The biennial marvel that is the UCLA Festival of Preservation is back at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood — and Los Angeles moviegoing news doesn’t get much better than that.
Presenting the world-class restorations turned out by UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, the festival, now in its 22nd edition, never fails to delight as it showcases the widest variety of motion pictures in impeccable condition. This includes not only Hollywood and foreign-language features but newsreels, shorts, animation, documentary and experimental work as well as television programming. Admission is free, no reservations necessary, so be bold in your choices. Even if you’ve never heard of something, if the festival has programmed it, it will make you happy.
Running all day on Saturday and Sunday, the festival begins on Friday night with two films focusing on the Black experience, starting at 7:30 p.m. with the Ossie Davis-directed “Black Girl” with screenwriter J.E. Franklin in attendance.
Misleadingly released in 1972 as an exploitation item, the feature stars Peggy Pettitt as an aspiring dancer and can be seen today as a sensitive independent film about women attempting to find their paths in life. Familiar faces include Brock Peters and a pre-“Roots” appearance by Leslie Uggams.
Those with the stamina to stay up later that same night will be rewarded with a 10:15 p.m. screening of “…& Beautiful,” an entertaining 1969 syndicated TV special hosted by legendary comedian Redd Foxx (with an unlikely Wilt Chamberlain cameo as his son) featuring musical performances by classic acts like Wilson Pickett, Della Reese and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The time-travel nature of the experience is emphasized by commercials from the show’s sponsor, Johnson’s haircare products.
Because UCLA will screen all day long, it has taken advantage of that flexibility to put films in the most appropriate time slots. The prime-time evening programs, for example, showcase features that have the highest entertainment value, starting with the Saturday 7:30 p.m. screening of Budd Boetticher’s 1955 “The Magnificent Matador.”
Though best known to cineastes as the director of a handful of brilliant B-westerns starring Randolph Scott known as the Ranown films, Boetticher’s personal passion was bullfighting. He made three films on the subject and, thanks to the dazzling widescreen color cinematography of the great Lucien Ballard (“The Wild Bunch”), “Magnificent Matador” is the most gorgeously mounted.
Set in Mexico, the film stars Mexican-born Anthony Quinn as a brilliant but aging matador facing interlocking personal crises, and Maureen O’Hara as the wealthy American who sets her cap for him. There’s lots of color and pageantry and the numerous bullfighting scenes (gore-free to satisfy the Production Code) emphasize the classic mixture of grace and daring.
Aided by Eddie Muller and the Film Noir Foundation, UCLA has pioneered the restoration of exceptional noirs from 1950s Argentina. The best known, “The Bitter Stems,” is available on disc through Flicker Alley, and the archive’s latest restoration, 1952’s “If I Should Die Before I Wake,” has the second Saturday night slot, starting at 9:25 p.m.
Noir fans will recognize the title as belonging to a short story by William Irish, the pen name of that master of unease, Cornell Woolrich. Starting with the epigraph “Only a child can kill a monster,” the film follows a little boy as he attempts to find the man who kidnapped his schoolmate, a small girl. Filled with dark, deserted streets and way-spooky buildings, this visually atmospheric film is not for the faint of heart.
On Sunday night, both prime-time slots are devoted to features by Andre de Toth, the Hungarian émigré director whose films, critic Andrew Sarris wrote, “reveal an understanding of the instability and outright treachery of human relationships.”
Starting things off at 7:30 p.m. is 1948’s “Pitfall,” a tip-top sunlight noir starring Dick Powell as an acerbic insurance adjuster who’s becoming bored with his marriage to a weary Jane Wyatt, striking a different housewife note than in her latter role on “Father Knows Best.”
The plot’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” vibe kicks in when Powell’s insurance work connects him with a model played by husky-voiced Lizabeth Scott in perhaps her best part. There’s also a malevolent private eye played by Raymond Burr in the disconcerting role that made him a star. If you want your noirs to really sizzle, you won’t be disappointed.
Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Conte in 1947’s “The Other Love,” a noir romance directed by Andre de Toth.
(United Artists / Photofest / UCLA Film & Television Archive)
De Toth’s 1947 “The Other Love,” screening at 9:35 p.m., is also unsettling, though its genre is the high-toned weepie. Barbara Stanwyck plays a celebrated concert pianist being treated for tuberculosis in an elite Swiss Alps sanitarium. Two men are entranced by her, a suave doctor played by David Niven and Richard Conte’s impulsive race-car driver. This restoration features an extended ending that has not been seen since the 1940s.
UCLA’s archive has also smartly programmed a pair of matinee-type films for its morning screenings. Showing at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday (and preceded by the animated “The Mouse of Tomorrow,” the first Mighty Mouse appearance in vivid color) is 1948’s “Adventures of Casanova.”
A rousing costume extravaganza from B-picture stalwart Eagle-Lion Films, “Adventures” is set in 18th century Sicily fighting for its freedom from the Austrian Empire. When first met, Casanova (Arturo de Cordova) prefers the “warmth of women’s curves” to martial matters. But it turns out — spoiler alert — that he’s “something of a military genius” who has unlooked-for gifts as a guerilla leader. Who knew?
Playing in the 11 a.m. matinee slot on Sunday are two silent films, starting with the 1911 short “Dr. Cupid,” which provides a rare chance to glimpse the celebrated John Bunny, a comic force in early cinema little seen today because few of his films survive.
The main matinee event, however, is the nifty 1921 silent “Trailin’” featuring the great western star Tom Mix. Based on a Max Brand novel, “Trailin’” flips the script by starring Mix as a polo-playing, dress-shirt-wearing Easterner who comes out west to clear up a family matter. But woe befall any bad guys who mistake him for a fool. “I seen him ride,” one local avers, “and he ain’t no tenderfoot.”
Silent film fans, or those just curious about this underappreciated medium, have another treat in store: a gorgeous restoration of 1922’s epic “Lorna Doone,” based on the popular 19th century novel that inspired the cookie. It screens on Saturday at 11:55 a.m.
Director Maurice Tourneur was a celebrated pictorialist who strove for visual beauty and naturalistic performance and achieved both in this story of the romantic adventures of Lorna (Madge Bellamy), the daughter of a wealthy countess kidnapped as a young girl by “the bloody Doones, a clan of thieves and cutthroats.” Her childhood beau, John Ridd (John Bowers), grown into “the strongest man in Devonshire,” also plays his part.
A final film worth noting is 1938’s screwball comedy “Merrily We Live,” screening at 4:10 p.m. on Saturday and preceded by a 1939 cartoon, “The Nutty Network,” that deftly lampoons Orson Welles’ celebrated 1938 “The War of the Worlds” Martian invasion radio broadcast.
“Merrily” turns out to be an unexpectedly amusing farce with echoes of “My Man Godfrey.” The film earned five Oscar nominations, including a best supporting actress nod for the veteran Billie Burke as the materfamilias of a wealthy but wacky family. Everyone, including glamorous daughter Constance Bennett, somehow mistakes a vacationing novelist (Brian Aherne) for a down-on-his-luck tramp. Much merriment ensues.
For more information on the complete program, which includes multiple newsreels and a shorts program titled “Touring California,” go to cinema.ucla.edu/events. But whatever you do, don’t miss your chance to see these rarely screened films on the big screen where they belong.
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