drednm

No idea.... contracts are signed but that's all so far. They might be waiting for Ben Model to finish When Knighthood Was in Flower but maybe not. But it's in the works if not on the schedule.

Marion Davies and Wyndham Standing in The Bride's Play (1922) coming to TCM in the near future.

More likely the film is mute and was accompanied with live music by Ben Model etc. I think it unlikely that MoMA would bother with a score for its restored films since its main goal is to show them on site, not make DVDs or sell to TCM. But anything is possible. In some cases, the late silent films had synchronized scores that could pose copyright issues. It's also possible that a silent film restored with a score has a contract that precludes its being sold to TV. In other words, the contracted use of the score has limitations.

Without a music score, it's unlikely to be a candidate. In almost all cases, TCM will pay a licensing fee for a silent only if the music score is a done deal.

Worth the price of admission to see a young Bing Crosby, John Boles in his prime, and the fab Paul Whiteman orchestra.

Blue, green, turquoise, teal ... it's a great film. Color me anxious to see the restoration.

The then-new 2-color Technicolor did not get blue tones so the colors are predominantly reds and greens and golds. Even the "Rhapsody in Blue" number was originally GREEN.....

It's been around in an ok copy forever..... The new restored version is now playing big theaters and will eventually get a DVD/BLU release......

Another one of the Hollywood "urban legends" that never die.

Jeffrey Toobin has a new book out on Patty Hearst. Toobin is not a film historian, and the book is not about Marion Davies, but he takes a swipe at her any and perpetuates the stupid tripe that she was talentless, stating "The Chief [William Randolph Hearst] did his best to promote Davies as a movie star, which her talents failed to justify…." Toobin has obviously never seen a Marion Davies film even though 2 dozen or so of her films are easily obtainable. Here's another reason for TCM to do an all-out Star of the Month tribute to this maligned superstar.

The people who write these blurbs have probably never seen the films they write about....

It's a movie, not a documentary.

Baby Peggy, a star in the 1920s is still with us. So are Rose-Marie and Jane Withers. Margaret O'Brien is also still alive. The 1910s and 1920s also boasted Jackie Coogan and even June Havoc in films. Most of the 30s kid stars are gone: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Mitzi Green, Sybil Jason, Marcia Mae Jones, the Our Gang kids.....

Not for most silent films

Money seems always to be the #1 obstacle to film restoration......

Thanks. I even have the Ben Model score. That's 4 Marion Davies films. Ben has When Knighthood Was in Flower coming out later this year. That leaves Beauty's Worth as the last complete film Library of Congress has. It's been around for years in an old Videobrary VHS print. Not sure what shape the LOC print is in.

TCM will premiere two of my silent film projects in the near future: Ducks and Drakes (1921) stars Bebe Daniels as a phone flirt who gets her comeuppance. The Bride's Play (1922) stars Marion Davies as an Irish lass romanced by two men.

Have signed licensing agreement with TCM for The Bride's Play. It will make it's television debut in the near future.

This is one of the best resources for finding the status of a silent feature film. http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/silentfilms/silentfilms-home.html

Madame Sans-Gene (1925) is the film Swanson searched for for years. She thought is was her best film. A French archivist (lost his name for the moment) found a copy but it was lost during WW II. Swanson's The Humming Bird (1924) survives in rough shape at Library of Congress but Paramount won't do anything with in. Zaza (1923) exists at Eastman House (I saw it there) but nothing is being done to get it on DVD (Paramount again). Most of the rest of her starring films for Paramount are lost.

They are aware of it but whether it goes any further than that probably depends on a lot of things we'll never be aware of.

I've mentioned it to the programming VIPs..... We shall see.....

Signed licensing agreement for The Bride's Play so it should show up on TCM in 3 or 4 months. If they also sign Ben Model's upcoming When Knighthood Was in Flower (from a new Library of Congress 35mm print), we might have a SOTM shot.

Swanson said she and Rudy used to ride horses together in the Hollywood hills and that he was always a gentleman and they worked well together. She had nothing bad to say about him, but thought Pola Negri made an **** of herself at the hospital, the funeral parlor, and after. Swanson thought the "romance" was all a PR ploy ... like their famous feud.