WINGS

BEST PICTURE

(1927, WILLIAM WELLMAN) “It Girl” Clara Bow loves Buddy Rogers, but Buddy — and buddy Richard Arlen — loves planes; all get their fill when the US of A enters WWI. The first Best Picture winner is a superspectacle, with hair-raising aerial footage matched with massive battle recreations (not to mention a starmaking cameo by Gary Cooper), their authenticity guaranteed by real-life flyboy vets Wellman, Arlen, and screenwriter John Monk Saunders. Color-tinted 35mm print courtesy Paramount Pictures.
2:00, 7:00

SEVENTH HEAVEN

BEST ACTRESS BEST DIRECTOR BEST ADAPTATION

(1927, FRANK BORZAGE) Romance blossoms in a Paris garret, to the Movietone strains of “Diane,” after Parisian sewer worker Charles Farrell rescues waif Janet Gaynor from an abusive sister. . . then WWI intervenes. An enormous hit that made Farrell & Gaynor the screen’s most popular lovers and won Academy Awards for Gaynor, director Borzage, and screenwriter Benjamin Glazer.
4:40, 9:35

SUNRISE

UNIQUE & ARTISTIC PRODUCTION BEST ACTRESS BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

(1927, F.W. MURNAU) The idyllic marriage of George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor is threatened when he falls for jazz-loving urbanite Margaret Livingston — so hard that he contemplates murdering his wife. The first and only Oscar winner for “Unique & Artistic Production,” with the first cinematography award going to lensers Charles Rosher and Karl Struss. Original synchronized musical score.
SUN 1:40, 5:30, 9:20
MON 1:40, 5:30

THE CROWD

BEST TITLE WRITING

(1928, KING VIDOR) James Murray and Eleanor Boardman marry after a thrill-packed date at Coney Island, then weather kids, job loss, and marital troubles, in the most celebrated silent drama of life in NYC. MGM studio brass considered it “experimental,” but this was one of the pictures that won Joseph Farnham the first (and last) Academy Award for snappy “title writing” — a category made defunct by the coming of sound. Also nominated, along with Sunrise, for “Unique and Artistic Production.”
SUN 3:30, 7:20
MON 3:30

THE LAST COMMAND

BEST ACTOR

(1928, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) Brutal czarist general Emil Jannings dishes it out as the Revolution looms, then years later finds himself in another dangerous spot: as a penniless Hollywood extra directed by ex-Bolshie William Powell. Jannings, star of Murnau’s The Last Laugh, won the first Best Actor award for both this and The Way of All Flesh — now lost except for the 8-minute fragment we’ll also be showing.
3:30, 7:20

STREET ANGEL

BEST ACTRESS

(1928, FRANK BORZAGE) Streetwalker Janet Gaynor (in one of her three Oscar-winning roles of 1927-28) flees the cops by hooking up with a traveling circus, then becomes “inspiration” to painter Charles Farrell. Romantic follow-up to the same team’s Seventh Heaven was also nominated for its cinematography and “interior decoration.” “A delicate, beautifully photographed silent film.” – Leonard Maltin. Synchronized musical score.
1:30, 5:20, 9:10

THE UNKNOWN

BEST TITLE WRITING

(1927, TOD BROWNING) Lon Chaney as an armless circus performer who stops at nothing — including murder and self-mutilation — to woo Joan Crawford, a gypsy girl with a morbid fear of men’s hands. The weirdness of the story is augmented by Joseph Farnham’s wisecracking intertitles.
2:35, 5:35, 8:35

UNDERWORLD

BEST ORIGINAL STORY

(1927, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) Gangland big shot “Bull” Weed (George Bancroft) takes high-class bum “Rolls Royce” (Clive Brook) under his wing, but then Bull’s moll “Feathers” (Evelyn Brent) starts taking an interest in the new recruit. Box office smash that helped launch the crime movie cycle of the 30s. Ben Hecht won the first Academy Award for Original Story.
1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00

TEMPEST

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

(1928, SAMUEL TAYLOR) Peasant John Barrymore falls for general’s daughter Camilla Horn — but no dice. Then the Russian Revolution changes things. Legendary designer William Cameron Menzies (Gone With the Wind) won for what was then called “Interior Decoration.” TEMPEST was restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. The film's score had been thought lost, until a private collector found a partial set of disks a few years ago. Working from these newly discovered elements, the archive was able to construct a sound track, including music and sound effects, for all but the first two reels of the film. The image was preserved from the only known surviving source, John Barrymore's personal nitrate print, which unfortunately was missing a few minutes of action in the final reel due to deterioration.
We will play the film's restored soundtrack at the 3:30 show. The 7:15 show features live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner.
3:30, 7:15

THE JAZZ SINGER

SPECIAL AWARD

(1927, ALAN CROSLAND) Al Jolson, in a fictionalized dramatization of his own life story (from the play by Samson Rafaelson, later screenwriter for Lubitsch), stars as cantor’s son Jack Robin (né Jakie Rabinowitz), who forsakes the family business for the show business. The Academy honored it as “the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry.”
1:45, 5:30, 9:15