Faces in the Crowd and the Disciples of Jason

While attending so many movies a year, I see many of the same faces in the theater. With the exception of the ubiquitous and near famous Jason, I don't know any of their names. Here are a few thumbnails:

#1 - Asian guy, dark hair, medium height, 40's, eyeglasses, mustache, always scribbling something on a notepad, sits on the outer aisle seat, PFA and Castro regular. Last sighting - July 20, Castro Theater, The Fuller Brush Girl.

#2 - Dark brunette woman, zaftig, 40's, typically well dressed, I thought she worked at the Castro but maybe not, she is friendly with the Castro staff, PFA and Castro regular, likes to sit in the center a few rows back. Last sighting - July 18, PFA, Point Blank.

#3 - Asian guy, 50ish, kind of short, heavy set, short hair, eyeglasses, always dressed business casual (white dress shirt/dark slacks), always carrying around a gym bag, I mostly see him at festivals (Indiefest, SFIAAFF, etc.). Last sighting - 2008 SFIAFF?

#4 - Blonde/light brown haired white woman, light skin, heavy, always wearing a dress, Castro regular, seems to like old movies, sits near the front of the theater, stage right, saw her exit at Embarcadero BART during the morning rush hour, friends with #1. Last sighting - July 20, Castro Theater, The Fuller Brush Girl.

#5 - Older white woman, white hair, big round glasses, likes older films, I used to see her at the Balboa when it was rep house, I've seen her at the Castro many times. Last sighting - 2008 Noir City?

#6 - 40's, skinny Asian guy, balding, Castro regular, naturally looks angry, I think he's a waiter at one of the restaurants in Rincon Center. Last sighting - July 19, Castro Theater, Day of the Animals?

#7 - older, white guy, bald headed, wears overalls frequently, regular at Indiefest/Roxie, ran into him at a bookstore on Valencia that has since closed. Last sighting - 2008 Hole in the Head.

#8 - older, white guy, long beard, kind of shifty looking, wears weightlifting gloves, Castro regular.

Then are a bunch of people that I mentally refer to as the Disciples of Jason (great name for a horror movie). Jason, of course, is Jason Wiener. When I first saw Jason at IndieFest several years ago, he sat alone front and center. Over the years, several people have started to congregate around him. They even sit in the front row with him.

DoJ#1 - skinny, 20something, white guy, glasses, Jason's first disciple, haven't seen too much him as of late. Last sighting - 2008 Hole in the Head?

DoJ#2 - white girl, brunette, eyeglasses, 30ish, Jason told me her name but I forgot, I see her the most often of the DoJs. Last sighting - July 19, Castro Theater, Day of the Animals. I'll bet even money she attended all five shows that day.

DoJ#3 - Asian guy, 30s/40s, slightly balding, kind of a mullet haircut, eyeglasses, kind of heavyset. Last sighting - July 19, Castro Theater, Day of the Animals sitting next to DoJ#2

DoJ#4 - white guy, 50's, sandy blonde/grey hair, medium height, heavy set. Last sighting - 2008 Hole in the Head/Tokyo Gore Police .

At Day of the Animals, DoJ#2 and DoJ#3 were even sitting front row at the Castro although not in the center part of the aisle. Then I noticed #8 was sitting in Jason's seat directly in front of the Mighty Wurlitzer.

The ticket taker at BAM/PFA is a short, bushy haired, 20something guy with thick eyeglasses. I think he works or worked at the Balboa. He let me into Seven Samurai for free once at the Balboa. I had a splitting headache so I slept through much of the film. I came back the next day to catch the film in its entirety; he asked if I had been there the day before and I told him about my headache so he let me in for free.

Finally, last Tuesday (July 15), I saw San Francisco International Film Festival's Rod Armstrong at 19th St. BART in Oakland. Amazingly, he wasn't talking.

Taking Inventory as of July 20

The Wild Bunch directed by Sam Peckinpah; starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan; (1969)
The Shanghai Gesture directed by Josef von Sternberg; starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature and Ona Munson; (1941)
Violent Saturday with Victor Mature, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine; (1955)
Point Blank directed by John Boorman; starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson; (1967)
Day of the Animals with Leslie Nielsen; (1977)
Miss Grant Take Richmond starring Lucille Ball and William Holden; (1949)
The Fuller Brush Girl starring Lucille Ball and Eddie Albert; (1950)

The Wild Bunch was part of the Castro's 70 MM festival.

The Shanghai Gesture was part of the United Artists 90th Anniversary Retrospective at BAM/PFA.

Violent Saturday and Point Blank were part of a Widescreen program at BAM/PFA.

Day of the Animals was one-fifth of a Midnites for Maniacs marathon. The theme was of the ~12 hour, quintuple bill was Animals Attacking Humans and included Phase IV, Alligator, Jaws, and Piranha 2: The Spawning. With the exception of Jaws, these were some cheesey 1970's films. I recall Alligator from my childhood. It was based on the urban legend that New Yorkers were taking baby alligators home from their Florida vacations. When the gators grew too large, the were flushed down the toilet and that there was an alligator infestation in NYC.
Piranha 2: The Spawning was notable for being James Cameron's directorial debut. I may have seen this film. It's the one where the piranhas fly.

Miss Grant Take Richmond and The Fuller Brush Girl were part of a Lucille Ball triple feature at the Castro.

A few quick notes:

I'm becoming a diehard Josef von Sternberg fan. Having seen The Scarlet Empress (1934) and Shanghai Express (1932), I was curious how much I would enjoy a von Sternberg film without Marlene Dietrich. There are a lot of problems with The Shanghai Gesture. The plot is contrived and requires incredible suspension of belief, Gene Tierney is strangely wooden and Ona Munson chews up the scenery in yellowface. Still, the visuals, Walter Huston's mellifluous voice and Mike Mazurki's movie stealing supporting role make for a fun film.

Point Blank is a neo-noir film that seems to have higher aspirations. Remade by Mel Gibson as Payback, this simple revenge tale was skillfully directed by John Boorman, who went on to make the equally stylish Excalibur 15 years later. Point Blank has surrealistic moments such as Marvin alternating between a furnished and empty apartment after his wife commits suicide and a love scene where Marvin and Dickinson embrace and as they turn over in each other's arm, a new partner is revealed. The cinematographer also took care to coordinate the actors' wardrobe and set designs in vibrant earth tones - mustard yellow and blood red. There was also a memorable sequence where Marvin is walking down a long corridor and his leather soled shoes tap out a rhythmic beat. The scene never shows where he is going. Another big plus was that the beginning and end were filmed at Alcatraz and Fort Point.

It was also interesting to note the difference between the two films. Point Blank was similar to French New Wave as Marvin's nihilist works his way up the food chain of The Syndicate. Marvin starts the film trying to get ~$90,000 that is owed him (a considerable amount in 1967). By end of the film, the money is secondary and he ultimately leaves the money behind. In Payback, Gibson goes after a rather miniscule sum with dogged and comic determination. Another interesting difference is that the Dickinson character is Marvin's sister-in-law. In Payback, Dickinson's character (Maria Bello), is a prostitute. Although I enjoyed Payback, it is clear that Point Blank is a much better film. Marvin was perfectly cast as the lead; I can't think of any of his contemporaries that could have played the role.

Violent Saturday is a cross between Gun Crazy and East of Eden set in a small Arizona mining town of Bisbee. I've been to Bisbee as my father grew up in that part of Arizona. The film has not aged well but it serves as an interesting time capsule. One stilted and cliched line sticks in my mind. A wealthy woman is having an affair with the town lothario. She is conflicted about what she is doing. She says to him "You are everything and nothing." If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right...

The Fuller Brush Girl was notable for the gorgeous Gale Robbins in two scenes - one where is wearing horn rimmed glasses as the femme fatale (quite possibly inspired by Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven) and another where she sings the "Put the Blame on Mame" at a burlesque house. That is the song that Rita Hayworth made famous in Gilda. Actually, at 39 years of age, Lucy admirably and impressively wears some skimpy outfits that shows off her gams and engages in spirited physical comedy that presaged I Love Lucy by a few years.

Considering that Miss Grant Take Richmond stars Ball and Holden, I expected more. It was a rather formulaic comedy and Lucy seemed miscast as the eponymous Miss Grant. In fact, I fell asleep for the last few minutes after Ball catches Holden red-handed. It doesn't matter, I'm sure Holden does the right thing & somehow avoids punishment.

The Evening Class Interview with SF Silent Film Festival Founder Stephen Salmons

I rarely cross link but I ran across an interview with Stephen Salmons, the founder of the SF Silent Film Festival. I thought it was very interesting reading about the origin of the festival and other silent film venues (primarily in the Los Angeles area). Salmons was interviewed by Michael Guillen for his blog - The Evening Class.

The Evening Class Interview with Stephen Salmons Part 1.

The Evening Class Interview with Stephen Salmons Part 2

That reminds me that all weekend at the (SF)^2 Festival, they reminded the audience to mark their calendars for the (SF)^2's 4th Annual Winter event on February 14, 2009. They haven't announced what film(s) will be screened but in this interview, Salmons stated they would likely show Bardelys The Magnificent (1926) directed by King Vidor and starring John Gilbert and a 19 year old John Wayne in a small role. The significance of this film is that it was thought lost until prints were recently found in Europe.

The Patsy and The Unknown

The other treat from 2008 (SF)^2 Festival was The Patsy. The film was a showcase for Marion Davies comedic talents. King Vidor directed and Marie Dressler, Dell Henderson, and Lawrence Gray turned in strong supporting performances. Jane Winton was also striking as the older sister and seach of IMDB show she only made a few talkies. I wonder what happened to her. Perhaps she couldn't make the transition to sound.


If anyone has seen the film, the highlight is Davies' impersonations of Mae Murray, Lillian Gish and Pola Negri. I don't believe I've seen film with any of those actresses much less know their affections to appreciate an impersonation of them. However, I laughed out loud at Davies antics. Equally amusing was a sequence where Davies spouts nonsensical platitudes in an attempt to create personality.

The plot involved a middle-class family of a couple (Dressler and Henderson) with two attractive daughters. Grace (Winton), the older daughter, is dating Orville Caldwell. Pat (Davies), the younger daughter, pines for Orville but Orville doesn't even notice her. Pat spends the films trying to attract Orville's attention without much luck until she ends up at a playboy's (Gray) house.

I believe this is the first Davies film I have seen. I expected her to look like Kirstin Dunst but she was prettier and projected an innocence that cannot be achieved in today's society. Of course, while she projected virginal naiveté in this film, she was 10 years into a relationship with William Randolph Hearst, a millionaire 35 years her senior and whom she liked to drive insane with jealousy if the rumors regarding the Thomas Ince affair are correct. Nonetheless, that doesn't affect my opinion of her performance. In my opinion, her performance in this film was the best of festival and lifted this film to my favorite.

Another very interesting film was The Unknown directed by Tod Browning with Lon Chaney & Joan Crawford. The 20something Joan Crawford was quite attractive and is unrecognizable from the bitchy, arched eyebrow, shoulder pad wearing, "No wire hangers!" gay icon.

The plot is simply unbelievable. Chaney is an armless trick shot artist and knife thrower in a circus. Crawford is the circus owner's daughter and Chaney's assistant and object of his secret desire. That's not the only secret his is keeping. On screen it looks obvious that Chaney has his arms at his side under his shirt. The reason it appears that way is not due to bad costuming or special effect but because his character has arms. He keeps his arms under a girdle with the help of his midget assistant. At night, he loosens the girdle so that he can commit crimes. This is an ingenious ruse because the crime obviously were committed by an man with arms and Chaney is the one person in the circus without arms. Not only does Chaney have 2 arms but he has 2 thumbs on his left hand. The circus owner catches him one night without his girdle. Chaney strangles the man to keep his secret but Crawford glimpes the crime from her window. Luckily for Chaney, she only sees a man with two thumbs strangling her father; she doesn't see his face. Oh yeah, for some unstated reason, Joan can't stand the touch of man and continually rebuffs the advances of the circus strongman.


With the father dead, Crawford sells the circus and Chaney stays to console her. He thinks he making progress but Cojo the midget reminds him that if they are married, she will see his arms on their wedding night, not to mention his thumbs thumbs. Chaney has a response to that - he gets a shady doctor to amputate his arms. While Chaney recuperates, the circus strongman comes back to woo Joan. When Chaney sans arms returns to Joan to propose marriage, he is dumbfounded to learn that she is engaged to Mr. Muscles. You can imagine Chaney's disappointment. He literally gave his left arm for her. Not one to be spurned, he plots to murder the strongman...by having horses rip his arms from his body!

Of course, the premise is silly but it was treat to see The Man of a Thousand Faces. Chaney's dexterity with his feet was amazing and I was disappointed to read he had foot double - a man without arms that had learned to smoke a cigarette, drink from glasses, etc. with his feet. Also, this films was a Director's choice. Guy Maddin, director of My Winnipeg, read the French intertitles. The film was introduced by Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, the founder and host of Midnight for Maniacs introduced the film and Maddin.

Her Wild Oat

As I mentioned previously, I particularly enjoyed Her Wild Oat at the 2008 SF Silent Film Festival or (SF)^2 Festival as the announcer called it.

Her Wild Oat has a plot that has been reworked many times. It's basically a variation on the Cinderella fairy tale. Pretty Woman bares some resemblance as does many other films that I can't recall presently.

Colleen Moore plays Mary Lou Smith, a young woman that runs a lunch counter on wheels. She's a hard working and kind hearted woman with a Louise Brooks bob years before Louise Brooks bobbed her hair. She saves her money to take her dream vacation at a beach resort. One day Phillip Latour, a wealthy young man, is mugged. He borrows some dirty overalls and sits down for a cup of coffee at Mary Lou's counter. A hole in his pocket leave him without even a dime to pay his tab. Mary Lou lets him work it off by washing some dishes. A man of leisure, he ends up breaking more dishes than he cleans. Of course, he doesn't let on that he is wealthy.

He comes back later to pay off the damages, tells Mary Lou some story that he is a driver for the wealthy Phillip Latour and that he is driving him to the beach resort she dreams of. That information prompts Mary Lou to take the vacation of her dreams. With the help of a chorus girl that dines at her counter, Mary Lou buys some new clothes for her vacation. The outfit she wears when walking into hotel is garish to say the least. It's perfectly accessorized with a purse that looks like a poodle and a tall plumed hat. The beach resort exterior shot is Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego which has been the setting of many films, most famously Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe.

After checking in, Mary Lou is ready to enjoy herself. Sadly, she is treated rudely by the other guests because she is not high society. The hotel detective thinks she is a prostitute and warns her off. Saddened and disillusioned, she begins crying but is spotted by an expense padding newspaper reporter that knows her from the lunch counter. He comes up with the idea creating a new persona for her and the Duchesse de Granville is born (named after a soup on the lunch menu). Mary Lou gets a new wadrobe, a wig, and a bigger suite.

The Duchesse is treated much better the Mary Lou by the people that snubbed her before. While dining with the reporter, the Duchesse is spotted by Latour. He is informed by the waiter that she is the Duchesse de Granville. Here, the plot become too contrived for even a screwball comedy like this. It just so happens that Latour's widowed father is marrying the real Duchesse de Granville and scheduled to honeymoon the hotel. Recognizing Mary from the diner, Latour still insists on addressing the Duchesse as his new step mother and pretending not to recognize her.

At this point, Mary Lou takes various and increasing measures to maintain her false identity with hilarious results if you can suspend disbelief. Finally revealed for the fraud she is, she hightails it out of town and back to her diner. While commiserating with her chorus girl friend, the diner begins to move. You guessed it - Latour is driving the car and towing her diner to his mansion where she is warmly greeted by the household staff. Presumably, they marry & live happily ever after.

Colleen Moore was definitely a major screen presence. She combined the distinctive haircut with an innocent persona and down-to-earth manner. She was girl-next-door cute and it's easy for me to see how she could have been a top box office draw. As the jazz age wound down, Moore felt she was too closely associated with the flapper image and this didn't play well during the Depression era. She retired from acting and is now largely forgotten. Certainly, silent era names such Pickford, Gish, Swanson, etc. are better known today. It's a shame that she didn't (hasn't) gotten the credit she deserves. At least from my one experience, she deserves more acknowledgment.

Upon seeing this film, I truly felt as though I had discovered a hidden gem. The synopsis didn't really appeal to me but I had a festival pass and needed to see films to make it worthwhile. I would really like to see more Moore film. It's sad to think that many of her films are probably lost due to nitrate film stock deterioration.

2008 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The 2008 San Francisco Silent Film Festival ran July 11 to 13 at the Castro Theater. I bought a festival pass and saw 8 of the 12 programs. The crowds were impressive, film critic Leonard Maltin was there for the weekend, and I saw some very entertaining films. I notice that comedy ages well and action sequences are exciting because you realize the actors/stuntmen were risking their lives. Drama or melodrama does not age so well. The actors overacted in the dramas; they hammed it up by modern standards.

The 8 programs I saw were:

The Kid Brother with Harold Lloyd; (1927)
Les Deux Timides; (1928)
Mikaël directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer; (1924)
The Man Who Laughs; (1928)
The Unknown with Lon Chaney & Joan Crawford; (1927)
Her Wild Oat with Colleen Moore; (1927)
Jujiro directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa; (1928)
The Patsy with Marion Davies and Marie Dressler; directed by King Vidor; (1928)

Silent films with their intertitles bridge languages with less trouble than talkies. Les Deux Timides was filmed in France with French intertitles. Jujiro was filmed in Japan but had English subtitles. Her Wild Oat was filmed in Southern California but an English print couldn't be found. Instead, a print was located in the Czech Republic with Czech intertitles. New intertitle cards in English were inserted into the film. I can't remember all intertitle language permutations. For the foreign intertitled films, a reader was used. I think I would have preferred to have subtitled intertitles; I really mean that, I didn't just say it to make a bad pun.

The use of film readers for Japanese silent films was common and the profession (Benshi) was popular. If the use of a reader was warranted for any film at the festival, it would have been Jujiro because a benshi probably read the original film when it was released. Alas, a benshi was not used. This could be justified because the version shown was the American version with English intertitles. Quick aside - two years ago, I saw Picture Bride (1994) at the SF Asian American Film Festival. Tamlyn Tomita was in the audience that evening. That film was set in Hawaii during the 1920's. The legendary Toshirô Mifune appeared in the film (it was his penultimate film appearance). His character is simply credited as The Benshi. When I saw the film, I didn't know what a benshi was and couldn't understand why his character was narrating the action of the silent film within the film but his performance stood out. When I read the program notes, pre-film slide show, and blog of Brian Darr, I realized what a Benshi was and how Mifune's character was quite authentic.

The festival was filled with great films. I particularly enjoyed Her Wild Oat and The Patsy. Other enjoyable films include Mikaël, The Man Who Laughs, and The Unknown. I hope to write a follow-up entry in the next few days.

The above list is the feature films I saw. Each program started with a short film. The short films were, respectively:

Bronco Billy's Adventure; (1911)
Les Fromages Automobiles
L'Historie D'Une Rose
The Voice Invisible/Making A Record
The Last Call; (1922)
Mary Pickford's Technicolor Screen Test for The Black Pirate
Kaleidoscope
Lost-A Yodel

I don't have years for all the short films.

Gilbert M. Anderson (a.k.a. Broncho Billy) was perhaps the first serial Western movie star. He has over 300 listings in IMDB and I'll guess ~100 has Broncho Billy in the title. Bronco Billy's Adventure was likely filmed near Fremont, CA (technically, the town is Niles). Anderson and his business partner George Spoor started Essanay Studios (pronounced S and A as in Spoor and Anderson) in Chicago. Due to the frigid winters, they opened a California studio in Niles. The site currently houses the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and shows silent films most Saturday nights. They have an annual Broncho Billy Film Festival that I keep meaning to see.

The Last Call was a Nick Carter detective film. I wasn't familiar with the character but some research reveals that Carter first shows up in dime store novels from the 1880's. Edmund Lowe starred in at least four Nick Carter films in 1922.

Mary Pickford's screen test was incredible for its color images. She had the greenest eyes. The Black Pirate was released in 1926. I had no idea that Technicolor was available then. The first film I am aware of that used Technicolor is The Wizard of Oz in 1939.

Kaleidoscope was a color film too but it was like looking at a kaleidoscope. In fact, I thought to myself while watching it that this same technique would be repeated 40 years later during the psychedelic 60's.

The Voice Invisible/Making A Record uses the same premise as the current Discovery Channel television show How It's Made. It showed how vinyl records were made which is kind of a strange topic for a silent era film.

Taking Inventory as of July 4

In my last post (which was my longest ever), despite throwing in the kitchen sink, I still forgot two worthwhile films.

I saw Love and Honor tonight at the Roxie. This film was directed by Yôji Yamada and is the final part of his samurai trilogy. A few years back, I saw Hidden Blade, the second film in the series. I didn't think too highly of that one. The film I really want to see is Twilight Samurai, the first in the series.

Love and Honor was nominated for many Japanese film awards but I am ambivalent. At its core, it is a melodrama with a horrible happy ending tacked on. Shinnojo is a low level samurai and food taster for the local bigwig. He hates his job and is pretty obnoxious to his wife, Kayo. One day, he tastes some bad shellfish and is rendered blind. His loving wife stands by him even though his future is uncertain. Circumstances conspire to force her to ask Shimada, a high level samurai, to intercede with the castle lord to get Shinnojo an annual stipend, a sort of disability pay. Shimada agrees to help but not for free. Interestingly, the stipend is measured in pounds of rice and Shimada wants a pound of flesh in exchange. So Kayo whores herself, Shinnojo gets his rice allowance, and they settle into their new lives...until Shinnojo's loudmouth aunt says she's heard Kayo is about town with an unknown man. When Shinnojo uncovers the truth, he divorces Kayo and starts training to challenge Shimada to a duel. Up until this point, the film was mildly enjoyable but the film descends into predictability during the last third. First, Shinnojo beats Shimada in the sword fight. This despite being blind and a low level samurai while Shimada trained at a prestigious dojo in Tokyo. Not only that but Shinnojo doesn't even have a scratch. Finally, after telegraphing the ending 10 minutes in advance, Kayo returns as "the scullery maid." Of course, Shinnojo's heightened senses identify Kayo immediately by the taste of her cooking.

I have been planning on seeing Love and Honor for the past few weeks. Its had a long run at the Roxie but I forgot to mention it in my last post. Before I forget again, Viva (starring and directed by Anna Biller) gets a long 5 day run at the Red Vic from July 11 to 15. I saw Viva at the 2007 IndieFest and loved it. I don't get out to the Red Vic often even though it has great programming. It's not convenient compared to the Roxie and the Castro. Of course, PFA is a 15 minute walk from BART.

I've seen four films since my last inventory.

Tokyo Gore Police, Japanese with subtitles; (2008) - Hole in the Head
Lizzie with Richard Boone; (1957) - part of a Joan Blondell retrospective at PFA
Mad Detective directed by Johnny To; Cantonese with subtitles; (2007)
Love and Honor, Japanese with subtitles; (2006) - Official Site