CINEVENT 45 REPORT

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Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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CINEVENT 45 REPORT

Postby Richard M Roberts » Thu May 30, 2013 3:35 pm

It was the coldest and wettest Memorial Day Weekend I’ve ever experienced in Columbus, rainy and averaging 42-45 degrees in the morning, and grey and drizzly much of the time. Not that much of this matters when your busy in the basement banquet rooms of the Ramada Midwest Conference Hotel, but as one who actually liked to get up and go outside once in awhile, especially in the lovely town of Columbus, the rain cheered up this old Desert Dweller.

But there was less reason to go out and enjoy the rain, because things were hopping at the 45 Annual Cinevent, one of the oldest and best of the four Cinephile Conventions currently dotting the map. It has the rep due to a terrific film program made up of pictures that may be rare to some degree or another, but you can also guarantee that they were run because some one saw them and they’re actually good or worth seeing, not just films programmed so some Cinephile can check a title off a list. Cinevent also has the best dealers room of all the other Cinephile Conventions, with some serious salesmen of film, video, posters, movie paper and memorabilia of all sorts. This collector returned with 103 pounds of film (Linda weighed it for the suitcases) and a lot of DVD’s and some paper, so I can attest to the quality and quantity of materials available for purchase.

I also spent more time than usual in the Dealers rooms because I was hocking a little something of my own this last weekend. I was proud and pleased that my ol buddy John McElwee of the fabulous blog GREENBRIAR PICTURE SHOWS was unveiling his new book SHOWMEN, SELL IT HOT, a terrific read and education that can be bought currently at his blog here:

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot. ... lable.html

John was unveiling his book alongside myself who was also introducing my new opus SMILEAGE GUARANTEED, PAST HUMOR, PRESENT LAUGHTER, THE COMEDY FILM INDUSTRY 1910-1945, HAL ROACH VOLUME ONE AT Cinevent as well. Here’s a link to purchase my book from Grapevine Video:

http://www.grapevinevideo.com/past-humo ... ter-1.html

So not only did we sell a lot of books, but I got to sit with John at the same table and talk movies for more time than the meal or two we usually get in during the Fest. Here we are hocking our books:

Image


Now, on with the films (at least, the ones I saw):

THE GOLDEN WEST (1932) Cinevent started off with a rare George O’ Brien Fox western that we have to admit was one of his weaker ones. Starts off like Buster Keaton’s OUR HOSPITALITY with feuding Southern Families (one of which George is a member) and an incident where George kills one of the other clan’s kin in a fair self-defense in an unfair fight, but is forced to flee as the rest of the dead man’s kin want George’s hide. It then turns into a wagon-train western and multi-generational plot complications and a few Indian battles, but Director David Howard can’t make a whole film out of it. Linda and the female George O’Brien fans were also disappointed by the films original poster promising the site of O’ Brien in a loin cloth, but the visage lasted only seconds.

THE 5000 FINGERS OF DOCTOR T (1953) was shown in a beautiful IB Technicolor print and, though a financial disaster for Stanley Kramer when it was released, was a fun and bizarre bringing of Dr Seuss’s universe to the live-action screen. Hans Conried plays the mad piano-teacher of the title, and it was one of the few showcases for the husband and Wife Radio and Television team of Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy (who is apparently still with us at the age of 95). Definitely worth seeing the surreal art direction (by Cary Odell) in Technicolor.

WOMAN OF THE WORLD (1925) A great premise for a Pola Negri picture with Pola playing a European Countess who, after romantic scandal, decides to visit her relatives who live in some small-town American burg, where she wows the locals, including Holmes Herbert, Chester Conklin, and Dot Farley. Negri seems to be having a good time playing down market, even if she has to work to keep from being upstaged by comedians like Conklin and Farley.

Friday Evening was a Memorial Tribute to the late Dave Snyder, one of Cinevent’s Programmers and Projectionists who was also in charge of the Annual Saturday Morning Cartoon program. Three of Dave’s favorites were shown in his memory, a Walter Lantz cartoon called VOODOO IN HARLEM (1936), a Gus Arnheim band short called SWINGTIME HOLIDAY (1944), and for the feature, Frank Capra’s THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN (1933).

Saturday Morning, after the Annual Cartoon Show (I never get up that early), was a rare showing of the 1954 Errol Flynn swashbuckler CROSSED SWORDS, which Flynn produced and shot in Italy and has been in a rights-issue morass for decades, and seldom seen. When seen, it is usually in beet-red Pathecolor prints, but Cinevent secured a lovely Kodachrome original for it’s showing, highlighting Jack Cardiff’s excellent camerawork and proving CROSSED SWORDS is much better than it’s reputation (probably coming from a lot of folk who actually haven’t seen it). It’s a fun and light-hearted romp, with Gina Lolobrigida as Flynn’s leading lady (and the last Mrs Orson Welles, Paolo Mori as Gina’s lady-in-waiting) and nice Italian locations and period costumes. Flynn still looks well, and pulls off some more fine swordsmanship in the climax. Definitely needs to be given more looks than it gets these days.


End of Part One


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Michael J Hayde
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Re: CINEVENT 45 REPORT PART ONE

Postby Michael J Hayde » Thu May 30, 2013 6:09 pm

Richard M Roberts wrote:Saturday Morning, after the Annual Cartoon Show (I never get up that early), was a rare showing of the 1954 Errol Flynn swashbuckler CROSSED SWORDS, which Flynn produced and shot in Italy and has been in a rights-issue morass for decades, and seldom seen. When seen, it is usually in beet-red Pathecolor prints, but Cinevent secured a lovely Kodachrome original for it’s showing...


The print belongs to your dealer-table neighbor, Mr. McElwee, a factoid he shared along with his opinion of the film, which was rather less positive than your own.

I finished John's wonderful book in four days, and have now moved on to the 522-page feature presentation about Mr. Roach.

Michael

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: CINEVENT 45 REPORT PART ONE

Postby Richard M Roberts » Thu May 30, 2013 6:51 pm

Michael J Hayde wrote:
Richard M Roberts wrote:Saturday Morning, after the Annual Cartoon Show (I never get up that early), was a rare showing of the 1954 Errol Flynn swashbuckler CROSSED SWORDS, which Flynn produced and shot in Italy and has been in a rights-issue morass for decades, and seldom seen. When seen, it is usually in beet-red Pathecolor prints, but Cinevent secured a lovely Kodachrome original for it’s showing...


The print belongs to your dealer-table neighbor, Mr. McElwee, a factoid he shared along with his opinion of the film, which was rather less positive than your own.


Tell me something I didn't know Hayde, though I'm not sure he wanted it spread all over the newsgroups. I may add he didn't watch more than the first few minutes of it when it ran, but he did not express any negatives regarding it to me, and was happy it was getting seen. Lets keep to our own opinions, not hearsay others.

However, if we're playing heresay poker, I may also add, that my group, including Scott Eyman and Jim D'Arc, were all impressed with it.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Gary Johnson
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Re: CINEVENT 45 REPORT PART ONE

Postby Gary Johnson » Thu May 30, 2013 8:32 pm

Welcome back, Richard. It's nice to see you settling in and browbeating the help once again.
"CHILDREN!! Get in the house.....and hide Grandma. Roberts is back in the neighborhood!!"
How were the crowds there? Any new faces? We are always worried about new generations not being interested in any films that were not made before last year. And the rain must had been heaven. When I lived in Purgatory...I mean Phoenix, I relished anytime that I flew into another city experiencing inclement weather. I saw it so rarely in AZ.

CROSSED SWORDS aired quite frequently back in the 80's in my market and it always looked like it was out in the sun too long. But then a lot of second run features made in the 1950's had that beet-red look twenty years later. I learned from a young age to accept the condition of any print just so long as I could see the film.
And CROSSED SWORDS is a likable film. Flynn has the same world-weary attitude that he carries in THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN - his last great Warner's spectacle. And Gina Lollabrigida was made to be poured into 16th century costumes.

I would quibble with you a bit over Flynn's appearance. He's not a wreck, mind you, but he always looks tired to me in this period. And it's in his eyes. Follow Flynn in each decade and his eyes reveal what his mindset is. Throughout the Thirties his eyes sparkle with a rougish glint of a cat who has got the world by the tail. During the War years they harden somewhat into a cynical glare as bags begin to form and our hero begins to wonder why people are turning on him. By the Fifties his puffy and reddened eyes show an underlined sadness to everything around him, even when he is smiling and trying to enjoy life once again.

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: CINEVENT 45 REPORT PART ONE

Postby Richard M Roberts » Thu May 30, 2013 9:37 pm

Gary Johnson wrote:I would quibble with you a bit over Flynn's appearance. He's not a wreck, mind you, but he always looks tired to me in this period. And it's in his eyes. Follow Flynn in each decade and his eyes reveal what his mindset is. Throughout the Thirties his eyes sparkle with a rougish glint of a cat who has got the world by the tail. During the War years they harden somewhat into a cynical glare as bags begin to form and our hero begins to wonder why people are turning on him. By the Fifties his puffy and reddened eyes show an underlined sadness to everything around him, even when he is smiling and trying to enjoy life once again.



i think your projecting a lot of his history you already know into what you think you're seeing in Flynn's eyes. It also has to do with a lot of the characters he's playing in those later years being tired wastrels. No, Flynn does not look that dissipated in CROSSED SWORDS, he still thin, clear-eyed, looks reasonably healthy and he's playing this one very light. I think he first really starts to show the mileage in THE WARRIORS, where he looks truly puffy and overweight for the first time. Remember, he's trying to recoup the money he lost on the WILLIAM TELL fiasco and thinks he has a good chance considering the good boxoffice on THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, and Flynn was always a better actor than people gave him credit for. I always thought he might have inherited Humphrey Bogart's mantle after Bogies death, playing upperclassmen gone to seed. That sort of persona actually works pretty well for him in MARU MARU (a Bogie reject that Warners threw him into) and THE BIG BOODLE (1957).


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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Re: CINEVENT 45 REPORT

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri May 31, 2013 9:51 am

Part Two:

Moving right along, after lunch, we saw another installment in the Victor McLaglen/Edmund Lowe Guy Adventures, UNDER PRESSURE, which I posted my program notes for so I won’t go into it further here, except that the Audience seemed to enjoy it, ditto for THE SEA BEAST, which is no classic, but again, the Audience got into it’s wacky re-writing of MOBY DICK and Barrymore’s performance, and it went over well and Dave Drazin played a decent score for it.

See also my notes on THE CANADIAN, which also went over well, with Philip Carli giving it the right emotional force in his accompaniment. My Annual Charley Chase Show featured three sound shorts, ALL TEED UP (1930), with Charley wooing Thelma Todd at a soda fountain, then harassing the same three fellows (Carl Stockdale, Tenen Holtz, Dell Henderson) on the links that he entertained with hookers in WHISPERING WHOOPIE , FIRST IN WAR (1932) has Charley writing the National Anthem for Nicarania, the he and The Ranch Boys doing some Military Policing in the mythical Latin American Country and partying with it’s Leader, Luis Alberni. NOW WE’LL TELL ONE (1932) has Charley wearing a belt that transfers the personalities of two people wearing same as he confuses Muriel Evans and her Family when he turns into different people. Good stuff all around.

PARDON MY PAST (1946) was also covered in my program notes, but the Audience really enjoyed this first of what became a running Cinevent theme this year, look-alike guys with mistaken identities. This is a really pleasant Fred MacMurray comedy with a fine cast and was a real crowd pleaser.

Sunday morning started with the next mistaken identity variation with Conrad Veidt playing good-bad twins in NAZI AGENT (1942), which was also Jules Dassin’s directorial debut. Douglas Fairbanks was THE NUT (1921) before lunch, but I’ve never been fond of this Fairbanks comedy, which I think is one of his weakest, it was definitely time he moved permanently into swashbucklers, which he did after he made it. THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF (1941) was also covered in my notes, and the last of the mistaken identity films and probably the least of the three, with Brian Aherne (that name! that name!) switching places with his doppelganger and finding himself married to Kay Francis. I missed CHINATOWN SQUAD, but HOLD THAT COED(1938) is an enjoyable late John Barrymore appearance in a College Football comedy of all things, playing a corrupt Southern Governor (is there any other kind?) peddling influence to help his state college win a nationwide gridiron pennant. It’s directed by George Marshall, which means it moves well with a good cast including George Murphy, Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Guinn “Big Boy” William, George Barbier, Paul Hurst, and others.

THE DISCIPLE (1915) is a surprisingly stark William S. Hart western, even for William S. Hart, with Hart playing a parson who suffers several tests of faith, but again, Phil Carli gave it a lot of dramatic tension in his scoring. THE MOB (1951) is a really good Broderick Crawford noir which was on the third volume of Sony’s Film Noir sets, so I gave it a miss. I also passed on the Monday films as I’d seen them before, so anyone who saw them feel free to comment, THE HOUSE OF FEAR (1939) is a Universal Crime Club that is a remake of Paul Leni’s THE LAST WARNING (1929), THE SOCIAL SECRETARY (1916) a somewhat dreary Norma Talmadge Triangle Comedy, and as I have an allergy to the Paramount Henry Aldrich films in general, I’ll let someone else comment on HENRY ALDRICH, EDITOR (1942).

All in all, it was another great Cinevent, but I am indeed concerned about the continuing existence of all of these Festivals and Conventions. The Audience seems to be graying and ageing with very little new blood coming into the fold. How many more years can this go on without attracting new audiences? Apparently this is something Steve Haynes and the Cinevent staff will be working on in the coming years, and we wish them success as Cinevent is indeed still the most thriving of the Cinephile Conventions and hopefully will remain so.


RICHARD M ROBERTS


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