Sunday, June 26, 2011

Jason goes to the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival--Day 1

I returned from Cleveland last Friday, just in time for the big weekend in Niles--the 14th annual Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival. The theme this year--Mack Sennett (e.g., Keystone) comedies and action women. Awesome!

The first night we started with a couple of Mack Sennett comedies.

THE GOLF NUT (1927): Hilarious hijinx of Billy Bevan, causing quite a lot of chaos on a golf course, mostly at the expense of Vernon Dent.

WHEN A MAN'S A PRINCE (1926): Ben Turpin is a prince, being forced to marry the gigantic princess of Amazonia in order to pay off his family's debt. Too bad he has his eye (at least one of them) on her maid in waiting, a far more lovely (and reasonably sized) woman. Wacky hijinx ensue.

Then after a brief intermission, on to the feature:

MANHANDLED (1924): Gloria Swanson stars as a hard working, somewhat abused but rebellious shopgirl. Hey mechanic boyfriend Jimmy has a great idea for a device that will greatly improve fuel efficiency (that's oddly timely!) and will raise them out of their blue collar life. But she has her own career plans, falling into high-society parties and impersonating a Russian countess. But if she plays with fire, she's bound to get burned. Very entertaining, although the sexual politics have dated very poorly (but fun to see as a window into the past).

Total Running Time (estimated): 115 minutes
My Total Minutes: 241,139

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