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Stars of the Past Shine Again
July/August 2017
By Dean Glass
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Our Third Thursdays Silent Movie series continues July 20 with Brown of Harvard, a 1926 "buddy film" about a college gridiron hero and his weakling sidekick. William Haines, the number one box office draw of 1930 and Hollywood's first openly gay movie star, played Tom Brown. Haines was eventually fired by Louis B. Mayer, the era's most powerful film producer, for refusing to give up his live-in boyfriend and marry a woman. Haines then began his second career as Hollywood's most in-demand interior decorator and furniture designer. His firm, William Haines Designs, is still in business today.
Costarring in Brown of Harvard as the sidekick is Jack Pickford (Mary's younger brother), who racked up an impressive 137 film credits between 1909 and 1930, two as director. Pickford has come to be known as "Hollywood's First Bad Boy," a playboy and carouser who allegedly had addictions to alcohol, drugs, and gambling. His three marriages, all to former Ziegfeld Follies girls, ended in disaster.
Brown of Harvard also features Mary Brian ("The Sweetest Girl in Pictures") as Brown's love interest, and the 19-year-old John Wayne in his first screen appearance.
People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag), which will be shown August 17, is the final film in our 2017 Third Thursday series. This 1930 German film is an early example of a mumblecore movie, a low-budget film employing nonprofessional actors and improvised performances.
A cab driver and a wine salesman spend an afternoon by a lake canoodling with a movie extra and a record store employee, and a love triangle ensues between three of them. Interspersed are scenes of various denizens of Berlin enjoying a carefree Sunday in July 1929. This luscious time capsule of a movie is a fascinating look at Germany in the last days before Hitler came to power.
Its stars were not in the cast, but rather behind the camera. They include directors Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase) and Edgar G. Ulmer (The Black Cat). Billy Wilder wrote the screenplays for People on Sunday and Some Like It Hot, filmed at the Hotel del Coronado, as well as co-writing and directing Sunset Boulevard. Cinematographer Fred Zinnemann later directed From Here to Eternity.
After this August 17 screening, SOHO's Third Thursday series will return next May.
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