“The story of a bashful boy who lived in a world of ideas and ideals. He was so afraid of girls that he made a secret study of them and the more he studied them the more he feared them.”
Harold Lloyd in GIRL SHY (1924) screens at The Des Peres Theater (12701 Manchester Rd, Des Peres, MO 63131) Wednesday February 9th at 7pm. – They are presented by Silents, Please STL, a local group that aims to promote and preserve the art of silent filmmaking from the early 20th Century through community programming and education. Admission is $10 and tickets can be purchased in advance HERE. (which supports this screening and helps to sustain ongoing programming). Silents, Please STL‘s Facebook page can be found HERE
In GIRL SHY, Harold Meadows (Lloyd) is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guide book for other bashful young men, “The Secret of Making Love,” chapters from which are portrayed as fantasy sequences. Fate has him meet rich girl, Mary (Ralston), and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding.
“You’ve always treated me as a monster, Trudy. Now you’re going to be one.”
Cinedigm, the leading independent streaming company super-serving enthusiast fan bases, announced today that The Film Detective (TFD), the classic media streaming network and film archive that restores and distributes classic films, is releasing a special-edition version of the 1950s cult classic, Frankenstein’s Daughter(1958), starring John Ashley and Sandra Knight, on Blu-ray and DVD Oct. 19.
Fans of low-budget horror will recognize many familiar faces,including John Ashley, Harold Lloyd, Jr., and former Playboy Playmate of the Month, Sally Todd. For director Richard E. Cunha, Frankenstein’s Daughter was released in the heat of a historic year for low-budget favorites, also having directed such cult classics as She Demons (1958), Giant from the Unknown (1958) and Missile to the Moon (1958).
Frankenstein’s Daughter finds Dr. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) carrying on the legacy of his late grandfather, the notorious Dr. Frankenstein, by building his own hulking beast with the transplanted brain of a beautiful, young woman. Bringing a fresh twist to Frankenstein films, Frankenstein’s Daughter takes place in ”modern” Los Angeles, where—despite news reports of a female monster menacing the neighborhood—nothing stops the local sun-soaked teenagers from partying poolside.
This special-edition release marks the latest in a series of collaborations between The Film Detective and The Wade Williams Collection. Restorations of Flight to Mars (1951), Giant From the Unknown (1958) and The Other Side of Madness (1971), have also been released recently on special-edition Blu-ray and DVD.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio commentary track with author and historian Tom Weaver
Full color booklet with original essay by Weaver
Richard E. Cunha: Filmmaker of the Unknown, a new retrospective from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, featuring an archival interview with the famed director
John Ashley: Man from the B’s, a new career retrospective featuring film historian C. Courtney Joyner
Frankenstein’s Daughter will be available Oct. 19 on Blu-ray ($24.95) and DVD ($19.95) and can be pre-ordered now via Amazon and MVD. For more information or to pre-order, visit https://www.thefilmdetective.com/frankensteins-daughter
About The Film Detective:
The Film Detective (TFD) is a leading distributor of restored classic programming, including feature films, television, foreign imports, and documentaries and is a division of Cinedigm. Launched in 2014, TFD has distributed its extensive library of 3,000+ hours of film on DVD and Blu-ray and through leading broadcast and streaming platforms such as Turner Classic Movies, NBC, EPIX, Pluto TV, Amazon, MeTV, PBS and more. With a strong focus on increasing the digital reach of its content, TFD has released its classic movie app on web, Android, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. TFD is also available live with a 24/7 linear channel available on Sling TV, STIRR, Plex, Local Now, Rakuten TV and DistroTV. For more information, visit www.thefilmdetective.com
” Young man, don’t you know you might fall and get hurt?”
The Arkadin Cinema, a local independent theater scheduled to open soon, is hosting ‘Camp Arkadin’, an outdoor film series that takes place in the back lot at The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Ave in St. Louis). Harold Lloyd in SAFETY LAST plays at ‘Camp Arkadin’ Wednesday September 23rd. Showtime is 8:15. Enter through the front of The Heavy Anchor. Admission is $5. Bring your own chair. First come, first served. Seating is limited. Food and drinks and available there at The Heavy Anchor. This is a 21+ event, so leave the kids home. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE. The Arkadin Cinema’s site can be found HERE. Admission is only $5.‘Camp Arkadin’only seats about 30 people so get you tix in advance (ticket info on the FB invite).
SAFETY LAST stars Harold Lloyd, whose signature straw hat and round glasses were the biggest draws in comedy next to Chaplin and Keaton in the ‘20s. And if you show any film fan today the scene of Lloyd hanging precariously from a clock high on the side of a building, they may not know who the man is, but they probably know the indelible image, which is the biggest highlight from SAFETY LAST, probably the most beloved of Lloyd’s career.
The story of Safety Last! follows the Boy (Lloyd) as he seeks his livelihood in the big city of Los Angeles, in the hopes of making enough to wed his beloved Girl (Lloyd’s soon-to-be real-life wife Mildred Davis.) Working as a fabric counter clerk in a department store though, fortune eludes him, but he spends every dime to buy his Girl jewelry to convince her he’s doing well. Eventually the scheme catches up with him, but he has a plan to make some quick cash, involving a human fly who plans to climb the side of the store’s building for some easy publicity. It’s a moderately simple story broken into two main parts, the store struggles and the big climb, but it’s meticulously paced to keep the energy high and the laughs flowing thanks to precision gags by Lloyd and an impressive filmmaking effort..
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! WAMG’s Michelle McCue, Jim Batts and Tom Stockman introduce some ‘Best Of’ clips since we are on vacation this week. Hear our tributes to Christopher Lee, Cannon Films, Harold Lloyd, James Horner, and David Bowie!
“Bull” Brindle was so tough he wouldn’t eat lady fingers unless they had brass knuckles!”
The 1926 silent film FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE starring Harold Lloyd screens in St. Louis Sunday, February 7th at 4pm at Second Presbyterian Church (4501 Westminster Place St. Louis MO 63108). It will be accompanied by Organist Andrew Peters.
While not as much of a household name as Chaplin or Keaton, Harold Lloyd was one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedies, both silent and “talkies”, between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his bespectacled “Glasses” character, a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s era United States. Llyod’s films frequently contained extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats. The image of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in SAFETY LAST (1923) is now part of cinema folklore. Lloyd performed these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove).
In FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE (1926), Lloyd played J. Harold Manners, an irresponsible young millionaire who changes his tune when he falls for the daughter of a downtown minister. FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE features one of Lloyd’s most hair-raising stunts as a double-decker bus (with atop it the star and his ‘flock’) races driverless along busy city streets on its way to Harold’s wedding. Other hilarious highlights include: the destruction of two cars owned by our reckless hero – the first happens because of a crate of cat food in the middle of the street, which the black chauffeur mistakes for the real thing and tries to avoid but ends up slamming straight into another car, and an irresistible routine involving the indigestible ‘cakes’ which Lloyd is made to eat by his beloved at the mission.
Don’t miss the screening of FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE at 4pm February 7th at Second Presbyterian Church (4501 Westminster Place St. Louis MO 63108). It will be accompanied by Organist Andrew Peters. Admission is FREE
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Jim Batts, Michelle McCue, and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review THE GIFT, FANTASTIC FOUR, RICKI AND THE FLASH. We’ll also preview STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., and DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL. We also discuss the films of director Jonathan Demme and Harold Lloyd’s 1923 silent masterpiece SAFETY LAST.
WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and we will soon be streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
“I’m just a regular fellow – step right up and call me ‘Speedy’ “
THE FRESHMAN (1925) and THE MARATHON (1919), both starring Harold Lloyd, will screen this Friday, September 5th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium
There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music and I’d go as far as saying there’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. The group is a treasure and St. Louis is lucky to have them here. I’ve seen them perform with silent films several times, often at The St. Louis International Film Festival, and usually at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium and it’s always a fantastic time at the movies. Last summer the Rats and People played along to some Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton at the SLIFF/KIDS film fest, and this Friday night, September 5th, they will be accompanying two films starring the great silent film comic Harold Lloyd; THE FRESHMAN (1925) and THE MARATHON (1919)
While not as much of a household name as Chaplin or Keaton, Harold Lloyd was one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedies, both silent and “talkies”, between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his bespectacled “Glasses” character, a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s era United States. Llyod’s films frequently contained extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats. The image of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in SAFETY LAST (1923) is now part of cinema folklore. Lloyd performed these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove).
In THE FRESHMAN (1925), Lloyd plays Harold ‘Speedy’ Lamb, a college freshman at Tate University in 1925, the days of Prohibition, beanies, flappers, the fox trot, and college sweaters with big letters on the chest. Harold is the butt of everyone’s jokes from beginning to end, except for a maid of simple taste who loves him. He dreams of playing varsity football and tries to convince the other players he’s more than the humble water boy he actually is. In one memorably funny sequence, he dances in a suit that is only half made and as the night progresses proceeds to lose pockets, sleeves etc. until he is left only in his underwear. The film climaxes of course, with the big game, and I can’t wait to see THE FRESHMAN, which runs 72 minutes, on the big screen with live music.
Also showing will be the 10-minute short THE MARATHON (1919). In it Harold Lloyd tries to impress a girl but gets chased by her father and the police right into an ongoing marathon. There are plenty of Harold Lloyd gags jammed in to ten minutes, including the use of a midget, a small dog, and an impressive mirror joke.
I highly recommend seeing these two silent films on the big screen Friday night September 5th along with the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. The show starts at 7:30.Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium is located at 470 E. Lockwood Ave.
Admission is:
$6 for the general public
$5 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$4 for Webster University staff and faculty
Free for Webster students with proper I.D.
Here is a trailer for THE FRESHMEN:
Advance tickets are available from the cashier before each screening or contact the Film Series office (314-246-7525) for more options. The Film Series can only accept cash or check.
