Cinecon 54 Movie Reviews 2018

Cinecon 54 Classic Film Festival Report with Plot Summaries, Movie Reviews and Ratings

My Reviews for Cinecon 54 Films

• Little Orphant Annie (1918) - PLOT SUMMARY - Silent melodrama about a teenage orphan named Annie (Colleen Moore) who loves to tell enchanting fantasy stories of goblins, elves, witches and the like to all the little girls in the orphanage, mesmerizing them with her lively and colorful descriptions, visualized on-screen. One day her uncle arrives, her only living relative, and is pushed into taking her to live with him. He doesn't want to, but complies. Ugh, this man and his wife are true meanies and turn her into their slave girl, cruelly abusing and mistreating her. A man who lives nearby befriends Annie and she becomes smitten with him. He helps get her away from her cruel keepers and she goes to live with a kindly couple. Soon this man she loves goes off to fight in World War I and word comes to Annie that he has been killed. Annie is grief-stricken to the point of almost dying herself when she wakes up and finds out it was a dream!
  REVIEW - I thought this film was quite entertaining and really enjoyed actress Colleen Moore in this, she's especially young and pretty here (and has long hair instead of her famous "flapper bob") - and real charming too. The film is based on a poem by James Whitcomb Riley, who appears onscreen a few times as the story narrator (via archive footage, as he died in 1916). The visions of Annie's fantasy tales are brought vividly to life on the screen via well done special effects, with grotesque masked and costumed figures taking over the screen. In one memorable scene, a baby is snatched by a bat (or something like that) and carried away, dropped in a cauldron of boiling liquid! Rating - * 8/10 stars *



• So Long Letty (1920) - PLOT SUMMARY - "Trading Wives". Silent romantic comedy about two young couples who live in neighboring bungalows and seem to have a wee bit of a problem within their marriages - see, it seems the two husbands each have more in common with the other one's wife than their own! Good housewife (and wearer of plain gingham house dresses) Grace Miller (Colleen Moore) loves to cook, her rotund neighbor Tommy Robbins loves to eat. Grace's husband Harry (T. Roy Barnes) wishes she was more into wearing stylish fashions (and he doesn't seem to give a hoot about the dinner's she makes him). Well - neighbor Letty, Tommy's wife, just so happens to be a big ole clothes horse, sporting the latest in fashionable gowns that catch Harry's eye. She's not into housekeeping, but she *is* into going out to cabarets and casinos for fun. Oh how Harry Miller wishes his own wife were more like Letty! And with Letty out on the town all day, by the time she gets in she can only serve up sardines and crackers for din-din. Yikes, how hubby Tommy longs for a home cooked meal! So -- the two men each have a crush on the wife next door and together decide it would be better for both if they "trade" them (wive's opinions doesn't seem to matter to these two fellows). Well, the women still love their own hubby, but agree to move into the other's house with the neighbor man for a "trial marriage". The gals teach these two guys that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
  REVIEW - Fun, light fare - an entertaining farce featuring the interesting notion of "swapping wives" (and not just "swapping" - these guys ask for divorces!). I gotta say, I really like Colleen Moore. TRIVIA: One newspaper source from 1920 says that "Cleeve" (Cleve Moore, Colleen's brother) is playing a minor part in this film, working while on vacation from the Mercersburg millitary college (note: I don't know if this actually ended up in the film, or what small role this was.) This film was directed by Al Christie - the Robbins couple (Letty and Tommy) played by Grace Darmond and Walter Hiers. Rating - * 7.5/10 stars *



• The Ape (1940) - PLOT SUMMARY - Horror melodrama starring Boris Karloff as one of those "mad doctor" types, kept real busy in his lab doing strange experiments on animals. He's befriended a crippled young lady, wheelchair- bound and reminding him of his own daughter who has died. He hopes to come up with a cure for her paralysis and seems determined to do whatever it takes to make that happen! Well - the circus comes to town and a big ape escapes from his cage, seriously injuring his trainer in the bargain. Great, that's just what Karloff needs - spinal fluid from a human being to complete the "serum" he hopes will work for his cure. He's gonna get that fluid whatever way he can - and does. Now with some serum on hand, he injects the girl as a test (against the wishes of her protective "boyfriend") and his cure sure does look promising. But he needs more serum!! Well - that ape is on the loose, terrorizing everyone in town. A killing spree for spinal fluid follows.
  REVIEW - I thought this was pretty darn entertaining and the print looked real nice. Boris Karloff perfects the character of a man who is a cross between a kind and gentle scientist interested only in helping the young woman and a madman who will stop at nothing to get the necessary cure. Like lots of films, the "ape" in this looks way more like a man in a big, hairy ape costume than a real ape! Rating - * 7.5/10 stars *

• Four Days Wonder (1936) - PLOT SUMMARY - This film had an unusual feel to it (with the music and the way it was photographed) that I can't really put my finger on, sort of a bit "storybook" like. Jeanne Dante plays a young teen named Judy, obsessed with murder mysteries. She's working out the details and acting out scenarios for a mystery she's writing, assisted by older pal Nancy (Martha Sleeper), secretary to a successful crime writer named Archibald Fenton (Alan Mowbray). Judy communicates with Nancy using secret codes, a porthole between rooms (a neato shot of the girls looking at each other in close-up through the porthole), the works - yeah, she's definitely got the "detective bug". Well, poor young Judy lives with her crotchety old aunt (a real dipsomaniac) who doesn't seem to like her keeping company with Nancy, for some reason - so boots Nancy out (and, I think, is talking about sending Judy away to school or something). Well, ends up the old lady slips on a rug and dies - Judy is afraid she'll be accused of murdering her auntie, so runs away from home and heads for the countryside. On her way she stops in this shop where she picks up a toy gun that shoots red ink (but looks like a real gun). Soon she meets a good-looking young lad near her age who is an amateur astronomer working on his telescope in some shack in the woods. She's invited to hide-out there. Okay, a really bumbling police detective is soon at work on the murder case, trying to figure out "whodunit" very poorly. Puppy love is in the mix between the two kids, of course, as well as a marriage proposal in the end (and the girl is only about 13 years old!). The red ink gun fits into the plot when Judy shoots Archibald Fenton and he's a big baby when it comes to blood, thinks he's been wounded - then plays up his injury for all it's worth at a lecture he is giving for a women's fan club group.
  REVIEW - This film was based on a novel by A. A. Milne (I'm interested in getting this as I really enjoyed his book "The Red House Mystery"). I quite liked this one. Young actress Jeanne Dante is called "The new screen discovery" in the advertising for this film. I enjoyed her performance -- unfortunately, she didn't do much in the way of more films after this one time lead role. Universal bought rights to the A. A. Milne story as an introductory vehicle for her, after her success in the New York stage play "Call It a Day" (which, judging by reviews from the time, she really stole - one review calls her a "wonder child of the theater"). Rating - * 8/10 stars *





• Naughty Baby (1928) - PLOT SUMMARY - Silent romantic-comedy starring Alice White as Rosalind aka "Rosie", a pretty but poor hat-check girl at a snazzy hotel who spots good-looking millionaire playboy, Terry Vandeveer (Jack Mulhall), and wants to meet him. But she thinks she needs to be a society girl like his current flame, Bonnie (Thelma Todd), to catch his interest. Rosie is usually seen in the company of her "three Musketeers", devoted trio of suitors who constantly chase around after her. This admiring trio each use their job (one a gown salesman, one a mechanic, one a pawnshop clerk) to get the gowns, jewelry, and luxury auto to help make Rosie look rich. Well, Rosie falls for Terry and he seems to like her lots too - and that gal Bonnie is actually some sort of gold-digger. When Rosie gets accused of stealing a gown she says something like "you want it back, you got it" and immediately pulls it off ending up in in her undergarments! Her three men escort her to the beach where she is soon busy struttin' her stuff in fancy borrowed bathing costume. What she doesn't know is this costume is to be worn as "out of water" attire only -- her men try to warn her, but she gets in the water and - oops, she's naked. There's a question at one point about whether her Terry actually has the dough he claims - all works out in the end as she gets her man (and her three amigos must simply "escort" her down the aisle).
  REVIEW - Frothy fun, boosted up in my book simply by featuring Alice White, an actress I always enjoy - she's just so, well, adorable. She comes across as sexy, yet innocently childlike at the same time. The scene where she ends up in the water with no clothes on and is attempting to get herself out of this situation before caught nude on the beach is pretty memorable. Jack Mulhall makes for a handsome love interest for her.
  Trivia from newspaper archives: 1) This film was called "Ritzy Rosie" during production (and, apparently, was called "Bad Baby" after that, before finally being changed to "Naughty Baby"). 2) During filming, Alice White had to wear a bathing suit constructed to fall apart when water hit it - plus two "entire body" makeups, one to cover her body under the fall-apart suit, and one makeup to "preserve her complexion" to, as stated in news article, a "flapperish natural pink". Rating - * 8 to 8.5/10 stars *



• Once in a Lifetime (1932) - PLOT SUMMARY - Trio of struggling vaudeville performers head to Hollywood to pose as "elocution" instructors, opening a school to help silent stars transition to talkies. On the train they meet this mother bringing her daughter (Sidney Fox) to Hollywood to get into movies - um, this gal has learned one poem to recite on her tryouts and she's pretty bad at it too. All through the film we hear her annoying recitation for anyone who will listen -- "Boots, boots, boots" is enough to get on anyone's nerves (well, it got on mine anyway). Jack Oakie (one of the trio) plays a character that is always cracking Indian nuts. He's given a position as some sort of producer at the studio they are at, for some reason, and ends up filming the wrong script -- all while cracking his nuts in the background, the sound picked up by the newfangled sound equipment being used to make the "talkie". When the film is released though, it gets great reviews from critics who think the nut sound is "hail on the roof" and is there to give some sort of symbolic message. He is seen as a genius - next thing you know, he's become a studio bigwig with lights all around his photo that hangs on a studio wall!
  REVIEW - Sort of an annoying comedy as a whole - what with the poem reading (from Rudyard Kipling poem "Boots"), the nut cracking, and the like. Actress Aline MacMahon is the best part of this mediocre film, as the wisecracking "leader" of our vaudeville trio and the gal who comes up with the elocution teacher idea in the first place.
  Trivia (summarized from the San Francisco Chronicle, July 1932) -- Nut cracking was getting on the nerves of sound men on the set of "Once in a Lifetime" at Universal - not just Jack Oakie cracking Indian nuts (as part of his role) but Zasu Pitts, Louise Fazenda, and a script girl all picked up the nut cracking habit during filming. Rating - * 6/10 stars *



• The Desert Bride (1928) - This silent film was quite good, a spy adventure tale set in the Arabian desert. The gist of the plot mostly escapes my memory now but the film includes exotic setting, romance, a bride/slave auction, and torture (yep, all the usual stuff you expect in an Arabian adventure!). Basically, Betty Compson and Allan Forrest meet and fall in love and he refuses to give the Arabs who capture him some sort of secret information he holds - until, he's forced to view the woman he loves, also being held captive, put on the auction block with a pack of lustful-eyed Arabs bidding on her! Apparently there's a sandstorm somewhere in the mix here, though I'm blanking on that now. Live music score done by Jon Mirsalis really helped make this one special. Rating - * 9/10 stars *



• The Unexpected Father (1932) - PLOT SUMMARY - "Daddy, Daddy!". Comedy/melodrama in which Slim Summerville plays a wealthy middle-aged bachelor about to take a bride. Over at a nearby orphanage, a cute little four-year old named Pudge (Cora Sue Collins) is being brutalized by a really villainous woman/bootlegger who runs the orphan asylum and sells bathtub gin out of a baby carriage. She puts Pudge in the carriage to make it look like she's pushing a child, then jumps in front of the auto driven by Summerville to bribe money out of him. Pudge has been having dreams of a tall, slim "daddy" who picks her up in his big automobile. She thinks he is the daddy she has dreamt of, so hides in the back of his car. Well - he arrives home with a child who is constantly (and I mean *really* constantly calling him "daddy") and all the household staff seems to suspect she's his real daughter. This kid is such a pixie-like little charmer that she enchants him into keeping her (there's also that "whip mark" on her back he's concerned about!). And with no experience caring for a child (his "gentleman's gentleman" is no help there either), he sends for a nurse from a hospital he picks out of the phonebook. Turns out the "nurse" (ZaSu Pitts) works at a veterinary hospital and specializes in treating "hounds". Oh well, she's really nice and likes Pudge a whole lot - so he hires her on as a nanny. Meanwhile, the witch-like blonde gold-digger he's about to marry turns up with her mother, so he tries to make it look like Pudge is the child of that manservant. As you would expect, a romance develops between Slim and the new nanny - and little Pudge is all for these two hooking up and becoming her "mommy and daddy". In the end, Slim gets rid of the "fiancee" by telling her that Pudge is *his* daughter and the entire estate and all his wealth actually belongs to the child. Well well, that gold-digger wants no part of a man without money, so that wraps that up - along with a happy ending for our "mommy, daddy, and baby makes three" trio!
  REVIEW - Cute film, with actress Cora Sue Collins appearing in person for a Q&A after the screening. Slim Summerville works it as the middle-aged "daddy" figure in this, and even has some chemistry with ZaSu Pitts. In her first film, it is little Cora Sue that really steals the show (one newspaper source, from 1932, called her the "newly discovered infant prodigy"). Rating - * 7.5/10 stars *



• He Learned About Women (1933) - A pre-code comedy starring Stuart Erwin as an innocent bookworm with no knowledge of the world (or women) who inherits 50 million dollars. His valet sends him off into the big city, NYC, so he can learn about life. Well, it's the Depression and there's lots of unemployment - he encounters an odd street auction where a bunch of "out-of-work" workers are being bid on by employers. He ends up "rescuing" an attractive young woman (Susan Fleming) from being bid on by lechers and hires her on to be his secretary. She convinces him to bid on her "mother" (really, "not" her mother) too, an aging has-been stage actress (Alison Skipworth) who is willing to do "anything". The two women are invited to live in his mansion and his transformation out of his shell is to follow (the details of the rest of this plot escape my memory now). I thought this film was just okay - nothing great, not real memorable. A nitrate print of this film was screened at Cinecon 54 for the "Saturday Nitrate Fever" evening.
  TRIVIA: This film was titled "The Bookworm Turns" during production of this film, before it was changed to "He Learned About Women" (well, frankly, I like the title "The Bookworm Turns" better!). Actress Adrienne Ames originally named to star, by the way. Rating - * 7/10 stars *

• The Golden Horde (1951) - Technicolor spectacle featuring lavish costumes, bearded hunks, lots of battles between rival factions, a neato "marching into battle" type score, Genghis Khan -- and little else. But hey, the ladies costumes, in particular, are something else. Ann Blyth is regal and sexy at the same time in seductive wrap gowns that show her off without showing off *too* much (just barely) and lavish headdresses. The plot escapes me at the moment (and I don't think there was much of one). Seems Ann Blyth is a princess who hates new man in town, a cocky Englishman (played by David Farrar) she loathes (so much you just KNOW they'll be kissing in the final scene - yep). Fun - enjoyed this one. Rating - * 8/10 stars *



• Seven Sinners (1925) - PLOT SUMMARY - "Thieves like us". Silent crime caper comedy about seven thieves who all independently end up in this mansion for the purpose of stealing some jewels out of a safe. The mansion owners are "out of town", it seems, and Marie Prevost arrives as a gal who tries to rob the safe but gets confronted by the "home owner" (Clive Brook) who makes a bargain with her - crack the safe within a certain time and he'll let her go free. She does - and he reveals himself as a thief too, out to get the safe open and steal the jewels for himself! Soon an older couple arrives as high class "houseguests", and our two pretend they are the maid and butler and give this new pair a room. This pair are secretly *not" any sort of guests or friends of the owner -- but are actually crooks themselves! More crooks arrive, all with the same mission - and one called "Scarlet Fever Saunders" pretends sickness and the house is quarantined. So, this group got into the house but they can't get out when an "electric burglar alarm" ends up set, keeping them from leaving the property. Well, of course, Marie and Clive's characters (being the two good-looking leads) end up a couple in love and give up their life of crime. (Hmm, just a thought - Clive Brook's character is seen a couple times having to sleep in a bathtub while she (posing as the maid) has a room -- wondering now why he couldn't find a bed for himself in this big ole house!)
  REVIEW - This motley crew of underworld characters (with names like "Bewitching Molly", "Soft-Fingered Jerry", "Handsome Joe", "Pious McDowell", and "Scarlet Fever Saunders" -- as stated in advertising of the day) makes for an entertaining enough yarn. Though nothing great, I did enjoy this light, fun comedy. I always seem to enjoy Marie Prevost in the various films I've seen her in too. Film was directed by Lewis Milestone. Rating - * 7.5/10 stars *

• A Tale of Old Whiff (1960) - Animated cartoon short originally shown in something called "Smell-O-Vision" -- a gimmick in which scents were wafted into the theater screening the cartoon, matching action on the screen. This cartoon is widescreen and in stereo - it was pretty neat, and oh so "1960" in music and style. About a bloodhound, "Old Whiff", rescued from the dog pound by this guy who needs a pooch to find a missing dinosaur bone. Problem is - Old Whiff is a dog who never learned how to smell! There were things seen on-screen in this, such as a hot dog, mustard, chocolate, flowers, even "bone" (yep), that would have, as screened in Smell-O-Vision, had a matching aroma for you to smell as you view the image on screen - well, wow! Rating - * 9/10 stars *





• The Shakedown (1929) - PLOT SUMMARY - Silent melodrama starring James Murray as Dave, a boxer who works with prize fight promoters involved in a fake-fight racket. To bring in more money, he is sent to live in a small town where he is to try and "gain favor" with the locals (via doing something like "saving a life" or some such) so the townsfolks will place more bets on him in an upcoming "set-up" match against professional boxer "Battling Roff" (George Kotsonaros), a tough who takes on "all comers". Well, Dave actually ends up saving a kid - but no one in town saw! The boy, freckled-faced Clem (Jack Hanlon), is homeless and asks if he can stay with him - Dave agrees, and they soon become pals. Clem is made his "manager", which makes the boy happy but Dave's old manager (Wheeler Oakman), now dubbed his "trainer", kinda mad. Through the boy's devotion and belief in him, Dave changes his ways and decides he can't be a "fake" any longer - so when the big fight comes up against Battling Roff, Dave decides to try and win for real! Side story involves Dave's interest in a pretty waitress (Barbara Kent).
  REVIEW - This was my favorite silent film of Cinecon 54. Entertaining and uplifting, the story revolving more around the relationship between the boxer and the orphan rather than the love story (which seems to be there just 'cause - ya know what I mean!). Actor James Murray is really good in this film, just as he is in one of my most favorite of favorite silents, "The Crowd". Barbara Kent isn't given all that much to do in this, unfortunately (she's also in one of my more favorite silent films, "Lonesome"). Running gag in this involves the kid and the "old manager" making various faces, sticking out tongues etc., at each other every time they see each other. This film was originally released in a part-talkie version (though that screened at Cinecon was all silent) -- one reviewer from the day was very keen on the performance of the boy and says that "The voices of Murray, Miss Kent, and Oakman, as well as the broken English of Kotsonaros, are effective in the dialogue, but there is an appeal in the voice of young Hanlon that will get you, we predict." Film was directed by William Wyler. Just to note: there is a very neat merry-go-round in one scene in this. Rating - * 9/10 stars *



• The Virginia Judge (1935) - PLOT SUMMARY - Love triangle about a rebellious young man named Jim Preston (Robert Cummings) who is kinda bitter in life 'cause his step-dad (Walter C. Kelly) is a small town Virginia judge and doesn't earn a big living. Jim doesn't have the car he wants so he can take out Mary Lee Calvert (Marsha Hunt), the pretty girl next door that he loves. Hmm, perhaps she does prefer a man with a nice car 'cause she seems to favor local rich fellow, Bob Stuart (Johnny Downs). Interestingly, Bob and Jim look rather alike (well, that's what I thought - it's not actually part of the plot). All it takes for her, I guess, is a handsome face, floppy brown hair, and - oh yeah, a great set of wheels to pick her up in. Well, Jim decides to "borrow" a neighbor man's auto so he can take out Mary, then ends up crashing it -- on-the-spot Bob is right there to rescue Mary and Jim gets in trouble for stealing the car. The owner demands he pay for the damage but Jim's got no dough, so --- he steals a rifle and sells it to Bob (this guy just can't seem to keep himself out of trouble)! Well, Bob finds out the rifle wasn't his to sell and confronts him at a carnival where Jim is busy at the shooting gallery. Um - a fight and the rifle he's using shoots Bob. Jim hides out at home in the attic. But the judge, being the judge, convinces him to turn himself in rather than run away. A trial follows, and all ends up okay for Jim (and Bob too - not killed). Who the girl ends up with (if either) has escaped my memory.
  REVIEW - I thought this was fairly entertaining - nothing great. I was a little drowsy during this one, so may have missed a bit here and there. Okay, my pet peeve - films that feature two characters that look too much alike to tell them apart (okay, I know Johnny Downs and Robert Cummings aren't total lookalikes - but they rather *are* in this movie). I thought Johnny Downs gave a much better performance in this film than "Blonde Trouble", screened a few days earlier at Cinecon (and he does have the "boyishly handsome" good looks I like). This was actress Marsha Hunt's first film - she appeared in person for a Q&A at this screening. TRIVIA: Actor Stepin Fetchit was knocked unconscious during filming, when someone threw a billiard ball at him during the carnival scene where customers are throwing balls at people's faces. He was revived at the studio hospital and treated for a gashed head. Rating - * 7/10 stars *