Children Of Divorce (1927) in Chicago July 25th!!!

[Gagman 66]

Everyone,

Smokin' Josephine! Are you kidding me! CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927) with Clara Bow, Esther Ralston, and Gary Cooper is one of my Top 10 Holy Grail titles! This film was restored by Eastman House in 2001. Unfortunately, but for a few live screening's, Paramount put it right back in the vaults again! It has never been on VHS, let alone DVD! Incidentally, this is I believe the very film that made Coop a Big, Big Star! Or at the very least established him as a top leading man!

This film is rarely ever seen anywhere! They are actually screening this picture in Chicago on the 25th of this month? That is huge! My good friend Angie would be completely ecstatic as she loves all Three Stars to death! Holy Toledo!!!

Portage Park Theatre, locacted @ 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave, in Chicago Illinois 2008 SILENT SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL'. It Runs Every Friday, from July 18 until August 22 @ 8 PM.

July 18 'SPEEDY' 1928

July 25 'CHILDREN OF DIVORCE' 1927

Aug 1 'OUR HOSPITALITY' 1923

Aug 8 'METROPOLIS' 1927

Aug 15 'Sadie Thompson' 1928

Aug 22 'KINGS OF COMEDY 2'

All Tickets are $12 for Each Show on the Day of Show.
Tickets are $10 if purchased in advance,
and $9 for Senior Citizens & Students.

Please check out their Web Site for Additional Information.

[MissGoddess]

I wish I could see CHILDREN OF DIVORCE, too! Maybe if it receives favorable attention it will encourage some distributor to release it on dvd? I hope....

[ChiO]

You're all welcome to visit. The Portage is a pleasant 7 block walk from our house. Unfortunately, we'll be in beautiful Davenport, Iowa at the Bix Biederbecke Festival on the 25th.

Though not a silent movie, the Portage is screening INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS this Friday, with a guest appearance by Kevin McCarthy (too bad Whit Bissell isn't available).

[charliechaplinfan]

You lucky people those of you who will get to go to this.

[Gagman 66]

Here is the link. for this festival. I hope the URL works, but I won't know until I have posted it here. I know it''s correct, but i can't get it to go directly to the site it appears?

www.portagetheater.org

or

WWW.PORTAGETHEATER.ORG/SILENTSUMMER.PDF

Alternatively:

www.silentfilmchicago.com

WWW.SILENTFILMCHICAGO.COM

Do any of these work? I pulled up the site on the TCM forum, but can't get the link to respond over here for some reason? OK, three of them sem to be working now?

Also wanted to be sure to mention that the Marion Davies Comedy THE FAIR CO-ED (1927) with Jane Winton, and Johnny Mack Brwon is screening on the 23rd of this month in LA! This feature is also in 35 millimeter, so it could be a brand new restoration from Warners?

[coopsgirl]

You’re right Jeff, I was definitely ecstatic when you told me about this screening. Out of the handful of Gary’s movies I haven’t seen that I know are still in print, Children of Divorce is the one I want to see the most. Like you said, it has three of my faves all in one film!! Unfortunately I’m gonna have to save my money and miss this one. I think it’s wonderful though that it is getting shown and hopefully this movie will see the light of day one of these years in a dvd release.

This was either Gary’s first or second go at being a leading man. Arizona Bound (a Western) was made around the same time as this one but that was a B movie and Children of Divorce was definitely an A movie. It was also Clara Bow’s first film after It so I can imagine there was a lot of hype around this one. By all accounts, Gary was incredibly nervous to make this film. It was completely different from the small roles he had had so far in mostly Westerns and war pictures. His character was a rich playboy and there was one scene where he was supposed to come into a party with a glass of champagne and kind of saunter through the room. They had to do about 30 takes b/c he kept spilling his drink all over Clara . I’ve also read that they shot quite a few of his scenes with him sitting down b/c he was so nervous that his legs were noticeably shaking. Poor guy .

One of my favorite stories from this one is when he was supposed to kiss Esther Ralston during a scene and he was terrified. I don’t think he had done any love scenes yet (well, at least on camera anyways). He thought it was indecent to kiss a woman he barely knew in front of everybody. He was dating Clara during the production and the director told Gary that he hoped his kissing scenes with her later in the film would go better .

Another good story involves Clara and Esther. One day as they were sitting on the set Clara asked Esther if she liked Gary. Esther replied that she did and she thought he was one of the nicest people she had worked with. Clara said she liked him too and that he let her dogs get in the tub with her when gave her her morning baths . That Clara, what a character!

From what I’ve read this movie isn’t as bad as some people have made it out to be. Gary may seem a little rough around the edges but Clara and Esther were old pro’s at this point and Clara’s death scene is supposed to be very well done.

[Filmhorse]

Hello everyone,

Here to inform you that I represent the Silent Film Society of Chicago and that I was responsible for acquiring the film print for our summer film fest.
This film is not a classic, simply a regular release that followed hard on the heels of the success of "IT". The interesting thing is that it was pretty easy to tell when Josef Von Sternberg's direction took over. Changed the whole complexion of the film.

Gagman66 would you have any comments on this?

More later

[Gagman 66]

Filmhorse,

Hello, Welcome to SSO. Sad to say that I was not there. However, I have two friends who were in Chicago to attend this screening on the 25th. Both enjoyed the live showing, and Music greatly. Thank you so much for obtaining the print.

With respect, while, it may not be a classic in your estimation, CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is one of the few films of Clara Bow's that survives in 35 Millimeter, and it has Esther Ralston, and Gary Cooper. That's plenty good enough for me. Enough for me to know that I still want to see it no matter what anybody else has to say.

I have heard lot's of films such as Colleen Moore's ORCHIDS AND ERMINE (First National, 1927), and Marion Davies THE FAIR CO-ED (MGM, 1927), described as "mere programmers", but I totally disagree. I happen to love these movies, and would like to see them fully restored. I find them extremely funny, and utterly charming. Colleen was surely the first Screw-ball type comedienne of the silver screen. Her and Marion's wonderful comedies have gone outrageously overlooked for far to long, and it's high time that they started getting the proper respect they deserve.

I was certainly gratified that Colleen's HER WILD OAT was reportedly the big Hit of this years San Francisco film festival, and hopeful that this will lead to a TCM premier in the near future.