Testing! One! Two! Three!

Dear Friends, Fans and Readers,

I recently discovered that Google Analytics was keeping track of visitors to this blog on a handy graph and - surprise - I have a lot more readers than I knew about!  Thank you for checking back weekly!  I will endeavor to post something of interest every weekend, which won't be hard with all the rare films coming along.

My focus continues to be on the Lost and Rare series as discussed in recent blog entries, but there is always more to discover.  I now have DVDs of Lost TV Pilots and Sports Immortals in stock from our duplicator for immediate delivery.  These are not only authored DVDs with menus and introductions before the films, but they have bar codes and are shrink wrapped.  In short, professional in every sense.  They are for sale at Movies Unlimited, Amazon.com, my lostandrare website and will shortly be offered by Alpha Video.  We are looking for a sports retailer to sell Sports Immortals online.

I have a new Festival Films logo as shown above, designed by Pete Bedell, that is animated at the head of each DVD before the introduction continues into Lost and Rare Film & Video Treasures.  You can view this opening at beginning of the film clip below.  In fact, and I believe it's unusual, we have brief prevue films at the website of all 10 films on the first 2 DVDs.

Complete!

So far we are mainly collecting short subjects -- cartoons, TV shows, Industrial films, vintage documentaries, advertising films, theatrical shorts and commercials.  Collections of vintage shorts are relatively scarce on DVD.  "We" refers to me (Ron Hall), Bob Campbell and Derek Myers.  Upcoming films are so fascinating we feel putting them together in thematic releases will find a large and growing audience.

Lost and Rare are the key words.  We will include a few films each time that most fans have never seen or heard of before, like episodes of Top Secret (1954) that feature the first computer to play a role on TV.  Other criteria for inclusion are TV episodes that are not out on DVD, films with better quality or more complete versions of films presumed lost for years.  An example of rare TV is The Drug Pushers episode of Martin Kane Private Eye.  An example of better quality is a rare Kodachrome print of a Judge Roy Bean and a more complete film is Felix in The Bone Age.

While filling early orders for Volumes 1 and 2, we are conducting a beta test to answer many questions about where we are and what comes next.  We are asking questions such as...

● determine suitable amount of content for future volumes ­­ 5 films, 10 films, more? 

● decide if future volumes should remain single disc, 2 discs, more?  

● determine ideal price points? 

● decide the ideal release pattern – 2 volumes released monthly ­­ quarterly?  

● find wisdom and guidance how best to tailor the series for educational markets. 

● develop creative partnerships with existing archives that share a similar mission. 

● explore potential sponsorship branding opportunities.

● explore potential for grants or in­kind help with film restoration work. 

● explore how the DVD series might be adapted for a TV and/or Webcast market. 

● explore potential theatrical venues for some of the collections. 

● explore on demand and streaming video platforms. 

● develop distributor partnerships beyond Movies Unlimited and Amazon.com. 

Lloyd Nolan as Martin Kane
"The Dope Pushers"

In short, we are sharing the website, the Lost & Rare concept and video clips with all interested parties, asking them these kinds of questions and getting valuable feedback.  If you have any answers, ideas or guidance, please email me at fesfilms@aol.com.

One discovery last week was the need to change the name of an upcoming release.  While one can't copyright a title, I had overlooked that Bruce Simon at KineVideo already had an established series called "Prehistoric TV."  After ruminating a spell, Prehistoric transformed into Primeval Television, and primeval is actually a better word since it is more mysterious and does not conjure up dinosaurs or cavemen. Primeval: "...of or relating to the earliest ages."

Last week I added to the website descriptions and film clips for Primeval Television.  This page is a work in progress -- Coming Soon.  We have the films that we show excerpts of, but are working to secure others equally as exciting and rare.  Changes and additions will show up on that web page right up until release in the fall.

Enjoy this opening from Top Secret that we bet you have never seen.  These 12 minute stories (!) starring Gena Rowlands and Paul Stewart were designed so two could run in a half-hour segment.  Here is how the computer - AMIC - is used in a typical story - The Lost Child.  A grieving scientist who has recently lost her son disappears.  A BSI agent phones headquarters to ask AMIC where to look.  Later they ask AMIC how to restore her sanity so she can report to a conference.  The answers are surprising and the resolution is quick (remember, 12 minute shows).

Many pages at the website announce "If you have a lost or rare cartoon, short, newsreel, TV show, war documentary or movie on film (except 8mm), please contact us.  We may be interested in licensing your content for our series."  So if you do, then please do that!  Email me at fesfilms@aol.com.

Visit my websites at Lost & Rare and Festival Films.

Reviews of Round 1!

A few weeks ago Festival Films released the first two DVDs in our Lost & Rare series -- Lost and Rare TV Pilots and Sports Immortals.  Four specific new releases are in the active planning stage, to be discussed in the weeks ahead, but we are now in a "beta test" phase to determine how best to promote, price and improve the current format prior to beginning a monthly release pattern in the Fall. 


Here are Victoria's opening comments:


As a writer, it’s always fun to discover something new. In this case, what’s new is actually old but that makes it even more fun. A new series has been released on DVD called Lost & Rare Film and TV Treasures. The first from the series to be released is Lost & Rare Vol. 1: Television Pilots—five half-hour shows featuring some serious Hollywood talent from the 1950s golden age of television. For those who don’t know, a pilot is a sample episode shown to a potential sponsor or aired on a network to test audience response.


It’s hard to say which pilot is the biggest treasure—Maggie, featuring a 23-year-old Margret O’Brien in her fourth appearance with Leon Ames as her fictional father? Meet McGraw, with Frank Lovejoy delivering a snappy film noir tight enough to be a movie? The shaggy and bumbling Munroe is utterly unlike the suave Lassie and is a foretaste of other military/buddy sitcoms. Ed Wynn is also a bit shaggy and bumbling, which is what makes The Ed Wynn Show so appealing.

I can't recommend enough the fascinating film articles and lively discussions found weekly at Movies Unlimited's Movie FanFare.  This is basically a blog section written by an army of informed film fans and enthusiasts.  My Facebook friends often post a link to their latest article that has appeared at Movie Fanfare.  A week ago Victoria Balloon wrote a review of Lost TV Pilots for Movie FanFare that has received 32 comments so far.  One of the odd comments was that the writer could not find the DVD for sale on Amazon.com.  It is for sale at Amazon, but of course they read about the release at the Movies Unlimited website, and might have thought to look for it there!  Movies Unlimited does not use their FanFare section to blatantly promote videos they sell, but common sense says to check with them first.


Lost and Rare TV Pilots is also for sale at Amazon.com where it has received a favorable review especially for Munroe:  All of the shows were really good, but the standout for me was the episode of a show called 'Munroe'. Munroe is the name of a dog in the K9 corps, and I was totally impressed with this show. Why it was not picked up, I do not have any idea. If it were picked up, I think I would have preferred it to Gomer Pyle. 

A major review just appeared by Editor Jef Burnham at the highly recommended Film Monthly.  Please follow that link for the complete review.  I reprint here Jef's comments about 1936 Olympics Highlights:


Although I’m sure those four pieces will greatly appeal to serious sports enthusiasts, the final piece in the collection, 1936 Olympic Highlights (1936), is in fact a significant historical text outside of any athletic context and, in my eyes, fully worth the price of admission. If you don’t already know, the Nazi Party in fact hosted the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a mere three years before the Invasion of Poland. Thus, this piece constitutes a significant historical record. 1936 Olympic Highlightsincludes footage from the opening ceremony, in which the German National Anthem played over the march of the United States’ athletes and the Hindenburg flew overhead, as well the games themselves, which prove to be quite amusing in context. For although the Nazis obviously intended the event to serve as propaganda for the Aryans’ superior athletic abilities, 1936 Olympic Highlights reveals that the good old U.S. of A. ultimately trounced the Nazi Olympians at virtually every turn.


Visit my websites at lostandrare.com and fesfilms.com.

A Few New Wrinkles!

Holiday Weekend!  A good time to remind about a few Café Roxy/Festival Films basics!

New Comedy Program for Theaters!
(Showtime info goes in box at bottom.)

My Festival Films website averages about 110 hits a day, and of those 77% are new visitors (info thanks to google analytics).  I do not advertise DVD sales to the general public, though I will gladly sell to anyone who happens to find me.  New visitors usually find me by doing an Internet search on "Public Domain Films."  A Google search just now puts me at #9 and Yahoo search on their first page in the #8 position.  I do not lobby to move up the list and believe I hold that coveted first-page position because I have been around so long.  The exact Yahoo listing is:

Festival Films | Public Domain Films | Home

Festival Films has been in business for over 30 years selling Public Domain Films, TV Shows, Stock Footage, 16mm Films, Movie Posters, DVDs and Video Masters.

www.fesfilms.com/public-domain - Cached

The public knows about Public Domain and so they search me out.  This results in weekly email or phone inquiries that start: "I just bought an old movie theater and am thinking about...." or "I'm starting a TV station and...."  That latter inquiry is not a joke.  I have recently entered a relationship with a TV station and I don't even know their name or location, but the owner is friendly and wanted 3 hours of public domain films a day and wants me to program them.  More about all this later if I get a link to their website.  Early results: "It seems the programming you have previously sent has been popular with our audience. We are getting positive feedback."


One new wrinkle I came up with for this station was an extended Saturday Matinee.  This involves running one of the Matinee Programs every Saturday, which with TV commercials comes to two hours, but then adding a second matinee feature to flesh out a 3-hour time slot.  The first Matinee feature that accompanies Chapter #1 of "Radar Men from the Moon" is "The Most Dangerous Game," and the logical second feature is a 53 minute Roy Rogers western.  In week 4 when the feature is a western -- John Wayne in "Hell Town" -- I sent an East Side Kids film (Kid Dynamite) to go with it so as not to have two westerns.  If they load up the 3 hours with commercials, and I have no way of telling if they do, then they can eliminate one of the cartoons to create more ad time.

Thinking of Roy Rogers, I recently obtained a number of new film transfers of his films (thanks to partner Derek Myers) that I simply did not have decent quality on previously, and I put these together into 4 double features for sale on Amazon.com.  As I say in a brief introduction I added: "You can finally see what's going on in all those night scenes."  Will advertising "New Film Transfers" resonate with fans who have been looking...?  I think perhaps it will at $12.95.

Red River Valley is a key Roy western as it is his first "modern" western set in the present with cars alongside horses.  It is also his first film with future sidekick Pat Brady, who made quite a comic foil to Gabby Hayes in this period.  Both films feature lovely Gale Storm as second leading lady.  First lead goes to a comic lady, Sally Payne, who goes for Pat while Gale and Roy connect for the fadeout.  Roy probably endeared himself to his young boy fans by rarely kissing in his movies, but in the second film, Man from Cheyenne, he kisses both Sally and Gale in the first five minutes.  What are you waiting for?  Go watch these films!

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont, PA, has been getting public domain programs from me for a year and mixing them in with shows they lease from others.  They added a little extra fun when they ran my 12 Nights of Horror and flew in a skeleton during House on Haunted Hill and recreated the body-less woman onstage during Brain That Wouldn't Die.  Last week they requested a special program based on "Lotsa Laffs" except with complete shorts.  I like filling special requests because if a show will work one place, then I can offer it to others on my website.

For those unfamiliar with programs offered by Café Roxy, or for a quickie reminder, I make a poster for every show.  The poster can be taken right off my website and either printed or the jpeg image can be used on your own website.  The empty rectangle is where you can put info about theater name, address, date and showtime.  I made the poster shown up top for the Dormont.  Here is how they are advertised in the Comedy section of fesfilms.com:

Lotsa Laffs! 105m. Hilarious shorts and cartoons in one giant laff-fest for movie theaters or Internet streaming. "Our Gang Follies of 1938," W.C. Fields in "The Dentist," 3 Stooges "Disorder in the Court" and Abbott and Costello "Who's On First?" -- plus cartoons "Arctic Giant" with Superman, Betty Boop in "Is My Palm Read?" and "Popeye Meets Ali Baba" and more! Check out these additional short comedy collections of Lotsa Laffs!

These are not new films.  They are not rare films.  But they are hilarious and good-to-go for movie theaters who want time-tested programs all put together for them.  Your audiences will thank you, and more importantly they will laugh loud and long!

Lost & Rare -- Found & Launched!

I have a new website: lostandrare.com and video line.  Please explore, watch lots of video prevues in our first two releases and have fun.   Each volume strives to include films that die-hard film fans have never heard of or seen, or have not seen in good quality, or in color, or ... you get it.  How did this all come to happen?

I have been working with two film enthusiasts and public domain experts for some years, who were aware of each other through a common link -- me -- but had not been in touch.  First is Bob Campbell, the producer of the hit PBS series "Matinee at the Bijou" in the 1980s.  The show recreated a Saturday Matinee with a serial chapter, cartoon, short subjects and exciting matinee "B" features like a mystery, Roy Rogers or Dr. Christian.  The series was an incredible hit that initiated many young film fans into "old" movies, fans who remember fondly and have clamored for more ever since.  Bijou ran for five original seasons on PBS, plus re-runs for years after.  You may recall the nostalgic theme song by Rudy Vallee.  For more info check out The Bijou Blog.

I had contributed one film back then -- One Frightened Night -- and am listed in the credits for season 4, but had no contact with Bob at that time.  Through a mutual friend Bob and I were introduced about 6 years ago and have been working since on various projects, one of which is a revival of Bijou in Hi Def.  Much more to say about recent developments soon when we have definite news to report.

The second associate is Derek Myers, who provides public domain films and TV shows to channel WGGS-TV in Greenville, SC, and to sister station WATC TV-57 in Atlanta, where viewers enjoy Roy Rogers, Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, Dragnet and more.  Derek loves to find original 16mm film prints and make his own transfers.  He has quite a collection of My Little Margie, Four Star Playhouse, Ozzie and Harriet, Judge Roy Bean (black and white) and many more.  We started trading films and information and have sold some video masters to companies that have issued them on DVD.

The final partner in the Lost & Rare team is producer/editor Peter Bedell, an associate of Bob's in Medford, Oregon, who authors the DVDs and also designed the box cover logo with film strip and vintage TV and the animated Festival Films and L&R intro in the video below.

In 2011 Derek acquired a rare spiritual Christmas film Star of Bethlehem in which James Mason and his family relate The Nativity (with a cast of children).  I discussed this a year ago in a previous blog.  Rather than sell the film to some other company, we got the idea to release it ourselves on DVD along with other Christmas films not on the market.  In February of this year Bob Campbell was sorting through films he had acquired in the 1980s for Bijou but had not used, or forgotten about or never even watched.  Many were quite fascinating -- Rare, Forgotten and Lost but now Found.  Hmm ...

Bob wanted a few transferred from 16mm to video and I said Derek could do that.  The first film was the 1961 TV pilot for "Jane Powell Show" so Bob could give a copy to Jane Powell.  Everything suddenly fell into place.  Bob had another pilot no one knows -- Munroe.  Derek had a Margaret O'Brien pilot called Maggie.  I suggested that one of Derek's obscure TV shows Meet McGraw had started as a 1954 episode of "Four Star Playhouse" and so was a kind of TV pilot since it turned into a detective series starring Frank Lovejoy in 1957.  I added the 1958 Ed Wynn Show to the mix as it had always appealed to me because Ed addresses the audience/sponsors at the end in a direct appeal to sell the show.  It turns out the cast of Munroe made a similar appeal.  5 pilots = 1 DVD release called "Lost and Rare TV Pilots."

Bob also had on film a rare 1939 baseball film -- Touching All Bases -- that I discussed a few weeks ago.  With much effort one can find this for sale on the Internet, but it is not promoted, not on view at Youtube and so is pretty much unknown or "Lost" to baseball fans because they do not know about it.  This 1939 celebration of Baseball's Centennial is simply fascinating.  We added four other vintage sports shorts from the Bijou collection and call our second volume Sports Immortals.  We will promote it  online, sell through Amazon, Movies Unlimited, etc., and also pursue educational sales.  Sports Immortals is on sale now at the new Lost & Rare website.

We are excited about upcoming rarities for 2012 release, such as:

• Unfinished Rainbows -- 1940 Technicolor docu-drama about the early history of aluminum, featuring the first credited screen appearance of Alan Ladd in his first color film role.
• Comic Strips of Television -- Lost 1948 Jay Ward pilot for the first cartoon series made for Television -- Crusader Rabbit -- plus Dudley DoRight's first appearance!  Watch a timely comic bit from "Hamhock Jones" below.
• I'm a Civilian Here Myself -- 1945 satirical Robert Benchley short produced for the Navy.
• The Butcher, The Baker, The Ice Cream Maker -- Innovative 1955 animated short -- first time in color (mint)!
• Golf -- 1922 two-reel slapstick comedy with Larry Semon and Oliver Hardy! Goofy gopher sequence may have inspired Caddyshack!
• Star of Bethlehem -- Unusual 1954 story of the Nativity produced by James Mason and featuring him and his family and five-year-old Jerry Mathers as Joseph!!
• The Columbia -- 1949 rare documentary about the Columbia River, with 3 songs by Woody Guthrie!
• Faith, Hope and Hogan -- 1950s Christophers Show with Ben Hogan, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Phil Harris!
• I.A.T.S.E. -- Lost historical 1946 short tells the history of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees with rare film clips from the theater and movies! Jolson's entire performance of Mammy from The Jolson Story as never before shown.

And here are previews of each!



If you have a lost or rare cartoon, short, newsreel, TV show, war documentary or feature on film, please contact us. We may be interested in licensing your content for our series!
Please visit my original Festival Films website offering public domain Hollywood films for all purposes, and the new www.lostandrare.com website.  Thanks from Ron Hall!

TV Pilots - Lost & Rare!

Most everyone knows the concept of the TV pilot -- a sample show produced since the dawn of television and still being made today (though the costs have increased a hundred fold). They were shown to networks, to sponsors and to test audiences to determine if they would be successful if turned into a series. Hundreds were made and many went on to become popular TV shows, while others changed drastically. For example, the Dick Van Dyke Show evolved from a sit-com pilot starring Carl Reiner. Some died a quiet death, never hit the airwaves and are beyond "forgotten" into the realm of "never heard of." 

The most unique may be Kimbar of the Jungle (1949) starring muscleman Steve Reeves, since it is the first and only chapter of a planned 13-chapter adventure serial similar to the 1935 serial The New Adventures of Tarzan. Reeves plays a Tarzan clone in his only vine-swinging appearance. The 15 minute episode can be viewed on YouTube.

Unsold TV pilots made before 1964 are often in the public domain. The reasoning must have been, if they are not turned into a series, then what would have been the point of copyrighting and renewing them? The producers may have felt that way since they certainly proceeded to bury their losses and forget as fast as possible. 

Many more pilots were made in the 1950s and '60s than today since the costs were far less. An intriguing one that many cinephiles want to see (just once!) is Here Comes Tobor from 1956. This is because Tobor is the robot from the 1954 sci-fi featureTobor the Great and the world loves robots!  The plot has America's top secret super robot being sent to investigate a mysterious signal from a missing atomic submarine. Sounds good, but the execution of the pilot was only so-so and the show was not picked up. (Still is from the TV pilot.)

There must be hundreds of lost and obscure TV pilots out there! Recently I learned about a forgotten 1953 pilot called Johnny Nighthawk. Howard Duff is the owner of a one-plane wildcat airline who is hired to pick up a rare antique in San Francisco and fly it back to Los Angeles. The flyboy soon meets a man who dies in his hotel room, a trigger happy sexy dame (film legend Angela Lansbury), underworld hoodlums, the police, murder, and a priceless vase in Chinatown. It aired only once on Ford Television Theater and was titled The Ming Lama. 

I also recently heard about a 1965 Bette Davis pilot created by Aaron Spelling called The Decorator that  you can also enjoy on YouTube. The inimitable Miss Davis stars as a financially broke interior designer who fails to understand her precarious position. She sleeps to noon and saunters around her house smoking cigarettes as only Davis could smoke them. 

The same google search turned up Bette's first TV pilot from 1958, that I also had never heard of, called Paula. Bette had a different idea for her television pilot in 1958. Paula was to be a light comedy/drama about a successful Broadway theatrical agent (herself, of course), her agency and the eccentric clients they take on. The women wouldn't be played for laughs, they would do the playing. Sounds as if this might have been a real winner! Why Bette never attracted a sponsor for TV is a mystery perhaps only Peter falk's Columbo might well have solved. 

Other major movie stars also made pilots that were not picked up. The Jane Powell Show, made in 1961, is a good example of a lost pilot the world has never seen or scarcely heard of.  Jane plays a prominent singer and night club entertainer who abandons TV and film offers on a whim to marry a small town college professor and settle down to a campus life.

A very witty script and a lot of familiar Hollywood faces make it a shame this show didn't find a sponsor. The chemistry between Jane Powell and up-and-coming co-star Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island, 1964-67) is engaging.  The concept for this romantic sex comedy just may have been inspired by the success of 1959's Pillow Talk that launched the popular series of Doris Day and Rock Hunter sex comedies. The banter and bickering of the leads and the situations they encounter are similar, Jane even wears the same hair style as Doris  and Russell in many scenes is a dead-ringer for Rock.
  
After locating rare and lost TV shows and movies for years, I am joining forces with a number of private film collectors around the country to release the worthiest of titles under the Festival Films banner.  The new series is called LOST & RARE: Film and TV Treasures. Volumes 1 and 2 -- "Television Pilots" and "Sports Immortals" -- will be available on May 15th from vendors soon to be announced, or they may be ordered now from www.lostandrare.com. 

Meanwhile, please enjoy these sample clips from the "Lost and Rare" pilot episode for The Jane Powell Show. 








I am seeking similar unknown film and TV gems of all kinds from private collectors for future releases.  Please contact me if you have any truly rare films that we can share with the world for our mutual benefit!

 Visit my website at Festival Films.

Batter Up! -- Touching All Bases!

I would describe myself as a casual fair-weather baseball fan.  As a kid the family traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2 or 3 times to see the Milwaukee Braves play when Hank Aaron was their main star.  Win or lose, don't recall, but it was quite an event.  I do remember the ball park and the 90 minute car ride to get there.  I have lived most of my life in the Twin Cities and follow the Minnesota Twins.  I saw a couple of games in the 1970s in the old Met Stadium whose site is now occupied by the Mall of America.  The spot inside the mall where home plate sat is memorialized by a bronzed home plate set into the concrete of the amusement park.  An immense distance away on the far wall is the actual stadium chair that Harmon Killebrew dented with an upper deck home run, placed the exact distance from home.

I also saw a few games in the domed Metrodome where the Twins next played for many years.  In 1981 I somehow got tickets to the 7th game of the World Series and took my ten-year-old son Jeff.  The game (Twins Win!) has gone down in baseball legend as the "Most exciting one-run game ever played."  The scariest moment was when the other team had the bases loaded, the ball trickled a few feet ahead of home and we got a double play catcher to first back to catcher.  Jack Morris pitched into the tenth inning after demanding to be kept in.  Manager Tom Kelly said, "OK, it's only a game."

The Twins are now in their third season in a gorgeous, fan-friendly new ballpark called Target Field.  I saw one game in the sold-out first season, a standing room only ticket in which they fell behind 4 nothing in the first inning and eventually lost, but it was great fun and Jim Thome hit a homer.  They won their division that year but lost in first round of the play-offs.  Last year the Twins fell to last - worst team in baseball.  This year they are 2 wins & 4 losses today, but hope springs eternal.

Moving on to movies, I am about to release on DVD a rare baseball documentary called "Touching All Bases" made in 1939.  It was produced by Kellogg Company, so kind of a commercial for them, and was made available on 16mm film at no charge to schools and civic and sports organizations throughout the country.  1939 was touted as the 100th birthday of baseball, or at least in America, although the once accepted story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 has been debunked by historians over the years.  Still, in 1939 they opened the famous National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.  Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb spoke at the dedication and this footage is among the many highlights of this 44 minute film!

The film starts with kids playing sandlot baseball, who are then invited to see a Boston Red Sox game and baseball movies by the Boston manager.  The film visits 8 of the 10 American League parks in 1939, the museum dedication ceremony at Cooperstown and an exhibition game by Father Flanagan's Boy's Town.  Part of the film is instructional baseball about how to bat and field conducted by pros like Joe Di Maggio.  Preparation for the first night game is shown.  Highlights from the 1939 World Series include Di Maggio's steal of home in the tenth inning.

This is a terrific "Lost & Rare" film for all baseball fans, to be available with other sports films on May 1 from Festival Films.  Watch for the official announcement and a new website right here.  Meanwhile, here is a sneak peak at "Touching All Bases."





Visit my website at Festival Films.

Magnificence at the Paramount!

Just one week ago today, and all day from 1:30 in the afternoon until 10 at night, my wife Chris, son Jeff and I were experiencing the single most memorable and unforgettable movie event of my life: Napoleon at Oakland's Paramount Theater.  I can't really speak for them, but Jeff was impressed and Chris was bowled over by the live 43-piece orchestra conducted by her hero Carl Davis, whose score overflowed with movements by her favorite composer, Beethoven.  We sat in the center section of the lower balcony.  Our view of the screen is shown in this photo that Chris took before the performance.  No photos were permitted during the show.

The dark squares to the right and left of the lighted screen are curtains hiding the two screens revealed during the last 20 minutes for the grand "tryptic" finale similar to Cinemascope or even Cinerama years later.  The audience gave a huge ovation when the curtains opened up.  Two temporary projection booths were installed in the back corners of the main floor to provide the additional 35mm cameras needed to project on the added screens.  All 3 projectors were synched so that horses could ride from the left screen thru the center and out the right side.  The variety and creativity of the 3 screens was amazing.  In some scenes the 3 images formed a single wide shot like my picture at the top, while in others 3 separate scenes played at the same time, or the right was reversed and repeated on the left while the center was different.  My favorite part was when Napoleon stood on a hill envisaging the future in the clouds, with shots of revolving globes and Josephine close-ups.  In the very last shots the 3 screens were red, white and blue duplicating the French flag as "La Marseillaise" played once more for a rousing conclusion.

Some early promotion of the event:  "The Brownlow restoration, produced with his partner Patrick Stanbury at Photoplay Productions in association with the BFI, is the most complete version of Gance’s masterpiece since its 1927 premiere at the Paris Opéra.  The SFSFF screenings also mark the U.S. premiere of the renowned orchestral score, written over 30 years ago (and twice expanded since), by Carl Davis, who will conduct the Oakland East Bay Symphony."

"The spectacular presentation at the 3,000-seat, Art Deco Oakland Paramount will be climaxed by its finale in “Polyvision”—an enormous triptych, employing three specially installed synchronized projectors, that will dramatically expand the screen to triple its width. The logistics and expense of screening "Napoleon" properly with full orchestra and special equipment have made it nearly impossible to mount. Gance’s "Napoleon" hasn’t been screened theatrically in the U.S. with live orchestra for nearly 30 years and there are no plans to repeat the SFSFF event in any other American city."

The screening we shared on Saturday, March 31, 2012, was essentially sold out.  The orchestra played for 5 1/2 hours of film divided into 4 segments.  The event will never be repeated in the USA, or not with Carl Davis conducting.  (We heard the cost for the orchestra over the four shows was $750,000!)  After the first two parts there was a long break for dinner.  Nearby restaurants were packed.  A number of friends had come from long distances just to see the film.  I have never gone anywhere before just to see a single movie.  I may not do so ever again.  No regrets.  Only memories.  The Paramount Theater in Oakland is king!  Chris took this photo after the show as the audience hesitated to leave.

Jeff and his wife Amanda live in San Francisco so we visited a few more days with them.  Among other activities we enjoyed the amazing Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio, which I highly recommend.  But all I can think about looking back is Napoleon, the film and the event.

Visit my website at Festival Films.