Looking for Mabel Normand

http://www.cinecon.org/cinecon_films.html

 

August 30 will be the beginning of

CINECON 43,

our annual Labor Day weekend.

 

Hollywood  will once again be Hollywood, if you can come once; I just know you will try to come every year. It is the summer’s shortest 5 days. Come set with me in a cool dark place and remember. 

 

This year as always, there will be rare films from the Hollywood studio archives and film collections across the country. CINECON 43 has year after year brought the audience short subjects, silent features, early sound movies, documentaries, panel discussions and the opportunity to visit with and participate in Q&A with celebrity guests - always a wonderful treat. A few surprises and of course, the “Iron Craw” serial.

There are unusual dealers in collectables in the ½ dozen or so rooms set aside for them. They are a great brunch and year after year, I have been amazed at the quality and verity of the memorabilia offered.  CINECON 43 also gives us a change during the “Career Achievement Banquet” to visit with friends that come together once a year to talk film. 

 

The films are shown at the Egyptian Theater, right on Hollywood Blvd. on that wonderful historic screen. The theater is east of the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel.  The Renaissance is at Highland and makes a terrific and easy headquarters for the event.

Come if you can. So far 9 films are scheduled with more then 20 more to go, the list is not complete yet but there will be 30 or so films shown over the Labor Day weekend. These are the ones lined up so far:

 

BRANDING BROADWAY (Artcraft, 1918)

 

HER WILD OAT (First National, 1927)

 

THE PATENT LEATHER KID (First National, 1927)

 

THE RIDER OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1932)

 

THE GILDED LILY (Paramount, 1935)

 

WAKE UP AND LIVE (20th Century-Fox, 1937)

 

TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTES (Universal, 1940)

 

A MAN BETRAYED (Republic, 1941)

 

HOW’S ABOUT IT? (Universal, 1943)

 

 

No Mabel, yet...but I am holding on to the hope of seeing, her here again, this year. 

Information on the scheduled films press on the title above or go to the cinecon website at  http://www.cinecon.org/cinecon_films.html

 

 

 

HER WILD OAT (First National, 1927)

Colleen Moore was one of the most popular stars of the silent era, but few of her best films survive, that’s why this recent restoration of HER WILD OAT by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive is a special treat. Directed by Marshall Neilan, HER WILD OAT offers an unusual opportunity to see Colleen Moore in her prime.

 

 

 

 

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

 

THE GILDED LILY (Paramount, 1935)
After appearing in films like THE BIG POND (1930) and Cecil B. DeMille’s THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932), Claudette Colbert hit her comic stride on loan out to Columbia with Frank Capra’s Oscar winning film IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934). Paramount was quick to capitalize on Colbert’s hitherto untapped talent for getting laughs with films like THE BRIDE COMES HOME (1935), MIDNIGHT (1938) and this lovely gem, THE GILDED LILY, which co-stars Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland near the beginning of their own starring careers.

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

 

BRANDING BROADWAY (Artcraft, 1918)
William S. Hart heads east to become a bodyguard for a wealthy dude in this change of pace comic Western, recently restored by the Museum of Modern Art. Written by C. Gardner Sullivan and directed by Hart, much of the film’s action was shot in New York.

 

 

 

 

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

 

A MAN BETRAYED (Republic, 1941)
“Stalking his prey in a stronghold of corruption . . . Daring death for the woman he loves!” To honor John Wayne’s 100th birthday of we offer this offbeat mystery with Wayne falling for the daughter of his chief suspect. Still under contract to Republic after his 1939 breakthrough film, STAGECOACH, Wayne continued to toil in “B” pictures between larger budget efforts, but A MAN BETRAYED (also known by its reissue title, WHEEL OF FORTUNE) is a respectable effort and also features past CINECON guest Frances Dee.

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

THE PATENT LEATHER KID (First National, 1927)
Everyone’s seen the Silents Please cut-down of this Richard Barthelmess film, but the complete version is rarely screened. Adapted from a story by Rupert Hughes by Adela Rogers St. Johns, THE PATENT LEATHER KID is a tale of a self-possessed boxer who is forced to come off his high horse in no man’s land during the Great War. This was one of the big pictures of the late silent era and earned a best actor Oscar nomination for Barthelmess.

 

 

 (Information from Cinecon43 site)

HOW’S ABOUT IT? (Universal, 1943)
Another one of those Universal “B” musicals that torment critics and delight audiences. Robert Paige and Grace McDonald carry the love interest, the Andrews Sisters supply the songs, and that underrated comic genius, Shemp Howard, is on hand for the laughs all wrapped up in a neat 61 minute package directed by Erle C. Kenton.

 

 

 

 

 (Information from Cinecon43 site)

THE RIDER OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1932)
This was cowboy star Tom Mix’s second talking picture, and it clearly transcended the “B” Western genre with its top notch location work and its 78 minute running time. Directed by Al Rogell and featuring Lois Wilson, the film is based in part on Mix’s 1926 Fox silent, NO MAN’S GOLD.

 

 

 

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

WAKE UP AND LIVE (20th Century-Fox, 1937)
A great Fox musical starring past CINECON honoree Alice Faye and Jack (Tinman) Haley. WAKE UP AND LIVE pokes fun at radio and the supposed real-life on-air feud between columnist/radio announcer Walter Winchell and band leader Ben Bernie. Patsy Kelly, Ned Sparks, Walter Catlett and Joan Davis supply the laughs, with songs by Mack Gordon and Lou Silvers.

 

 

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)

 

TRAIL OF THE VIGILANTES (Universal, 1940)
Director Allan Dwan and screen writer Harold Shumate turned out a comic Western gem that rivals 1939’s DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. Franchot Tone plays a dude from the east who falls in with town terror Broderick Crawford to bring the corrupt Warren William to heel. Andy Divine and Mischa Auer round out the cast of this forgotten classic.

 

 

 

 

(Information from Cinecon43 site)