, My Car! played at the YBCA as part of a series of Aleksei Guerman films in May.  The PFA is hosting its own series of Guerman films from July 29 to August 23 and they're spelling his name Alexei (IMDB spells it Alexsey German).  Khrustalyov, My Car! screens at the PFA on August 18.

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Strange Illusions is about Paul, a young man who comes home from college (or maybe prep school).  He finds his widowed mother has taken up with a debonair man and is hinting about marriage.  Paul is an amateur sleuth, picking up his late father's hobby.  Speaking of which, Paul's father died under suspicious circumstances.  For some reason I cannot recall, Paul suspects his mother's fiancé is involved in his father's death (i.e. murder).  Paul follows the trail to a charlatan psychiatrist and voluntarily commits himself to his mental asylum to solve the crime.  Too much plot by a half and actors not up to the task left me struggling to maintain interest and follow the story.  I stayed awake for the entire film but wasn't too impressed.

If Strange Illusions had too much plot by a half then The Day He Arrives had too much plot by 150%.  I'm not sure how much of my confusion was due to the plot, how much was lost in translation and how much was a result of my dozing off.  Director Hong Sang-soo repeats scenes with variations so that the story is not only non-linear but more of a decision tree.  The plot features a film director who is creatively blocked.  He returns to his university town and encounters various people from his past.  Beyond that, I cannot recall.  I think I slept through about 15% of the film; I don't know if that enhanced or detracted from the experience.

Khrustalyov, My Car! was indecipherable.  Nominally about the "Doctor's Plot" or a Soviet plan to persecute Jewish doctors, the film was beyond my comprehension.  It was like a Tolstoy novel - exceedingly long, full of details and characters that were hard to keep track of, difficult to understand what was taking place but lacking a CliffsNotes guide and without an instructor forcing me to finish it.  Running nearly 150 minutes, I bailed out after 80 to see a noir double feature at the Roxie.  I can't recall the last time I walked out of a film.  I'm not sure I would have if the I Wake Up Dreaming series wasn't running at the Roxie.

Howard Hawks: The Second Measure of the Man

The Stanford Theater ended its Howard Hawks series in late June.  I saw six films in the series; all directed by Hawks with the exception of O. Henry's Full House which I explain later.

A Girl in Every Port starring Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong & Louise Brooks; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Dennis James; (1928)
Air Force starring John Garfield; (1943)
Red River starring John Wayne & Montgomery Clift; with Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru & John Ireland; (1948)
O. Henry's Full House; anthology; (1952)
I Was a Male War Bride starring Cary Grant & Ann Sheridan; (1949)
The Big Sky starring Kirk Douglas & Dewey Martin; (1952)

The Stanford series followed and mostly duplicated a similar PFA series of which I only saw three films.  The films I most regret missing were Paid to Love, Dawn Patrol, Viva Villa! and The Outlaw.  I have not seen the first three films and it must be 30 years since I saw The Outlaw.  Jane Russell had quite an effect on my adolescence.  I was a big fan of Paleface and Son of Paleface also (I used to know the words to Buttons and Bows).  Perhaps someone will put on a posthumous Jane Russell retrospective.

The Stanford series (called Movies to Dream By On a Desert Island) had the involvement of noted film critic and historian David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film).  Thomson wrote the program guide included 10 pages of biographical information on Hawks as well as synopses of all of Hawks films (not just the ones screened by the Stanford).  In addition, Thomson introduced the 7:30 film on Saturday nights.

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O. Henry's Full House consisted five short film based on O. Henry stories.  Each story was directed by a different person.  The author John Steinbeck introduced each segment.  I stayed through the fourth segment, The Ransom of Red Chief which starred Fred Allen & Oscar Levant and was directed by Hawks.  By then it was almost 11:30 PM and I was getting sleepy

The preceding segments were The Cop and the Anthem starring Charles Laughton and directed by Henry Koster; The Clarion Call starring Richard Widmark & Dale Robertson and directed by Henry Hathaway; and The Last Leaf starring Anne Baxter, Jean Peters & Gregory Ratoff and directed by Jean Negulesco.  The segment I skipped was The Gift of the Magi with Farley Granger & Jeanne Crain and directed by Henry King.  Marilyn Monroe makes a cameo appearance in The Cop and the Anthem.

The fact that three of the five directors of O. Henry's Full House were named Henry makes me wonder if Hawks & Negulesco were replacements or second choices.

Full House left me near empty.  It was kind of interesting to see Charles Laughton as a bum and Richard Widmark channel Tommy Udo again but their performances seemed ham handed.  The Last Leaf was my favorite.  Anne Baxter plays a woman ill with pneumonia.  She comes to believe that when the last leaf falls from the tree outside her bedroom window, she will die.  Jean Peters plays here sister and caregiver.  Russian born Gregory Ratoff plays the tempermental artist who lives upstairs of the sister who plays a crucial role in Baxter's recovery.

Hawks' The Ransom of Red Chief  had a lighter tone than the other segments despite the fact child kidnapping and ransom were at the heart of the story.  Fred Allen & the droll Oscar Levant play kidnappers whose victim (Lee Aaker) is a hellion and then some.  The boy makes such a nuisance of himself that the kidnappers agree to pay the boy's father to take him back.  Lacking in Hawks' typical flourishes, Red Chief  never elicited more than a smirk from me.

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Air Force was a WWII propaganda film which played a loose and fast with the facts.  No need to recount the inaccuracies since there were so many.  The film follows a B-17 crew as they fly from California to Hawaii to the Philippines in the days around December 7, 1941.  John Garfield plays the hardnut side gunner who washed out of flight school.  There is another pilot named Tex who is fighter pilot but looks down on the bomber pilots.  If I recall correctly, the co-pilot (Gig Young) was dating the pilot's sister.  Frankly, Air Force wasn't worth the trip down to Palo Alto.

Similarly unimpressive was The Big Sky with Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin as two frontiersmen making their way up the Missouri River on a keelboat.  They have a friendly rivlarly which I've seen depicted in countless films.  Arthur Hunnicutt (who would play Bull in El Dorado) plays the grizzled trapper who serves as a mentor to Douglas and Martin.  Half-Cherokee Elizabeth Threatt plays a Blackfoot princess in her lone (but memorable) film appearance.  Covering much of the same ground as Hawks' Westerns, The Big Sky never really hit its stride.

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Red River is a film I've never seen all the way through before.  For 97% of the film, it was as good as any John Wayne film I've seen.  Wayne plays Thomas Dunson, a stubborn man who gave up his true love and is willing to kill in order to be successful as cattle rancher.  Along for the ride is Walter Brennan as his second banana and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth, his ward.  Matt's parents were killed when he was a child on the wagon train out west.  Dunson and Groot (Brennan) take him in and form a de facto, tri-generational family unit.  Dunson owns the ranch, even though Matt's cow and Dunson's bull started the herd. 

15 years later, Matt is grown up and Dunson has a herd of 1,000 head.  He can't sell them in Texas so he has to drive the herd to Missouri.  Dunson sets out with a group hired cowpokes.  He makes them all pledge to see the drive through to the end which is hypocritical since he broke a similar pledge when he left the wagon train to set up his ranch.  Among the hired hands is Cherry Valence (John Ireland) who has a rivalry with Matt that borders on homoerotic.  They literally compare the size of their pistols.

Dunson is the harshest of trailbosses.  Nothing will dissuade him from his Missouri destination including unconfirmed reports of railroad stockyard in Abilene.  When Dunson attempts to lynch two deserters, Matt leads a rebellion against Dunson.  They oust Dunson from their camp and take the herd to Abilene.  Dunson vows to kill Matt and take back his herd.

The rest of the film shows Dunson (with a group of cowboys/gunslingers) tracking Matt and the herd to Abilene.  Joanne Dru shows up as a love interest for Matt who bizarrely offers to bear Dunson's child if he will give up his pursuit of Matt.  I must have missed some of the coded messages in that scene.  The film progresses nicely until the finale when Dunson catches up with Matt in Abilene.  They begin a furious fistfight which is interrupted when Dru starts shooting (she is a marksman) at them and demands they recognize the love they have for each other.  Turning on a dime, Dunson sees the error in his ways and makes peace with Matt...even encouraging him to marry Dru so as to avoid the regret he faced as a younger man.  Complete copout at the end which isn't surprising because the film is based on a Borden Chase story which was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post.  Do they still publish that?  Anyway, the film changed the ending of the story and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

For most of the way, Red River is a great film with John Wayne giving us a preview of Ethan Edwards from The Searchers.  The film is propped up by a strong supporting cast including Clift, Brennan, Ireland, Harry Carey Jr. as a cowboy with a sweet tooth who causes a stampede and Chief Yowlachie as a poker playing Indian who wins Groot's false teeth.

I recognized one of the songs as a downtempo version of a song from Rio Bravo.  It's clear that Hawks had a stock company of actors he used in his Westerns including Wayne, Brennan, Hunnicutt, Paul Fix, et al.

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It's a bit sad to see Cary Grant dressed in drag in I Was a Male War Bride.  Fortunately, it only happens for a brief period towards the end of the film.  For the majority, Cary Grant is busy being Cary Grant.  Oddly enough, he is cast a French army officer who is assigned to find a German scientist in post-WWII Europe.  Ann Sheridan as an American WAC accompanies him on his mission for no apparent reason except so that he can have someone to banter with.  Actually, Sheridan plays a great "straight man" for Grant to bounce off of.  For most of the film, Grant is exasperated at Sheridan's actions as well as the indignities he must suffer as a man trying to marry an American military "serviceman."  The Army procedures assume an American male will marry a foreign female and Grant's situation sets this assumption on its head...to madcap results.

A lightweight film which seems to waste Grant and Sheridan's talents, I was nonetheless amused by I Was a Male War Bride at vaious points throughout the film.  That's more a testimonial to Grant & Sheridan (I just picked up on the Civil War connection...if I only I could think of a pun) than the plot.

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That leaves A Girl in Every Port with the incomparable Louise Brooks whose screen time is lamentably short in the film.  Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong are two sailors who go from port to port.  They have a not so friendly rivalry in trying to shack up with women in each port.  They bond over a couple of bar room fights and one saves the other from drowning and/or a night in jail.  Slapstick and broad emotional brushstrokes are the stock in trade until Louise Brooks shows up. 

What an first impression she makes!  With her trademark bob cut, she is a circus highdiver wearing a curve hugging swimsuit.  The camera follows her shimmying up a ladder to prepare for her high dive.  Brooks, Montgomery & McLaglen form a love triangle, although the audience & Montgomery know that Brooks is a gold digger as they shared a past in Coney Island or somehwere.  There is the obligatory split between the two men with Montgomery not wanting to destroy McLaglen's idealised view of the woman.  Montgomery leaves his mark on his conquests which is a small anchor & heart tattoo.  This proves crucial in tipping off McLaglen about Brook's past.

That's too much plot recounting.  The main reason to see A Girl in Every Port is to see Lulu - to admire her, to be smitten by her, to desire her and to plan to see Pandora's Box where her beauty and talents are on full display.  Pandora's Box plays at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival on Saturday, July 14 at 7:00 PM at the Castro Theater.