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Every year in August, all roads lead to Rome—Rome, New York, that is. For three days, the historic Capitol Theatre in downtown Rome hosts an amazing film festival that is a showcase for rarely exhibited films of the silent and early sound eras. All of the 18 features and 9 shorts and cartoons shown at Capitolfest 13 last weekend were projected in 35mm by carbon-arc, variable-speed projectors. I had almost forgotten how deep and rich celluloid black can be, or the subtle differences in the gray scale, until I saw the first film, The Flying Ace, projected onto the Capitol’s big screen.
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NANCY CARROLL
Each year, the festival selects a star to honor by including several of his/her films on the schedule. The tribute star for Capitolfest 13 was Nancy Carroll, an actress I knew little about. But, I quickly became a fan of the vivacious red-head , who seemed like a cross between Clara Bow and Claudette Colbert, as I watched her in five films from the peak of her career. Unfortunately, that peak coincided with the pre-Code era. Because films from that time frame were seldom shown on television, her career escaped the notice of cinephiles introduced to Golden Age movies via TV.
A theater actress who began in musical comedies, Carroll relocated to Hollywood in 1926. With her song-and-dance experience, she was in a good position to land roles in early talkies, which often featured at least one musical number. Shopworn Angel, which was shown at Capitolfest, is a good example of Hollywood’s uncertainty about sync sound. Released in 1928, Shopworn Angel is essentially a silent film with a sync-sound conclusion. The final two reels include two brief dialogue scenes, sound effects, and Carroll’s rendition of “A Precious Little Thing Called Love.” In 1928, which was barely a year after the introduction of sync sound dialogue, studio execs did not think it odd to produce bizarre hybrids of sync-sound and silent movies. Unfortunately, the sound reels are missing from the print of Shopworn Angel that was provided to Capitolfest by the Library of Congress (LOC). According to James Cozart of the LOC, the last two reels are lost, though the soundtrack for them exists. Cozart did prepare a three-minute digital summary of the final scenes for fest-goers.
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BUDDY ROGERS AND NANCY CARROLL COSTAR IN ‘ILLUSION,’ WHICH WAS SHOT IN 2-STRIP TECHNICOLOR. JAMES LAYTON AND DAVID PIERCE, AUTHORS OF ‘THE DAWN OF TECHNICOLOR’ GAVE A PRESENTATION ON THE 2-STRIP PROCESS.
Hollywood has always loved romantic teams, and Carroll was teamed with Charles “Buddy” Rogers in the late 1920s after they exhibited chemistry together in Abie’s Irish Rose. At Capitolfest 13, I saw two films with Carroll and Rogers—Illusion and Follow Thru. Rogers, who is best known for Wings, was drop-dead gorgeous—a rival to Cary Grant as the most handsome star in Hollywood.
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‘THE DEVIL’S HOLIDAY’ WAS MY PERSONAL FAVORITE OF THE FEST.
Carroll’s career was represented by two other films, Under-Cover Man, opposite George Raft, and The Devil’s Holiday, a melodrama that turned out to be my favorite film of the fest. Carroll plays Hallie Hobart, a manicurist at a major New York hotel who moonlights as an escort for businessmen. Salesmen hire Hallie to accompany them as they try to sell their products to potential clients. There is a fine line between being an escort and a prostitute, and the film makes a point to let us know that Hallie is the former. Her goal is to earn enough money to live the high life in Paris. Phillips Holmes, another forgotten actor from this era, costars as David Stone, the naïve son of a wealthy wheat farmer who instantly falls in love with Hallie. The Stone family objects to their relationship, so Hallie marries David out of spite, and the couple moves to the family farm. After David takes a nasty fall on the staircase, Hallie returns to the bright lights of the big city, but she feels remorse and guilt over her failed marriage. She drowns her sorrows in endless parties and bathtub gin but eventually realizes that she truly cares for David. In the meantime, David has become an invalid, unable to heal from the fall because of his broken heart.
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‘THE AIR MAIL’ INCLUDED 15-YEAR-OLD DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. (LEFT) IN THE CAST. EVEN AT 15, HE HAD HIS MOVIE-STAR GOOD LOOKS.
The raw emotion exhibited by the characters in this film was unnerving yet compelling to watch. The emotional displays were sincere, unabashed, and profound in their intensity. Most interesting was the way David’s body was at the center of the dramatic altercations: He was literally pushed and pulled by family members, with his older brother manhandling him whenever he tried to make David see that Hallie was “bad.” David expressed his feelings for Hallie by crushing his body against hers until she disappeared in his embrace. David’s body was objectified as a desired possession; whoever physically dominated his body also controlled his loyalties and affections. Today’s audiences, accustomed to underplaying and subtlety in acting styles, would likely balk at the sheer physicality of the performances.
Carroll’s career quickly fizzled after a couple of flops, specifically The Night Angel and Broken Lullaby. Paramount did not renew her contract when it expired in 1933. In May 1934, she signed with Columbia, but the films were not the same caliber as her earlier work. In a 1935 interview with Screen & Radio Weekly, Carroll revealed a contributing factor to her Hollywood decline: “Now that I have become somewhat seasoned, I have discovered that it doesn’t pay to fight too much. Yet, since I have stopped fighting, my pictures are not always as satisfactory as they were when I was getting a reputation for being unmanageable.” Later, Carroll experienced renewed success on the small screen as a featured actress in early television series. For those interested in this forgotten star, TCM will air There Goes My Heart, one of her later films, on Tuesday, August 25, at 10:00am.
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MY VOTE FOR BEST PERFORMER FROM ANY FILM IS STEVE REYNOLDS (CENTER), WHO PLAYED PEG IN ‘THE FLYING ACE.’ REYNOLDS WAS MISSING A LEG. BUT HE USED HIS CRUTCH WITH SUCH AGILITY THAT HE COULD RUN, FIGHT, AND SUBDUE THE BAD GUYS BY HIMSELF.
Shopworn Angel was not the only movie missing footage. The Air Mail, an adventure tale about the romance between a U.S. mail pilot and a girl in a remote desert town, was missing about an hour of footage. The print provided by the LOC had been assembled from several sources, including director Irvin Willat’s personal copy. Apparently, Willat’s copy was the most extant version, but it was still missing a lot of footage, because he had cut out the scenes that did not feature his wife, Billie Dove. Dove had left him for Howard Hughes; The Air Mail was all he had left of her. The film was shot on location in Rhyolite, Nevada, a real-life ghost town. The use of the authentic locale is akin to looking through a history book about Old West mining towns. The house that Dove’s character inhabits was a real home made from champagne bottles and cement that had been abandoned when the town went bust. Despite the missing footage, the flying scenes combined with the location shooting made this extremely rare film a pleasure to watch.
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‘SKINNER STEPS OUT,’ STARRING VAUDEVILLIAN GLENN TRYON, SUFFERED FROM ALL OF THE WEAKNESSES OF EARLY SOUND FILMS.
Another rarity that I was excited to see was The Flying Ace, which was also about daring pilots. The Flying Ace was a 1926 race movie shot at the Norman Studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Race movies, which featured all-black casts, were made for African American audiences who wanted to see black actors portray heroes, leading ladies, detectives, femme fatales, and other archetypes that were not stereotypes of maids and train porters. The Norman Studio was restored a few years ago and has since become a tourist attraction. While watching The Flying Ace, I recognized the studio buildings, which were doubling for locations in the film.
In addition to gems like The Devil’s Holiday, the schedule also included movies that would be considered ordinary viewing at the time as well as a few duds that were simply not good. If I never again see the Hal Roach comedy Skinner Steps Out, starring former vaudevillian Glenn Tryon, it will be too soon. However, many of the ordinary films made for wonderful viewing experiences. Plus, they revealed insights into the fads, preoccupations, and issues of post-WWI America. A common theme was the differences in values and perspective between the rich and the poor, with wealthy characters depicted as shallow, materialistic, jaded, or hedonistic. During the Jazz Age, the rampant prosperity and stock market craze granted ordinary folk the means to get rich. However, newfound wealth did not bridge the gap between the social classes as the rich still looked down their noses at the working class, who badly wanted their part of the American Dream. The dreaded Skinner Steps Out features a character who tries to race up the ladder of success, where social status and consumer goods await. Illusion stars Buddy Rogers and Nancy Carroll as former circus performers trying to break into vaudeville. Rogers’s charm and bridge-playing abilities make it easy for him to infiltrate the social circles of the rich, who are snobby and callous. Other films simply cast the wealthy in a negative light, including Dixie Flyer and Mary, Be Careful.
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‘DIXIE FLYER’ WAS MY SECOND FAVORITE FILM BECAUSE OF THE ACTION AND STUNT WORK.
Dixie Flyer, a 1926 film about the construction of a railroad, is an example of a characteristic of silent and pre-Code films that appealed to me. Many of the female characters were surprising in their modernity and their active participation in the events of the story. The “Dixie Flyer” is a fast-moving train, and the final sequences of this action-adventure film had everyone on the edges of their seats. The actors climbed up and down and on and off speeding trains, including actress Eva Novak as the female lead. Dressed in skirt and heels, she climbed out the window of a moving train, walked along the side of the engine, then ended up on the cowcatcher to assist the protagonist in a fight. Novak, who had married a stunt man in 1921, preferred doing her stunt work, and she became quite adept at it. In addition, her character was a working woman, a professional telegrapher sent to work in the railroad’s farthest outpost. Likewise in Crooked Streets, the female lead is a government spy who is undercover to catch opium smugglers. In Follow Thru, Nancy Carroll stars as a professional golfer, who takes part in a big tournament with rival Thelma Todd. The women are the sports professionals, while the male characters are passive figures who offer advice and support, or are otherwise helpless and vulnerable.
I can’t recommend Capitolfest enough for cinephiles and old-movie lovers who appreciate the rare and the original. The cost of the entire schedule of films was a remarkably low $55, and the small-town location made it very easy and economical to get around. The staff was kind and helpful (a special thanks to Jamie); the fest-goers friendly and fun. There were no long lines, no difficulties parking, and no hassles. Next year’s festival runs August 12-14. For more information, check out their website here. Hope to see you there; let’s hang out.