| Introductions by Denise Morrison
Music provided by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
and by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Friday, Feb. 27, 2004
Begins: 7:00 p.m.
THE FINISHING TOUCH (1928
/ with Laurel & Hardy) - The dynamic duo of movie comedy are being
employed to fix up a house, but they have their own particular style
and work ethic when a big job like this comes along. The mayhem just
gets bigger and bigger. Comic events follow disaster after disaster.
Stan and Ollie were always the masters of visual comedy and even the
little gags build to incredibly funny heights. This is another of the
pair’s comic gems.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
THE ADVENTURER
(1917 / with Charlie Chaplin) - The little tramp escapes from the “pokey”
and leads a merry chase along the coastline of southern California.
He manages to slip into high society, but eventually can’t escape
the long arm of the law. Chaplin was probably at his peak in this Mutual
comedy produced with his popular band of supporting players and technicians.
It is undoubtedly one of his funniest short films (the ice cream social
is a masterpiece!) featuring Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
SPITE MARRIAGE (1929 / with
Buster Keaon) - Buster Keaton’s last silent feature film is one
of his least known works, probably because it followed so many of his
greatest successes, but it is an absolutely charming comedy in its own
right. Dorothy Sebastian plays a popular, yet spoiled actress whose
performances on the stage gather many admirers, among them the lovestruck
Buster. When Keaton gets the chance to trade places with one of the
other actors, he creates comic pandemonium. When Sebastian is jilted
by another male admirer, she marries Keaton out of spite. One of Buster’s
most famous routines—putting the intoxicated wife to bed—was
created for this film.
Although not deserving of the term “masterpiece”
which is so often applied to Keaton’s other features, Spite Marriage
is still a comedy treasure that is a surprisingly engrossing film and
more people should see it. Tonight’s presentation will feature
a rollicking jazz age music score arranged for the film by Rodney Sauer
and Susan Hall of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
-- Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Saturday - Feb. 28, 2004
Morning - starts at 10 a.m.
TARZAN OF THE APES (1918
/ with Elmo Lincoln) - The classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story of an
abandoned baby found and raised by apes was given its first screen adaptation
in this 1918 version starring the barrel-chested Elmo Lincoln, who was
a far cry from the athletic Tarzans of the future. However, Lincoln
was an amazingly good choice for the role. A sequel and a serial (both
with Lincoln) followed as well as dozens of other remakes. See what
you think. Some of it may be campy, but when Lincoln leaps into action
or snarls like a lion, one wonders if this was indeed the “real”
Tarzan of the apes.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
SIMBA (1928 / with Martin and
Osa Johsnon) - A native of Chanute, Kansas, Osa Johnson and her husband
Martin spent many years creating small documentary films about trips
to exotic lands. They were to be the first explorers to take a movie
camera to Africa and what they brought back opened up America’s
eyes and popularized the documentary film. Their later films became
hokey and sometimes ridiculous, but they were known and loved the world
over. For this, one of their few surviving silent feature films, they
forded crocodile-infested rivers, braved wild elephants and stared down
charging rhinos to bring back precious images of African wildlife and
portraits of Kenyan tribes people—records of an almost vanished
culture.
Special Introduction by Conrad Froehlich - Chanute Safari Museum
Guest Percussion by Bob
Keckeisen, principle percussionist with the Topeka Symphony
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
-- read
2004 newspaper feature, with link to audio discussion
--Lunch Break
Afternoon - starts at 1:30 p.m.
BOBBY, THE COWARD (1911 / directed
by D.W. Griffith) - A very early D.W. Griffith short featuring Robert
Harron. This continues our Kansas Silent Film Festival tradition of
showing at least one film by the man acknowledged as the “Father
of Film,” D.W. Griffith. Bobby the Coward represents another very
rare early film that very likely helped form some of the film ideas
and techniques still in use.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
OLIVER TWIST (1922 / with
Jackie Coogan, Lon Chaney) - This classic Charles Dickens tale of a
wandering street urchin taken in by a gang of London thieves had already
been filmed several times before, but in 1922, it seemed the perfect
vehicle for rising child star, Jackie Coogan, who had just finished
working with Charlie Chaplin in the classic, The Kid. This time Coogan
was paired with the “master of movie make-up,” Lon Chaney
Sr. as the leader of the gang, Fagin. Considered a “lost”
film until recently, this rare feature includes two rich performances
in the middle of its heartfelt story.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
--Short Break
THE WAITER'S BALL (1916 /
with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) - An early solo effort from
the portly prince of comedy, The Waiters’ Ball is another comedy
confection in which Roscoe must disguise himself as a girl to get into
a society event. The mayhem involves getting back at the cad who stole
his suit (Al St. John). Those who only know Arbuckle from the scandal
that ruined his career (and he was completely exonerated, by the way)
have no idea as to the talent and genius of this unique and inventive
man. Most of the films made by this Smith Center, Kansas native (and
mentor of Buster Keaton) mix slapstick with some unusually dry wit.
He often wrote and directed his own films.
-- Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchesta
THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE
(1924 / with Adolphe Menjou) - A sophisticated comedy set in Vienna,
Marie Prevost relentlessly pursues Monte Blue, who is happily married
to her best friend, Florence Vidor. Adolphe Menjou is her betrayed husband,
who wants a divorce. This is the kind of spicy romantic comedy that
could only work in the hands of a stylish director like Ernst Lubitsch
and that’s precisely who Paramount hired for this little gem.
Newly restored, this is now considered a Lubitsch classic alongside
his later To Be or Not To Be (1942) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940).
-- Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchesta
--Dinner Break
Evening - starts at 7:00 p.m.
DREAMS OF A RAREBIT FIEND
(1921 / by Winsor McCay) - A couple go to bed after eating rarebit.
The wife has an unsettling dream about adopting a small cat that grows
and grows with every bowl of food it inhales. Soon, it’s eating
automobiles and houses! Soon, it’s the size of Godzilla! This
is a strange masterpiece, one in a series of “dreams” that
get more and more outrageous with each film. Moral: Don’t eat
the rarebit!
-- Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE (1926
/ with Charley Chase) - Mr. and Mrs. Moose are not pretty, but after
he has his teeth fixed and she has her nose done, they look great. They
meet by accident and don’t recognize each other. They make plans
for a rendezvous, hoping to hide it from their spouses. How much fun
can you cram into 20 minutes? This is another gem from the master of
the “comedy of embarrassment,” Charley Chase. He was a truly
versatile performer, who could also write and direct comedy shorts,
often working with his pals Laurel and Hardy on the Hal Roach lot. His
own films are not seen often enough and here’s your chance to
see one of the very best!
-- Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
LILAC TIME (1928 / with Colleen
Moore, Gary Cooper) - All of those handsome young men in their flying
machines are billeted in a field next to the Widow Berthelot’s
farmhouse in France. This World War I romance is all about the relationship
that develops between the widow’s daughter and a dashing British
airman as he is summoned on a suicide mission, yet promises to return.
Colleen Moore is the outstanding ingredient in this movie, delivering
a wonderfully varied performance and Gary Cooper (as her lover) was
certainly on his way to stardom with this picture. Equally fine are
the aerial combat special effects.
-- Music by Dr. Marvin Faulwell
About Denise Morrison:
 Denise
Morrison is a film historian from Kansas City, Missouri, with
a special focus on silent film. She works as an archivist with Union
Station in Kansas City, Missouri, and has been involved with the Kansas
Silent Film Festival since the beginning. She was quite active with
the Granada Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas, when they were showing a
full schedule of silent movies. Denise will give an overview of the
silent film era and also provide introductions to each film.
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About Marvin Faulwell:
 Dr.
Marvin Faulwell is a dentist from Kansas City
who is a very accomplished theatre organist. He has played
for all of the previous five Silent Film Festivals and our "sister
project," Silents
in the Cathedral, held every Halloween at Grace Cathedral
in Topeka. He has a large theatre organ in his home and also restores
the instruments. He has appeared in concert and accompanied silent
film programs in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Minnesota and also accompanied
many silent films shown at the Granada Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas.—read
2004 newspaper feature, with link to audio discussion
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About the Mont
Alto Motion Picture Orchestra:
 The
Mont
Alto Motion Picture Orchestra comes from Boulder, Colorado
and have appeared at this festival since the third events, held in 1999.
The orchestra consists of a piano, violin, cello, clarinet, and trumpet.
They are quite active in their hometown have appeared several times
in California, at the Buster Keaton Celebration in
Iola, Kansas (since 1998) and at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.
They have made three CDs of salon music and silent film music. They
have provided the music scores for numerous silent films on video and
DVD including Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920), Blood and
Sand (1922), and The Thief of Bagdad (1924) for
Kino Video.
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