(Cecil B. DeMille, US 1929, 123 min., 35mm)
Cecil B. DeMille’s first film at MGM, and his first “all-talking production,” Dynamite (1929) doesn’t skimp on the director’s boundary-pushing scenarios. Cynthia (Kay Johnson) is in love with Roger (Conrad Nagel), who is married to Marcia (Julie Faye), who has a lover of her own (Joel McCrea). In order to inherit her grandfather’s millions, Cynthia must be married by her twenty-third birthday. Seeing an opportunity, she offers Hagon (Charles Bickford), sentenced to death for murder, $10,000 to marry her before he is put to death. When the real murderer is discovered, and Hagon is released, Cynthia is forced to fulfill her marital duties and moves with Hagon to his mining town job, all the while pining for Roger. A melodrama of the highest order, this gorgeous 35mm print captures DeMille’s direction in all its glory.