Columbia Pictures, 1929-1959
The Locarno Film Festival 2024 retrospective
The films
Wall Street (Roy William Neill, 1929) 35mm
A rare early sound film, one of the twenty-two titles the versatile Roy William Neill directed for Columbia, Wall Street is the engrossing tale of a widow who vows revenge on the industrialist who has driven her husband to suicide.
Brothers (Walter Lang, 1930) 35mm
Rarely seen, pacey early talkie from Columbia Pictures with Bert Lytell in the dual role of orphaned twins separated at birth. Years later, the twins finally meet when one has to defend the other in a murder trial.
Three Wise Girls (William Beaudine, 1932) 35mm
The-country-blonde-makes-it-big-in-New York genre. A pleasurable pre-code comedy/drama starring the luminous Jean Harlow features a lesson on how to “forget about your hips when you walk” – they know how to “take care of themselves.”
Vanity Street (Nick Grinde, 1932) 35mm
A cop falls for a showgirl and must clear her name when she is accused of murder. A typical Nick Grinde panorama of big-city buzz, a visual barrage of fast living that never lets up, written by Gertrude Purcell and an uncredited Robert Riskin.
Washington Merry-Go-Round (James Cruze, 1932) 35mm
Bearing remarkable resemblance to Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, James Cruze’s fast-paced political drama follows the enlightenment of a not-so-naive Georgia patriot (Lee Tracy) planted in Congress by corrupt forces. Sound familiar?
Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933) Digital restoration
Mercilessly censored on release, now almost completely restored to its original form, this lyrical fable is about two lovers (Spencer Tracy/Loretta Young) who live in a shanty town. Borzage’s Chagall-like vision elevates the slum into one of cinema’s eternal heavens.
Umpa (Archie Gottler, 1933) DCP
Somewhere between utterly silly and consummately brilliant with its fully rhyming dialogue, Umpa is the catchword for that enduring urge that makes people do ludicrous things with absolute determination.
Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 1934) Digital restoration
John Barrymore’s impresario moulds an untrained actress (Carole Lombard) into a star. When she eclipses him and heads for Hollywood, he uses any means in his power to win her back. The pair enter into a frenetic game of emotional double-bluff that pushes screwball comedy to its peak.
The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford, 1935) Digital restoration world premiere
Familiar territory for a dazzling Edward G. Robinson as timid clerk mistaken for a criminal but an unusual doppelganger story for director John Ford. His use of comedy to bypass censorship met with such success that the gangster genre witnessed a revival.
If You Could Only Cook (William A. Seiter, 1935) 35mm
Utterly charming screwball comedy directed with great zeal by William Seiter. A wealthy industrial designer leaves his life of comfort behind to work anonymously as a butler for a gangster, only to find himself teamed up alongside a luscious Jean Arthur as a hired maid.
Disorder in the Court (Preston Black, 1936) 35mm
The Three Stooges testify in a court of law and summon a particular witness to give testimony – a dancer who lays the truth bare by stripping in front of the judge.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) DCP
Beautifully shot by Joseph Walker, in this quintessential Capra film a desperate, starving farmer transforms a rollicking hybrid newspaper film/screwball comedy into a moving plea to tackle the hardships of the Great Depression.
Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner, 1936) 35mm
Dorothy Arzner’s chilling character study marks 24 hours in the life of a dying marriage. Rosalind Russell stuns as the icy wife who married for a house and not a husband, while a wistful John Boles plays the man realising his castle is not a home.
Let Us Live (John Brahm, 1939) 35mm
Pre-Hitchcock’s Wrong Man, this extraordinarily dark tale of an innocent cab driver (Henry Fonda) mistaken for a robber and murderer was directed by one of the most underrated of German émigré filmmakers, John Brahm.
The Pest from the West (Del Lord, 1939) 35mm
Buster Keaton as the world-weary captain of a sailing boat goes to Mexico …dressed in a kilt.
You Nazty Spy! (Jules White, 1940) DCP
A Dadaist anti-fascist short with the Three Stooges making fun of the bad guys of history, Mussolini and Hitler, released ten months before Chaplin’s Great Dictator.
Girls Under 21 (Max Nosseck, 1940) 35mm
A teacher in a blackboard jungle tries to bring young female delinquents onto the straight and narrow. This masterful B-movie is Angels with Dirty Faces remade with renegade girls. Rachelle Hudson plays the James Cagney of the gang.
Under Age (Edward Dmytryk, 1941) 35mm
Dealing with the twin perils of teen hitchhiking and implicit prostitution, this unusually gritty B-movie, crammed with sweater girls, features early examples of Dmytryk’s low-key lighting including a menacing interrogation that anticipates Murder, My Sweet.
My Sister Eileen (Alexander Hall, 1942) 35mm
The first of the two Columbia films based on Ruth McKenney’s short stories, following two Ohio sisters –Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair– seeking fortune and fame in New York while suffering the ordeal of a rented basement flat. Painfully hilarious.
The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942) Digital restoration
Cary Grant, a left-wing worker accused of carrying out a deadly arson attack, hides out in the home of his old high-school classmate (Jean Arthur) on the eve of her renting the house to a law professor (Ronald Colman). Delightful throughout, this is George Stevens’s finest comedy.
Sahara (Zoltan Korda, 1943) 35mm
This thrilling remake of the Soviet film Trinadtsat (1937) was penned by soon-to-be-blacklisted John Howard Lawson. A British-American tank corps, led by Humphrey Bogart, is tasked with defending a desert well against hordes of the German army.
None Shall Escape (Andre De Toth, 1944) Digital restoration
A rare exposé of Nazi crimes at a time when they were still being committed, speculatively framed as a post-war international tribunal focusing on the career of a schoolteacher who becomes a Nazi officer.
Address Unknown (William Cameron Menzies, 1944) 35mm
In 1930s Germany, a congenial gallery owner falls under the spell of Nazism. A chilling work of strong political conviction conveyed by visually bold and menacing set-pieces by art director-turned-director William Cameron Menzies.
Together Again (Charles Vidor, 1944) 35mm
Riotous comedy featuring entertaining performances by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. She plays a prim lady mayor whose emotions are stirred by a sculptor employed to create a new statue of her late husband.
The Mysterious Intruder (William Castle, 1946) 35mm
The best of the Whistler series – those eerie expositions of fate and the knack of being in the wrong place at the right time – with Richard Dix as a double-crossing private eye who pulls tricks to get his hands on a client’s McGuffin.
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948) Digital restoration
Comic, sinister, and baroque, this is the closest Orson Welles ever came to making a studio “A” picture. Co-starring his ex-wife Rita Hayworth, this bizarre and paranoid transcontinental thriller sees an Irish sailor waging his wits against rich and corrupt schemers.
Undercover Man (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949) 35mm
When criminal investigations fail, a Federal Treasury agent (Glenn Ford) uses his inquiry into the financial corruption of a Capone-like gangster to bring his reign of terror to an end. A breathtaking thriller that deploys modest resources to create first-rate cinema.
The Walking Hills (John Sturges, 1949) 35mm
Starring Randolph Scott, Ella Raines and folk-blues singer Josh White, John Sturges's gem of the Columbia years is a minimalist neo-western about a group of outcasts in search of a lost treasure in Death Valley.
All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) Digital restoration world premiere
A remarkable adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel about southern demagoguery, the film centres on the rise and fall of a ruthless politician played by Broderick Crawford. Winner of three Oscars, including Best Actor and Best Picture.
The Killer That Stalked New York (Earl McEvoy, 1950) 35mm
Based on a true story, this unsettling pandemic noir, directed by former Columbia second-unit director Earl McEvoy, is about a smuggler (Evelyn Keyes) who unknowingly spreads the smallpox virus through New York while on the run from the police. “Patient zero” as femme fatale!
Pickup (Hugo Haas, 1951) 35mm
A bored wife plans to kill her husband with the help of her lover. No one was interested in distributing this intense erotic noir, made on a shoestring budget by Czechoslovak auteur Hugo Haas, until Hollywood luminaries such as Gregory Peck and William Wyler backed the film.
The First Time (Frank Tashlin, 1952) 35mm
Frank Tashlin’s sole work for Columbia is an enchanting comedy about parenthood narrated from the point of view of the small boy of the family – who never appears in the film. A light-hearted take on the suburbanisation of the 1950s and the consumerist lifestyle it entailed.
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) DCP
A feverish noir in which Glenn Ford’s anguished cop hunts down the syndicated crime organisation responsible for the death of his wife. A solid masterpiece, showing that for every action there is a consequence, and these can be brutal, even monstrous.
The Glass Wall (Maxwell Shane, 1953) 35mm
One of the small gems of the 1950s, as well as one of Vittorio Gassman’s very few American films, in which a Holocaust survivor trying to seek asylum in the US, only to discover America is a country whose own citizens have things to run away from.
Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953) [3D] DCP
When the bride of a pacifist (Rock Hudson) is kidnapped by a gang of outlaws, he is forced to pick up a gun. The actor Lee Marvin was amazed by the director who only cared for “horses, stagecoaches and explosions,” in other words, pure Walsh, only this time in 3D!
It Should Happen to You (George Cukor, 1954) DCP
Canny comedy with Jack Lemmon hopelessly devoted to Judy Holliday who is determined to achieve fame – no matter what kind. She soon half-conspires/half-stumbles into a plan to get her name on billboards across New York City in a bid to make her dreams come true.
Picnic (Joshua Logan, 1955) DCP
William Holden, a drifter in a Kansas town, meets the local beauty, Kim Novak, in this alluring classic of visual splendour, based on William Inge’s hit play. François Truffaut has rightly compared Joshua Logan’s “cruel clarity” to Jean Renoir’s.
My Sister Eileen (Richard Quine, 1955) Digital restoration
The underrated auteur Richard Quine’s glittering CinemaScope musical remake of a 1942 Columbia film about two sisters’ misadventures in their search for love, fortune, and an apartment to rent in New York. One of Jean-Luc Godard’s favourite films.
Women's Prison (Lewis Seiler, 1955) 35mm
Half of film noir’s femme fatales are crammed into the cells of this flick which, with its all-female line-up, subverts the prison movie film genre. A low-budget yet fantastic story of tyranny and rage, tightly directed by an ever-efficient Lewis Seiler.
The Last Frontier (Anthony Mann, 1955) 35mm
Anthony Mann’s overlooked western is a splendid CinemaScope elegy about the chains that civilisation puts on a Noble Savage (Victor Mature), a film whose force springs from “the fact that it owes nothing to any planned aesthetic." (Godard)
Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray, 1957) DCP
Pessimistic Scope milestone by Nicholas Ray about two WWII commando officers (Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens) in a desperate mission behind the German lines in North Africa in which, according to Dave Kehr, a moral parable fades into metaphysical speculation.
Gunman's Walk (Phil Karlson, 1958) Digital restoration world premiere
Phil Karlson’s seminal CinemaScope western with an obsessive focus on dark familial burdens in which the rivalry between a father and his surrogate son escalates into a murderous confrontation worthy of Greek tragedy.
Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958) 35mm
A taut, hugely influential low-budget thriller about a lonely hitman who finds his methods challenged when logistics and emotions complicate a lucrative assignment. Martin Scorsese described it as “the film that has influenced me the most”.
Ride Lonesome (Bud Boetticher, 1959) 35mm
An austere revenge drama marked by tersely poetic dialogue and majestically bleak landscapes, this summation of the Ranown cycle of westerns by Boetticher/Randolph Scott follows a small band of travellers on a journey haunted by death and dreams of redemption.
Retrospective curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht
Letterboxd listing here.
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