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Are You Lonely? The Free Silent Movie Series Can Help
May/June 2018
By Dean Glass
SOHO's Third Thursdays Silent Movie Series returns May 17 with Lonesome, a 1928 story about a pair of lonely city dwellers who spend a magical day at Coney Island finding—and then losing—love. While originally produced as a silent film, the studio required director Paul Fejös to add three short sound sequences to the finished film to make it more appealing to audiences thirsty for talking motion pictures. This process was known at the time as "goat glanding," and was fairly common during the transition from silent to sound films.
Critics agree the sound sequences in Lonesome are completely unnecessary and do little to enhance the film, although today they may be seen (and heard) as a curiosity of early "talkie" technology. Expressive camerawork, superimposition, and color stenciling more than make up for the lackluster talking sequences. Lonesome is a must-see silent film. Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon star. Read more.
Ushering in the first day of summer on June 21, we present Children of Divorce, a Jazz Age tragedy from 1927 starring standout Clara Bow, Esther Ralston, and a young Gary Cooper in his first leading role. While in love with Ralston, Cooper, after a night of drunken revelry, wakes up to find himself married to her best friend, the scheming socialite Bow. All three are children of divorce who don't want to repeat their parents' mistakes, so dissolving the stunning marriage is out of the question. The situation seems hopeless for everyone. One critic perhaps put it best when she said, "Emotional complications abound." Read more.
Third Thursdays screenings begin at 7:30pm in the Adobe Chapel, 3963 Conde Street in Old Town San Diego. While tickets are $10 at the door, we are offering a limited number of free admissions to these films. RSVP to SOHOsandiego@aol.com; free tickets are on a first come, first served basis. Our July and August presentations will be announced in the next edition of Our Heritage eNews.
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