The SFSFF - Day 3

The third and final day of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival began with a panel presentation, Amazing Tales from the Archives. First up, Patrick Loughney from George Eastman House gave a brief description of his organization, its history and ongoing work at GEH.
Mona Nagai from the Pacific Film Archive, just across the bay in Berkeley, described her organizations library, research and study center as well as the PFA’s efforts to conserve Japanese, Soviet, avant-guard and other films originating from the West Coast.
Mike Mashon from the Library of Congress gave a long, tedious description of the LC’s new research and storage facility in Virginia, complete with building construction photos and artist’s renderings of the not yet completed staff dining area.

With precious little time remaining, the best was saved for last. Peter Limburg from Hagefilm Conservation gave an engrossing talk on his labs ongoing efforts to seemingly bring irreparable film treasures back from the brink with new methods, constantly under development. Limburg’s presentation included demonstrations of strange and virtually forgotten formats, including Man’s Best Friend (1915), produced on a rare spirograph disk, comprised of 1200 frames per disk and played from a center spindle hole like a phonograph record. A rare 22mm format with three exposed images across the width of the film strip was also shown. If that wasn’t enough, the presentation also included a clip from what appeared to be Gentlemen of Nerve (1914), a Keystone production starring Charlie Chaplin, Mable Normand and an enormous spinning airplane propeller. This presentation was so fascinating it could have filled the entire hour alone, instead of being squeezed in and rushed at the end.

The day continued with three extremely rare Laurel and Hardy films.

The Finishing Touch (1928)
"If you must make noise – make it quietly."
Stan and Ollie play bumbling carpenters attempting to finish a house across the street from a hospital. Edgar Kennedy plays the cop who keeps a close eye on their progress, and inevitable demolition of the house. In one shot, he stands and watches Stan walk past carrying the end of a board on his shoulder. As the board passes by for what seems like a very long time, Kennedy is surprised to see that Stan is also shouldering the other end! He is repeatedly hit over the head, doused in a bucket of glue, then covered with roofing shingles and later flung into a trough of wet plaster for his troubles. Ollie accidentally swallows the handful of nails he puts in his mouth, three times! The two have some fun with an irate nurse. Stan rips a sheet of sandpaper in half when she bends over, so of course she thinks … The finale includes a rock throwing fight with their boss and their large truck with faulty breaks rolling into and completely destroying the house.

Liberty (1929)
This Hal Roach, Laurel and Hardy short is built around one gag, Stan and Ollie escape prison, with help, and accidentally end up wearing each other's pants! They try in vain to switch back, but are constantly interrupted under the most embarrassing of possible circumstances. At one point Stan ends up with a live crab in his, resulting in frequent unscheduled uncontrollable fits. They demolish a phonograph and a large stack of records outside a music store, and somehow find themselves on top of an unfinished skyscraper before they finally set things straight. A very young Jean Harlow makes a brief appearance, getting in a cab.

Wrong Again (1929)
Stan and Ollie somehow confuse a large horse with an oil painting and deliver ‘Blue Boy’ to the owner’s house as requested. They are then requested to leave their delivery “on the piano” and a chase through the house ensues with Stan, Ollie, the horse and a potted plant. ‘Blue Boy’ is as animated and hilarious as his two handlers, and maybe a touch more intelligent!

The Laurel and Hardy program concluded with a film believed to be the last taken of Stan Laurel, in 1964 at his home. He mugs for the camera as always, this time with the long deserved Oscar he received in 1961. The image of this sweet old guy, still possessing the same delightful charm and humor, was a wonderful and moving surprise finish.

The Girl with the Hat Box (1927)

This Boris Barnett film starring Anna Sten is a marvelous slapstick romp with a definite Russian twist. A Moscow couple lists a young girl as their tenant to get a larger apartment from the housing authority. When she takes pity on a student who sleeps in the train depot she tells her landlords he is her husband to claim the room and retaliation follows. Things are further complicated when a lottery ticket she was given as payment wins.
The husband and wife are quite amusing. He is short, fat and bald, with a mustache resembling toothbrush bristles. She, is a tall, lanky, bird like creature with wonderful facial expressions. They also employ an odd little cleaning woman that seems to defy gravity as they watch her dust while she balances on the end of a ladder.
The two young people, who are actually ‘not’ married, attempting to sleep in the empty room with some degree of privacy is hilarious!

The Unholy Three (1925)
Next up was Lon Chaney and the deranged little man Harry Earles in Tod Browning’s story of jewel thieves disguised as something they are not, with deadly results. This film was presented with piano accompaniment from the PFA’s house pianist, Jon Mirsalis. The arranged score was beautiful. What a shame Mirsalis only played for this one film.

Show People (1928)
The final film in this year’s program was Show People, starring Marion Davies and Billy Haines. Musical accompaniment at the Castro’s Wurlitzer was performed by Dennis James, with a spectacular adaptation of Carl Davis score written for the Kevin Brownlow series Hollywood in 1980, and later expanded into a full musical score for Show People.
The big surprise was the dreadful quality of the print, which had severe damage and large sections missing from the second reel. The musical highlight of this series with the Seattle Paramount’s own house accompanist was more than ample compensation