by Sam Juliano
At $8 a pop to cross the Hudson River into Manhattan, the financial “overhead” to take in the 23 Day “Pre-Code” Film Festival at Manhattan’s premiere revival house was as substantial as the time needed to make the daily trek, often during rush hour. As a “member” the ticket price is $7.00, but at least 60% or so of the time my wife Lucille was gratefully with me. And on one occasion (for the double feature of King Kong and Tarzan and His Mate), my three sons were in tow. From July 18th till August 11th time stopped for me, as I basically revolved my schedule around the inevitable appearance at the Film Forum on Houston Street in a concerted effort to complete a film course in American cinema’s richest and most elusive period. While the itinerary included a number of popular films that have been viewed many times over the years, there were some rarities that almost never surface in some of the overlap festivals at the Film Forum and at other houses. In any case, the pre-code festival brought more pleasure and surprises than any other previous venture at the Houston Street theatre. For four weeks it ran concurrent with the glorious Buster Keaton Festival, which ran every Monday from May 23 till August 8, another venue I attended in its entirety with Lucille and the three boys. While a fair number of the 50 films offered have made their way to VHS, laserdisc and DVD through MGM, Warner Archives and on popular “Forbidden Hollywood sets,” (not to mention exposure on TCM) an equal number are only attainable on DVDR bootlegs and sold on collector-to-collector basis through the likes of e bay, iffoer and other such sites. Many of the titles unavailable as yet on DVD were likely headed for future “Forbidden Hollywood” sets, as there are another couple of dozen titles (including a number of William Wellmans and several Roy del Ruths) that were released on VHS in the Forbidden Hollywood strain) but Warners pulled the plug on all future volumes in 2008 in response to the economic climate. Others remain in public domain limbo (The Story of Temple Drake, Call Her Savage, Me and My Gal, etc.) a fact that has do doubt discouraged the larger studios from investing considerable expense at the fear of others stealing their work and using it for themselves. In more cases there are other rights issues which prevent the films from showing anywhere but on television broadcast or in cinematic revival houses like the Film Forum. (more…)
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 