Tweet 10th Annual Watch That Movie Night is January 26!

[Mike Gebert]

Well, I'll be an ole hootin' owl—it's time for NitrateVille's annual Watch That Movie Night, presented by Kino Lorber!

Ten years ago, when NitrateVille was a mere tenderfoot, Watch That Movie Night began as a way to liven up the dead of winter by finding something forgotten in your movie collection and watching and writing about it on NitrateVille— making you eligible for a giveaway of Kino titles. This year we're proud to offer three lucky winners a blu-ray or DVD of one of the all-time epics, 1923's The Covered Wagon, in a new edition from a new transfer, and including:

• Wurlitzer organ score by Gaylord Carter
• Audio commentary by Film Historian Toby Roan
• Booklet essay by film scholar Matt Hauske
• The Pie-Covered Wagon: a 1932 one-reel spoof starring Shirley Temple
• Reversible Blu-ray Art

Here's how Watch That Movie Night works:

The idea is, there's always something you've been meaning to see forever. It could be a DVD or a laserdisc or a VHS tape or a 16mm print that you own, it could be a movie on a streaming service or out there in the vast internet that you keep meaning to make time for. Well, now's the time to do it! Follow these simple steps:

1. Announce your choice in this thread.

2. Watch it on (or around) Friday, January 26.

3. And post something, anything about it in this thread by Monday, January 29th.

Winners will be selected at random from all posters and announced here the next day. (In other words, it's not a literary contest— we're not judging your entry, whatever you post gets you into the drawing. Sorry, US and Canada posters only for the prize due to rights issues, but we'll be happy to hear from everybody all the same.)

So please join me in taking the "Watch That Movie Night" pledge and announcing your choice over the coming days. Then be prepared for a great movie you might never have watched otherwise, and lots of interesting posts from NitrateVillains. If you've lurked but never posted before, what better way to make your first post than by joining in today!

Here's the link to the first Watch that Movie Night thread, and the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth and the ninth. Check 'em out-- there's lots of great commentary in them.

* * *

First step is to make your pledge of what you're going to watch— here's mine: I watched the first part of Lang's The Spiders off a laserdisc many years ago and never got to the second half. Now I have the Kino box set of Lang's silents, so I'm going to watch all of The Spiders, and see what else of the other early titles I can get through by the deadline (Harakiri, Four Against the Women, etc.)

Now it's your turn, what are you going to watch?

Now that I have finally found copy of The Woman God Forgot (1917) with English subs, I'll set a night aside for it.

Oh! I'll play! I expect I will watch Tovarich with Colbert and Boyer. I also need to watch the Blu-ray of Garden of Allah. Can you tell with TCM I have Charles Boyer on my mind?

I've got a 16mm print of the 1926 "What Price Glory" that I've never gotten around to watching. I guess now's the time!

I recorded Intolerance off of TCM's 100th anniversary screening, and haven't yet watched it. I therefore commit to watching this.

I've seen The Big House (1930), but have never gotten around to watching my copy of MGM's French language version, Révolte dans la prison with Charles Boyer, directed by Pál Fejös. Now is the time!

Got my hands on a copy of Cutter’s Way (‘81) that I’ll watch then.

I can watch the Hallroom Boys DVD that I won.

I'm in.

I *hope* to wallow in the full(est) NAPOLEON. If not, my old VHS of OCTOBER.

I will be watching the Milestone DVD of Evangeline, I ordered it some time ago but have never seen it and can't wait to see it on my new 49 inch Sony TV.

So, making good on my pledge, I watched the Blu-ray of the 1936 The Garden of Allah starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. The colors are so much as I remember from my first screening (which was a newly struck technicolor print back in 1977). Lush color palette is hardly the word, the Sahara never looked more colorful. The film looks really good.

Based on the Robert Hichens novel (previously filmed with Alice Terry in 1927 and Selig in 1916, miraculously both exist complete) you would think Marlene would be better cast as the murderous dancing girl Irina (Tilly Losch), but, she never overdoes it. I have to admit, as much as I love Marlene, she spends much of the film looking wide-eyed and not much is asked of her. She looks much more relaxed and natural languidly reclining in the desert sands (Yuma subbing for the Sahara). In the film Father Roubier (C. Aubrey Smith) tells Domini (Dietrich) she is made of fire, he's wrong, it's Charles Boyer as Boris Androvsky who provides the fire, both in his passionate declarations and in those eyes of his. The film is cast with as much star power as an MGM film, even in the tiniest roles. Silent film favorite Nigel de Brulier can be seen as the priest reading during the monastery dining scene. John Carradine plays the sand diviner (wonderfully too). Basil Rathbone as Count Antioni (he looks pretty good in a turban, too). Joseph Schildkraut plays a little broadly as Batouch, but, never too much. The color notes in his costumes are something to see, too. How the heck did he get purple stockings in the Sahara? Lucille Watson sparkles as the Mother Superior, always wonderful with the wise advice. Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones get a few minutes of prime screen time before the plot gets moving as young students.

Max Steiner's score provides a right note with the recurring themes of exoticism and religiosity. Cinematography by Harold Rosson and Howard Greene is just lovely.

The Blu-ray looked a hair dark (as did the screen caps on the dvdbeaver site), so we adjusted the television and it brightened up just a bit to bring out all the lovely technicolor color.

Maybe tonight I will watch Tovarich.

It is a silly movie in so many ways, but, I still just love it. It makes me want to see the 1927 version.

While I've watched this repeated times since the late 1980s, even creating a score including piano & animal sounds for my first VHS copy that had no sound, I'll be watching again the original "Tarzan of the Apes" which celebrates it's 100th anniversary on January 28.
Picture quality is only slightly improved, but it features a newly composed orchestra score.
http://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi3881542169" target="_blank" target="_blank
I might have a look at "City Girl" as well since the HD version can now be seen on YouTube.

For some years now I've been wanting to revisit Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes, so I'll watch that one. It stands in my memory as one of the most beautiful films ever made about an educator's life.

I have several 16mm films I purchased this last year that I haven't had a chance to watch yet. I'll start with Palm Missed (1921) with Gordon and William Dooley and then Fuss and Folly (1920) with Earl Rodney.

I can watch the Hallroom Boys DVD that I won.

That brings to mind my likewise acquired THE BELOVED ROGUE (1927) and Texas Guinan set. Will pop one of those on depending on my mood...

What with a number of birthdays this week, watching films has been put to one side for a bit. Change of mind and will probably watch the Canadian SINS OF THE FATHERS (1948) of which I am uncertain as to whether it counts as exploitation or educational...

So, making good on my pledge, I watched the Blu-ray of the 1936 The Garden of Allah starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. The colors are so much as I remember from my first screening (which was a newly struck technicolor print back in 1977). Lush color palette is hardly the word, the Sahara never looked more colorful. The film looks really good.

Based on the Robert Hichens novel (previously filmed with Alice Terry in 1927 and Selig in 1916, miraculously both exist complete)

Where did you hear / read of this? I'd always been given to understand that both films were lost, although we have had some astonishing rediscoveries of late...

[Danny Burk]

The Ingram version has been held by MGM and now Warners for many years. Those who've seen it say it's great. I haven't - in fact, it's been my most-want-to-see film for decades. Last I heard, there was a rights problem that prevented its release, but I haven't heard whether that is still true.

The Ingram version has been held by MGM and now Warners for many years. Those who've seen it say it's great. I haven't - in fact, it's been my most-want-to-see film for decades. Last I heard, there was a rights problem that prevented its release, but I haven't heard whether that is still true.

Well, here it is in full color. I'm going to watch it myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj0kXhZijwo" target="_blank" target="_blank

Because the 26th January is "Australia Day", I should choose an Australian picture to look at - but, alas, because I am doing renovations on the shack at the moment, the bulk of my DVD's have been packed away for the duration. So out of the remaining pile left lying around, I have picked a silent picture (this thread was, after all, in the silent section). My choice - "A Woman of the World" (1925) starring Pola Negri and directed by Malcolm St. Clair.

As an absolute fanboy of pre-Code Stanwyck, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never watched The Bitter Tea of General Yen. I guess I've always been worried that it won't live up to its posters (the one sheet is to die for). The 26th it is then.

[Danny Burk]

The Ingram version has been held by MGM and now Warners for many years. Those who've seen it say it's great. I haven't - in fact, it's been my most-want-to-see film for decades. Last I heard, there was a rights problem that prevented its release, but I haven't heard whether that is still true.

Well, here it is in full color. I'm going to watch it myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj0kXhZijwo" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks, but that's the 1936 version - I just watched the blu-ray Tuesday night.

[Danny Burk]

As an absolute fanboy of pre-Code Stanwyck, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never watched The Bitter Tea of General Yen. I guess I've always been worried that it won't live up to its posters (the one sheet is to die for). The 26th it is then.

I think it's great - the best imitation von Sternberg I've seen.

[silentfilm]

I received several BluRays for Christmas. One was Possesed (1947) with Joan Crawford. I've never seen it before, so that is what I'll watch.

So, making good on my pledge, I watched the Blu-ray of the 1936 The Garden of Allah starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. The colors are so much as I remember from my first screening (which was a newly struck technicolor print back in 1977). Lush color palette is hardly the word, the Sahara never looked more colorful. The film looks really good.

Based on the Robert Hichens novel (previously filmed with Alice Terry in 1927 and Selig in 1916, miraculously both exist complete)

Where did you hear / read of this? I'd always been given to understand that both films were lost, although we have had some astonishing rediscoveries of late...

Well, like any good film geek I consulted the silent film survival database thanks to David Pierce!

As an absolute fanboy of pre-Code Stanwyck, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never watched The Bitter Tea of General Yen. I guess I've always been worried that it won't live up to its posters (the one sheet is to die for). The 26th it is then.

Oh man! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Bitter Tea. It is my favorite Capra film. Nils Asther should have had a much longer career in leads, except the timing foreigners were not fashionable in the mid-1930s.

I will be anxious to see how it is for you. It is a favorite of mine.

At some point I decided I need to see every surviving Clara Bow feature and bought up as many as I could. I enjoy her work so much that I've been deliberately going slow on it, but I'll give myself a treat and go with Free To Love (1925).

I'm going to watch the Lloyd Hamilton Kickstarter DVD.

I've somehow managed to miss seeing Dracula with the Philip Glass score, and i see it's an extra on one of the library DVDs. So i'll take a look and listen and see what i think.

greta

I plan to watch Colleen Moore in "The Sky Pilot" (1921). Haven't seen it in years, and I remember it being a pretty good movie. Always thought David Butler was a very likable, but underrated, actor, too.

[Mike Gebert]

Okay, we're off to a great start with about 20 participants, but there's always room for more! Remember, we've got three copies of The Covered Wagon to give away, so your chances of winning are fairly high.

Think of a movie you've been planning to see, make the pledge and then follow through the weekend after next and you're entered automatically, plus you have the fun of expanding everyone's knowledge of the title you pick.