The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Culpeper Campus.
Adventure films, operetta, comedy and silent movies are all part of the August film schedule at The Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater. David March, a Preservation Specialist in the Moving Image Section and one the three projectionists for the theater, is guest programmer for the month. Among his picks are three fictionalized film versions depicting the adventures of legendary fifteenth-century French poet François Villon, beginning with a rarely seen early Technicolor print of the operetta The Vagabond King, followed by the 1927 silent film The Beloved Rogue, and finally, Ronald Colman in If I Were King.
Renowned operetta composers Gilbert & Sullivan are the subject of Mike Leigh’s 1999 feature Topsy-Turvy, and the 1983 film production of their famed comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance will be shown on the same weekend. Two films each by multiple Oscar nominated directors Robert Altman and Wes Anderson will be screened: the ensemble comedy-mystery Gosford Park and Popeye, starring Robin Williams for Altman, and, for Anderson, The Royal Tenenbaums and the animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Also on the August program are the comedies Doc Hollywood and Married to the Mob as well as the Depression-era coming of age story King of the Hill, the Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Language Film Raise the Red Lantern, and the rarely-seen silent version of Captain Blood.
Thursday, August 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Doc Hollywood (Warner Bros., 1991)
Michael J. Fox stars as young Dr. Benjamin Stone, bound for Hollywood and a lucrative plastic surgery practice. His plans are side-lined when a fender-bender lands him in a small South Carolina town and he is sentenced to community service. There he meets Lou (Julie Warner), who just might be the woman of his dreams, a number of quirky locals, and is befriended by a pig. Woody Harrelson, Bridget Fonda and David Ogden Stiers are also featured in the cast of this romantic comedy directed by Michael Caton-Jones. 104 minutes.
Friday, August 5 (7:30 p.m.)
The Vagabond King (Paramount, 1930)
The legend of fifteenth-century renegade French poet Francois Villon was dramatized in the 1901 play If I Were King by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The play inspired several films as well as the Rudolph Friml/Brian Hooker operetta The Vagabond King, which opened on Broadway in 1925. In this first celluloid version of the operetta, Dennis King recreated his original stage role as Villon, with Jeanette MacDonald as the high-born girl he pines for, and Lillian Roth as the street urchin who gives up her life to save her beloved poet. The film was photographed entirely in early two-color Technicolor and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. For many years, it was seen only in black-and-white prints made for television release in the 1950s. UCLA Film and Television Archive restored and preserved the only known nitrate Technicolor print, which was found in their collection in 1990, and have loaned this 35mm safety print to the Library of Congress for this screening. Film historian David Pierce, co-author of The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915-1935, will introduce the program. 104 minutes.
Saturday, August 6 (2 p.m.)
The Beloved Rogue (United Artists, 1927)
Stage and screen superstar John Barrymore dynamically portrays François Villon in the second feature film depiction of the renowned poet’s life. (The first version, released in 1918, starred William Farnum as Villon and was titled the same as the play it was loosely based upon, If I Were King, by Justin Huntly McCarthy.) This lavish production directed by Alan Crosland features set designs by Academy Award winning production designer William Cameron Menzies (Gone with the Wind) and an adventurous, fast-paced screenplay by Paul Bern. Villon is introduced as a “poet, pickpocket, patriot–loving France earnestly, Frenchwomen excessively, French wine exclusively.” The supporting cast includes Conrad Veidt (Casablanca), making his American film debut as the sinister King Louis XI; the lovely Marceline Day as Charlotte de Vauxcelles, and veteran character actors Slim Summerville and Mack Swain as Villon’s loyal cohorts, Jehan and Nicholas. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Andrew Simpson. 99 minutes.
Saturday, August 6 (7:30 p.m.)
If I Were King (Paramount, 1938)
Ronald Colman (with his velvet voice) is perfectly cast as the French poet-rogue François Villon in this entertaining and critically praised adaptation of Justin Huntly McCarthy’s 1901 play. Villon matches wits with the wily King Louis XI (Basil Rathbone) and falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful lady-in-waiting (Frances Dee). Directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay adaptation by the legendary Preston Sturges, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Rathbone; Best Original Score for Richard Hageman; Best Art Direction and Best Sound Recording. Frank Nugent in his New York Times review wrote of his “ungrudging admiration for Mr. Lloyd’s mastery of scene and transparent delight of the picturesque.” Variety gave the film a rave review, praising the acting performances and singling out Preston Sturges for providing “sparkling dialog to greatly enhance entertainment.” The 35 mm print is courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. 101 minutes.
For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.