Reflections on Cinevent 50
Thank you to everyone involved in putting on CINEVENT 50 for a extremely enjoyable and memorable four days of films, panels, and conviviality!
As I posted on Tuesday, I made the pilgrimage to Columbus, Ohio this week to attend the 50th anniversary of the largest, longest-running classic film convention in the Midwest. Twenty years back, I had attended two years in a row; but life, finances, and the six-plus hour drive had gotten in the way of a return. However, when I heard that the convention was hitting the golden anniversary and that Leonard Maltin (Entertainment Tonight, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, Maltin on Movies podcast), author Scott Eyman (John Wayne: The Life and Legend, Hank & Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart), and filmmaker Michael Schlesinger (The Adventures of Biffle and Shooster) would be in attendance, I decided it was high time I made it back to CINEVENT. I’m certainly glad I did.
I had an absolutely marvelous time, and I highly recommend the experience to any classic film enthusiast. Hopefully, I can attend more regularly in the future. Here are just a few of my favorite moments from the festival:
- The spontaneous applause that broke out in the screening room when Franklin Pangborn appeared on screen. That’s what I call good taste.
- Getting to watch little-seen rarities from John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, as well as a rare silent from forgotten stuntman-turned-leading-man Richard Talmadge.
- The beautifully composed 3-D images in The Maze (1953) by director William Cameron Menzies and cinematographer Harry Neumann.
- The wonderfully ludicrous ending to The Maze. It is one of the stupidest mystery reveals ever produced by Hollywood.
- The luminously beautiful Joan Leslie on the big screen in Repeat Performance (1947).
- The wonderfully bizarre college musical/serial killer mystery Sweater Girl (1942). Now I know what an Italian giallo starring Eddie Bracken would be like.
- Scott Eyman’s informative, literate, and entertaining introductions to On Our Merry Way (1948), Cindy’s Fella (1959), and The Sea Spoilers (1936).
- The clever use of a newspaper to crack the case in the polished, British police procedural The Third Key (1956).
- Leonard Maltin’s engaging, entertaining discussion of his new book and of his career as a whole.
- Getting to see the world’s favorite fake 1930s comedy team, Biffle & Shooster, on the big screen, with a humorous introduction by writer/director Michael Schlesinger.
- The all-too-brief opportunity to watch the real George M. Cohan dance in The Phantom President (1932). Cagney did an excellent interpretation of the Cohan style in Yankee Doodle Dandy.
- Priscilla Lane doing a nice comic drunk scene in The Meanest Man in the World (1943).
- Eddie “Rochester” Anderson stealing every other scene from his co-stars in The Meanest Man in the World,
- John Wayne squaring off against Russell “J. Frothingham Waterbury” Hicks in The Sea Spoilers.
- Oliver Hardy’s perturbed glances at the camera in We Faw Down (1928). I know Stan was the comic genius of the team, but Ollie’s reactions are what I enjoy most in Laurel & Hardy shorts.
- Richard Talmadge’s acrobatic athleticism in The Speed King (1923).
