Program 2 | Nitrate Shorts

Director: Vyvyan Donner
Producer: Edmund Reek
Cinematographer: William Storz
Music: L. DeFrancesco
Supervision: Jack Darrock
Narrator: Paul Douglas

Sound, b/w, 8 min.
English language

Print source: Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles, CA

From 1928 until US production ceased in 1963, Fox Movietone newsreel shorts were an integral part of the movie theater program. Combining news footage with general interest segments on a variety of subjects, they served as informative and entertaining preludes to the main feature. Movietone's Feminine World was a series designed to showcase “female” subjects—mostly limited to fashion, beauty, and entertainment—for the delectation of both women and men. “Behind the Footlights,” directed by noted fashion editor, artist, and costume designer Vyvyan Donner, reveals the constant work and rehearsals necessary to keep chorus lines synchronized and snappy. Narrator Paul Douglas tells us how “the bright lights of Broadway kindle the flame of ambition.” We first see such burning drive backstage at the Carnival Night Club in New York City as the dancers rehearse; we then watch from front of house as they perform. Next up is the Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies, where chorus girls perform similar dance routines, only on ice skates. Seen today, “Behind the Footlights” is hardly an inducement to join the performing arts. Kicking third from the left in a line of ladies dressed in ruffles, bananas, and pineapples, all the while hoping the star breaks her ankle, is the stuff that dreams are made of, and which brings a paycheck at the end of the week. At 0.7% shrinkage, the print is in excellent condition in both image and sound quality. —Caroline Yeager

Rainbow Dance (UK 1936)
Director: Len Lye
Camera: Frank “Jonah” Jones
Music: “Tony’s Wife” by Burton Lane, performed by Rico’s Creole Band
Synchronization: Jack Ellitt
Performer: Rupert Doone
Production company: GPO Film Unit

Sound, Gasparcolor, 4 min. 20 sec.
English language

Print source: Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Musical Poster No. 1 (UK 1940)
Director: Len Lye
Sound editor: Ernst Mayer
Production company: Crown Film Unit

Sound, Technicolor, 2 min. 31 sec.

Print source: Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Len Lye was one of those few lucky avant-garde filmmakers who had an opportunity to work on 35mm and take full advantage of sound and color (and what color!) as early as the 1930s. Along with other experimental filmmakers, this New Zealand–born artist was hired by the General Post Office (GPO) to make promotional films in the United Kingdom. John Grierson, the driving force behind the GPO Film Unit and, later, the British Ministry of Information’s Crown Film Unit, realized that the explosive energy condensed in many avant-garde works would make an advertisement for a new savings bank or an appeal to correctly address one's outgoing mail quite memorable. The artists, in turn, had a chance to produce and widely distribute their experiments at the government’s expense—all for the price of adding a public-service slogan such as “Post before 2 p.m.” at the end of an abstract work. As J. B. Priestley has written, “If you wanted to see what sound and camera could really do, you had to see some little film sponsored by the post office.”

This indeed was true of Len Lye, a pioneer of direct animation: most of his cinematic works were painted directly onto the film, without the use of a camera. In Rainbow Dance, Lye filmed popular dancer Rupert Doone in black and white, then later added color and abstract images, his goal being to “break that motion right down and build it up again in cinema terms.” Musical Poster No. 1 called for wartime vigilance, as did a number of WWII propaganda shorts (“Careful! The enemy is listening to you”).

Many of Lye’s images and patterns are spread over several frames and can only be appreciated when looking directly at the actual film—a rare case when a print projected in a cinema and a print inspected on a bench provide diverse but equally powerful experiences. We offer a representative sample on the catalogue cover.

The Museum of Modern Art acquired Musical Poster No. 1 directly from the Ministry of Information in 1941; Rainbow Dance was added to the collection fifteen years later. Both titles have been distributed by MoMA on safety stock copied from these nitrates. The original prints are still projectable (Rainbow Dance at 1.0% shrinkage, Musical Poster No. 1 at 0.825%). Screening them back-to-back is a special treat, as we get a rare chance to compare the palettes of Gasparcolor and Technicolor. —Peter Bagrov

A Star Is Born (US 1937)
Director: William A. Wellman
Producer: David O. Selznick
Cinematographer: W. Howard Greene
Art director: Lyle Wheeler
Production company: Selznick International Pictures

Maryland (US 1940)
Director: Henry King
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Cinematographer: George Barnes
Art directors: Richard Day, Wiard B. Ihnen
Production company: Twentieth Century-Fox

Blood and Sand (US 1941)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Cinematographers: Ernest Palmer, Ray Rennahan
Art directors: Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright
Production company: Twentieth Century-Fox

The Forest Rangers (US 1942)
Director: George Marshall
Producer: B. G. DeSylva
Cinematographers: Charles Lang, William V. Skall
Art directors: Hans Dreier, Earl Hedrick
Production company: Paramount Pictures

The Gang’s All Here (US 1943)
Director: Busby Berkeley
Producer: William Le Baron
Cinematographer: Edward Cronjager
Art directors: James Basevi, Joseph C. Wright
Production company: Twentieth Century-Fox

Sound, Technicolor, total running time 13 min.
English language

Source of prints: George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY

In the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Technicolor was as big as any movie star. Its name was featured prominently on movie theater marquees and in trailers as a selling point of a film. When Technicolor introduced their three-color system in the early 1930s, full, natural color could at last be seen on movie screens for the first time. But studios were wary. In 1929, when musicals became the rage, producers had rushed to Technicolor’s two-color process. Unfortunately, the company had a hard time keeping up and many films were poorly processed and delivered late. So when the three-color system was introduced in 1932, Hollywood was reluctant to use it. Slowly this attitude changed, and by the late 1930s, Technicolor was once again in demand.

This group of trailers showcases what Technicolor’s three-color process was capable of delivering. The 1937 trailer for A Star Is Born reflects the muted palette of the first feature film to use three-color Technicolor in a modern urban setting, Maryland displays the subdued brownish quality of many Technicolor films of the late 1930s and very early 1940s, while Blood and Sand and The Forest Rangers display the rich saturated colors one expects from a Technicolor film of the 1940s. In Twentieth Century-Fox’s 1943 musical The Gang’s All Here, the Technicolor hues are pushed to almost psychedelic extremes.

One shouldn't underestimate the historical importance of trailers. Not only are they a crucial part of film promotion, but for something as dynamic as Technicolor, a nitrate trailer may also be the best source to evaluate the original colors. For example, the tone of the 1946 print of A Star Is Born (1937), screened at the first Nitrate Picture Show, was much colder and often felt gray compared to the colors seen here in the original release trailer.

These trailers were part of Craig Valenza’s personal film collection. A film projectionist of many years at the Pacific Film Archive, Valenza took excellent care of his nitrate prints. When he donated them to the Eastman Museum in 2020, every single one of the 35 prints turned out to be projectable. With shrinkage between 0.45% and 0.95% and very little wear, they were excellent candidates for the Nitrate Picture Show. —Anthony L’Abbate

Directors: Maxwell Arnow, Victor Fleming, George Cukor
Producer: David O. Selznick
Cinematographers: Wilfrid M. Cline, Lee Garmes, Ernest Haller, Roy F. Overbaugh
Cast: Adele Longmire (Scarlett); Marcella Martin (Melanie); Georgette Harvey (Mammy); Inge Hardison, Ivy Polk (Prissy); Ben Smith (Frank Kennedy); Betty Compson, Gloria Holden, Marla Shelton, Peggy Shannon, Doris Nolan, Adrienne Dore (Belle Watling); unidentified actress (part unknown)
Production company: Selznick International Pictures

Sound, b/w, Technicolor, total running time 25 min.
English language

Print source: George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY

Within days of its publication in 1936, Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind was a runaway bestseller. Everyone reading it seemed to know that David O. Selznick had purchased the film rights, and each had an opinion about who should play Scarlett O’Hara—as well as every other role in the film.

While Selznick and George Cukor held auditions in Hollywood, Katherine Brown, Selznick’s main talent scout, oversaw a nationwide search and auditioned actors in New York. It was Brown who arranged a screen test with Adele “Billy” Longmire as Scarlett and Inge Hardison as Prissy. Selznick was impressed with Longmire and offered her a contract, which she declined. He was less impressed with Hardison, believing she was not funny enough.

Ben Smith made a screen test in New York for the role of Ashley Wilkes, but Brown later suggested him for the Frank Kennedy role. Georgette Harvey, best known today for creating the role of Maria in Porgy and Bess (1935), made a screen test for the part of Mammy. Oscar Polk, another seasoned Broadway actor, was up for the role of Pork and encouraged his wife, Ivy, to audition as well.

Selznick waffled on a final decision on the role of Belle Watling until the last moment. Adrienne Dore came out of retirement to film a test in January. Marla Shelton, under contract at MGM, made a screen test with Marcella Martin, who landed a small role in the barbecue scene. Peggy Shannon, a former Ziegfeld girl and silent-era Paramount star, auditioned in costume for Selznick before filming her first screen test. Cukor seemed enthusiastic about Betty Compson, another major silent star for Paramount, and she appears to have been the frontrunner until midway through principal photography, when Selznick cast Ona Munson.

One actress has yet to be identified.

More than 400 reels of screen tests were donated to the Eastman Museum in 1999 by Daniel Selznick, David O. Selznick’s son; at least 115 of them are for Gone with the Wind. While the 13 tests selected here possess a fairly high shrinkage rate of 0.8–1.0%, these elements retain good flexibility, with clean edges and fully intact perforations. Scratch damages are minimal, and splices are found only at the head and tail of each segment. In contrast, the title cards for the screen tests are fairly stiff, running at 1.4% shrinkage. – Steve L. Wilson