Capitolfest is central New York’s annual festival of silent and early sound films. Now in its sixth year, the festival is to be held 8-10 August at the 1,741-seat movie palace, the Capitol Theatre, in Rome, New York, which dates from 1928 with much of the original decor intact. It also boasts a 3-manual, 7-rank Möller theatre organ, which has been restored and is used on a regular basis to accompany silent films.

Here’s the line-up from the festival site:

Friday, August 8 | Elk’s Club | Pre-glow – 16mm program

7:00pm THE LITTLE WILD GIRL (Hercules, 1928) SILENT
Director: F.S. Mattison
Starring: Lila Lee, Cullen Landis, Frank Merrill, Sheldon Lewis, Boris Karloff
Silent, accompanied by Avery Tunningley. A Northwoods drama starring Lila Lee as a girl who is rescued from a forrest fire in which her father perishes. She is taken to New York where she becomes a Broadway star and eventually finds herself involved in a murder in which she is the chief suspect. The movie’s primary claim to fame today is that the cast includes a relatively youthful Boris Karloff as one of the villains. Rarely seen since its original release, James Cozart of the Library of Congress says THE LITTLE WILD GIRL is “A nice little B” in which “the story moves.”

8:00 pm VACATION WAVES (Hollywood, 1928)
Starring: Edward Everett Horton, Duane Thompson
Length: 20 minutes

8:45 pm COMEDY SHORT (TBA)

9:05pm ROMANCE OF THE UNDERWORLD (Fox, 1928) SILENT
Director: Irving Cummings
Starring: Mary Astor, John Boles, Robert Elliott, Ben Bard, Oscar Apfel
Silent, accompanied by Avery Tunningley. Originally shown at the Capitol February 3, 1929. From The New York Times review by Mordaunt Hall, January 7, 1929: “A delightfully nonchalant crook picture… blessed with subtlety and good humor. Whether [director Irving Cummings] is dealing with scenes in the crooks’ hangout or a more wholesome side of life, he gives to his work a charming imaginative quality that inveigles the attention.”
The Little Wild Girl

Saturday, August 9

The remaining films are all in 35mm, shown at the Capitol Theatre.

9:30 am THE KIBITZER (Paramount, 1929)
Director: Edward Sloman
Starring: Harry Green, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton
Length: 79 minutes
Originally shown at the Capitol May 11, 1930.. Paramount’s hit comedy stars Harry Green (in Edward G. Robinson’s stage role), playing the proprietor of a New York City cigar store who considers himself a genius in the stock market and in handicapping races. In actuality, he is braggart who knows nothing of either and who is constantly interfering in everyone else’s business. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times said the production “has plenty of good laughs” and that “the story begins a trifle tamely, but it grows gradually more and more amusing…. Mary Brian… does well as Lazarus’s attractive daughter. Albert Gran’s acting is pleasing, and Neil Hamilton is acceptable in his part.”

11:00 am Intermission

11:20 am THE SOILERS (Roach, 1932)
Starring Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts
Length: 20 minutes

11:40 am TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY (Fox, 1932)
Director: Alfred Santell
Starring: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Dudley Digges
Length: 80 mins
Originally shown at the Capitol December 29-31, 1932. Tess is the daughter of a squatter, and wealthy landowner Elias Graves is trying to get rid of them and the other squatter families. Tess is equally determined to make sure they all stay and Graves’ son Frederick is on her side. When Frederick’s sister Teola becomes pregnant out of wedlock, Tess protects her by claiming the child as her own.

1:05 pm LUNCH BREAK

2:10 pm TAL HENRY’S NORTH CAROLINIANS (WB, 1929)
Vitaphone #732. (10 min.)

2:20 pm THE VAGABOND KING (Paramount, 1930)
Director: Ludwig Berger
Starring: Dennis King, Jeanette MacDonald, O.P. Heggie, Lillian Roth, Warner Oland
Length: 104 minutes
Originally shown at the Capitol May 20-22, 1930. Restored Technicolor print from UCLA. From JeanetteandNelson.net: “Seeing the restored Vagabond King elevates it from an historical curiosity to a viscerally exciting film.

4:20 pm Intermission

4:40 pm FAST COMPANIONS (Universal, 1932)
Director: Kurt Neumann
Starring: Tom Brown, Maureen O’Sullivan, Mickey Rooney, James Gleason, Andy Devine
Length: 71 minutes
Originally shown at the Capitol August 20, 1932. Photoplay review, June 1932: “All the favorite movie ingredients have been mixed together so deftly that you’ll be thrilled every moment. Mickey Rooney, an eight-year-old (formerly known as Mickey McGuire) is the real surprise, and Tom Brown and James Gleason are a great pair. It’s a racing story, with the same old characters—the jockey who throws the race and the slick racetrack manipulator. But packed with excitement and fun.”

6:00 pm Dinner Break

7:30 pm TWINKLE, TWINKLE (WB, 1928)
Starring: Joe E. Brown
Length: 10 minutes
Joe E. Brown stars in this Vitaphone Short, #505

7:45 pm OH! WHAT A KNIGHT! (Universal, 1928) SILENT
Length: 7 minutes
Disney cartoon with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

7:55 pm TRUE TO THE NAVY (Paramount, 1930) SILENT VERSION
Starring: Clara Bow, Fredric March
Length: 65 minutes
Originally shown at the Capitol June 8-9, 1930. A California soda shop girl has a lot of sailor boyfriends, but her heart belongs to a womanizing free-spirited gunner.

9:05 pm Intermission

9:25 pm MIND DOESN’T MATTER (Columbia, 1932)
Starring: Shaw & Lee
Length: 20 minutes
A rare comedy short featuring vaudeville’s Shaw & Lee.

9:45 pm DOUBLE DOOR (Paramount, 1934)
Director: Charles Vidor
Originally shown at the Capitol May 29-30, 1934. From The New York Times review, May 5, 1934: “The Van Brett mansion, which is the chill setting for ‘Double Door,’ has lost none of its genteel horror in the process of transportation to the screen of the Paramount. With Mary Morris as its grim and fish-eyed mistress, the brownstone house of Fifth Avenue contains its old complement of frightened occupants, murderous shadows, closed shutters and-this last in a whisper—a secret chamber. It, and the events for which it provides a setting, make up the sort of cooling antidote an earnest filmgoer needs when the weather gets warm.”

Sunday, August 10

9:45 am BEN BERNIE & HIS ORCHESTRA (WB, 1930)
Length: 10 minutes
Vitaphone #958

10:00 am LET’S GO NATIVE (Paramount, 1930)
Director: Leo McCarey
Starring: Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald, Skeets Gallagher, Kay Francis, James Hall
Originally shown at the Capitol November 7-8, 1930. From Richard Barrios’ history of early talkie musicals, A Song in the Dark (Oxford University Press, 1995): “…one of the brighter musical comedies of 1930 to come from Paramount or anywhere else…. A fast and often funny ensemble piece, it contained good songs and almost no sense whatsoever…. It was sheer malarkey, played with bounce and directed by Leo McCarey with some of the affinity toward musical anarchy he later brought to Duck Soup.” (New print from Universal.)

11:20 am Intermission

11:35 am WHY BABIES LEAVE HOME SILENT (Weiss Bros., 1928)
Starring: Ben Turpin
Length: 20 minutes

11:55 am THE SPIELER (Pathe, 1928) SILENT
Director: Tay Garnett
Starring: Alan Hale, Renee Adoree, Clyde Cook, Fred Kohler
Originally shown at the Capitol August 5-7, 1929. Photoplay review, December 1928: “Here is carnival life ‘as is’ presented by Renee Adoree who really began her career as a circus child. No frills, no artificialities. Grim realism, crude comedy and the stark tragedy of the wagon shows. Keep your eye on Tay Garnett. He’s a promising young director who knows his characterization. He has registered the carnival atmosphere and he makes you hungry for peanuts and pink lemonade. The story deals with a crooked spieler who goes straight when he falls in love with the lady who owns the show. He breaks the neck of one crook and the grip of others who try to steal control of the carnival. Alan Hale is an excellent spieler, Adoree is restrained and realistic as the show owner, and Fred Kohler gives a picture of brutality that will be hard to excel. Clyde Cook cops watches and walks a tightrope. There’s lots of laughs with a dramatic punch. See it.”

1:00 pm Lunch Break

2:00 pm TALKING IT OVER (WB, 1929)
Length: 10 minutes
Vitaphone Short #950. A riotious monologue (and two songs) by “Broadway’s Bad Boy,” Jack Osterman.

2:15 pm SCREEN SNAPSHOTS (Columbia, c.1937)
Length: 10 minutes
“Hollywood 20 Years Ago”

2:30 pm JACK THEAKSTON’S SHORT SUBJECT FOLLIES
Length: 40 minutes
A cavalcade of shorts, trailers, and snipes.

3:40 pm Intermission

4:00 pm MOVIE NIGHT (Roach, 1929) SILENT
Starring: Charley Chase
Length: 20 minutes
In one of his funniest shorts, Charley takes his family to the movies where he experiences a series of mishaps ranging from hiccups to an unruly live turkey.

4:25 pm THE SHAKEDOWN (Universal, 1929) SILENT
Starring: James Murray, Barbara Kent
Director: William Wyler
Length: 70 minutes
Originally shown at the Capitol June 23, 1929. The life of a less-than successful professional boxer changes when he takes in an orphan.

More details, as always, on the festival site.

Anna May Wong in Song (1929)

The 2008 annual German festival of silent film, Bonner Sommerkino, takes place in Bonn 14-24 August. The programme has just been announced, and here are the salient details:

14 August
Girl Shy (USA 1924 d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor), with Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston
The Heart of the World (Canada 2000 d. Guy Maddin), with Leslie Bais, Caelum Vatnsdal

15 August
Die Spinnen 1: Der Goldene See (Germany 1919 d. Fritz Lang), with Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil Dagover
Die Spinnen 2: Das Brillantenschiff (Germany 1920 d. Fritz Lang), with Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil Dagover

16 August
Yogoto No Yume (Japan 1933 d. Mikio Naruse), with Sumiko Kurishima, Teruko Kojima
Safety Last (USA 1923 d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor), with Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis

17 August
Film music improvisation event, with Neil Brand
Prasdnik Swjatogo Jorgena (USSR 1930 d. Jakow Protasanow), with Anatoli Ktorow, Igor Iljinski
La Vie et la Passion de Jésus Christ (France 1898 d. George Hatot), with Bretteau

18 August
The Big Parade (USA 1925, d. King Vidor), with John Gilbert, Renée Adorée

19 August
Chicago (USA 1927 d. Frank Urson), with Phyllis Haver, Victor Varconi
Smokey Smokes (USA 1920 d. Gregory La Cava)

20 August
Troll-Elgen (Norway 1927 d. Walter Fyrst), with Tryggve Larssen, Bengt Djurberg
The Immigrant (USA 1917 d. Charles Chaplin), with Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance

21 August
Von Morgens bis Mitternachts (Germany 1920 d. Karlheinz Martin), with Ernst Deutsch, Erna Morena
L’Horloge Magique (France 1928 d. Ladislas Starewitch), with Nina Star

22 August
Der Gelibte Seiner Frau (Austria 1928 d. Max Neufeld), with Dina Gralla, Claire Lotto
Vem Dömer (Sweden 1922 d. Victor Sjöström), with Jenny Hasselquist, Ivan Hedqvist

23 August
Der Geheime Kurier (Germany 1928 d. Gennaro Righelli), with Iwan Mosjukin, Lil Dagover
em>The First Born (UK 1928 d. Miles Mander), with Madeleine Carroll, Miles Mander

24 August
Walter Ruttmann event
Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt (Germany 1927 d. Walter Ruttmann)
Song (Germany/UK 1929 d. Richard Eichberg), with Anna May Wong, Heinrich George
Fair Divers (France 1923 d. Claude Autant-Lara), with Louise Lara, Antonin Artaud

That’s a superb-looking line-up, from a festival that seems deservedly to be growing in prominence. It’s a particular pleasure to see The First Born there, a once buried classic now getting more and more screenings, but overall that’s just the way to mix the popular with the unfamiliar. Commendably international too. Screenings take place in the inner courtyard of Bonn University, and it’s all free.

Full details (in German only – perhaps next year they can go multi-lingual and start to attract maybe a wider audience) are on the festival site, with extra information on the impressive line-up of musicians.

http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/festival2008.htm

The 11th Annual Broncho Billy Festival takes place 27-29 June, at the Niles Edison Theater, Fremont, CA. This year the festival marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, that monopolistic organisation which sought to control all film production, distribution and exhibition in America, by programming titles from seven of the founder American companies that formed the MPPC: Edison, Selig, Kalem, Vitagraph, Lubin, Biograph and Essanay.

Here’s the programme:

Friday Evening, June 27

6:00 – 7:00 PM “Meet and Greet” at the Fremont Bank Building, 37611 Niles Blvd.
Reception for our historians & special guests “All Film Festival Pass” holders are invited to attend.

7:30 – 8:00 PM Opening remarks, Hubbard Award, Acknowledgements
8:00 – 10:00 PM Main Program – Films from EDISON
The Salt of the Earth – Russell Simpson, William Wadsworth (1917)
The Great Train Robbery – G.M. Anderson, Justus D. Barnes, Walter Cameron (1903)
The Passer-By – Marc MacDermott (1912)
The Simp and the Sophomores – Raymond McKee, Oliver Hardy (1915)
Bruce Loeb at the piano

Saturday Early Afternoon, June 28

12:30 – 2:30 PM Films from SELIG
Little Lost Sister – Bessie Eyton, Vivian Reed, George Fawcett (1917)
A Tale of the Sea – Hobart Bosworth, Tom Santschi (1910)
Captain Brand’s Wife – Sydney Ayers, Tom Santschi (1911)
Legal Advice – Tom Mix, Victoria Forde (1916)
Philip Carli at the piano

Saturday Afternoon, June 28

3:30 – 5:30 PM Films from KALEM
A Flyer in Flapjacks – Ham and Bud (1917)
Girl From Frisco (Episode 1): The Fighting Heiress – Marin Sais, True Boardman (1916)
The Fatal Opal – Paul Hurst, Marin Sais (1914)
The Vampire – Harry Millarde, Marguerite Courtot, Alice Hollister (1913)
David Drazin at the piano

Saturday Evening, June 28

7:30 PM – 10:00 PM Films from VITAGRAPH
Playing Dead – Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew (1915)
A Tintype Romance – Florence Turner, Leo Delaney (1910)
Omens of the Mesa – Robert Thornby, Anne Schaefer (1912)
The Egyptian Mummy – Constance Talmadge, Billy Quirk (1914)
Dunces and Dangers – Larry Semon (1918)
Jon Mirsalis at the piano

Sunday Morning, June 29

A Niles Canyon Railroad Adventure:
Ride the historic Niles Canyon Railway, See Niles Canyon
as it looked in 1913. Ride the rails with fellow film fans.

Sunday Afternoon, June 29

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Films from LUBIN
A Man’s Making – Richard Buhler, Rosetta Brice (1915)
Beloved Adventurer Episode 8: A Partner in Providence – Arthur V. Johnson (1914)
Until We Three Meet Again – Harry Myers (1913)
Judy Rosenberg at the piano

Sunday Late Afternoon, June 29

4:00 – 6:00 PM Films from BIOGRAPH
Their First Divorce Case – Mack Sennett, Fred Mace (1911)
The Lonedale Operator – Blanche Sweet (1911)
A Dash Through The Clouds – Mabel Normand (1912)
An Unseen Enemy – Lillian and Dorothy Gish (1912)
Judith of Bethulia – Henry B. Walthall, Blanche Sweet (1914)
Philip Carli at the piano

Sunday Evening, June 29

7:30 – 9:30 PM Films from ESSANAY
The Madman – Francis X. Bushman (1911)
Broncho Billy’s Christmas Dinner – G.M. Anderson, Edna Fisher (1911)
Alkali Bests Broncho Billy – Augustus Carney, G.M. Anderson (1911)
The Shotgun Ranchman – Authur Mackley (1912)
Sophie’s Hero – Margaret Joslin, Augustus Carney (1913)
The New Church Organ – Francis X. Bushman, Beverly Bayne (1912)
Broncho Billy and the Claim Jumpers – G.M. Anderson (1915)
Versus Sledge Hammers – Ben Turpin, Victor Potel (1915)
Frederick Hodges at the piano

Full details as always from the festival website.

The Kid Brother (1927)

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival website has had an impressive makeover, and has details of this year’s festival, which takes place 11-13 July. This is the line-up of titles:

FRIDAY, JULY 11

The Kid Brother 7:00PM
Opening Night Party 9:15PM

SATURDAY, JULY 12

Amazing Tales from the Archives 10:00AM
The Soul of Youth 11:40AM
Les Deux Timides (Two Timid Souls) 2:15PM
Mikaël (Michael) 4:15PM
The Man Who Laughs 7:45PM
The Unknown 10:45PM

SUNDAY, JULY 13

The Adventures of Prince Achmed 10:30AM
The Silent Enemy 1:10PM
Her Wild Oat 3:50PM
Jujiro (Crossways) 6:10PM
The Patsy 8:45PM

The new site gives information on each title, this year’s musicians (Baguette Quartette, Stephen Horne, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Michael Mortilla, Donald Sosin, Clark Wilson), venue (the Castro Theatre), hotels and tickets.

Bonner Sommerkino

Well, I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here we have the sort of driving wind and rain that only a British bank holiday can provide. As an antidote I thought it would be useful to have a round up of this summer’s silent film festivals. So here’s a line-up of some of what’s on offer from June through to October (a bit late for summer, I know, but Pordenone in October is just pefect, once you’ve endured the welcoming and obligatory one day of heavy rain).

Il Cinema Ritrovato
The Cinema Ritrovato film festival, Bologna takes place 28 June-5 July. This year there are a number of silent strands: a series dedicated to films made exactly 100 years ago, silent star Emilio Ghione, Lev Kuleshov, Comic Actresses and Suffragettes, and Monta Bell. A highlight is Neil Brand’s orchestral score for Hitchcock’s Blackmail. Other strands include Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich, Warner films of the 1930s, films based on the work of Giovanni Guareschi (creator of Don Camillo), Cold War films on the atomic bomb, and a Cinemascope selection.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival takes place 11-13 July 2008. Films announced so far are (Friday 11 July) The Kid Brother (1927), (Saturday 12 July) The Soul of Youth (1920), Les Deux Timides (The Two Timid Souls) (1928), Mikael (Michael) (1924), The Man Who Laughs (1928), The Unknown (1927), (Sunday 13 July) Die Abenteur Des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) (1926), The Silent Enemy (1930), Her Wild Oat (1927), Jujiro (Crossways) (1928), The Patsy (1928).

Slapsticon
The annual festival of silent and early sound comedy, Slapsticon, takes place in Arlington, Virginia 17-20 July. Programme highlights include Hal Roach rarities, Raymond Griffith, Mack Sennett, and Early Comedies.

Capitolfest
Capitolfest, central New York’s silent and classic film festival returns 8–10 August at the Capitol Theatre, Rome, NY. Titles announced include The Little Wild Girl (1928), The Spieler (1928), Romance of the Underworld (1928) and The Shakedown (1929).

Strade del Cinema
Strade del Cinema is an international silent film festival with live music, held in Aosta, Italy. This year’s festival takes place 10-17 August. No titles as yet, but they have announced a Young European Musicians Contest and a SilentARTmovies contest giving “young Italian artists or foreigners living in Italy the opportunity to express an original point of view on Silent Cinema”.

Bonner Sommerkino
The annual festival of silent films held in Bonn, Germany, Bonner Sommerkino, will take place 14-24 August. The only title announced so far is Harold Lloyd’s Girl Shy.

Cinecon
Cinecon is a classic film festival of silent and early sound titles, held in Hollywood, held over Labor Day weekend. This year’s event takes place 28 August-1 September. Titles don’t get announced until a month before the event, but you are promised “nearly thirty rare silent and early sound feature films and as many short subjects from the nation’s leading film archives and Hollywood studio vaults”, with an emphasis on rarities that seldom get public screenings.

Cinesation
This year’s Cinesation takes place at the Lincoln Theatre in Massillon, Ohio, 25-28 September 2008. Titles announced so far include Sold for Marriage (1916), The Grey Vulture (1926), Soul of the Beast (1923), The Cop (1928) and False Faces (1919).

Annual Buster Keaton Celebration
The 16th Annual Buster Kearton Celebration takes place in Iola, Kansas, over 26-27 September 2008. This year they are looking at the joint legacies of Keaton and Will Rogers.

Giornate del Cinema Muto
The 2008 Pordenone Silent Film Festival will be held 4-11 October at Pordenone, Italy. Among the main festival themes will be W.C. Fields, Aleksandr Shiryaev, French comedy of the post-war silent era, Hollywood on the Hudson(coinciding with Richard Koszarski’s new book on the history filmmaking in New York), Viktor Tourjansky, The Griffith Project 12 (1925-1931), and Early Cinema, including the Corrick Collection 2 (Australian collection of early actualities), the 30th anniversary of the FIAF Brighton congress, and W.K-L. Dickson (subject of a new biography by Paul Spehr).

Keep up with what’s going on through this sites Festivals page, or the highly recommended Stummfilmfestivals (in English as well as German). And try to keep warm.

Gary Cooper

The Chautauqua Silent Film Series is a series of silent films showing at Chautauqua, Colorado, you will be surprised to learn. And a fine selection it is. Here’s the blurb from the Colorado Chautauqua National Historic Landmark site, with their assessments of the films’ attractions:

True Heart Susie (1919)
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, May 28
Starring Lillian Gish. A country girl in love with her neighbor anonymously gives him money to go to college.

The Wildcat (1921)
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, June 4
An uproarious, hard-edged anti-military spoof.

Fairy Tales from the Teens
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, June 11
In Cinderella (1914), “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford stars. The performance in Snow White (1916) so impressed a young Walt Disney that he made his first feature film based on the story.

The Kid Brother (1926)
with Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Wednesday, July 2
Starring Harold Lloyd. Harold’s resourcefulness while fighting is a thing to behold.

Hands Up (1926)
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, July 16
Starring Raymond Griffith. A southern spy during the Civil War must try to capture a shipment of gold. His task is complicated by two sisters, the Indians and a firing squad.

Nosferatu (1922)
with Hank Troy, piano; Ed Contreras, percussion and Rodney Sauer, accordion
Wednesday, August 13
The best vampire movie ever made. It’s on the best lists: 100 Best Horror Movies, Best Silent Films, and Best German Cinema.

Mark of Zorro (1920)
with Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Wednesday, August 27
Starring Douglas Fairbanks. This film brought the “legend” of Zorro to the screen for the first time!

Sherlock Jr. (1924) Starring Buster Keaton & Shoulder Arms (1918) Starring Charlie Chaplin
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, September 3
A double feature of fun. Buster Keaton is a film projectionist who longs to be a detective. Charlie Chaplin is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero.

The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, September 10
Starring Ronald Colman, Vilma Banky and Gary Cooper. The story of a love triangle in the desert.

Son of the Sheik (1926)
with Hank Troy, piano
Wednesday, September 17
Starring Rudolph Valentino. One of the most popular films from the silent era and Valentino’s final screen performance.

More details as always from the Silent Film Series website.