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For July Films on the Hill begins with a comedy Love Thy Neighbor, the first film that "feuding" radio stars Fred Allen and Jack Benny appeared in together. Second in our series of late-silent D.W. Griffith films is Lady of the Pavements with Lupe Velez and William Boyd, accompanied by Ray Brubacher's score. A silent double feature focuses on the DeMille brothers--William and Cecil--both making a film from a Leonard Merrick novel in the early 1920s: William C. DeMille's Conrad in Quest of His Youth contrasts with younger brother Cecil B. DeMille's extravagant Fool's Paradise.
Saturday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.Fred Allen and Jack Benny!
Love Thy Neighbor (1940)
Produced to capitalize on the famous radio feud between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen, Love Thy Neighbor is lively fun with great gags and snappy musical numbers. The film begins with an animated credits sequence which leaves no doubt what is to come as each character's name battles to push the other off the screen. It's New Year's Eve and Jack Benny and Fred Allen both find themselves at the docks--Allen is meeting his niece Mary Martin and Benny is there with his valet Rochester to meet girlfriend Josephine, Martin's maid. The two comedians (coincidentally both born in 1894) are soon at each other's throats and end up in adjoining jail cells. Mary Martin complicates things by getting hired on Benny's show, trying to patch things up between them, and falling in love with Benny. A treat for radio fans or comedy fans, sour-faced Allen and Benny are at their best trying to wreck the other's show while trading barbs and insults. A young and luminously beautiful Mary Martin sings her signature song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" for the first time in a film and her gorgeous costumes were featured in a fashion documentary the same year. Click for pictures: Fred Allen, Mary Martin and Veree Teasdale. Jack Benny, Mary Martin and Fred Allen. Fred Allen shoots out the lights in the marquee of Jack Benny's show. Fred Allen and Jack Benny make up. A lobby card. A poster.
DIRECTED BY MARK SANDRICH. 1940. 82 MINUTES. CAST: FRED ALLEN. JACK BENNY. MARY MARTIN.
Preceded by a two-reel comedy Get Along Little Hubby (1934) with Walter Catlett and Vivian Oakwood.
Friday, July 24, at 7:00 p.m.Music by Ray Brubacher!
Lady of the Pavements (1929)
Second in our series of the late-silent films directed by D.W. Griffith. Set in 19th century Paris, the story was based on Karl Gustav Vollmöller's La Paiva and follows the romantic travails of Prussian aristocrat Count Karl von Arnim (William Boyd). Feeling betrayed by his unfaithful fiancee Countess Diana (Jetta Goudal), Karl petulantly declares that he would rather marry "a lady of the pavements." Humiliated and wanting revenge, Diana decides to give him his wish and engages the services of low-born Spanish cabaret entertainer Nanon (Lupe Velez), dressing her in gorgeous gowns and passing her off as a noblewoman. Inevitably, Karl is smitten... For a director that was unfairly considered a has-been, Griffith invests Lady of the Pavements with numerous cinematic nuances, including a remarkable multiple-exposure sequence in which William Boyd appears on screen in 13 different guises at once. This was accomplished by exposing the negative through the camera 36 times. In fact, Griffith remained a creative and evolving artist in the final phase of his career as is shown in our series of his last silent films. Film critic Blake Lucas says that Lady of the Pavements is "one of Griffith's most beautiful and perfect films, ranking with the more famous True Heart Susie and Broken Blossoms (both 1919). Lacking the scale and ambition of Griffith's most celebrated films ... these films are more intimate and subtle, possessing an extraordinary delicacy of emotional texture." The film was made as a silent but partly reshot to qualify as a part-talkie, including musical numbers and a dialogue sequence, although the soundtrack disks are now lost. However, you can hear Lupe Velez singing the title song on youtube. Silent with Ray Brubacher's score composed just for us. Click for pictures: Lupe Velez as Nanon. Lupe Velez plays the harp. Lupe Velez. Jetta Goudal. Lupe Velez. William Boyd and Lupe Velez. William Boyd, Lupe Velez and Jetta Goudal. A glass slide used to advertising coming attractions. An ad. Sheet music for the theme song "Where Is the Song of Songs for Me".
DIRECTED BY D.W. GRIFFITH. 1929. 85 MINUTES. CAST: WILLIAM BOYD. LUPE VELEZ. JETTA GOUDAL. ALBERT CONTI. SILENT WITH MUSIC COMPOSED BY RAY BRUBACHER.
Preceded by a short film to be announced.
A double feature:Brothers William DeMille and Cecil B. DeMille
Saturday, July 25 at 7:00 p.m.
A Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza!
Fool's Paradise (1921)
Cecil B. DeMille, the "Master of Spectacle" directed this visually extravagant film which travels from Texas to Siam and back. Conrad Nagel stars as Arthur Phelps, a WWI veteran and aspiring poet who has returned to his work as an engineer in the Texas oil fields near the Mexican border. Cantina dancer Poll (Dorothy Dalton) is attracted to him but he still holds a torch for an Isadora Duncan-esque dancer Rosa Duchêne (Mildred Harris, just divorced from Charlie Chaplin) who had been a volunteer nurse while he was recuperating from his war wounds. Through a series of improbable DeMille plot twists, Arthur follows Rosa to Siam where he learns both Rosa's worthlessness and Poll's real worth. Well paced storytelling, solid character development and top production values (art direction, camera work and costume design) help put over this picture, possibly DeMille's oddest. Cecil B. DeMille biographer Robert S. Birchard notes that "the premise is fascinating--not unlike the underlying theme of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo." Based on the short story by Leonard Merrick. Cinematography by Karl Struss, who also did the D.W. Griffith film shown on July 24. Click for pictures: Conrad Nagel as Arthur Phelps has followed Rosa (Mildred Harris) to Siam. John Davidson and Julia Faye as the Prince of Siam and his wife. The Prince arrives for the Temple worship service/festival. Arthur interrupts the temple service to satisfy Rosa's whim. The title card from a lobby card set. A magazine ad.
DIRECTED BY CECIL B. DE MILLE. 1921. 90 MINUTES. CAST: CONRAD NAGEL. DOROTHY DALTON. MILDRED HARRIS. THEODORE KOSLOFF. SILENT WITH RECORDED MUSIC ACCOMPANIMENT.
William C. DeMilleConrad in Quest of His Youth (1920)
Based on the popular novel by Leonard Merrick (Fool's Paradise is also based on a Merrick story), Conrad in Quest of His Youth was directed by William C. DeMille, older brother of Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan stars as Conrad, a veteran just back from WWI service in India who has returned to London. Lonely, feeling his age and now a little out of touch with his former surroundings, Conrad goes on a nostalgic but futile search to recapture the happy days of his youth. First he visits his three cousins and invites them to spend the weekend at the country house where they used to play as children. But the relatives aren't interested in memories. Next he travels to Italy to track down a youthful flame but he isn't 17 anymore and she, too, has aged; plus she's too smart to buy into his foolish quest for the past. Feeling old and disheartened, Conrad returns to England and heads off to a seaside town where he encounters an acting troupe... Conrad in Quest of His Youth was considered one of the better films of 1920 and it is an excellent example of William C. DeMille's understated style. Younger brother Cecil's sophisticated bedroom farces and stunning, high budget spectacles couldn't be more different from the smaller pictures made by William. William DeMille, with his background in theater, specialized in gentle, civilized, often stage-derived material. He was ideal for a work like this and the film is perfectly paced, full of humor, warmth and sympathy for his characters. Look for Eddie Sutherland (soon to become a director) as Meighan's younger self.
DIRECTED BY WILLIAM C. DE MILLE. 1920. 60 MINUTES. CAST: THOMAS MEIGHAN. MABEL VAN BUREN. KATHYN WILLIAMS. SILENT WITH RECORDED MUSIC ACCOMPANIMENT.
All films are 16mm. Tickets are $5 unless otherwise noted. All films begin at 7:00 p.m. The doors to the building open half an hour before the show begins and the theater doors open 15 minutes before showtime. Programs are subject to change.
Films on the Hill is located at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003. Telephone: (202) 547-6839.
Last updated on June 19, 2009.