AS IF silent-film fans needed further proof that the past was better in every way, Flicker Alley presents a beautifully restored print of Chicago, which is decidedly funnier than the 2002 movie musical based on the same story. The 1927 feature, derived from a stage play by news reporter Lenore J. Coffee, follows the misadventures of an unflappable flapper named Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver), who plugs her sugar daddy (a svelte Eugene Pallette) when he threatens to dump her. Roxie, with help from slick lawyer William Flynn (Robert Edeson), manipulates the press, the jury and her long-suffering husband (Victor Varconi) with her tale of self-defense.
Haver, with bee-stung lips and a halo of blonde spit curls, proves to be a consummate comedian. You can see the ripples of connivance pass across her features as she plots her way out of trouble and into the arms of a fawning press corps (at least until the next photogenic murderess shows up). In a bit of brilliant interplay with Edeson, she rehearses her cues for how to express her “courage” and “virtue” with demurely crossed arms and fluttering eyelids for the rapt jury. Haver, a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty, made about a 100 silent films, then heard the writing on the wall, married a millionaire and retired. The film is credited to director Frank Urson but is more likely the work of producer Cecil B. DeMille. In one wicked touch, during the courtroom scenes, the camera keeps cutting to a chorus of enthralled women chewing gum with frenzied concentration. The two-disc set comes with a featurette about the real-life case the film is based on, plus a 1950 documentary about the Roaring 20s and The Flapper Story, a 1985 documentary by Lauren Lazin.
A new Criterion release brings back the little-known 1940 spy drama/comedy Night Train to Munich by director Carol Reed. Rex Harrison plays a British agent posing as a Nazi in order to rescue a Czech scientist and his daughter (Margaret Lockwood). Their antics take them across Europe to a shoot-out on a funicular. The film mixes comedy with some more serious early-wartime propaganda. This early on, the Nazis can still be satirized with a stiff upper lip and some vaudeville humor (Reed’s The Third Man demonstrates the cynicism that years of fighting wrought). Harrison, not yet hitting his stride, manages to outwit his military adversaries with an atrocious German accent. The disc includes commentary by film historians Bruce Babington and Peter Evans.
Chicago
Flicker Alley
$39.95
Night train
29.95
