FILM FORUM CELEBRATES NATIONAL SILENT MOVIE DAY WITH TWO FILMS ABOUT LIFE IN NYC

 

-MANHANDLED, WITH GLORIA SWANSON, ON WED., SEPT. 29 @ 6:30 PM,

 

-SPEEDY, WITH HAROLD LLOYD AND GUEST STAR BABE RUTH, ON SUN., OCT. 3 @ 12:15 PM

 

BOTH WITH LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

SPEEDY INTRODUCED BY HAROLD LLOYD’S GRANDDAUGHTER, SUZANNE LLOYD

PLUS MAKING-OF DOC IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SPEEDY

 

 

Film Forum will host special screenings of MANHANDLED (1924) on Wednesday, September 29 @ 6:30 PM and SPEEDY (1928), along with Bruce Goldstein’s “making-of” documentary In the Footsteps of Speedy, on Sunday, October 3 @ 12:15 PM. The two events celebrate the very first NATIONAL SILENT MOVIE DAY, an initiative launched by leading film archivists, dedicated to celebrating, preserving and creating access to silent movies.

 

MANHANDLED (1924, Allan Dwan) Gum-cracking Macy’s shopgirl Gloria Swanson finds her chance impersonation of a Russian countess (parodying Swanson rival Pola Negri) is an entrée into Manhattan society, in the quintessential NYC working girl silent comedy, with a memorable subway rush hour crunch (filmed at Paramount Studios in Astoria). Featuring sultry siren Lilyan Tashman, a guest appearance by Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington, and an early appearance by Frank Morgan, the future “Wizard of Oz.” Digital restoration by Paramount Pictures.

 

SPEEDY (1928, Ted Wilde) Jazz Age Idols meet, as baseball-crazed soda jerk/cabbie Harold Lloyd and passenger Babe Ruth hurtle to old Yankee Stadium. Extensive NYC location work is highlighted during a frenzied finale, as Harold races Gotham’s last horse-drawn trolley right through Washington Square Arch! “No filmmaker had ever made such flamboyant use of New York.” – Kevin Brownlow. Archival 35mm print. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Courtesy Harold Lloyd Entertainment.

 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SPEEDY (2015) In this acclaimed 30-minute documentary, Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming, takes us on a tour of the NYC locations captured by Lloyd and his Hollywood crew for Speedy – many of them only steps away from Film Forum (along with vivid scenes shot in Coney Island, Midtown, Sutton Place, Yankee Stadium, etc.). Says Goldstein, “I was amazed when researching the movie to realize that much of the action takes place, not on the Lower East Side as I’d always thought, but in Greenwich Village – especially around Sheridan Square, when it was still ‘the low rent district.’” Goldstein also points out the shots of Los Angeles intended to double for New York (not always convincingly). Digital. Courtesy The Criterion Collection.

 

SUZANNE LLOYD is the granddaughter of Harold and was raised by Lloyd and his wife Mildred Davis Lloyd (the comedian’s former leading lady) on their legendary Beverly Hills estate Greenacres. Following Lloyd’s death in 1971, 19-year-old Suzanne became the trustee of his film library, along with a collection of over 200,000 3-D photographs shot by Lloyd. Suzanne served on the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute for over 20 years and has published three books. She lives in Los Angeles.

 

NATIONAL SILENT MOVIE DAY (September 29) was launched by Chad Hunter, Executive Director of Video Trust and Director of the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society; Brandee B. Cox, a Senior Film Archivist at the Academy Film Archive; and Steven K. Hill, Associate Motion Picture Curator at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and aims to raise awareness about the urgency of preserving as many surviving silent films as possible. Approximately 80% of all silent films made in the silent era have been lost forever. “Only 14% of American silent feature films (1,575 of 10,919 titles) survive as originally released in complete 35mm copies. Another 5% of American silent feature films (562 of 10,919 titles) survive in incomplete form, missing at least a reel of the original footage, in formats ranging from 35mm down to abridged 9.5mm home library prints.” – David Pierce, The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929.

 

Wednesday, September 29 at 6:30

MANHANDLED (1924, Allan Dwan)

Starring Gloria Swanson, Tom Moore, Lilyan Tashman, Ann Pennington, Frank Morgan.

75 mins. Digital restoration. Courtesy Paramount.

 

Sunday, October 3 at 12:15

SPEEDY (1928, Ted Wilde)

Starring Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Babe Ruth.

*Introduction by Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of Harold Lloyd

85 mins. Archival 35mm print. Courtesy Harold Lloyd Entertainment.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SPEEDY (2015, Bruce Goldstein)

30 mins. Digital. Courtesy The Criterion Collection.

 

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209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014

Box Office: 212-727-8110

https://filmforum.org/