Heavenly Christmas Film Classics

Festival Films is offering a perfect opportunity to make the perfect Christmas present for film lovers dear to you.
"Heavenly Christmas Film Classics" contains rare and even never before seen shorts or TV episodes.

Animation fans are in for a treat! If you don't know Lotte Reiniger, this is a perfect introduction to her work. She is a pioneer in animation and if you think Walt Disney's Snow White is the first animated feature, well you're wrong. It is the first in color, but Lotte Reiniger had directed (with the help of her husband Carl Koch) The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a 1926 feature film entirely animated with articulated paper silhouettes.
The same technique is employed here in The Star Of Bethlehem although the film is narrated by Barbara Ruick and it is Reiniger's second short in color.

Christmas is Magic is a truly moving story about a John Doe with amnesia (played by Hank Patterson who carried his character Fred Ziffel through 3 different series: Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres) who meets a young war-widow and her kid. He's all alone in the world, with not even a home town to go back to and she's engaged to a grumpy guy who dislikes Christmas.You guessed it : their lives are about to get better.

The little jewel of this DVD is a short produced, directed and played by James Mason in 1954, at the height of his success, when A Star Is Born had just been released (he actually used the same cinematographer for this Xmas short: Sam Leavitt). It seems Mason had directed two shorts that year, both starring his little daughter Portland. And this one, entitled (like Lotte Reiniger's short) The Star Of Bethlehem is such an obscure title that it did not even have an entry on the imdb (it should have one soon though).

You know that Little Joseph, don't you?

There are basically two parts to this film: first James Mason reads aloud from what I suppose is the Bible. Then he kisses his kids good night and his daughter dreams that she is the Virgin Mary and the story is told with a cast of children in the way of a school play. The sets are designed by Serge Krizman, who worked on the Batman TV series which should give you a good idea of the scenery.
And of course, Joseph is played by little Jerry Mathers who went on to star in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry and in the famous TV series Leave it to Beaver.

Another story with kids taught me a thing or two about Christmas in Latin America. Three Young Kings starts with Scarlett O'Hara's father Thomas Mitchell. Did you know that in Latin countries, the Epiphany is when kids get their presents? And these presents are brought, not by Santa Claus, but by the Three Kings.
This is the story of three pupils chosen to portray the Three Kings in their school to bring all their classmates presents. On their way to do that, they come across many kids from less fortunate families and decide to do the right thing. How are they going to explain that to the school's parents?

Finally, two versions of the story of the song Silent night bookend the program: a 1939 British short and a 1953 color version. All of these are available on the Festival Films website and on amazon.com.

Don't forget to like the Facebook page to receive updates!
I wish you a very merry Christmas!

Read More

Song Of The South

Disney has always had a policy of putting their films back into the vault to create demand and make sure that they meet with renewed interest when re-released theatrically or on home video once every ten years or so.
Yet, some films never get out of the vault.
Song of the South is probably the only Disney classic which seems to be shelved for an indefinite period of time. The film was made in 1946 and the story takes place during the "reconstruction era", right after the civil war.

Protest on April 2, 1947

Right from the original release, protest groups denounced the film as racist and through the decades, the Disney company announced several times that they would pull the film from release. The 1986 output apparently was indeed the last in an American theater.

The film was released on home video in Europe, and I clearly remember seeing the film on VHS. Today, Disney has a very shifting policy regarding its controversial titles. In the case of Fantasia, Melody Time, or others where only a few scenes in the entire feature are considered politically incorrect (a character smocking, a black character caricatured, use of guns, etc.), then the scenes are edited out or altered digitally.

But when the entire film poses a problem, they are released (like award-winning short Three Orphan Kittens or wartime feature Victory Trough Airpower) with a simple introduction by Leonard Martin warning viewers of the controversy.

Unfortunately, Song of The South being a feature, and something of a symbol of racism in mainstream Hollywood movies, the company decided to bury the film.

Storyboard mentioning a deleted shot

If you wish to see it anyway, look for an old VHS tape because so far, that's your only option. The film contains one of the company's award-winning signature song "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah", gorgeous Technicolor photography by Gregg Toland, a brilliant performance by James Baskett in his last role as Uncle Remus (and as the voice of the fox!), by underrated actress "Mrs.Kane" Ruth Warrick and of course Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten are beyond cute in their starring roles. In case you didn't know, Bobby went on to star as the voice of Peter Pan in the animated classic. Unfortunately, the rest of his career and life went downhill from there. I will write about him some day.

Also, look for Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel from Gone With The Wind fame.
For each of these reasons alone, the film deserves another viewing, in the proper context.
Here is some rare silent behind the scene footage where the two little child actors seem right at home.

Don't forget to like the Facebook page to receive updates.
That's all for today folks!

Read More

The Paradine Case

Alfred Hitchcock came to America to work for Selznick in 1939 when the latter was involved in the production of his masterpiece, Gone With The Wind. Yet their first completed project together was Rebecca, a great success which won the Best Picture Oscar the year later. Hitchcock's filmography shows that his producer then loaned his services to other studios (RKO, Universal, Fox...) while a frustrated Hitchcock still received the same weekly payment from him.

In 1946, the end of the contract was near and Selznick couldn't count on a future collaboration with him. Though he still had one pet project called The Paradine Case. He intended to make it a prestige picture with an all star cast, with none other than Greta Garbo in the title role. Unfortunately for him, the diva of the screen had no intention of leaving her retirement, especially to play a part she hated. So it was decided that Mrs. Paradine would be played by a young hopeful that Selznick wanted to launch in the USA, much like Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind. In retrospect, the part of a cold-blooded murderess may not be the ideal choice to introduce a new personality like Alida Valli (nicknamed "Valli" for the occasion).

In any case, Selznick was so eager to have another big success that he made a nuisance of himself, rewriting the script (he eventually got sole credit for it), demanding retakes, and even supervising the editing and sound mixing himself. The end result was the explosion of the budget. Would you ever guess, watching the film, that it cost more money than Gone With The Wind? Well it did!

Although Hitchcock objected many things (like Louis Jourdan who did a fine job but was, in his idea, badly miscast), some elements are obviously his. Ann Todd has trouble shining in a rather unattractive part but she is definitely part of the cool blonde Hitchcock canon. The intricate camera moves inside the Keane mansion will be developed in his next productions like Rope or Under Capricorn. And the sadistic personality of the judge must have appealed to him. Also, his often used character actor Leo G. Carroll plays a lawyer here and John Williams, another lawyer, would go on to play more substantial parts in two other Hitchcock films.

More to the point, the film, in its rough cut ran approximately 3 hours. At the premiere, it had been cut down to 132 minutes. The version generally available today runs about 115. According to Bill Krohn, a "flood" has destroyed the negative of the 3 hour version in the 1980s. He also reports that the 132 minute version is all that remains and yet even that one did not find its way to home video. In addition, two of the missing scenes from the 3 hour version are still extant, only without the sound; These are apparently kept at George Eastman House in New York.

One of these scenes originally took place right before the trial and is featured on a lobby card with Ethel Barrymore, Gregory Peck, Charles Laughton and the actor who plays the painter (possibly Alec Harford), Peter De Lindstrom (an obvious nod to Selznick star Ingrid Bergman whose husband was Petter Lindström and who was considered for the lead at one point). In it, Sophy, the judge's wife, met Keane secretly in an art gallery to ask him to save Mrs. Paradine's head because she couldn't cope with another evening with her husband when he has to sentence the death penalty. They ran into the judge talking to the artist who kindly offers to show Sophy his drawings, sensing the uneasiness in the air. Left alone, the judge tells Keane he has considered placing his wife in an institution.

I do not know if the scene was cut to reduced the length of the feature or to suppress the underlying implication that the Judge enjoys sending people to their deaths and the very obvious fact that he mistreats his wife. I should point out that, in the novel, the scene took place earlier in the story and that it had been discarded by the original script writers (including Hitchcock and his wife).

This re-release trailer contains a few alternate shots and deleted moments (check out Ethel Barrymore trying to hide in the audience).

The music of the film, although composed by famed composer Franz Waxman in an attempt to recreate the Rebecca atmosphere and success (particularly obvious when Kean explores Mrs. Paradine's bedroom), has not met with the same success and is now available only as reorchestrated rhapsody on CD. The music-only track of the DVD is the only way to hear it in its entirety.

The main title gives you an idea of the rushed job that was the whole affair: since Selznick could not decide between a plethora of working titles (Fascination, Bewitched, Under Oath,...), he finally went with the book's original title on the eve of the premiere, causing the font of the title to be different from the rest of the credits.


Don't Forget to click "like" on the Facebook page!
That's all for today folks!

Read More

Lost Horizon

Now there's an alternate title for my blog!

Welcome to Shangri-la! The name probably rings a bell. Can't remember where you heard it? Shangri-la is a fictitious place imagined by James Hilton, great author of a beautiful novel I read while I was in French Guiana. The isolation of the characters was similar to mine at the time when the place was new to me. Thankfully, the screen adaptation of this spellbinding story was given to one of the best directors in Hollywood.

The irony is that a film about the legend of the fountain of youth has known so much strife for a still incomplete version to be presented to us today. However, a special restoration technique has been used on the film, and this is what I'd like to discuss.

Frank Capra explains in his gripping autobiography that he strated blossoming in his work from the moment on he made films with a message that spoke to him on a personal level, instead of made to order blockbusters for Columbia (these had success anyway, the man had talent!).

And Lost Horizon is from that second part of his career that exalts human kindness at the risk of being over-optimistic, a critique often made about Capra but also a quality that bases his most famous films like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, It's A Wonderful Life, etc.

Lost Horizon was supposed to be the first 3-hour Columbia blockbuster. Plane crash, avalanche, superb settings are part of the show. Capra wrote he had to cut the first two reels of the film due to a disastrous preview in Santa Barbara: a framing that turned the rest of the film into a giant flash-back. He claims he destroyed the reels himself then. So there would be no chance of ever finding them again. However this can be considered pre-production as the final version of the film had not been released yet.

But the following theatrical releases was the film cut from 132 minutes to 118, then 95. In the seventies, the result was appalling: not only was the negative lost (it deteriorated), but all known copies had several scenes cut. By searching throughout the world, the restoration crew gathered elements including a complete soundtrack, but no complete film. Some scenes were available in poorer quality and the difference does show, but others simply had not survived.

The restoring team made a bold and honorable decision: they kept the complete film and replaced missing portions by stills and production photographs and the result is stunning. The fact that the film is in black and white draws less attention to the technique than in A Star Is Born even if I appreciate the work on that film immensely too.

Enough about technician aspects. About this film, except for the story and the outstanding direction, I recommend Dimitri Tiomkin's great score available on CD (Considering the fate of the film, it is amazing that the soundtrack was preserved). As for the casting, Ronald Colman stars. He also shined in the 1937 version of The Prisoner of Zenda (the best one and it is a tough competition). But secondary characters are just great. First Thomas Mitchell, Scarlett's father in Gone With The Wind, as a good hearted crook, and especially Edward Everett Horton, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's eternal sidekick in their musicals. Horton has a style his own that you can never forget.

For the anecdote, Capra says he chose an old stage actor for the part of the High Lama and that when his maid announced the tests were good and he had the part, the old man died.


A musical remake was made in 1973, and was instantly panned by critics.

After seeing Lost Horizon, I don't know if I should hope that you find the missing scenes in your attic or if you should find your own Shangri-la.
It is now unthinkable that a good part of the speech of the High Lama was cut when it resonates today just as much as it probably did back in 1937). Run out and buy the restored DVD version if you wish to listen to it. I'm copying a part of it.
Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity, crashing headlong against each other, propelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. A time must come my friend, when this orgy will spend itself. When brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time, is why I avoided death, and am here. And why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here. For here, we shall be with their books and their music, and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be Kind!

That's all for today folks!

Read More

Movie Moguls

Today, I'd like to share a book not unrelated to my subject. I bought "Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck". A book gathering memos from the head of 20th Century Fox for years (during the Golden Age) at a time when these men had complete control over their productions.


In the same styme only with a pronounced focus on Gone With The Wind, I loved the book of memos from David O. Selznick.


It's fascinating to find the personalities of these men through the lines, but also to learn about the making of famous films. One memo deals with Marilyn Monroe and her desire to have her acting coach from the very beginning of success (Don't Bother To Knock). A few apparently insignificant words about casting or script can turn out to be crucial for the fate of the film as we, today's viewer know.


The memo battle between Alfred Hitchcock and Zanuck about the only film he did for Fox, Lifeboat is also included.

Also, Anna and the King of Siam could have starred Olivia de Havilland under the direction of Lubitsch. Thanks to a couple of memos, A letter to Five Wives, became A letter to Four Wives, then A letter to Three Wives, each time knocking out a wife from the scenario.

Masterpieces such as All about Eve are talked about and others that could have been made at Fox like A Streetcar named Desire (produced at Warner's because of missed opportunity).

This book tells you of the films you saw, but also of the ones you could have seen, with different actors, cuts, scripts that the ones you know. Buy Zanuck's book on amazon.com and Selznick's that I mentioned : he comes across as more tyrannical but just as passionate and interesting if not more.

That's all for today folks!

Read More