Through passage of the landmark National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the U.S. Congress created the National Film Registry as a means of recognizing and preserving films of "cultural, historical or aesthetic significance." To date, 225 films representing the richly vibrant, unmatched diversity of American filmmaking have been selected; the Registry is now recognized as a vital cultural record, a national roster of films that have contributed significantly to American culture.

The Registry's purpose from the beginning has been not to spotlight well-known Hollywood blue-blood classics, but rather to make the public more aware of the complete range of American cinema and the need for its preservation. Thus, Hollywood classics, along with documentaries, avant-garde works, independent films, silents and many other forms of filmmaking have been entered thus far into the prestigious Registry.

Each year, films are selected after a three-step process: 1) public nominations, 2) deliberation by the members and alternates of the 40-person National Film Preservation Board (NFPB), 3) the final selection by the Librarian of Congress after extensive review with the NFPB and members of the Library's Motion Picture staff.

As a means to garner additional insight into public opinion, with this program we begin what we hope will be an ongoing series: The National Film Registry--The Public Reviews. We will screen films which have in past years been mentioned as Registry possibilities, though not yet selected. After seeing the film, audience members will be asked to rate the film via questionnaires. Results will be compiled and used when the film comes up in Registry consideration. Our hope is the public will thoroughly enjoy this series and actively take part in assessing the films.

Reservations may be made by phone, beginning one week before any given show. Call (202) 707-5677 during business hours (Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). Reserved seats must be claimed at least 10 minutes before showtime, after which standbys will be admitted to unclaimed seats. All programs are free, but seating is limited to 64.

Medium Cool (Paramount, 1969)
Director/Writer/Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler. Cast: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill, Harold Blankenship, Charles Geary. (110 minutes, color, 35mm, LC Collection, courtesy Paramount)

A seminal film of 60's independent cinema, Medium Cool came into existence as a pet project of renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In the Heat of the Night, Days of Heaven). Wexler spent $800,000 in personal funds (much later reimbursed by Paramount) to craft this angry blend of reality and theater, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Interspersing actual footage from these chaotic events (ironically some of the riot footage was later subpoenaed by the government), Wexler used the character of a TV newscameraman to discuss weighty issues of personal/professional ethics, idealism and responsibility. Whose purposes should news footage serve? What is the place and responsibility of an individual in a society marked by out-of-control chaotic turmoil?

The film's title is a not-so-subtle play on Marshall McLuhan's designation of television as "the cool medium." Despite Medium Cool's idiosyncratic, forceful pushing of the traditional filmmaking envelope, critical comment was laudatory. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called Medium Cool "a film of tremendous visual impact, a kind of cinematic Guernica,' a picture of America in the process of exploding into fragmented bits of hostility, suspicion and violence."

Unfortunately, despite enthusiastic critical reviews, studio indifference to the film and the "X" rating (result of a creatively ecstatic bedroom scene--one that Vincent Canby dryly noted: "should give lust a good name") diminished the number of people who saw this complex, challenging, at times perplexing film, dubbed by Wexler as "a wedding between features and cinéma vérité." Disillusioned by the bitter experience, Wexler for the next several years abandoned commercial filmmaking for experimental forays into radical cinema (Brazil: A Report on Torture, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and others).

Preceded by:

Saturday Afternoon (Pathé, 1926)
Producer: Mack Sennett. Director: Harry Edwards. Story: Frank Capra and Arthur Ripley. Cinematographer: Wm. Williams. Cast: Harry Langdon, Alice Ward, Vernon Dent, Ruth Hiatt, Peggy Montgomery. (ca. 35 minutes, b&w, silent, 35mm, LC Collection)

Widely considered one of the great silent comedians, Harry Langdon's career can only be described as meteoric. A vaudevillian for much of his professional life, Harry Langdon was discovered and brought to Hollywood by Mack Sennett in the early Twenties. His career promptly proceeded to languish as no one could quite figure out how to use his unusual talent. But lightning struck in 1925 when Langdon was paired with director Harry Edwards and then-gagman Frank Capra. There ensued several remarkable shorts (including tonight's film) and three classic features--Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, The Strong Man, and Long Pants, the latter two directed by Capra. This brief but spectacular run forever secured Langdon's place (along with Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd) as one of what Walter Kerr called "The Four Silent Clowns."

After Long Pants, Langdon ditched Edwards and Capra, and he rapidly fell from audience favor; his career descended spectacularly, never again to regain such lofty heights before his death in 1944.

Far too often conventional wisdom proves untrue to the bright light of reality. Yet in the case of Harry Langdon, c.w. as expressed in Frank Capra's autobiography The Name Above the Title seems to us close to the mark. Though admittedly biased in the matter, Capra considered Langdon a man of a special, although quite specific talent, which required skillful help from others (read Capra here) to bring out--even Langdon did not recognize what the talent was.

Saturday Afternoon features Langdon at his childlike finest, here a henpecked husband subject to the baleful stare (and worse) of spouse Alice Ward, who believes in settling marital disputes "by women's clubs--hickory preferred." Domestic thunderstorms eventually drive Langdon ("a crumb from the sponge cake of life") into a dalliance with flappers Hiatt and Montgomery. An example of title writing at its finest, courtesy of Frank Capra and Arthur Ripley: "In 1864 when Lincoln declared all men free and equal, did he, or did he not, include husbands?"

Providing an overview of this new film series will be Steve Leggett, who works for the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

_________________________________

Friday, June 19 (6:30 p.m.)

The New York Hat (Biograph, 1912)
Director: D.W. Griffith. Screenplay: Anita Loos. Cinematographer: G.W. Bitzer. Cast: Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Claire McDowell. (ca. 20 minutes, silent, b&w, 35mm, LC Collection)

A sharp, deft satire on small-town busybodies, New York Hat features a ground-breaking clever script by Anita Loos, her first.

Followed by:

Three on a Match (First National/Warner Bros., 1932)
Director: Mervyn Leroy. Screenplay: adapted by Lucien Hubbard, from a story by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright. Cinematography: Sol Polito. Cast: Joan Blondell, Warren William, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, Buster Phelps, Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Bogart. (64 min., b&w, 35mm; LC Collection, courtesy Warner Bros.)

Expertly resolving a complicated plot in 64 minutes (which today would require a four-part miniseries to accomplish), Three on a Match showcases the finest in Warners 30s filmmaking: breathless pacing; plots ripped from contemporary headlines; dead-on portrayals of atmosphere, era, and locale; subdued but pointed social commentary, top-to-bottom excellent acting (OK, we admit the child is a bit TOO Hollywood). Add to this a pre-Production Code release (which allowed more daring plot issues and twists) and a cast of on-the-cusp-of-stardom Warners players: Warren William (alas seen here in a non-sleazy, good guy role), Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Humphrey Bogart as Harve in his first gangster role, and 4th-billed Bette Davis as a studious secretary and governess! (this film hit theaters one week after release of her delicious portrayal of a flapper-like Southern Belle in Cabin in the Cotton: "Ah'd love to kiss you, but Ah just washed mah hair!").

At the film's center is always underappreciated actress Ann Dvorak. Abandoning the life of a wealthy, married socialite, she goes off to find herself, but instead falls in love with underworld figure Lyle Talbot; she begins a stunningly abrupt descent into drug/alcohol addiction, madness and personal hell.

In our opinion, Three on a Match illustrates bread-and-butter filmmaking at its best, and remains a key work in that cycle of films known as "Forbidden Hollywood."

And:

Employees' Entrance (Warner Bros.,1933)
Director: Roy Del Ruth. Writer: Robert Presnell. Photographer: Barney McGill. Cast: Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford, Alice White. (74 minutes, 35mm, b&w, LC Collection, courtesy Warner Bros.)

"This superb little film about machinations in a New York department store...captures real urban tensions... Key is Warren William's devastating characterization of the store's general manager, whose system shows not a trace of the smiling one-minute manager: "I've seen thousands of employees come and go. And I've come to one conclusion--there's no room for sympathy or softness. My code is smash or be smashed." William, always superb as a shyster professional (notably as a lawyer in The Mouthpiece and a political advisor in The Dark Horse) is here obsessive for success, dropping "deadwood" 30-year employees without a moment's hesitation and vowing that his assistants not be distracted by women: "Sure I like em. In their place." The undistinguished storyline includes some business about a hidden marriage and (thanks to a pre-Production Code release) what we'd call on-the-job sexual harassment, but the script is invariably witty. In the context of Depression economics, Warren William's ruthless business sense is at least half-admirable, so don't hold your breath waiting for him to mellow."--Scott Simmon

___________________________________

Friday, June 25 (7:00 p.m.)

From Here to Eternity (Columbia, 1953)
Producer: Buddy Adler. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Writer: Daniel Taradash, based on the James Jones novel. Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine. (118 minutes, b&w, 35mm, LC Collection, courtesy Columbia).

Tonight's screening affords an opportunity to pay tribute to Francis Albert Sinatra, a titan in American entertainment history. Sinatra will be forever remembered for his perhaps unmatched musical career, yet his acting legacy can probably best be described as inconsistent. Though quite a few of his roles fell into the NAR (No Acting Required) category, such cannot be said of his work in From Here to Eternity--many consider his Oscar-winning portrayal of Angelo Maggio his finest achievement (we're partial, however, to his bravura performance as a would-be Presidential assassin in the feverish, low-budget Suddenly).

From Here to Eternity is a model literary adaptation, expertly transforming a sprawling, big novel into an even better film, mostly thanks to an innovative screenplay from Daniel Taradash and to master director Zinnemann (fresh off his success in the spare, tense High Noon). The film is rife with great performances from Sinatra, Kerr among others, but carrying the film through his dominating, yet subdued presence is Montgomery Clift, who to our mind rates way up there in the American acting pantheon. Casting Clift was the one non-negotiable demand director Zinnemann made of initially reluctant studio chief Harry Cohn when agreeing to do the film, and the film's artistic success owes much to that. Zinnemann noted: "It was just that quality, the 'deceptive slimness', needed to give an edge to Prewitt's character. I wanted Clift because the story was not about a fellow who didn't want to box: it was a story about the human spirit refusing to be broken, about a man who resists all sorts of pressure from an institution he loves, who becomes an outsider, and eventually dies for it." The Prewitt character is key to the film and Clift delivered in stunning fashion, with a much commented-upon performance which deserved an Oscar. As critic Pauline Kael notes, "Montgomery Clift's bony, irregularly handsome Prewitt is a hardhead, a limited man with a one-track mind, who's intensely appealing; Clift has the control to charm--almost to seduce--an audience without ever stepping outside his inflexible, none-too-smart character."

Introducing tonight's film and commenting on Clift's relatively brief but extraordinary career will be Judi Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman is the moving image and recorded sound cataloger for the National Digital Library and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress. She holds a M.A. in Critical and Cultural Studies of Radio-Television-Film and a M.L.I.S. from the University of Texas at Austin.

__________________________________

Friday, July 10 (6:30 p.m.)

Traffic In Souls (Universal, 1913)
Director: George Loane Tucker. Screenplay: Walter MacNamara. Cast: Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, Fred Turner, Matt Moore, William Welsh, Mrs. Hudson Lyston, William Cavanaugh. (ca. 75 minutes, silent, b&w, LC Collection)

Followed by:

Inside of the White Slave Traffic (Samuel London, 1913)
Director: Frank Beal. Screenplay: Frank Beal, based on a story by Samuel H. London. Cast: Virginia Mann, Edwin Carewe, Jean Thomas, Ninita Bristow, Elinor O. Peterson. (ca. 30 minutes, b&w, silent, 35mm, LC Collection)

Followed by:

Children of Eve (Edison, 1915)
Director/Writer: John H. Collins. Cinematographer: Ned Van Buren. Cast: Viola Dana, Robert Conness, Thomas Blake, Nellie Grant, Robert Walker, William Wadsworth, James Harris, Hubert Dawley, Warren Cook, Brad Sutton. (ca. 70 minutes, b&w, silent, LC Collection)

Tonight's three films provide famous examples from a fascinating film cycle during the Teens and Twenties--that of the exploitation or social problem film, which featured examinations of birth control, social diseases, drugs, prohibition, prisons, poverty, the Red Menace, industry disregard for workers and various other social ills. For an exhaustive yet fascinating look at this subject, see Kevin Brownlow's excellent 1990 book, Behind the Mask of Innocence.

A Congressional report around 1910 highlighted the forcible abduction into prostitution of many immigrant women when they reached U.S. shores. Other investigations followed, including the John D. Rockeller White Slavery Report, which the first 2 films tonight are LOOSELY based upon. In his influential 1926 book on American film history through 1925 A Million and One Nights, Terry Ramsaye claimed Traffic in Souls was the film where the American film public discovered sex. Not particularly true, and seen today Traffic in Souls is rather tame, of far more value for its realistic, visual documentary record of pre-War New York City life; besides, the plot (in part owing to bits of missing footage) is almost impenetrable at times so pay close attention.

It did, however, cause a sensation and many imitators, including the more lurid Inside of the White Slave Traffic, produced by Samuel London, who had headed the Rockefeller investigation. Though only 2 of the 4 original reels survive today, one can see why Inside caused a near national scandal and produced abundant work for lawyers. Variety noted that Inside of the White Slave Traffic "goes in for the utmost fidelity in picturing the evil which has been its inspiration," and termed both films "patchouli and kimono pictures."

Children of Eve examines horrific factory conditions which led to a catastrophic fire. The expert direction is by recently-rediscovered director John Collins, now considered one of the Teens top talents.

Introducing tonight's program is Karen Lund, the digital conversion specialist for the National Digital Library Program in the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Ms. Lund holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies from New York University, and has written several essays on early film for the Library's World Wide Web site and other LC written publications.

________________________________

Friday, July 17 (6:30 p.m.)

Little Caesar (Warner Bros., 1931)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Screenplay: Adapted by F. E. Faragoh, from the W. R. Burnett novel. Cinematography: Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glenda Farrell, Sidney Blackmer, Thomas Jackson, Ralph Ince, William Collier, Jr., Maurice Black, Stanley Fields, George E. Stone. (77 min., b&w, 35mm; LC Collection, courtesy Warner Bros.)

Contrary to popular opinion, Little Caesar was neither the first "gangster" film (film historians trace the genre at least as far back as D. W. Griffith's 1912 one-reeler The Musketeers of Pig Alley), nor was it even the most discussed film of the genre in 1931 (both Doorway to Hell and The Public Enemy provoked more comment).

But Little Caesar can claim with some justification, to have launched the phenomenally popular 30s gangster film cycle and to have initiated--or, more accurately, codified--many of the themes and most of the style found in the genre--the tough street language; the gangster's ultimate quest for power, not money; the paralyzed Depression-era American society so ripe for syndicate crime.

Moreover, the film industry, still experiencing upheavals from the silence to sound transition, discovered a new star in Edward G. Robinson who, after leaving a highly successful stage career in 1929, had languished through a half-dozen nondescript film performances. His dynamic and ruthless portrayal of Rico Bandello, "a little guy who wanted to be big," made Robinson a hot property in Hollywood, though, unfortunately one primarily typecast in crime boss roles for years to come.

The film's superb use of pacing and transition--note the symbolism of a tiepin in one scene--reveals the adept touch of underrated director Mervyn LeRoy, in this his breakthrough 14th film. LeRoy forever remained proud of Little Caesar but always voiced one regret: LeRoy claims he offered the role of Joe Massara (eventually played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) to then-unknown stage actor Clark Gable, an idea studio chiefs rejected because of Gable's "large ears."

Followed by:

The African Lion (Walt Disney, 1955)
Director: James Algar. Writers: Algar, Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, and Jack Moffitt. Cinematographers: Alfred G. and Elma Milotte. Music: Paul Smith. Narrator: Winston Hibler. (75 minutes, Technicolor, 35mm, LC Collection, courtesy Disney)

Those patrons who come expecting to see Mufasa and hear "Hakuna Matata" will be sorely disappointed and are forewarned to rent The Lion King video at another time. The African Lion remains arguably the king of all lion documentaries, and quite possibly the finest in the Disney "True-Life Adventure Series," chiefly because it is not plagued by some of the cute gimmicky tricks played in other of these films (such as the infamous "Scorpion Dance" in The Living Desert). With stunning footage, The African Lion moves through a cycle of seasons in a lion's life (today this plot structure is almost a cliché, used by all nature documentary filmmakers, but here is one of its first ever appearances). Memorable scenes include a swarm of locusts destroying a plain, a leopard leaping from a tree into a herd of wildebeest, the desperate fight of a lioness to keep food from jackals and hyenas. Nature filmmaking at its most stirring and memorable.

__________________________________

Friday, July 24 (6:30 p.m.)

Magnificent Obsession (Universal-International, 1954)
Director: Douglas Sirk. Screenplay: Robert Blees, based on the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas; adaptation by Wells Root based on the screenplay by Sarah Mason and Victor Heerman. Photography: Russell Metty. Music: Frank Skinner; directed by Joseph Gershenson. Cast: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger, Gregg Palmer, Sara Shane, Paul Cavanaugh. (108 min., Technicolor, 35mm; LC Collection, courtesy MCA/Universal)

This piece of irresistible kitsch features a plot the stuff of screenwriting legend: spoiled playboy Rock Hudson has an unnecessary boating accident which contributes to the death of Jane Wyman's doctor husband. Not showing the most sensitive of judgement, Hudson pursues a romantic clinch with the widow, only to cause her blindness in another accident. He then doggedly resumes his medical studies, in hopes of eventually restoring her eyesight. Along the way, Hudson becomes a better person, adapting an oh-so-virtuous, quasi-religious philosophy of giving that today would surely qualify him for one of former President George Bush's "Thousand Points of Light" awards. Whew!

If the plot is at times laughable and not to be believed, the emotional impact is not (bring those hankies!), packing a wallop that led to a terrific box-office bonanza for Universal. Contributing to the effective mix are Frank Skinner's hokey but beautiful music score and Russell Metty's exquisite color cinematography (seen to advantage in tonight's original imbibition Technicolor print). In Metty's eye, the simplest vase of flowers becomes a beautiful silk screen, a multi-layered composition.

Preceded by:

Master Hands (Chevrolet, 1936)
Producer: Jam Handy Organization. Cinematographer: Gordon Avil. Orchestral Score: Samuel Benavie, performed by the Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra. Editor: Vincent Herman. (33 minutes, 1/2" videotape, courtesy Voyager)

With:

Shy Guy (Coronet, 1947)
(14 minutes, b&w, 16mm, LC Collection)

With:

Dating Scene aka Dating Do's and Dont's (Coronet, 1949)
(16 minutes, b&w, 16mm, LC Collection)

Our three shorts tonight illustrate fascinating, at times amusing, examples of what are called "ephemeral" films, works made for purposes of education and instruction, not entertainment. Shy Guy shows that even when a young man can't work up the gumption to ask a lass out, salvation exists in the guise of "Father Knows Best," thankfully even in the delicate matter of romance. Dating Scene offers a hilarious examination of proper dating etiquette, ca. 1949--wienie roasts are in, though social spontaneity is still a few years away! Master Hands is a lyrical homage to a Chevrolet production assembly line, borrowing obvious techniques from Soviet and German cinema. An example of what Rick Prelinger has called "capitalist realism" and "one of the most impressive records of mass production ever made."

__________________________________

Friday, July 31 (6:30 p.m.)

The Wild One (Columbia, 1953)
Director: Laslo Benedek. Screenplay: John Paxton, based on a story by Frank Rooney. Photography: Hal Mohr. Music: Leith Stevens; conducted by Morris Stoloff. Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin, Jay C. Flippen, Peggy Maley, Hugh Sanders, Ray Teal. (79 min., b&w, 35mm; LC Collection, courtesy Columbia)

Had Jack Kerouac written a motorcycle gang novel, the result might have been The Wild One. The film's opening title--"This is a shocking story. It could never take place in most American towns but it did in this one. It is a public challenge not to let it happen again."--leads one to expect a proto-typical Stanley Kramer "message" film. Not so. In The Wild One, the heavies turn out to be hard-nosed town citizens and, more generally, society as a whole, while the motorcycle gang, though undeniably violent, more closely resembles beatniks suffering from lack of understanding and just out for a groovy time. The most misunderstood youth is soulful gang leader Marlon Brando, here only appreciated by lonely-to-the-point-of-tears sheriff's daughter Mary Murphy, who takes a nighttime ride on the back of Brando's bike and gets all dreamy-eyed ("It's fast, scares me, but I forgot everything"). Proving easier to take than the occasional laughable dialogue is Lee Marvin in a humorous role as the antic leader of a rival gang. Whatever else, The Wild One remains a fascinating social document, an incisive snapshot of American society as it entered the Eisenhower era.

Followed by:

Gimme Shelter (Maysles Films, 1970)
Directors: David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerkin. Cinematographers: Peter Adair, Baird Bryant, Joan Churchill, Ron Dorfman, Robert Elfstrom, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Fioro, Adam Gifford, William Kaplan, Kevin Keating, Stephen Lighthill, George Lucas, Jim Moody, Jack Newman, Pekke Niemala, Robert Primes, Eric Saarinen, Peter Smolker, Paul Ryan, Coulter Watt, Gary Weiss, Haskell Wexler, Bill Yarrus. Featuring: Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Ike and Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Melvin Belli, Dick Carter, Sonny Barger. (90 minutes, color, 16mm, LC Collection, courtesy Maysles Films)

For part 2 of "Hell's Angels Night" at the Pickford, we offer a controversial Maysles Brothers (Salesman) documentary of a Rolling Stones U.S. concert tour. Gimme Shelter ends with the infamous free concert for 300,000 at Altamont Speedway, where several people were killed, largely owing to a fateful decision to enlist the Hell's Angels to provide concert security in return for $500 of beer. The structure of the film (framed around one murder at the concert, and the performers and filmmakers breaking the scene down on a film viewer) did provoke heated debate on ethics from a few critics who thought the filmmakers were trying to absolve the Stones of any even indirect responsibility for the tragedy; many others saw this as innovative use of filmmaking techniques to reconstruct an event. Still fascinating and a landmark documentary, highlighted by magnificent Stones performances and super lawyer Melvin Belli's leaving no stone unturned to secure a site for the free concert.

Introducing tonight's program is Karen Lund, the digital conversion specialist for the National Digital Library Program in the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Ms. Lund holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies from New York University, and has written several essays on early film for the Library's World Wide Web site and other LC written publications.

___________________________________

Friday, August 7 (6:30 p.m.)

The House in the Middle (National Clean-Up Paint-Up, Fix-Up Bureau, 1954).
Produced in cooperation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration. (13 minutes, color, 16mm, LC Collection)

We open tonight's "Cold War" program with The House in the Middle, a mind-boggling paean to the need to keep one's house spotless--one never knows when nuclear war might erupt. John Wesley's admonition "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness" never seemed more relevant.

Followed by:

In a Lonely Place (Columbia, 1950) Director: Nicholas Ray. Screenplay: Andrew Solt, based on a story by Dorothy B. Hughes, adapted by Edmund H. North. Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith, Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart, Robert Warwick. (92 min., b&w, 35mm; LC Collection, courtesy Columbia)

Rebel Without A Cause is often given the nod as Nicholas Ray's greatest film, but we're partial to his earlier scathing Hollywood satire In a Lonely Place. Screenwriter Humphrey Bogart, brilliant at his craft yet prone to writing and living with his fists, undergoes scrutiny as a murder suspect while simultaneously romancing independent, insouciant starlet Gloria Grahame. Their tempestuous on-screen romance mirrors the real-life deteriorating marriage of Grahame and director Ray, who divorced shortly after the film. With jaded passion and paranoid force of character, Bogart perfectly plays the talented artist who cannot and will not accept his society, proving it with periodic violent, self-destructive confrontations. But above all, In a Lonely Place merits fame with its landmark, mature script--cynical, biting, fatalistic--and its apt statement of film noir themes and romance: "I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me."

Introducing tonight's program will be Judi Hoffman, a fan of film noir from The Big Sleep to what should have been the Oscar-winning Best Picture L.A. Confidential. Ms. Hoffman is the moving image and recorded sound cataloger for the National Digital Library Program and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress. She holds a M.A. in Critical and Cultural Studies of Radio-Television-Film and a M.L.I.S. from the University of Texas at Austin.

__________________________________

Friday, August 14 (6:30 p.m.)

Koyaanisqatsi (Institute for Regional Education, 1982)
Producer/Director: Godfrey Reggio. Photographer: Ron Fricke. Music: Philip Glass. (87 minutes, 35mm, color)

Preceded by:

Robert Benchley Shorts

With:

Bob Clampett Animation

"In a sense, Koyaanisqatsi is the world's best student film--a two-and-a-half million dollar one--with the familiar and easy juxtaposition of undefiled Nature against the moral evils of the Big City. This dichotomy has a distinguished U.S. pedigree, through transcendentalists and populists, and here it's propped up by the Hopi Indian philosophy encapsulated in the title word (roughly "life out of balance). That said, Koyaanisqatsi is astonishingly involving, a visceral experience of image and music without recourse to narration or actors, featuring one of Philip Glass' finest works, composed in tandem with the images over several years. The riveting photography--which must be seen in a theater--is as seemingly repetitive and distanced as the Glass score. No matter what qualms one might entertain over its "philosophy," Koyaanisqatsi forces one to experience America in a completely new way. How many films can claim as much?"--Scott Simmon

We begin with a selection of short subjects from Robert Benchley and cartoons by master Warners animator Bob Clampett. Though he made numerous appearances in Hollywood features, Benchley is best remembered for his droll, amusing filmed lectures on various topics (The Sex Life of a Polyp, The Trouble With Husbands, The Treasurer's Report, How to Take a Vacation, How to Sleep, and many others). To some observers a few titles have dated, but we view these as excellent time-capsule documents and a worthy predecessor to John Cleese's hilarious business instructional films 40 years later (1976's Meetings, Bloody, Meetings and others). Leonard Maltin notes that Benchley's shorts "still amuse today because they deal with timeless things; they poke fun at the absurdities of life and the quirks of human nature..the Benchley shorts were unique because his humor was unique--a rare combination of witty mind and an empathy for the little man who is confounded by society."
Bob Clampett is renowned for helping create such famous Warners characters as Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and Tweety and for his non-politically correct style: no-holds-barred, equal opportunity insult humor.

_________________________________

Friday, August 21 (6:30 p.m.)

The Pip from Pittsburgh (Hal Roach, 1931)
Director: James Parrott. Cast: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd. (20 minutes, b&w, 35mm, LC Collection)

Followed by:

The Last Picture Show (Columbia, 1971)

Director: Peter Bogdanovich. Screenplay: Larry McMurtry and Bogdanovich, based on the novel by McMurtry. Photography: Robert Surtees. Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sam Bottoms, Sharon Taggart, Randy Quaid, Joe Heatchcock, Bill Thurman. (118 min., b&w, 35mm; courtesy Columbia)

To alleviate some of the bleakness found in tonight's feature, we open with a sassy, hilarious short from the multi-talented Charley Chase (aka Charles Parrott). Best known for his writing, directing and acting work for the Hal Roach studios from 1921-37, Chase began work there (under his real name Charles Parrott) as a director/writer and produced several wonderful Roach comedies in the early 20's. By 1925 he had decided to concentrate on acting (using the pseudonym Charley Chase), with his trademark dapper, girl-chasing character appearing in many highly-regarded short comedies including Mighty Like a Moose (called a brilliant comedy by historian William Everson), The Heckler, Fallen Arches, The Chases of Pimple Street, Manhattan Monkey Business, Public Ghost No. 1, and tonight's short. Leonard Maltin has written: "It seems criminal that a man who starred in nearly two hundred shorts and devoted his life to comedy, both as an actor and writer-director, should be nearly forgotten today. ...While Chase never quite ranked alongside Keaton in the 1920s, he was not very far behind...And the more one sees of Chase's films, as well as those he directed with other stars, the more one realizes the extent of his comic mind. There are films, and individual sequences, that rate alongside the best work Keaton or Chaplin ever did."

In The Pip from Pittsburgh (directed by Chase's brother James Parrott), Charley (who has been spending a tad too much admiration time in front of the mirror) is still reeling from a blind date with the plump, none-too-fair Kay Deslys. When told he is being "fixed up" with a mystery woman for another evening, Charley, fearing the worst, goes into unattractive, slob male mode--refusing to shave, ingesting massive amounts of garlic, and assorted other non-GQ preparations. Then beautiful blind date Thelma Todd shows up...

Tonight's feature magnificently evokes time and place as well as any film ever made. Anarene, Texas, the 1950's--a dying town. Little remains of the town--even less of its spirit--other than a moving picture theater and its proprietor Ben Johnson (Sam the Lion). Adults muse wistfully on what might have been, all the while acting more and more desperate; teens eagerly contemplate what could be, and scramble to leave. To illustrate this decaying environment harboring dying dreams and souls, director Peter Bogdanovich shot the film in harsh, grainy black-and-white and produced several magnificent scenes, most notably a brief, elegiac, stream-of-consciousness narrative on mortality, town and personal history by Ben Johnson, who won an Oscar for this role. In addition to its numerous aesthetic virtues, The Last Picture Show merits interest as marking the coming-of-age of a new generation of American acting talent, including Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, and Randy Quaid. Like Orson Welles with Citizen Kane, Bogdanovich's later work never equaled this early effort, but no apology is required: true greatness resides in this film.

Mike Mashon, Curator of Film Programs, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, will introduce tonight's film, fittingly the last picture show of this current series.

___________________________________

Go to the Library of Congress Home Page