'Cineconline' as it appeared on the screen of Brooksie's Hollyrose Upstairs Cinema ... an intermission for now, hopefully a return to in-person viewing next year.
In 2020, the Cinecon Classic Film Festival was forced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to cancel its annual in-person event. It substituted a small but satisfying programme of screenings. In 2021, 'Cineconline' returned, with an expanded slate of features. Of the shorts and other special features, the most enjoyable for me were the technicolor College Queen (1946) and a neat 1942 episode of Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood focusing on Jane Withers’ sixteenth birthday, as well as the daily sampling of silent-era film trailers.
'Cineconline' was a spirited way of recreating the unique experience of attending Cinecon and a fitting testament to the ongoing legacy of one of the world's greatest film festivals. Hopefully it will be an in-person event again next year. Attending it is something every fan of classic film should do at least once.
Cineconline 2021 - The Features
RENDEVOUS WITH ANNIE (1946)
Shifting from whodunnit to war drama to social comedy and back again, Rendevous with Annie tells the story of soldier Jeff Dolan (Eddie Albert), currently in jail for attempted murder. While serving in England, pining for his wife Annie (Faye Marlowe) and her famous chocolate cake, he agreed to a plan to smuggle him home for a secret three-day rendezvous. Many months later, the war ended and Annie had a little surprise for him. Now he must prove both his innocence and his paternity without incriminating anyone who helped him go AWOL.
It’s one of those films that crams a few too many third-act twists into an already overlong running time (for a Republic picture, 90 minutes is practically Gone With The Wind) - and along with the tonal shifts it feels more like several episodes of a TV drama watched in a row than a movie, but the warmth of Albert and Marlowe’s relationship and the Capraesque atmosphere carries the day. It was the always interesting Allan Dwan’s first directorial effort for Republic.
DYNAMITE DAN (1924)
This amiable but undistinguished B-picture follows Dan (former stuntman Kenneth Macdonald) in his tangles with some crooks and his subsequent attempt to become a boxer and win the girl (Diana Arden), although her oily employer has other ideas. The principals do well enough but none aside from the employer - played by one Boris Karloff - had significant onscreen careers, though I did enjoy spotting Carrie Daumery, the older actress who plays a memorable role in The Last Warning (1928).
BLUE BLAZES RAWDEN (1918)
‘Blue Blazes’ Rawden (William S. Hart), a two-fisted lumberjack working the wilds of Canada, meets his match in bar owner ‘Ladyfingers’ Hilgard (Robert McKim). A gun battle delivers possession of the bar and Ladyfingers’ girlfriend, the half-French, half Native American Babette (Maude George) to Rawden.
Comeuppance and eventual redemption - Hart's favourite theme - arrive in the person of Ladyfingers’ sweet mother (Gertrude Claire) and brother (Robert Gordon), with some generous (and effective) tugs on the heart strings.
This deviates from the William S. Hart blueprint somewhat - not because of the setting, but because 'Blue Blazes' sometimes feels more like a Bad Bad man than a Good Bad Man, Hart’s usual silent stoicism discarded for something more manic and unrestrained. The setting is well-realised and quite beautiful, contributing to a thoroughly enjoyable film.
THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN (1921)
This film belongs to a perversely entertaining genre: that of the small town full of gossips, and the iconoclasts who fall victim to their small-mindedness and corruption. Joe Louden (Thomas Meighan) is too outspoken for the likes of the local newspaper editor and conservative judge, while his beloved, Ariel Tabor (Doris Kenyon), is scorned for daring to be the daughter of a penniless artist. The tables turn, and both abandon the town - Joe to study law, Ariel to Paris after receiving an inheritance, where she becomes a sophisticated, cultured, but still sympathetic young woman. Both return to Canaan (why, you have to ask?) where Joe becomes an attorney to ne'er-do-wells and fights to prove his worth.
As often seems the case with adaptations of Booth Tarkington's small-town stories, you feel a lot of subplots fell by the wayside. A number of characters appear poised to play a major part only to be sidelined, which may also be due to the fact that the film is not entirely complete. The cast is uniformly good and Asheville SC makes an evocative stand-in for Indiana. Film historian Frank Thompson should be heartily thanked for rescuing this from obscurity.
HOOFBEATS OF VENGEANCE (1928)
Rex the Wonder Horse, put out to pasture after the murder of his Mountie master, vows vengeance upon his assailant, the villainous ranch foreman and smuggler Jud (Al Ferguson).
A new Mountie, Sgt Jack (Jack Perrin) arrives to solve the mystery and is bewitched by lovely ranch owner Mary (Helen Foster), whose guardian is none other than Jud. Soon, Sgt Jack is on the trail of the bad guys, but Rex is well ahead of him, his haunting hoofbeats drumming on the conscience of the killer ...
Perrin is better in the lead role than Jon Mirsalis seemed to think, but Helen Foster is simply adorable as the plucky girl rancher. At a tight, fast-moving 47 minutes, there isn't a moment to think about the ridiculousness of the premise - and anyway, dwell on that, and you’ll miss some cracking good fun. Delightful.
SLEEPYTIME GAL (1942)
Probably the best Judy Canova vehicle I’ve seen, for two reasons: it doesn’t lean too heavily on Judy’s hick persona, and has a reasonably strong plot that doesn’t get in the way of the silliness, and vice versa.
Bessie Cobb (Judy Canova), a cook in a Miami hotel, enters a radio singing competition to help pay for her hotel workmates (Tom Brown and Mildred Coles) to become engaged. She wins through some subterfuge involving crooks, gamblers and a singing gangster’s moll named Sugar Gaston (Ruth Terry), whose name Bessie assumes - which naturally puts her in the firing line when the baddies return.
There are some good production numbers and funny set pieces involving a mad inventor who helps the gangsters rub out the competition using novel methods that include pumping chloroform through Bessie’s microphone - hence the title song, ‘Sleepytime Gal’. A ton of fun.
HELEN'S BABIES (1924)
Bachelor Harry (Edward Everett Horton), the author of a famous book on child development, is temporarily placed in charge of his high-spirited nieces Toddie (Baby Peggy) and Budge (Jean Carpenter). The kiddies refuse to conform to his expectations and cause merry havoc until he begins to warm to them and their attractive neighbour (Clara Bow).
There’s not much else to the plot, and this might be pretty forgettable were it not such an excellent showcase for the formidable skills of Baby Peggy, Diana Serra Cary. There’s some beautiful pieces of business between Cary and Horton during a prayer sequence that an actor three times her age would struggle to put over, but she does it. Far more than just a cutie pie, she was a real actor. An early-career Clara Bow is effective if unusually subdued as Horton’s love interest, a role that gives her little to do.