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NOTE CHANGE IN SCHEDULE!!! Frank Borzage's Street Angel (1928) will replace Hands Up! (1926). Hands Up! will be rescheduled.
This year is the centennial for Bette Davis, born in 1908 and we'll celebrate Bette in Special Agent (1935). Our silent film this month is a comedy Hands Up! (1926), considered to be Raymond Griffith's masterpiece and with an organ score composed especially for us by Ray Brubacher. A Technicolor Robert Mitchum is the only American actor in Foreign Intrigue (1956), one of the first films based on a TV series.
Friday, September 5 at 7:00 p.m.Special Agent (1935)
Bette Davis stars with George Brent and Ricardo Cortez in this fun, fast-moving and well-paced Warner Brothers gangster picture. Local efforts to put gangsters in jail are ineffective, but the federal government has some success by charging criminals with evading taxes on their ill-gotten gains. George Brent, a treasury agent posing as a newspaper reporter, is assigned to the case of slimy racketeer Ricardo Cortez. Brent uses his charm on Bette Davis, the gangster's bookkeeper and the only one who knows the secret code that is used to keep the books. Although fearful for her safety, she agrees to help him--but there is an inside mole in the DA's office... Lots of machine gun rat-a-tat-ing, witnesses disappear or are snatched from the courtroom and a bang-up ending! And the menacing Ricky Cortez nearly steals the picture. The New York Times called it "... a wild and woolly gangland saga of crime and punishment, crisp, fast-moving and thoroughly entertaining melodrama." This is one of three films George Brent and Bette Davis made in 1935; they were in 12 films together. Bette said, "Ham [Nelson, her husband at the time] gave me a great review, too, sort of. He said the way I looked at George Brent in Special Agent meant I just had to be in love with him. He didn't believe me when I said that's how an actress is supposed to look at her leading man. But he wasn't far wrong." The story was by a New York Times reporter and the film is populated with wonderful Warner Brothers character actors. Click for pictures: A poster.
DIRECTED BY WILLIAM KEIGHLEY. 1935. 78 MINUTES. CAST: BETTE DAVIS. GEORGE BRENT. RICARDO CORTEZ.
Preceded by a two-reel comedy to be announced.
Thursday, September 11 at 7:00 p.m.Street Angel (1928)
Superstars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, among the most successful of the romantic duos (12 films together!), had been paired for the first time in Frank Borzage's Seventh Heaven in 1927. In order to capitalize on the sensational success of that film, the studio immediately searched for another suitable project for them that Borzage could direct. Street Angel, based on the play "Cristilinda," was an exquisite film, steeped in moody, atmospheric visuals, considered to be the most "Germanic" of American films. It is a beautifully crafted romance, a visual masterpiece with magnificent, sprawling sets, probing tracking shots, and shadowy cinematography filled with foreboding atmosphere. Janet Gaynor plays Angela, a Neapolitan waif tending to her sick mother. With no money to buy medicine, she takes to the streets in an unsuccessful (and comic) attempt to sell herself. Stealing some money instead, she is caught by a cop and sentenced to a workhouse but manages to escape by hiding in the drum of a traveling circus. She becomes a star attraction at the circus but has become hardened and world-weary when she meets portrait painter Gino (Charles Farrell). They fall in love but eventually her past catches up with her.... This simple plot does absolutely no justice to Borzage's sublimely spiritual film of regeneration and redemption. One of the first titles in the film "... souls made great by love and adversity," is, in fact, Borzage's philosophy in a nutshell. Borzage said, "To me, the stories that have the greatest appeal are just simple dramas of ordinary people... I prefer a thin plot on my pictures.... And I only like a few people in my plots so I can have time to make them live... I believe in letting the audience do part of the acting. Let the audience read the player's minds and experience some of the emotions of the characters on the screen..." Judy Block said, "Realism was never a priority for Borzage, who dealt in the visual transference of emotion, and this film is a triumph of Borzagian style and themes." Borzage made a third film with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell (Lucky Star, which we showed last year). All are examples of Borzage's pioneering method for eliciting sensitive performances from his actors. He pioneered the liberal use of soft-focus photography creating a lush, gauzy atmosphere and framing his actors in loving close-ups, swathed by soft, flat lighting, they glow with a sensuous, mysterious purity. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and Janet Gaynor received an Oscar for it. Silent with the original music and effects track. Click for pictures: Janet Gaynor as Angela tends her sick mother. Angela is sentenced to one year in the workhouse. Angela hides in the circus peoples' drum. Angela escapes with the circus. Angela is now a star of the circus. Charles Farrell as Gino and Janet Gaynor as Angela meet at the circus. Angela falls during her circus act. Gino paints Angela's portrait. Things are looking up for Angelo and Gino. Angela in the workhouse. Natalie Kingston as Lisetta makes a play for Gino while Angela is in the workhouse. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. Gino and Angela in the church with the painting which has now been altered by a forger. An ad playing off the success of "Seventh Heaven": "Let Street Angel transport you to the Seventh Heaven of delight!" A poster.
DIRECTED BY FRANK BORZAGE. 1928. 102 MINUTES. CAST: JANET GAYNOR. CHARLES FARRELL. SILENT WITH MUSIC AND EFFECTS TRACK.
Preceded by Walter Lantz's live action and animated The Leopard's Spots (1925).
Friday, September 12 at 7:00 p.m.Foreign Intrigue (1956)
"The most startling spy hunt ever filmed!" shouted the ads. Based on Sheldon Reynolds' popular TV series, this Cold War thriller with a noir-ish look was shot in Vienna, Paris, the Riviera, Stockholm and nearby Swedish islands. Robert Mitchum's employer, a mysterious multi-millionaire living on the French Riviera, dies and suddenly everyone is extremely interested to find out what his last words were. Traveling the length and breadth of Europe in search of clues to his boss's past, Mitchum is pulled into a plot involving blackmail and shady political deals while being chased by spies, counterspies, a treacherous brunette (Genevieve Page) a seducible blonde (Ingrid Thulin) and other traitorous types, most of whom would be happy if he disappeared for good. Mitchum is the only American actor in this all-European cast; his constant wearing of a disheveled raincoat started a fashion trend in wearing trenchcoats. We have a real Technicolor print showing off all the exotic locations. Click for pictures: Inga Tidblad and Ingrid Thulin. A lobby card. A lobby card. A lobby card: "He raced from Stockholm to Vienna to the Riviera... Only one bullet ahead of half the secret agents of Europe... and still he wouldn't let go of the deadliest secret a man ever carried". A lobby card. A poster: "Robert Mitchum is the hunted... Europe is the hunting ground... And half the secret agents on the continent are the hunters in Sheldon Reynolds' full length production in color of Foreign Intrigue". A Spanish poster.
DIRECTED BY SHELDON REYNOLDS. 1956. 106 MINUTES. CAST: ROBERT MITCHUM.
Preceded by a Technicolor cartoon Rocket Squad (1956), which like the feature, is based on a TV show. Spoofing both Racket Squad and Dragnet from the early 1950s, Daffy Duck as Sergeant Monday and Porky Pig as Tuesday are police officers patrolling a futuristic world of rocket ships and all-knowing computers.
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 September 6, 2008.