Elliot Lavine, programmer of pre-Code films at the Castro Theatre (every Wednesday through March 30), was raised in Detroit, moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s with the thought of becoming a filmmaker, "and accidentally wound up at the Roxie. I was hired to write calendar notes, and I was like the man who came to dinner. It became a very fortuitous thing, opening up that part of myself. Even as a little kid, I would have my friends come over at a certain time to watch [a movie on TV]."
My conversation about his six-week program at the Castro began with his description of the pre-Code era. "It's that very short window, 1930-34. There was a Code, but nobody followed it. There was no effective way to self-police. Exhibitors in the South were starting to get complaints from their patrons: the films were too licentious. That Bible Belt was getting bigger and bigger each day." Lavine's comments below are presented in quotes; mine are part of the main text.
Torch Singer (1933) Director Alexander Hall gives us Claudette Colbert in my choice for the best film and performance in this series. Colbert is an unwed mom who gives up her daughter to the nuns, only to regret the choice. Later she becomes a radio blues singer, which provides for a poignant reunion. "It was designed to fill that need in female moviegoers, even in the tawdriest possible way. She does not expect to be judged. There must have been thousands and thousands of working mothers who related like hell to this film. It's the tail end of the pre-Code era, but the absolute zenith of the Depression." (3/2)
Three on a Match (1932) Director Mervyn LeRoy presents the odyssey of three girls whose lives keep intersecting through adulthood. With Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Warren William, who was the era's Perry Mason in a series of B-movies. (3/2)
The Cheat (1931) Director George Abbott offers Tallulah Bankhead as a woman whose spendthrift ways drive her into the arms of a sexual predator. Cited by Leonard Maltin for a great naturalistic soundtrack. (3/2)
Shanghai Express (1932) Josef von Sternberg gives a young Marlene Dietrich the role of the sultry Shanghai Lily during the turbulence of the Chinese Civil War. (3/9)
Safe in Hell (1931) Lavine's choice for Best Female Performance in the series goes to Dorothy MacKaill for playing a prostitute who kills her john after he brutally rapes her when she refuses to have sex with him. "She turns around and shoots him, and in the aftermath she accidentally sets fire to the hotel." Her solution is to flee the clutches of the law by going to an island that is humanly beyond the pale. Director William Wellman "is making some comments on how women are treated in a male-centric society. The idea that this woman who's invested with so much integrity is being fucked over by society is pretty hard to take." (3/9)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) Mervyn LeRoy presents a hard-hitting drama about a man betrayed by the criminal justice system. Lavine's vote for the Best Male Performance in this series: Chain Gang star Paul Muni. "It dances around the idea of a noble, integrity-laden character, who's willing to present himself honestly as a hard-working person, having his life degenerate into a horrible crisis-laden mess. Having both sides of it very believable makes it a tough experience." (3/16)
Wild Boys of the Road (1933) "Essentially it's a film that's driven by the Depression itself. You have all these really nice people, teenage kids and respectible parents, suddenly they get clobbered by the Depression. Frankie Darro plays one of these kids, a terrific juvenile actor. The Depression descends upon their home. Their dad's out of work, the mother has no working skills. They're in the process of losing their home. They take to the road like hobos. So you have these nice middle-class kids who are suddenly at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. They have to contend with really serious conditions: exploitation, rape. [Director William] Wellman was always dealing with serious issues in an entertaining way." (3/16)
Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) Frank Capra presents a young Barbara Stanwyck in a moody affair with a powerful Chinese warlord. Now seems dated, partly for having white actors play Asian characters. Lavine points out that this film totally bombed for Capra at the time, paving the way for his comeback with It Happened One Night. (3/23)
Downstairs (1932) Director Monta Bell gives one-time silent star John Gilbert a chance to shine as a playboy who alternates seducing upper-class women and their downstairs servants. (3/23)
Island of Lost Souls (1932) Director Eric Kenton gives us a younger Charles Laughton as a mad scientist who spends his time on a remote island creating half-human/half-animal freakish creatures. This weird melodrama, adapted from an H.G. Wells novel, has an especially dark ending. (3/30)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931) This first sound-era version of the scary transformation tale gives a young Fredric March a spectacular vehicle for some truly creepy moments. March would later be paired off against another great J&H man, Spencer Tracy, in the 60s courtroom drama Inherit the Wind. (3/30)
Freaks (1932) Horror film master Tod Browning pushes the envelope with his sympathetic treatment of so-called carnival sideshow freaks, deformed humans who could only survive by allowing themselves to be exploited for public curiosity. Banned for 30 years in the UK and severely censored in the US. (3/30)
David Lamble: What do you see for the future of America's remaining movie palaces like the Castro?
Elliot Lavine: That's a tough question, because emotionally I don't want to give you the answer, but I feel eventually there will be fewer and fewer. Even in a city like San Francisco, where there should be a theater like this in every neighborhood.
Well, the Royal's gone, and the Gateway.
So I would say overall it's pretty grim. Studios are becoming less and less interested in sending out prints. They will send out 35mm prints, there's still a great level of care and appreciation on behalf of the studios. Universal's great actually, they're like the gatekeepers with their library. Every Universal print I get is gorgeous. It's not the case with Warners necessarily, but they have a larger library and it's rather unwieldy. Sometimes when a print comes in from Warners you're crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, but at least it's a place where you can get prints. But there are fewer and fewer theaters that can show them. Part of the problem, too, is in order to show archive prints, you have to have a reel-to-reel projection system. The alternative is the platter system, and no studio is going to let any archive print be plattered. You have to sign that in blood!
Because it destroys the print.
It chews it up, it would be worthless after two or three screenings. How many theaters can there be that even have dual projection? Here in SF there's the Alamo Drafthouse, the Castro and the Roxie. Even the Roxie is moving away from 16mm, which is another way for people to see films on film.