Wednesdays in June & July, 6:00pm
Afraid or uncertain about the entertainment value of silent films? Never seen one before, or not in a long time, and don’t want to be disappointed? Here’s your chance to not only try out the world of silent films but explore them while focused on the first nine films that Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) ever directed, all before the sound era! Hitchcock called silent film the “art of pure cinema,” and his later fascination with suspense, mistaken identity, and camera techniques are in evidence right from the start of his career. Come relive the silent era, better understand the time period, and Hitchcock’s earliest film work all at the same time in this Provincetown Library summer series.
This Zoom series on successive Wednesdays at 6:00 pm in June and July 2021, will be hosted by Marc Strauss, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, College of Arts & Media, Conservatory of Theatre & Dance, Southeast Missouri State University. Introductions and post-film discussion will follow the appropriate chapters in Dr. Strauss’ Alfred Hitchcock’s Silent Films (2004; McFarland), available at amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcocks-Silent-Raymond-Strauss/dp/0786419016. (Purchase is not necessary but helpful.) Free, but you must sign up. Email araff@clamsnet.org for the Zoom link!
1. June 2, 2021; 6 pm: The Pleasure Garden (1925; 1 hour, 30 minutes)—The film is about two chorus girls at The Pleasure Garden theatre in London, and their troubled relationships.
2. June 9, 2021; 6 pm: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927; 1 hour, 30 minutes)—Based on the 1913 novel about Jack the Ripper, we wonder throughout the film whether the lodger is or isn’t the murderer. Hitchcock’s first thriller, starring Ivor Novello.
3. June 16, 2021; 6 pm: Downhill (1927; 1 hour, 45 minutes)—Can friendship, even sanity survive false accusations, a father’s distrust, and poor life decisions? Ivor Novello stars in a play adaptation he co-wrote with Constance Collier.
4. June 23, 2021; 6 pm: Easy Virtue (1927; 1 hour, 10 minutes)—Adapted from Noel Coward’s 1924 play of the same name, Hitchcock explores the travails of a widower trying to salvage a life for herself while running from her past.
5. June 30, 2021; 6 pm: The Ring (1927; 1 hour, 48 minutes)—A ring around a finger and a ring for boxers test the lust and love among our three protagonists. Who will win?
6. July 7, 2021; 6 pm: The Farmer’s Wife (1928; 1 hour, 47 minutes)—Hitchcock’s first comedy, farmer Samuel Sweetland just can’t make up his mind who to marry. The three women he tries to woo know what to do with him, but can he ever learn the meaning of true love?
7. July 14, 2021; 6 pm: Champagne (1928; 1 hour, 45 minutes)—A Girl, a Boy, a Man, and a Father. A bubbly comedy of manners, with a moral.
8. July 21, 2021; 6 pm: The Manxman (1929; 1 hour, 40 minutes)—A love triangle played out on the Isle of Man between a lawyer, his best friend, and the woman caught between them.
9. July 28, 2021; 6 pm: Blackmail (1929; 1 hour, 6 minutes)—Hitchcock and England’s first sound film, the director made a silent version after the sound picture came out, uncertain if the new technology would catch on with the public. We will watch and discuss this rarely screened silent version.
Marc Strauss, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance, Holland College of Arts & Media, Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Strauss has taught all levels of studio ballet, jazz, and ballroom and theory classes in the history of the musical, dance history and appreciation, dance in world cultures, the creative process, and the aesthetics of movement. He has studied, performed, taught, and choreographed in a variety of dance styles at the regional, national and international level since the 1980s. Specialized interests include Broadway and Hollywood musicals, dance criticism, dance on film, aesthetics, George Balanchine, Astaire and Rogers, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Dr. Strauss is the lead author (with Myron Howard Nadel) on the university text Looking at Contemporary Dance: A Guide for the Internet Age (2012; Princeton Book Company) and co-editor/co-author of the third edition of The Dance Experience: Insights into History, Culture and Creativity (2014; Princeton Book Company), also with Mr. Nadel. He is sole author of Alfred Hitchcock’s Silent Films (2004; McFarland), Hitchcock’s Objects as Subjects: The Significance of Things on Screen (2016; McFarland) and, most recently, Discovering Musicals: A Liberal Arts Guide to Stage and Screen (McFarland; 2019).
He and his artist wife, Sarah Riley, are retired and live on the Outer Cape of Massachusetts with their mini-schnauzer Gracie.
