Photo by Tommy Lau.
The 26th San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens on July 12 and extends through July 16!
Having enjoyed a slew of amazing S.F. Silent Film Festival shows at San Francisco's Castro Theatre over the decades, we're more than a tad sad to be missing this year's extravaganza, but happy to plug it nonetheless.
Batting leadoff for the 2023 lineup: talented and prolific director Allan Dwan's The Iron Mask (1929), starring the ever-swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
In the sequel to The Three Musketeers (1921), Fairbanks plays D'Artagnan with his customary savoir faire, wit and panache. Accompanying the action classic: The Guenter Buchwald Ensemble, with Buchwald on piano and violin, Masaru Koga on saxophone, and Frank Bockius on percussion. Jeffrey Vance, author of Douglas Fairbanks, will introduce the program.
The SFSFF press release adds: Fairbanks reprised the role for the sequel and oversaw every element of the lavish production. It was his last silent film and a magnificent success — with a little special treat thrown into the mix: In a concession to the new sound craze, the great silent star recorded two sequences in which D'Artagnan speaks directly to the audience.
It was also for all practical purposes the end of Fairbanks' illustrious silver screen career. Fairbanks starred in a few talkies, notably Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932) and The Private Life Of Don Juan (1934), but would never be that epic, larger-than-life figure onscreen again.
The 2023 San Francisco Silent Film Festival includes, in one of its customary compendiums of silent movie goodness, numerous gems, many produced in the mid to late 1920's.
These include E. Mason Hopper's Up In Mabel's Room (starring winsome comedienne and character actress Marie Prevost), the classic haunted house flick The Cat & The Canary (1927), Mary Philbin in Stella Maris (1925), director Karl Brown's period piece/melodrama Stark Love (1927), rising star Norma Shearer in Man & Wife, John Ford’s Kentucky Pride (1925), the early precursor of the 1970's genre known as the disaster film titled The Johnstown Flood (1926), Brigitte Helm in A Daughter Of Destiny (1928), matinee idols John Gilbert and Mae Murray in The Merry Widow (1925), Anna Q. Nilsson and Milton Sills in Flowing Gold (1924) (by novelist Rex Beach) and the SFSFF restoration of Allan Dwan's family drama Padlocked (1926).
Along with action hero Douglas Fairbanks in the 2023 San Francisco Silent Film Festival lineup will be great movie comedians, including the always intrepid Buster Keaton in The 3 Ages.
There will also be essential late 1920's slapstick by our favorite comedy team, Laurel & Hardy, and very funny silent films starring character actor supreme (and future Fractured Fairy Tales narrator) Edward Everett Horton. The comedy-crazed silent movie buffs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog approve!
In 1928, Edward Everett Horton starred in a series of 2-reel comedies produced for Paramount Pictures by Harold Lloyd's company, Hollywood Productions. Not surprisingly, Horton is incredibly funny in these silents. It is easy to imagine the mutterings of Horton's persnickety character, as we know him from such sound films as The Gang's All Here.
The Edward E. Horton Show presents three of Horton's two-reelers, mastered from Library of Congress 35mm prints: No Publicity (1927, d. N.T. Barrows, 22 m.), Horse Shy (1928, d. Jay A. Howe, 22 m.) and Vacation Waves (1928, d. N.T. Barrows, 22 m.)
Note: the other entries from this series can be seen on the Edward Everett Horton: 8 Silent Comedies DVD release.
This release, which led to a 2-DVD set, was the result of a successful Kickstarter, which we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog were delighted to contribute to. The rest of the Edward Everett Horton series can be purchased here.
If you happen to be in the Bay Area next weekend, by all means get to the Castro Theatre for vintage big screen fun.
For more info, go to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival webpage.
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