Silent Movie night at the Echo Park Film Center

Tonight I ventured down to the Echo Park Film Center for their first “Silent Movie Night” which was being hosted and programmed by my friend Tom.  I LOVE the Echo Park Film Center and would highly encourage people to go there.  It has such a “shabby chic” grungy guerilla film feel to it.  They have screenings, classes, seminars, a tape and film library and much more. 

The first thing we watched was a collection of silent era peep shows.  The featured a series of women in corsets and women showing their ankles!  My how times have changed!  The second film we saw was an excellent short film called TEDDY AT THE THROTTLE.  It was the story of a girl (a very young Gloria Swanson) who is kidnapped and tied to the railroad tracks by an evil greedy man (Wallace Berry) out to make a financial killing off her demise.  A dog winds up coming to the rescue, and not just any dog mind you…but the most amazingly fast, intelligent and skilled dog in canine history.  The dog grabs a telegram, jumps onto a train, jumps off the train and unties Gloria in record time.  The film had a campy comic tone to it and was hilarious to watch.  It seemed to be making fun of the standard silent movie cliches and having a great time doing so.  Then we watched a silent short called FATE’S TURNING.  It is about a wealthy man who cheats on his bride to be with a waitress and gets her pregnant.  The waitress is forced to quit her job and has no way to make a living.  She tracks him down and shows up (with the baby no less) to his wedding.  This was scandalous stuff for 1914 or so when it was made. 

The feature for the evening was called TRAFFIC IN SOULS and was about the white slavery trade going on in turn of the century New York.  It was really interesting and tragic, but it ran a little too long.  I wish it had been about 15 mintues shorter or so.  Otherwise, it was still very interesting.

What I liked about Tom’s selections for the evening was that they were all very unusual and they all dispelled commonly held beliefs about silent films being all innocent and sweetly simplistic.  These films were daring and innovative.  Most importantly (at least to me) they act as a sort of cultural mirror as to what the world was like at that time….how people dressed, thought, felt and acted.  The feature was shot on location in New York and it was amazing to see shots of the city from so long ago.

The evening was a cinematic time capsule….and let me add that it was time well spent!

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