The Silence Returns...

Watch out for these women…

Pacific Northwest Silent Era film enthusiasts can breath a collective sigh of relief as the popular Trader Joe’s Silent Movie Mondays series returns to Seattle’s Paramount Theater. Featuring four consecutive Monday programs, Women in Film II begins June 8 with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert starring in Flesh and The Devil (1926). Seattle Theater Group is also offering this first film in the series free of charge to the public!

Women in Film II will also present Henry King’s Romola (1924) starring Lillian Gish on June 15, C.B. DeMille’s The Godless Girl (1929), June 22 and Frank Borzage’s 1927 Oscar winning masterpiece, 7th Heaven, starring Janet Gaynor.

All four evenings will feature live musical accompaniment performed by maestro in residence Dennis James, on the Paramount’s original Publix 1, 4/20 Wurlitzer organ. Dennis is featured on an extraordinary video of The Yankee Clipper (1927), released earlier this spring by Flicker Alley and recorded at Seattle’s Paramount Theater. More on that in a bit…

Flesh and The Devil (1926)
Monday June 8, 7pm, The Paramount, Seattle

A Fool for Love...
A jewel from MGM's golden age, Flesh and The Devil (1926) is the story of Felicitas (Greta Garbo), an irresistible but moody and shallow woman who sends both her husbands, Count von Rhaden (Marc MacDermott) and Ulrich von Kletzinak (Lars Hanson, The Scarlet Letter 1926, The Wind 1928) to the field of honor with her obsessed lover Leo von Sellenthin (John Gilbert, The Merry Widow 1925, The Big Parade 1925). Garbo smolders as the aloof and toxic beauty every man desires, while Gilbert attempts to set her on fire with his penetrating gaze.

Produced by Hollywood's 'Wonder Boy' Irving Thalberg, adapted by Benjamin Glazer from Hermann Sudermann's novel, beautifully photographed by William Daniels and directed by Clarence Brown (The Rains Came 1939, The Yearling 1946), Flesh and The Devil exerts a potent and surprising sexual dynamism which furthers the theory that all men are stupid, and all women are evil.
(This preview originally ran 11/28/2007 for the SFSFF Winter Program)

The 14th Annual SFSFF, July 10-12…

Also on the near horizon, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has announced their 2009 program, which includes the much anticipated West Coast premiere of the newly discovered and restored MGM swashbuckler Bardely’s The Magnificent (1927), Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld (1927), The Gaucho (1927) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Victor Seastrom’s The Wind (1928) starring Lillian Gish, a host if interesting tidbits and no doubt, many other surprises. As always, the SFSFF will feature a star-studded lineup of the best silent film accompanists in the biz, including pianists Philip Carli, Donald Sosin, Stephen Horne, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra and the triumphant return of theater organist Dennis James.

Closer to Home…

Port Townsend’s Rose Theatre will feature two screenings of Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld (1927) on Sunday, June 28, at 1 & 4pm with live musical accompaniment performed by Boston’s Alloy Orchestra. And…

Bainbridge Island’s Lynwood Theatre will feature two screenings of King Vidor’s earth-shaking MGM drama, The Crowd (1928), on Sunday, July 5, with live musical accompaniment performed on the Lynwood’s new house organ by Dennis James.

Favorite Son…

Nothing can replace the experience of watching a great silent era film at Seattle’s Paramount Theater with live musical accompaniment on the original 1928 installed Publix 1, 4/20 Wurlitzer organ, featuring Dennis James at the helm. I believe Dennis has the ability to re-create a theatrical experience more closely resembling the original than any theater organ accompanist currently working that I have heard. Until recently, the 1981 re-release of the Abel Gance epic Napoléon (1927) was his only available performance on video. Flicker Alley’s April release of Under Full Sail: Silent Cinema on The High Seas, featuring The Yankee Clipper (1927) with Dennis James in accompaniment not only fulfills a desire for Dennis James on video, it also features Dennis performing at Seattle’s best and most popular silent film venue, The Seattle Paramount. It is certainly not the same as being there, but its pretty damn close (large screen, surround sound) and the soaring maritime score arranged and performed by Seattle’s best loved accompanist will make the hair stand up on the necks of thousands of devotees who’ve attended these shows for so many years. It is the best possible souvenir of the live experience.

The Yankee Clipper (1927)

British and American sailing ships vie for the China tea trade in a Foo Chow to Boston break-neck race. Based on actual events, this thoroughly satisfying, first-rate swashbuckler includes exotic ports of call and a beautiful woman in distress, with the camaraderie and drama of life on the high seas.

William Boyd (of Hopalong Cassidy fame) stars as Captain Hal Winslow, "…son of a Boston ship-builder – about to challenge England’s flaunted speed with a new and daring type of vessel." A gorgeous nineteenth-century wooden square-rigger, The Indiana (it could never happen today) was used extensively in production. Rounding out the cast, The Yankee Clipper features the popular and much in demand child star Frank Coghlan Jr. as Mickey, a misogynistic young stowaway who later rescues unintended passenger Lady Jocelyn Huntington (Elinor Fair) in the heat of a fierce mutiny, and John Miljan as Paul de Vigny, her villainous, cowardly fiancé.