IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Over the past seven years, composer Ben Model has used Kickstarter to fund the digital restoration and release of rare silent films through his DVD label, Undercrank Productions. His latest Kickstarter project was to help restore the legacy of forgotten film comedian Douglas MacLean through the release of two of his silent features.  Happily, the project was fully funded, and the double-feature DVD has been completed.

If you missed out on the Kickstarter, don’t despair. THE DOUGLAS MACLEAN COLLECTION will be released via regular retail outlets on February 18th.  I can’t wait to receive my copy.

Here’s the full press release, along with Amazon links to the upcoming DVD and a few earlier Undercrank Productions releases:

POPULAR SILENT SCREEN STAR DOUGLAS MACLEAN NOW ON DVD IN TWO RESTORED FEATURE-LENGTH COMEDIES UNSEEN AND UNAVAILABLE FOR NEARLY 100 YEARS

Undercrank Productions in Collaboration with the Library of Congress Restores Douglas MacLean to the Pantheon of Silent Film Comedy in New Digital Restorations with Musical Scores by Ben Model.

NEW YORK, N.Y. (WEDNESDAY January 22, 2020) – Undercrank Productions (www.undercrankproductions.com) proudly announced today that it will release THE DOUGLAS MACLEAN COLLECTION on DVD on February 18, 2020. The DVD presents two rarely seen Douglas MacLean comedy features: One a Minute (1921) and Bell Boy 13 (1923). The disc includes a bonus – a short promotional film from 1920 which presents a full day’s work at the Thomas H. Ince studios in Culver City, where MacLean’s films were made.

Douglas MacLean’s fast-moving and whimsical comedies of the early 1920s were some of the Thomas H. Ince Corporation’s most popular releases. MacLean played energetic, industrious and charming young men, very much in the mold of Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd. Unlike Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton, whose films were regularly revived and reissued, MacLean’s films have been practically impossible to see until now. In fact, only a small handful of the 23 features MacLean made from 1919-1927 survive.

One a Minute and Bell Boy 13 are representative of the Thomas H. Ince studio’s yearly output and of the wholesome, light comedies that established MacLean as a like-able and popular young star, and proved to be a staple for audiences throughout the 1920s. In One A Minute he has to save his family’s rural drugstore from a big-box competitor; while in Bell Boy 13 he is in a race to wed his fiancé while being pursued by his disapproving uncle, the L.A. fire department, and the staff of the hotel where his betrothed is staying.

“Douglas MacLean was an important part of the silent comedy landscape,” says Undercrank Productions’ Ben Model. “His movies were the comedy features you went to see while you were waiting for the new Keaton or Lloyd or Chaplin feature to come out. His first several pictures predate the slapstick masters’ move into feature-length and helped set the mold for expanding silent comedy past the two-reel format.”

As a bonus, the DVD includes the short A Trip Through the World’s Greatest Motion Picture Studios (1920) a revealing documentary by and about the Thomas H. Ince studios in Culver City, California, where Ince refined an efficient model of production that became known as the Hollywood “studio system”. The site is presently the home of Amazon Studios. According to Ince historian Brian Taves, “no other star under Ince’s guidance …had been so central to an outline of the American character.” THE DOUGLAS MACLEAN COLLECTION offers classic comedy fans a chance to rediscover the work of a forgotten master of silent comedy.

All three titles in this collection were scanned and digitally restored at 2K resolution from archival prints preserved by the Library of Congress, made from the best surviving elements in its Thomas H. Ince Collection. One a Minute was scanned from the original 35mm nitrate camera negative; Bell Boy 13 was sourced from the Library of Congress’ 16mm preservation negative made from a 16mm copy printed directly from the original camera negative in the 1940s; the Ince studio tour film was scanned from a tinted 35mm nitrate print. All films feature new musical scores by Ben Model on theatre organ or piano.

DVD CONTENTS:

One a Minute (1921) – 56 min.
Thomas H. Ince Corporation
Director: Jack Nelson
Starring: Douglas MacLean, with Victor Potel, Marian De Beck, Frances Raymond, Andrew Robson, Graham Pettie
Original Release Date: June 19, 1921
Genre: Comedy

Bell Boy 13 (1923) – 44 min.
Thomas H. Ince Corporation
Director: William A. Seiter
Starring: Douglas MacLean, with John Steppling, Margaret Loomis, Jean Walsh, Eugene Burr, Emily Gerdee, William Courtwright
Original Release Date: January 19, 1923

A Trip Through the World’s Greatest Motion Picture Studios (1920) – 23 min.
Thomas H. Ince Corporation
Director: Hunt Stromberg
Starring: Louise Glaum, James Kirkwood, Lloyd Hughes, Enid Bennett, Douglas MacLean, Hobart Bosworth, House Peters, Florence Vidor, Lewis Stone, Margaret Livingston, Thomas H. Ince
Original Release Date: September 1920

DVD Release Date: February 18, 2020
DVD Suggested Retail Price: $19.95

123 Min – B&W/tinted – Stereo – NTSC – Not Rated – Region: 0
New musical scores composed and performed by Ben Model
Produced for DVD by Ben Model/Undercrank Productions
Released by Undercrank Productions